Thursday, 8 January 2015

INTRODUCTION, MEANING AND DEFINATION OF SALES PROMOTION- MARKETING MANAGEMENT



INTRODUCTION, MEANING AND DEFINATION OF SALES PROMOTION
BY
SMART LEARNING WAY       

CONTENTS     

  INTRODUCTION TO SALES PROMOTION.

  MEANING OF SALES PROMOTION.

 WHAT IS SALES PROMOTION?
 
 DEFINITIONS OF SALES PROMOTION.

 WHY INCREASE IN THE SALES PROMOTION?

 ADVANTAGES OF SALES PROMOTION.

  DISADVANTAGES OF SALES PROMOTION.

  DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ADVERTISMENT AND SALES PROMOTION.

 CONCLUSION 

  BIBLIOGRAPHY.

INTRODUCTION

Sales promotion offers a direct inducement to act by providing extra worth over and above what is built into the product at its normal price. These temporary inducements are offered usually at a time and place where the buying decision is made. Not only are sales promotions very common in the current competitive market conditions, they are increasing at a fast pace. These promotions are direct inducements.
  
 In spite of the directness, sales promotions are fairly complicated and a rich tool of marketing with innumerable creative possibilities limited only by the  imagination of promotion planners. Sales promotion is often referred to by the names of ‘extra purchase value’ and ‘below-the-line selling’.
    
 Today we find companies in almost all sectors offering some sort of a promotion scheme. These sectors range from automobiles to beverages, from financial services to foods, from household durables to services, from household products to business products, from personal care to textiles and apparel.

MEANING OF SALES PROMOTION

Every businessman wants to increase the sale of goods that he deals in. He can adopt several ways for that purpose. You might have heard about “lakhpati bano”, “win a tour to Singapore”, “30% extra in a pack of one kg”, “scratch the card and win a prize” etc. You might also have seen gifts like lunch box, pencil box, pen, shampoo pouch etc. offered free with some products.

There are also exchange offers, like in exchange of existing model of television you can get a new model at a reduced price.
 
You may have also observed in your neighboring markets notices of “winter sale”, “summer sale”, “trade fairs”, “discount up to 50%” and many other schemes to attract customers to buy certain products. 

All these are incentives offered by manufacturers or dealers to increase the sale of their goods. These incentives may be in the form of free samples, gifts, discount coupons, demonstrations, shows, contests etc. All these measures normally motivate the customers to buy more and thus, it increases sales of the product. This approach of selling goods is known as “Sales Promotion”.

Personal selling involves face-to-face contact with specific individuals, while advertising is directed towards a large number of potential customers.  They also help in increasing sales of goods. 

Thus, advertising can be used as means of communication to inform potential customers about the incentives offered for sales promotion. Personal selling can as well include communication of the incentives to individual customers. But, sales promotion differs from advertising and personal selling in terms of its approach and technique.

Sales promotion adopts short term, non-recurring methods to boost up sales in different ways. These offers are not available to the customers throughout the year. During festivals, end of the seasons, year ending and some other occasions these schemes are generally found in the market. 

Thus, sales promotion consists of all activities other than advertising and personal selling that help to increase sales of a particular commodity.

What is Sales Promotion?

Various techniques to enhance brand value
           Integrated activity: Ad/PR/Marketing
·         Increasing brand value for:
Consumers
Consumer sales promotion
Retailers
Trade-market sales promotion

DEFINITION OF SALES PROMOTION

Sales promotion includes incentive-offering and interest-creating activities which are generally short-term marketing events other than advertising, personal selling, publicity and direct marketing. The purpose of sales promotion is to stimulate, motivate and influence the purchase and other desired behavioural responses of the firm’s customers.” 

“Sales Promotion is a Marketing Discipline that Utilizes a Variety of Incentive Techniques to Structure Sales-Related Programs Targeted to Consumers, Trade, and/or Sales Levels that Generate a Specific, Measurable Action or Response for a Product or Service.”

 Purpose of sales promotion:

          Attract new tries or brand switchers
          Reward loyal customers
          Increase repurchase rates

Sales promotion refers to many kinds of incentives and techniques directed towards consumers and traders with the intention to produce immediate or short-term sales effects.

Sales promotion is a promotional marketing technique designed to create sales for a product over a defined period of time. Sales promotion activities are measurable in terms of products moved, coupons redeemed, number of contest entries, or other quantifiable count.

Sales promotions are short-term marketing techniques used by a manufacturer for a specific purpose, like increasing market share or to encourage sales during off-peak periods. Sales promotions are often one component in an advertising or marketing campaign. A variety of sales promotion tools are available, such as price reductions, product giveaways and special trial periods.

In marketing, sales promotion is one of the four aspects of promotion.  Sales promotions are non-personal promotional efforts that are designed to have an immediate impact on sales. Sales promotion is media and non-media marketing communications employed for a per-determined, limited time to increase consumer demand, stimulate market demand or improve product availability.

“Sales promotion, a key ingredient in marketing campaign, consists of a diverse collection of incentive tools, mostly short term, designed to stimulate quicker or greater purchase of particular products or services by consumers or the trade.”

“Sales Promotion, in a specific sense refers those sales activities that supplement both personal selling and advertising an co-ordinate them an help to make them effective, such as displays, shows and expositions, demonstrations, an other non-recurrent selling efforts not into the ordinary routine.”

Sales promotion is frequently defined in terms of what it is not, typically as those marketing communications activities which do not fall into the categories of advertising, selling or public relations. This is not very helpful, but definitions trying to explain what this encompasses are often flawed, by failing to embrace all of the marketing tools regarded as sales promotions in practice.

We can define sales promotions as ‘marketing activities usually specific to a time period, place or customer group, which encourage a direct response from consumers or marketing intermediaries, or an added item, service or opportunity.

“Sales promotion refers to any consumer or trade program of limited duration that adds tangible value to a product or brand.”

Sales Promotion is an activity designed to boost the sales of product or service of any organization. It may include an advertising campaign, increased PR (PUBLIC RELATION) activity, a free-sample campaign, offering free gifts or trading stamps, arranging demonstrations or exhibitions, setting up competitions with attractive prizes, temporary price reductions, door-to-door calling, telemarketing, personal letters or other methods.
  
Through the offer of additional benefits. The three key elements of this definition Are that sales promotions are:

1    1.  Non-standard: Promotions are usually temporary, and may be limited to certain customer groups (such as airline frequent flier schemes) or specific to a particular distribution channel (as in ‘tailor-made’ promotions involving a producer and a single retailer).

2 Response orientated: Promotions seek a direct response from customers, or those who deal with customers on the producer’s behalf. The direct response sought is not Necessarily a sale. 
   Promotions may encourage Consumers to send for a brochure, visit a dealer or consume a sample. The ultimate aim is always sales, but this is true of marketing generally.

3 Benefit orientated: Promotions offer their targets additional benefits, beyond the ‘standard’ marketing mix. 

Why the increase in Sales Promotion?

             Growing retailer power
             Declining brand loyalty
             Increased promotional sensitivity
             Brand proliferation
             Fragmentation of consumer market
             Short-term focus
             Increased managerial accountability
             Competition
             Clutter 

ADVANTAGES OF SALES PROMOTION

      Mainly there are 4 advantages of sales promotion they are:
·         Price discrimination.
·         Effect on consumer behaviour.
·         Effect on trade behaviour.
·         Regional Difference.

DISADVANTAGES OF SALES PROMOTION

 Mainly there are 4 disadvantages of sales promotion they are:
·         Increased price sensitivity.
·         Quality image may become tarnished.
·         Merchandising support from dealers is doubtful.
·         Short-term orientation.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ADVERTISEMENT & SALES PROMOTION

ADVERTISEMENT

By using a variety of persuasive appeals, it offers reasons to buy a product or service.
E.g.: Good Network, Promises and Delivers. 

SALES PROMOTION

Besides giving reasons in the form of different appeals, they offer incentive to the consumers to buy the product or service now.

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Appeals are emotional or functional in nature.

Eg: the current ad of “Wherever you go, our network follows.”
          Time-frame is long term.
          The primary objective is to create an enduring brand image.  
Appeals are rational

 It justifies whatever it says.
          Time frame is short term.
          To get sales quickly or to induce trial. 

Indirect and subtle approach towards persuading customers to buy a product or service.
Direct in approach to induce consumers to buy a product or service immediately by temporarily changing the existing price-value relationship of the product or service.

CONCLUSION 

Clearly, sales promotion plays an important role in total promotion mix. To use it well, the marketer must define the sales promotion objectives, select the best tools, design the sales promotion program, implement the program, and evaluate the results. Moreover, sales promotion must be coordinated carefully with other promotion mix elements within the integrated marketing communications program.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 Fundamentals of marketing
William J. Stanton.
           Michael J. Etzel.
           Bruce J. walker.
    Published by: McGraw-hill, INC.

Marketing a Managerial Introduction
    by : J C Gandhi.
    Published by: Tata McGraw-hill Publishing Co.ltd. 

Marketing Management Text and Cases
     by: Douglas J. Darymple.
            Leonard J. Parsons.
     Published by: John Wiley & Sons.

Marketing Management
     by: Philip Kotler.
     Published by: Pearson Education Pvt. Ltd.

Marketing Management
    by: S.A. Sherlekar.
    Published by: Himalayas Publishing House.

Marketing Management
    by: Philip Kotler.
           Kevin Lane Keller.
    Published by: Pearson Education Pvt. Ltd.

Principles of Marketing
   by: Philip Kotler.
          Gary Armstrong.
    Published by: Asoke K. Ghosh, Prentice-Hall of India Pvt. Ltd.

Marketing Management
    Published by: ICFAI Center for Management                    
  Research Banjara Hills, Hyderabad.

Marketing Management ( study guide)
    Published by: ICFAI Center for Management                                         
       Research Banjara Hills, Hyderabad.

   

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