The methods you adopt for measuring your incentive programs should satisfy two requirements.

Firstly, the program must be legal and permissible under existing regulations of each State, in which the programs are being operated.

Secondly, your method of measurement must be acceptable to the incentive scheme participants, and be seen by them to be reasonable, appropriate and obtainable.

The appropriateness of the terms and conditions is the key element in the whole planning of the program. Even if they are totally within the legal requirements, you will waste a great deal of time and money unless you review your whole package of activities and rewards through the eyes of the participants. The need for participant co-operation and enthusiasm must also include your desire to award the prizes in the most appealing form. This includes recognising any tax implications under tax law.

Assigning responsibilities:

Your planning will reach a stage where you have identified your objectives, who is going to participate and how you are going to make it all happen. Delegating activities and assigning responsibilities is as important in managing an incentive program as it is in any other management activity.

This scheduling is even more important when engaging the services of outside agencies such as Ken MacKenzie Communications, who may be helping with such things as the production of printed material, trade release functions, travel arrangements and purchase of prizes.

Even when you have allocated tasks and deadlines, you will need to find sufficient time to brief clearly each member of your team. Your cost estimates are often only as accurate as your briefings to suppliers, and if your financial planning is not sound at the outset, costs will run away from you. The use of outside suppliers will depend on the in-house facilities and whether these internal facilities can meet the standard of creativity and production essential to your program.

The quality of the printed material which you release will be the participants' first object of appraisal. It is false economy to use in-house printing or design services that are not equal to those available from printers or promotional agencies.

Regular Review:

Once you have chosen your team, assigned responsibilities and time and cost deadlines, you must constantly monitor the program and make adjustments as the need arises. During both your planning period and the reviews after the event, you will need to compare the costs of the incentive program with the benefits to be returned to you. Although incentive schemes based on clearly defined statistical criteria are much easier to plan, you must still be sure that your past event measurements are realistically accurate. You should review all components of your program and note the comments from your planning team's own experiences, the views of any agencies you used during the campaign and, most importantly, your participants.