RETAIL PROMOTION

Dr. Isita Lahiri

Department of Business Administration
University of Kalyani
RETAIL PROMOTION

A retailer must adopt strategies to create an image before customers

either by customer service or by a wide assortment of merchandise.

 Every customer should be communicated properly with its variety

and assortment of merchandise, services, price position, shopping
experiences, location, type and extent of personal selling and so on.
Promotion plays the role of creating and communicating the image
of the retail store.
Concept of Retail Promotion
• The method of communicating to customers various aspects of a
retail store, including features, specialities and competitive benefits, is
known as retail promotion.
• Barry Berman and Joel Evans defined retail promotion as any
communication by a retailer that informs, persuades, and/or reminds
the target market about any aspect of the firm.
• Retail promotion makes the detailed information to reach customers.
As a retail unit exists separately from the manufacturers' brand, it
tries to create a retail brand image resorting to methods of
communication, the retail promotion.
Elements of Promotional Mix
• Promotional mix in common parlance means the components or elements
through which retailers communicate with potential and current customers
about the product variety, price position, a assortment of merchandise and
various other services in an interactive manner.
• By integrating or combining the elements, retailers pass information, share
ideas and create image before customers.
• The important elements of promotion mix are advertising, sales
promotion, public relations and publicity and personal selling.
• These tools can be used in various combinations to reach the target
audience, sometimes termed integrated marketing communication. In the
following part, all the four elements are discussed in detail.
1. Advertising: Retailers purchase time and space in some media vehicle, which helps
them make their message reach the prospective customers of the retail stores. It is
sometimes termed mass promotion or mass selling technique. Advertising is a non-
personal and primarily out-of-store promotion, where generally a mass medium is used.
There can be many forms of advertisement used in retail, but in this section, we discuss
only the main forms.

• In-store advertisement: In the case of in-store advertisements, retailers can use visual displays,
signage and so on, and in collaboration with the manufacturer, can distribute pamphlets, brochures
and so on inside the store. This is also termed Point of Purchase (POP) advertisement. The
packaging of the merchandise also serves the purpose of in-store advertisements and enhances the
brand value of the product. Retailers can also promote their private brands with help of in-store
advertisements. Here, it is important to mention that the store-in-store concepts also works as in-
store promotion, as the retailers selling complimentary products help in increasing footfall in the
store, and get benefited from one another's traffic.
• Cross promotion: Cross promotions are also important as in-store promotions where in the
retailers allow one another's product to be promoted and sold in their respective stores on the
basis of their mutual benefit. This arrangement can exist for specific events also. For example:
Archies has cross promotions with McDonald's, Barista, Café Coffee Day etc, The brand value of
both the parties enhances in cross promotion.
• Outdoor advertisement: Outdoor advertisements are static displays placed at key locations that
are visible to prospective customers. It may depict epigrams, quotations, slogans and so on. It has
been the conventional way used by retailers to communicate to prospects. Outdoors
advertisements offer a big opportunity as millions of people move out of their places to wat metro
cities. Increase in the number of women in the workforce has given outdoor advertising a further
impetus. Outdoor advertising can be done through the following methods.

 Billboards: These are big-sized posters in the form of sheets and sometimes depict larger than-life
images. Billboards are also termed hoardings in common parlance. Digitization and use of lights
have further enhanced the appeal of billboards as a medium of advertisement. Now, mobile
billboards are also being used by retailers to convey the message to places where it is not possible
to put a static billboard. They are usually carried on a vehicle
Street furniture: It is generally in the form of bus shelters, taxi shelters
and so on. It is basically in the form of an urban advertisement where
the message is given on the wall or so of those mentioned earlier.
Transit advertisements: On the sides of buses, taxis and trains,
retailers can put their for the advertisement message. This can also be
given on their delivery van and other vehicles used purpose of
transporting their goods. Big Bazaars are also using transit ads in a
significant manner.
Glow signs and hoardings: These are commonly used in outdoor
advertisements. Companies used LCD screens to display their
advertisements. Standard Chartered Bank has tied up with taxi drivers
to carry out its advertisements. Planet M also using roadside
advertisements.
• Online advertising: Now the term Netizens is specifically used for
net surfers, who are mostly young. Sellers such as Archies, a
leisure store chain, and Qwiky's, a quick service food retailer
along with many other retail organizations are already making
strenuous efforts to exploit potential for youth marketing on the
Internet. The e-mail campaigns of many retailers and other sellers
• Celebrity-endorsement advertising: Now, celebrity endorsement
has become a trend in advertising Big Bazaar has engaged famous
cricketer MS Dhoni to enhance its appeal among the masses
2. Sales promotion: Retailers, always want to enhance the
perceived value of merchandise before customer. The various
methods of sales promotion adopted by retailers are:
• Price-led promotion: The various discount schemes, rebates
etc. are designed and offered by retailers to attract customers.
In price-off packs, the product is sold at a reduced price from its
normal selling price.
• Assured gifts: Nowadays, most retailers selling consumer-
durable offer assured gifts such as bags, electric irons and
holiday trips with purchase of home appliances like LCDs, air
conditioners, microwave ovens, washing machines and so on.
• Premiums: Premiums are in the form of small gifts that a
customer gets on purchasing a product. It is attached to the
pack or put inside the pack.
• Samples: Samples are miniatures of actual products, which are distributed among
people free of cost to win new customers. These are important for retail
merchandise, especially for food products and consumer goods such as cosmetics.

• Coupons: There are special discounts for customers who redeem advertised coupons.
Coupons are pasted on the products as a part of package, or printed or distributed
through newspapers, or printed on the back of receipts.

• Demonstrations: Demonstrations have become a potential sales promotion tool. It is

extensively used by sellers to beauty products, food products and food-preparing
equipment such as electrical tandoors and sprout makers.
• Sweepstakes: Here, shoppers are required to submit their names to be included in
the draw for prizes. The retailers may get simple forms filled up by the customers to
provide basic information, which can be used in the future promote sales.
• Contests: In this type of sales promotion, customers participate in small
competitions such as tambola and puzzle and some other games on the basis of
their creativity and analytical skill. Titan's Fastrack eye wear, selling fashion
accessories, conducted ‘Cool guy and coolest girl' contest in a road show organized
in Bangalore, where college students had an opportunity to get photographed while
trying out Fastrack's sunglasses.
• Financing options: Retailers offer customers a monthly installment scheme to
purchase the merchandise. Some retailers explicitly mention the equalized monthly
instalments (EMI) amount in their advertisement messages. This has become a
norm in the case of consumer durables and automobiles.
• Loyalty Programmes: These are frequent-purchase initiatives, which include loyalty
car Lifestyle stores like Inner Circle have membership programme .
• Product innovation: Retailers also use product-based innovations as a sales
promotion technique. For example, Pizza Comer has launched a square-shaped
Sicilian Pizza. This type of motions may be difficult in the case of the manufacturer's
branded products, unless customer support or participate in these kinds of
innovations. .
THANK YOU