The right price in every channel, every segment, and every period; campaigns with defined rules and measured results
In multi-channel marketing, price is not a single number but a system of rules. The same product has a list price, a channel price, a segment- and business-partner-based price, a price tied to quantity and payment terms, a periodic campaign price,
and a promotional price; in which order and under which conditions these apply, how they affect one another, and which customer sees which price in which channel must be defined in advance.
Campaigns and promotions, in turn, are the time- and target-bound exceptions to this price structure: a discount, gift, bundle, points, or payment facility given in a particular period, to a particular segment, in a particular channel,
for particular products. Pricing, campaign, and promotion management is building these three layers as a single consistent structure, preventing contradictions between channels, and measuring the real return of every campaign.
When this structure is not managed, the problems play out in front of the customer. The price on the website differs from the price in the store; the dealer sees head office undercutting its own price on the marketplace; the same customer
hears one campaign at the call center and another on the portal. Campaigns stack on top of one another, and the margin drops to a level nobody calculated. When the promotion starts the stock is not ready; when it ends,
the discounted price is still being applied in the system. The most expensive consequence is the lack of measurement: the campaign is seen to have increased turnover, but whether that turnover came from pulling forward sales that were going to happen anyway or from creating new sales,
and what it did to the margin, is never calculated.
In Minerva, pricing, campaign, and promotion management runs on a single price and campaign engine shared by sales, stores, the B2B and B2R portals, and the call center.
Price lists are defined along the dimensions of channel, segment, business partner, region, currency, and period; price and discount rules tied to quantity, payment terms, and payment conditions are set up parametrically, and the
priority order of the rules is determined. Campaigns and promotions are defined by period, channel, segment, product, and product group; types such as discount, gift, bundle, points, and payment facility are managed together with the campaigns’ combination and
exclusion rules, budget and stock limits, and the approval flow. The defined price and campaign take effect in all channels at the same time; start and end dates are enforced by the system.
Because the orders, returns, margin, and stock movements tied to a campaign are gathered in the same record, every campaign’s turnover, margin, and customer effect is reported by channel and segment; price consistency across channels
and dealer price protection rules are audited. Thanks to the link with demand forecasting and budget planning, campaign, stock, and budget are planned together.
Do not set price and campaign channel by channel; define them in a single rule structure, apply them consistently in every channel, and measure the return together with the margin.