Tiered Promotion StrategySystems Design

Systems Design

Tiered Promotion Strategy

Designing a structured visibility system to balance global campaigns, regional priorities, and everyday merchandising.

Company
Converse (Nike, Inc.)
Role
Design Lead
Timeline
2021–2026
Category
Systems Design

Prototype of the tiered promotion framework in use

As promotional demands grew across teams and regions, visibility got harder to manage consistently. Global campaigns, regional seasonal pushes, and everyday merchandising were all competing for the same real estate, with no shared logic for deciding who won. I designed a tiered promotional framework that replaced that negotiation with clear prioritization rules, defined placement zones, and governance that scales with the business instead of a review cycle.

01Problem

As promotional needs grew across regions and teams, visibility became inconsistent and reactive. Major campaigns competed with seasonal priorities while smaller initiatives had no defined placement at all, so the loudest request usually won, not the most important one.

Competing promotions, no shared priority logic

Without a structured system, visibility relied on manual overrides and whoever argued their case best, which meant every launch reopened the same negotiation from scratch.

02System

To get consistency without losing flexibility, I introduced a tiered promotional model that defines visibility levels by business impact and audience reach, decided once, not re-argued per launch.

Tiered visibility, defined by business impact and reach

Each tier carries:

  • Defined placement zones
  • Duration rules
  • Priority logic
  • Governance guidelines
03Outcome

The tiered system replaced negotiation with a rule. What changed:

  • Priority no longer comes down to who escalated loudest
  • Placement zones and duration limits are set in advance, not negotiated per launch
  • Global and regional campaigns coexist in the same system instead of one crowding out the other
  • New campaigns launch against an existing tier instead of opening a new negotiation

The framework moved promotion from a design task to a governed system.