Promotion

Kamal K. Gupta
Assistant Professor
Ajay Kumar Garg Institute of Management
Ghaziabad
 Marketing Communications
• Means by which firms attempt to inform,
persuade, and remind consumers—
directly or indirectly—about the products
and brands that they sell.
Integrated Marketing Communications

• IMC is a concept of marketing

communications planning that recognizes
the added value of a comprehensive plan.
– American Marketing Association
Marketing Communications Mix
• Advertising
• Sales promotion
• Public relations and publicity
• Personal selling
• Direct marketing
The communications process models

• Macromodel of the communications

process
• Micromodel of consumer responses
– AIDA model
– Hierarchy-of-effects model
– Innovation-adoption model
 Steps in developing effective communications
1. Identify target audience
2. Determine objectives
3. Design communications
1. Message strategy
2. Creative strategy
3. Message source
4. Select channels
1. Personal
2. Non-personal
3. Integrated effort
5. Establish budget
1. Affordable method
2. Percentage-of-sales method
3. Competitive-parity method
4. Objective-and-task method
6. Decide on media mix
7. Measure results
8. Manage integrated marketing communications
 Advertising
• Advertising is any paid form of non-
personal presentation and promotion of
ideas, goods and services by an identified
sponsor.
– American Marketing Association
 Primary Objectives of Advertising

• Information
• Persuasion
• Reinforcement
 Functions of Advertising
• Stimulates demand
• Strengthens other promotional mix
elements
• Develops brand preference
• Competitive weapon
 Sales Promotion
• Sales promotions are short-term incentives to
encourage purchase on sale of a product or
service.
• According to Prof. Philip Kotler, sales
promotions have 3 distinctive characteristics:
– Communication (gain attention and usually
provide information that may lead the consumer
to the product)
– Incentive (positive value)
– Initiation (engage in transaction ‘NOW’)
Objectives of Sales Promotion
• Proactive category:
– To gain additional market share
– To expand the target market
– To add extra value to the product and develop brand
franchise
• Reactive category:
– In response to competitive moves
– In case of excess inventories
– To generate short-term cash
– In case of discontinuation of product / close-down of
business
 Personal Selling
• Personal selling takes place when a seller
or sales person, in a face-to-face
interaction with a potential buyer, tries to
persuade him to purchase the product or
service he is promoting on behalf of the
company.
 Types of Sales Persons
• Order takers
• Order getters
• Support personnel
 Personal Selling Process
1. Prospecting
2. Pre-approach
3. Approach
4. Presentation
5. Handling objections
6. Closing
7. Follow-up
 Public Relations (PR)
• The planned and sustained effort to
establish and maintain goodwill and
mutual understanding between the
organisation and its public.
– Institute of Public Relations, U.K.
 Role of PR
• Identify the relevant public
• Influence the opinion of public by:
– Reinforcing the favourable opinions
– Transforming neutral opinions of the public
into positive ones
– Changing or neutralising hostile opinions
 Major Tools of PR
• PR managers prepare brochures,
newsletters, in-house magazines, annual
reports, and news releases
• PR managers use publicity (unpaid form of
mass communication) to enhance the image
of the company
– News release, captioned photograph, featured
article, press conference
• Event sponsorship
 Direct Marketing
• Direct marketing is the use of consumer-
direct channels to reach and deliver goods
and services to customers without using
marketing middlemen.
• Direct marketing channels include direct
mail, catalogs, telemarketing, interactive
TV, kiosks, websites, etc.
 Benefits of Direct Marketing
• Enjoyable, convenient, and hassle free
• Easy comparative shopping
• Customised and personalised marketing efforts
• Efficient and effective market coverage
• Cost-effective media strategy
• Less visible offer and strategy to competitors
• Better monitoring of marketing efforts