Unit V

Promotion : Nature and Importance of promotion – promotional methods of personal

selling : objectives and function, Advertising objectives – Message content – media
selection – Advertising agency – Advertising Budgets – Measuring Advertising
effectiveness; Sales Promotion Techniques – Social Media Promotion

Promotion : Nature of promotion

 Promotion is a type of communication between the buyer and the seller. The seller tries to
persuade the buyer to purchase their goods or services through promotions.
 Promotion involves the co-ordinated attempts to establish information channels for
presenting its services or goods to the targeted customer base.
 It is understood to be the communication of the organisation with the marketplace
through planned and controlled programs.
 It is one of the basic elements of the market mix, which includes the seven P’s: Product,
Price, Promotion Place, People, Packaging/Physical evidence, and Process.
 It is also one of the elements in the promotional mix or promotional mix or promotional
plan.
 These are personal selling, advertising, sales promotion, and direct marketing publicity and
may also include event marketing, exhibitions, and trade shows.
Definition:
Promotion Refers to any type of marketing communication used to inform target audiences of
the relative merits of a product, service, brand or issue, most of the time persuasive in nature.
Definition: 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.
Nature of Promotion
1. Creates Awareness:
Promotional activities expose an adequate number of target consumers to the messages and
create awareness about the product. For this purpose, such a promotion media is chosen which
will reach adequate numbers of target consumers. Print, electronic, outside or online media can
be used as per natureof the product and target audience.
2. Attention Grabbing:
The promotional campaigns draw the potential customer’s attention towards the product. The
customers are not aware about the new product and it is only through promotional activities
that they can be informed about the product, its features and utility.
3. Creates Interest:
It is not enough to get the attention of the customer. The aim of promotion is to make the
potential customers interested in knowing more about the product. Customers will be
interested only in those products that they actually need, so the promotional messages should
emphasize on how the featured product can fulfill their needs.
4. Informative:
The target markets need to know about the functions and characteristics of the product so that
they can relate their needs with it. Promotion is done to provide the necessary information and
 details to the prospective buyers of the product. The information given to the customers should
also enable them to differentiate the product from those of competitors.
5. Induces Action:
The ultimate goal of all marketing activities is to make a sale. An effective promotional
strategy will grab the attention of the would-be consumers, create interest in their minds,
provides enough information about the product to help them in taking the purchase decision
and finally induce them to takeaction, i.e., purchase the product.
Objectives of promotion are:
• To introduce a new product
• To educate customers about the product usage
• To increase awareness of the product
• To differentiate from competitors
• To achieve increase in product recall
• To build brand value and image
• To encourage people to buy in bulk especially in off season to level the demand
• To encourage people to try their product over their existing products.
Promotion : Importance of promotion
The importance of promotion can be briefly shown below
1. Sales of the goods in imperfect market: Promotion helps in the sales of the goods in
imperfect market. In the imperfect market conditions, the product cannot be sold easily only on
the basis of price differentiation. It is the promotional activity that provides information about
the differences, characteristics, and the multi-use of the products of various competition in the
market. The customer is attracted to purchase the goods on the basis of such information
successfully
2. Filling the gap between producers and consumers: Promotion helps in filling the gap
between producers and consumers. Due to the tough market condition, mass selling is quite
impossible without promotional activities. The distance between producers and consumers has so
widened in present days to get them touched with the product that promotional activities are
necessary.
3. Facing intense competition: Promotion helps in facing intense competition in the market.
When a manufacturer increases his promotional spending and adopts an aggressive strategy in
creating a brand image, others are also forced to follow the suit. This leads to promotional war.
Without promoting the goods, the competition is not possible in the market. So, it is necessary to
face the competition in the market with the help of promotional activities
4. Large scale selling: Promotion helps in the large selling of goods and services Sales
promotion is the result of large-scale production. It can be achieved only by appropriate methods
of large scale selling. Large scale selling is possible with the help of promotional activity. Due to
the large selling of goods there will be more chance of promotion of goods. So, it is necessary to
sell lot of goods in the market
5. Higher standard of living: Promotion helps in the rising standard of the people. The
promotional activities increase the standard of living by providing the better goods at a lower
rate due to large scale production and selling. So the promotional activity has a great role in the
increment of a standard of people
6. More employment: Promotion helps to create more employment opportunities People can
gain employment opportunity with the help of promotional activities. With the help of
promotional activity, many workers get motivated towards the work, as the promotional
activities cannot be performed without the help of an effective sales force and the specialists in
various fields.
7. Increased trade pressure: Promotion helps to increase trade pressure in the market. The
growth of large scales retailer such as supermarkets, chain stores, etc. has brought greater
pressure on manufacturers for support and allowance. Promotional activities help to decrease the
trade pressure.
8. Effective sales support: Promotion helps in the sales support of the product Sales promotion
policies are under the supplement to the efforts and impersonal salesmanship. Good sales
promotion materials make the salesman's effort more productive. Promotion helps in the sales of
the product. It provides good support in selling the different types of goods which are very
necessary to increase the market economy.
9. Increased speed of product acceptance: Promotion helps to increase the speed of the
products acceptance. Most of the sales promotion devices such as contests, premium coupons,
etc. can be used faster than other promotion methods such as advertising. The increase in rapid
speed of product acceptance has occurred with the help of promotional activities. As the
promotional activities are done, there will be direct effect in the increment of a speed of the
product. Increase in the speed of product acceptance is very important in the competitive market.
So, it is necessary to increase the speed of product.
10. Persuades Consumers: Promotion is essential to persuade consumers who have established
product loyalties. As there are so many product choices consumers often settle on a particular
'satisfactory brand' and purchase it repeatedly to reduce the effort involved in choosing another
product. Thus, the target market often includes people who have established product loyalties.
11. Greater need to maintain Market Share: Finally, during times of economic decline,
product planning, distribution channels, and pricing structure change. Promotion is needed in
order to maintain the level of sales and profit required for a firm's survival. Redesigning
messages, advertising differently and smarter, and improving sales promotion offers are some of
the ways to stimulate consumer.
promotional methods

promotional methods: personal selling : objectives

promotional methods: Personal Selling : Functions

Advertising objectives

Advertising : Message content

Advertising: Media Selection

Advertising agency

Advertising Budgets

Advertising Budgets – Social Media Promotion

Measuring Advertising effectiveness

Measuring Advertising effectiveness

Sales Promotion Techniques

Social Media Promotion

PROMOTION DECISION: Marketing communications is one of the four major elements of

the company‘s marketing mix. Marketers must know how to use advertising, sales promotion,
direct marketing, public relations, and personal selling to communicate the product‘s existence
and value to the target customers.
The communication process itself consists of nine elements: sender, receiver, encoding,
decoding, message, media, response, feedback, and noise. Marketers must know how to get
through to the target audience in the face of the audience‘s tendencies toward selective attention,
distortion, and recall.
Developing the promotion program:
 The communicator must first identify the target audience and its characteristics, including
the image it carries of the product.
 The communicator has to define the communication objective, whether it is to create
awareness, knowledge, liking, preference, conviction, or purchase.
 A message must be designed containing an effective content, structure, format, and
source. Then communication channels both personal and non-personal must be selected.
 Next, the total promotion budget must be established. Four common methods are the
affordable method, the percentage-of-sales method, the competitive-parity method, and
the objective-and-task method.
PROMOTION MIX
Product promotion is critical for every business due to the lasting impact promotion has on the
clients. The promotion mix is essentially what promoting entails as well as how promoting is
effectively done. It comprises personal selling, advertising, public relations, sales promotion, and
direct marketing. Using the right blend of the promotional mix ensures that a business will
continue gaining customers and achieving success in both the short and long run.
1. Personal Selling
This is usually the most costly tool but is one of the most effective tools in the promotional mix.
It is effective since it builds a long-term relationship between the client and employee that will
continue coming back. This is of great benefit especially when dealing with clients that spend
large amount of cash. The client could want a hotel for fifty people or he or she might be buying
vehicles for each of his 30 businesses. Cultivating this relationship will increase the chances of
future opportunities if his or her expectations are met.
2. Direct Marketing
Direct marketing uses technology to target clients individually. Examples include telephone
calls, apps, e-mail, and catalogs. Direct marketing is useful since it targets individuals that spend
small amounts of money at different times since they do not spend as much cash as frequently.
Different companies use e-mail to send out specials and deals to clients. Some companies such as
Amazon use previous purchases to offer recommendations. Others just send out
recommendations to everyone on their mailing list. Direct marketing is great especially when
marketing to the masses but personalizing the message for every recipient.
3. Public relations
Every business needs public relations but many businesses often overlook it since they typically
associate it with dealing with negative situations that can affect a company. A good Public
Relations manager for a business should be dynamic to handle both positive and negative
situations. On the positive side, a Public Relations campaign is implemented through newsletters,
social media, press releases, grand openings, and major events. Social media is particularly a
useful tool for public relations since the masses use it and love it. On the negative side, dealing
with those negative situations is something that a public relations director should be in a position
to handle effectively.
4. Sales Promotions
These provide a great way to get customers to buy a particular service or product. Sales
promotions are particularly useful in the service industry since many people are not willing to
pay full price for a vacation package. However, once they get a promotion of 20% off they
become attracted to the offer immediately. Restaurants can also make use of sales promotions to
boost sales by bringing more people into the restaurant. Sales promotions work for other
industries too. You can find stores offering 20% discounts on selected items and so on.
5. Advertising
Advertising plays a key role when promoting a business. Newspapers, Radio, TV, and Social
Media advertising all play an important role in determining how to target customers as well as
how they will respond to the advertising message.
Social Media marketing Social media is currently taking over from the traditional forms of
advertising. Focus on social media is critical especially when communicating with clients. The
reason for this is that Facebook is one of the most visited website globally on a daily basis.
Furthermore, it is instantaneous. As soon as a company posts something on its Facebook page it
immediately becomes available for all to see. In addition, Facebook offers the option of targeting
users based on their interests, gender, location, age, and any other demographics that you can
think of. In the 21 Century, Social Media marketing is simply the way to go.

Nature and Importance of Promotion

As a key part of the marketing program promotion is essential inorder to create customer
awareness of a product and its characteristics. Many factors have increased the importance of
promotion, but we can isolate six key factors
1) Persuade Consumers: Promotion is essential to persuade consumers who have established
product loyalties. As there are so many product choices consumers often settle on a particular
'satisfactory brand' and purchase it repeatedly to reduce the effort involved in choosing another
product. Thus, the target market often includes people who have established product loyalties. To
change the buying habits of such people promotion becomes essential for the marketer.
2) Wider Separation between Producers and Consumers: A second reason for the rising
importance of promotion is the widening physical and emotional distance between producers and
consumers. Once marketing intermediaries are involved it is not enough for a producer to
communicate only with the ultimate consumers. Marketing intermediaries must also be informed
about products. Wholesalers must promote products to retailers, and retailers must promote
products to consumers.
3) Increased Competition: Intense competition within and between industries has placed
pressure on the promotional programs of individual sellers. Most colleges and universities, for
eg., must deal directly with other colleges and universities as well as with all other organizations
that offer people educational and vocational alternatives.
4) Consumers increased Selectivity: Consumers are beyond the need to fulfil1 their basic
physiological requirements and are moving toward fulfilling their desires. As they allocate their
limited resources to the purchase of desires rather than basic needs, they become more selective
in their choices. A good promotional program helps consumers make these choices in a more
satisfying way.
5) Greater Financial Risk: The promotional effort is usually the largest part of the total
marketing expense. Managers must be certain that the high level of expenditure produces the
desires results.
6) Greater need to maintain Market Share: Finally, during times of economic decline, product
planning, distribution channels, and pricing structure change. Promotion is needed in order to
maintain the level of sales and profit required for a firm's survival. Redesigning messages,
advertising differently and smarter, and improving sales promotion offers are some of the ways
to stimulate consumer.

Factors affecting Promotion Mix:

Budget Available:
For many companies, the budget available to promote a product determines what elements of the
promotion mix are utilized. The budget affects a promotion’s reach (number of people exposed
to the message) and frequency (how often people are exposed). For example, many smaller
companies may lack the money to create and run video commercials regularly or during high
profile events such as the Super Bowl or the Olympics. As a result, they may not get the
exposure they need to build to continue to grow their business. However, other forms of online
marketing such as e-flyers gives them an opportunity to engage customers for less money
Stage in the Product Life Cycle
The stage in the product life cycle also affects the type and amount of promotion used. Products
in the introductory stages typically need a lot more promotional dollars to create awareness in the
marketplace. Consumers and businesses cannot buy a product if they do not know about it. More
communication is needed in the beginning of the product life cycle to build awareness and trial,
however, it is critical to continue to speak to customers throughout the product lifecycle to
maintain loyalty, to communicate changes, and to make it easier to introduce line extensions.
Type of Product and Type of Purchase Decision
Different products also require different types of promotion. Very technical products and very
expensive products (high involvement) often need professional selling so customers understand
how the product operates, its different features and benefits. By contrast, advertising is often
relied upon to sell convenience goods and products purchased routinely (low involvement) since
customers are familiar with the products and they spend relatively little time making purchase
decisions.
Target Market Characteristics and Consumers’ Readiness to Purchase
In order to select the best methods to reach different target markets, companies need to know
what types of media different targets use, how often they make purchases, where they make
purchases, and what their readiness to purchase is, as well as characteristics such as age, gender,
and lifestyle. Some people are early adopters and want to try new things as soon as they are
available, and other groups wait until products have been on the market for a while so that the
early technical problems have been solved.‡ Some consumers might not have the money to
purchase different products, although they will need the product later. For example, are most
people in their twenties interested and able to afford to buy a property versus renting?
Consumers’ Preferences for Various Media
The media preferences of the target audience is an important consideration in the selection of the
promotion marketing mix. Media preferences are also linked to the type of product and service.
Kantar produced a report that discusses the divide between which media consumers prefer and
which companies prefer. Download a copy of the report here. In general, cinema, events, and
print advertising are preferred by consumers, whereas marketers prefer TV and digital formats
Availability of Media
Companies must also plan their promotions based on availability of media. Top-rated television
shows (based on the number of more viewers) and Super Bowl ad spots, for example, often sell
out quickly and are much more expensive due to the limited number of spots available.
Magazines tend to have a longer lead-time so companies must plan far in advance for some
magazines. By contrast, because of the number of radio stations and the nature of the medium,
companies can often place radio commercials on the same day they want them to be aired.
Social media and online media may be immediate but because of the Facebook-Cambridge
Analytical scandal in 2018, users are concerned about the way in which their meta data and
posted content is being used. Uncontrollable events can affect a company’s promotions, too. If
there is a snow or ice storm and your company is in the middle of a printed flyer promotion,
delivery is likely to be interrupted. During a major crisis such as occurred during the COVID-19
pandemic, companies had to pivot to produce communication that acknowledged that
consumers’ situations had changed.

Personal Selling:
A Promotional activity by which the consumers are personally encouraged and convinced to buy
the goods and services of a manufacturer is called personal selling.
Personal Selling Methods
Any one of the following selling methods may be used in personal selling, depending upon
characteristics of a product or buyer.
1. Tender Selling
The buyer may invite open tenders through newspapers and a company is required to submit
their offers with price, terms of payment and delivery period, etc.
Generally, in all Government purchase, sealed tenders are invited and are opened on a particular
prefixed date and time and orders may be granted to the lowest bidder. Sometimes, purchaser
may negotiate bids and finalize order with a company which may not be the lowest bidder. The
role of a salesman will be quite useful in such negotiations.
2. Selling through discussions
In large companies, orders are finalized following discussions, at the purchaser’s place. The
order is generally issued after verifying seller’s performance, reliability and after sales service.
Generally, private sector companies choose this route as this is faster and many problems and
clarifications could be thrashed out across the table through informal and formal discussions.
3. Door to Door selling
In this method, company’s salesman visits prospective buyers to explore the possibilities of
selling. This method is generally used for household products and for new product introduction.
This method of selling is highly useful in rural, semi urban and even in cities. In India, consumer
products like soaps, shampoo, sarees are sold regularly through door to door selling.
4. Over the Counter selling (OTC selling)
In this method, in all retail outlets, the salesmen sell a company’s products exclusively and this
method is used for all consumer goods. In India and in many Asian countries, this method
employs highest number of salespersons.
Indian companies like Reliance (Only Vimal Showrooms), Bata, Philips, BPL, Sony, Asian
Paints, Zodiac Gwalior Rayon, Bombay Dyeing, Mafatlal, Pierre Cardin sell whole lot of
products ranging from suiting materials, textiles, ready made garments, shoes, colour television,
audio-video electronic products, paints and food products through this method.

ADVERTISEMENT MEANING
The word advertising is derived from two Latin Words Ad and Verto. Ad means towards and
Verto means I turn. It means to turn the people’s attention to a specific thing.
DEFINITION:
According to Stanton, “Advertising consists of all the activities involved in presenting to a group
of non personal, oral and visual, openly sponsored message regarding a product, service or idea.
This message called an advertisement is disseminated through one or more media and is paid for
by the identified sponsor.”
ELEMENTS OF ADVERTISING
1. Non personal Communication: Advertising is a non personal communication reaching a
large group of buyers. The communication is speedy permitting the advertiser to speak to
hundreds or thousands of people with in a shorter period.
2. Matter of Record: It is a matter of record furnishing information for the benefit of the buyers.
It guides them to make a satisfactory purchase.
3. Paid form of publicity: Advertising is a paid form of presentation. The sponsor must pay for
it other person whose media is employed.
4. Persuasion of the Buyers: The advertisement must be capable of persuading the buyers to
purchase the goods advertised. It is an art of influencing the human action, the awakening of the
desire to possess one’s product.
5. Identifiable with the sponsor: Advertisements are identifiable with their sponsor. The
producer sponsors advertisement campaign by employing a suitable media.
FUNCTIONS OF ADVERTISING
1. Cheapening of Prices: Amongst the various modes of selling, advertising is considered as the
cheapest method of selling. The advertiser can appeal to the public on a very wide scale with a
comparatively lesser expenditure.
2. Widening of the Market: Effective advertisement stimulates the demand for the producer to
find out the new markets for his product, by influencing the minds of the public.
3. Reduction of distribution expenditure: Mass advertising brings a reduction in the
distribution costs by relieving the manufacturers from incurring expenditure on sales promotion
staff.
4. Maintenance of better quality and services: Advertising enables the businessmen to build
up the goodwill for his undertakings. It makes him to enjoy high reputation.
5. Promotion of Social Welfare: Advertising not only ensures success to business men but also
brings benefits to the society and thereby promotes the welfare of the society.
Message content:
An advertising message is an idea an advertiser wants to communicate to their target audience.
Its goal is to convince people to perform a certain action, such as registering, purchasing
something, or making a reservation.
Importance of Message Content:
 It allows you to skyrocket your brand awareness. Well-thought-out advertising
campaigns go straight to the hearts of your clients. Companies that go beyond selling
enjoy better brand awareness and recognition. For example, Canon launched a #selfieless
campaign on Christmas Eve, which was symbolic. They encouraged people from all over
the world to capture not themselves but their good deeds to share altruistic vibes and
inspire.
 It helps keep your customers engaged. Clients can stop buying from you just because
you don’t interact with them. Hence, they simply forget about your company. However,
targeted and highly relevant promotional offers will definitely strike the right chord with
your audience. They will appreciate that you know their problems and offer the best
solutions.
 It educates your prospects. Leads are not ready to buy immediately. They may not fully
understand the way your service works or how to make the most out of your products.
Besides, they can get stuck at any stage of the sales funnel. Via an advertising message,
you can offer them solutions to cope with their problems. As a result, you’ll be in the
right place at the right time.
  It helps you understand your audience. Analyzing the way your leads and customers
interact and respond to your messages will provide valuable insights. You’ll get to know
which offers, channels, and tactics work better for your audience.
 It increases your sales. Each benefit listed above results in a sales increase. If you
communicate your message to the right people via the channels they prefer, you can
boost sales. Advertising during holidays, clearances, and other important occasions will
work in your favor.
Components of an Advertising Message
It doesn’t matter whether you choose online or offline advertising. The structure will be the same
because the nature of human perception predetermines it.
Let’s break it down into five components.
1. A headline. This is the first advertisement element a user notices. It should be eye-
catching and informative since it is usually placed at the top of an ad. A headline conveys
the main idea of an ad, so marketers need to do their best to create a selling headline. It
can be presented as a promise, breaking news, a command, or a question. To make
readers read further, it should be short and unambiguous.
2. A sub-headline. The advertisers sometimes omit this element, but you can’t
underestimate its power. A sub-headline can support and continue your headline. It’s
usually placed right under it, so it’s difficult to leave it unnoticed. If your headline is a
question, a sub-headline can be the answer. These two elements complement each other
perfectly. A sub-headline may be longer than a headline — up to a sentence.
3. Copy. An advertising message copy should answer all the possible questions a user may
have after reading your headline and sub-headline. This is just the place to showcase your
product value. Consider performing a thorough analysis of your target audience to sort
out the most important benefits that can help solve your clients’ problems and sell your
product.
4. Images. This element grabs second place in attracting user attention to an ad after a
headline. Images assist you in visualizing your product, demonstrating its benefits,
creating associations, and keeping your customers interested.
5. Call-to-action. CTA is an action you want users to take after reading your advertising
message. It should tell them directly what they should do next to evaluate the benefits of
your product. It can say “Buy”, “Visit a website”, “Book a seat”, “Reserve a ticket.”

Advertisement Budgets:
An advertising budget is a company’s allocation of promotional expenditures over a specified
time period. It is a measure of a company’s planned expenditure on accomplishing marketing
objectives. The advertising budget is where a company’s strategic marketing objectives and cost-
benefit analysis converge in its operational plans.
The Three Pillars of the Advertising Budget
1. Situational Analysis
A situational analysis identifies the challenges and opportunities facing a company both
internally and externally. The structured analysis breaks down the company, the customers it
serves, and the competition in the market. It relates socio-cultural, technological, economic, and
political-regulatory trends to a company’s operations. Ultimately, the situational analysis sets the
framework for the development of a company’s strategic plan.
2. Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning (STP)
A segmentation, targeting, and positioning (STP) analysis identifies potential opportunities for
an organization to pursue. Segmentation is the process where customer groups are identified. The
customer groups are formed by sorting through geographic, demographic, and psychographic
variables.
Targeting involves selecting the most attractive customer groups. Factors that influence how
attractive a consumer group can be are market size, spending power, or even customer loyalty.
Once market segments are ordinally ranked, the most valuable are targeted.
Positioning requires developing strategies pandering the target markets. The previously
completed situational analysis provides background information to build a positioning strategy.
The purpose of the positioning strategy is to ensure that the value proposition connects with the
targeted market.
A thorough STP analysis is critical in maximizing the impact of an advertising campaign. In
addition, it is important to formulate streamlined strategies to reduce excess costs.
3. Return on Investment
Quantifying an advertising campaign’s impact on a company’s operating income is critical to
understanding the relationship between advertising expenditure and revenue generation. A cost-
benefit analysis is commonly conducted to assess the net financial benefit of a project
undertaken.
The cost-benefit analysis discounts forecasted after-tax operating cash flows to its Net Present
Value (NPV). For any given expenditure on advertising, a company should aim to maximize the
NPV of advertising expenditure.
Industry-Normal Advertising Budget Practices
Common advertising budget methods include:
1. Percentage of Sales Method
Commonly, a company’s advertising budget is a percentage allocation of projected revenues.
Accurately budgeting advertising expenditure requires an in-depth analysis of historical data to
better understand the relationship between advertising and revenues.
Business-to-business companies generally spend between 2%-5% of their revenues on
advertising. On the other hand, business-to-consumer companies generally spend between 5%-
10% of their revenues on advertising.
2. Competitive Parity Method
The competitive parity method is a common strategy utilized by companies that wish not to be
out-advertised by the competition. The strategy involves using competitor advertising spending
as a benchmark for a company’s own spending.
However, budgeting the same amount of money does not guarantee the same outcome for a
company. Therefore, the competitive party method comes with limitations.
3. Objective and Task Method
The objective and task method is commonly used by large corporations. It brings forth is a strong
correlation between advertising spending and overall marketing objectives. The method is only
as useful as its underlying strategic objectives.
Measuring Advertising Effectiveness:
The marketing manager is deeply interested in knowing how far his advertising has succeeded in
achieving its objectives. He needs to evaluate the effectiveness of advertising for three purposes:
(i) To improve the effectiveness of advertising by making changes in advertising message,
media, timing, etc. Such an evaluation provides him invaluable guidance in planning the
optimum media mix.
(ii) To convince management about the instrumentality of advertising in improving the firm’s
profitability so as to get the required level of budget appropriation for advertising.
(iii) To determine the optimum level of advertising expenditure. Measurement of advertising
effectiveness has turned out to be an extremely complex and challenging task. Sales are the result
of such a large number of variables including the product, price, distribution channels,
advertising, personal selling, etc., that it is impossible to determine what proportion of it is due to
effective advertising. However, marketing researchers have developed some tools for measuring
the communication as well as sales effectiveness of advertising.
Measures used for measuring advertising effectiveness: A number of tests have been developed
for measuring the communication effectiveness of advertising. It is generally assumed that there
is a positive relationship between communication and sales effect of advertising but it is not
known how strong is that relationship.
Recall tests: Recall tests of measuring advertising effectiveness are aimed at determining how
many people saw or heard the advertisement and how many of them remember it. The
respondents are shown some or all of the previously run advertisements, and they are asked what
part of it they remembered and could they recall its sponsor. The assumption underlying this test
is that larger the number of people who remember the advertisement, the larger the number of
people who will buy the product. Recall tests are also called rectgniti9n, readership and
viewership tests.
Response Tests: Both consumer and industrial product advertisements sometimes include a
response coupon urging the reader to place order or seek more information. Television and radio
commercials similarly urge the viewers/listeners to respond at the specified address or telephone
number. Effectiveness of such advertisements is measured in terms of responses received.
Attitude and Opinion Tests: A number of tests have been devised for measuring the impact of
advertising in modifying the attitude or opinion of potential customers. Axelord has listed the
following tests of this nature. The Lottery Measure: The respondents are asked which brand in
the product class would they prefer to have if they were to win a lottery.
The Rating Scale: The respondents are given a rating scale for indicating the degree of their like
or dislike for the advertiser’s brand. The Predisposition-to-Buy Scale: The respondents are asked
to indicate their brand preference by choosing one of the statements provided to them. These
statements read something like this: I will surely buy X brand; I will never buy X brand.
The Constant Sum Scale: The respondents are given a list including the advertiser’s brand and
its competing brands. There is a pocket beside each brand name. Respondents are asked to
distribute cards in these pockets to indicate the likelihood of their purchase of the brand
concerned. A respondent may put several or no cards in front of any brand.
Paired Comparison: The respondents are given advertiser’s brand along with its two
competitive brands at a time. They have to indicate their preferred brand from each pair until
they arrive at their most preferred brand.
Forced Switching: This method is similar to lottery method with the only difference that the
respondents are asked to indicate that if they win the lottery, what brand except their regular
brand, they would prefer to receive as a gift.
Advertising Recall: The respondents are asked to recall what advertisements they have read,
seen, or heard during the past three months.
 First and Second Choice: The respondents are asked to indicate the brand they would buy if
they were to go shopping immediately. Then they are asked that if their preferred brand was not
available, what other brand they would buy.
Awareness: The respondents are asked to tell the brands of the advertiser’s product class.
Buying Game: The respondents are given a number of cards with each card describing a unique
shopping situation they might possibly encounter if they went out shopping. They are asked to
indicate the brand they would buy in each of these situations.

Social Media Promotion:

Social media is one of the best places to build awareness of your brand online. It’s a major reason
why businesses use social media promotion, but some other benefits of social media include that it
can:
 Target audiences with pin-point precision: Social media platforms know a lot about their users.
If you promote your brand on social media, you can take advantage of that information to target
your audience based on demographics such as age, location, preferences, behaviors, etc.
 Reach new audiences similar to yours: Because of social media’s targeting power, you can
easily target potential customers that have similar demographics to your current audience.
 Send qualified traffic to your site: With social media advertising, you can easily direct traffic
interested in your brand to your site to boost conversion rates.
 Boost sales and leads: Social media platforms let you advertise your products and services.
Many platforms even allow you to set up landing pages and stores directly on the platform
(think Facebook Marketplace) so people can easily convert or buy.
 Help you better understand your audience: With advanced targeting and tracking provided by
social media platforms, you can more easily analyze the data and optimize your social media
promotions to match your audience.
 Provide quality means of engagement with your audience: The social nature of social media
platforms means people are eager to interact and engage with others. Considering that 74% of
people follow brands on social media, you have ample opportunities to engage with your audience
using social media.
Promoting on social media helps work towards gaining a substantial presence on social media so
long as you’re willing to make consistency an integral part of your social media presence.
How to promote on social media: Are you ready to start promoting on social media? Follow these
eight steps for promoting your brand!
1. Choose your social media platform
The first step to promoting on social media is choosing the right social media platform. It takes
some research to find where your audience likes to hang out, as well as some willingness to
experiment and try different platforms.
There’s a wide variety of social media platforms to choose from, including:
 Face book: Face book is the most widely used social media platform. With a massive user base
of more than a billion users a day, there’s a high chance that you’ll be able to hit your target
audience spot on when promoting. Use it to boost your brand awareness and encourage positive
word-of-mouth about your brand.
 Instagram: Instagram is a visually-based social media platform. This platform is great for using
photos and videos to promote your products and brand. With 60% of users checking in daily, you
can build up a fear of missing out (FOMO) with your promotions. With Instagram, you can make
good use of appealing to the visual side of people.
 Twitter: Twitter is an excellent platform for keeping your audience informed and engaged with
your brand. Used by more than 20% of Americans, Twitter’s the best place for conversation-
engaging posts and showing off your brand’s personality.
 YouTube: Videos are valuable to increasing engagement and building brand awareness.
YouTube is a great platform to create videos that you can share on other social platforms. By
creating YouTube videos, you can increase brand association by as much as 139%.
 Pinterest: Pinterest is the place to inspire your audience. Businesses use Pinterest to promote
products and shopping experiences because 48% of American social media users use Pinterest to
research products. Use Pinterest to drive traffic and sales.
 LinkedIn: This platform is a networking platform that allows professionals to connect with other
professionals and businesses. LinkedIn is great if you’re a B2B company (80% of B2B social
media leads come from LinkedIn) or want to promote products and services that appeal to people
working in a particular industry, position, and more.
 TikTok: This video platform is popular among Gen Z audiences. TikTok uses short-form and live
videos that can be set to music. You can use this platform if you’re targeting a younger
demographic and want to reach them where they’re likely to engage.

2. Build up your brand on social media: The simplest way to promote your business on social
media is to start building your brand on your platform of choice.
The idea is to have a place on social media that provides enough information about you and your
brand. When you promote on social media, people will want to know more about your brand’s
personality and identity.
3. Complete your profile
Your profile contains information about your business, and it’s where users will go when they
want to know more details about your business. To do social media promotion successfully, you
need to have your business information readily available on your profile.
The type of information you can add will vary with the platform, but generally, you should
include:
  Your brand name
 A branded profile picture
 Your company’s location
 A link to your website
 A link to your website
 A short description of what your business does
 Links to any other social media accounts you may have
4. Integrate your logo
Your logo is what your audience will use to identify you on social media. Think about Target’s
logo, the red bulls eye (along with their cute terrier mascot, Bulls eye), people can recognize it
anywhere.
On social media, your profile picture will stand out more than your profile name, so it’s essential
to have a well-branded logo.
Your logo helps you improve brand identity. It helps give your brand a personality, making it
much easier for people to form a connection with your brand. It can also provide you with a
source for the social media promotional material that people are excited to follow and engage
with.
5. Use hashtags with your content
Hashtags are a lot like keywords in search engine optimization (SEO). Users on social media use
hashtags to find content that they find interesting. Using an industry-appropriate hashtag like
#UrbanOutfitters or #coldbrewcoffee can help your audience find your brand on social media.
Additionally, if you’re running a social media promotion campaign, use brand hashtags so users
can easily find your promotional content. You also get free advertising whenever anyone else uses
your branded hashtags.
For example, If Urban Outfitters was running a contest as promotional content, they could use
hashtags like #UOGiveaway and #UOContest to promote it.
Hashtags are most active on platforms like Twitter and Instagram. If you’re using either of those
networks, you’ll want to ensure you use the right hashtags to promote your business.
6. Post content on your social profiles
If you want to gain followers on social media, you must post content frequently and consistently.
Consistency ensures your content reaches your audience, while high-quality, relevant, and
authentic content gets your audience to engage.
Every social media promotion campaign needs content. From text posts to videos, your content is
a reflection of your business and brand. The content you post on social media showcases your
brand personality, so make sure that everything you post has a consistent look and feel.
7. Use social media buttons to promote your profiles
Social media buttons are a great way to promote your social media presence outside of social
media.
You can add buttons for your social media networks to a wide variety of places. Some great areas
for social media buttons include:
 Emails
 Blog posts
 Website footer or sidebar
 About pages
You’ll want to keep the size of your social media links in mind. In most cases, you want your
social media links to be small but identifiable so people can easily navigate to the social page of
interest.

8. Cross-promote on other channels

If you want to maximize results with your social media promotion strategy, use cross-channel
marketing to help you reach a wider audience.
Email marketing is one strategy you can use to help you promote content from social media.
Having a solid email marketing campaign can help keep your audience informed of when you
host social media promotional campaigns.