Branding & Promotion

• Promotion is the use of marketing tools to bring a product/service to the attention of potential buyers.
• Types of promotion include:

  1. Personal Selling.
  2. Direct Marketing.
  3. Above-The-Line Marketing.
  4. Below-The-Line Marketing.
  5. Public Relations.
  6. Sponsorship.
• Personal Selling is salespeople acting on behalf of the organisation .
• Benefits of Personal Selling are:

  • An effective way to manage business to customer relationships.
  • Sales People are well trained in the approaches and techniques of personal selling.
• Drawbacks of Personal Selling are:

  • Salespeople are very expensive in terms of salary, training, commission.
  • Common public find them annoying.
• Direct marketing is highly focussed target mail based on what customers have bought before.
• Advantages of Direct Marketing are:

  • Enables you to reach target individuals in an efficient way.
  • Support long-term relationships and improve customer satisfaction to increase customer loyalty.
  • Increases customer value to the business.
• Drawbacks to Direct Marketing:

  • People find it intrusive.
  • Has low responsive rates.
  • Using things like leaflets or heavy mail can be bad for the enviroment.
• Above-The-Line Marketing involves mass media methods for targeting larger general customers.
• Exampled of ATL:

  1. Radio.
  2. Tv.
  3. Posters/Billboards.
• Advantages to ATL:

  1. Tailored to reach a mass audience to get maximum exposure.
  2. Advert communication is repeated so the message is clear.
  3. Builds brand awareness.
• Disadvantages to ATL:

  1. Expensive method.
  2. Difficult to measure clear results from advertising campaigns.
• Below-The-Line Advertising is the highly targeted mail for reaching smaller but more targeted audiences.
• Examples of BTL:

  1. search engines.
  2. events.
  3. social media marketing.
• Advantages of BTL:

  • Easy to measure if the campaign has reached its audience.
  • Inexpensive to use social media to increase brand awareness.
  • More targeted to niche segments.
• Disadvantages of BTL:

  • Extensive training on working social media, s it's time consuming.
  • Deeper understanding of customer behaviour is required.
• Public relations means the process of managing the relationship between a business and its publics to create a favourable corporate image.
• Sponsorship is a positive association of the product with a celebrity or sport.
• Drawbacks of sponsorship is it can be very expensive.
• Types of sales promotion:

  • Buy one get one free (BOGOF).
  • Price Discounts.
  • Money of coupons.
  • Samples/giveaways.
  • Special Events.
  • Point of sale.
• BOGOF is the business offering one item free when another is bought to encourage customers to go into the shop.
• Advantages of BOGOF:

  1. encourages trial and use of the product.
  2. Encourages shoppers to switch from their normal brand.
  3. Sales revenue will increase.
• Disadvantages of BOGOF:

  1. Loss of profit because there is an increase in costs and won't be balanced by the increase in sales.
  2. Only useful in the short term.
• Price discounts mean that normal recommended retail price of the product has been reduced.
• Advantage of Price discount:

  1. Great way to clear old or out-of-date stock.
• Disadvantages of Price discounts:

  1. Customer may regard the business as a cheap option.
  2. Too many discounts make customers become suspicious.
• Coupons are a voucher entitling the holder to a discount off a particular product.
• Advantages of Coupons:

  1. Adds incentive to buy for new customers.
  2. Can encourage repeated purchases from existing customers.
  3. Helps customers feel like they're getting better value for money.
• Disadvantages to Coupons:

  1. Reduced profits from the cost of running promotion.
  2. Customers may have wanted to make a purchase anway.
• Samples/Giveaways are a business sending out free samples to customers in order to persuade them to try the product for the first time.
• Advantages of Samples/Giveaways:

  1. Ideal for new product launches.
  2. Encourages word-of-mouth promotion.
• Disadvantages of Samples/Giveaways:

  1. Needs a database of customers so it's difficult to send in post.
  2. Can be expensive giving away products for free.
• Special Events are activities that the business does to encourage consumers to try the product.
• Advantages to Special Events:

  1. rewards loyal customers.
  2. encourages customers to attend.
• Disadvantages to Special Events:

  1. Can be expensive.
  2. Hard to measure how valuable the marketing is.
• Point of Sale is usually displays close to the till in a shop to draw attention to customers to trigger impulse purchases.
• Advantages to Point of Sale:

  1. Ideal way to promote new products.
  2. Manufactures add extra punch by giving a discount.
• Disadvantages of Point of Sale:

  • Displays may be placed in poor locations.
  • Only successful if it meets the need of the customer.
• Digital communication is the use of online tools to promote products/services.
• Types of Digital Communication:

  • Online adverts.
  • Mobile Communications.
  • Advergaming.
  • Social Media.
  • Consumer generated content.
  • Viral Startegies.