THE FIRST CULTURE 

Chapter 10

PROMOTION

1. Promotion is concerned with communication between the seller and the buyer (an increasingly
widely used and probably more valid, name is marketing communication).

2. A manufacturer of industrial goods good may rely more heavily on personal selling and sales
literature, whereas a concumer goods manufacture will use advertising and sales promotion.

3. Marketing communications is the process of both information and educating users and dealers
about the company, and of influencing attitudes and behavior.

4. The promotional mix is often described in terms of push and pulls effects and towards whom
the marketing strategy is emphasized. A balance is needed between the need to communicate
with consumers, with distributors and with all other stakeholders.

5. A pull effect is when customers ask for the brand by name, inducing retailers or distributors to
stock up with the company’s goods.

6. A push effect is targeted on getting the company’s goods into the distribution network. This
could be by giving a special discount on volume to ensure that wholesalers stock up with the
company is promoting.

7. Promotion work is exciting because the aim is to influence customers favourably towards your
organization’s products or services.

8. One technique that can be used for integrated marketing planning is known as SOSTAC and
6Ms (it is also described as SOSTT, or SOST, and 4Ms, but the principle remains the same).

9. Advertising is defined by the American Marketing Association as:

10. Any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services by
an identifiable sponsor.

11. Promotion, especially advertising, can be seen as attempting to move consumers along
a continuum stretching from complete unawareness of the product to regular usage (brand
loyalty).
12. The AIDA model is a simple example of this approach known as the “hierarchy of effect”
model.

Awareness – Interest – Desires - Action

13. Figure 10.4: AIDA model

Desire response Awareness Interest Desire Action
Effective
Advertising Public relations Sales promotion Personal selling
promotion Tool

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14. Figure 10.5: AIDA and the product life cycle

Introduction  Growth Maturity Decline 

Public relation  Advertising in build  Advertising in retain  Sales promotion to 

influence early  brand  loyalty   extend life 
d

15. Advertising is purposive communication’ to a target market. It assists in selling by drawing

attention to the characteristics of a product which will appeal to the buying motives of customers
in the target segment of the market.

16. Advertising is target at specific audiences segmented by demographic, geographic, behavioral

or lifestyles variables.

17. Information advertising. Conveying information and raising consumer awareness of the
product. Common in the early stages of the lifecycle, or after modification.

18. Persuasive advertising. Concerned with creating a desire for the product and stimulating actual
purchase. Use for well-established products, often in the growth/maturity stages of the product
life cycle. This is the most competitive form of advertising and the most subject to criticism on
ethical grounds as being manipulative.

19. Reminder advertising. Reminding consumers about the product or organization, reinforcing the
knowledge held by potential consumers and reminding existing consumers of the benefits they
are from their purchase.

20. Above-the-line advertising refers to adverts in media such as the press, radio, TV and cinema.
21. Below-the-line advertising media include direct mail, exhibitions, package design,
merchandising and so on. This term is sometimes regarded as synonymous with sales promotion.

22. The advantages of advertising agencies are as follows.

(a) From the media owner’s point of view

i. They reduce the number of organizations with whom they have to deal
ii. Agencies are bond to conform to the British Code of Advertising Practice in
order to obtain their commission.

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(b) From the advertiser’s point of view

i. An agency’s specialized services are likely to be cheaper than an internal
advertising department
ii. An agency will have broader contacts with ancillary services such as printers and
photographers
iii. The advertiser receives expert advice (for example, form the agency’s account
executive)
iv. Agency employees have a broad experience in the field of advertising

23. Different types of media can be considered for an advertisement campaign. Popular media
include the press (newspapers, consumer magazines, business magazines, directories,)
television, outdoor, radio, internet and online advertisement.

24. Television takes the next largest slice of the media cake after press. Television is a dynamic
media sector, undergoing a period of rapid change.

25. Outdoor as a medium covers posters (roadside and perimeter hoardings) and transport
(rail/airport/underground/buses/taxis). Alongside cinema and radio, outdoor is often classified as
a support medium.

26. The expansion of radio is likely to attract new advertising revenue to the medium. Previous
criticisms that commercial radio has a down-market profile have been overturned with the
advent of new national commercial stations.

27. Cinema has experienced consistent growth in terms of popularity with the public. This has
translated into a gain in advertising revenue for this medium.

28. The Internet has evolved from being a toy for the computing elite to a genuinely useful tool for
the marketing of services and products.

29. E-mail is an incredibly flexible communications tool. It is easy to use, inexpensive and can send
information quickly to another computer anywhere in the world.

30. Online promotion uses communication via the Internet itself to raise awareness. This may take
the form of links from other sites, targeted e-mail messages or banner advertisements.

31. Offline promotion uses traditional media such as TV or newspaper advertising to promote
a website address (URL).

32. A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol or design intended to identify the product of a seller and
to differentiate it from those of competitors.

33. Branding is a very general term covering brand names, design, trademarks, symbols, jingles and
the like. A brand name refers strictly to letters, words or groups of words which can be spoken.
A brand image distinguishes a company’s product from competing products in the eyes of the
user.

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34. Brand extension denotes the introduction of new flavours, sizes and so on. New additions to the
product range are beneficial for two main reasons.
(a) A lower level of marketing investment
(b) The extension of the brand presents less risk

35. Multi-branding: the introduction of a number of brands that all satisfy very similar product
characteristics.

36. Family branding: the power of the family name to assist all products is being used more and
more by large companies.

37. A trademark is a legal term covering words and symbols. A legally protected mark can be
a very valuable asset.

38. Branding is not relevant to all products, only those:

(a) That can achieve mass sales- this is because of the high cost of branding and the
subsequent advertising
(b) Whose attributes can be evaluated by consumers.

39. Sales promotion: a range of tactical marketing techniques, designed within a strategic
marketing framework, to add value to a product or service, in order to achieve a specific sales
and marketing objective. Institute of Sales Promotion (ISP).

40. Sales promotion includes the notion of both sales pull and sales push techniques.

41. Sales pull techniques encourage the consumer to buy, thus pulling sales through the chain of
distribution via consumer demand.

42. Sales push techniques either encourage the sales force to sell products, or prompt the outlets to
buy, ensuring the distribution pipeline is well loaded.

43. Price promotions may take the form of a discount to the normal selling price of a product, or
alternatively, offer the consumer more product at the normal price (20% extra free; three for the
price of two).

44. Cross-brand promotions may be regarded as a form of reduced price promotion as they offer
the opportunity for the customer to sample the promoted product plus the complementary
product at a discount.

45. Coupons are often used as a way of offering a current or future discount to the consumer.

46. Gift with purchase’ promotions are often referred to as premium promotions, as the consumer
receives a bonus when he purchases. This promotion tends to be used with higher ticket goods
and services, with the gift enhancing the quality of the original purchase.

47. Trade promotions act to encourage the distributor to stock or sell more of a product or service.

48. Trade and sales force promotions may be designed in an attempt to maximize distribution.
Incentives and competitions can be used as a means of motivating the sales force to sell more.

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49. Merchandising techniques set out to achieve quick sales of goods, largely through the use of
eve-catching presentation and display.

50. Public relations (PR): the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain good will and
mutual understanding between an organization and its public.

51. In the context of public relations, a public is a group of people united by a common interest that
is specific to them or their situation. Such groups are often known as stakeholders.
An organization may have a wide range of publics with whom it wishes to communicate.

52. Public opinion: a consensus, which emerges over time, all the expressed views that cluster
around an issue in debate, so that this consensus exercises power.

53. An important aspect of public opinion is the influence of opinion leaders.

54. Formal opinion leaders are opinion leaders by virtue of their rank or position, such Members
of Parliament, newspaper editors, teachers or the clergy.

55. Informal opinion leaders are opinion leaders by virtue of charisma, personally or background
and exert a strong influence on their peers, friends or acquaintances.

56. In generating the aims and objectives of PR activity we should use “Issue analysis”. The issues
will normally be external forces operating in the trading or community environment.

57. Research, both formal and informal, is important in order to have as clear an understanding as
possible of the issue or problem and its wider implications.

58. Sponsorship is a form of marketing communication. Sponsorship has wider implications in

public relations terms. It demonstrates good corporate citizenship and it may also have
a positive impact on the company’s employees.

59. Personal selling is ‘the presentation of products and associated persuasive communication to
potential clients, employed by the supplying organization.

60. Prospecting: gathering additional prospective customers in addition to sales leads generated by
the company on his behalf.

61. Communicating: communicating information to existing and potential customers about the
company’s products and services can take up a major proportion of the salesperson’s time.

62. Selling: approaching the customer, presenting, answering objections and closing the sale.

63. Servicing: A salesperson may provide various services to the customer, such as consulting
about their problems, rendering technical assistance, arranging finance and expedition delivery.

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64. Information gathering: The salesperson can be a very useful source of marketing intelligence
due to the links with the end customer. Many salespeople are responsible for supplying regular
reports on competitive activity within their particular sales area.

65. Allocating: The salesperson may assist in evaluating customer profitability and
creditworthiness, and may also have to control the allocation of products to customers in times
of product storages.

66. Stages of personal selling

1. Preparing action
2. The opening
3. Customer need and problem identification
4. Presentation and demonstration
5. Dealing with objections
6. Negotiation
7. Closing the sale
8. Key account management

67. Preparing action: The salesperson’s job beings before meeting the buyer- he or she has much
to gain from careful preparation before the sales interview.

68. The opening: First the salesperson is expected to be businesslike in personal appearance and
behavior. Second, the opening remarks set the tone of the whole interview.

69. Customer need and problem identification: The salesperson should use “open’ rather than
“close” questions to get the buyer to discuss his or her needs and problems. “Open” questions
are those which require more than just a one word or one phrase answer.

70. Presentation and demonstration:

(a) Standard benefits
(b) Company benefits
(c) Differential benefits
This is called benefit analysis and it is vital that it be carried out if the salesperson is to sell
effectively.

71. The buyer will want to reduce this risk and the salesperson has some weapons in the sales
armoury to enable risk to be reduced.
(a) Reference selling
(b) Demonstrations
(c) Guarantees
(d) Trial order
(e) Sale or return

72. Reference selling involves the use of satisfied customers in order to convince the buyer of the
effectiveness of the product. It can be used very effectively to build the buyer’s confidence in
the product.

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73. Demonstrations also reduce the buyer’s perceived risk because they prove the benefits of the
product stated orally by the salesperson.

74. Guarantees of product reliability, after sales service and delivery can build confidence in the
salesperson’s claims and lesson the cost to the buyer should something go wrong.
75. Trial order can also minimize perceived risk in the mind of the buyer as they allow sellers to
demonstrate their capability to satisfy requirements at minimal risk.

76. Sale or return allows the buyer to send the product back if it does not come up to expectations.
77. Dealing with objections
Two main types
(a) Fundamental objections occur when the buyer fails to see the need for the product
or service on offer.
(b) Standard objections occur when the buyer recognizes the need for the product but
wishes to delay making a positive decision.

78. Negotiation
In many selling siturations both buyer and seller will have a degree of discretion regarding the
terms of the sale, and therefore, negotiation will enter into the selling process as each party
tries to get the best deal within the constraints under which they operate.

79. Closing the sale

The selling process does not finish when the sale is made. Indeed, the sale itself may only be
the start of a long-term relationship between buyer and seller which is cemented by the
experience of an ongoing dialogue regarding product performance and after-sales service and
support.

80. Direct marketing is referred to as direct respond marketing. Response is its main purpose and
techniques to achieve response are its key competence.

81. According to “Institute of direct Marketing”, direct marketing can be defined as the planned
recording, analysis, and tracking of customer behavior to develop relational marketing
strategies.

82. According to ‘Direct Marketing Association of US”, direct marketing is an interactive system
of marketing which uses one or more advertising media to effect a measurable response and/or
transaction at any location.

83. Response: direct marketing is about getting people to send in coupons, or make telephone calls
in response to invitations and offers.

84. Interactive: It is a two-way process, involving the supplier and the customer.

85. Relationship: It is in many instances an on-going process of selling again and again to the
same customer.

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86. Recording and analysis: response data is collected and analysed so that the most cost effective
procedures may be arrived at. Direct marketing has been called “marketing with numbers”.
It aims to take the waste out of marketing.

87. Strategy: direct marketing should not be seen merely as a quick fix or a promotional device.
It should be seen as a part of a comprehensive plan stemming from clearly formulated
objectives.

88. Direct marketing creates and develops a direct relationship between the customer and the
company on an individual basis.

89. Direct marketing encompasses a wide range of media and distribution opportunities which
include television, radio, direct mail, direct response advertising, telemarketing, statement
stuffers, “inserts”, “take-ones”, electronic media, door to door, mail order, computerized home
shopping and home shopping networks.

90. Improvements in technology and the reductions in the cost of computer systems now
provide the opportunity for the smallest of operations to develop and benefit from the
information era and the internet.

91. The sole aim of direct marketing is to acquire and retain customers.

92. Identify prospects: The starting point in identifying and retaining customers is to build
a database of existing customers.

93. Direct marketing by definition requires a response, and fulfillment is the act of servicing the
customer’s response.

94. The act of fulfillment may take on a number of different activities including handling
customer complaints, taking orders, offering advice and providing service and dispatching
goods.

95. Fulfilment operations can lead to extensive demands upon the organization in terms of human
resources and work apace.

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