PUSH and PULL

© SOFT Student Handouts,

By, Sunil Talekar, Faculty, SOFT-Pune
 What is Push?
In push marketing, a company tries to push its products through the distribution channel. It
advertises to intermediaries, such as wholesalers and retailers, who then try to generate
demand from end users. Sometimes, companies may push information and promotional
material directly to end users through email or fliers to generate demand

All private labels send

a mobile SMS for any new
offer and discount.

Push marketing reaches

b potential customers
directly.

A company could create an email database of

c potential customers and send them product
announcements and promotions directly

Supermarkets often employ push promotional tactics by giving away samples of new products.
What is Pull?
In pull marketing, the company tries to draw in customers through different kinds of
advertising, such as TV ads, online banner ads and social media. Some companies use both
push and pull marketing to generate demand.

A more creative pull marketing

strategy might be to advertise in social
a media literary forums and build
online communities
Grocery stores oftenaround authors.
advertise leader
items in the weekend fliers to attract
b customers hoping that they would
then buy some of the higher-priced
items.
A company could create an email
database of potential customers and
c
send them product announcements
and promotions directly

d Online banner ads, and radio and TV ads are other forms of pull
marketing.
Push Basics
Push marketing is so-named because suppliers effectively try to push their products through
the distribution channel by inducing their buyers to purchase them for resale. Trade buyers
generally want to buy at a low price, add a markup and resell to their buyers to earn a profit.
When a manufacturer offers a wholesaler a sales promotion or a volume discount, it enables
the wholesaler to earn a higher profit margin if it can resell effectively to retailers.
Wholesalers can then offer similar inducements to retailers to give them profit advantages.

Pull Basics
Pull marketing is so-named because marketers try to stimulate demand at the end customer
level by promoting the benefits or value of products to consumers. This includes brand
building advertising as well as consumer sales promotions that given consumers a better
price for the same benefits. The premise is that if end customers demand products in the
marketing place, all businesses in the distribution channel benefit because of strong demand
and likely higher price points.
 Using Push and Pull
A company may use both push and pull marketing to drive sales
growth.
1. A major commercial insurance company, uses push
marketing to create awareness in a new or existing product,
and then targets banner ads to pull in customers when they
search online for more information on the product. 2.
2. A pizza restaurant may use newspaper ads to pull in
customers and fliers to push information about its menus
directly into customer mailboxes.

Push and pull marketing both rely on conveying benefits to customers.

What is pull marketing?
Pull marketing is where you develop advertising and promotional strategies that are meant to
entice the prospect to buy your product or service. Some classic examples are "half off!" or
"bring in this coupon to save 25%" or "buy one get one free", etc.
With pull marketing, you are trying to create a sense of increased, time limited value so that
the customer will come into your store to buy.

What is push marketing?

Push marketing is where you develop advertising and promotional strategies geared toward your
marketing and distribution channels to entice them in promoting your product. As consumers, you
rarely see this type of marketing when it is directed to the distributors. It might include wholesale
discounts, kickbacks, bonuses, and other types of support. It's all designed to have the retailer
promote your product to the end users over a different product.
When companies encourage happy customers to spread the word to their friends and families, that's
a type of push marketing. Or, when companies make ads that are controversial, cheeky, or
downright shocking, they create a little buzz - that's another type of push marketing.
Advertising as Both Push and Pull

Retailers and manufacturers sometimes cooperate in joint advertising campaigns, utilizing

both push and pull strategies. A manufacturer may push a new product, for example, along
with a retailer by both "available
agreeing toatpay
Retailer
for TVX and
now."
print ads promoting the new product as

Advertising can be viewed as both a push and a pull retailer strategy. Ads attempt to pull
the customer into the store, ideally asking by name for the very products that appeared on
TV or in newspaper ads.

But the technique also pushes a manufacturer's products directly to consumers. In addition,
TV commercials that create buzz --- annual Super Bowl ads are a good example --- often
provide good word-of-mouth push advertising while simultaneously creating a pull-
advertising effect on recipients of such second-hand renditions. Retailers utilizing a push-
pull strategy must divide their efforts and money between promotions and end-user
advertising, according to "Marketing Help!"
 Difference Between Promotional Push Strategies & Promotional Pull Strategies?

Push versus pull are two prominent marketing strategies used by companies to market their products.

Pull marketing means marketing to end customers to create demand, while push
marketing means enticing trade buyers to purchase and carry your product by offering
promotions and price inducements that give them better profit potential.

Distribution Process

To understand the implications of push and pull marketing you need familiarity with the
distribution or trade channel. This is the systematic process products typically go through as they
flow from initial product and development at the manufacturing level to final purchase at the
consumer level. Along the way, distributors traditionally buy products from manufacturers and
resell them to retailers. Retailers then hold products in inventory and offer them for sale to the end
customer.
 PUSH PULL
STRATEGY STRATEGY

1. A push strategy is directing the

1. A pull strategy has the
communication primarily at the
communication directed at the end
middlemen that are the next link
users — primarily consumers.
forward in the producer’s
2. a pull strategy directs promotion
distribution channel.
at the end consumer
2. a push strategy directs
3. most consumer products would
communication efforts at channel
rely more heavily on a pull strategy
members
where promotion is directed at the
3. many products, such as business
consumer to stimulate demand
products, are promoted with a push
strategy, involving personal selling
and use of trade promotions
Push manufacturing

Push and Pull Manufacturing

Push type" means make to Stock in which the production is not based on actual
demand. "Pull type" means make to Order in which the production is based on actual
demand. In supply chain management, it is important to carry out processes halfway
between push type and pull type or by a combination of push type and pull type.

Pull manufacturing
s
is
gio

Pull type production or Make to order

n
f
ie
ns
M
gs
T
O
im
so
v
d
a"e
E
lr
T
y
O
i,
s
(f
E
to
no
rg
im
ena
x
en
aeu
rfm
p
a
lT
c
ote
u,
O
r
rea
dn
ep
Pull type production or Make to order
Pull-type production, such as MTO, BTO, ATO, and ETO, is a business model of the assembly industry in which the
quantity to produce per product specification is one or only a few.
For example, construction, plant construction, aircraft, vessels, bridges, and so on.

From the viewpoint of supply chain management, it has been proven that those who can satisfy
due dates promised with customers and can shorten lead times will have an competitive
advantage. Even if the production quantity increases, if push-type products that are manufactured
by MTS can be manufactured by pull-type production such as MTO and ATO models using SCM
software or information technology, then there will be greater business opportunities.

ATO (Assemble to Order) of computers by Dell Inc. and production of sports bicycle by National
Bicycle Industrial Co., Ltd. are examples of creating a new business model by matching the
diversification of products with ATO, BTO, ETO, and with new-style marketing.
National Bicycle Industrial Co., Ltd. says
"We can deliver a custom-made bicycle to you within two weeks."
Solectron Corporation says
"We can assemble the computer you requested and deliver it within a week."
These are examples of business models in which new supply chain models are created as
marketing models.
Make to Stock: In MTS (Make to Stock); products are manufactured
based on demand forecasts. Since accuracy of the forecasts will prevent
excess inventory and opportunity loss due to stock out, the issue here is
how to forecast demands accurately.

MTS (Make to Stock) literally means to manufacture products for stock

based on demand forecasts, which can be regarded as push-type
production. MTS has been required to prevent opportunity loss due to
stockout and minimize excess inventory using accurate forecasts. In the
industrialized society of mass production and mass marketing, this
forecast mass production urged standardization and efficient business
management such as cost reduction.
 An Illustration
Manufacturer Wholesaler Retailer Consumer

PUSH STRATEGY

Producer Wholesaler Retailer Consumer

PULL STRATEGY

Product flow Communication effort

Push versus pull promotion strategy
Producer Reseller
marketing marketing
activities Retailer & activities
Producer wholesalers Consumers

Push strategy

Demand Demand
Producer Retailer & Consumers
wholesalers

Producer marketing activities

Pull strategy
 NK
H A
T !!!
O U
Y