SYMBIOSIS INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES

DESSERTATION
Role of Promotions in Marketing with an Emphasis on Sales Promotion

SUBMITTED TO- Dr. RAMASASTRY

Submitted By:
Sandeep
Mark/ Ops
2B,54
SIMS, PUNE

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Role of Promotions in Marketing with an Emphasis on
Sales Promotion

ABSTRACT
In my project, “Role of Promotions in Marketing with an Emphasis on Sales Promotion” In today’s scenario of
cutthroat competition, managing Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) optimally is highly imperative. IMC
is a way of looking at the whole gamut of the Marketing process from the viewpoint of the receiver, says Philip
Kotler.

Companies must allocate the promotion budget over the 5 promotional tools – Advertising, Sales promotion, PR,
Publicity, Sales Force and Direct Marketing. Within the same industry, companies can differ considerably in their
allocations for example Avon concentrates on Personal selling while Revlon spends heavily on Advertising.
Beyond the obvious benefits that Promotion and particularly Sales promotions render towards meeting
marketing goals, in the dissertation true efforts were made to ponder over certain pertinent questions arising on
the flipside too.
Do frequent sales promotions hurt the brand equity or do they enhance the value delivered to the customers?
How can marketers plan their sales promotions so that they can increase and bolster the brand equity at the
same time?
This project delves into these and other issues and study the topic to provide befitting answers.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Words often fail to express one’s inner feelings of gratitude and indebtedness to one’s
benefactors, but then it is the only readily available medium through which the
undersigned can express their sincere thanks to all those who are associated with the work
in one way or the other. I had the opportunity to carry out my Dissertation on the topic Role
of Promotions in Marketing with an Emphasis on Sales Promotion. I am highly obliged to
express my full gratitude and sincere thanks to my project guide Dr V V Ramasastry for his
valuable guidance and encouragement throughout the project duration. I am thankful to
him for letting me do this project under his sought after Mentorship.

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SUMMARY
Sales promotion seems to be the easiest and the best bet for some quick wins in the marketplace. It is
an effective tool to increase the sales in the short run. Though it can help meet short term sales targets,
marketers are not very clear about its effects on Brand image.
Branding and promotions are not always bedfellows.

Branding creates predictability; Promotion relies on creating urgency, does this mean that you should
not run promotions? Some of the important finding which shows how promotional activities can do the
job without affecting the brand equity are like, a good promotion must justify its existence. Something
like a new store opening, a company anniversary, etc. You can’t fool the customer after a few times and
you will jeopardize your credibility and branding efforts. Co-ordinate advertising and sales promotion
with actual availability of the offer at the retail outlets, so that customers can get what they see and
listen in various sales promotional advertisement through various channels. Neglect to this aspect leads
to consumer disillusionment and dissatisfaction. Sales promotion offers also helps in generating
Customer Loyalty- if the product it supports is of good quality.

It is important to realize that the Retailer is an important link of your Supply Chain- he is in the business
of making money and 30% of the times he will get your customer to switch over to a better deal offering
brand. At the same time care must be taken to see that this does not lead to him overtly taking
advantage of his trade interests and making unreasonable demands.

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Table of Contents

ABSTRACT..................................................................................................................................................................2

INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................................................................6

The four Possible Elements of a Promotion Mix are................................................................................................11

Advertising...............................................................................................................................................................11

Public relations and Publicity...................................................................................................................................12

Trade Sales Promotion Methods..............................................................................................................................21

Reasons for Growth of Sales Promotion..................................................................................................................24

Research objectives.................................................................................................................................................27

The Analysis.............................................................................................................................................................28

CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................................................35

BIBLIOGRAPHY & REFERENCES.................................................................................................................................36

APPENDICES.............................................................................................................................................................37

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INTRODUCTION

Promotion means communicating with Individuals, groups, or organizations to directly or indirectly

facilitate exchanges by informing and persuading one or more audiences to accept an organization’s
products.
A variety of organizations spend considerable resources on promotion. Marketers indirectly facilitate
exchanges by focusing information about company activities and products on interest groups (such as
environmental and consumer groups), current and potential investors, regulatory agencies, and society
in general. Some marketers use cause-related marketing, which links purchase of their products to
philanthropic efforts for a particular cause favored by their target market. Marketers also sponsor
special events, often leading to news coverage and positive promotion of an organization and its
brands.
From this wider perspective, promotion plays a comprehensive communication role. Some promotional
activities help a company justify its existence and maintain positive healthy relationships between itself
and various groups. Although companies can direct a single type of communication—such as an
advertisement—toward numerous audiences, marketers often design a communication precisely for a
specific target market. A firm frequently communicates several different messages concurrently, each to
a different group.

For maximum benefit from promotional efforts, marketers strive to properly plan, implement,
coordinate, and control communications. Effectively promotional activities are based on information
about customers and the marketing environment, often obtained from an organization’s marketing
information system. How successfully marketers use promotions to maintain positive relationships
demand largely on the quantity and quality of information an organization receives. Because
promotion’s basic role is communication, we should analyze what communication is and how the
communication process work

Promotion and the Communication Process

Communication can be viewed as the transmission of information. For communication to take place,
both the sender and receiver of information must share some common ground. They must share a
common understanding of the symbols, words, and pictures used to transmit information. Thus
communication is defined as a sharing of meaning. Implicit in this definition is the notion of
transmission of information because sharing necessitates transmission.
As the figure below shows, communication begins with a source. A source is a person, group, or
organization with a meaning it intends and attempts to share with an audience. A source could be a

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salesperson wishing to communicate a sales message or an organization wanting to send a message to
thousands of customers through an advertisement. A receiver is the individual, group, or organization
that decodes a coded message, and an audience is two or more receivers.
To transmit meaning, a source must convert the meaning into a series of signs representing ideas or
concepts. This is called the coding process, or encoding. When coding meaning into a message, a source
must consider certain characteristics of the receiver or audience. To share meaning, the source should
use signs that are familiar to the receiver or audience. Marketers who understand this realize how
important it is to know their target market and to make sure that an advertisement, for example, uses a
language that the target market understands.
To share a coded meaning with the receiver or audience, a source selects and uses a medium of
transmission. A medium of transmission carries the coded message from the source to the receiver or
audience. When a source chooses an inappropriate medium of transmission, several problems may
arise. A coded message may reach some receivers, but not the right ones. Coded messages may also
reach intended receivers in incomplete form because the intensity of the transmission is weak.
In decoding process, signs are covered into concepts and ideas. Seldom does a receiver decode exactly
the same meaning that a source coded. When the result of decoding is different from what was coded,
noise exists. Noise is anything that reduces the clarity and accuracy of the communication; it has many
sources and may affect any or all parts of the communication process. Noise sometimes arises within
the medium of transmission itself. Noise also occurs when a source uses signs that are unfamiliar to the
receiver or that have a different meaning from the one intended. Noise also may originate in the
receiver. A receiver may be unaware of a coded message when perceptual processes block it out.
The receiver’s response to a message is feedback to the source. The source usually expects and
normally receives feedback, although perhaps not immediately. During feedback, the receiver or
audience is the source of a message directed toward the original source, which then becomes a
receiver. Feedback is coded, sent through a medium of transmission, and decoded by the receiver, the
source of the original communication. Thus communication is a circular process.
During face-to-face communication, such as a personal selling situation or product sampling, verbal and
nonverbal feedback can be immediate. Instant feedback lets communicators adjust messages quickly to
improve the effectiveness of their communication. For example, when a salesperson realizes through
the feedback that a consumer does not understand a sales presentation, the salesperson adapts the
presentation to make it more meaningful to the customer. When mass communication such as
advertising is used, feedback is often slow and difficult to recognize. Advertisers obtain feedback in the
form of changes in sales volume or in consumers’ attitudes and awareness levels.

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Promotional tools vary in cost effectiveness at different stages of the PLC

- In the Introduction/Infancy stage, advertising and publicity have the highest cost
effectiveness, followed by personal selling to gain distribution coverage and sales
promotion to induce trial.

- In the Growth stage, all the tools can be toned down because demand has its own
momentum through word of mouth.

- In the Maturity stage, sales promotion, advertising and personal selling all grow more
important in that order.

- In the Decline stage, sales promotion continues strong, advertising and publicity are
reduced and sales people give the product only minimal attention.

As we can see, Sales Promotion in specific is very important over the various stages of the Product Life
Cycle.
Promotional objectives differ considerably from one organization to another and within organizations
over time. Large organizations with multiple promotional programs operating simultaneously may have
quite varied promotional objectives.

Let’s have detailed look at some of the promotional objectives:

 Create awareness
A considerable amount of promotion is directed at creating awareness. For an organization introducing
a new product, new brand, or brand extension, making customers aware is crucial to initiating the

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product adoption process. A marketer that has invested heavily in product development strives to
create product awareness quickly in order to generate revenues to offset the high costs of product
development and introduction.
Creating awareness is important for existing products, too. Promotional efforts may be aimed at
increasing brand awareness, product feature awareness, and awareness of image related issues (such as
organizational size or socially responsive behaviour). Some organizations are unsuccessful because
marketers fail to generate awareness of critical issues among a significant portion of target market
members.

 Stimulate Demand
When an organization is the first to introduce an innovative product, it tries to stimulate primary
demand—demand for a product category rather than for a specific brand of product—through pioneer
promotion. Pioneer promotion informs potential customers about the product: what it is, what it does,
how it can be used, and where it can be purchased. Because pioneer promotion is used in the
introductory stage of the product life cycle, which means that there no competing brands, it neither
emphasizes brand names nor compares brand. Primary demand stimulation is not just for new
products. At times an industry trade association, rather than a single firm, uses promotional efforts to
stimulate primary demand.
To build selective demand, which is demand for a specific brand, a marketer employs promotional
efforts on the strengths and benefits of a specific brand. Building selective demand requires
promotional efforts that single out attributes important to potential buyers and the specific attributes of
the brand. Promotional techniques are sometimes used to stimulate selective demand by differentiating
the product from competing brand in the minds of potential buyers. Stimulating selective demand by
increasing the number of product uses is sometimes accomplishes through advertising campaigns, as
well as through free samples, coupons, and consumer contests and sweepstakes. Promotion for large
package sizes or multiple-product packages are directed at increasing consumption, which in turn can
stimulate demand.

 Encourage Product Trial

when attempting to move customers through the product adoption process, marketer may be
successful at creating awareness and interest, but then a significant proportion of customers stall during
the evaluation stage. Thus certain types of promotion, such as free samples, coupons, test drive or
limited free-use offers, contests, and games, are employed to encourage product trial.

 Identify Prospects
certain types of promotional efforts are directed at identifying customers who are interested in the
firm’s product and are most likely to buy. A marketer may utilize a magazine advertisement with a
direct response information form, requesting the reader to complete and mail the form to receive

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additional information. Customers who fill out information blanks or call the organization usually have
higher interest in the product, which makes them possible sales prospects.

 Retain Loyal customers

Clearly, maintaining long-term customer relationships is a major goal of most marketers, because such
relationships are quite valuable. Promotional efforts directed at customer retention can help an
organization control its costs because the costs of retaining customers are usually considerably lower
than those of acquiring new ones. Frequent user programs, such as relied on by airlines, hotels, aim at
rewarding loyal customers and encouraging them to remain loyal.

 Facilitate Reseller Support

Strong relationships with resellers are important to a firm’s capability to maintain a sustainable
competitive advantage. Producers generally want to provide support to resellers to maintain sound
working relationships, and producers, in turn expect to get support for their products from resellers.
When a manufacturer advertises a product to consumers, this promotion should be viewed by resellers
as being strong manufacturer support. If the manufacturer promotes the new brand with free sample
and coupon distribution in the retailer’s area, a retailer views these actions as strong support and is
much likely to handle the product. To encourage wholesalers and retailers to increase their inventories,
the manufacturer may provide special offers and buying allowances to resellers.

 Combat Competitive Promotional Efforts

At times a marketer’s objective in using promotion is to offset or lessen the effect of a competitor’s
promotional program. This type of promotional activity does not necessarily increase the organization’s
sales or market share, but it may prevent a sales or market share loss. A combative promotional
objective is used most often by firms in extremely competitive consumer products markets, such as fast-
food industry.
For example, a local departmental store may mail out coupons, redeemable only on Tuesdays and
Wednesdays, to residents living within a two-mile radius of the store for the purchase of common items
such as milk, bread, or eggs. To offset the effects of these coupons, a competing store could advertise in
the newspaper that it will accept any store’s coupons on any day of the week.

 Reduce Sales Fluctuations

Demand for many products varies from one month to another because of factors such as climate,
holidays, and seasons. A business, however, can’t operate at peak efficiency when sales fluctuate
rapidly. When promotional techniques reduce fluctuations, a manager can use the firm’s resources
more efficiently.
Promotional techniques are often designed to stimulate sale during sales slumps. For example,

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advertisements promoting price reduction of lawn care equipment can increase sales during fall and
winter months. During peak season periods, a marketer may refrain from advertising to prevent over-
stimulating sales to the point that the firm cannot handle all the demand. A pizza outlet might distribute
coupons that are valid only Monday through Thursday because Friday though Sunday the restaurant is
extremely busy.

To achieve the major objectives of promotion discussed above, companies must develop appropriate
programs. Several promotional tools can used to communicate with individuals, groups, and
organizations. When an organization combines specific elements to promote a particular product, that
combination constitutes the promotional mix for that product. The five possible elements of a
promotion mix are advertising, personal selling, public relations, direct marketing and sales
promotion.

The four Possible Elements of a Promotion Mix are

Advertising

Advertising is any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by
an identified sponsor. Advertisers include not only business firms, but also museums, charitable
organizations, and government agencies that direct messages to target publics. Ads are a cost-effective
way to disseminate messages, whether to build brand preference for Coca-Cola or to educate people to
avoid hard drugs.

Advertising Objectives
The advertising objectives must flow from prior decisions on target market, market positioning, and
marketing mix.
Advertising objectives can be classified according to whether their aim is to inform, persuade, remind,
or reinforce. They aim at different stages in the hierarchy of effects.
• Informative advertising aims to create awareness and knowledge of new products or new features of
existing products.
• Persuasive advertising aims to create liking, preference, conviction, and purchase of a product or
service. Some persuasive advertising uses comparative advertising, which makes an explicit comparison

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of the attributes of two or more brands.
• Reminder advertising aims to stimulate repeat purchase of products and services.
• Reinforcement advertising aims to convince current purchasers that they made the right choice.
Automobile ads often depict satisfied customers enjoying special features of their new cars.

The following qualities about advertising can be noted:

 Public presentation:
Advertising’s public nature confers a kind of legitimacy on the product and also suggests a standardized
offering.
 Pervasiveness:
Advertising permits the seller to repeat a message many times. It also allows the buyer to receive and
compare the messages of various competitors. Large-scale advertising says something positive about
the seller’s size, power, and success.
 Amplified expressiveness:
Advertising provides opportunities for dramatizing the company and its products through the artful use
of print, sound, and colour.
 Impersonality:
The audience does not feel obligated to pay attention or respond to advertising. Advertising is a
monologue in front of, not a dialogue with, the audience.

Advertising can be used to build up a long-term image for a product (coca-cola ads) or trigger quick
sales. Advertising can efficiently reach geographically dispersed buyers. Certain forms of advertising (TV
advertising) can require a large budget, whereas other forms (newspaper advertising) do not. Just the
presence of advertising might have an effect on sales: consumers might believe that a heavily advertised
brand must offer “good value.”
The major advertising media along with their costs, advantages, and limitations are profiled in the table
below.

Public relations and Publicity

• Public Relations

Public Relations is a broad set of communications efforts used to create and maintain favorable
relationships between an organization and its publics. An organization communicates with various
publics, both internal and external. Public relations efforts can be directed toward any and all of these.
A firm’s publics can include customers, suppliers, employees, stockholders, the media, educators,
potential investors, government officials, and society in general.
Public relations efforts can be used to promote people, places, ideas, activities, and even countries.

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Public relations focuses on enhancing the image of the total organization. Assessing public attitudes and
creating a favorable image are no less important than direct promotion of an organization’s products.
Because the public’s attitudes towards a firm are likely to affect the sales of its products, it is very
important for firms to maintain positive public perceptions. In addition, employee morale is
strengthened if the firm is perceived positively by the public. Although public relations can make people
aware of a company’s products, brands, or activities, it can also create specific company images, such as
innovativeness or dependability. By getting the media to report on a firm’s accomplishments, public
relations also helps a company maintain positive public visibility. Some firms use public relations for a
single purpose and others for several purposes.

Public Relations Tools

Companies use a variety of public relations tools to convey messages and to create images. Public
relations professionals prepare written materials, such as brochures, newsletters, company magazines,
news releases, and annual reports that reach and influence their various publics. Public relations
personnel also create corporate identity materials, such as logos, business cards, stationery, and signs
that make firms immediately recognizable. Speeches are another public relations tool. Because what a
company executive says publicly at meetings or to the media can affect the organization’s image, his or
her speech must convey the desired message clearly.
Event sponsorship, in which company pays for part or all of a special event, such as a benefit concert or
a tennis tournament, is another public relations tool. Sponsoring special events is an effective means of
increasing brand recognition with relatively minimal investment. Except for the initial underwriting cost,
event sponsorship can provide companies with considerable amounts of free media coverage.
Organizations try to make sure that their products and the sponsored event target a consistent
audience. Public relations personnel can also organize unique events to “create news” about the
company. These can include grand openings with celebrities, prizes, hot-air balloon rides, and other
attractions that appeal to their publics.
Certain public relations tools have traditionally been associated specifically with publicity, which is a
part of public relations.

• Publicity

Publicity is communicated in news story form, about an organization, its products, or both, that is
transmitted through a mass medium at no charge. Although public relations has a large, more
comprehensive communication function than publicity, publicity is a very important aspect of public
relations. Publicity can be used to provide information about goods or services, to announce
expansions, acquisitions, research, or new-product launches, or to enhance a company’s image.
The most common publicity-based public relations tool is the news release, some-times called a press
release, which is usually a single page of typewritten copy containing fewer than 300 words. A news

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release also gives the firm’s or agency’s name, address, phone number, and contact person. News
release tackle a multitude of specific issues. A feature article is a longer manuscript (up to 3,000 words)
prepared for a specific publication. A captioned photograph is a photograph with a brief description
explaining the picture’s content. Captioned photographs are effective for illustrating new or improved
products with highly visible features.
There are several other kinds of publicity-based public relations tools. A press conference is a meeting
called to announce major news events. Media personnel are invited to a press conference and are
usually supplied with written materials and photographs. Letters to the editor and editorials are
sometimes prepared and sent to newspaper and magazines. Video- and audiotapes may be distributed
to broadcast stations in the hope that they will be aired.

Advantages of Publicity-based public relations tools

The use of publicity-based public relations tools gas several advantages including credibility, news value,
significant word-of-mouth communications, and a perception of being endorsed by the media. The
public may consider the news more truthful and credible than an advertisement because the media is
not paid to provide the information. In addition, stories regarding a new-product introduction or a new
items and are likely to receive notice. Finally, the cost of publicity is low compared to the cost of
advertising.

Limitations of Publicity-based public relations tools

Publicity-based public relations tools do have some limitations. Media personnel must judge company
messages to be newsworthy if they are to be published or broadcast at all. Consequently, messages
must be timely, interesting, accurate, and in the public interest. Many communications do not qualify. It
may take a great deal of time and effort to convince media personnel of the news value of publicity
releases. Although public relations personnel usually encourage the media to air publicity releases at
certain times, they control neither the content nor the timing of the communications. Media personnel
alter length and content of publicity releases to fit publishers’ or broadcasters’ requirements and may
even delete parts of messages that company personnel view as most important. Furthermore, media
personnel use publicity releases in time slots or positions most convenient for them. Thus messages
sometimes appear in locations or at times that may not reach the firm’s target audiences. Although
these limitations can be frustrating, properly managed publicity-based public relations tools offer an
organization substantial benefits.
The appeal of public relations and publicity is based on three distinctive qualities:
1) High credibility: news stories and fectures are more authentic credible to readers than ads.
2) Ability to catch buyers off guard: public relations can reach prospects who prefer to avoid sales-
people and advertisements.
3) Dramatization: Public relations have the potential for dramatizing a company or product.

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Marketers tend to under use public relations, yet a well-thought-out program coordinated with the
other promotion-mix elements can be extremely effective.

Personal selling

It means face-to-face interaction with one or more prospective purchasers for the purpose of making
presentations, answering questions, and procuring orders. Personal selling is the most effective tool at
later stages of the buying process, particularly in building up buyer preference, conviction, and action.
Personal selling has three distinctive qualities:
1) Personal confrontation: personal selling involves an immediate and interactive relationship between
two or more persons. Each party is able to observe the other’s reaction.
2) Cultivation: personal selling permits all kinds of relationship to spring up, ranging from a matter-of-
fact selling relationship to a deep personal friendship.
3) Response: personal selling makes the buyer feel under some obligation for having listened to the
sales talk.

Direct marketing

It refers to use of mail, telephone, fax, e-mail, or internet to communicate directly with or solicit
response or dialogue from specific customers and prospects. The many forms of direct marketing —
direct mails, telemarketing, internet marketing – share four distinctive characteristics. Direct marketing
is:
1) Nonpublic: the message is normally addressed to a specific person.
2) Customized: the message can be prepared to appear to the addressed individual.
3) Up-to-date: a message can be prepared very quickly.
4) Interactive: the message can be changed depending on the person’s response.

Sales Promotion

Sales promotion is a variety of short-term incentives to encourage trial or purchase of a product or

service by the consumers or the trade (retailers).
There has been increase in the sales promotion budgets of all organizations. Even smaller firms and
retail outlets like Shopper’s Stops have had sales promotion campaigns. This growing significance can be
attributed to the following:
a) Growing consumerism in India and an upwardly mobile Indian market.
b) Heightened inter-firm rivalry within the industry and in fact, in all sectors of the economy.
c) Trade’s resistance to invest additional resources in the product mix of different companies. This

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resistance is mainly because of most consumer companies enlarging their product mix to preempt
competition and also to satisfy different consumer needs. Since the trade has limited sources they find
it difficult to invest in all companies’ products. Hence, the trade also demands more incentives for any
additional investment.
d) Fragmentation of viewers an readers arising out of multiple television channels, newspaper and
magazines.
e) The mass media cost has been on the rise and most companies find sales promotion a more cost
effective alternative.
f) With technologies and products getting standardized, differentiation between firms has got blunted
and price wars have now become a reality in most consumer goods.

Benefits offered by sales promotions

• It helps in securing trial and defending shelf space against competition.

• Smoothens out the manufacturing capacities of firms in such a way that the peaks and the valleys are
minimized.
• Provides opportunities to manufacturers to reach out market segments with differing price sensitivity
• Adds excitement to the in-store merchandizing of consumer goods
• Motivates the trade to keep more and push more of those brands that are on promotion

Types of sales promotion

Sales promotion can be grouped into the following:

A. Consumer sales promotions (Pull Strategy)
B. Trade sales promotions (Push strategy)
Consumer sales promotion methods encourage or stimulate consumers to patronize specific retail
stores or try particular products. Trade sales promotion methods stimulate wholesalers and retailers to
carry a producer’s products and to market these products more aggressively.

Consumer Sales Promotion Methods

Consumer sales promotion methods used by retailers are often aimed at attracting customers to
specific locations, whereas those used by manufacturers are generally directed at introducing new
products or promoting established brands. Various sales promotion like coupons, demonstration,
frequent-user incentives, point-of-purchase displays, free samples, money refunds, premiums,
consumer contest and sweepstakes have been discussed with advantages and disadvantages of each.

Coupons

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A coupon is a written price reduction used to encourage consumers to buy a specific product. Coupons
reduce a product’s price and are used to prompt customers to try new or established products, to
increase sales volume quickly, to attract repeat purchasers, or to introduce new packages sizes or
features.
Coupons are distributed on and in packages, trough freestanding inserts (FSIs), print advertising, direct
mail, and in stores through shelf dispensers, electronic dispensers, and at checkout counters. According
to a survey, consumers’ preferred methods of receiving coupons are through colour leaflets in Sunday
newspaper (67%) and by mail (59%)

Advantage
1. Print advertisement with coupons are often more effective than non-promotional advertising for
generating brand awareness. The larger the coupon’s cash offer, the better the recognition generated.
2. Coupons reward present product users, win back formers users, and encourage purchases in larger
quantities.
3. As they are returned, coupons also let a manufacturer determine whether it reaches the intended
target market.

Disadvantage
1. Fraud and Misredemption, which can be expensive for manufacturers. The approximate redemption
rate is 2.3%, with 25% of coupons accepted being misredemptions.
2. Coupons are losing their value because so many manufacturers offer them, consumers have learned
not buy without some incentive, whether it be a coupon, rebate or refund.
3. Brand loyalty among heavy coupon users has diminished, and many consumers only redeem coupons
for products they normally buy. It is believed that about three-fourths of coupons are redeemed by
people already using the brand on the coupon. Thus coupons have questionable success as an incentive
for consumers to try a new brand or product and then continue using it.
4. Stores often do not have enough of the coupon item in stock which generates ill will towards both
the store and the product.

Demonstrations
Demonstrations are excellent attention getters. Manufacturers offer them temporarily to encourage
trial use and purchase of the product or to show how the product works. They can be highly effective
for promoting certain types of products, such as appliances, cosmetics, and cleaning supplies. As the
labor costs can be high, demonstration are not used widely.

Frequent-User Incentives

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Many firms develop incentive programs to reward customers who engage in repeat (frequent)
purchases. For example, most major airlines offer frequent-flyer programs through which customers
that have flown a specified number of miles are rewarded with free tickets for additional travel.
Frequent-user foster customer loyalty to a specific company or group of cooperating companies that
provide extra incentive for patronage. They are favoured by service businesses, such as auto rental
agencies, hotels and credit card companies as well as by consumer goods market.

Point-of-Purchase Displays
Point-of-purchase (P-O-P) materials include outside signs, window displays, counter pieces, display
racks, and self-service cartons. These items, often supplied by products, attract attention, inform
customers and encourage retailers to carry particular products. A retailer is likely is to use point-of-
purchase materials if they are attractive, informative, well-constructed, and in harmony with the store.

Free samples
Marketers use free samples for several reasons: to stimulate trial of a product, to increase sales volume
in the early stages of a product’s life cycle, or to obtain desirable distribution. Sampling is the most
expensive of all sales promotion methods because production and distribution – at local events, by mail
or door-to-door delivery, in stores, and on packages—entail very high costs. Free samples are generally
not appropriate for slow-turnover products. Despite high costs, use of free samples is increasing. In
agiven year, it is not unusual for three-fourths of all consumer product companies to use sampling.

Money refunds and rebates

With money refunds, consumers submit proof of purchase and are mailed a specific amount of money.
Usually, manufacturers demand multiple product purchases before consumers qualify for refunds. With
rebates, the customer is sent a specified amount of money for making a single purchase. These methods
used primarily to promote trail use of a product, are relatively low in cost.
One of the problems with money refunds and rebates is that many people perceive the redemption
process as too complicated. Consumers also have negative perceptions of manufacturers’ reasons for
offering rebate. They may believe that these are new, untested products or products that haven’t sold
well. If these perceptions are not changed, rebate offers may degrade the image and desirability of the
products being promoted.

Premiums
Premiums are items offered free or at minimum cost as a bonus for purchasing a product. They are used
to attract competitors’ customers, introduce different sizes of established products, add variety to other
promotional efforts, and stimulate consumer loyalty. Inventiveness is necessary, however; if an offer is
to stand out and achieve a significant number of redemptions, the premium must match both the target
audience and the brand’s image. To be effective, premiums must be easily recognizable and desirable.

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Premiums are placed on or in packages and can also be distributed by retailers or through the mail.

Consumer Contests and Sweepstakes

In consumer contests, individual compete for prizes based on analytical or creative skills. This method
generates retail traffic. Marketers should exercise care in setting up a contest. Problems or errors may
anger consumers or result in lawsuits. Contestants are usually involved in consumer contests than in
sweep stakes, even though total participation may be lower. Contests may be used in conjunction with
other sales promotion methods, such as coupons
Entrants in consumer sweepstakes submit their names for inclusion in a drawing for prizes. Sweepstakes
are used to stimulate sales and, as with contests, are sometimes teamed with other sales promotion
methods. Sweepstakes are used more often than consumer contests and tend to attract a greater
number of participants. Sweepstakes cost considerably less than contests. Successful sweepstakes can
generate widespread interest and short-term increases in sales or market share.

Objectives of Consumer-oriented sales promotion

The broad objective of any sales promotion program is to induce trial and purchase of the product. As
we consider the different sales promotion programs, we can conclude that their objectives are any one
or all of the following:

1) Generate consumer interest, which should lead to trial

This is one of the most vital objective in marketing, particularly in the case of new products and those
products which are mature and hence do not excite the interest of the consumer. Sales promotions
designed to create excitement in the target market should help in generating trial purchases. Free
samples and coupons are some of the consumer promotion schemes commonly used by firms. Offering
gifts is another alternate way. Free trials
are very common in industry, particularly in cosmetics and the premium range of toilet soaps and
shampoos. Dove, a premium brand of toilet soap from Hindustan Levers urges consumers to try the 7-
Day test to convince themselves of the claims being made by the company.
Free samples and coupons have generally been found useful in stimulating trial for low involvement
products because they generate a low cost usage experience that may create favorable attitudes much
faster than advertising. For, more complex and high involvement products, in-store demonstrations
seem to deliver better results. This may be attributed to the customer’s search for expert advice and
information. And in most high involvement products, generally it is the dealer or store sales person who
is looked up to as an expert.
In the context of multi-product firms like men’s toiletries firm, an organization may use vehicles like
cross couponing to build trial for these products. In cross couponing the firm’s objective is also to piggy

19
ride a new product on its existing products, which already command loyalty and market leadership.

2) Generate inquires from the target customer group

another method of consumer promotion is to generate inquires from the target consumers. This is done
through mail-in coupons, free catalogues and prizes. Since the incentive offered is generally in the
context of an advertising message designed to introduce product benefits, these vehicles should be
developed in coordination with the advertising programmes. This method is particularly useful in the
following situations:
a) When the firm has to identify and attract prospective customers, who are difficult to be identified
because of the product concept
b) When the customers have to be frequently replenished, like in the context of educational institutions
whose stationery stocks have to be periodically replenished; here the supplier may offer mail-in
coupons or even special prices or gifts on festivals
c) When a new model or another version of a product or service has been planned/introduced.

3) Build consumer traffic

Shoppers Stop, a leading garment and accessories store in the western suburbs of Mumbai, recently
had a tie festival. Earlier it had several similar events either all by itself or in collaboration with leading
brands. Such special sales, festival sales, or even entertainment events like Filmfare Awards are
designed to build consumer traffic at retail outlets or for a brand.

4) Motivate customers to repeat their purchase

Several companies use promotion like first citizen’s club (Shopper’s Stop) which promises the customer
a free shirt or any garment on the purchase of a specific number of garments. Likewise, Citibank with
master card offers its members JPMiles for every purchase made on the Citibank master credit card and
by earning JPMiles one can fly free through Jet Airways. These tools are aimed at creating brand loyalty.
Likewise, a firm may offer continuity promotions like contests that run over several days and weeks or
gifts distributed in increments over time. Frequent flyer programmes of airlines are another form of
continuity promotion.

5) Increasing rates of purchase

Strategically the firm’s motivation here is to retain the customer or to generate primary demand.
Tactically, for the former motivation, the firm may offer a multipack or a large pack at a lower price than
the competition and its own smaller units. The net effect of this strategy is to make the consumer stock
the company’s products brand above the normal level. Any consumer who does that will not have the
motivation to buy the competing brand.

20
Sales promotion tools – coupons, contests, premiums, and the like—offer three distinctive benefits:
1) Communication: they gain attention and may lead the consumer to the product.
2) Incentive: they incorporate some concession, inducement, or contribution that gives value to the
consumer.
3) Invitation: they include a distinct invitation to engage in the transaction now.

Trade Sales Promotion Methods

• With the influx of so many brands and variants in the market, there is a huge clutter and low
consumer involvement leading to commoditization of brands.
• Consumers are fatigued by the choices they have to make between nearly similar brands lacking a
clear Rational or Emotional differentiator
• This makes the Retailer’s ‘Push’ or recommendation essential. He is becoming an essential part of the
Marketing Mix. He can choose not to sell/stock a brand.
• No matter how much advertising is done- if the product is not available on the retail shelf- it will not
be bought.
To encourage resellers, especially retailers, to carry their products and promote them effectively,
producers use sales promotion methods. These include buy-back allowances, buying allowances, scan-
back allowances, count and recount, free merchandise, merchandise allowances, cooperative
advertising, dealer listings, premium or push money, sales contests, and dealer loaders. Discussed
below is the analysis of each of these trade sales promotion schemes with advantages and
disadvantages of each of them.

Buy-Back Allowances
A buy-back allowance is a sum of money given to a reseller for each unit bought after an initial deal is
over. This method is a secondary incentive in which the total amount of money that resellers receive is
proportional to their purchases during an initial trade deal, such as coupon offer. Buy-back allowance
foster cooperation during an initial sales promotion effort and stimulate repurchase afterwards. The
main drawback of this method is expense.

Buying Allowances
A buying allowance is a temporary price reduction to resellers for purchasing specified quantities. A
soap producer, for example, might give retailers Re 1 for each case of soap purchased. Such offers may
be an incentive to handle new products, achieve temporary price reductions, or stimulate purchase of
items in larger than normal quantities. The buying allowance, which takes the form of money, yields

21
profits to resellers and is simple and straightforward. One hazard of buying allowances is that customers
will buy forward, meaning that they buy large amounts that keep supplied for many months. Another
problem is that competition can beat the reduced price, which can lower profits for all sellers.

Scan-Back Allowances
A scan-back allowance is a manufacturer’s reward to retailers based on the number of pieces moved
through their scanners during a specific time period. To participate in scan-back programs, retailers
usually are expected to pass along savings to consumers through special pricing. Scan-back are
becoming widely used by manufacturers because they directly link trade spending to product
movement at the retail level.

Count and Recount

The count-and-recount promotion method is based on payment of a specific amount of money for each
product unit moved from a reseller’s warehouse in a given time period. Units of a product at the start of
the promotion and again at the end to determine how many units have moved through the warehouses
and can also clear distribution channels of obsolete products or packages and reduce warehouse
inventories. The count-and-recount method might benefit a producer by decreasing resellers’
inventories, making resellers method might benefit a producer by decreasing resellers’ inventories,
making resellers more likely to place new orders. However, this method is often difficult to administer
and may not appeal to resellers with small warehouses.

Free Merchandise
Free merchandise is sometimes offered at resellers who purchase stated quantities of the same or
different products. Occasionally, free merchandise is used as payment for allowances provided through
other sales promotion methods. To avoid handling and book-keeping problems, the giving of free
merchandise is usually accomplished by reducing the invoice.

Merchandise Allowances
A merchandise allowance is a manufacturer’s agreement to pay resellers certain amounts of money for
providing promotional efforts, such as advertising or displays. This method is best suited to high-
volume, high-profit, easily handled products. Its major drawback is that some retailers perform activities
at a minimally acceptable level simply to obtain allowances. Before paying retailers, manufacturers
usually verify their performance. Manufacturers hope that retailers’ additional promotional efforts will
yield substantial sales increases.

Cooperative Advertising
Cooperative advertising is an arrangement whereby a manufacturers agrees to pay a certain amount of
a retailer’s media costs for advertising the manufacturer’s products. The amount allowed is usually

22
based on the quantities purchased. Before payment is made, a retailer must show proof that
advertisement did appear. These payments give retailers additional funds for advertising. Some retailers
exploit cooperative advertising programs by crowding too many products into one advertisement.
Surprisingly, not all available cooperative advertising amounts are used. A large proportion of all
cooperative advertising amount are spent on newspaper advertisements.

Dealer Listing
Dealer listing are advertisements promoting a product and identifying participating retailers that sell the
product. Dealer listings can influence retailers to carry the product, build traffic at the retail level, and
encourage consumers to buy the product at participating dealers.

Premium, or Push Money

Premium, or Push money is additional compensation provided to salespeople by the manufacturers in
order to push a line of goods. This promotion method is appropriate when personal selling through self-
service. The method often helps manufacturers obtain commitment from the sales force, but it can be
very expensive.

Sales contests
A sales contest is designed to motivate distributors, retailers, and sales personnel by recognizing
outstanding achievements. To be effective, this method must be equitable for all salespersons involved.
One advantage of the method is that it can achieve participation at all distribution levels. However,
positive effects may be temporary, and prizes are usually expensive.

Dealer loaders
A dealer loader is a gift to a retailer who purchases a specified quantity of merchandise. Often dealer
loaders are used to obtain special display efforts from retailers by offering essential parts as premiums.
For example, a manufacturer might design a display that includes a sterling silver tray as a major
component and give the tray to the retailer. Marketers use dealer loaders to obtain new distributions
and push larger quantities of goods.

Objectives of Trade Promotions

The prime objective of trade promotion is to push the product through marketing intermediaries and
also to get them to market the product aggressively. As inter-firm rivalry intensifies, more and more
manufacturers will seek support of traders to aggressively market their product. The trader, too, has
become selective and wiser and hence demands substantial incentives from manufacturers to push
their brands in the market.

23
If we were to scan various promotional tools like shelf display contest, merchandize allowance, returns
allowance, joint promotions, we will find that there are two objectives that explain their use:

a) Encouraging trade to build inventory

Any promotional tool designed to motivate trade to invest and build inventory of a particular brand at
the expense of a competing brand is a good tactical weapon to preempt competition. This is also useful
when marketers develop consumer-oriented promotions to boost their sales, as they do during the
festive season.
During such occasions it is necessary to prevent any stockouts in the retail market. Thus, manufacturers
may offer special margins or extra merchandise at no additional cost or even offer allowances for
additional shelf and space or pay rent for additional godown space for a limited time period. The
manufacturers may even offer to promote specific retail outlets for those who join his trade promotion
programme.
In the case of new products, manufacturers may offer the trader additional margins, pay for
promotions, part pay the wholesaler/retailer’s salesmen salaries or may offer cash incentives.

b) Getting trade’s cooperation in promotions

Often the manufacturer wants the distributor/wholesaler to participate in his promotional activities.
One reason for this is because it can help lower promotion costs of the manufacturer. Another reason
is, it helps heighten the interest and motivation of the distributor in the company’s brand/products. It
also helps get a commitment form the distributor. Here Joint advertising, joint consumer promotions
and joint sales contexts among retailers in the territory are some of the commonly used vehicles.
Generally, in such situations, a major proportion of the promotional expenditure is borne by the
manufacturers.
Companies use sales-promotion tools to draw a stronger and quicker buyer response. Sales promotion
can be used for short-run effects such as to dramatize product offers and boost sagging sales.

Reasons for Growth of Sales Promotion

 There are a number of reasons that are favorable to the growth of sales promotion:

1. Increasing Competition
The air of change is gaining momentum after the introduction of economic liberalization. Due to
increase in competition, companies are finding it increasingly difficult to compete on quality. They are
therefore resorting to more innovative methods of sales promotion. In order to have a competitive
advantage over its competitors like Levis, Pepe, Killer and others, Spykar Jeans, once a year has a grand
sale of up to 50%.

2. Customers Have Become More Price Sensitive

24
This increased price sensitivity is a direct result of rampant inflation. Economic recession is likely to fuel
this trend further, as consumers and dealers become more sensitive towards prices. If the customers
get branded jeans at half the actual price, then they are definitely going to make huge purchases of
Spykar Jeans because they want value for their money, as they are price sensitive.

3. Sales Promotions Generally Create An Immediate Positive Impact On Sales

Advertising, personal selling and other methods of promotion produce slower sales response compared
to sales promotion. Sales promotions are mostly for short duration, for a specified period, leading to a
sense of urgency in consumers to buy now. This creates an immediate positive impact on sales.

4. Products have become more standardized:

In many product categories, there is a proliferation of brands; many of them are line extensions and me-
too brands. Most brands are being perceived by consumers to be more or less similar within a given
price range because of the inability of manufacturers to develop truly differentiated products. Under
these circumstances, advertising messages are unable to strongly influence the consumers’ perceptions
and create brand franchise. As a result of these perceptions of similarity among brands, marketers have
no way but to compete on the basis of extra benefit offered through sales promotion. Competing
companies struggle to capture market share by using every tool likely to bring sales success.
There are many unbranded jeans sold at shopping malls and places like linking road, bandra which are
bought at half the price of actual branded jeans. People who are money conscious buy such jeans.
Therefore, Spykar Jeans comes up with such discounts, which helps them in increasing their sales and
also in stock clearance, if any.

5. Consumer Acceptance:
As competition intensifies and promotions proliferate, consumers have learnt to earn the rewards of
being smart shoppers. Over a period of time, they have also learnt that brands on promotion are not
necessarily of lower quality.
Spykar Jeans, if sold at discount rates, are not perceived to be a brand of low quality. Instead, if word is
out of a mega discount scheme for Spykar Jeans, then people even time their purchase accordingly.

6. Advertising Has Become More Expensive And Less Effective

All the advertising media have become quite expensive. Audio-visual medium, which is considered as
the most effective for short-duration ads, may cost in excess of Rs. 1 lakh for a 10 second exposure
during prime time. In many cases, consumers have reached a point of boredom due to excessive
advertising on TV. Some consumers even consider advertising as an intrusion into their privacy, leading
to zapping (surfing channels). Firms with small budgets cannot compete with big companies, which
spend huge sums of money on advertising. For these small budget firms, sales promotion is a more cost-
effective promotion method to produce sales results.

7. Trade Has Become More Powerful:

Retailers and wholesalers have become powerful and find themselves in a position to demand extra
facilities from the companies. They Channel members demand more incentives to get the desired
results. Manufacturers do not seem to have any alternatives but to concede to their demands, keeping
in view the competitive market conditions. In shopping malls like Globus and Lifestyle, decent margins
have to be paid to them in order to have shelf visibility for your brand.

25
8. Emphasis On Sales Volumes:
Towards achieving the long-term profit goals, manufacturers try to attain high sales volume. Brand
managers and product managers find themselves under pressure to achieve short-term sales results for
the sake of their careers. Compared to any other promotional method, sales promotion is a more
effective method to generate short-term sales volume.

9. Sales Promotions Maximize Profits:

A number of economic theories conclude that a company can maximize profits by using sales
promotion. Such promotions can permit price discrimination by allowing the brand to compete in 2 or
more different market segments. Sales promotion may allow a premium brand to compete with a lower
tier brand among price sensitive consumers. For example, a premium brand of toilet soap may be on
promotion in some price sensitive markets, while in the remaining markets it is sold at its normal price.

10. Introducing An Element Of Interest:

There are a number of promotions, which are often called interest promotions. Some of the more
popular interest promotion techniques are samples, contests, and sweepstakes, free premiums and
mail-in premiums. These promotions create an element of interest and excitement, and consumers
enjoy these and response enthusiastically to such contests and sweepstakes, etc.

11. Impulse Buying Is Increasing:

The number of marginal customers is increasing. Displays at the point of purchases lead to impulse
buying by consumers, more so if the items on display are not expensive. There is a popular saying in
Hindi, “jo dikhta hai, voh bikta hai.”

12. Sales Promotion Specialists Are Available: 

As a result of economic liberalization, the number of management institutions has increased. This has
lead to the availability of specialists, who are not only well paid but can handle this specialised work
more efficiently in the current market conditions, wheresales promotion has become more important.

13. Excess Stocks:

Because of increasing number of brands, it is difficult for manufacturers and dealers to anticipate future
sales. This, at times, leads to excessive inventories, and the quickest way to clear that is to go for sales
promotion.

26
Research objectives

Primary Aim- To understand the current marketing practices and role of promotional activity to boost
sales.

Secondary Aim – Various kinds of promotional activities and their role in consumer buying behavior
and also to check flipside of the sales promotion activity.

Sampling region:
1. The researcher has selected Pune, in Maharashtra as his area of study.
2. He has chosen Bhosle Nager, Khadkee and E-square as his areas of research. In these areas he
can easily meet working people (both male & female), school students, college students & senior
citizens.

Sampling procedure:
The researcher will take stratified random sampling as the sampling procedure.

Data collection method:

1. Primary data: it will be collected with the help of a self administered questionnaire. This
questionnaire aims to gather information related to various Branded products.
2. Secondary data: it will be collected with the help of books, research papers, magazines, news
papers, journals, internet, etc.

Questionnaire design:
As the questionnaire is self administrated one, the survey is kept simple and user friendly. Words used
in questionnaire are readily understandable to all respondent. Also technical jargons are avoided to
ensure that there is no confusion for respondents.

27
Null Hypothesis
“Promotional activities help in meeting short term sales target but it dilutes the brand equity”.

The Analysis
1. Are you aware about the promotional activities like TV ads, radio Jingles, free discounts etc that
different companies follow?

Yes No Don’t Know

28 12 10

Are you aware about the promotional

activities different companies follow?
28

12
10

yes no don't know

This question was asked to know about the promotional activity recall and recognition and to
see whether the high cost promotional activity actually get a place in customers mind or not.
As per the response it seems that customers do take promotional activity seriously or in other
words we can say the innovative and attractive promotional activities attract customers and take
a place in their mind. Out of 50 respondents 56% were aware of different types of promotional
activities companies indulge in whether its TV ads, remembering poster or any other print ad or
any current discount offers.

28
2. Which one of the promotional activity attracts you the most?

Free gifts demonstrations free samples money contests

refund/rebate

18 4 12 14 2

Which one of the promotional activity attracts

you the most?
free gifts demos free sample money rebate contests
4%
28% 36%

24% 8%

Among the all kind of promotional activity used to lure customers, free gift is the number one
choice as far as preference is concerned. However other activity like money rebate and free
sample also attract customers towards the band for trial and repurchase. Contests and demos
are the least preferred or accepted promotional activity as compare to other, as per the
research only 4% and 8% people said they prefer or get attracted by the offers where contest
and demos play major role.
As a whole we can say that promotional activity fulfills its objective by one mean or other.

29
3. Do you notice the banners, posters, danglers and pamphlet at various places?

SA A NAND D SD

9 13 8 12 8

    Do you notice the banners, posters, danglers

and pamphlet at various places?
SA A NAND D SD

16% 18%

24%
26%

16%

Above question was asked to check the effectiveness of the promotions through banners,
poster, danglers etc. through the research and replies by the various respondents we come to
the conclusion that only 44% of the people actually notice the posters. However 44% is a good
number and it is must to keep your product close to customers heart and mind and for that
making you offering visible to most of the places or the key area where the concentration of the
target customers is high, is important in the this competitive marketing environment. If we
compare it with the number of people who ignore all the ads, is still low there are only 40 %
people as compare to 44% who notice the ads.
As a whole we can say that outdoor ads are doing their job and are successful in getting the
target customers attention.

30
4. Would you read the mail, pamphlets and flyer dropped at your mail box or door?

SA A NAND D SD

5 15 4 20 6

20
20
18
15
16
14
12
10
8 6
5
6 4
4
2
0
SA A NAND D SD

    Would you read the mail, pamphlets and flyer dropped at your mail box or door?

Customers when send direct mail or when pamphlets were sent to their home it was surprising
to know that they actually take it offensively and ignored them. This is the case in most of the
direct mail customer take it as junk mail and waste no time in deleting the mail without even
giving them a look.
When asked the same question people replied honestly and more than 50% accepted they
ignore the promotion activity where it comes to their personal life or their comfort zone. So the
learning from this question is customers do not want interference in their life and promotional
activities like the direct mail and door to door advertisement doesn’t do good to the product.

31
5. Do you switch your brand if offered a price discount on another brand?

SA A NAND D SD

4 8 6 22 10

   Do you switch your brand if offered a price

discount on another brand?
SA A NAND D SD
20% 8% 16%

12%

44%

Customers have strong connection with the brands which they have been using for long. This is
also proved here through the question where people were asked ‘are they ready to switch their
brand if offered a price discount’. Customers readily disagree to switch their brands for a
discount, 64% people said they will prefer to stick to their brand. Only 24% people agreed to the
given offer that they’ll switch their brand.

32
 6. Do you agree when price of a product is reduced, the quality also reduced with it?

SA A NAND D SD

4 10 15 18 3

     Do you agree when price of a product is

reduced, the quality also reduced with it?
SA A NAND D SD

6% 8%

20%
36%

30%

As per the question people do not agree that with the price reduction there is also a downfall in the
quality of the offered product or services. 36% disagree with the statement and 6% were strongly
disagreed to the same.

Only 6% believe that quality and price and directly proportional with one other also go down. However
as a whole the analysis says that 42% people believe that price and quality are unrelated and
promotional activity like price discounts or sales promotions are actually brings good value for money to
customers. 30% people were not sure about the question and decided to stick to neither agree nor
disagree.

33
 7. Do you re-buy the product if prices are reduced with quality?

SA A NAND D SD

4 9 3 24 10

    Do you re-buy the product if prices are

reduced with quality?

SD

NAND

SA

0 5 10 15 20 25

If asked directly about buying a product with low quality and price, people disagree and preferred to
stick to the same quality and with same price. This shows that customers see quality as preference and
price comes the second in most of the cases. However this cannot be taken as fact because it depends
on the type of product and the social and economic status of the target customers. For example
customers in the rural areas prefers price over quality and in that case the whole question goes wrong
but here we are talking about cities and people with good social and economic status.

34
As per the above research various things came forward and on the basis of that we can divide our
conclusion in to two part describing both positive and negative of the sales promotions.

CONCLUSION

Conclusions to be drawn from the study are:-

1. Over-emphasis on sales promotion can affect - Brand Loyalty, Perceived Quality, Brand
awareness/ Associations and overall brand equity. This is particularly so with respect to reputed
brands that the consumers prefer. Causal attribution of sales promotions do not favor reputed
brands. Hence marketers need to use sales promotion judiciously.

2. Even while using sales promotion, follow-up this activity with image building advertisement
campaign. Otherwise brand equity is likely to get diluted.

35
BIBLIOGRAPHY & REFERENCES
Philip Kotler Marketing Management
Rajan Saxena Marketing Management Tata McGraw Hill 1997
J Barry Mason & Hazel F Ezell Marketing – Principles and Strategies Business Publications Inc. 1993
William M Pride & O C Ferrell Marketing – Concepts and Strategies Houghton Mifflin Co. 2000
10th Edition
Various Marketing Mastermind ICFAI Press 2002-03 editions
Various Business World
Wikipedia.com
Managementparadise.com

36
APPENDICES
QUESTIONNAIRE

Name-

Age-

Gender

Family income- a) 10k-20k b)20k-30k c)30k and above

1. Are you aware about the promotional activities like TV ads, radio Jingles, free discounts etc that different
companies follow?

Yes No Don’t Know

2. Which one of the promotional activity attracts you the most?

a) Free gifts b) demonstrations c) free samples d)money refund/rebate e) contests

3. Do you notice the banners, posters, danglers and pamphlet at various places?

SA A NAND D SD

4. Would you read the mail, pamphlets and flyer dropped at your mail box or door?

SA A NAND D SD

37
5. Do you switch your brand if offered a price discount on another brand?

SA A NAND D SD

6. Do you agree when price of a product is reduced, the quality also reduced with it?

SA A NAND D SD

7. Do you re-buy the product if prices are reduced with quality?

SA A NAND D SD

38