Promotion of Products: Overview & Types

Promotion of Products

         The Product Promotion means disseminating the information about the product, product line, brand and company to the prospective buyers with the intent to generate sales and develop a brand loyalty. The Promotion is the fourth element of the marketing mix (Viz. Product, price, place, promotion) which is considered as a mode of communication that business adopts for achieving the specific set of objectives such as:

1. To provide information about the availability of features and uses of the product to the prospective buyers.

2. To stimulate demand for a product by creating awareness and interest among the customers.

3. To differentiate the product from the competitor’s product by creating the brand loyalty.

4. To stabilize sales by highlighting the importance and features of the product.

There are four Types of Promotion that companies adopt:

• Informative promotion

• Persuasive promotion

• Reminder promotion

• Buyer Behaviour Modifications

            The basic purpose of promotion is to persuade customers to buy and primarily includes three types of sales activity: Advertising, Personal Selling, and Sales Promotion. The importance of product promotion lies in the fact, that no firm can survive in the market without reaching the customers effectively and could not compete with other market players if no unique benefits are offered to the customers.

There are several types of promotions such as above line promotions (Advertising, press releases, schemes, discounts, etc.) and below the line promotions (trade discounts, freebies, awards, etc.)

Promotion is one of the best ways to turn a solid idea into actual profits. Here’s a few way to create positive impact among buyers.

• Social media and email are excellent (and free!) ways to market your product to the general public.

• Rewards programs, promotional deals, and discounts are phenomenal ways to keep return customers loyal and happy.

• If you do any kind of business online, Google Ads is an invaluable resource that you can use to track how successful your advertisements are.

• You can always hire a marketing firm to revamp your promotional materials for you.

             The main aim of promotion is to ensure that customers are aware of the existence and positioning of products. Promotion is also used to persuade customers that the product is better than competing products and to remind customers about why they may want to buy. The most important purpose that a promotion serves is that it sets a business apart from its competitors. No business will ever need to run any promotions if there wasn’t any competition. You have to stay ahead of your competitors in order for customers to keep doing business with you. If there is a company that sells similar products or services to yours, you can only make customers buy from you if you have a special promotion going on. Of course, it is also equally important to spread the word about promotion to the people by using several advertising and marketing methods.

Businesses often have to bundle their products together in order to run a promotion. What they usually do is that they include a less popular item with a very popular item. This not only helps them sell their popular item more but also allows them to cross sell an item that customers have not given much attention to. If the bundled product is liked by customers, the business will then have 2 popular products. The sales will increase as a result and with a successful promotion like this the business will get more return on its investment.

Promotions also allow you to make use of your available data and create more useful data from it. As you continue to do business, you collect information of thousands and millions of customers. By using the right database software you can know the trends, patterns and inclinations of your customers. By using this data you can launch targeted promotions. By further collecting data of the promotion you can know your customers better. When you know them better, you can launch more successful promotions. In addition to that, when there is something available only for a limited time, customers like to talk about it.

When they talk about your promotion they become your marketing agents. They spread the word of mouth, and this results in more customers becoming interested in doing business with you. Branding is all about making your customers remember you. When they remember you they remember to do business with you. By launching promotions frequently you become a memory for the customer. Whenever a customer feels like buying some new stuff he/she will think of checking you out to see if there is a promotion going on.

The biggest benefit of promoting today is that you make use of various online platforms for marketing your promotion. You have blogs, social networking websites, video hosting websites etc. where you can spread the news about your promotion. This makes you visible on the internet the way you should be visible to your target market. By being visible on the internet you are already creating a very strong image of your business in the minds of the customers.

               Good promotion will have a positive impact for an organisation in following ways:

• Increasing brand awareness –

Promotions help in creating brand awareness. With the help of various media like the television, billboards, radio or local newspaper news, you can spread across information about your brand and company, which helps people to find out more about you and look into your products and make purchases.

• Segment Identification –

If your promotional and marketing strategy is loosely structured, it might not be successful in targeting the “right” audiences. Having a full-proof and well-thought-out promotional strategy and marketing plan can help you identify different segments of consumers in the market and offer suitable solutions for your clients.

• Increasing customer traffic –

Promotion also helps in increasing customer traffic. The more you promote your brand, the more will the customers know about you and your company and the more will they be interested in your products. Promotion can be done even by giving out free samples which work wonders for customers! They try your product and ultimately, come to you and make purchases.

                   The most important use of promotion in marketing is information.