Promotional Strategies

There are many different types of promotional strategies a company can implement. Marketing theory distinguishes between two main kinds of promotional strategy – ‘push’ and ‘pull’ or a combination of the two.

A ‘push’ promotional strategy is a promotional effort that persuades middlemen to sell a product aggressively. The producer promotes the product to wholesalers, the wholesalers promote it to retailers, and the retailers promote it to consumers.

A ‘push’ strategy tries to sell directly to the consumer, bypassing other distribution channels (e.g. selling insurance or holidays directly). With this type of strategy, consumer promotions and advertising are the most likely promotional tools. Typical tactics employed in push strategy are: allowances, buy-back guarantees, free trials, contests, discounts, displays, and premiums. The slogan of this strategy is: “Taking the product to the customer.”

A ‘pull’ selling strategy is one that requires high spending on advertising and consumer promotion to build up consumer demand for a product. If the strategy is successful, consumers will ask their retailers for the product, the retailers will ask the wholesalers, and the wholesalers will ask the producers. A good example of a pull is the heavy advertising and promotion of children’s toys – mainly on television. Typical tactics employed in pull strategy are: samples, coupons, cash refunds and rebates, premiums, advertising specialties, loyalty programs/patronage rewards, contests, sweepstakes, games, and point-of-purchase (POP) displays. The slogan of this strategy is: “Getting the customer to come to you.”

Car dealers often provide a good example of a combination strategy. If you pay attention to car dealers’ advertising, you will often hear them speak of cash-back offers and dealer incentives.

The clear difference between ‘push’ and ‘pull’ promotional strategies is that, ‘push’ promotes to trade/retail and ‘pull’ promotes to the consumer/customer. They both support each other but have clear separate objectives in relation to their primary target being consumer or trade.

As products move through the four stages of the product lifecycle different promotional strategies should be employed at these stages to ensure the healthy success and life of the product.

1. Introduction. When a product is new, the organization’s objective will be to inform the target audience of its entry. Television, radio, magazine, coupons, etc. may be used to push the product through the introduction stage of the lifecycle. ‘Push’ and ‘pull’ strategies will be used at this crucial stage.

2. Growth. As the product becomes accepted by the target market, the organization at this stage of the lifecycle works on the strategy of further increasing brand awareness to encourage loyalty.

3. Maturity. At this stage with increased competition the organizations take persuasive tactics to encourage the consumers to purchase their product over their rivals. Any differential advantage will be clearly communicated to the target audience to inform of their benefit over their competitors.

4. Decline. As the product reaches the decline stage, the organization will use the strategy of reminding people of the product to slow the inevitable.

One more promotional strategy is positioning. It focuses on specific market segments. Market research identifies the market segments that will most likely purchase a product; that product is then differentiated from the competition and promoted with the appropriate market image. Product differentiation is accomplished by distinguishing the characteristics of one product from another by such things as brand name, package, package design, capabilities, colour, logo, taste, and price.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16