A LITERATURE REVIEW (BBA3853 MARKETING RESEARCH)

Environmental purchasing is the encompassing of environmental factors in decisions on the

purchase of products and/or services. It is also known as the “green”, “sustainable” or
“environmentally preferable” purchasing. The aim of contemplating environmental factors is
to buy products or services that have less impact on the environment and human health than
otherwise comparable products or services. The importance of understanding the purchase
environment are to reduce corporate environmental risk exposure, strengthening main supply
protection, and driving environmental changes in the supply chain. Although the advantages
of organic purchase have to be balanced against costs and other commercial pressures, in
current shopping practice, the environment should not be ignored. The topic that has been
chosen is ‘promotion’. Promotion most likely a word that every each of us would be eagerly
waiting for and the word excites us more. What is actually promotion is meant by,
promotions refer to the entire set of activities, which communicate the product, brand or
service to the user. The idea is to make people aware, attract and induce to buy the product, in
preference over others. It is clearly an act of encouraging something to happen or develop.
This paper will further discuss about the main four types of promotions which are
advertising, publicity, sales promotion and personal selling and how it benefits both
consumers and producers. Taking this into account, it is worthwhile for every marketer to
review such an important tool as sales promotions.

 Advertising

Any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or

services by an identified sponsor. Typically, advertising has a far reach, allowing you
to promote your business to a large number of people. Traditional includes TV, radio,
newspapers, magazines, billboards. Online includes social media, search ads,
remarketing, e-newsletters. These help create a brand image for businesses to reach
new and existing customers. Advertisement helps alter the company's old or
derogatory views, if appropriate. In your industry, ads can also raise exposure, helping
you draw partners who can grow your market. Indirectly, ads lets you create
references to word of mouth. The more new clients you attract by ads, the more word
of mouth those clients can share with others in exchange. “Spread the Word about a
Sale or Special Promotion”
for any kind of retail business, advertising can make the public aware of a sale or
promotion bringing in more customers in the process. Online advertising is the best
way currently for instance “Drive Immediate Online Sales” as for the ecommerce
businesses, advertising with pay-per-click ads can bring online sales almost
immediately. PPC ads can move the buyer to act as soon as they see the add and click
on it. It’s direct response! The best advertising current is all via online where one can
convert through online where turning a window shoppers into buyers. For example,
after they leave your site, retargeting or remarketing advertisements will remind
visitors of your items. It is proven that this approach turns more shoppers into
customers. Let's presume someone in your e-commerce store left a shopping cart or
actually didn't buy it for any other reason. For retargeted advertising, by seeing an ad
days later, they will be reminded of the offer. Advertising have most likely the spiking
amount of advantages which are large numbers of people see the message (REACH),
the cost per customer is lower than other types of promotions, businesses can choose
the most appropriate media to reach their target market and repeat viewing
(FREQUENCY) Pre-selling of products.

 Publicity

Placing newsworthy information about a company, product, or person in the

media. Can be used to promote particular events and promote particular products.
The main purpose of publicity is to build an image. Image is the way a business
or organization is defined in people’s minds. For a product, service, or business,
publicity is media coverage. Traditional news outlets, including news shows and
publications, and digital media, such as podcasts, blogs, and websites, can be
used. Publicity increases the company's profile, which can also be created for free.
Publicity is distinct from marketing; it is general and does not hold a special
message. Promoting a goods or service is advertisement. Via social media,
product placements, corporate alliances and advertising swag, where one will
create attention. There are many advantages in terms of publicity which are can
create a positive image, free, the audience for news is huge, media is respected as
a viable source of information and people are more likely to believe a news story
over an advertisement because the media is not biased.

 Sales Promotion

All marketing activities, other than personal selling, advertising, and publicity,
that are used to stimulate consumer purchasing and sales effectiveness. Objectives
of Sales Promotion are to increase sales, inform customers about new products
and to create a positive store or corporate image. The characteristics of Sales
Promotion are short term activities, offers some type of incentive, yet can be
successfully used in all channels of distribution. Therefore the appeal of using the
sales of promotions related to the increase of the advertising costs can be
disputable in some of the cases, as many academic sources suggest. According to
Srinivasan and Anderson (1998), and also d'Astous and Landreville (2003), there
are several main objectives for implementing sales promotions, which were
revealed in their researches. One of the most evident reasons for sales promotions’
implementation is to increase the short term sales, but it also used for increasing
the awareness of already existing product and stimulating the sales during the off-
peak time, they suggest. To add, employing sales promotions during the
introduction of a new products and even an entire new product line is considered
as very effective way to accept the expansion or switch to a new product, because
of the lowered hesitations in trying a new product or product line, and this is true
for both goods and service companies (Kalish 1985, Pauwels et. al. 2003). Sales
promotions are seen to be a good support of conventional media ads, but on the
other hand, the certain ratio of budgets assigned to advertising is contested, and
sales promotions are disputed. However, if the buyer is not confident about the
decision, it is undisputable that it strongly promotes the rise in short-term
purchases, it also offers an extra opportunity to buy. It is also a handy instrument
for calculating one's own performance. There a countless number of advantages
via sales promotion. For instance, each promotional device is unique & has appeal
to a potential customer, gives to customer something of value, and buying
increases in the short-term while customers can have fun in the process.

 Personal Selling

Personal selling are by making an oral sales presentation to one or more potential
buyers. On a per contact basis, personal selling is the most expensive form of
promotion. Order-taking personnel, order-getting personnel, and personal selling
is generally emphasized for complex, technical products sold to industrial users.
The sellers promote the product through their attitude, appearance and specialist
product knowledge. They aspire to persuade and inspire the client to purchase the
product, or at least to try it. Besides that, personal selling is one of the most
expensive forms of promotion, it’s also one of the most effective because it
focuses on relationships. Personal selling involves reaching out to your consumers
one on one, either in person, on the phone or over email. Remember to use
personal selling to cultivate long-term relationships and establish partnerships. As
we look into the personal selling advantages they are most flexible and
individualized of the promotional activities. A good example of personal selling is
found in department stores on the perfume and cosmetic counters. A customer can
get advice on how to apply the product and can try different products. Products
with relatively high prices, or with complex features, are often sold using personal
selling.

To conclude, this literature review was very useful for comprehending the on the
Promotion. However, the topic of the research could be more specific in order to
make it less descriptive and more engaged in comparing and contrasting different
academic articles and researches. Ideally, it is important to incorporate marketing
messages from and promotional-mix aspect (personal sales, conventional ads,
promotion of sales, public relations, social media, and e-commerce). That is,
regardless of whether it comes from an advertising, a seller in the field, a
magazine article, a blog, a Facebook post, or a coupon in a newspaper entry, the
message outreach the customer should be the same. As to summarise on the main
findings I have found out that the different types of promotions has its own
advantages yet how it could help the marketer to enhance his/her business
platform. A good promotion skill should be used to persuade the customer and
should know which type of promotion have to be used to market their product as it
would reach the consumer directly and they would have the eager to get it. A
suggestion would be suggested to the upcoming research to expand the findings
from the above research where can precisely work on about which type of
promotion should be used by the small and large businesses. Hence, each type of
promotion has it’s own strategy and form of communication it wants in the
marketing plan to reach out their consumers.