Marketing

1. Product Promotion(Part B)

3. The Promotion Mix/Marketing communications mix consists of eight major modes of communication:
1. Advertising - Any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor via
print media (newspapers and magazines), broadcast media (radio and television), network media (telephone, cable, satellite,
wireless), electronic media (audiotape, videotape, videodisk, CD-ROM, Web page), and display media (billboards, signs, posters).
2. Sales promotion - A variety of short-term incentives to encourage trial or purchase of a product or service including consumer
promotions (such as gifts, offers, samples, coupons, and premiums), trade promotions (such as advertising and display allowances),
and business and sales force promotions (contests for sales executives).
3. Events and experiences - Company-sponsored activities and programs designed to create daily or special brand-related interactions
with consumers, including sports, arts, entertainment, and cause events as well as less formal activities.
4. Public relations and publicity - A variety of programs directed internally to employees of the company or externally to consumers,
other firms, the government, and media to promote or protect a company’s image or its individual product communications.
Publicity is “Non-personal stimulation of demand for the product or service, or business unit by placing commercially significant news
about it in public medium or obtaining favorable presentation of it upon radio, television, or stage that is not paid for by the sponsor.”
5. Online and social media marketing - Online activities and programs designed to engage customers or prospects and directly or
indirectly raise awareness, improve image, or elicit sales of products and services.
6. Mobile marketing - A special form of online marketing that places communications on consumer’s cell phones, smart phones, or
tablets.
7. Direct and database marketing - Use of mail, telephone, fax, e-mail, or Internet to communicate directly with or solicit response or
dialogue from specific customers and prospects.
8. Personal selling - Face-to-face interaction with one or more prospective purchasers for the purpose of making presentations,
answering questions, and procuring orders

5. As such, there is no perfect promotion mix. Every marketer has to devise a mix depending upon the
characteristics of the situation.
1. Push and Pull Strategies
 The purpose of promotion is to motivate and persuade not only the ultimate consumers, but also
the intermediaries who are involved in making the goods available to final consumers.
 If the strategy adopted is to motivate and persuade the intermediaries’ to make effort to increase
the sales, the strategy is called push strategy. It consists of personal selling along with advertising
and other trade promotional measures. The manufacturer promotes goods to wholesalers,
wholesalers in turn promote to the retailers and retailers persuade the consumers to buy.
 On the other hand, if the customer demands particular goods from the retailer and the retailers
want the same from the wholesalers and the wholesalers in turn ask the manufacturers to provide
the same, it is called pull strategy. Here, advertising plays a crucial role in pulling the customers
towards the retailer.
 The marketing manager will have to decide whether to use push or pull strategy depending on the
type of product being produced.

6. 2. Product features
 Use of a particular tool of promotion mix depends upon the type of goods to be
marketed. For industrial products more of personal selling is required. For consumer
products like HUL’s Axe, more of advertising is required. For highly image-oriented
products like fashion garment, the presence of designers or celebrities inside the store
is required. For goods where not much difference is there in features and
performance, more of sales promotion is required.
 Where the organization is equally important, the public relations become more
important. For seasonal products, off-season sale is very important, but advertising is
required for sale throughout the year. For high-priced products, personal selling is
important to mitigate risk. For low convenience goods, marketers use advertising
rather than personal selling. For products, where customers do not want to talk with
the salesperson like Viagra, condom, hair color (by a senior citizen), advertising is
more important.

7. 3. Stage of the Product Life Cycle
 In different phases of product life cycle, different tools of promotion mix become more
effective. In the introductory stage, to create awareness among the customers
including business customers and distributors, advertising has to be undertaken in a
big way. Free samples may be distributed to the consumers and trade promotion may
be undertaken to motivate distributors to stock the goods.
 In the growth stage, the consumers already knew about the product. Promotion has to
be directed at specifying product benefits. Advertising increases, whereas sales
promotion declines. During the maturity stage, the emphasis will be on switching the
customers from competitors and hence more of sales promotion is used. In the decline
stage, the firm will be more interested in harvesting revenue as much as possible.
There will be a great decrease in expenditure on promotion.
4. Buyer Readiness
 If the customer is unaware of the product, advertising and public relations are more
important, but when the customer is in the market, sales promotion and personal
selling are more important to facilitate a purchasing decision.

8. 5. Type of Buyer
 Buyers can be of different types and promotion mix has to be devised accordingly. In case of Organizational or business buyers, advertisements
published in specialized trade publications and personal selling are more important; whereas, typical consumers are swayed by glossy
advertisements endorsed by some celebrities.
6. Type of Distribution
 For goods which are intensively distributed, more advertising is done and also the help of sales promotion is taken. For goods sold through
selective distribution, advertisements as well as direct marketing are required, and for exclusive distribution like Rado watch, high-quality
furniture, it needs more of personal selling.
7. Objectives, Budget, Cost and Availability of Media
 Firm’s promotional objectives are the reflections of overall marketing objectives. If the objective is to make mass awareness, the firm may go in
for advertising, sales promotion and public relations. Most of the food companies, like Nestle, HUL, PepsiCo not only go in for aggressive ad
campaigning, but also distribute free samples and go in for public relations.
 If the objective is to invite the customer to the store, where demonstration can be made, then a combination of small advertising (to inform),
sales promotion (to attract) and personal selling (to persuade) is undertaken.
 Apart from objectives, the promotion mix would be determined on the basis of budget available to marketing department. If the budget is small,
the firm would concentrate on personal selling. If it is large, then it can advertise through regional and national media like that of HUL in India.
 Cost of promotional tools is important in determining promotion mix. To reach a larger audience, advertising is used. Many a company
nowadays, do not buy advertisement slots in cricket tournaments as it has become a very costly affair. Small entrepreneurs make use of local
directories, cable TV bands, radio, local newspapers, outdoor ads and other promotional methods.
 Even if funds are available, the availability of media is equally important. No marketer of tobacco or alcohol products is permitted to advertise on
TV channels in India. Many ads are denied if they are against national dignity and interest and disrespect the motherland’s culture.