Incentive's Merchandise Buyer's Guide

With incentive travel under scrutiny and budgets ever tighter, many planners are turning to merchandise as acost-effective, broadly appealing award for their incentive programs. Last fall, the Incentive Research Foundation reported that the down economy—now a full-fledged recession—was viewed as having less of a negative impact on the ability to plan and implement a merchandise non-cash program.

That's not to say there haven't been wrinkles like budget decreases, reductions in individual spend, fewer points earned, and fewer luxury items on offer, according to Incentive's recent Merchandise IQ survey.

At a time when incentives are being questioned, it's important to remind novices and pros alike that a well structured program should pay for itself in increased revenue, profits, market share, brand awareness, product promotion, and more. The following pages offer a guide to basic incentive strategy, reasons to use merchandise and how to choose a supplier, plus pointers for determining return on investment and numbers from Incentive's annual Merchandise IQ survey.

Incentive's Merchandise Buyer's Guide