Business Revision Guide: 2.4

• Promotion


  Informing customers about what is for sale and persuading them to buy
• Key aims of promotion

  • To inform customers about a product or service (especially when new or changed)
  • To keep a business ahead of its competitors
  • To create or change the image of a business, its products and services
  • To maintain or increase sales
• Point of sale promotion

  Offers available when purchasing a product
• Point of sale promotions

  • Price reductions (sales)
  • Competitions
  • Loss Leaders
  • Free Samples
• Point of sale promotions

  • Although the business makes a loss on these it is hoped customers will be tempted to buy other more profitable products at the time of purchase
• Promotional advertising media


  Ways a company can advertise goods
• Promotional advertising media

  • Social media
  • Websites
  • TV
  • Print media
  • Radio
  • Point of sale
• Social media advertising

  • Cheap way to communicate with large numbers of people and target customers, however not everyone uses social media
• Website advertising


  • Provides a lot of information e.g. videos, written info and diagrams for customers, but can cost a lot of money to keep up to date
• TV advertising

  • Very expensive but is good at reaching a wide audience, advertisers know which likely channels target customers watch and what time of day
• Print media advertising


  • Includes newspapers, magazines and leaflets, can easily target your market, however not many people read these now
• Radio advertising

  • Cheaper than TV and is usually best for local advertising as products cannot be seen
• Price reductions (sales)


  Quick boost of sales, but may damage brand image
• Competitions


  Encourages trials of a product, customers 'win' by finding a voucher usually
• Loss Leaders


  Some goods are sold at a loss to encourage customers to come shop in the hope they will do all their shopping there
• Free Samples


  Given to tempt people to buy the product
• Advertising

  • Wide coverage, builds brand loyalty, repetition will help with sales, but often expensive and lacks flexibility as one-way communication