Promotion is an activity of creating awareness of the product amongst the customers
ROLE OF PROMOTION:
– Explains major features and benefits of the products
– Tells where those products are sold
– Advertises sales on those products
– Answers customer questions
– Creates Customer Awareness
– Helps in competitive edge
– Create image of the product in the eyes of the customers.
– Introduces new products
– Helps in Comparing the different products
ADVANTAGES OF PROMOTION
- It creates awareness of the existence of the product or service offered.
- It can provide customers with information about the product that may be useful to them, and therefore produces an incentive for them to buy your product, or use your service.
- It also helps increase the market share.
- It helps in creating demand of the product
DISADVANTAGES OF PROMOTION
- It can be quite costly depending on the advertising medium you use, obviously TV and radio advertising tend to be more expensive than advertising on notice boards or on eBay.
- Some methods of advertising are more effective than others.
- Promotion also tends to be competitive. So no matter how much you spend on advertising, if you've got many competitors (substitute products or services), and their methods are more effective, then your promotion campaign may not work.
TYPES OF PROMOTION / PROMOTIONAL STRATEGIES:
Direct Marketing: is vending product to the customers without the use of other channel members.
Ø DIRECT MAILS to several consumer groups
Ø CATALOGS provide more complete information to the customers about the buying centre as well as prices for purchasing agent
Ø MASS-MEDIA are television, radio, magazines, newspaper etc….
Ø ALTERNATIVE MEDIA
ü Package Insert Programs are materials placed in order fulfillment packages
ü Ride Alongs are materials that are placed with another company’s catalog
ü Card Pack is a deck of 20 to 50 business reply cards
Ø THE INTERNET company’s websites
Ø e-MAIL to the customers
ADVANTAGES OF DIRECT MARKETING:
- No Intermediaries, Direct Contact between Manufacturer and Customers
- Direct approach to the customers omits profit sharing.
- Direct feedback from the customers helps in improvement
DISADVANTAGES OF DIRECT MARKETING
- Lesser area coverage of the market.
- Maximum market will remain untapped as it is not possible by the manufacturer alone
- It leads to the wrong demand forecasting, (Underestimation of demand)
Personal Selling: “the last 3 Feet” of marketing function, because3 feet is the approximate distance between the salesperson and customer.
Ø RETAIL SALES
ü Selling in Shops & Stores
ü Personal selling of services
Ø BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS SELLING
Advantages of Personal Selling
- It is a two-way form of communication
- Interactive nature
- Easier to reach and record customer data
Disadvantages of Personal Selling
- Complaints regarding bad experiences with Salespersons.
- Wrong objectives of Salespersons (Selling rather than Customer Satisfaction)
Publicity: unpaid form of communication. It comes free to sponsor. Firm’s press releases area a common form of publicity.
• Advantages
– Free to the business
– Seen as more credible than advertising
• Disadvantages
– Lack of control by the business - bad stories can get printed
Public Relations: with internal as well as external
Stake Holders are the people who directly or indirectly affects or are affected by the company’s business. Eg. Employees, share holders, owners and partners, loyal customers etc…
Benefits of PR
– Increasing sales
– Increasing firm’s good reputation
– Increasing customers reception of advertising messages
– Spreading accurate information to the public
– Conditioning customers to expect quality products from the company
– Reducing the impact of problems
– Helping to obtain better treatment from government
Sales Promotion: also known as Consumer Promotion
Ø COUPONS are a price reduction offers to the customers
ü Bounce back coupons are placed inside the packages, which helps for the repeat order
ü Scanner Delivered coupons are provided at the time of billing.
ü Cross-ruffing is the placement of a coupon for for one product on another
ü Response offer coupons are issued following requests by consumer
Ø PREMIUMS are prizes, gifts, special offers consumer receives when purchasing products
ü Free in the mail premiums
ü In or on Premium Package
ü Store or manufacturers’ premiums
Ø CONTENTS & SWEEPSTAKES
Ø REFUNDS & REBATES cash returns offered to the customer
Ø SAMPLING
Ø BONUS PACKS additional or extra number of items provided
Ø DISCOUNTS
Ø PRICE-OFFS is a temporary reduction in price of the product
Advantages of Sales Promotions
ü Unique and has special appeal to a potential customer
ü Helps build customer loyalty
Disadvantages of Sales Promotions
ü Difficult to end without the customers becoming dissatisfied
ü Store image and sales can suffer if the promotion is not properly planned and managed
ü Only designed to supplement other promotional efforts and cannot make up for poor products
Advertisement: is a paid form of non-personnel presentation of a product by an identified sponsor
>INDOOR ADS
Ø AUDIO VISUAL:
ü Television Ads
ü Radio Ads
ü Film Ads
Ø PRINT ADS
ü News Paper Ads
ü Magazines & Journals Ads
ü Leaflets & Brochures
>OUTDOOR ADS
Ø Hoardings
Ø Banners
Ø Gantries
Ø BSKs (BUS STAND KIOSKS)
Ø Danglers
Ø Traveling Display
Ø Painted display
Ø Electric Signs/ Neon signs
Ø Sky Writing
Ø Sandwichmen
>PROMOTIONAL ADS
Ø Window Display
Ø Interior display
o Show rooms
o Exhibitions
Advantages of Advertising
– A large number of people usually see the advertiser’s message
– Costs per potential customer are usually lower than other forms of promotion
– Can choose the most appropriate media to reach target mkt
– Can control the content of an advertisement
– Ads are subject to repeat viewing
– Ads can “presale” products
Disadvantages of Advertising
– Cannot focus well on individual needs
– Some forms of advertising can be too expensive for many businesses
– Sometimes advertising is wasteful and inefficient - message may be spent on non-potential customers
– Advertising must be brief
PROMOTIONAL MIX:
A proper combination of all the above mentioned promotion strategies is known as Promotional Mix
Factors affecting the selection of a promotional mix
– Good, Service, or Idea
• Type of product
• Product nature
• Stage of life cycle
– Product’s market
• Type of consumer
• Number of Consumers
• Geographical location
– Distribution System
– Product’s Company
• Historical perspective
• Available funds
• Size of sales force
– Competition
Prof. A.R. Sayyed
