M
arketing communication is an attempt of business to influence its potential customers. It is the element in the marketing mix that serves to inform, persuade, and remind the market of a product or service or the organization selling it with the hope of influencing the target market’s feelings, belief, or behavior.
Promotion is applied marketing communication. It is used to communicate both factual information and persuasive messages to prospective buyers. It is an activity, such as a sale or advertising campaign, designed to increase visibility or sales of a product (http://www.investorwords.com/3897/promotion.html#ixzz1YyUyIWoS).
Elements of Promotion
There are five elements of promotion: personal selling, advertising, sales promotion, public relations, and publicity. Theses promotional efforts use three general types of communication media. They involve (1) direct human communication, usually on a face-to-face basis or on the telephone, (2) indirect communication through some medium such as the television, or (3) interactive communication via some electronic medium, such as the internet.
Personal Selling refers to the delivery of a specially designed message to a prospect by a seller, usually in the form of face-to-face communication, personal correspondence, or a personal telephone conversation. Unlike advertising, a personal sales message can be more specifically targeted to individual prospects and easily altered if the desired behavior does not occur. Personal selling, however, is far more costly than advertising and is generally used only when its high expenditure can be justified (http://www.allbusiness.com/glossaries/personal-selling/4955751-1.html#ixzz1YyVwYjxj).
Advertising is an impersonal mass communication that the sponsor pays for and with which it is clearly identified. The most familiar form of advertising is found in the broadcast (TV and radio) and print (newspapers and magazines) media. There are, however, many other advertising alternatives such as the various web pages, direct mail, billboards, and the Yellow Pages. As advertising allows marketers to send a uniform and unvarying message to a large number of people it is a cost-efficient substitute for personal selling (Diola and Tichepco, 2009).
Sales promotion is an activity designed to boost the sales of a product or service. It may include an advertising campaign, increased PR activity, a free-sample campaign, offering free gifts or trading stamps, arranging demonstrations or exhibitions, setting up competitions with attractive prizes, temporary price reductions, door-to-door calling, telemarketing, and personal letters on other methods (http://tutor2u.net/business/marketing/promotion_sales_promotion.asp).
Public relations refers to the use of the news or business press to carry positive stories about your company or your products; cultivating a good relationship with local press representatives.
Publicity is a special form of public relations that involves news stories about an organization or its products or services. It is similar to advertising because it uses the same mass media. The difference is that publicity is not paid for, the organization, that is, the subject of the publicity, has little control over it, and appears as news and has greater credibility than advertising. Organizations seek good publicity and frequently provide the material for it is the form of news releases, press conferences, and photographs.
Other Forms of Publicity
Appearances. Talk shows often invite guests who promote their books, recordings, concerts, and movies.
Event Sponsorships. Sponsorship of events and activities in charitable institutions are very effective for marketers who wish to generate publicity or reinforce a certain image.
The Communication Process
Communication is the verbal or nonverbal transmission of information from someone wanting to express an idea and to another who is expected or expecting to get that idea. The goal of communication is to have the receiver of the information understand as closely as possible the meaning intended by the sender, or source, of the message.
Communication requires four elements: a message, a source of the message, a communications channel, and a receiver.
The Hierarchy of Communication Effects
The promotion process is a procedure that moves people up a series of steps called the hierarchy of communication effects.
Promotional Strategies
A push strategy is directed toward members of a channel of distribution. A “push” promotional strategy makes use of a company's sales force and trade promotion activities to create consumer demand for a product. The producer promotes the product to wholesalers, the wholesalers promote it to retailers, and the retailers promote it to consumers.
Traditional advertising leaflets that drop through your letterbox. Sales letters, advertising banners. These are all examples of a push strategy.
A pull strategy is directed toward consumers in order to stimulate demand for the product. This is a strategy that requires high spending on advertising and consumer promotion to build up consumer demand for a product. If the strategy is successful, consumers will ask their retailers for the product, the retailers will ask the wholesalers, and the wholesalers will ask the producers. (http://tutor2u.net/business/marketing)
Advertising and mass media promotion, customer relationship management, sales promotions and discounts are examples of pull tactics.
Promotional Campaigns
A promotional campaign is a series of advertisements using various marketing tools that share the same message and ideas to promote a business or event to a target audience. The typical campaign uses different media resources including internet, newspapers, television, radio, and print advertising. (http://www.businessdictionary.com)
A product differentiation approach emphasizes unique product features and focuses on attributes of the product, not on its image or price.
A positioning approach promotes a brand in relation to competing brands.
A direct response campaign seeks a direct measurable response such as an order, a donation, an inquiry, or a visit to the store or showroom.
Classification of Sales Persons
With the introduction of information technology, a new type of sales person referred to as the professional sales person has emerged. Today, sales people are managers of a market area called sales territories. They engage in a total selling work, which includes selling their products, building goodwill, servicing their customers, and training their customer’s sales people.
Seven types of sales persons fall under two groups:
Order Takers
1. Delivery sales person. This sales person primarily delivers the product like
soft drinks or fuel. Few of these sales people do the actual selling. Usually, they take and fill orders.
2. Inside order taker. This sales person takes orders at the seller’s place of business like a saleslady at a counter at SM Department Store.
3. Outside order taker. This sales person goes to the customer in the field and accepts an order.
4. Missionary salesperson. This sales person is not expected to take an order. His job is to build goodwill, perform promotional activities, and provide information and other services for the customers.
5. Sales engineer. This sales person sells complex or technically sophisticated products. The salesperson has the ability to clearly explain the product to a prospective customer and adapt the product to the customer’s needs.
Order Getters
6. Creative salesperson. This salesperson is involved in the creative selling of goods, both tangibles and intangibles. The selling of intangibles could be considered the most difficult selling job since the customers cannot see, touch or smell the product. Creative selling involves designing a system to fit the needs of a particular customer.
7. Professional business development. The responsibility of the salesperson is to bring in new business. In some firms like advertising agencies, research firms, auditing firms, law firms, management consultancy firms, and other service organizations, some employees are assigned to handle the business development of the firm which undertakes selling the services of the firm. (Diola and Tichepco, 2009)
The Creative Selling Process
The creative selling process is a series of steps that provide guidelines for the salesperson. It is an adaptive process that begins with the identification of potential customers and tailors the sales presentation and product offering to each prospect’s needs. The ultimate goal is customer satisfaction.
Sales Management
Sales management is the marketing activity dealing with planning, organizing, directing, and controlling the personal selling effort. Sales personnel, like most employees, require some degree of supervision and management. For this reason, the job of the sales manager differs significantly from that of other managers. Members of the sales force are managed so that their efforts are directed toward organizational goals.
A sales manager is responsible for:
1. Setting sales objectives
2. Organizing the sales force
3. Recruiting and selecting sales personnel
4. Training the sales force
5. Developing an effective compensation plan
There are several ways of compensating the sales force:
•Straight salary
•Straight commission
•Quota-bonus plan
•Salary plus commission
6. Motivating the sales force
7. Evaluating and controlling the sales force
Sales Promotion
Sales promotion refers to many kinds of incentives and techniques directed towards consumers and traders with the intention to produce immediate or short-term sales effects.
Sales promotion offers a direct inducement to act by providing extra worth over and above what is built into the product at its normal price. These temporary inducements are offered usually at a time and place where the buying decision is made. Not only are sales promotions very common in the current competitive market conditions, they are increasing at a fast pace. These promotions are direct inducements. In spite of the directness, sales promotions are fairly complicated and a rich tool of marketing with innumerable creative possibilities limited only by the imagination of promotion planners. Sales promotion is often referred to by the names of ‘extra purchase value’ and ‘below-the-line selling’. (http://drypen.in/sales-promotion)
There are two categories of sales promotion: trade promotions, which are geared toward the members of the distribution channel such as the wholesalers and retailers; and consumer promotion, which are aimed at consumers.
Sales Promotion Geared Toward Wholesalers and Retailers
1. Trade shows
These are events at which many companies set up elaborate exhibits to show their products, give away samples, distribute product literature, and troll for new business contacts. Trade shows are major vehicles for manufacturers to show off their product lines to wholesalers and retailers
2. Contests (or games)
These are promotional events that give consumers the chance to win something—such as cash, trips, or goods—by luck or through extra effort.
3. Display equipment and point-of-purchase materials
Display equipment such as dispensers and other point-of-purchases materials are provided to retailers and wholesalers so that they can conveniently display or highlight the product to be sold.
4. Cooperative advertising and promotion
Suppliers share promotional expenses with their retailers or wholesalers.
5. Allowances
Promotional money paid by manufacturers to retailers in return for an agreement to feature the manufacturer’s products in some way. An advertising allowance compensates retailers for advertising the product. A display allowance compensates them for using special displays.
Sales Promotions Aimed at Ultimate Consumers
1. Product sampling
New customers are given a sample of the product for trial use.
2. Coupons
A coupon is a certificate that gives the buyer a saving when they purchase a specified product. Coupons can stimulate sales of a mature brand or promote early trial of a new brand.
3. Rebates
With a rebate, a consumer gets money back from the manufacturer. It is a price reduction designed to induce immediate purchase.
4. Contests and sweepstakes
Contests and sweepstakes stimulate purchases by giving consumers a chance to be big winners.
5. Premiums
A premium is a product offered free or at a reduced price when another product, the key brand, is bought.
6. Multiple-purchase offers
Multiple-purchase offers, such as offering three products for the price of two, encourages bigger than normal purchase and helps maintain customer loyalty.
7. Point-of-purchase materials
Banners, pamphlets, coasters, and other similar products may be used to provide information at the point of purchase.
8. Product placements
When a certain product brand is worn or used by a celebrity in a movie or television show, a very positive message is communicated in a noncommercial setting.
9. Sales promotion tie-ins
A tie-in involves a collaborative effort between two or more companies that work as partners in a promotional undertaking. Tie-ins generally borrow interest value from movies, sporting events or other marketing efforts. When McDonald’s sells a Happy Meal that includes the Smurfs characters, its sales promotion effort is based on a tie-in with the popular Sony Pictures and Columbia Pictures movie.
Advertising and Public Relations
Nature and Scope of Advertising
Advertising is a persuasive message carried by a non-personal medium and paid for by an identified sponsor. All advertisements have four features, namely: (1) a verbal and/or visual message, (2) a sponsor who is identified, (3) delivery through one or more media, and (4) payment by the sponsor to the media carrying the message.
Types of Advertising
According to the target audience, advertising may be classified as consumer advertising or business-to-business advertising. With BusinessWorld’s excellent news coverage and style of reporting, a readership survey conducted late last year by an independent research group revealed that subscribers pass their copies on to an average of five other persons. Its subscribers are trendsetters and decision-makers -- leaders in business, industry and government, both here and of governments and corporations abroad that are keen on Philippine business updates.
General broadsheets included, BusinessWorld ranks fourth in the industry in terms of advertising revenues. This, despite its six days a week frequency compared to the seven days of the other papers.
According to what is being advertised, advertising may be product (or service) or institutional (or corporate). Product advertising focuses on a particular product or brand. It is subdivided into direct-action and indirect-action advertising. Direct-action advertising seeks a quick response like an ad urging the reader to send or call immediately for a free sample. Indirect-action advertising is designed to stimulate demand over a longer period of time. Most television advertisements are of this type. Institutional advertising aims to create a good attitude, build goodwill, and present information about the advertiser’s business. There are two forms: customer service advertising (e.g., when Jollibee describes the level of personal service available) and public service advertising which is designed to improve the quality of life and show that the advertiser is a responsible member of the community.
According to the objective sought, advertising may be primary-demand advertising or selective-demand advertising. Primary-demand advertising is designed to stimulate demand for a generic category such as vitamins, milk, or cotton garments. Selective-demand advertising is intended to stimulate demand for individual brands such as Centrum Multi-Vitamins, Bear Brand Milk, and Giordano Shirts.