MARKETING MIX PROMOTION
Promotion tries to bring
products to potential customers attention it tells us about prod- ucts, what they do, how they
benefit us, and
where we can buy them. We are almost al- ways
surrounded by promotion
, we cannot get way from
it, whether it
is on TV, on buses,
on the packaging of food we eat, on the
internet or in the mail we
receive almost every day. Promotion
does have benefits for consumers;
• it allows us to find out about
new prod- ucts
• keeps us informed
and up to date about product launches and updates,
• allows us to make informed
choices
about the goods we consume,
• pays for free to view TV (ITV) and much of the content on Internet
• keeps thousands of people employed.
Types of Promotion
So how do firms promote their
products? Try listing different forms of promotion, it would
be surprising if you list less than 20. With so many ways of promoting products
it is useful to be able to group
these different methods. One way of sub dividing the types of promo- tion is to group them into, Above the Line,
and Below the Line
Above the line promotion
Involves a direct appeal to
the customer. Above the line promotion
is what is generally called advertising. This will include posters, TV adverts, radio ads, newspaper ads and so on
Advertising is
carried out through various media,
the most important being TV, maga- zines, newspapers, radio,
posters, and of in-
creasing importance, the Internet. The choice
of media used depends upon a number of fac- tors, these include.
• Target market - who are the firm trying to sell to?
• Whether the objective is to convey in- formation or another type of message - will the product
sell only
when people fully understand its
function e.g. digital radios, or do
people buy on impulse e.g. chocolate bars?
• Cost - what types of promotion can we af- ford, for many small businesses this is the first
question they ask
about any form of promotion
• The product—is the product
suited to a certain type of promotion, for example is the best way to
promote replacement double glazing,
through personal selling door to door
or by an advert in the local
paper?
What types of media would suit the following products and services?
Low cost Air Travel -
Launch of a new family Ford car- New Iphone-
House Insurance -
Aunt Bessies frozen puddings - Newly opened take-away restraint -
Nationwide Carpet Retailer -
This type of pro-motion encourages consumers
to buy now, and make an
immediate saving or a potential fi- nancial gain. Below the line uses
product packaging, money off
coupons, point of sale promotions and competitions. Ring tones and
music videos on cell phones are helping the enter-
tainment industry to promote bands or a movies for much lower cost than compared to above the line promotion
For the examples below of below the line promotion add products or services
that might be suitable for
each of the types.
personal selling packaging special offers
direct or junk mailing sampling
sponsorship
Point of sale promotions
For many of the consumer
products you will find in supermarkets,
below the line promo- tion is used only for short-term
periods, so offers and promotions
come and go. But for other products such as industrial goods and financial services, personal selling plays long term role in product sales
development. Also special offers seem
to be the standard sales method in industries such as double glazing,
and junk mailing is a must for banks and insur-
ance companies.
Persuasive and Informative
Promotion
In these exam-
ples of promo- tion we can see
a division of the type of adver- tising message . One type of message sells the product through
image, or style, or the aspirations of the po- tential buyer - this is known
as persuasive advertising. The other type of advertising mes- sage, provides factual information on the product informative advertising. Most products will use a
combination of the two types,
and the type of media will to a large
extent determine whether the
emphasis is on persuasive or informative. Also certain products
lend themselves
to one or the other, ice cream brands-
persuasive, computers - informative.
Whichever form or forms of
promotion are used, it must be relevant to the business and the
product. Remember the most expensive forms of promotion, such as national TV, or na- tional newspapers are
often options open to only the largest businesses, and most small local businesses will have to
make do with the low cost alternatives
Group Exercise
As part of a marketing team,
you have been given the task of deciding how and where to
promote Dalek mask toys for Christmas. Money
is tight, and time is short. You need to
design one or two forms
of promotion based on what you think are the best
types of me- dia to use. You could consider posters, news- paper
/magazine ads. You should also decide whether you’re a is going to be persuasive or informative—or perhaps a combination of the two.
Homework Exercise
Select 4 adverts from local and national
newspapers, plus 4 examples
of direct mail and leaflets. Group them into informative and persuasive types of promotion, or a mix of the two. For 2 of the adverts explain why the media used was chosen.
Past Paper Questions
The photograph above shows a chemist’s shop near a
doctor’s surgery. It is alongside a main road which runs through a
large housing es- tate on the outskirts
of a Welsh town. The shop is a co-operative retail business. Explain ways in which
businesses, such
as
co-operatives, can use the marketing
mix to sellmore goods
Sumber : groups.haas.berkeley.edu/marketing/PAPERS/PRIYA/Paper5
