Managing Promotions

UNIT 6 MANAGING PROMOTIONS in Retail

IN RETAIL
Structure
6.1 Objectives
6.2 Introduction
6.3 Elements of the Retail Promotional Mix
6.3.1 Advertising
6.3.2 Public Relations
6.3.3 Personal Selling
6.3.4 Sales Promotion
6.4 Planning A Retail Promotional Strategy
6.4.1 Determining Promotional Objectives
6.4.2 Preparation of Overall Promotional Budget
6.4.3 Selecting the Promotional Mix
6.4.4 Implementation of Promotional Mix
6.4.5 Review and Revision of Promotional Schemes
6.5 Let Us Sum Up
6.6 Keywords
6.7 Answers to Check Your Progress
6.8 Terminal Questions
6.9 Further Readings

6.1 OBJECTIVES
After going through this uniyou will be able to:
 analyze the target audience;
 apply advertising and promotion objectives to meet organizational goals;
 demonstrate the creative process in developing an advertisement;
 describe the advantage and disadvantages of various media;
 discuss promotional objectives;
 develop an integrated marketing communications plan;
 describe elements of the retail promotional mix;
 prepare an overall promotional budget; and
 identify and analyze the ethical, legal and social issues involved in advertising
and promotion.

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 a specific purpose of informing, persuading, and reminding the target customer on
6.2 INTROD various aspects of the retail objectives. In the first part of this unit, the elements of
UCTION retail promotional mix are discussed; and in the second part of this unit various
aspects of retail promotional strategy is discussed. Retail promotion entails that the
Retail promotions retailer must make detailed study of its target customer group’s buying behaviors
have become a from all angles so as to define and execute its promotional tools that will help the
necessary part of retailer to get the customers into the store; and then make its purchases of the
the retail merchandise available in the store. The strategies designed to get the customers
marketing process. inside the store and then buy merchandise on offer, needs to be tailored to match
It is a process of with customers’ desires - psychological, emotional, and physical. This is
communicating necessary to ensure that the marketing expenses must be done to make optimum
with customer with use of the available spend.

6.3 ELEMENTS OF THE RETAIL PROMOTIONAL MIX

The important elements of promotional mix are: advertising, personal selling,
public relations, and sales promotion. Let us learn these elements in terms of their
goals, advantages and disadvantages, and their basic forms. The overall strategy
needs to integrate all these elements into a well thought out plan, so as to achieve
the retail objectives.

6.3.1 Advertising
It is comprised of following elements: a) it is a paid activity – as the retailer has to
make payment to the advertising agency for the services or the media whose time
or space used by it; b) it is a non-personal presentation – as a standard message is
presented to the total audience of the concerned medium, and not adapted to each
individual requirement; c) it is an out-of-store mass media – which include
newspapers, radio, TV, Web, and other mass channels – each having its own
audience – which becomes available to the advertiser on payment of the given
space or time. It is not personal; d) The sponsor of the advertisement is identified
– that is the agency or company sponsoring the advertisement is known as well as
about whom and whose interest is taken care of is known to the audience of the
concerned medium. Retail Management, Berman Barry and Evans R Joel, ch. 19,
pp 568 to 584, Pearson Education inc., New Delhi, 2008.
As per the study done by Schonfeld & Associates in US of the retail ad spend by
different types of retailers in 2004, the ad spend of Apparel and Accessories
stores is about 3.7 per cent of the total sales, while that by a Furniture stores is
about 5.9 per cent; the lowest spend is by Drug and proprietary stores, which is
about 0.7 per cent. Wal-Mart spends just 0.4 per cent of sales on ads; it mainly
relies on word of mouth publicity, in-store events, and its well-known policy of
everyday low prices which provides the recognition to Wal-Mart as a destination
store.
Comparison of retailer and manufacturer’s advertising strategies: Table 6.1
gives a comparative view on retailer’s and manufacturer’s advertising strategy.

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Table 6.1: Comparison of Retailer’s and Manufacturer’s Advertising Strategies Retailer’s advertising strategy
 It has the geographically more concentrated The market is widely dispersed. Managing Promotions
target markets. in Retail

Retailer can adapt better to local needs, habits, It has to take into account the preferences
and preferences.
Only the largest retailers and chains can
advertise on national TV programs
Retail ads stress – individual items are
placed for sale and advertised over short
periods.
Retailers usually stress prices of products in
ads.
Often several products are shown in the ad
Media rates tend to be lower for retailers.
Due to lower ad rates for retailers many
manufacturers or distributors join hand with
retailers for advertising their brands.
Sometimes even more than one retailer may
join hands for advertising about their
products. These are called co-operative
advertising.
of its target customers rather than the local
needs.
All branded products use a suitable media
as per their financial abilities, with
certain frequencies.
Manufacturers are more often concerned
with developing favourable attitudes.
Manufacturers usually stress on key product
attributes.
Manufacturers normally talk of few products
in a single ad.
Manufacturers have to pay normal rates.
Manufacturers can rarely get into co-
operative advertising, because of
competitive nature of products or diverse
interests of manufacturers; unless there is
a some kind of complementary nature of
products of two manufacturers along with
good business understanding.

1. Retailer’s Advertising Objectives: For a retailer, there are many objectives to

be achieved, and some of the major ones are as follows:
 Lifting sales during lean times;
 Improving customer traffic in the store;
 For developing and /or reinforcing store’s image;
 Developing demand for its private labels.

2. Advantages of Advertising
 There is a large audience normally for print media, which is known from its
circulation figures. The circulation is also supplemented by the passing of a
copy from one reader to another.
 The cost per reader or viewer or listener works out to be lower than that for
a personal or direct marketing.
 Due to availability of alternative media the retailer can choose among the
media that suits its budget and target market.
 The advertiser has complete control over the content of the message, the
graphics in the message, timing of the message, and size 9or length) of the
advertisement. The message is thus standardised for delivering to the entire
audience, in a chosen format.
 The print media offers the greatest advantage of reading the same at the
reader’s or target audience’s convenience and at a required frequency.

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  The advertiser can influence the editorial content or a special feature (by a
print medium or TV show, news story, etc.). Such content helps in building
product’s or retailer’s credibility.
 Due to advertising, self-service or reduced service operation is possible, as
the customers become aware about retailer as well as retailer’s offerings, thus
reducing shoppers’ dependence on sales representatives.
3. Disadvantages of Advertising
 A standardised message either on TV or radio or print medium lack flexibility
as it cannot be changed as per the need of individual customers among the
target audience of the concerned medium.
 The media advertising is normally very costly and hence, not affordable for
small stores.
 Media normally reach to large audience spread over wide geographical
areas, which may be wasteful for a retailer focusing on certain trading area
or neighborhoods.
 For popular media the placement of advertisement needs certain advance
booking period, this reduces the retailer’s flexibility to cash on the fad items
or current trends or events.
 Pamphlets or inserts placed in newspapers have a high throwaway rate, thus,
the percentage utility of such medium is reduced considerably;
 A small newspaper ads or a 30 seconds ad on TV or radio cannot include
certain details thus, reducing their usability.
In the above section we have covered the advantages and disadvantages in general,
the more specific merits and de-merits are given in the next section.
4. Specific Media – merits and demerits: In Table 6.2 we provide an overview
on different mediums in use to-day for retail advertising.
Table 6.2: Overview of different mediums available to retailers

Medium Important merits De-merits Market Particular

Coverage Suitability
Newspapers Most preferred Possible waste, Particular target Large retailers
(daily and medium by Competition audience or and retailers
weekly) retailers, among retailers, entire metro with local reach
Market Black and white area. – particularly
coverage format, Local editions – hyper stores
Short lead time, Appeal to fewer like western and super
Reasonable senses than that suburbs etc. market stores.
costs, of TV. could be
Flexibility, available.
Graphics,
Editorial
142 association.
Telephone In normal The listing is Geographic area All types of
directories directory retailer alphabetical and of the telephone goods and
gets free not type-of- directory. service oriented
alphabetical business and retailers.
listing, hence, chance
People are not of missing it by
exposed to interested
other competing population.
retailers.
 Managing Promotions
Yellow Pages Listing is based Reader is Specific product All types of in Retail
on type-of- exposed to or industry or goods and
business, other occupation service oriented
A customer competitors, coverage – retailers
looking for Retailer pay for exposure to
certain products listing widespread
or service may interested
refer it, population
Widespread
usage,
Long shelf life
Direct mail Reaches to High Controlled by New and
target audience. throwaway the retailer expanding
Tailored format, rate, Poor retailers,
Controlled image to some Retailers using
costs, people, Low coupons or
Quick feedback, response, Out- special offers or
Tie-ins with dated mailing new product
billing firms list launch
Radio Relatively low No visual Definable market Retailers
cost, impact, area surrounding focusing on
Good medium Need for the station identifiable
for car drivers repetition, segments
and small town Need for
population, brevity,
Ability to Wastage
segment
population as
per programmes,
Short lead time,
Wide reach
TV The dramatic High minimum Definable market Retailers of
effect of costs, area surrounding goods and
messages, Audience stations for services with
Large market waste, cable operators wide appeal and
coverage, Need for brevity – but in satellite reach.
Creativity, and repetition, channels or DTH It suits retailers
Program Limited channels the having tie-up
affiliation availability of reach is over the with brands
popular times whole national with mass
for non- audience appeal
sponsors
World Wide Provide Competitors Global All types of
Web information access to goods and
about range competitive service oriented
availability and information on retailers
store locations, products,
People can prices and store
order directly locations,
on company’s Offers
site, Advertising customers easy
on search comparability
engines, Other on product
firm’s websites, range, prices,
Provide and other
customer services
service and without the
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 Assistance in
communication directing new
facility customers
Magazines Tailoring to Long lead time Entire metro area Restaurants,
specific markets, required, or region, Entertainment
Creative Less sense of Local editions oriented firms,
options, consumer could be Specialty shops,
Transit Captive Editorial urgency, available Mail order firms
audience associations, Waste
travelling on Longevity of
buses, trams, messages,
trains and taxis, Colour ads
Mass market,
High level of Single page Targeted High Single Restaurants,
repetitiveness, flyers or audience, throwaway, neighbourhood kirana stores,
Geographicallymulti-page Low costs, Poor image to supermarkets,
defined marketsads Flexibility, some, neighbourhood
Speed Clutter stores
Outdoor (bill Large size of the
boards) ads that can Source: Adapted from ‘Retail Management’ by Berman Barry and Evans R Joel, pp 572 to 573, Pearson
attract attention
Education inc., New Delhi, 2008.
of the passing
public,
Frequency of 5. Different Types of Advertisements
exposure, The advertisement can be classified in terms of its emphasis and content as
Relatively low
cost,
explained in the Table 6.3 below.

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Table 6.3: Types of Advertisements
Types Emphasis 6.3.2 Public Relations
Pioneer ads The major emphasis is on building awareness of the store, its The aim of public relation
offerings, and its location. is to promote a positive
Competitive ads Here the emphasis is on explaining and convincing the customers and favourable image of
about the store’s strengths vis-à-vis the competition. the retailer among the
general public. The idea is
Reminder ads These ads are planned for emphasising the attributes that have made to influence all the
the store successful; and are targeted at the loyal customers.
stakeholders’ at large viz.
Institutional ads The emphasis is on building the corporate image of the company customers, investors,
behind the retail stores; and revolves around the long-term vision government, channel
or policy of the company members, employees and
Thanks giving ads The emphasis is on thanking customers after a particular season or the general public about
promotional scheme for making it successful, thereby attracting the store’s image. The
attention of customers of other competing brands. public relation effort can
be paid or non-paid, or
Retailers may either pay for their ads directly or get into co-operative or sharing sponsor controlled or non-
arrangement with other parties having a common goal. In a sharing arrangement controlled.
there could be a vertical co-operative advertisement, whereby the retailer joins hands
with the distributor of a product or manufacturer for releasing ads and sharing of
ad cost. There could be also horizontal co-operative ads, whereby the retailers in a
shopping centre or on a high street or with a common promotional goal may join
hands in sharing the ad cost.
 Managing Promotions
in Retail

Source: http://www.indianewscalling.com/tip.php?tipid=20774
Figure 6.1: Publicity Made by Big Bazaar
Publicity which is part of public relation effort is a non-paid activity, as no direct
payments are made for the space or time (though there could be some indirect
passing of benefit during the press meet organized by the sponsor); and non-
personal. There is no specific commercial sponsor of the publicity campaign.
For shoppers publicity in mass media is very effective as it is given more credence
than the ads in newspapers or radio or TV. Hence, many retailers try to generate
favourable

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 publicity through its public relation effort for new launch of stores or promotions
or private labels, before the release of ad campaigns. Advertising and public relation
effort should complement each other, and should help in generating easy recognition
and recall of the store name.
Public relation efforts could be seen in the form of organization or sponsorship of
marathon race, cycling event, fashion show, school functions, and donation of
funds to a social organization and so on.

1. Major Objectives of a Public Relation

The major objectives of a public relation exercise are to:
 Create better awareness about the retailer and its long term goals;
 To enhance corporate image of the company behind the retail stores;
 To promote retailer as a company or institution with social responsibility;
 To develop credibility in the minds of public at large, about retailer’s image
and goals.

2. Advantages of Public Relation

The major advantages of a public relation effort are as follows:
 Enhancement of retailer’s image.
 A news item appearing in a well-known news channel or news paper carries
high credibility as well as publicity value due to its large coverage.
 There is no direct cost for the space or time provided for the said message.
 News items have better memorability as compared to paid ads.
 Customers create a favourable positioning of the store in their mind to suit
their perception about its offerings.

3. Disadvantages of Public Relation

There could be disadvantages too, which can be listed as follows;
 The effort required in organizing an event or sponsoring a worthwhile public
event is beyond the reach of many small to medium sized retailers, and they
may find a paid ad as a better alternative.
 The timing or placement of the message or its content is beyond the control
of the retailer.
 The fund requirement and planning for the public relation effort may not be
suitable for gaining quick and short term publicity, particularly for small to
medium sized retailers who are mainly concerned with short term goals.

4. Types of Public Relations (PR)

There are basically two types of PR that may occur – the planned PR and an
unexpected PR. While the planned PR is normally an enhancer of image, the
unexpected PR could be a damaging or distracting one depending on the type of
coverage the event may generate.
Planned PR is done with lot of planning and organizing activity, and strives to have
wide media coverage for the said event. For example coverage of social service
event, donation for a social cause, opening of a new store, launch of a new
146
product, joint ventures etc. are planned in a well-orchestrated manner.
As the name suggest unexpected publicity occurs, without company’s knowledge happen like fire or
or wishes. For example an employee filing a case against company’s policies or mis- accident in the store or its
premises are covered by the media as per their own coverage and wishes. The Managing Promotions
media may sometime have special coverage of an event in a manner to create bad in Retail
publicity for the retailer. The retailer may be rapped for its environmental record
or its unfair practices or an investigative report may reveal some hidden secrets
etc. Thus, many large format stores have a separate department to constantly
monitor its PR activities that can facilitate positive image for the retail chain.

6.3.3 Personal Selling

Personal selling is a one to one selling, or even one or more than one person
selling to one or more than one person. It involves oral communication and may
make use of audio-video facilities for improving presentation to customers. The
level and type of personal selling indulged by a retailer will depend upon the
following factors:
 The image intended to be conveyed;
 The level of service inputs to be used in selling;
 The type of products sold;
 Interest in building long term relationship with customers.
For doing personal selling the sales person may either decide to do so in the store
by personally attending to customers visiting the store, or may visit the probable
customer’s home or their places of work, or do telemarketing.
1. Major Objectives of Personal Selling
The major objectives of personal selling are as follows:
 To gain customers confidence, and thereby be in a better position to
persuade customers in buying the merchandise in the store.
 To be available for sorting or answering any queries related to the
merchandise on sale.
 To do cross selling of items which are related to the basic purchases of
merchandise.
 Ensure that the purchase transaction is completed in the smoothest manner,
so as to enhance customers’ satisfaction level.
 To make sure every aspect of customer service is well taken care of – right
from greeting the customer to ensuring the customer gets the merchandise
well packed before the customer leaves the billing counter after making the
payment.
 Guide customer about loyalty program, if any.
 Create awareness about the services offered on Web, Mails, and
Telemarketing; if any.
2. Advantages of Personal Selling
The advantages of personal selling are as follow:
 A good sales person first understands customer’s needs and then suitably
adapt his/her message.
 The customer will be keen to spend time in the store if he is properly guided
on the merchandise offerings.
 A sales person can make changes in merchandise offerings based on the
customer’s requirement and concerns.
 There is an immediate feedback possibility, which helps in improvements on 147
merchandise offerings or personal selling inputs.
Retail Operations and
Store Management-II
3. Disadvantages of Personal Selling
The disadvantages of personal selling are as follow:
 The cost of personal selling could be high – as every customer needs to be
handled by a well trained sales person for making best of the customers
interest.
 Only limited number of customers can be attended to at a given point of time.
 Customers may tend to take affront to an aggressive sales person with too
many questions and interruptions.
 The negatives of a sales person’s behaviour may get rubbed on the retailer’s
image.

4. Different Types of Personal Selling

There are mainly two types of personal selling efforts viz. a) Order taking, and b)
Order getting. We will discuss this in more detail.
i) Order taking: It involves routine clerical and sales activities. The sales
person is there because the retailer wants someone to take care of routine
activities. It is more common in self-service type of retail outlets. The sales
person is involved in setting up displays, ensuring stocks are replenished on
shelves, answering routine questions, maintaining house-keeping in the store,
etc.
ii) Order getting: Ihis is the more challenging type of selling as the sales
person is involved in all major activities like informing and persuading the
customer, and in closing sales. Normally, order getting sales persons are
better educated, better skilled, well groomed, and better paid than the order
taking sales person. These kinds of sales persons are mainly required for
selling premium merchandise, designer fashion wears, electronic items,
durables, furniture, real estates, autos, etc.
5. Functions Performed by a Sales Person: It would be helpful for students to
understand the various elements of activities performed by a sales person after
the customer is inside the store or when customer is contacted at home. Let us
understand these elements through the diagram given in Figure 6.2.

Figure 6.2: Personal selling activities

148
The sales person involved in personal selling must be necessarily enthusiastic,
knowledgeable, interested in customers, and a good communicator. Following are
 some of the key retail sales and how one can avoid them as stated by Berman B and Evans R J
reasons for losing (10th Edn., 2008).
6. Selected reasons Why Retail Sales are Lost – and How to Avoid Them: Source
:
 Poor understanding of the customer – obtain information from the customer so http://s
the sales presentation is properly tailored. amsale
 Sales person not demonstrating the good or service – show the good or s.com.
service in use so that benefits are visualized. au/uplo
ads/tx_
 Failure to put feeling into the presentation – encourage sales people to be dmfgal
sincere and consumer oriented. leria/fo
 Poor knowledge – train salesperson to know the major advantages and odwor
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disadvantages of the goods or service, as well as competitors’ offerings and
Figure
be able to answer questions. 6.3:
 Arguing with a customer – avoid arguments in handling customer objections, Sales
even if the customer is wrong. Promo
tion
 No suggestion selling – attempt to sell related items (such as service examp
contracts, product supplies, and installation). le
 Giving up too early – try again if an attempt to close a sale is unsuccessful.
 Inflexibility – be creative in offering alternative solutions to a customer’s
needs.
 Poor follow-up – be sure that orders are correctly written, that deliveries arrive
on time, and that customers are satisfied.
6.3.4 Sales Promotion
Sales promotion covers all the paid communication activities that help in
increasing consumer purchases and encourage dealers to put in extra efforts in
improving sales of merchandise or service concerned. It includes displays, contests,
sweepstakes, coupons, frequent shopper programs, prizes, samples,
demonstrations, referral gifts, and other limited-time selling efforts other than
advertising, public-relations, and personal selling efforts.
During the 2011 Christmas period, Americans spent $36.4 billion online, according
to MasterCard Spending Pulse. The National Retail Foundation valued online
Valentine’s Day sales at $3 billion dollars in 2011. It is clear that holiday periods
cause a spike in consumer spending. As per the URL
http://salesbumpblog.com/2011/07/plan-a-sales- promotion-strategy-around-key-
holiday-periods/ dated 15th Feb 2012, if you plan a sales promotion strategy around
key holidays, you can increase traffic to your website and improve your online
sales.
1. Food Works – Bottomless Pantry Promotion
 Managing Promotions
in Retail

149

Retail Operations and

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150
 F
o
o
d
W Background...
o The FoodWorks retail group comprises of over 710 independent supermarkets. Each year
r
the group runs a series block - buster sales promotion to enhance their catalogue, regional
k
TV commercials, radio and print ads and point of purchase advertising.
s
– The brief...
B
o Design a theme for sales promotion with broad consumer appeal. Encourage customers to
tt make an expenditure of $20 or upwards and make repeat store visits during the promotion.
o Execution...
m
le SAM helped FoodWorks to devise manage the ‘Bottomless Pantry promotion’ which has run
s several times due to the popularity of the promotion with retailers and customers.
s For every $20 spent in a single transaction, FoodWorks customers received an entry form
P from check out staff. Customers entered via a dedicated web entry portal, SMS or mail for
a a chance to win the major prize of $13,000 in Foodworks vouchers, or secondary prizes
n that included a
t $500 Foodworks and fuel vouchers in each state. The promotion advertised via catalogue,
r
radio, TV and point of purchase display.
y
p Result...
r
Each time the FoodWorks ‘Bottomless Pantry promotion’ has run, over 37,000 customers
o
m have entered during the month of the promotion and retailers have reported distinct sales
o spikes.
ti Footnote...
o
n In tight economic times where inflation is a burden to the average householder, the allure
of cash, or prizes that are as good as cash, such as shopping vouchers is very strong. For
national promotions that target a broad ranging demographic mix, cash, or an equivalent,
has proven time and time again to be the most desirable prize.
Source: http://www.foodworks.com.au

2. Objectives of Sales Promotion

 Increase sales volume in the short-term.
 Improving and maintaining customer loyalty.
 To support and complement other promotional activities.
 To keep customers interested in making purchases at the store.
 To create focus on certain items, whose sales may be low, for improving its
sales
3. Advantages  Too much of any
promotional feature
 The promotional themes and tools helps create due importance and distinction
may have a
for certain merchandise.
diminishing effect
 By proper displays and schemes, the retailer is able to create an eye-catching over a period of time.
appeal for the merchandise.
 If a store is on
 It helps in improving store traffic and thereby its sales. constant promotional
 It helps in promoting customer loyalty to the store. gimmicks it position
the store as a
 Promotes impulse purchasing.
promotion based
 It helps in creating an environment of fun and excitement through contests outlet, thereby
and product demonstrations. reducing its selling
potential during non-
4. Disadvantages
 promotional periods. Managing Promotions
in Retail
 Sales promotions may have only short term effect.
 It needs to be used as supplement to other promotional activities.
 The cost of sales promotional activities may bring down the store’s
profitability, if the desired sales results are not achieved.

5. Different types of sales promotions

The following Table 6.3 gives brief description about the major sales promotion
types.
Table 6.3: Types of Sales Promotion

Type Description
Point-of-purchase In-store displays like counter display, floor display,
window display allow a retailer to remind customers and
stimulate impulse purchases. Sometimes the displays
are provided by the manufactures.
Contests Customers compete for prizes by participating in a
contest, like essay competition, a slogan, identifying
winner of a cricket match etc.
Sweepstakes This is like a lottery where the winner is selected
randomly among the entries or participants in a contest.
Here no skill is required.
Coupons Retailers give discount to shoppers if they present
coupons, which are provided as part of the
advertisement in newspapers or magazines. Customers
are asked to present the said coupons during their
purchases of merchandise from the store within a
specified date.
Frequent shoppers program Customers get bonus points on purchase of every 100
rupees worth of merchandise, which can be redeemed
on accumulation of certain number of bonus points. This
scheme is of particular use for building customer loyalty
to the retail chain or store.
Prizes The customer gets a gift voucher or actual gifts on
purchase of minimum value of merchandise.

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Retail Operations and Store
Samples Free samples in case of food products are provided to
Management-II
customers or customer are allowed to taste the product
or use perfume sprays for getting a true feel of the
product.
Demonstrations Actual demonstration of products like kitchen products,
cleaning liquids, ready to eat foods etc. Even services
like hair-dos, make-ups etc.
Referral gifts Gifts or coupons provided to customers who provide
new customer contacts or bring in new customers.
Direct marketers and service providers use this scheme
quite often.
Telephone diary, pens, These items are given as a means of creating goodwill,
calendars, shopping bags, etc. reminder, and loyalty. The items contain the name of the
retailer or its logo.
Special events It includes fashion shows, celebrity visits to store,
autograph session by a celebrity etc.

Source: Based on ‘Retail Management’, Berman Barry and Evans R Joel,Ch.19 pp 581 to
584, Pearson Education Inc., New Delhi 2008.

Check Your Progress-A

1. Briefly comment on the following statements.
a) Marketing expenses is done to make optimum use of the available spend.
............................................................................................................
............................................................................................................
............................................................................................................
b) In a sharing arrangement there could be a vertical co-operative
advertisement.
............................................................................................................
............................................................................................................
............................................................................................................
c) Manufacturers usually stress on key product attributes.
............................................................................................................
............................................................................................................
d) Advertiser has complete control over the content of the message.
............................................................................................................
............................................................................................................
2. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate word given in the brackets
a) The media advertising is normally very . (Cheap / Costly)
b) The aim of public relation is to promote a and favourable
image. (Positive / Negative)
c) Personal selling is a selling. (One to one / One to another)
3. State whether the following statements are True or False
a) Retail promotions have become a necessary part of the retail
marketing process.
b) Retailers usually stress on prices of products in advertisements.
152
c) Due to advertising, self-service operation is impossible.
6.4 PLANNING A RETAIL PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY Managing Promotions
in Retail
Promotional strategy is an important part in retailer’s strategic mix, and needs to
be used in a systematic planned manner to optimize on the output received from
its implementation. Any wrong timing or inappropriate use of the promotion type
may only result in net loss for the retailer from the execution of the promotion
scheme.

Source: http://www.futureinq.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/EOSS.jpg
Figure 6.4: Promotion Scheme
Let us study the process of planning retail promotional strategy in the next few
sections. The figure shown in Figure 6.5 depicts the process flow.

Determining promotional objectives

Establishing an overall promotional budget

Selecting the promotional mix

Implementing the promotional mix

Reviewing and revising the promotional plan

Source: Based on ‘Retail Management’, Berman Barry and Evans R Joel, Ch.19 pp 585 to
591, Pearson Education Inc., New Delhi 2008.
Figure 6.5: Process of Retail promotional Strategy 153
Retail Operations and Store Management-II
 6.4.1 Determining  Positive word of mouth publicity
Promotional Let us look at each of these objectives in detail:
Objectives
i) Increase customer walk-ins or foot falls: Most of the retailers or mall
As per Mr. management feels that it is the walk-ins or foot falls that drive product sales.
Chiplunkar R M, Thus many gimmicks are used by retailer just to make the customer walk-in,
‘Product Category so that once the customer is inside the premises the salesman or the product
Management’, , display is expected to do the trick. For driving customer traffic the retailer will
Ch 11 pp 233 – have to create sufficient excitement about the product on display by talking of
234, Tata McGraw some innovative items, or a new collection, or about an event which may not
Hill Education Pvt. be directly related to the product but to some exciting happening like a
Ltd., New Delhi fashion show or organization of competition for the targeted audience, or visit
2010, the most of a celebrity and so on.
common
promotional It needs to be understood that different product categories will react
objectives are as differently to the events organized for improved walk-ins. For example product
follows: categories falling under the “Impulse Type”, will generally have better sales as
compared to the ones which fall under the “Planned Purchase Type” when
 Increase the there are more walk-ins. Generally for categories falling under planned
customer walk- purchase type, the higher walk-ins result into better awareness of the product-
ins or traffic range and price availability within the store and create familiarity about the
 Increase sales store for the customer who may come back to the store when he has decided
to make a purchase.
 Increase profit
ii) Increase Sales: As we have learned from the above explanation generating
 Clear dead
walk- ins itself may lead to more sales. Generally, sales are increased via
stocks
two major methods as follows:
 Create brand
or product  By increasing the number of bill transactions, i.e. more number of
awareness customers buying the product. Or/And

 Induce trial for  By increasing the average sales value per bill, or per customer. This is
new products usually done by increasing the basket size of consumer purchase.

 Establish iii) Increase Profit: Many retailers may think that increase in sales would bring
awareness of in more profit but that may not be the case. Generally increase in sales is
the retail derived by offering some discounts to the customer or give-away rather
outlet/chain. throw-away price., which means cut in profit margin per unit for the retailer.
Thus the retailer will have to understand that to reach the higher gross profit
 Enhance figure now he will have to sell much higher quantities as explained here
customer below:
relations

154
2500 ÷ 37.5 = 66.6 ; (67
Product Selling Cost per Gross Margin No Gross Percent Percent
Category Price per Profit per- of Profit increase decrease ÷ 50) * 100 = 134% ]
XYZ Unit per centage units in quantity in during promotion, if the
Unit sold over normal profita- retailer desires to achieve
sales bility same level of profitability
Normal 100 50 50 50 50 2500 - - as the normal sales or
Sales more than 34% increase
Discount 80 50 30 37.5 60 2250 20 10 in quantity if he wants to
Sales improve on normal
profitability target. Thus
From the above analysis it is clear that just achieving increase in quantity is not understanding of price
enough to meet the profitability target but the quantity increase has to be higher sensitivity of the product
than the percentage price reduction offered. Hence, in the above working the is very important in such
retailer must be confident of increasing the quantity sales by at least 34% [ i.e. cases.
iv) Clear Dead Stocks: In these cases since the retailer’s objective is to clear Managing Promotions
old or non-movable stocks as these items are past the trend or in broken in Retail
sizes etc. the objective is only to get rid of them at a cost price or even
below the cost price as they eat into the important retail space or spoil the
overall ambience of the store. Since retailer is not concerned about making
profit he may decide to sell such items at an attractive offers or he may give
them as free gifts on purchases of certain value till the stock of such items
last.
v) Create brand or product awareness: Generally when the retailer launches
a new brand or decides to re-launch the product with some new features he
would like to attract the target customers for which he may like to introduce
special introductory offers like price discounts on certain minimum buys or
special gifts on purchases and any other price benefit. Such a tactic helps the
retailer to quickly establish the new brand in the minds of the customers and
infuse familiarity about the same.
vi) Induce trial for new products: This objective can also be combined with
the above except that the intention here is more to generate trial than
awareness only. In order to generate product trial the retailer may try to offer
very attractive price offers or may provide the item along with some
accompaniments as free gifts or at a minimal price, which usually goes with
the given product. The retailer may also organize free demonstration if it’s a
new concept along with special price discount offers.
vii) Establish awareness of the retail outlet/chain: Generally a retailer who
has just begun its operation or who wants to create better awareness about
the store location may like to go in for such a tactic.

155
Retail Operations and
Store Management-II
156

Source: www.samsung.com
Figure 6.6: Promotional offers: Big Bazaar’s Dhamaka
The best way for creating awareness of a store location and generate more walk-
ins is to declare a BIG “Dhamaka” offer. Such an offer immediately takes the
attention of the target consumers who may be willing to travel extra miles for
taking benefit of the said offer. The Big Bazaar’s Dhamaka offers are quite well-
known during the Independence Day or the republic day which generates great
excitement and enthusiasm among the target public. Also the “Grand Exchange”
offers of Big Bazaar are very much well- known. All such promotional offers fall
in this genre.

Source: www.futurebazaar.com
Figure 6.7: “Grand Exchange” offers of Big Bazaar
viii) Enhance customer relations: With innovative schemes that provide long Managing Promotions
term benefits, retailer is able to create more satisfied customers who will in Retail
tend to stick with the retailer throughout their life. It is observed that
Shopper’s stop with an effective implementation of its retail loyalty program
by the name of “First Citizen” is able to garner almost 60 per cent of its overall
sales. Thus, proper working out of the schemes that create real term value for
customers, retailer can not only maintain existing customers happy but would
also be able to generate new list of satisfied customers. Loyalty programs of
LFS retail chain is one of the biggest contributor to this objective.
ix) Word of mouth publicity: For a retailer it is important to gain word of
mouth (WOM) publicity, as it comes free and have much more credibility
among friends and relatives of the customer. Further, such WOM may result
into chain effect thereby giving a very wide publicity to the retailer with a
well-planned promotional mix.

Source: http://blog.magnoninternational.com/online-word-of-mouth-marketing
Figure 6.8: Mouth publicity
Particularly for service retailers WOM carries a long term benefit. It must be
understood as the positive WOM gives a multiplier benefit in terms of addition of
new customers same way a negative WOM may have a crippling effect.

6.4.2 Preparation of Overall Promotional Budget

Retailer may use different methods for establishing overall budget for its
promotional activities. The most common ones are as follows;
i) Affordability: In this method the retailer may randomly decide about the
budget for promotion, which could be a one-time spending activity during a
particular season or festival. The budget decided is based on affordability for
the retailer. For example retailer may think that ‘Back to school’ may give
major benefit in terms of increase in sale of school products and may decide
to give free gifts based on purchase value for which he may make use of all
affordable methods.
ii) Incremental method: Under this scheme the retailer may decide that in the
previous year if it had spent sat Rs 1 lac on promotional activities, then this
year he will spent 10 per cent more as compared to previous year. He may
decide on 10 per cent because of expected increase in sales or due to
increase in inflationary trend. Again there is no logic or plan in the spending
method. It is just a gut feeling of the retailer.
iii) Parity with competition: In this method retailer may decide to spend on
promotion based on the promotion tactics used by its closest competitors. If
the competitor decides to have promotion during Christmas and New Year
then the retailer too would copy the scheme with some notional changes.
Hence, the spending is purely made from the point of protecting its customer
base from shifting to the competition. The retailer has only one aim, to protect
its customer base and it just follow the leader in its promotional strategy and
157
spending, without any long term plans.
Retail Operations and
Store Management-II
iv) Percentage of sales method: Under this method retailer may decide on
spending a certain percentage of the expected sales budget on the promotions.
The percentage of spending is based on the trend followed by other competitors
or it could be what is affordable for the retailer based on its net earnings. For
many retailers the overall promotion budgets range from 2 per cent to 10 per
cent. It is used by all types of retailers and is most common. Though it
seems to be related with sales budget, it may fail in targeting at the true
objectives the retailer may have in mind from the long term point of view.
For example the retailer may decide on spending based on its month to month
sales, thereby losing on the benefit of leading sales during weaker
months/periods.
v) Objective and task method: This is not a common method, and is used
mainly by a large retail chain with long term vision. Under this method the
retailer may think that it needs to improve on the ‘top of the mind’ recall for
the store, and may target to achieve the same to the extent of 80 per cent of
the population in the trading area surrounding the store location. To achieve
the said target the retailer may decide on sub-objectives and the relevant
tasks to achieve them with a time line. Let us understand this with the help of
a following example.
Table 6.4: Objective and Task Method

Sub-objective Task Cost

Build awareness among To release three full page ads in two women’s ` 300000
young women life-style magazines over three months period
Build awareness among Release two advertisements in business weekly
young executives and three ads in financial daily over three weeks’ ` 200000
time – of size 15x2 col cms.
Total ` 500000

The above method has a better focus and strategy, and would tend to give better
result to the retailer. Sometime the expenditure on promotions may not be within the
desirable norms (the deduction of expenses in the same year may result into losses
for the retailer), and the retailer may decide to amortize (spreading of expenses
over the years) the promotional expenses over a five year period, as the expenditure
will be beneficial even in the next few years’ time. This is a best method but needs
better planning and in-depth working on the part of the retailer to prioritize its
goals and expenditure budgets for reaching its desired goals.

6.4.3 Selecting the Promotional Mix

The different proportion of total expenditure to be done on various promotional
activities like advertising, public relations, personal selling, and sales promotion; so
as to make up the total expenditure amount, which is based on the promotional
budget, is called the promotional mix. For example a small retailer with a limited
promotional budget of say Rs 5 lacs may decide to use the 25% of the budget for
sales promotion activities like window and counter/floor displays, another 25% on
gift vouchers, and balance 50% on prizes/gifts. A large format store may use a mix
of advertisement, sales promotion and public relation by spending 50%, 30%, and
20% of the total budgeted amount, respectively.
 158
Managing Promotions
in Retail

Source: http://www.techsip.in/2011/12/14/tradus-in-does-a-ebay-in
Figure 6.9: Promotional Mix through Gift Vouchers
While, selecting promotional mix the retailer must keep in mind the hierarchy of
effects like building awareness, developing knowledge about the store, developing
liking for the store, then developing preference and conviction, thereby leading to
purchase from the store. For each of the effects a different kind of promotional
mix may be necessary, depending on the objective to be achieved.
Generally it is observed that Ads and public relations are useful to develop
awareness; while personal selling and sales promotion are useful in developing
liking, preference, and conviction, by way of changing consumers’ attitudes and
stimulating desires to purchase.
Let us look at some of the stores’ examples for understanding their preferred
promotional mix as given in Table 6.5.
Table 6.5: Preferred Promotional Mix of Different Retailers

Type of Retailer Advertising Public Relation Personal Selling Sales promotion

Small Apparel Hoardings, ads Not much in use Very important Window and
store in supplements, for fashion floor displays.
bus shelters, retailer, and Gift vouchers
local cinemas, there could be on purchases,
direct mail, direct incentives coupons, etc.
pamphlets, etc. to sales persons
on personal
targets.
Retail chain Ads in Very much Important, Window and
stores newspapers, through incentives are floor displays.
TV, Radio; organisation of given based on Gift vouchers
direct mails, special events, sales target for on purchases,
hoardings, schemes, the month or coupons,
magazines announcements week for a fashion shows,
etc. department. special events,
contests,
sweepstakes,
loyalty program,
etc.

159
Retail Operations and
Store Management-II Large Ads in local Important, used Important, Window and
department supplement of during some incentives are floor displays.
store newspapers, special events; based on Gift vouchers
hoardings, but counter/ on purchases,
Direct mail. opportunities department coupons,
are limited. sales targets. special events,
contests, small
gifts, loyalty
program, etc.

The promotion and hierarchy of effects has been very well presented by Barry
Berman and Joel r Evans (10th edn., 2008), through the following diagram 6.3.
Hierarchy of effects Behavioural objective Promotional mix for
each step

Figure 6.10: Promotion and Hierarchy Effects

6.4.4 Implementation of Promotional Mix

For implementing different promotional mix the retailer will need retail team with
certain specific expertise. The team with necessarily very good understanding of
marketing theory and practices, will need to make decision on selection of right
promotional mix, within each of the promotional element to select the appropriate
vehicles or tools, message contents, sales force, and the persons responsible for co-
ordination of different promotional activities, and finally the overall control of the
team and its performance. For example, for selecting the right print media under
the advertising the retailer will need to put a marketing team with good
understanding of the different print media, their use in different situations and
purpose, methods of selection, etc.
Let us look at the activities involved for implementation of sales promotion
schemes in retail outlets, which is the most commonly used promotional element
widely in use among all types and formats of retailers in one way or the other.
Following steps will help in ensuring that the purpose of promotion scheme is
achieved as per the plan.
i) Promotional Calendar: First of all a well-planned promotional calendar
specifying month-wise promotion schemes will help us to plan the schemes
160
well in advance and identifying the timing of the schemes will put everyone in
the line on alert. It is
 useful to map various schemes and objectives with various sales trends merchandising
expected during the year. There will be peak sales seasons and troughs in sales. material including
Thus planning schemes in a manner which will smooth out such troughs in the the point of sale
trend will help us to maintain a regular flow of cash and also movement of materials are
goods. displayed as per
ii) Implementation: The effectiveness of promotion schemes depend on how visual merchandising
these are implemented. It can be very well said that success of most of the requirement.
promotion schemes are determined by the level of detailing with which these
are implemented. Some of the important aspects of detailing are as follows:
a) Marketing Department: This department is the crucial department as it must
do all the important planning while deciding about the promotions in
conjunction with the category managers till their successful implementation in
the desired manner. Some of the important decisions the department needs to
consider are as follows:
 Products to be promoted based on the goals of the management and the
problems that are encountered for a given category against the set
targets.
 Vehicles to be used for promotion of the concerned products, i.e. the
type of promotions like whether a discount scheme or special bonus
coupons or product demonstration or free samples and so on.
 The type of advertising to be used for promoting the scheme – whether
to use the print media or outdoor media or indoor advertising and the sub-
vehicles within each of these based on the overall budgets being planned.
 Time of the year when scheduling a concerned promotion scheme
would give the appropriate result without cannibalizing the main
selling period’s profitability.
 The duration for which the concerned promotion scheme to be
operated so that it does not lose its luster and create boredom for the
target consumers thereby creating diminishing returns.
 For a particular category one needs to determine the frequency of
promotion schemes as it should not give the impression of round the
year promotion, particularly for well niche and branded products.
 Tie-ups with other product categories or cross merchandising within the
same category for gaining additional sales and promotional benefits need
to be also considered.
 Deciding on the correct locations for a given promotion scheme is also
important to avoid misfiring of the scheme. For e.g. giving free
samples or product demonstration where the product is well established
may prove to be waste of efforts.
b) Visual merchandising Department: This department needs to ensure that all
the point of sale materials like danglers, posters, pamphlets, and other display
materials are delivered well in time and displayed at strategic locations within
the store. Also to ensure that merchandise are displayed suitably to match
with the scheme. For
e.g. if the scheme is for select items only or for certain price-range then such
items needs to be given suitable prominence to attract customers attention as
well as displayed/grouped in a manner that will make selection easier.
c) Store Operation: The store manager should ensure that all staffs are fully
aware about the scheme and the products for which this is applicable with
all the nitty- gritty. The merchandise is well stocked/displayed well in time as
per the requirement of the scheme and visual merchandising. All the visual
 Managing Promotions
in Retail

161

Retail Operations and

Store Management-II 6.4.5 Review and Revision of Promotional Schemes
This is an important activity after the end of the concerned promotion scheme or
before planning of promotions in order to understand what worked in favor of the
scheme and what didn’t vis-à-vis the planned targets. It’s important to know the
reasons for the success or failure of the scheme and make suitable change in the
scheme structure/ details or the scheme itself so as to match with the expected
targets for the proposed scheme. The targets should be specific in order to
determine the success or failure of the scheme.
Some of the questions need to be posed at the time of review are as follows:
 Did the promotion achieve the desired target in terms of sale or profitability
or traffic?
 Was it appropriate with the overall marketing strategy for the category?
 Did it support the category’s role? Did the target consumers respond as
expected?
 Which products or items within the category responded to the concerned
scheme and their impact on the performance of the category or on other
categories?
 Did it attract new class or segments of consumers?
 Which type of promotion created unfavorable brand image or eroded store’s
positioning?
 Did the promotion and the concurrent arrangements made favorable impact on
the consumers’ shopping experience?
 Did the scheme get affected due to wrong timing or duration or frequency or
 the advertising All the above questions should help the management to review the scheme in its
support? right perspective and help the management to make suitable changes to the
 What was the scheme when it is implemented next time.
effect of the The retailer during the review must be able to make final decision on the
scheme on necessary revisions necessary in the schemes and must make appropriate changes
competition? to the sales targets and other objectives to be achieved at the end of the scheme.

6.5 LET US SUM UP

 Retail promotions have become a necessary part of the retail marketing
process. It is a process of communicating with customer with a specific
purpose of informing, persuading, and reminding the target customer on
various aspects of the retail objectives.
 The important elements of promotional mix are: advertising, personal selling,
public relations, and sales promotion.
 Advertising is a non-personal presentation – as a standard message is
presented to the total audience of the concerned medium, and not adapted to
each individual requirement. It is an out-of-store mass media – which include
newspapers, radio, TV, Web, and other mass channels – each having its own
audience – which becomes available to the advertiser on payment of the given
space or time. It is not personal.
 The different medium in use as part of advertising are: Newspapers,
Telephone Directories, Yellow pages, Direct Mail, Radio, TV, World Wide Web,
162 Transit, Outdoor, magazines, Single-page Flyers, etc.
 Different types of advertisements in use are: Pioneer, competitive,  Any wrong timing or
Reminder, Institutional, and Thanks –giving ads. inappropriate use of
 The aim of public relation is to promote a positive and favourable image of the promotion type
the retailer among the general public. The idea is to influence all the may only result in net
stakeholders at large viz. customers, investors, government, channel members, loss for the retailer
employees and the general public about the store’s image. from the execution of
the promotion
 There are basically two types of PR that may occur – the planned PR and an scheme.
unexpected PR. While the planned PR is normally an enhancer of image, the
unexpected PR could be a damaging or distracting one depending on the  The most common
type of coverage the event may generate. promotional objectives
are as follows:
 Personal selling is a one to one selling, or even one or more than one person
selling to one or more than one person. it involves oral communication and  Increase the
may make use of audio-video facilities for improving presentation to customer walk-ins or
customers. traffic, Increase sales
, Increase profit,
 There are mainly two types of personal selling efforts viz. a) Order taking, Clear dead stocks,
and b) Order getting. Create brand or
 Sales promotion covers all the paid communication activities that help in product awareness,
increasing consumer purchases and encourage dealers to put in extra efforts Induce trial for new
in improving sales of merchandise or service concerned. products, Establish
 Sales promotion includes displays, contests, sweepstakes, coupons, frequent awareness of the
shopper programs, prizes, samples, demonstrations, referral gifts, and other retail outlet/chain,
limited-time selling efforts other than advertising, public-relations, and Enhance customer
personal selling efforts. relations, and Positive
word of mouth
 Promotional strategy is an important part in retailer’s strategic mix, and publicity.
needs to be used in a systematic planned manner to optimize on the output
received from its implementation.  Following steps will
 help in ensuring that the purpose of promotion scheme is achieved as per the Managing Promotions
plan: Promotional Calendar: First of all a well-planned promotional calendar in Retail
specifying month-wise promotion schemes will help us to plan the schemes
well in advance and identifying the timing of the schemes will put everyone in
the line on alert. Implementation: The effectiveness of promotion schemes
depend on how these are implemented.

Check Your Progress-B

1. Briefly comment on the following statements.
a) Promotional strategy is an important part in retailer’s strategic mix.
............................................................................................................
............................................................................................................
............................................................................................................
............................................................................................................
163
Retail Operations and
Store Management-II
2. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate word given in the brackets
3. State whether the following statements are True or False
b) Inappropriate use of the promotion type may only result in net loss.
............................................................................................................
............................................................................................................
............................................................................................................
c) Different product categories will react differently to the events.
............................................................................................................
............................................................................................................
............................................................................................................
a) All the merchandising material including the point of
sale materials. (Visual / Physical)
b) The retailer may decide on spending based on its sales.
(Month to month / Year to year)
c) _____________ in sales is derived by offering some discounts.
(Increase / Decrease)
a) Many retailers may think that increase in sales would bring in more
profit.
b) For implementing different promotional mix the retailer will need retail
team.

6.6 KEYWORDS
Promotion : It is not enough for a business to have good
products sold at attractive prices. To generate sales
and profits, the benefits of products have to be
communicated to customers. In marketing, this is
commonly known as “promotion”.
Advertising : Any paid form of non-personal communication of ideas
or products in the “prime media”: i.e. television,
newspapers, magazines, billboard posters, radio,
cinema etc. Advertising is intended to persuade and
to inform. The two basic aspects of advertising
are the message (what you want your
communication to say) and the medium (how you
get your message across)
Telephone directories : In normal directory retailer gets free alphabetical listing,
People are not exposed to other competing retailers.
Yellow Pages : Listing is based on type-of-business, A customer
looking for certain products or service may refer
it, Widespread usage, Long shelf life.
Direct mail : Reaches to target audience. Tailored format,
Controlled costs, Quick feedback, Tie-ins with
billing firms.
164
Radio : Relatively low cost, good medium for car drivers Store Operation : The
and small town population, Ability to segment store manager should
population as per programmes, Short lead time, ensure that all staffs are
Wide reach fully
awa
TV : The dramatic effect of messages, Large market
re
coverage, Creativity, Program affiliation.
abo
World Wide Web : Provide information about range availability and store ut
locations, People can order directly on company’s the
site, Advertising on search engines, Other firm’s sche
websites, Provide customer service and me
communication facility. and
Transit : Captive audience travelling on buses, trams, trains and the
taxis, Mass market, High level of repetitiveness, prod
geographically defined markets. ucts
for
Outdoor (bill boards) : Large size of the ads that can attract attention of the whi
passing public, Frequency of exposure, relatively ch
low cost, Assistance in directing new customers. this
Magazines : Tailoring to specific markets, Creative options, is
Editorial associations, Longevity of messages, appl
Colour ads. icabl
e
Public Relations : The aim of public relation is to promote a positive with
and all
favourable image of the retailer among the the
general public. nitty
Personal Selling : Personal selling is a one to one selling, or even one -
or gritt
more than one person selling to one or more than y.
one person. It involves oral communication and
may make use of audio-video facilities for
improving presentation to customers.
Sales Promotion : Sales promotion covers all the paid communication
activities that help in increasing consumer
purchases and encourage dealers to put in extra
efforts in improving sales of merchandise or service
concerned.
Referral gifts : Gifts or coupons provided to customers who provide
new customer contacts or bring in new customers.
Direct marketers and service providers use this
scheme quite often.
Incremental method : Under this scheme the retailer may decide that in
the
previous year if it had spent Rs. 1 lac on
promotional activities, then this year he will spent
10 per cent more as compared to previous year.
Promotional Calendar : First of all a well-planned promotional calendar
specifying month-wise promotion schemes will
help us to plan the schemes well in advance and
identifying the timing of the schemes will put
everyone in the line on alert.
 Managing Promotions in Retail

165
Retail Operations and
Store Management-II 6.7 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

Check Your Progress A

FIB
a) Cheap b) Positive c) one to one
T&F
a) True b) True c) False

Check Your Progress B

FIB
a) Visual b) Month to Month c) Increase
T&F
a) True b) True c) False

6.8 TERMINAL QUESTIONS

1. Which are the elements of promotional mix? Explain each of these elements
briefly.
2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of advertisement?
3. Explain the merits de-merits of different advertising media.
4. Explain different types of advertising purpose and their emphasis.
5. What are the major purposes of public relation exercise? Explain the
advantages and disadvantages of the same.
6. Explain the major objectives od personal selling. What are the advantages
and disadvantages of personal selling?
7. Which are the sales promotion objectives? Explain the advantages and
disadvantages of the same.
8. Explain different types of sales promotion activities.
9. Explain promotional objectives briefly.
10. How does one go about in selection of promotional mix?
11. What steps need to be taken for implementation of promotional schemes?

6.9 FURTHER READINGS

166
 Bo mon, Lisa D. Cornell, and Amit Nizan.” Launch! Advertising and Promotion
oks in Real Time” –– Flat world Knowledge Press.
 M  Rothenberg, Randall, Where the Suckers Moon: The Life and Death of an
ic Advertising Campaign, Random House Vintage Books: New York.
ha  Belch and Belch, “Advertising and Promotion”, 6th edition, 2010
el
R. Journals
S  Attwood, K., 2007. Ladbrokes places bet on Spain with joint venture. The
ol Independent . [Published 9 January 2007]. Available from: http://
o www.factiva.com. [cited 7 September 2007].
 Baig, E., 2007. iPhone’s fab, but Apple could make it even better. USA  PROMO
Today. [Published 5 July 2007]. Available from: http://www.factiva.com. www.industryclick.co
[cited 7 September 2007]. m
 Bales, C., Chatterjee, P., Gluck, F., Gogel, D. and Puri, A., 2000. The  Sales and Marketing
business system: a new tool for strategy formulation and cost analysis. The Management
McKinsey Quarterly. Available from: http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com. www.salesandmarketi
[Cited 7 September 2007]. ng.com
 Bingelli, U. and Pompeo, L., 2002. Hyped hopes for Europe’s low cost airlines.  http://catalog.flatworld
The McKinsey Quarterly. 2002 (4), pp.87–97. knowledge.com/catalo
g/editions/p2145
 Courtney, H., Kirkland, J. and Viguerie, P., 2000. Strategy under uncertainty.
The McKinsey Quarterly. Strategy Anthology, pp.81–90.  http://www.columbia.e
du/~gvj1/adsylf06.pdf
 Dahlstrom, P., Deprez, F. and Steil, O., 2004. Meeting the no-frills mobile
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Websites and Online Resources

 Advertising Age www.adage.com
 Adweek www.adweek.com
 American Demographics (www.americandemographics.com
 Businessweek www.businessweek.com
 Mediaweek www.mediaweek.com
 Brandweek www.brandweek.com
Managing Promotions in Retail

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Retail Operations and
Store Management-II
Activity

Visit a hypermarket and find out how the advertiser influences the editorial content in building products or retailer
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Note : These Terminal Questions/Check Your Progress/Activity will help you

to understand the unit better. Try to write answers for them. But do not
submit your answers to the University for Assessment. These are for
your practice only.

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