Promotion
Modern marketing calls for more than only develop a good product, pricing it pleasingly, and making it available to focused customers. Companies ought to also communicate with their customers and there might be controlled direction to those communications. Promotion gives the primary communication function. As one of the four chief elements of the marketing mix, sales promotion, promotion uses advertising public, personal selling, relations and direct marketing to gain the company's communication objectives.
Throughout the past several decades, companies around the world have achieved the art of mass marketing. The companies have to recognize that the face of marketing communications is continually changing and, to be effectual in the future, the marketer have to learn to use the new emerging communication techniques. The expansion and challenges of the electronic promotional communication form are excellent. The use of computer technology, a desire to obtain close to the consumer and an enhanced use of direct marketing databases has set the stage for enhanced integrated marketing communications. Under this concept, the company integrates and coordinates carefully its several communication channels-personal selling, mass media advertising, public relations, sales promotion, direct marketing, packaging, and others-to deliver a apparent, consistent, and compelling message regarding the organization and its manufacture. Integrated marketing communications manufacture better communications consistency and superior sales impact.
Integrated marketing communications involves recognizing the target audience and making a well- coordinated promotional program to elicit the desired audience response. Too frequently, marketing communications focus on overcoming instant awareness, image, or preference problems instead of managing the customer relationship over time.
Building on the aforementioned communications model, explained the steps in developing effective communication. One of the most significant decisions to be made by the organization is how much amount to spend on promotion. This discusses many approaches to the organization of a promotional budget and a mix of tools to complete the organization's promotional objectives. There are many strategies that may be considered by the promotional planner. The initial strategies of push and pull are described. Additionally, the purchase-readiness stage and the product life-cycle stage are also considered.
Three of the promotional mix elements (sales promotion, advertising and public relations) are mass communication tools. Advertising is explained as being any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, services and goods by an identified sponsor. There are four vital decisions to be accomplished as the marketer effort to organize and direct the advertising function. Each of these decisions (budget decisions, setting objectives, advertising strategy [media decisions and message decisions], and evaluating advertising campaigns) is explained in detail and described within the context of building an advertising campaign. Additionally, several forms of advertising, many advertising strategies, and descriptions of the mass media are presented to the reader. The marketing firm may undertake the advertising function themselves or they can contract with an advertising agency to accomplish their advertising objective, planning, and implementation.
Sales promotion is a procedure of providing short-term incentives to boost purchase or sales of service or product. Sales promotion offers the purchaser reasons to buy now. Furthermore, sales promotion is also intended to stimulate reseller effectiveness. Sales promotion has grown quickly in the recent past because of pressure to raise sales, raise competition, and the dropping efficiency of the other mass communication methods.
Public relations, the final mass communication tool explained in this chapter, is an effort to build good relations along the company's various publics by getting favourable publicity, building up a good "corporate image," and handling or heading off unfavourable stories rumours, or events. The organization contain a variety of tools at their disposal for achieving this feat. One of the overriding tasks of public relations is to control the relationship and exposure with the mass media. By focusing on consumer, awareness, attitudes and knowledge of the organization, the company is prepared better to succeed. Public relations has even been extended to the Internet and companies are starting explore ways to enhance its effect in the newly emerging world of e-commerce.