Promotion Strategy - Research Paper Example

ID: Promotion Strategy Chapter Introduction This research study is centered towards analyzing the concept of promotion strategy. In marketing, promotion is a commonly used term and forms one of the crucial elements of marketing mix. Promotion is associated with spreading awareness amongst public regarding any particular product or service. It eventually helps a firm to enhance brand loyalty and generate high sales margins. Promotion is defined as one of the factors encompassed in promotional mix. There are different forms of promotions such as sales promotion, publicity, personal selling, direct marketing and advertising. This research study holds importance since promotion is a common tool utilized by all real world companies. Promotion strategy is also a kind of competency which can be acquired by a firm. The importance of this study lies in analyzing wide arrays of theoretical frameworks related to promotion. Research objectives have been stated below- To analyze the concept of promotion To understand and discuss various theoretical frameworks based on promotion To evaluate the impact of promotion strategy on organizational performance To identify different techniques undertaken as a part of promotion strategy As per the research plan, this study is divided into three sections namely collection of secondary data, interpreting obtained data and reviewing academic literature. Chapter 2: Literature Review According to Easwaran, marketing can be defined as an approach that enables direct flow of services or products from manufacturers to end customers. It helps to satisfy customer requirements, involved in exchange process. There are wide set of activities included within the approach of marketing. Marketing mix comprises of four basic elements – product, price, place and promotion. Additional elements in marketing mix are physical evidence, process and people. Hence promotion is one of the significant elements of marketing mix. Any service or product always needs the support of effective promotion scheme. Planning is required before promoting brand through advertisement campaigns, leaflet distribution, etc. There are other decisions which are focused on along with planning promotional activities like determining objectives, selecting target group, outlining promotion budget, distribution, new product launch, etc. Promotion is a medium of spreading awareness about a brand’s offerings. There are three major purpose of promotion – presenting information to target customers, differentiating a product and increasing market demand. Promotional plan is solely responsible for wide array of outcomes such as brand equity building, increase in sales, positioning, and acceptance of new product, corporate image development and competitive retaliations (Easwaran 112). As per Arens, promotion can be stated as a variable to communicate brand message to target audience and eventually change their behavior or attitude. Market share and sales percentage can only be increased when appropriate promotional strategy aligned with business operations is being implemented. Sales promotion, advertising, packaging, personal selling and publicity are different promotional methods. Promotion strategy is not only confined to selecting a type but even comprises of choosing a specific medium or channel. Product or service can be promoted either through media or person. Physical environment signifies promoting through endorsements, newspapers, special events, etc. Special events can be organized in the form of trade shows, festivals, directly interacting with customers in departmental stores and concerts. These events in turn initiate immediate purchase of goods. Such immediate purchases are due to contest participation, discounts or free samples. In physical environments, interaction between brand and customer is exhibited by promotional model or brand ambassador. Person-to-person interaction helps to add value to overall promotional mix. A community being developed due to such interactions leads to high brand loyalty. Media-to-person can be denoted as another promotional strategy. Different forms of media can be utilized for this type of promotion (Arens 96). Flew stated that print media mainly includes magazines and newspapers. On the other hand, electronic media encompasses television and radio. Digital media is basically associated with Internet. Social media sites are a part of social networking. Banner ads represent outdoor media. There are two dimensions of promotional strategy like accomplishment of strategic aims and tasks to be undertaken. These aims can be goal achievement in first approach or consulting target audience numerous times, time frame of expected business, incentives offered to target group and evaluation of promotion or advertisement success. The tasks to be performed on basis of promotion can be categorized as generating income or tracking orders, more customer enquiries, changing profile or organizational image, attracting visitors to special events or exhibition or initiating achievement or positive occurrence. Promotional strategy can be associated with generating publicity. Publicity is dependent on answers of three questions – why, who and what. The ‘why’ question is inclined towards creating consistent brand image, changing attitudes, reaching or identifying target customers, enhancing organizational profile and widening customer base. On the contrary, ‘what’ question emphasizes on a clear message which is being communicated by the company to customers. The last question is related to the target audience of the message such as funders, supporters, potential customers or users (Flew 156). According to Kurtz, promotion is also known as marketing communications mix. There are different elements encompassed within this mix – advertising, personal selling, sales promotion and publicity. These elements basically represent significant promotional strategies. Advertising is a paid medium for products or services presentation by a sponsor. Publicity represents a non-paid form of products or services presentation. Personal selling is a paid form where sponsor needs to recruit sales personnel who shall directly interact with customers. Sales promotion serves as a direct inducement for providing incentives or values to customers or employees for specific products. Integrated marketing communication is all about utilizing promotional tools effectively so as to communicate brand message to customers. Strategies are framed in such manner that delivery of brand message is able to alter attitudes or beliefs of customers. There is various expenditure strategies linked with promotion. These expenditures are calculated on basis of percentage increase in sales after promotional campaign. Expenditure per unit is also determined before selecting promotional tool. The overall expenditure strategy also comprises of thorough research, objectives, competitive parity and affordability. Promotional mix is greatly affected by several factors. These factors are product nature, promotion budget, marketing mix factors, competition nature, PLC stages and promotional target. All these factors are evaluated simultaneously so as to identify scope of promotion strategy in initiating success and growth. Maturity stage in product life cycle requires extensive promotion whereas in declining phase frequency of promotion is eventually lowered. On the other hand, promotion budget decides on suitability of media for brand promotion. For instance, if majority percentage of target audience belongs to older generation who are more comfortable in reading newspapers than visiting social sites, then traditional media forms the most appropriate promotion tool (Kurtz 213). As stated by Gelder and Woodcock, target audience also plays a critical role in structuring promotion strategy. The strategy for advertising campaign is also dependent on wide array of factors. This strategy is firstly framed by analyzing and identifying target market segment. The next stage is defining objectives of advertisement as specific, measurable and obtainable. In this form of strategy, advertising appropriation and advertising platform are simultaneously emphasized on in order to deliver expected outcomes. Media plan in advertising campaign strategy comprises of different components such as utilization of specific vehicles, highlighting media content, frequency and reach, and media type. The following phase deals in developing advertisement message. This phase outlines artwork and platform or media type. After executing advertisement campaigns, evaluation mechanism forms a critical aspect. Advertising effectiveness can be determined by incorporating testing procedures and evaluating reach of campaign in context of target group. Apart from advertising strategy, publicity strategy is also equally relevant in terms of exhibiting maximum impact on customers. There are various types of publicity strategy like feature article, videos or films, press conference, press release, editorials, captioned photographs, etc (Gelder and Woodcock 145). As per Dahlen, limitations of publicity strategy are confined to narrow segment and possessing low frequency. For publicity all that is required to highlight any such topic which holds significance for the brand as well as customers. The major objective of publicity strategy is to spread brand awareness amongst public in least time possible and at least cost. Sales promotion strategy also possesses a set of objectives like indulging customers and employees in selling process. It is often observed that person to person interaction is necessary to communicate inner brand meaning to customers. Person to person interaction is at times more effective in comparison to person to media interaction. Sales promotion strategy offers a platform whereby customers can interact directly with sales personnel. This in turn helps to generate customers’ queries and a strong relationship is established between customers and company. Relationship building is usually the first phase that leads to developing a wide base of brand loyal customers. Sales promotion strategy is generally collaborated with other promotional mix elements so as to create maximum impact on target audience. It is evident that sales promotion is not able to initiate long term commitment from buyers, cannot convince customers to purchase inappropriate product, not able to eradicate declining sales percentage, and does not compensate for decreasing sales support of advertisement campaigns (Dahlen 177). According to Chartered Institute of Marketing, sales promotion is a technique to influence customers so that they are able to undertake purchase decision. Incentives or discounts being offered through this strategy enable a company to attract maximum percentage of target audience. However personal selling is yet another medium through which customers can interact with sales executive. Personal selling is a traditional concept that was implemented before introduction of digital media or social media. Sales management strategy forms the basis of this promotion strategy. It is about developing strong bond with customers so as to influence them to purchase product. Sales strategy is closely knitted with relationship strategy, sales channel strategy, selling strategy and targeting strategy (Chartered Institute of Marketing). The technique or procedure of selling, changes with behavioral aspect of customers. Chapter 3 : Conclusions and Remarks As per this study, promotion strategy is one of the essential components of marketing mix. It is associated with spreading brand awareness amongst public. The success of any product or service is greatly dependent on brand building activities. In this study it has been outlined that promotion strategy is dependent on large number of factors. This strategy gets altered with changing consumer tastes or preferences, customer relationship with brand, nature of target audience, etc. Nature of product or service and its position in PLC is another factor which determines promotion strategy. There exist four main components of promotion strategy – advertising, public relations, sales promotion and personal selling. These components possess specific parameters for strategy formulation. Traditional, digital, social and outdoor marketing are various aspects involved in marketing communication mix. Promotion enables a firm to highlight product features in consumer market segment. This in turn ensures high profit margins and sales growth for the company. Works Cited Arens, Willam. Contemporary advertising. New Delhi: TMH. 2008. Print. Chartered Institute of Marketing. How to achieve an effective promotional mix, 2009. Web. 30 March. 2015. < http://www.cim.co.uk/files/promotionalmix.pdf > Dahlen, Michael. Marketing communications: a brand narrative approach.UK: Wiley. 2009. Print. Easwaran, Singh. Marketing research: concepts practices and cases. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2006. Print. Flew, Terry. New media: an introduction. Melbourne: Oxford University Press. 2008. Print. Gelder, Darren and Paul, Woodcock. Marketing and promotional strategy. UK: Nelson Thornes. 2003. Print. Kurtz, Dave. Contemporary marketing. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning. 2010. Print. Read More