Promotions: Developing a Promotional Mix for Social Product – BMS Notes

Promotions include the whole range of actions that inform the customer about a product, brand, or service. The goal is to raise awareness of the product, draw in customers, and persuade them to choose it over competitors.

Promotions come in several forms. Press releases, advertising, and consumer promotions (schemes, discounts, competitions) are examples of above-the-line promotions. Below-the-line promotions include trade discounts, freebies, incentive trips, prizes, and other similar items. The whole marketing effort includes sales promotion.

Creating a Mix for Social Product Promotion

Individual Sales

This is sometimes called “face-to-face” or “one-on-one” selling. It is the only kind of advertising that enables you to modify the message as the sales scenario develops; as its name suggests, it creates a direct, face-to-face relationship with a potential client that may foster trust and result in a sale. The drawback is that it is a very expensive method of marketing. A representative at a trade show booth or a salesperson on the floor of a home improvement firm would be two examples.

Advertising

Because it doesn’t entail any direct face-to-face consumer interaction at all, this is almost the exact reverse of personal selling. It takes place when businesses spend money promoting their goods online and via media channels. One-way communication lets the buyer concentrate on the advantages of your product or service for them, which is the primary benefit of this kind of marketing. Its impersonal character is its greatest detriment when it comes to building trust. Commercials on television and pop-up advertisements on websites are two instances of advertising.

Direct Promotion

With this kind of marketing, you are trying to target a certain demographic that you believe would be more interested in your offering than others. Since direct marketing is more focused and often costs less for the business, it may increase sales; but, since individuals are exposed to so much of it on a daily basis, it may not be well-received. Email and direct mail advertising efforts are two instances of this kind of marketing.

Marketing of Sales

Actually, other than the promotions that are listed above, this is a catch-all word that refers to any kind of promotion. Their benefit is in their ability to increase traffic and sales by altering a buyer’s opinion of the worth of a product or service. The drawback of sales promotions is that their transient nature sometimes obscures your business’s long-term objectives for sales. Coupons may be used to promote sales of snack chips offered on a point-of-purchase display or flyers.

Relations with the Public

Rather than giving out specific details about a product or service, the goal of this kind of advertising is to present a positive picture of your business. Public relations has the benefit of being able to inexpensively improve your company’s attractiveness and reputation for potential customers. It is important to acknowledge that evaluating the efficacy of any advertising strategy is a challenging task.

Companies that match contributions made in support of disaster relief or that hold runs to raise money for cancer research are good instances of this.

Business Presence

With a more straightforward approach, this is extremely comparable to public relations. It is closely connected to branding as it aims to mould the company’s image in a very particular manner. A business image campaign has the advantage of reversing a downward sales trend caused by negative opinions of your item or service. The disadvantage of this approach is that consumers can see it for what it really is and become even less inclined to buy your product or service.

A restaurant business that has to address the bad press of a serious food sickness outbreak at one of its sites, or an airline that launches a campaign to repair its perceived callous image after the death of one of its aircrafts, are two excellent instances of this.

Sponsorship

The way that this kind of advertising addresses a company’s image makes it extremely similar to public relations. It happens when your firm participates in an activity that enhances its reputation in the community or creates the sense that it is giving back to the public. It might even be something unrelated to charity that directly connects to your product, like supporting a sports team.

When used in tandem with another well-known brand, a sponsorship may strengthen your company’s reputation and facilitate its entrance into hard-to-break-in niche sectors. For the benefits your business receives, it is often also reasonably priced. Sponsorship has two disadvantages: you have limited influence over the sponsorship arrangement and your reputation might be damaged if the team or event you support is found to be involved in unethical behaviour.

A beer business supporting a football (soccer) team or working with the Red Cross to raise money after a natural catastrophe are two examples of sponsorships.

Internet Awareness

To what extent do online advertising fit into the marketing mix these days? Let’s just say that although they were only an afterthought years ago, they now have their own category. The majority of businesses are well aware that the internet has grown to be a very significant promotional marketing medium. These days, it would be difficult to find a business that does not have a website or, at minimum, a blog. In addition, a large number of specialist firms were established with the express intent of assisting other businesses with their online presence.

The emergence of social media plays a major role in the use of the internet as a promotional tool. While it is free to sign up for and use social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, advertising on these platforms is everything from free for companies. These suppliers are aware of social media’s growing significance as a tool for marketing and promotion, even though using it comes at a price.

Because of all the high-tech devices that permeate daily life, such as computers and cellphones, people sometimes refer to the modern world as a “digital globe.” Companies must undoubtedly create a strong internet presence if they want to compete for business. Having a website with accurate and relevant information about your product or service and then optimising it to increase traffic are the best ways to do this. A website that has been optimised for search engines (SEO) will appear on the top few pages when visitors search for a generic term on the internet.

Large corporations have whole divisions dedicated to creating websites and increasing traffic to them, while small businesses sometimes don’t have websites or aren’t well-optimized for search engine traffic. According to some statistics, more than 90% of small company websites are not search engine optimised, which significantly reduces their ability to compete. Sales of these sites would undoubtedly rise if they had a solid offering at a reasonable price if they were optimised. A major component of marketing goods and services is creating an online presence