Thursday, April 21, 2016
Thursday, April 14, 2016
Saturday, January 11, 2014
FAKE BRANDS/ SPURIOUS PRODUCTS- Rural Marketing Challenges
One of the most crucial challenges for every FMCG company in
india is the presence of spurious/Fake
products. Selling of spurious products does not only create negative impact on
the business of the branded FMCGs but also lessen the value and Image of the
brand .Rural markets are more affected by spurious products because of
illiteracy and unawareness of rural consumers is much higher than their urban
counterparts. Role of retailer is also plays an important role in selling of
Fake brands in the rural market mostly due to un awareness and high margin of
profit .
Fake brands exist in rural as well as urban locations. But
the problem is more acute in rural areas especially the deep pockets which are
less accessible and people have very little knowledge about the original
brands. “Most people in rural India can recognize alphabets but not complete
words,
. Spurious products are broadly divided into three
categories:
1.Fake/Duplicate products:
Manufacturer of fake or duplicate products uses the
identical name of the product, packaging, color scheme, logo and even the same name
and address as the genuine manufacturer.
2.Look alike products:
Look a like products are those products where
manufacturer other than original producer cleverly uses the similar
looking packaging or color or design or logo scheme to deceive the
customers.
3.Spell a like products:
Spell alike products use names which are similar sounding
or similar in spelling
How to identify
spurious product?
It is a difficult task to identify spurious/Fake
product/Brands for rural consumers, who are not much literate and unaware. There are some measures companies’ can take to
educate and aware rural consumers in
identifying original branded products from spurious/ fake products/Brands .the
concept of AALAP strategy can counter
the problem of spurious/fake products/Brands specifically in the rural market. AALAP strategy is all about scanning
the market environment and then takes action according to the need of the
company. AALAP is stands for Analysis,
Awareness, Legal Action and Protection.
Awareness
-
Awareness amongst the rural customers
and consumers is one of the key Counter attacks on these profit eating enemies
of Indian FMCG companies and should be one of there top priority objective of
Marketing Communication Programs . A carefully Designed Communication with
right media vehicle( static as well as interactive ) at the most strategic
touch points can counter these profit eating dragons .
·
AwarenssPrograms through NGOs under CSR activity and joint venture withlocal/Govt.
schools to aware rural consumers about the issue and harmful effects of spurious
products. Live demos by showing original products and spurious products with
differentiating features and to help rural consumers in identifying the
differences in between .
·
Awareness through Promotional campaigns at Strategic touch
points of Rural India e.g Hats,Melas,schools,colleges,PHCs,Nukkad,clubs,village
chaupals,railway stations,bus stops,etc etc ...
·
Awareness through Folk Shows , nukkad nataks, Street Plays
,A/v Shows at the important touch points of rural Consumers.
·
Awareness through visual or static medium Advertising like
wall paintings / jharokha/point of sale
branding/point of consumption
Branding etc.
·
Addressing the issues in front of people during Panchayat Sabha.
.
·
Retailers are the key influencers, so to provide them
better services and instruct them about harmful effects of spurious products to
health of people and also economy of the country.
Friday, January 10, 2014
HAAT- TOUCH POINT (RURAL INDIA)
Much before the wall-mart of the world got hot on retail : India had its own grassroots retail network, known as Haats . Haats play a vital role in the rural economy of India. they provide people of nearby villages to purchase there daily need consumer goods and an opportunity to sell there surplus agricultural and allied proroducts . a Haat caters from 10 to 50 villages of grounding area. these are held one weekly basis ( some are bi weekly too ) sunday haats are the most popular one . there are morning haats then there are evening haats too .. Most of the sellers sell on the ground and there are a large verity to offer ..Haats do not sell only loose commodities but also a significant amount of Packaged goods too . the numbers are very less from rural population who do not visit and shop in Haats for there household purchases .
Saturday, May 07, 2011
Consumption of internet in Rural India
According to IAMAI and IMRB
By December 2010 there were about 15 million claimed internet users and about 12 million active internet users existed in Rural india ..and it is expected that there will be 24 million Active internet users in Rural india by The End of 2011 ..
Active Internet Users are defined as Users who surf the internet ,at least , once a month .
the total number of people residing in Rural india is 568 million (estimated ) . of that about 47 million (estimated)people are computer Litrate.
Of the total number of intyernet users surveyed, about 46 percent Acess the internet from CSCs (common Service centers ) or Cyber cafes . A CSC is a Rural teli center powered by broadband Enabled computer , Printer ,scanner,and a Web camera. more than 90000 CSCs exists in india . the Mejority od CSCs and Cybercafes in Rural india Charges Rs 11- 20 Per hour for internet acess.. only 6 percent acess the internet from there home and 5 percent from mobile .
The Report further mentions that the consumption of the internet in the rural india is mainly centered around Entertainment and Communications , and still not Leveraged for the utilities .. the majority of respondents (41 percent) surveyed used the internet for downloading photos and videos and listening music..about 32 percent uses it for email and chatting and only 5 percent uses it to get information on farming techniques , 3 percent used to book tickets and 2 percent used to access weather information.
By December 2010 there were about 15 million claimed internet users and about 12 million active internet users existed in Rural india ..and it is expected that there will be 24 million Active internet users in Rural india by The End of 2011 ..
Active Internet Users are defined as Users who surf the internet ,at least , once a month .
the total number of people residing in Rural india is 568 million (estimated ) . of that about 47 million (estimated)people are computer Litrate.
Of the total number of intyernet users surveyed, about 46 percent Acess the internet from CSCs (common Service centers ) or Cyber cafes . A CSC is a Rural teli center powered by broadband Enabled computer , Printer ,scanner,and a Web camera. more than 90000 CSCs exists in india . the Mejority od CSCs and Cybercafes in Rural india Charges Rs 11- 20 Per hour for internet acess.. only 6 percent acess the internet from there home and 5 percent from mobile .
Sunday, February 08, 2009
Friday, October 31, 2008
promotion
What is promotion?
Promotion is a form of corporate communication that uses various methods to reach a targeted audience with a certain message in order to achieve specific organizational objectives. Nearly all organizations, whether for-profit or not-for-profit, in all types of industries, must engage in some form of promotion. Such efforts may range from multinational firms spending large sums on securing high-profile celebrities to serve as corporate spokespersons to the owner of a one-person enterprise passing out business cards at a local businessperson’s meeting.
Like most marketing decisions, an effective promotional strategy requires the marketer understand how promotion fits with other pieces of the marketing puzzle (e.g., product, distribution, pricing, target markets). Consequently, promotion decisions should be made with an appreciation for how it affects other areas of the company. For instance, running a major advertising campaign for a new product without first assuring there will be enough inventory to meet potential demand generated by the advertising would certainly not go over well with the company’s production department (not to mention other key company executives). Thus, marketers should not work in a vacuum when making promotion decisions. Rather, the overall success of a promotional strategy requires input from others in impacted functional areas.
In addition to coordinating general promotion decisions with other business areas, individual promotions must also work together. Under the concept of Integrated Marketing Communication marketers attempt to develop a unified promotional strategy involving the coordination of many different types of promotional techniques. The key idea for the marketer who employs several promotional options (we’ll discuss potential options later in this tutorial) to reach objectives for the product is to employ a consistent message across all options. For instance, salespeople will discuss the same benefits of a product as mentioned in television advertisements. In this way no matter how customers are exposed to a marketer’s promotional efforts they all receive the same information.
Targets of Marketing Promotions
The audience for an organization’s marketing communication efforts is not limited to just the marketer’s target market. While the bulk of a marketer’s promotional budget may be directed at the target market, there are many other groups that could also serve as useful target of a marketing message.
Targets of a marketing message generally fall into one of the following categories:
• Members of the Organization’s Target Market – This category would include current customers, previous customers and potential customers, and as noted, may receive the most promotional attention.
• Influencers of the Organization’s Target Market – There exists a large group of people and organizations that can affect how a company’s target market is exposed to and perceives a company’s products. These influencing groups have their own communication mechanisms that reach the target market and the marketer may be able utilize these influencers to its benefit. Influencers include the news media (e.g., offer company stories), special interest groups, opinion leaders (e.g., doctors directing patients), and industry trade associations.
• Participants in the Distribution Process – The distribution channel provides services to help gain access to final customers and are also target markets since they must recognize a product’s benefits and agree to handle the product in the same way as final customers who must agree to purchase products. Aiming promotions at distribution partners (e.g., retailers, wholesalers, distributors) and other channel members is extremely important and, in some industries, represents a higher portion of a marketer’s promotional budget than promotional spending directed at the final customer.
• Other Companies – The most likely scenario in which a company will communicate with another company occurs when the marketer is probing to see if the company would have an interest in a joint venture, such as a co-marketing arrangement where two firms share marketing costs. Reaching out to other companies, including companies who may be competitors for other products, could help create interest in discussing such a relationship.
• Other Organizational Stakeholders – Marketers may also be involved with communication activities directed at other stakeholders. This group consists of those who provide services, support or, in other ways, impact the company. For example, an industry group that sets industry standards can affect company products through the issuance of recommended compliance standards for product development or other marketing activities. Communicating with this group is important to insure the marketer’s views of any changes in standards are known.
Objectives of Marketing Promotions
The most obvious objective marketers have for promotional activities is to convince customers to make a decision that benefits the marketer (of course the marketer believes the decision will also benefit the customer). For most for-profit marketers this means getting customers to buy an organization’s product and, in most cases, to remain a loyal long-term customer. For other marketers, such as not-for-profits, it means getting customers to increase donations, utilize more services, change attitudes, or change behavior (e.g., stop smoking campaigns).
However, marketers must understand that getting customers to commit to a decision, such as a purchase decision, is only achievable when a customer is ready to make the decision. As we saw in the tutorials covering Consumer Buying Behavior and Business Buying Behavior, customers often move through several stages before a purchase decision is made. Additionally before turning into a repeat customer, purchasers analyze their initial purchase to see whether they received a good value, and then often repeat the purchase process again before deciding to make the same choice.
The type of customer the marketer is attempting to attract and which stage of the purchase process a customer is in will affect the objectives of a particular marketing communication effort. And since a marketer often has multiple simultaneous promotional campaigns, the objective of each could be different.
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Types of Promotion Objectives
The possible objectives for marketing promotions may include the following:
• Build Awareness – New products and new companies are often unknown to a market, which means initial promotional efforts must focus on establishing an identity. In this situation the marketer must focus promotion to: 1) effectively reach customers, and 2) tell the market who they are and what they have to offer.
• Create Interest – Moving a customer from awareness of a product to making a purchase can present a significant challenge. As we saw with our discussion of consumer and business buying behavior, customers must first recognize they have a need before they actively start to consider a purchase. The focus on creating messages that convince customers that a need exists has been the hallmark of marketing for a long time with promotional appeals targeted at basic human characteristics such as emotions, fears, sex, and humor.
• Provide Information – Some promotion is designed to assist customers in the search stage of the purchasing process. In some cases, such as when a product is so novel it creates a new category of product and has few competitors, the information is simply intended to explain what the product is and may not mention any competitors. In other situations, where the product competes in an existing market, informational promotion may be used to help with a product positioning strategy. As we discuss in the Targeting Markets Tutorial, marketers may use promotional means, including direct comparisons with competitor’s products, in an effort to get customers to mentally distinguish the marketer’s product from those of competitors.
• Stimulate Demand – The right promotion can drive customers to make a purchase. In the case of products that a customer has not previously purchased or has not purchased in a long time, the promotional efforts may be directed at getting the customer to try the product. This is often seen on the Internet where software companies allow for free demonstrations or even free downloadable trials of their products. For products with an established customer-base, promotion can encourage customers to increase their purchasing by providing a reason to purchase products sooner or purchase in greater quantities than they normally do. For example, a pre-holiday newspaper advertisement may remind customers to stock up for the holiday by purchasing more than they typically purchase during non-holiday periods.
• Reinforce the Brand – Once a purchase is made, a marketer can use promotion to help build a strong relationship that can lead to the purchaser becoming a loyal customer. For instance, many retail stores now ask for a customer’s email address so that follow-up emails containing additional product information or even an incentive to purchase other products from the retailer can be sent in order to strengthen the customer-marketer relationship.
The Communication Process
The act of communicating has been evaluated extensively for many, many years. One of the classic analyses of communication took place in the 1940s and 1950s when researchers, including Claude Shannon, Warren Weaver, Wilbur Schramm and others, offered models describing how communication takes place.
In general, communication is how people exchange meaningful information. Models that reflect how communication occurs often include the elements shown below:
On the next few pages we further discuss the elements of the communication process.
Communication Participants:
For communication to occur there must be at least two participants:
• Message Source – The source of communication is the party intending to convey information to another party. The message source can be an individual (e.g., salesperson) or an organization (e.g., through advertising). In order to convey a message, the source must engage in message encoding, which involves mental and physical processes necessary to construct a message in order to reach a desired goal (i.e., convey meaningful information). This undertaking consists of using sensory stimuli, such as visuals (e.g., words, symbols, images), sounds (e.g., spoken word), and scents (e.g., fragrance) to convey a message.
• Message Receiver – The receiver of communication is the intended target of a message source’s efforts. For a message to be understood the receiver must decode the message by undertaking mental and physical processes necessary to give meaning to the message. Clearly, a message can only be decoded if the receiver is actually exposed to the message.
Communication Delivery:
Communication takes place in the form of a message that is exchanged between a source and receiver. A message can be shaped using one or a combination of sensory stimuli that work together to convey meaning that meets the objectives of the sender. The sender uses a transmission medium to send the message. In marketing the medium may include the use of different media outlets (e.g., Internet, television, radio, print), promotion-only outlets (e.g., postal mail, billboards), and person-to-person contact (e.g., salespeople).
Additionally, communication can be improved if there is a two-way flow of information in the form of a feedback channel. This occurs if the message receiver is able to respond, often quickly, to the message source. In this way, the original message receiver now becomes the message source and the communication process begins again.
Obstacles to Effective Communication
While a message source may be able to deliver a message through a transmission medium, there are many potential obstacles to the message successfully reaching the receiver the way the sender intends. The potential obstacles that may affect good communication include:
• Poor Encoding – This occurs when the message source fails to create the right sensory stimuli to meet the objectives of the message. For instance, in person-to-person communication, verbally phrasing words poorly so the intended communication is not what is actually meant, is the result of poor encoding. Poor encoding is also seen in advertisements that are difficult for the intended audience to understand, such as words or symbols that lack meaning or, worse, have totally different meaning within a certain cultural groups. This often occurs when marketers use the same advertising message across many different countries. Differences due to translation or cultural understanding can result in the message receiver having a different frame of reference for how to interpret words, symbols, sounds, etc. This may lead the message receiver to decode the meaning of the message in a different way than was intended by the message sender.
• Poor Decoding – This refers to a message receiver’s error in processing the message so that the meaning given to the received message is not what the source intended. This differs from poor encoding when it is clear, through comparative analysis with other receivers, that a particular receiver perceived a message differently from others and from what the message source intended. Clearly, as we noted above, if the receiver’s frame of reference is different (e.g., meaning of words are different) then decoding problems can occur. More likely, when it comes to marketing promotions, decoding errors occur due to personal or psychological factors, such as not paying attention to a full television advertisement, driving too quickly past a billboard, or allowing one’s mind to wonder while talking to a salesperson.
• Medium Failure – Sometimes communication channels break down and end up sending out weak or faltering signals. Other times the wrong medium is used to communicate the message. For instance, trying to educate doctors about a new treatment for heart disease using television commercials that quickly flash highly detailed information is not going to be as effective as presenting this information in a print ad where doctors can take their time evaluating the information.
• Communication Noise – Noise in communication occurs when an outside force in someway affects delivery of the message. The most obvious example is when loud sounds block the receiver’s ability to hear a message. Nearly any distraction to the sender or the receiver can lead to communication noise. In advertising, many customers are overwhelmed (i.e., distracted) by the large number of advertisements they encountered each day. Such advertising clutter (i.e., noise) makes it difficult for advertisers to get their message through to desired customers.
Keys to Effective Communication
For marketers understanding how communication works can improve the delivery of their message. From the information just discussed, marketers should focus on the following to improve communication with their targeted audience:
• Carefully Encode – Marketers should make sure the message they send is crafted in a way that will be interpreted by message receivers as intended. This means having a good understanding of how their audience interprets words, symbols, sounds and other stimuli used by marketers.
• Allow Feedback – Encouraging the message receiver to provide feedback can greatly improve communication and help determine if a marketer’s message was decoded and interpreted properly. Feedback can be improved by providing easy-to-use options for responding, such as phone numbers, Internet chat, and email.
• Reduce Noise – In many promotional situations the marketer has little control over interference with their message. However, there are a few instances where the marketer can proactively lower the noise level. For instance, salespeople can be trained to reduce noise by employing techniques that limit customer distractions, such as scheduling meetings during non-busy times or by inviting potential customers to an environment that offers fewer distractions, such as a conference facility. Additionally, advertising can be developed in ways that separates the marketer’s ad from others, including the use of whitespace in magazine ads.
• Choose Right Audience – Targeting the right message receiver will go a long way to improving a marketer’s ability to promote their products. Messages are much more likely to be received and appropriately decoded by those who have an interest in the content of the message.
Characteristics of Different Promotions
Before we discuss the different types of promotion options available to a marketer, it is useful to gain an understanding of the features that set different options apart. For our discussion we isolate seven characteristics on which each promotional option can be judged. While these characteristics are widely understood as being important in evaluating the effectiveness of each type of promotion, they are by no means the only criteria used for evaluation. In fact, as new promotional methods emerge the criteria for evaluating promotional methods will likely change.
For our discussion we will look at the following characteristics of a promotional method:
1. Intended Audience: Mass vs. Targeted
2. Payment Model: Paid vs. Non-Paid
3. Interaction Type: Personal vs. Non-Personal
4. Message Flow: One-Way vs. Two-Way
5. Demand Creation: Quick vs. Lagging
6. Message Control
7. Message Credibility
8. Effective Cost of Promotion
1. Intended Audience: Mass Promotion vs. Targeted Promotion
Promotions can be categorized based on the intended coverage of a single promotional message. For instance, a single television advertisement for a major sporting event, such as the Super Bowl, World Cup or Olympics, could be seen by millions of viewers at the same time. Such mass promotion, intended to reach as many people as possible, has been a mainstay of marketers’ promotional efforts for a long time.
Unfortunately, while mass promotions are delivered to a large number of people, the actual number that fall within the marketer’s target market may be small. Because of this, many who use mass promotion techniques find it to be an inefficient way to reach desired customers. Instead, today’s marketers are turning to newer techniques designed to focus promotional delivery to only those with a high probability of being in the marketer’s target market. For example, Google, Yahoo and other Internet search engines employ methods for delivering highly targeted ads to customers as they enter search terms. The assumption made by advertisers is that customers who enter search terms are interested in the information they have entered, especially if they are searching by entering detailed search strings (e.g., phrases rather than a single word). Following this logic, advertisers are much more likely to have their ads displayed to customers within their target market and, thus, receive a higher return on their promotional investment. The movement to highly targeted promotions has gained tremendous traction in recent years and, as new and improved targeting methods are introduced, its importance will continue to grow.
2. Payment Model: Paid Promotion vs. Non-Paid Promotion
Most efforts to promote products require marketers to make direct payment to the medium that delivers the message. For instance, a company must pay a magazine publisher to advertise in the magazine. However, there are several forms of promotion that do not involve direct payment in order to distribute a promotional message. While not necessarily “free” since there may be indirect costs involved, the ability to have a product promoted without making direct payment to the medium can be a viable alternative to expensive promotion options.
3. Interaction Type: Personal vs. Non-Personal
Promotions involving real people communicating with other people is considered personal promotion. While salespeople are a common and well understood type of personal promotion, another type of promotion, called controlled word-of-mouth promotion (a.k.a., buzz marketing), is emerging as a form of personal promotion. Unlike salespeople who attempt to obtain an order from customers, controlled word-of-mouth promotion uses real people to help spread information about a product but is not designed to directly elicit orders.
One key advantage personal promotions have is the ability for the message sender to adjust the message as they gain feedback from message receivers (i.e., two-way communication). So if a customer does not understand something in the initial message (e.g., doesn’t fully understand how the product works) the person delivering the message can adjust the promotion to address questions or concerns. Many non-personal forms of promotion, such as a radio advertisement, are inflexible, at least in the short-term, and cannot be easily adjusted to address questions that arise by the audience experiencing the ad.
4. Message Flow: One-Way vs. Two-Way Communication
Promotions can be classified based on whether the message source enables the message receiver to respond with immediate feedback. Such feedback can then be followed with further information exchange between both parties. Most efforts at mass promotion, such as television advertising, offer only a one-way information flow that does not allow for easy response by the message receiver. However, many targeted promotions, such as using a sales force to promote products, allow message recipients to respond immediately to information from the message sender.
5. Demand Creation: Quick vs. Lagging
As we discussed earlier, the success of promotional activity may not always be measured by comparing spending to an increase in product sales since marketers may use promotion to achieve other objectives. However, when a marketer is looking to increase demand, certain promotional activities offer advantages in turning exposure to promotion into a quick increase in demand. In general, these activities are most effective when customers are offered an incentive to make the purchase either in a monetary way (e.g., save money) or in psychological way (e.g., improves customer’s perceived group role or status level).
6. Message Control
Most promotions are controlled by the marketer who encodes the message (or hires specialists such as advertising agencies to create the promotion) and then pays to have the message delivered. However, no marketer can totally control how the news media, customers or others talk about a company or its products. Reporters for magazines, newspaper and websites, as well as posters to Internet forums may discuss a company’s products in ways that can benefit or hinder a company’s marketing efforts. This is particularly true with non-paid promotions where a marketer is looking to obtain a free “mention” by an influential message medium (e.g., newspaper article).
7. Message Credibility
The perceived control of the message can influence the target market’s perception of message credibility. For example, many customers viewing a comparative advertisement in which a product is shown to be superior to a competitor’s product may be skeptical about the claims since the company with the superior product is paying for the advertisement. Yet, if the same comparison is mentioned in a newspaper article it may be more favorably viewed since readers may perceive the author of the story has possessing an unbiased point-of-view.
8. Cost Effectiveness
Promotional cost is measured in several different ways though the most useful are measured in terms of cost-per-impression (CPI), cost-per-targeted impression (CPTI), and cost-per-action (CPA). The CPI metric (also measured in terms of cost-per-thousand impressions or CPM) relates to how many people are exposed to a promotion in relation to the cost of the promotion. A national or international television advertisement, while expensive to create and broadcast, actually produces a very low CPI given how many people are exposed to the ad. Yet, a low CPI can be misleading if a large percentage of the promotion’s audience is not within the marketer’s target market, in which case the CPTI may be a better metric for gauging promotion effectiveness. The CPTI approach looks at what percentage of an audience is within the marketer’s customer group and, thus, legitimate targets for the promotion. Clearly, CPTI is higher than CPI, but it offers a better indication of how much promotion is reaching targeted customers.
An even more effective way to evaluate promotional costs is through the cost-per-action metric. With CPA the marketer evaluates how many people actually respond to a promotion. Response may be measured by examining purchase activity, number of phone inquiries, website traffic, clicks on advertisements, and other means within a short time after the promotional message was delivered. Unfortunately, measuring CPA is not always easy and tying it directly to a specific promotion can also be difficult. For example, a customer who purchases a snack product may have first learned about the snack product several weeks before from a television advertisement. The fact that it took the customer several weeks to make the purchase does not mean the advertisement was not effective in generating sales, though if the CPA was measured within a day or two after the ad was broadcast this person’s action would not have been counted..
With the growing trend to more targeted promotions, especially those delivered through the Internet, combined with the development of sophisticated customer tracking techniques, the ability to compare promotion to actual customer activity is bound to one day be the dominant method for measuring promotional effectiveness.
Types of Promotion – Promotion Mix
Marketers have at their disposal four major methods of promotion. Taken together these comprise the promotion mix. In this section a basic definition of each method is offered while in the next section a comparison of each method based on the characteristics of promotion is presented.
• Advertising – Involves non-personal, mostly paid promotions often using mass media outlets to deliver the marketer’s message. While historically advertising has involved one-way communication with little feedback opportunity for the customer experiencing the advertisement, the advent of computer technology and, in particular, the Internet has increased the options that allow customers to provide quick feedback.
• Sales Promotion – Involves the use of special short-term techniques, often in the form of incentives, to encourage customers to respond or undertake some activity. For instance, the use of retail coupons with expiration dates requires customers to act while the incentive is still valid.
• Public Relations – Also referred to as publicity, this type of promotion uses third-party sources, and particularly the news media, to offer a favorable mention of the marketer’s company or product without direct payment to the publisher of the information.
• Personal Selling – As the name implies, this form of promotion involves personal contact between company representatives and those who have a role in purchase decisions (e.g., make the decision, such as consumers, or have an influence on a decision, such as members of a company buying center). Often this occurs face-to-face or via telephone, though newer technologies allow this to occur online via video conferencing or text chat.
Each of these methods will be covered in much greater detail in later tutorials.
Promotion Summary Table
The table below compares each of the promotion mix options on the eight key promotional characteristics. The summary should be viewed only as a general guide since promotion techniques are continually evolving and how each technique is compared on a characteristic is subject to change.
Characteristics Advertising Sales Promotion Public Relations Personal Selling
Directed Coverage mass & targeted mass & targeted mass targeted
Message Flow one & two-way one & two-way one-way two-way
Payment Model paid
limited non-paid paid non-paid paid
Interaction Type non-personal personal &
non-personal non-personal personal
Demand Stimulation lagging quick lagging quick
Message Control good good poor very good
Message Credibility low-medium low-medium high medium-high
Cost of Promotion CPI - Low
CPTI - Varies
CPA - Varies CPI - Medium
CPTI - Varies
CPA - Varies CPI - None
CPTI - None
CPA - None CPI - High
CPTI - High
CPA - Hig
Factors Affecting Promotions Choice
With four promotional methods to choose from how does the marketer determine which ones to use? The selection can be complicated by company and marketing decision issues.
Company Issues:
• Promotional Objective – As we discussed, there are several different objectives a marketer may pursue with their promotional strategy. Each type of promotion offers different advantages in terms of helping the marketer reach their objectives. For instance, if the objective of a software manufacturer is to get customers to try a product, the use of sales promotion, such as offering the software in a free downloadable form, may yield better results than promoting through Internet advertising.
• Availability of Resources – The amount of money and other resources that can be directed to promotion affects the marketer’s choice of promotional methods. Marketers with large promotional budgets may be able to spread spending among all promotion options while marketers with limited funds must be more selective on the promotion techniques they use.
• Company Philosophy – Some companies follow a philosophy that dictates where most promotional spending occurs. For instance, some companies follow the approach that all promotion should be done through salespeople while other companies prefer to focus attention on product development and hope word-of-mouth communication by satisfied customers helps to create interest in their product.
Marketing Decision Issues:
• Target Market – As one might expect, customer characteristics dictate how promotion is determined. Characteristics such as size, location and type of target markets affect how the marketer communicates with customers. For instance, for a small marketer serving business markets with customers widely dispersed, it may be very expensive to utilize a sales force versus using advertising.
• Product – Different products require different promotional approaches. For the consumer market, products falling into the convenience and shopping goods categories are likely to use mass market promotional approaches while higher-end specialty goods are likely to use personalized selling. Thus, products that are complex and take customers extended time to make a purchase decision may require personal selling rather than advertising. This is often the case with products targeted to the business market. Additionally, as we briefly discussed in the Managing Products Tutorial and will later see in the Planning and Strategy Tutorial, products pass through different stages in the Product Life Cycle. As a product moves through these stages the product itself may evolve and also promotional objectives will change. This leads to different promotional mix decisions from one stage to the next.
• Distribution –Marketing organizations selling through channel partners can reach the final customer either directly using a pull promotion strategy or indirectly using a push promotional strategy. The pull strategy is so named since it creates demand for a product by promoting directly to the final customer in the hopes that their interest in the product will help “pull” more product through the distribution channel. This approach can be used when channel partners are hesitant about stocking a product unless they are assured of sufficient customer interest. The push strategy uses promotion to encourage channel partners to stock and promote the product to their customers. The idea is that by offering incentives to channel members the marketer is encouraging their partners (e.g., wholesalers, retailers) to “push” the product down the channel and into customer’s hands. Most large consumer products companies will use both approaches while smaller firm may find one approach works better.
• Price – The higher the price of a product the more likely a marketer will need to engage in personalized promotion compared to lower priced products that can be marketed using mass promotion.
Promotion is a form of corporate communication that uses various methods to reach a targeted audience with a certain message in order to achieve specific organizational objectives. Nearly all organizations, whether for-profit or not-for-profit, in all types of industries, must engage in some form of promotion. Such efforts may range from multinational firms spending large sums on securing high-profile celebrities to serve as corporate spokespersons to the owner of a one-person enterprise passing out business cards at a local businessperson’s meeting.
Like most marketing decisions, an effective promotional strategy requires the marketer understand how promotion fits with other pieces of the marketing puzzle (e.g., product, distribution, pricing, target markets). Consequently, promotion decisions should be made with an appreciation for how it affects other areas of the company. For instance, running a major advertising campaign for a new product without first assuring there will be enough inventory to meet potential demand generated by the advertising would certainly not go over well with the company’s production department (not to mention other key company executives). Thus, marketers should not work in a vacuum when making promotion decisions. Rather, the overall success of a promotional strategy requires input from others in impacted functional areas.
In addition to coordinating general promotion decisions with other business areas, individual promotions must also work together. Under the concept of Integrated Marketing Communication marketers attempt to develop a unified promotional strategy involving the coordination of many different types of promotional techniques. The key idea for the marketer who employs several promotional options (we’ll discuss potential options later in this tutorial) to reach objectives for the product is to employ a consistent message across all options. For instance, salespeople will discuss the same benefits of a product as mentioned in television advertisements. In this way no matter how customers are exposed to a marketer’s promotional efforts they all receive the same information.
Targets of Marketing Promotions
The audience for an organization’s marketing communication efforts is not limited to just the marketer’s target market. While the bulk of a marketer’s promotional budget may be directed at the target market, there are many other groups that could also serve as useful target of a marketing message.
Targets of a marketing message generally fall into one of the following categories:
• Members of the Organization’s Target Market – This category would include current customers, previous customers and potential customers, and as noted, may receive the most promotional attention.
• Influencers of the Organization’s Target Market – There exists a large group of people and organizations that can affect how a company’s target market is exposed to and perceives a company’s products. These influencing groups have their own communication mechanisms that reach the target market and the marketer may be able utilize these influencers to its benefit. Influencers include the news media (e.g., offer company stories), special interest groups, opinion leaders (e.g., doctors directing patients), and industry trade associations.
• Participants in the Distribution Process – The distribution channel provides services to help gain access to final customers and are also target markets since they must recognize a product’s benefits and agree to handle the product in the same way as final customers who must agree to purchase products. Aiming promotions at distribution partners (e.g., retailers, wholesalers, distributors) and other channel members is extremely important and, in some industries, represents a higher portion of a marketer’s promotional budget than promotional spending directed at the final customer.
• Other Companies – The most likely scenario in which a company will communicate with another company occurs when the marketer is probing to see if the company would have an interest in a joint venture, such as a co-marketing arrangement where two firms share marketing costs. Reaching out to other companies, including companies who may be competitors for other products, could help create interest in discussing such a relationship.
• Other Organizational Stakeholders – Marketers may also be involved with communication activities directed at other stakeholders. This group consists of those who provide services, support or, in other ways, impact the company. For example, an industry group that sets industry standards can affect company products through the issuance of recommended compliance standards for product development or other marketing activities. Communicating with this group is important to insure the marketer’s views of any changes in standards are known.
Objectives of Marketing Promotions
The most obvious objective marketers have for promotional activities is to convince customers to make a decision that benefits the marketer (of course the marketer believes the decision will also benefit the customer). For most for-profit marketers this means getting customers to buy an organization’s product and, in most cases, to remain a loyal long-term customer. For other marketers, such as not-for-profits, it means getting customers to increase donations, utilize more services, change attitudes, or change behavior (e.g., stop smoking campaigns).
However, marketers must understand that getting customers to commit to a decision, such as a purchase decision, is only achievable when a customer is ready to make the decision. As we saw in the tutorials covering Consumer Buying Behavior and Business Buying Behavior, customers often move through several stages before a purchase decision is made. Additionally before turning into a repeat customer, purchasers analyze their initial purchase to see whether they received a good value, and then often repeat the purchase process again before deciding to make the same choice.
The type of customer the marketer is attempting to attract and which stage of the purchase process a customer is in will affect the objectives of a particular marketing communication effort. And since a marketer often has multiple simultaneous promotional campaigns, the objective of each could be different.
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Types of Promotion Objectives
The possible objectives for marketing promotions may include the following:
• Build Awareness – New products and new companies are often unknown to a market, which means initial promotional efforts must focus on establishing an identity. In this situation the marketer must focus promotion to: 1) effectively reach customers, and 2) tell the market who they are and what they have to offer.
• Create Interest – Moving a customer from awareness of a product to making a purchase can present a significant challenge. As we saw with our discussion of consumer and business buying behavior, customers must first recognize they have a need before they actively start to consider a purchase. The focus on creating messages that convince customers that a need exists has been the hallmark of marketing for a long time with promotional appeals targeted at basic human characteristics such as emotions, fears, sex, and humor.
• Provide Information – Some promotion is designed to assist customers in the search stage of the purchasing process. In some cases, such as when a product is so novel it creates a new category of product and has few competitors, the information is simply intended to explain what the product is and may not mention any competitors. In other situations, where the product competes in an existing market, informational promotion may be used to help with a product positioning strategy. As we discuss in the Targeting Markets Tutorial, marketers may use promotional means, including direct comparisons with competitor’s products, in an effort to get customers to mentally distinguish the marketer’s product from those of competitors.
• Stimulate Demand – The right promotion can drive customers to make a purchase. In the case of products that a customer has not previously purchased or has not purchased in a long time, the promotional efforts may be directed at getting the customer to try the product. This is often seen on the Internet where software companies allow for free demonstrations or even free downloadable trials of their products. For products with an established customer-base, promotion can encourage customers to increase their purchasing by providing a reason to purchase products sooner or purchase in greater quantities than they normally do. For example, a pre-holiday newspaper advertisement may remind customers to stock up for the holiday by purchasing more than they typically purchase during non-holiday periods.
• Reinforce the Brand – Once a purchase is made, a marketer can use promotion to help build a strong relationship that can lead to the purchaser becoming a loyal customer. For instance, many retail stores now ask for a customer’s email address so that follow-up emails containing additional product information or even an incentive to purchase other products from the retailer can be sent in order to strengthen the customer-marketer relationship.
The Communication Process
The act of communicating has been evaluated extensively for many, many years. One of the classic analyses of communication took place in the 1940s and 1950s when researchers, including Claude Shannon, Warren Weaver, Wilbur Schramm and others, offered models describing how communication takes place.
In general, communication is how people exchange meaningful information. Models that reflect how communication occurs often include the elements shown below:
On the next few pages we further discuss the elements of the communication process.
Communication Participants:
For communication to occur there must be at least two participants:
• Message Source – The source of communication is the party intending to convey information to another party. The message source can be an individual (e.g., salesperson) or an organization (e.g., through advertising). In order to convey a message, the source must engage in message encoding, which involves mental and physical processes necessary to construct a message in order to reach a desired goal (i.e., convey meaningful information). This undertaking consists of using sensory stimuli, such as visuals (e.g., words, symbols, images), sounds (e.g., spoken word), and scents (e.g., fragrance) to convey a message.
• Message Receiver – The receiver of communication is the intended target of a message source’s efforts. For a message to be understood the receiver must decode the message by undertaking mental and physical processes necessary to give meaning to the message. Clearly, a message can only be decoded if the receiver is actually exposed to the message.
Communication Delivery:
Communication takes place in the form of a message that is exchanged between a source and receiver. A message can be shaped using one or a combination of sensory stimuli that work together to convey meaning that meets the objectives of the sender. The sender uses a transmission medium to send the message. In marketing the medium may include the use of different media outlets (e.g., Internet, television, radio, print), promotion-only outlets (e.g., postal mail, billboards), and person-to-person contact (e.g., salespeople).
Additionally, communication can be improved if there is a two-way flow of information in the form of a feedback channel. This occurs if the message receiver is able to respond, often quickly, to the message source. In this way, the original message receiver now becomes the message source and the communication process begins again.
Obstacles to Effective Communication
While a message source may be able to deliver a message through a transmission medium, there are many potential obstacles to the message successfully reaching the receiver the way the sender intends. The potential obstacles that may affect good communication include:
• Poor Encoding – This occurs when the message source fails to create the right sensory stimuli to meet the objectives of the message. For instance, in person-to-person communication, verbally phrasing words poorly so the intended communication is not what is actually meant, is the result of poor encoding. Poor encoding is also seen in advertisements that are difficult for the intended audience to understand, such as words or symbols that lack meaning or, worse, have totally different meaning within a certain cultural groups. This often occurs when marketers use the same advertising message across many different countries. Differences due to translation or cultural understanding can result in the message receiver having a different frame of reference for how to interpret words, symbols, sounds, etc. This may lead the message receiver to decode the meaning of the message in a different way than was intended by the message sender.
• Poor Decoding – This refers to a message receiver’s error in processing the message so that the meaning given to the received message is not what the source intended. This differs from poor encoding when it is clear, through comparative analysis with other receivers, that a particular receiver perceived a message differently from others and from what the message source intended. Clearly, as we noted above, if the receiver’s frame of reference is different (e.g., meaning of words are different) then decoding problems can occur. More likely, when it comes to marketing promotions, decoding errors occur due to personal or psychological factors, such as not paying attention to a full television advertisement, driving too quickly past a billboard, or allowing one’s mind to wonder while talking to a salesperson.
• Medium Failure – Sometimes communication channels break down and end up sending out weak or faltering signals. Other times the wrong medium is used to communicate the message. For instance, trying to educate doctors about a new treatment for heart disease using television commercials that quickly flash highly detailed information is not going to be as effective as presenting this information in a print ad where doctors can take their time evaluating the information.
• Communication Noise – Noise in communication occurs when an outside force in someway affects delivery of the message. The most obvious example is when loud sounds block the receiver’s ability to hear a message. Nearly any distraction to the sender or the receiver can lead to communication noise. In advertising, many customers are overwhelmed (i.e., distracted) by the large number of advertisements they encountered each day. Such advertising clutter (i.e., noise) makes it difficult for advertisers to get their message through to desired customers.
Keys to Effective Communication
For marketers understanding how communication works can improve the delivery of their message. From the information just discussed, marketers should focus on the following to improve communication with their targeted audience:
• Carefully Encode – Marketers should make sure the message they send is crafted in a way that will be interpreted by message receivers as intended. This means having a good understanding of how their audience interprets words, symbols, sounds and other stimuli used by marketers.
• Allow Feedback – Encouraging the message receiver to provide feedback can greatly improve communication and help determine if a marketer’s message was decoded and interpreted properly. Feedback can be improved by providing easy-to-use options for responding, such as phone numbers, Internet chat, and email.
• Reduce Noise – In many promotional situations the marketer has little control over interference with their message. However, there are a few instances where the marketer can proactively lower the noise level. For instance, salespeople can be trained to reduce noise by employing techniques that limit customer distractions, such as scheduling meetings during non-busy times or by inviting potential customers to an environment that offers fewer distractions, such as a conference facility. Additionally, advertising can be developed in ways that separates the marketer’s ad from others, including the use of whitespace in magazine ads.
• Choose Right Audience – Targeting the right message receiver will go a long way to improving a marketer’s ability to promote their products. Messages are much more likely to be received and appropriately decoded by those who have an interest in the content of the message.
Characteristics of Different Promotions
Before we discuss the different types of promotion options available to a marketer, it is useful to gain an understanding of the features that set different options apart. For our discussion we isolate seven characteristics on which each promotional option can be judged. While these characteristics are widely understood as being important in evaluating the effectiveness of each type of promotion, they are by no means the only criteria used for evaluation. In fact, as new promotional methods emerge the criteria for evaluating promotional methods will likely change.
For our discussion we will look at the following characteristics of a promotional method:
1. Intended Audience: Mass vs. Targeted
2. Payment Model: Paid vs. Non-Paid
3. Interaction Type: Personal vs. Non-Personal
4. Message Flow: One-Way vs. Two-Way
5. Demand Creation: Quick vs. Lagging
6. Message Control
7. Message Credibility
8. Effective Cost of Promotion
1. Intended Audience: Mass Promotion vs. Targeted Promotion
Promotions can be categorized based on the intended coverage of a single promotional message. For instance, a single television advertisement for a major sporting event, such as the Super Bowl, World Cup or Olympics, could be seen by millions of viewers at the same time. Such mass promotion, intended to reach as many people as possible, has been a mainstay of marketers’ promotional efforts for a long time.
Unfortunately, while mass promotions are delivered to a large number of people, the actual number that fall within the marketer’s target market may be small. Because of this, many who use mass promotion techniques find it to be an inefficient way to reach desired customers. Instead, today’s marketers are turning to newer techniques designed to focus promotional delivery to only those with a high probability of being in the marketer’s target market. For example, Google, Yahoo and other Internet search engines employ methods for delivering highly targeted ads to customers as they enter search terms. The assumption made by advertisers is that customers who enter search terms are interested in the information they have entered, especially if they are searching by entering detailed search strings (e.g., phrases rather than a single word). Following this logic, advertisers are much more likely to have their ads displayed to customers within their target market and, thus, receive a higher return on their promotional investment. The movement to highly targeted promotions has gained tremendous traction in recent years and, as new and improved targeting methods are introduced, its importance will continue to grow.
2. Payment Model: Paid Promotion vs. Non-Paid Promotion
Most efforts to promote products require marketers to make direct payment to the medium that delivers the message. For instance, a company must pay a magazine publisher to advertise in the magazine. However, there are several forms of promotion that do not involve direct payment in order to distribute a promotional message. While not necessarily “free” since there may be indirect costs involved, the ability to have a product promoted without making direct payment to the medium can be a viable alternative to expensive promotion options.
3. Interaction Type: Personal vs. Non-Personal
Promotions involving real people communicating with other people is considered personal promotion. While salespeople are a common and well understood type of personal promotion, another type of promotion, called controlled word-of-mouth promotion (a.k.a., buzz marketing), is emerging as a form of personal promotion. Unlike salespeople who attempt to obtain an order from customers, controlled word-of-mouth promotion uses real people to help spread information about a product but is not designed to directly elicit orders.
One key advantage personal promotions have is the ability for the message sender to adjust the message as they gain feedback from message receivers (i.e., two-way communication). So if a customer does not understand something in the initial message (e.g., doesn’t fully understand how the product works) the person delivering the message can adjust the promotion to address questions or concerns. Many non-personal forms of promotion, such as a radio advertisement, are inflexible, at least in the short-term, and cannot be easily adjusted to address questions that arise by the audience experiencing the ad.
4. Message Flow: One-Way vs. Two-Way Communication
Promotions can be classified based on whether the message source enables the message receiver to respond with immediate feedback. Such feedback can then be followed with further information exchange between both parties. Most efforts at mass promotion, such as television advertising, offer only a one-way information flow that does not allow for easy response by the message receiver. However, many targeted promotions, such as using a sales force to promote products, allow message recipients to respond immediately to information from the message sender.
5. Demand Creation: Quick vs. Lagging
As we discussed earlier, the success of promotional activity may not always be measured by comparing spending to an increase in product sales since marketers may use promotion to achieve other objectives. However, when a marketer is looking to increase demand, certain promotional activities offer advantages in turning exposure to promotion into a quick increase in demand. In general, these activities are most effective when customers are offered an incentive to make the purchase either in a monetary way (e.g., save money) or in psychological way (e.g., improves customer’s perceived group role or status level).
6. Message Control
Most promotions are controlled by the marketer who encodes the message (or hires specialists such as advertising agencies to create the promotion) and then pays to have the message delivered. However, no marketer can totally control how the news media, customers or others talk about a company or its products. Reporters for magazines, newspaper and websites, as well as posters to Internet forums may discuss a company’s products in ways that can benefit or hinder a company’s marketing efforts. This is particularly true with non-paid promotions where a marketer is looking to obtain a free “mention” by an influential message medium (e.g., newspaper article).
7. Message Credibility
The perceived control of the message can influence the target market’s perception of message credibility. For example, many customers viewing a comparative advertisement in which a product is shown to be superior to a competitor’s product may be skeptical about the claims since the company with the superior product is paying for the advertisement. Yet, if the same comparison is mentioned in a newspaper article it may be more favorably viewed since readers may perceive the author of the story has possessing an unbiased point-of-view.
8. Cost Effectiveness
Promotional cost is measured in several different ways though the most useful are measured in terms of cost-per-impression (CPI), cost-per-targeted impression (CPTI), and cost-per-action (CPA). The CPI metric (also measured in terms of cost-per-thousand impressions or CPM) relates to how many people are exposed to a promotion in relation to the cost of the promotion. A national or international television advertisement, while expensive to create and broadcast, actually produces a very low CPI given how many people are exposed to the ad. Yet, a low CPI can be misleading if a large percentage of the promotion’s audience is not within the marketer’s target market, in which case the CPTI may be a better metric for gauging promotion effectiveness. The CPTI approach looks at what percentage of an audience is within the marketer’s customer group and, thus, legitimate targets for the promotion. Clearly, CPTI is higher than CPI, but it offers a better indication of how much promotion is reaching targeted customers.
An even more effective way to evaluate promotional costs is through the cost-per-action metric. With CPA the marketer evaluates how many people actually respond to a promotion. Response may be measured by examining purchase activity, number of phone inquiries, website traffic, clicks on advertisements, and other means within a short time after the promotional message was delivered. Unfortunately, measuring CPA is not always easy and tying it directly to a specific promotion can also be difficult. For example, a customer who purchases a snack product may have first learned about the snack product several weeks before from a television advertisement. The fact that it took the customer several weeks to make the purchase does not mean the advertisement was not effective in generating sales, though if the CPA was measured within a day or two after the ad was broadcast this person’s action would not have been counted..
With the growing trend to more targeted promotions, especially those delivered through the Internet, combined with the development of sophisticated customer tracking techniques, the ability to compare promotion to actual customer activity is bound to one day be the dominant method for measuring promotional effectiveness.
Types of Promotion – Promotion Mix
Marketers have at their disposal four major methods of promotion. Taken together these comprise the promotion mix. In this section a basic definition of each method is offered while in the next section a comparison of each method based on the characteristics of promotion is presented.
• Advertising – Involves non-personal, mostly paid promotions often using mass media outlets to deliver the marketer’s message. While historically advertising has involved one-way communication with little feedback opportunity for the customer experiencing the advertisement, the advent of computer technology and, in particular, the Internet has increased the options that allow customers to provide quick feedback.
• Sales Promotion – Involves the use of special short-term techniques, often in the form of incentives, to encourage customers to respond or undertake some activity. For instance, the use of retail coupons with expiration dates requires customers to act while the incentive is still valid.
• Public Relations – Also referred to as publicity, this type of promotion uses third-party sources, and particularly the news media, to offer a favorable mention of the marketer’s company or product without direct payment to the publisher of the information.
• Personal Selling – As the name implies, this form of promotion involves personal contact between company representatives and those who have a role in purchase decisions (e.g., make the decision, such as consumers, or have an influence on a decision, such as members of a company buying center). Often this occurs face-to-face or via telephone, though newer technologies allow this to occur online via video conferencing or text chat.
Each of these methods will be covered in much greater detail in later tutorials.
Promotion Summary Table
The table below compares each of the promotion mix options on the eight key promotional characteristics. The summary should be viewed only as a general guide since promotion techniques are continually evolving and how each technique is compared on a characteristic is subject to change.
Characteristics Advertising Sales Promotion Public Relations Personal Selling
Directed Coverage mass & targeted mass & targeted mass targeted
Message Flow one & two-way one & two-way one-way two-way
Payment Model paid
limited non-paid paid non-paid paid
Interaction Type non-personal personal &
non-personal non-personal personal
Demand Stimulation lagging quick lagging quick
Message Control good good poor very good
Message Credibility low-medium low-medium high medium-high
Cost of Promotion CPI - Low
CPTI - Varies
CPA - Varies CPI - Medium
CPTI - Varies
CPA - Varies CPI - None
CPTI - None
CPA - None CPI - High
CPTI - High
CPA - Hig
Factors Affecting Promotions Choice
With four promotional methods to choose from how does the marketer determine which ones to use? The selection can be complicated by company and marketing decision issues.
Company Issues:
• Promotional Objective – As we discussed, there are several different objectives a marketer may pursue with their promotional strategy. Each type of promotion offers different advantages in terms of helping the marketer reach their objectives. For instance, if the objective of a software manufacturer is to get customers to try a product, the use of sales promotion, such as offering the software in a free downloadable form, may yield better results than promoting through Internet advertising.
• Availability of Resources – The amount of money and other resources that can be directed to promotion affects the marketer’s choice of promotional methods. Marketers with large promotional budgets may be able to spread spending among all promotion options while marketers with limited funds must be more selective on the promotion techniques they use.
• Company Philosophy – Some companies follow a philosophy that dictates where most promotional spending occurs. For instance, some companies follow the approach that all promotion should be done through salespeople while other companies prefer to focus attention on product development and hope word-of-mouth communication by satisfied customers helps to create interest in their product.
Marketing Decision Issues:
• Target Market – As one might expect, customer characteristics dictate how promotion is determined. Characteristics such as size, location and type of target markets affect how the marketer communicates with customers. For instance, for a small marketer serving business markets with customers widely dispersed, it may be very expensive to utilize a sales force versus using advertising.
• Product – Different products require different promotional approaches. For the consumer market, products falling into the convenience and shopping goods categories are likely to use mass market promotional approaches while higher-end specialty goods are likely to use personalized selling. Thus, products that are complex and take customers extended time to make a purchase decision may require personal selling rather than advertising. This is often the case with products targeted to the business market. Additionally, as we briefly discussed in the Managing Products Tutorial and will later see in the Planning and Strategy Tutorial, products pass through different stages in the Product Life Cycle. As a product moves through these stages the product itself may evolve and also promotional objectives will change. This leads to different promotional mix decisions from one stage to the next.
• Distribution –Marketing organizations selling through channel partners can reach the final customer either directly using a pull promotion strategy or indirectly using a push promotional strategy. The pull strategy is so named since it creates demand for a product by promoting directly to the final customer in the hopes that their interest in the product will help “pull” more product through the distribution channel. This approach can be used when channel partners are hesitant about stocking a product unless they are assured of sufficient customer interest. The push strategy uses promotion to encourage channel partners to stock and promote the product to their customers. The idea is that by offering incentives to channel members the marketer is encouraging their partners (e.g., wholesalers, retailers) to “push” the product down the channel and into customer’s hands. Most large consumer products companies will use both approaches while smaller firm may find one approach works better.
• Price – The higher the price of a product the more likely a marketer will need to engage in personalized promotion compared to lower priced products that can be marketed using mass promotion.
Monday, March 12, 2007
VIDEO VANS—THE MEDIUM
The wastage of conventional media is often masked by statistics of coverage based on
Published data on reach. In reality, the actual reach of conventional media in the rural
Segment is very low and there fore cost-ineffective.
This is particularly true of print media – vez newspapers and magazines, Female readership
Of the print media is low even in the urban market: in rural market, it is virtually negligible.
The reach of TV in the rural segment is limited and largely restricted to Black & White
Sets. In addition to clutter, the viewer is subject to vagaries in power supply in the rural
Environment
Leading rural marketers have depended a great deal on outdoor media, Particularly wall
Painting. With a limitation of visual communication MIS believes this medium is
Basically unreliable And messages are often over- painted with other messages almost
Immediately.
It is also important to consider the state of the mind when messages are beamed to a
Target segment. In conventional media, Your message will be one of several messages received, often barely subliminally by the viewer/reader.
The video van is a medium ,that reaches the target segment and has his/her undivided
Attention and more so provides an opportunity for 2 way communication. An opportunity
To create a multi media blitz for the product and highly focused advertising targeted at The interior village consumer.
VIDEO VANS- OPERATIONAL MODULATES
VAN WORKING
A Video van covers 2 /3 villages in a day to cover up to 22 to 78 villages in one route cycle of 26 operating days. 2/3 shows are screened on each operating day. One shows in the day time and one show after sundown through 21” colour TV or projection on 100” screen. Each show is one hour in duration consisting of film songs, dialogs & dharmik serials interspersed with advertising time.
Shows are preceded by day time activity to include extensive audio publicity coupled with distribution of printed publicity materials, sport sales, retailing, merchandising, Atractive games and market survey can also be conducted during the day time.
OPERATING SCHEDULES
The operating schedules along with the detailed route plane is finalized at least 15 days before commencement. Route plane specifies movement of a video van for one cycle of 26 operating days.
EQUIPMENT & PERSONNEL
Each video van has a colour TV/ PROJECTION System consisting of a VCD/VCR, audio support
System with cassette player, microphone, horns / Sound box. An on-board self generating UPS system
Or a genset for power supply. The has a crew of 3 traind personnel consisting of a van supervisor, an equipment operater and a driver com helper. A megaphone is provided with the van to facility audio publicity.
Published data on reach. In reality, the actual reach of conventional media in the rural
Segment is very low and there fore cost-ineffective.
This is particularly true of print media – vez newspapers and magazines, Female readership
Of the print media is low even in the urban market: in rural market, it is virtually negligible.
The reach of TV in the rural segment is limited and largely restricted to Black & White
Sets. In addition to clutter, the viewer is subject to vagaries in power supply in the rural
Environment
Leading rural marketers have depended a great deal on outdoor media, Particularly wall
Painting. With a limitation of visual communication MIS believes this medium is
Basically unreliable And messages are often over- painted with other messages almost
Immediately.
It is also important to consider the state of the mind when messages are beamed to a
Target segment. In conventional media, Your message will be one of several messages received, often barely subliminally by the viewer/reader.
The video van is a medium ,that reaches the target segment and has his/her undivided
Attention and more so provides an opportunity for 2 way communication. An opportunity
To create a multi media blitz for the product and highly focused advertising targeted at The interior village consumer.
VIDEO VANS- OPERATIONAL MODULATES
VAN WORKING
A Video van covers 2 /3 villages in a day to cover up to 22 to 78 villages in one route cycle of 26 operating days. 2/3 shows are screened on each operating day. One shows in the day time and one show after sundown through 21” colour TV or projection on 100” screen. Each show is one hour in duration consisting of film songs, dialogs & dharmik serials interspersed with advertising time.
Shows are preceded by day time activity to include extensive audio publicity coupled with distribution of printed publicity materials, sport sales, retailing, merchandising, Atractive games and market survey can also be conducted during the day time.
OPERATING SCHEDULES
The operating schedules along with the detailed route plane is finalized at least 15 days before commencement. Route plane specifies movement of a video van for one cycle of 26 operating days.
EQUIPMENT & PERSONNEL
Each video van has a colour TV/ PROJECTION System consisting of a VCD/VCR, audio support
System with cassette player, microphone, horns / Sound box. An on-board self generating UPS system
Or a genset for power supply. The has a crew of 3 traind personnel consisting of a van supervisor, an equipment operater and a driver com helper. A megaphone is provided with the van to facility audio publicity.
MOBILE HOARDING
Hoarding space available on sides of the video vans is utilized to paint your advertising
Message or product visual.
MONITERING AND CONTROL
Daily feedback reports are prepared for each show are submitted on weekly basis and the
Monthly reports are completion of each van cycle.
Internal inspections are conducted regularly to keep checks on proper functioning of the
equipment and personnel.
MAINTENANCE
Video vans operate on continuous basis. Maintenance of the equipment is done on
Board. Schedules of preventive maintenance of the van are intimated in advance to
Ensure minimal disruption in the publicity program. Van crew and software are replaced
on board without disruption to program
ALTERNATES IN VIDEO VANS
The options are video vans in form of matador and those vans built on LCV chassis.
In both case the projection is done on 100” screens. LCV vans have a collapsible
Screen fixed on the rear side of the van. Matadors have a portable screen structure
Operation of Matadors provides the flexibility to position the van in interior of villages
Which is rendered inaccessible to LCV vans because of narrow approach roads and
Multiple overhang structures. LCVs offer a larger hoarding space Matadors while having
A smaller hoarding space can move through a village for audio publicity obviating the
Need for a moped. This movement enhances van publicity to the target segment
and offset reduction in hoarding space. It also increases efficacy of audio publicity towards
garnering consumer participation in van activities.
HOW DO WE OPERATE ?
Its all start after understanding the clients requirement.
Then the solution comes by conceptualizing the story line
And translate into live models
Rajeev Singh
Hoarding space available on sides of the video vans is utilized to paint your advertising
Message or product visual.
MONITERING AND CONTROL
Daily feedback reports are prepared for each show are submitted on weekly basis and the
Monthly reports are completion of each van cycle.
Internal inspections are conducted regularly to keep checks on proper functioning of the
equipment and personnel.
MAINTENANCE
Video vans operate on continuous basis. Maintenance of the equipment is done on
Board. Schedules of preventive maintenance of the van are intimated in advance to
Ensure minimal disruption in the publicity program. Van crew and software are replaced
on board without disruption to program
ALTERNATES IN VIDEO VANS
The options are video vans in form of matador and those vans built on LCV chassis.
In both case the projection is done on 100” screens. LCV vans have a collapsible
Screen fixed on the rear side of the van. Matadors have a portable screen structure
Operation of Matadors provides the flexibility to position the van in interior of villages
Which is rendered inaccessible to LCV vans because of narrow approach roads and
Multiple overhang structures. LCVs offer a larger hoarding space Matadors while having
A smaller hoarding space can move through a village for audio publicity obviating the
Need for a moped. This movement enhances van publicity to the target segment
and offset reduction in hoarding space. It also increases efficacy of audio publicity towards
garnering consumer participation in van activities.
HOW DO WE OPERATE ?
Its all start after understanding the clients requirement.
Then the solution comes by conceptualizing the story line
And translate into live models
Rajeev Singh
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Wall Painting
Wall Paintings Wall Paintings are an effective and economical medium for advertising in rural areas. They are silent unlike traditional theatre .A speech or film comes to an end, but wall painting stays as long as the weather allows it to. Retailer normally welcomes paintings of their shops, walls, name boards. Since it makes the shop look cleaner and better. Their shops look alluring and stand out among other outlets. Besides rural households shopkeepers and panchayats do not except any payment, for their wall to be painted with product messages. To get one's wall painted with the product messages is seemed as a status symbol. The greatest advantage of the medium is the power of the picture completed with its local touch. The images used have a strong emotional association with the surrounding, a feat impossible for even a moving visual medium like television which must use general image to cater to greatest number of viewers.A good wall painting must meet some criteria to generate awareness and remind consumer about the brand. The wall should :The most frequented shops can be painted from inside also one feet above the ground level. It is courteous to take the verbal permission of owner .The permission is normally given. However by taking the permission of the rural retailers or house owners, one gets the owner morally committed to taking care of wall painting. The message should be simple, direct and clear .A definite way of arresting is to use bright colors and these do not fade away easily. A good paint will survive the ravages of dust, sand and rainstorms for about three years. Paintings must be taken after rainfall. It should be peaked up during the festival and post harvest season. To derive maximum mileage their usage needs to be planned meticulously.
*pic By
Rajeev Kumar Singh
Tek Advertising & Management Kolkata
Email-rajeev@tekadvertising.com
Even Conventional Media Needs Unconventional Media To promote Itself
Zee Bangla Is Promoting its new Daily show "KHELA " Directed By Ravi Ojha ,starting from 17 th july 2006, in Urban and semi urban towns of West Bengal .
A Branded Tata 407 Van is Moving in the town for eight to 10 hrs every Day and showing the clipings of the show at the strateginc points .
The Implimentation Agency for this campaign is Tek advertising and Management
Rajeev Singh
Thursday, July 06, 2006
We are In the business Of Rural Communication
Misson :
“we aspire to lead the new age by being different”
More perceptive, more innovative, and more fun but mostly by being more effective.
Goal
“To stand alone as our industry’s unquestioned leader , The biggest and the best amongst the builders of brands”.
Who We Are
Tek Advertising & Management Pvt ltd is a full-service BTL promotion & Rural advertising and marketing group, that develops and manages sales and promotional programs at both national and local levels for consumer product & service companies and Not for profit organization .
For over 7 years, Tek Advertising & Management has been a leader in delivering concept–to–contact marketing programs that uniquely and effectively connect brands to target consumers.
Our marketing and Brand thinkers have an uncanny ability to recognize emerging market developments and adapt our service and product offering for maximum effect.
Strengths
The energy that drives TAM is its people and passion.That energy is infused into an organization empowered with expertise in distinct and compatible areas of both fundamental and emerging/leading–edge competencies.A system group capable of managing huge levels of in–market implementation detail, enriches TAM’s with the ready ability to scale up or down to best service client's needs.
We leverage our national network of offices and personnel to reach consumers in a manner that integrates brands directly with consumers and the trade. Whether executing an in–store event or a national mobile tour, the bottom line is always results.
TAM has both the depth and breadth of experience to develop fully integrated consumer programs that deliver tangible results. We focus on developing unique promotions that are compelling, worthwhile and motivating to the end-consumer with a strong and memorable call–to–action.
From the "big idea" to various tactics or communications vehicles, we strive to create unique and ownable programs that embrace the brand's strategy to leverage the best communication and drive measurable results for our clients.
Approach
We are passionate about great strategy, brilliant execution and optimum measurable results!
One: We stay current with industry trends and needs across a wide range of channels and consumer groups.
Two: We listen to and understand our clients' objectives.
Three: We develop strategies utilizing all the tools in the marketing and promotion toolbox.
Four: Tek’s project teams, creative and in–field specialists execute programs seamlessly.
Five: We measure results against agreed–to metrics and apply learning to successive programs.
When developing the approach, we combine three key elements —
consumer and category insights
client knowledge of their business and
our own perspective and experience
and acknowledging four important questions:
Where we have been?
Where we are today?
Where do we want to go?
How do we get there?
Each client is different in terms of specific brand marketing needs, as well as an understanding and appreciation of a more formalized strategic planning process. We customize our approach by client
and only utilize those services that make sense.
Once the plan is developed, our focus turns to the creative development and implementation. The execution of the plan is as important as the very plan itself. We recognize that the success of a strategic marketing and promotion plan will be measured by one thing…and that is results. And that’s our business belief -
“An effort should be about Results , and creativity should be means to achieving results”
What We do :
Advertising, Promotion, and Communication by being more perceptive , more innovative and more fun but mostly by being more effective for getting maximum ROI .
Regardless of the type of Advertising, Promotion, and Communication we provide complete services from concept through completion and execution:
1.Strategic planning (Campaign conception, development and management )
2.Implementation (Effective execution of campaigns)
the above two different wings of professionals Offers a Range Of Services in
Below the line Advertising
Rural Advertising And marketing &
Social Awareness programs
Below the Line Advertising :
communications must consider language, culture, media, venue and technology for maximum effect. We integrates a wide range of precision strategies and tactics to achieve broad and truly measurable marketing objectives for for maximum impact and ROI by offering BTL advertising Services
We define BTL As
“A platform for the product & services where it comes in contact with the target customer, making the target to know it and to want it and finally to buy it after this contact.
if the strategies are appropriate, exciting, creative and well executed, BTL makes the target customers loyal to the product & service because
2. Rural Advertising And Communication :
Rural : The Most Happening Place of tomorrow
There is a progressive Shift in Rural India From poverty to prosperity with regional variations of course , so Marketers need to consider it with fresh out looks to find Acceptance . from the marketing point of view we can understand how important the rural market is by taking a look on the facts-
That by the end of 2004 rural India accounted for 725 million people , which is about 70 % of India’s total population
with 128 million rural house holds rural population is nearly 3 times than the urban.
it accounts for about 60 % of the country’s house hold consumption expenditure .
53 % of FMCG sales lie in the rural areas , as do 59 % of consumer durable sales .
According to a latest result of national sample survey rural per capita consumption expenditure between July 2001 to December 2003 grew by 11.5 % in contrast to urban .
The Another Aspect of Rural Market –
725 million people live in 6,27,000 villages
87 % villages have population cluster below 2000 people
only 3.6 million outlets in rural India
35 % of the villages (219450) are not connected with the roads
there are around 850 dialects and 16 official languages in India and rural people is comfortable in these only rather than hindi or English
We Are in the business of Advertising and Communication and we are specialized in Rural Advertising and Communication with the base of our strong network and Local knowledge .
Media For Rural Communication :
1.Conventional Media
Mass Media : According to Latest Studies 70 percent of the R1R2 R3 Levels Of Rural settlements can be reached through mass media , wheather it is the Broadcaste media, cinema, or the local tabloid or periodical .
Local Media :
Bus, Tractor, trolly, trekker,transport offer economic local area coverage so wall paintings , Suitable Mandi shed Paintings , fairs and Haat markets offer channels of communication
2.Unconventional Media :
The need for un conventional media arises for two reasons .
1. To capture the rural mind by a comfortable mode as the mass media is seen to be too impersonal and often unreliable by the Rural consumer ,
2. there are many pockets in the outreach landscape with significant media darkness . it is estimated that about 260 million people with out access to TV radio and Print Media .
the reason range from non availability to Illiteracy .
Innovative Means :
Van operation :The Mobile Units Have the Advantage of packing interest creating elements to draw the audience to an exposure , detailing or Sampling of a brand . in the rural environment of entertainment vaccum , the van promotions interspread with adequate doses of Entertainment leave behind a lasting impact on brand preferences .
Magic Shows :
Magic shows do attract audiences attention in brand social Marketing programs ,
Mobile telephony Network :
Ambient Means :
A whole gomut of opportunities exist right at the sudiance doorstep , from weekly haat markets to sesional fairs , the village chaupal and village service providers outlets like retailers , tea shops and dhaba owners and the common cycle repair shop .
Imagine the tree line around the village ponds , or the village well or tube wells where the village women troop daily for washing cloths as media opportunity for washing detergents and soaps .
Consider the scope of using public utility services to build up brand recognition through sponsored stationary like pass books , panchayat stationary etc
C. Folk Means :
The folk media are close to the hearts and minds of the people so there appeal is at a personal and intimate level . they have a reach much more extensive than any of the modern technological media it must be noted however that the numrious religious , caste and linguistic groups across the 25 states of the country have there own distinctive folk and traditional media .
Folk Shows
Tamasha
Bhavai
Nautanki (North India)
Naqal
Keertan & Keertan
Ramleela & Rasleela
Jatra
Therukoothu
Puppetry
Street theatre
3. Social Awareness program :
Clients We worked For :
Corporate Clients –
1.GTC
2.Merc Electronics
3. Parag Dairy
4.Balsara
Agencies-
Oglivy outreach
LINTERLAND
MART
Anugrah Maddison
NGO’s –
Janani
I- Pass
Psi India
RAjeev Singh
Business Development Manager -
Tek Advertising And MAnagement Pvt Ltd
e mail-rajeev@tekadvertising.com
website - www.tekadvertising.com
Phone - 033 24723198,24720914
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Advertising
Advertising
Advertising is an important element of the marketing communications mix. in other words advertising directs a message at large numbers of people with a single communication. Advertising is quick relative to other elements of the marketing communications mix (for example personal selling, where an entire sales force would need to be briefed - or even recruited). Therefore an advertiser has the opportunity to communicate with all (or many of) its target audience simultaneously.
Planning for advertising
Advertising agencies and their clients plan for advertising. Any plan should address the following stages:
• Who is the potential TARGET AUDIENCE of the advert?
• WHAT do I wish to communicate to this target audience?
• Why is this message so IMPORTANT to them?
• What is the BEST MEDIUM for this message to take (see some of the possible media above)?
• What would be the most appropriate TIMING?
• What RESOURCES will the advertising campaign need?
There are two key categories of advertising, namely 'above-the-line' and 'below-the-line.' The definitions owe a lot to the historical development of advertising agencies and how they charge for their services. In a nutshell, 'above-the-line' is any work done involving media where a commission is taken by an advertising agency, and 'below-the-line' is work done for a client where a standard charge replaces commission. So TV advertising is 'above-the-line' since an agency would book commercial time on behalf of a client, but placing an advert in a series of local newspapers is 'below-the-line,' because newspapers tend to apply their own costing approach where no commission is taken by the agency i.e. instead the agency charges the client a transparent fee.
Below the Line Advertising
Below the line (BTL) is an Advertising technique. It uses less conventional methods than the usual specific channels of advertising to promote products, services, etc. than ATL strategy. it typically focuses on direct means of communication
below the line focuses on opportunities to reach the audience on a one-to-one basis (eg mailing to a database or attending a career expo).
below the line focuses on opportunities to reach the audience on a one-to-one basis (eg mailing to a database or attending a career expo).
There are numerous forms of below the line advertising that do not involve the purchase of space and time in the media. This does not mean that they are cost free. So we need to monitor them and their effectiveness in exactly the same was as we would if we were paying for advertising space. Few small businesses do this. So, be different. Monitor the effectiveness of what we are doing and spending. It will pay off.
the various methods that can be used.
the various methods that can be used.
· Corporate image
· Displays, printed material, exhibitions and trade fairs
· Special promotions
· Sponsorship
· Personalised mail shots
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Interaction
What is a relationship built on? Trust. And people buy—repeatedly—from brands they trust.
But how do you build trust with your customers? The answer is at once simple and complex: You create an interaction with the customer during which you give them what they need, what they desire, and what you say you will deliver and treat them as a valuable part of your brand and business .
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