Module 6

Promotion
Definition: - Promotion is a marketing tool, used as a strategy to communicate between
the sellers and buyers. Through this, the seller tries to influence and convince the
buyers to buy their products or services. It assists in spreading the word about the
product or services or company to the people. The company uses this process to
improve its public image. This technique of marketing creates an interest in the mindset
of the customers and can also retain them as a loyal customer.
According to Philip Kotler, “Promotion includes all the activities the company
undertakes to communicate and promote its products to the target market”
Promotion is a fundamental component of the marketing mix, which has 4 Ps: product,
price, place, and promotion. It is also an essential element promotional plan or mix,
which includes advertising, self and sales promotion, direct marketing publicity, trade
shows, events, etc.,
Promotion mix
A promotional mix is a combination of marketing methods including advertising, sales,
public relations and direct marketing to achieve a specific marketing goal. The
promotional mix is typically only part of a larger marketing mix.
-Promotion mix elements
The promotion mix elements enable a company to promote their products effectively to
its target market segment. Based on a company’s objectives and budget it allocates
resources to the right elements. These elements are Advertisement, public relations,
sales promotion, direct marketing, personal selling. Let’s get to the details of each.

1. Advertisement:
It is a way companies communicate their product and services through paid
commercials. Most times, a third party serves as the facilitator. So, a company gets its
promotion to the third party’s platform, and the third party gets it to their viewers.
However, companies shouldn’t do this randomly, they should select the platform that
has their target market segment. Examples of advertisement media are television,
billboard, radio, posters, mobile apps, emails, web pages.

2. Public relations:
This way companies try to promote a positive public image. This could be achieved by
having promotion shows with third parties, inserting their news stories in the media,
and press releases about their activities.
3. Sales promotion:
In this element of the promotion mix marketers try to boost sales through an afore
determined limited market offering. For example, flash sales, coupons, recurring sales.
Clearly, there are advantages to this. While new firms can use it to draw customers to
themselves. Old ones, that have achieved good market penetration, can sustain the
interest of their customers via it.

4. Direct marketing:
With methods like interactive consumer websites, emails, messaging firms can
persuade customers into a call to action that prompts the customer to act. These
channels of direct marketing produce results that are immediately measurable cos firms
instantly get updated on customers’ interest.

5. Personal selling:
Some firms feel that a direct face-to-face or over the phone interaction with their
potential customers through agents like sales personnel is closer to the customer. This
promotion mix element is called personal selling. It is the most traditional form of
promotion. Clearly, for the face-to-face interaction, there is a significant amount of
investment in time from the customer and sales representative also. So, this might be
less efficient than other elements.
-Importance of Promotion Mix
1. Communicates information to prospective consumers about availability, features and
usage
2. It stimulates purchase and creates a positive image to influence long term buyer
behaviour
3. It aims at attracting customers using competitor ‘s brands to its product/ switch
brands
4. It encourages and motivates distribution channel members to buy and store more,
through additional commission and allowances
5. It encourages the sales-force by offering incentives to salesman 6. It boosts sales in
the short and long term
-Factors Affecting Promotion Mix
The elements of a successful promotion mix depend on the nature of the business, its
goals and objectives, the budget, and the competition in the market. Here are five key
factors that affect the promotion mix of a business.
1. Nature of product: Different types of products require different types of
promotion. Industrial products that are complex and technical rely more on
personal selling as they require a human to explain things better. On the other
hand, consumer products are often promoted using advertisements, sales
promotion, etc.
2. Product lifecycle stage: Promotion mix also depends on the product’s lifecycle
stage. If the product is just launched, a good mix of PR, advertising, and direct
marketing could be used to get the word out and make the target market aware
of the product. An established product, however, may require only a few ads and
sales promotion campaigns.
3. Nature of market: The size and nature of the market also influence the choice of
the promotion mix. A brand operating in a small market may benefit from
personal selling and direct marketing more than advertisements. However, a
brand serving a vast market may require a good advertising and PR strategy.
4. Competition: The existence of competition and the promotional tools
competitors use greatly influence the business’s promotion mix. Suppose the
competitor uses sales promotion to promote its offering at the point of sale. In
that case, the business is bound to use a similar strategy to stop the competitor
from poaching its customers.
5. Nature of customer: Customers’ demographics, behaviour, geography, etc., also
affect the type of promotion that would be most effective. Similarly, promoting a
technical product to a customer belonging to a village will require more personal
selling efforts than advertisements.
6. Budget: A business’s budget also plays an important role in determining the kind
of promotion mix it should use. If the business has a limited budget, it should use
the cheapest tool to yield maximum results. However, businesses with a lot of
money can afford to experiment with different tools and tactics.
Definition: - Promotional strategy
It is a method used by companies to advertise, promote & sell their goods. A company
chooses its promotional strategy based on factors like product type, marketing budget,
target audience etc. It is a critical activity to increase product awareness & thereby
increase sales. An effective promotional strategy gets more revenue as compared to the
marketing spend.
Importance of Promotional Strategy
Promotion for any product or service is essential for any company. It is because only
through promotion people would come to know about the product. Only after knowing
about the product they consider purchasing. Since there are some many companies &
brands competing to sell their products to the same set of customers, advertising &
promotion are important tools to ensure each brand is differentiated & identified.

Advertising
“Advertising is any form of paid non-personal presentation of ideas, goods and/or
services for the purpose of inducing people to buy”.
Features
1. It is a mass communication medium.
2. It is a salesmanship in print.
3. It is a paid form of communication by an identified sponsor.
4. lt is a non personal communication.
5. It helps to stimulate sales.
6. It may be written or spoken.
Objectives of Advertising:
1. Preparing Ground for Sale of New Products:
2. Increasing Demand for the Product:
3. Educating the Consumers:
4. Building up Brand Image:
5. Facing the Competition:
6. Supplementing the Salesman:
Functions of Advertising:
Advertising has become an essential marketing activity in the modern era of large-scale
production and severe competition in the market.
(i) Promotion of Sales:
Advertising promotes the sale of goods and services by informing and persuading the
people to buy them. A good advertising campaign helps in winning customers and
generating revenues.
(ii) Introduction of New Products:
Advertising helps in the introduction of new products in the market. A business
enterprise can introduce itself and its products to the public through advertising.
Advertising enables quick publicity in the market.
(iii) Support to Production System:
Advertising facilitates large-scale production. The business firm knows that it will be
able to sell on a large-scale with the help of advertising. Mass production will reduce the
cost of production per unit by making possible the economical use of various factors of
production.
(iv) Increasing Standard of Living:
Advertising educates the people about the products and their uses. It is advertising
which has helped people in adopting new ways of life and giving up old habits. It has
contributed a lot towards the betterment of the standard of living of the society.
(v) Public Image:
Advertising builds up the reputation of the advertiser. Advertising enables a business
firm to communicate its achievements and its efforts to satisfy the customers’ needs to
the public. This increases the goodwill and reputation of the firm.
(vi) Support to Media:
Advertising sustains press. Advertising provides an important source of revenue to the
publishers of newspapers and magazines and the producers of T.V. programmes.

ROLE/ ADVANTAGES /IMPORTANCE OF ADYERTISING

Advertising is an integral part of our Social and economic system. As a powerful
technique of promoting sales, if has been doing wonders in the domain from five
distinct angles of distribution. The role of advertising can be analysed

1. Manufactures and Advertising (Advantages to Manufactures):

a Ii maintains the existing market and explores the new.
b. It increases the demand for the product
c. It helps to build up or increase goodwill or the company.
d. It controls product price.
e. It helps to introduce a new product into the market
2. Middlemen and Advertising (Advantages to Middlemen):
a. It guarantees quick sales
b. It acts as a salesman.
c. It increases the prestige of the dealers.
d. II makes retail price maintenance possible.
e. It enables the dealers have a product information.
3. Sales-force and Advertising (Advantages to salesmen)
a. It creates a colourful background for a salesman to begin his work.
b. It reduces his burden of job.
c. It helps to develop self-confidence and initiative among the salesmen.
4. Consumers and Advertising (Advantages to consumers):
a. It ensures better quality product at reasonable price.
b. It provides product related information to the customers and thereby makes the
purchasing an easy task.
c. It helps the consumers to save time by providinginformation related to the
availability of product.
d. Helps the consumers in intelligent buying.
5. Society and Advertising (Advantages to society):
a. It helps to uplifts the living standards
b. It helps to generate painful employment opportunities.
c. It provides new horizons of knowledge.
d. It up-holds the culture of a nation.
THE ADVERTISING COPY
Ad Copy is the soul of any advertisement. An advertisement copy is all the written or
spoken matter in an advertisement expressed in words or sentences and figures
designed to convey the desired messages to the target consumers. A good ad copy has
the following attributes:
1. It is brief: Being brief is not dropping words or chopping sentences, It is the work
of eliminating and substituting the words without jeopardizing the meaning.
2. It is clear: A clear copy is one which is easily and quickly read and grasp by the
readers.
3. It 1s apt: Writing an apt copy is the art of putting in the words that create strong
desire to possess the product where the product features satisfy the consumer’s desire
to possess.
4. It is honest: Credibility of an ad message is decided by the extend of honesty.
5. It is conforming: Every ad copy is to conform to standards, rules and regulations
acceptable to the advertisement media and the laws of the land.

UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION(USP)

It is the central idea around which the advertising campaign is built. The big selling idea
is known as USP. It is the heart of advertising campaign. Ii is as offer that an advertiser
makes to his consumers which is unique in relation to the competing offer or offers and
promises to deliver a certain distinctive package of satisfaction. Eg. MRF company says
about its tyres as, 'the tyre with muscles' , “The beauty soap of film star”(Lux soap).
PRODUCT POSITIONING
If refers to the placement of company product or products in the minds of target
consumers relative to the competitive products, as having certain distinctive benefits
and want satisfying potential. Positioning represents more a state of mind or image than
different ingredients or attributes; such a state of mind is derived from advertising.
Advertising is as instrument positioning or repositioning a product or products in
the minds of consumers.

PERSONAL SELLING
Personal selling is the art of convincing the prospects to buy the given products and
services. Though it is basically a method of communication, it is two ways as ii involves
direct face to face contact between the salesman and the prospect. II is the ability io
convert human needs into wants. lt is the process of contacting the prospective buyers
personally and persuading them to buy the products.
According to American Marketing Association,” Personal selling is the oral presentation
in a conversation with one or more prospective purchasers for the purpose of making
sales; it is the ability to persuade the people to buy goods and services at a profit to the
seller and benefit to the buyer”.
In the wools of Garfield Blakde, "Salesmanship consists of winning the buyers
confidence for the seller’s house and goods, thereby winning the regular and permanent
customer."
FEATURES OF PERSONAL SELLING
1. It is one of the important tools for increasing sales.
2. It is a two way communication between salesmen and the prospect.
3. It is a persuading process to buy the goods and services.
4. The objective of personal selling is lo protect the interest of both seller and
buyer.
5. The essence of personal selling is interpretation of product and service features
in terms of benefit
and advantages.

PROCESS OF PERSONAL SELLING

Selling is the sequence of steps involved in the conversion of human desire into demand
for a product or service. Personal selling process involves the following stages.
1. Prospecting: It is the work of collecting the names and addresses of persons
who are likely to buy the firm’s product of services. While collecting the details,
‘suspects’ must be separated from 'prospects’ to avoid waste of time.
2. Pre approach: Pre approach is to get more detailed facts about a specific
individual to have effective sales appeal on him or her. It is closer look of prospects like
habits, financial status, social esteem, family background, material status, tastes and
preferences etc.
3. Approach: Approach means the meeting of the prospect in person by the
salesmen. It is a face to face contact with the prospect to understand him better.
4. Presentation and demonstration: A good sales presentation is one that not
only gives all the benefits that the prospect gets but also proves to the latter that he or
she will better off after the product is bought and used. An effective sales presentation
demands the sales person use skills like presentation and explanation.
5. Managing objections: This is the most important stage of personal selling. For
every action of salesman there is prospect’s pro action or reaction. ie. approval or
disapproval. An efficient sales man has the ability to identify the reasons for raising
objections by the prospects and the ways to overcome these objections.
6. Sale: If all the above stages have been concluded successfully, then the next stage
is ultimate sale of the product.
MERITS OF PERSONAL SELLING
1. Flexibility and adaptability: It is capable of providing more flexibility and
adaptability.
2. Minimum waste: The chances of wastage is minimum in case of personal selling
while comparing to other methods of sales promotion.
3. Acts as feedback: Being in direct contact with the consumers, he can understand
the feeling and tractions of the customers. It helps to modify the product according to
the requirements of customers.
4. Creates lasting Impression: It helps to create a long lasting relationship with the
customers through the personal contact of salesmen.
LIMITATIONS OF PERSONAL SELLING:
1. It 1s expensive: Personal selling as a method of promotion is quite expensive.
Getting salesmen and retaining him for a long period is very difficult and expensive.
2. Difficulty of getting right kind of salesman: In practice, it is very difficult to get a
trained salesman from company’s point of view.
3. More administrative problems: Personal selling involves more administrative
problems than impersonal selling.

SALES PROMOTION
Sales promotion is another major component of promotion mix. The phrase sales
promotion has a distinct meaning. It stands for all those activities that supplement,
co-ordinate and make more effective the efforts of personal selling and advertising. It
collectively comprises of the tools used to promote sales in a given territory and time. It
consists of short term incentives designed to achieve a specific marketing goal in the
immediate future.
According to American Marketing Association,” those marketing activities other than
personal selling, advertising and publicity that stimulate consumer purchasing and
dealer effectiveness such as display. shows and exhibitions. demonstrations and various
non-recurrent selling effort in the ordinary routine.”

ROLE/ADVANTAGES OF SALES PROMOTION

The role or advantages of sales promotion to various parties like manufactures,
middlemen and consumers are given below:
I. Manufacturers and sales promotion:
(i) It helps to retains the existing customers
(ii) It helps to create new customers.
(iii) It promote sales
(iv) Ii helps to enhance the goodwill of the firm
(v) Ii helps to slashes down the cost
(vi) It helps to face the competition.
2. Middle men and sales promotion:
(i) It reduces strain of the middlemen to a greater extend.
(ii) lt helps to increase the sales of middlemen
(iii) lt builds and enhance the goodwill of the shop
(iv) It gives some personal benefits to the middle men.
3. Consumers and sales promotion:
(i) It helps to improve the standard of living of people by making available goods
and services at least cost.
(ii) It gives knowledge of new products available in the market.
(iii) It gives both cash and non cash incentives.
(iv) It helps to get more credit facility and special concession because of his brand
and store loyalty.
DISADVANTAGES OF SALES PROMOTION.
1. lt has the shortest life impact as promotion tool like advertisement.
2. It is only a supplementary device of personal selling and advertising
3. In most of the cases, too much sales promotion may damage the brand image.
4. Sales promotion techniques are non-recurring in their nature.
SALES PROMOTION TOOLS (TYPES/KINDS OF SALES PROMOTION)
The sales promotion tools can be seen from the angle of dealers. consumer’s rind sales
force.
1. Dealer promotion/Trade promotion: Trade promotion objectives are to
motivate market intermediaries to invest in the brand and aggressively push sales. It
includes
(a) Price deals: Under this method, special discounts are offered over and above the
regular discounts.
(b) Free goods: Here, the manufactures give attractive and useful articles as presents
to the dealers when they buy a certain quantity.
(c) Ad Materials: In this case, the manufacturer distributes some ad materials for
display
(d) Trade allowance: lt includes buyingallowance, promotional
allowance and slotting allowance.
(e) Dealer contests: It is a competition organized among dealers or salesmen.
(f) Trade shows: Trade shows are used to familiarize a new product to the
customers.
2. Consumer Promotion: The broad objective of consumer promotion is to create
pull for the brand and it includes-
(a) Rebates: Simply it is a price reduction after the purchase and not at the retail
shop.
(b) Money refund offer: Here, if the customer is satisfied with the product, a part or
whole of the money will be refunded.
(c) Samples: While introducing a new product, giving samples to the customers at
their doorstep.
(d) Price pricks: In this method the customer is offered a reduction from the printed
price of product.
(e) Premium offer: Here goods are offered at a lower price or free as an incentive to
purchase a special product.
(f) Consumer contests: Various competitions are organized among the customers.
The winners are given prizes.
(g) Free Trials: In this case, inviting the buyers to try product without cost.
3. Sales force promotion: It includes
(a) Sales force contests: Sales contests are declared to stimulate the sales force
increase the selling interest.
(b) Bonus to sales force: Bonus is the extra incentive payment made for those who
cross the sales quota set for a specific period.
(c) Sales meeting conventions and conferences: Sales meeting and conferences are
conducted with a view to educate, train and inspire the salesmen.
PUBLIC RELATION
It is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individuals, etc. in promoting
goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc. It can
be defined as the practice of managing communication between an organization and its
public. Public relation is used to build rapport with employees, customers, investors, or
the general public. This method of marketing does not aim at promoting a single
product/service but the company as a whole.
This is done by spreading a positive feel about the company through various stories and
articles or positive feedback from customers about the company in different media
channels. In comparison to advertising. PR is a very cost effective method of marketing.
A full page advertisement of a product may fail to attract customer’s attention, but a
positive response about the same from a satisfied customer when appears in the form of
an article in the same newspaper will work wonders for the company. PR is quite
understandably considered as a very genuine method of marketing. It creates a
favourable atmosphere for conducting business of the firm.
According to UK Institute of Public relation. “It is the deliberately planned and sustained
efforts to establish and maintain mutual understanding between the organisation and
its public,"
1. Credibility: The information communicated through public relation department
is more reliable and it has more credibility. For eg.an article in newspapers or
magazines discussing the virtues of aspirin any be perceived very much as more
credible than an ad for a particular brand of aspirin.
2. Cost: In both absolute and relative terms, the cost of PR is very low, especially
when the possible effects are considered. While a firm can employ advertisement
agencies and spend millions or dollars on advertisements, for smaller companies, this
form of communication may be the most affordable alternative available.
3. Lead Generation: Information about the technological innovations, medical
break-through and the like results almost immediately in a multitude of in9uiries. These
inquiries may give the firm some qualify sales lead.
4. Ability to reach specific groups: Because some products appeal to only small
market segments, it is not feasible to engage in advertising and / or promotions to
reach them. lf the firm does not have the financial capabilities, to engage in promotional
expenditures, the best way to communicate to these groups is through PR.
5. Image Building: Effective PR helps to develop positive image for the organization. A
strong image is insurance against later mis-fortunes.
6. Stimulate awareness: Public relation techniques helps to stimulate awareness
among the customers regarding the products of the company and thereby creating
demand for your product,

The functions of public relations is given below:-

1. Creating awareness for a company or client and building a positive image for
them through articles and stories in the various channels of media.
2. Keeping an eye on all media channels for any public feedback on the client
company or its

3. Crisis management in cases where the company may be endangered.

4. Building goodwill and rappon with customers through special events, charity
and community
work.

Types of public relation tools:

The important types of tools available to carry out the public relations function include:
1. Media Relations
2. Media Tours
3. Newsletters
4. Special Events
â. Speaking Engagements
6. Sponsorships
7. Employee Relations
8. Community Relations and Philanthropy

DIRECT MARKETING
Direct marketing has been defined by lInstitute of Direct Marketing as *’The planned
recording, analysis and tracking of customer behaviour to develop a relational
marketing strategies“
Direct Marketing Channels

Any medium that can be used to deliver a communication to a customer can be

employed in direct marketing and it includes:
1. Email Marketing: Sending marketing messages through email is one of the most
widely used direct-marketing methods.
2. Mobile marketing: Through Mobile marketing marketers engage with
prospective customers and donors in an interactive manner through a mobile device or
network, such such as cell phone. smart phone or tablet. Types of mobile marketing
messages include: SMS: (short message service) — marketing communications are sent
in the form of' text messages, also known as texting. MMS: (multi-media message
service)
3. Direct Mail: The term "direct mail" is used to refer to communications sent to
potential customers or donors vie the postal service and other delivery services. Direct
mail is sent to customer’s based on criteria such as age, income, location, profession.
buying pattern. etc.
Direct mail includes advertising circulars, catalogues, free-trial CDs, pre-approval credit
card applications, and other unsolicited merchandising invitations delivered by mail to
homes and businesses.
4. Telemarketing: Another common form of direct marketing is telemarketing in
which marketers contact customs by phone. The primary benefit to businesses is
increased lead generation, which helps businesses inciea.se sales volume and customer

5. Voicemail Marketing: Voicemail marketing emerged out of the market prevalence

of personal voice mailboxes, and business voicemail systems. Voicemail marketing
presented a cost effective means by which to reach people directly, by voice

6. Direct Response TV Direct marketing via television (commonly referred to as

DRTV) has two basic forms: long form (usually half-hour or hour-long segments that
explain a product in detail and commonly referred to as infornercials) and short form,
which refers to typical 30-second or 60-second commercials that ask viewers for an
immediate response (typically to call a phone number on screen or go to a website).
7. Catalogue marketing: In catalogue marketing . an organisation provides a
catalogue from which customers make selection and place orders by mail or telephone.
It involves selling of products through catalogues mailed to selected customers