Co-Ordination of Promotional Strategies

The aim of this assessment is to discuss concepts that relate to promotional strategy and their use within those strategies. Promotion reinforces the value of the product. If promotional strategies successfully reinforce the products value to the consumer, suppliers can expect to see the efficient use of their marketing resources translated into sales and profit. Firstly, lets us discuss the concept of Push and Pull marketing strategies.

Push marketing is a strategy whereby you develop advertising and promotional strategies geared toward your marketing and distribution channels to entice them to promote your product. As a consumer, you would rarely see this type of marketing because it is directed at the distribution channel. It might include wholesale discounts, kickbacks, bonuses, and other types of support. It's all designed to have the retailer promote your product to the end users instead of your competitors product. There are differing types of push marketing, some new as discussed below:

“In recent years, I've seen a nearly exponential increase in the past decade - another type of push marketing is taking over. It's the referral and word of mouth marketing. When companies encourage happy customers to spread the word to their friends and families, that's a type of push marketing. Or, when companies make ads that are controversial, cheeky, or downright shocking, they create a little buzz - that's another type of push marketing.1

With a Pull strategy, the consumer is targeted. This strategy calls for high spend on the advertising and consumer promotion to build consumer demand. If this strategy is successful, consumers will actually go to the retailer demanding a particular product and brand. The pull strategy is all about bringing the customers to you, it is basically thinking of ways to create Attention, Interest, Desire and Action (AIDA) in the consumer and drive them towards purchase of your product/service. As with anything in business, there needs to be a balance within a promotional campaign which is of great importance to the overall success of the promotion.

There are several factors that need to be considered when discussing the correct promotional mix of a campaign. These include product factors, budget constraints, customer and cultural factors, sales factors, media factors and market expectations. These factors are all intrinsically linked and need to be considered as such when assessing the optimal mix of the promotional campaign. This is stated succinctly below:

“The challenge is to select the right mix of promotional activities to suit your particular business at a particular time and to then use it correctly to

achieve a result. The combination of tools you use will depend on the

target audience, the message you wish to communicate and the budget

you make available. There would be little point in advertising new gas

boilers in a fashion magazine, much more appropriate to advertise in a trade

magazine for builders and gas fitters.”2

Let us discuss some of these in more detail, firstly product factors. This relates to the product or service itself and generally is concerned with market research and how your product or service fits into the marketplace. There is a need to develop a profile of the target consumer and assess the product or service against that consumer profile. Now that you have found the target consumer there is a need to make the consumer aware of the product you wish to promote. This will generally be by means of some type of promotional activity which leads us to the next factor, budgetary constraints.

How much will be spent on the promotion can often be linked to the projected or historical sales figures of the product. Once again, this is directly liked to which type of promotional activity will be used during