Consumer & Trade Promotions As Marketing Strategies
Marketing strategies are specific, targeted plans laid out by a company to pursue its business goals. Strategies are implemented by using the tools in the marketing mix, including consumer and trade sales promotions. These play a distinctive role, reinforcing and complementing the firm's advertising, personal selling, public relations and other tactics.
Other People Are Reading
-
Role of Sales Promotion
-
The strategic role of sales promotion is to incentivize consumer and trade customers to make a purchase decision faster, or to buy in greater quantities, than they otherwise would. This is different from advertising, which is typically used to build a brand's visibility and personality over time. Especially with consumers, sales promotion techniques are particularly effective at encouraging brand switching and trial of new products. Trade promotions are often chosen to quickly bolster distribution among wholesalers and retailers.
Objectives of Sales Promotion
-
The objectives for a particular sales promotion strategy depend on the characteristics and behaviors of the target market. For example, if target households are highly price-conscious, the goal of consumer promotion could be to provide significant discounts and change the product's short-term value perception. Among wholesale buyers who are already loyal to the brand, a trade promotion might be used to reinforce their loyalty and encourage high-volume orders. More importantly, sales promotion objectives should be aligned with those of other strategic tools.
-
Consumer Promotion Techniques
-
While consumer promotion techniques are continually evolving, four of the most enduring and popular are coupons, premiums, contests and loyalty programs. Coupons and premiums both focus on price cuts, either by offering an immediate discount or by providing a small gift with purchase of the promoted product. The goal of contests or sweepstakes is to get attention and create excitement around the brand. Loyalty programs reward returning customers with some type of merchandise or financial benefit that increases in value as their purchases continue.
Trade Promotion Techniques
-
Some consumer sales promotion devices, like loyalty programs, can also create buying incentives among wholesalers and retailers. But for the most part, marketers rely on different techniques to motivate channel members. For example, trade allowances are discounts or rebates offered in return for large orders, in-store displays or other special marketing activities. Push money is a reward to high-performing retail salespeople, usually in the form of cash or merchandise. Exhibiting at trade shows is an effective way to get a brand noticed by industry opinion leaders.
-
