9.
0 PROMOTION MIX DECISIONS
9.1 Introduction
Promotion in general and advertising in particular are the activities most commonly associated
with the term “marketing” although marketing orientation goes far beyond these functions.
Promotion refers to the processes used by an organization in order to communicate with its
customers, both actual and potential. It involves the specific mix of advertising, sales promotion,
personal selling, public relations, publicity and direct marketing.
9.2 The Promotion Mix Tools
9.2.1 Advertising
This is any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services by
an identified sponsor through the media. Adverting offers a reason to buy. It includes print and
electronic media.
Advantages of Advertising
i) It is very expressive. I.e. it allows the company to dramatize its products through the artful
use of visuals, print, sound and color.
ii) It can be used to build up long-term image for a product e.g. Coca-cola, Omo, Tusker, Blue
band ads etc.
iii) It triggers off quick sales.
iv) It can be used to influence, persuade and remind customers about the existence of the brands.
v) Wider coverage of the market.
Disadvantages of Advertising
i) Advertising is impersonal and cannot be as directly persuasive as the company sales force.
ii) Advertising can only in most instances involve a one-way communication with the audience
and the audience may not feel that it has to pay attention or respond i. e no immediate
response.
iii) It can be very costly i.e. T.V advertising
9.2.2 Personal Selling
This is face to face or door to door selling of products/services. It is the personal presentation by
the firm’s sales force for the purpose of making sales and building customer relationships. It
includes sales presentations, demonstrations, trade shows etc.
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Advantages
i) The customers usually feel greater need to listen and respond, even if the response is a polite
“no thank you”.
ii) Encourages flexibility in operations.
iii) Products are tailor-made for the right customer group.
iv) The sale person can read the reactions of the customer through face to face presentation or
demonstration.
v) Encourages efficiency in dealing with the target market
vi) Enhances relationship selling, increased profitability and increased customer loyalty.
Disadvantages
i) It involves high costs of employing, training, remunerating and even development of the
sales force.
ii) It is limited by company’s inability to get the right sales force to carry out the job (due to this
many retailers have abandoned the use of sales force and shifted to the self-service stores).
9.2.3 Sales Promotion
It consists of a diverse collection of incentive-tools; mostly short-term designed to stimulate
quick and greater purchase of particular products/services. It offers an incentive to buy. It
includes samples, coupons, price-off, prices, patronage reward and point of purchase displays
among others. This includes a wide assortment of tools e.g. coupons, contests, cent-off deals,
premiums and other incentives.
The incentives attract consumer attention, offer strong incentives to purchase and can be used to
dramatize products offers and to boost sagging sales. Sales promotions invite and reward quick
response- whereas advertising says “buy our product” while sales promotion says “buy it now”.
Sales promotions are often short lived.
9.2.4 Publicity
This is a non-personal form of demand stimulation and is not paid for by the person or
organization benefiting from it. It takes the form of favourable news presentation or some form
of public address.
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9.2.5 Public Relations
A public is a group that has an actual or potential interest in or impact on a company’s ability to
achieve its objectives. Public relations (pr) include a variety of programs designed to produce or
protect a company’s image or its individual products. Main tools in public relation are
publications, events, news, speeches or services activities among others.
It involves building good relations with the company’s various publics by obtaining favourable
publicity, building up a good corporate image and handling or heading off unfavourable
rumours, stories and events.
9.2.6 Direct Marketing
This is direct communication with carefully targeted individual consumers to obtain an
immediate response and create a lasting customer relationship. It includes telemarketing,
catalogs, faxes etc.
Forms of direct marketing include telemarketing, direct mail, electronic marketing and on-line
marketing among others.
Direct Marketing is:
i) Non-public: The message is normally addressed to a specific person.
ii) Immediate: Message can be prepared very quickly.
iii) Customized: Message can be tailored to appeal to a specific group of customers.
iv) Interactive: It allows a dialogue between the marketer and the customer and the message can
be altered depending on the consumer’s response.
Thus direct marketing is well suited to highly targeted marketing efforts and to building one to
one customer relationships.
9.3 Factors affecting the Promotional Mix
The markets must decide what combinations of advertising, personal selling and other
promotional tools will make the most effective promotional program form the country.
The following factors should be taken into consideration when deciding the promotional mix:-
Capital Resources: A company with more funds will make more effective use of advertising
than an enterprise without ample funds.
Nature of the Market: Geographical scope- small or local markets can be reached through
personal selling whereas for a larger market, the marketers will put more emphasis on
advertising.
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Types of Customers: Whether the company aims at industrial users, consumers or middle men.
What is the target market?
Concentration of the Market: The fewer the buyers the more effective is personal selling. More
and widely sparced buyers will be reached more effectively using advertising
The Nature of the Product: Consumer products vs. industrial products require different
advertising strategies. Convenience goods that ate widely distributed would be advertised
through mass media since they do not need any special explanations. For the custom- made
products, one would use personal selling to reach out to the consumers. Industrial goods also use
a lot of personal selling.
Stages of the Product Life Cycle: Promotional strategies are influenced by life cycle stages of a
product which include:
i. Introductory stage: To educate and inform the customers about the product.
ii. Growth stage: To stimulate demand since competition has set in.
iii. Maturity stage: Persuade the customers to buy, provide information, and maintain the market
share of the product and to undertake reminder advertising.
iv. Decline: Sales decline and new products come up. The marketers may reduce the advertising
expenditure etc.
Factors to consider when setting an Advertising Budget
i) Type of media to be used: Personal or non-personal.
ii) Stages in the product life cycle: New products receive larger advertising expenditures to
build awareness and gain consumer trial.
iii) Market share and consumer base: Higher market share brand usually requires lower
advertising budgets.
iv) Competition: Larger number of competitors, higher budgets on advertising in order to be
heard above the noise in the market.
v) Communication Frequency: The number of times the advert has to be repeated.
vi) Product sustainability: Brands in a commodity class e.g. cigarettes, beer, and soft drink
require heavy advertising to sustain them in the market.
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9.4 Promotion Mix Strategies
9.4.1 Push Strategy
This is a promotion strategy that calls for using the sales force and trade promotion to push the
product or service through the distribution channels to the final consumers. That is the marketers
or producers direct their marketing efforts (primarily personal selling and trade promotions)
towards channel members to induce them to carry the product and to promote it to the final
consumers
9.4.2 Pull Strategy
This is a promotion strategy that calls for spending a lot on advertising and consumer promotions
to build consumer demand, which pulls the product or service through the channels. That is the
marketers direct their marketing efforts (primarily advertising and consumer promotions)
towards the final consumers to induce them to buy the product.
