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name: promotion-plan description: "Plan a sale or promotion that drives revenue without wrecking margin. Use when asked to plan a promotion, a discount/sale campaign, a BFCM/holiday promo, or a product launch offer. Produces a promo plan — objective, the offer mechanic, margin math, audience & channels, timing, messaging, and how you'll measure it — so the discount is a strategy, not a reflex."

Promotion Plan Skill

A promotion is easy to run and easy to lose money on. The difference is knowing what the offer is for (acquire, clear stock, reward loyalty, raise AOV), picking a mechanic that serves that, and checking the margin before you hit send. This skill turns "let's do 20% off" into a plan with the math, the audience, and a way to tell if it worked.

Working from a brief

Given "plan a Black Friday sale", produce the full plan anyway — infer a sensible objective, mechanic, and channel mix for the context, and label assumptions. Where you don't have margin numbers, show the formula and a worked example with placeholder figures (replace with your numbers) rather than inventing a result.

Required Inputs

Ask for these only if they aren't already provided (else infer and label):

• The goal — new customers, clearing inventory, higher AOV, loyalty, or revenue in a window.
• The product(s) & economics — what's promoted, and the margin (or cost) so the discount is checked.
• Audience & channels — who, and where you'll reach them (email, ads, on-site, marketplace).
• Timing & constraints — the window, inventory limits, and any brand/price-integrity rules.

Output Format

Promotion Plan: [promo]

1. Objective & success metric — the one goal, and the number that says it worked.

2. The offer — the mechanic and why it fits the goal:

Mechanic	Best for	Watch-out
% or $ off	urgency, acquisition	margin hit, discount-trained buyers
BOGO / bundle	AOV, stock clearance	margin on the free unit
Free shipping threshold	AOV	shipping cost
Gift with purchase	perceived value, loyalty	GWP cost
Tiered (spend more, save more)	AOV	complexity

3. Margin check — the math: discounted price, margin after discount, and the break-even uplift (how many more units you must sell to come out ahead). Show the formula + a worked example with placeholders.

4. Audience & segments — who gets it (all, new, lapsed, VIP) and any exclusions.

5. Channels & assets — where it runs and what's needed (email, on-site banner, ads, marketplace), with the core message per channel.

6. Timeline — teaser → launch → reminder → last-chance → end, with dates and owners.

7. Messaging — the hook/headline and the urgency/scarcity angle (honest, not fake).

8. Measurement — what to track (revenue, units, new customers, margin, redemption) and the read-out after.

Quality Checks

• The offer mechanic is chosen to serve the stated objective, not by default
• Margin after discount is checked, with the break-even uplift shown
• Audience and any exclusions are defined (don't discount buyers who'd pay full price)
• Timing has a clear arc and end — scarcity is real, not fabricated
• A success metric and post-promo read-out are defined
• Margin numbers are formula + worked example with placeholders, not invented results

Anti-Patterns

• Do not discount without the margin math — a deep cut can lose money on every order
• Do not pick a percentage by reflex — match the mechanic to the goal (AOV vs. acquisition vs. clearance)
• Do not blast everyone — discounting full-price buyers is margin you didn't need to give away
• Do not fake urgency/scarcity — countdowns that reset and "last chance" that isn't erode trust
• Do not run a promo with no success metric — you won't know whether to repeat it

Based On

Retail promotion & pricing practice — objective-led offer design, margin/break-even analysis, segmentation, and measurement.

Example Trigger Phrases

• "Plan a promotion."
• "Plan our Black Friday sale."
• "Run a discount without wrecking margin."
• "Plan a launch offer."