Sudeep Bir Tuladhar-Article-2 Date: 6th September 2012 Promotion Strategy

Promotion is one of the key elements of the marketing mix, and deals with any one or two-way communication that takes place with the consumer. It is a campaign developed to communicate ideas about products and services to potential consumers with the objective of convincing them to buy those products and services. The key aspect to be considered in promotion is creative and flexible planning, based on an in depth knowledge of the target consumer and the avenues that can be utilized to reach that consumer. Today, most promotion strategies focus on achieving three general goals: promoting awareness of a business and its product or services; stimulating sales directly and attract competitors' customers; and establishing business image. In other words, promotion seeks to inform, persuade and remind the consumer. Basically, promotion of a product takes place in five stages viz. segmentation, targeting, positioning, messaging and evaluation. Segmentation is the process of dividing potential customers into discrete groups which is vital if we want to increase the success rate of any communications message. Only through careful market segmentation can the target audience for promotion be identified and defined. The process has to be continuous so that the changes in consumer type, buyer behavior and socioeconomic and other environmental parameters can be kept under the preview. This provides the promoters with an informational base to expand, limit or reduce creative promotion campaigns and media plans to react to different markets effectively. For this, we need information on our potential customers, customers sub-groups and differences between these sub-groups etc. Most of this information will be readily available from market research. Once we have the idea of the customer, we further explore them in more detail to acquire information on their consumption habits, expectations and aspirations, disposable income, buying habits etc. This information can be obtained in a variety of ways, from commissioning a specialist market research agency, to examining sales patterns or social media interactions. Once we have built up an accurate picture of the customer, it is time to get their attention through targeting process. Targeting is the process of communicating with the right segment(s) and
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ensuring the best possible response rate. The methods used to target audience must relate to the marketing plan objectives which may be to generate awareness of a new product or to attract business away from a competitor. Targeting customers can be achieved through various approaches like mass media (magazines, newspapers, TV, cinema, radio, etc.), sales promotion (discounts, loyalty incentives, etc.), public relations (press releases. PR releases, etc.), personal selling (salesman, exhibition, trade show, etc.), direct marketing (email, personalized letter, telemarketing, etc) and digital marketing (company website, blogging, e-commerce, etc.). Once the audiences have been made aware of the brand, they have to be guided through the purchasing process. This means identifying the key stages in the customer journey and ensuring frequent communications messages with the customer. This can be achieved through integrated approach of communication. Regardless of promoting a new product or raising awareness, it is important that all ads across all media work together towards a common goal by using similar message. An integrated approach can drastically increase the effectiveness of any campaign and will help create the brand image. The third stage is positioning which is the process of developing an image for the company or the product. This can be achieved partially through branding, but it is important to realize that all elements of the marketing mix combine to provide the full picture. Positioning also considers competition which can refer to the uniqueness in the marketplace and better products than other competitors. As explained, branding is a powerful tool for positioning the products and services. It is used on almost all elements of the product from the packaging design to the style of writing used on posters etc. Every communication a customer receives, add up to form a mental picture of the brand and can influence the price they are willing to pay for the products. This ability to charge more due to the positioning of the product is known as brand equity. A corporate identity is a useful tool to ensure that branding is used in a consistent way throughout the company. This may include almost every conceivable customer touch points and provides guidance on the presentation and style that should be used. This could include use of logos, colours, tag lines, uniform and the type of coffee to serve guests. The most powerful brands can be identified by many elements of their communications material, not just a by their logo or slogan and this is
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due to successful implementation of a recognizable corporate identity. Recognition is a key part of any purchase decision, so a corporate identity should form a core element of the promotion strategy. Once the positioning for brand has been determined, it is time to develop the message in order to influence the target groups. Promotion objectives should be directly linked to the marketing plan, and tend to fit into the following generic categories: Inform - raising awareness of the brand & products, establishing a competitive advantage, Persuade - generating an instant response (usually driving sales) and Remind - maintaining interest and enthusiasm for a product or service. Finally the effectiveness of promotion strategies has to be evaluated to see whether our efforts have been successful in bringing out the desired results or not. Simply throwing out various promotional campaigns and hoping that everything will be taken care off automatically can often lead to undesirable results. The only way to know how effectively our promotional strategies are working is to ask the consumers through various surveys. This will provide us a measure of effectiveness of our effort and the necessary feedbacks. Upon incorporating these feedbacks, the effectiveness of promotion can be further increased. Almost every business in the world will deal in advertising at some point, whether it is a listing in the Yellow Pages or promoting products like I-phone, Pizza Hut etc. Whatever we are planning, the strategic thinking behind all advertising is essentially the same i.e. know the audience, target them efficiently and position the brand in the way that will benefit the business. Reference: 1. Ganesh Iyer, Advertising Strategy (2008)University of California, Berkeley 2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promotion_(marketing) 3. http://www.enotes.com/advertising-strategy-reference/advertising-strategy 4. http://www.adcracker.com/strategy/Advertising_Strategy.htm 5. http://www.adcracker.com/brand/Branding.htm 6. http://historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/ads/intro.html 7. http://drypen.in/advertising/advertising-strategy.html
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