MEANING AND DEFINITION OF STRATEGY

1. A method or plan chosen to bring about a desired future, such as achievement of a goal or
solution to a problem.
2. The art and science of planning and marshalling resources for their most efficient and effective
use. The term is derived from the Greek word for generalship or leading an army
Henry Mintzberg points out that people use "strategy" in several different ways, the most
common being these four:
1. Strategy is a plan, a "how," a means of getting from here to there.
2. Strategy is a pattern in actions over time; for example, a company that regularly markets
very expensive products is using a "high end" strategy.
3. Strategy is position; that is, it reflects decisions to offer particular products or services in
particular markets.
4. Strategy is perspective, that is, vision and direction
Strategy

is

the direction and scope of

an

organization

over

the long-term: which

achieves advantage for the organization through its configuration of resources within a
challenging environment, to meet the needs of markets and to fulfill stakeholder expectations".
PROMOTIONAL STRATEGIES.
Meaning
Promotion is an important P(also called marketing communication) of marketing. These two
word marketing communication and promotion are used interchangeably. Marketing depends
heavily on an effective communication flow between the company and the consumer.
Manufacturing a product and making it available on the market is only a part of the companys
job. It is equally important, or perhaps more important, to make it known to the consumer that
the product is availability in the market. In a competitive market, where several firms are striving
to win over consumers, it is not enough if just the availability is made known. It is essential to

propagate the distinctive features of the product. The process does not end here either. The firm
should also get feedback on how the consumers accept its products and interpret its messages.
Many times people equate marketing communication (promotion) with marketing. Promotion
for its ubiquity attracts more than its due attention from the management. Marketers employ
various promotional tools like advertising, sales promotion activities, public relations, and
personal selling to inform potential buyers about what they have to offer, and persuade them to
respond favorably to the same.
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. This article concentrates is a high
level introduction to developing a
strategy is one of the primary roles of the marketing manager and this process involves some key
promotional strategy for your business focusing on advertising and other 'pull' tactics.
Developing a promotional strategy
Deciding on a marketing communications decisions about how who the customer is,
how to contact the consumer them, and what the message should be. These questions can be
answered using a three stage process, which is equally relevant for all elements of the marketing
mix:
It is no longer enough for a business to have great products. Lots of businesses have
those too. Customers need to know about a great product and be persuaded to buy. That is the
role of promotion.
Promotion is all about communication. Why because promotion is the way in a
business makes its products known to the customers, both current and potential.
The main aim of promotion is to ensure that customers are aware of the existence and
positioning of products. Promotion is also used to persuade customers that the product is better
than competing products and to remind customers about why they may want to buy.
It is a common mistake to believe that promotion by business is all about advertising.
It isnt. There are a variety of approaches that a business can take to get their message across to
customers, although advertising is certainly an important one.
It is important to understand that a business will use more than one method of
promotion. The variety of promotional methods used is referred to as the promotional mix

What is promotional strategy?

Promotional strategy operates synergistically with market research in an iterative feedback loop
whereby the constantly changing requirements of users are responded to by promotional
activities that target (or even anticipate) these expressed needs.
Such activities need to be managed.

They can require the allocation and expenditure of

resources, whether physical (promotional products) or intangible (staff time or use of existing
facilities). As such they cannot simply be allowed to grow organically they require shaping
and direction via a promotional strategy.

Benefits of Promotion
Increase usage
Increase value in the organization
Education of users
Change perception
Promotion Possibilities

Create an outreach program for students, teachers, administrators, and the community.

Develop a plan for promoting the collection including new acquisitions, curriculum
connections, and older materials

Create promotional literature for a particular area such as reading, information inquiry, or
science literacy (i.e., newsletters, brochures, bookmarks, website, pathfinders, flyers)

Develop plans for displays to highlight events and projects (i.e., bulletin boards, display
cases, special center events)
The Role of Promotion Strategy
Promotion is communication intended to persuade, inform, or remind a target audience about a
business or its products.

The promotion strategy involves planning, determining the right promotional mix, and
selecting specific promotional activities.
How Do You Plan a Promotion?

Analyze Needs. Seek out specific interests, needs, and problems in the learning community.
Examine how these connect to your programs mission and goals;

Build Partnerships.

Get others involved with your promotion.

Consider curriculum

connections. Reach out to other members of the learning community. To ensure success, be sure
that you get a few people committed to the project from the beginning.

Develop Activities and Resources.

Develop the materials needed to implement your

project. Whats the timeline? Who will do what, when? What advertising materials are needed?

Advertise the Promotion. Be sure that everyone is aware of the event or activity. Develop
a press release, insert a note in the school newsletter, and create flyers.

Share your Success. An important element of promotion is

communication. Be sure that

people know about the success of your project. Use local newspapers, school newsletters, center
website, and bulletin boards to share your success.

Implement the Promotion. As you implement the program be sure to collect data. Count
people, conduct a survey, ask for comments, take photographs, and collect sample products.
Example: You take photos of students as they do their Poetry Slam readings during National
Book Week in the Library.

Evaluate. Consider the effectiveness of the program. Immediately revise materials for the
next time you use this promotion. Plan for the future.

Factors that will help you to determine an appropriate promotional mix include:

The availability of budget

The marketing message

The complexity of the product or service

Market size and location

Distribution of the product

The stage in the product life-cycle

Competition
Basic Promotional Strategies

Push strategy a promotional strategy whereby a supplier promotes a product to

marketing intermediaries, with the aim of pushing the product through the channel of
distribution.

Pull strategy a promotional strategy whereby a supplier promotes a product to the

ultimate consumer, with the aim of stimulating demand and thus pulling the product through the
channel of distribution.
Promotion (Marketing Communications) Mix

Advertising
An informative or persuasive message carried by a non personal medium and paid for by an
identified sponsor whose organization or product is identified in some way.
Personal Selling
. Face-to-face interactions with one or more prospective users, for the purpose of generating
increased activity. In a library context this will include the so-called academic detailing oneto-one meetings with new or
existing staff to brief them about a specific project or service.
Publicity
any unpaid form of non personal presentation of ideas, goods or services. Programmes designed
to promote and/or protect a companys image, or those of its products, including product
literature, exhibitions and articles in professional or in-house newsletters.
Sales Promotion
an activity and/or material that acts as a direct inducement, offering added value or incentive for
the product, to resellers, consumers or employees
Direct marketing

The use of mail, telephone or other non-personal contact tools to communicate with or
solicit a response from specific customers and prospects.
Trials and service promotion
Short-term incentives to encourage trial or purchase of a product or service, such as
discounted rates for services over a limited time period.
Sponsorship
Financial or external support of an event or person by an unrelated organization or donor, such
as is common in respect of the arts, sports and charities

REQUIREMENTS OF PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY

In order to increase the sales growth of the company

To meet the existing competition
Create awareness about products and services
To meet the company mission and goal
In order to create positive image in the society
To establish more distribution network in the society
To become number one products in the society
To get more profit
To create more demand of the product
To service in the society.

METHODS AND ADVANTAGES OF SALES PROMOTION

Philips Kotler has classified sales promotional activities into three kinds:
1. Consumer promotion.
2. Trade or dealer promotion.

3. Sales force promotion.

1. Consumer Promotion:
Sales promotion directed towards consumers may be done either to increase the use of the
product among the existing consumers or to attract the new customers or to retaliate against the
competitors sales activities. T
Read this article to learn about the techniques/methods and advantages of sales promotion:
(a) Samples
(b) Coupons
(c) Contests
(d) Demonstrations
(e) Premiums or bonus offers
(f) Price-off
(g) Money refund and
(h) Free gifts.
2. Trade or Dealer Promotions:
These are generally directed towards the dealers with a view to securing their patronage in
preference to other products.
There are also a number of trade promotional activities which are listed below:
(a) Cash and trade discounts
(b) Display and advertising allowance,

(c) Premiums,
(d) Bonus,
(e) Counter discount, allowances
(f) Free goods,
(g) Dealers contests,
(h) Subsidized advertising,
(i) Buy-back allowance and,
(J) Gifts and novelties.

3. Sales Force Promotions:

Personal selling is by far the most important method of sales promotion. Sales force promotion is
highly essential to make personal selling effective and more impressive.

The techniques employed in the sales force promotion are the following:
(a) Bonus,
(b) Commission,
(c) Sales-force contests,
(d) Meetings, conventions and conferences of salesmen and
(e) Quota incentives.