Promotion (marketing)

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In marketing, promotion refers to any type of marketing communication used to inform target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or issue, persuasively. It helps marketers to create a distinctive place in customers' mind, it can be either a cognitive or emotional route. The aim of promotion is to increase brand awareness, create interest, generate sales or create brand loyalty. It is one of the basic elements of the market mix, which includes the four Ps, i.e., product, price, place, and promotion. [1]

Contents

Promotion is also one of the elements in the promotional mix or promotional plan. These are personal selling, advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing, publicity, word of mouth and may also include event marketing, exhibitions and trade shows. [2] A promotional plan specifies how much attention to pay to each of the elements in the promotional mix, and what proportion of the budget should be allocated to each element.

Promotion covers the methods of communication that a marketer uses to provide information about its product. Information can be both verbal and visual.

Etymology and usage

The term promotion derives from the Old French, promocion meaning to "move forward", "push onward" or to "advance in rank or position" which in turn, comes from the Latin, promotionem meaning "a moving forward". The word entered the English language in the 14th century. [3]

The use of the term promotion to refer to "advertising or publicity" is very modern and is first recorded in 1925. [4] It may be a contraction of a related term, sales promotion, which is one element in the larger set of tools used in marketing communications. The terms, promotion and marketing communications can be used synonymously, but in practice, the latter is more widely used. [5]

Purpose

There are three objectives of promotion. These are: [6]

  1. To present information to consumers and others.
  2. To increase demand. [7]
  3. To differentiate a product.

The purpose of a promotion and thus its promotional plan can have a wide range, including: sales increases, new product acceptance, creation of brand equity, positioning, competitive retaliations or creation of a corporate image. [2]

The term 'promotion' tends to be used internally by the marketing function. To the public or the market, phrases like "special offer" are more common. Examples of a fully integrated, long-term, and large-scale promotion are My Coke Rewards in the USA or Coke Zone in the UK and Pepsi Stuff.

Types

There have been different ways to promote a product in person or with different media. Both person and media can be either physically real or virtual/electronic.

In a physical environment

Promotions can be held in physical environments at special events such as concerts, festivals, trade shows, and in the field, such as in grocery or department stores. Interactions in the field allow immediate purchases. The purchase of a product can be incentive with discounts (i.e., coupons), free items, or a sweepstakes prize draw. This method is used to increase the sales of a given product.

Interactions between the brand and the customer are performed by a brand ambassador or promotional model who represents the product in physical environments. Brand ambassadors or promotional models are hired by a marketing company, which in turn is booked by the brand to represent the product or service. Person-to-person interaction, as opposed to media-to-person involvement, establishes connections that add another dimension to promotion. Building a community through promoting goods and services can lead to brand loyalty.

Traditional media

Examples of traditional media include print media such as newspapers and magazines, electronic media such as radio and television, and outdoor media such as banner or billboard advertisements. Each of these platforms provide ways for brands to reach consumers with advertisements.

Digital media

Digital media, which includes Internet, social networking and social media sites, is a modern way for brands to interact with consumers as it releases news, information and advertising from the technological limits of print and broadcast infrastructures. [8] Digital media is currently the most effective way for brands to reach their consumers on a daily basis. Over 2.7 billion people are online globally, which is about 40% of the world's population. [9] 67% of all Internet users globally use social media. [10]

Mass communication has led to modern marketing strategies to continue focusing on brand awareness, large distributions and heavy promotions. [8] The fast-paced environment of digital media presents new methods for promotion to utilize new tools now available through technology. With the rise of technological advances, promotions can be done outside of local contexts and across geographic borders to reach a greater number of potential consumers. The goal of a promotion is then to reach the most people possible in a time efficient and a cost efficient manner.

Social media, as a modern marketing tool, offers opportunities to reach larger audiences in an interactive way. These interactions allow for conversation rather than simply educating the customer. Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, as well as alternate audio and media sites like SoundCloud and Mixcloud allow users to interact and promote music online with little to no cost. You can purchase and buy ad space on social media platforms. Additionally, you can buy artificial Likes, Followers, and Clicks on your pages and posts with the use of third parties. As a participatory media culture, social media platforms or social networking sites are forms of mass communication that, through media technologies, allow large amounts of product and distribution of content to reach the largest audience possible.[2] However, there are downsides to virtual promotions as servers, systems, and websites may crash, fail, or become overloaded with information. You also can stand risk of losing uploaded information and storage and at a use can also be effected by a number of outside variables.

Brands can explore different strategies to keep consumers engaged. One popular tool is branded entertainment, or creating some sort of social game for the user. The benefits of such a platform include submersing the user in the brand's content. Users will be more likely to absorb and not grow tired of advertisements if they are, for example, embedded in the game as opposed to a bothersome pop-up ad. [11]

Personalizing advertisements is another strategy that can work well for brands, as it can increase the likelihood that the brand will be personified by the consumer. Personalization increases click-through intentions when data has been collected about the consumer. [12]

Brands must navigate the line between effectively promoting their content to consumers on social media and becoming too invasive in consumers' lives. Vivid Internet ads that include devices such as animation might increase a user's initial attention to the ad. However, this may be seen as a distraction to the user if they are trying to absorb a different part of the site such as reading text. [13] Additionally, when brands make the effort of overtly collecting data about their consumers and then personalizing their ads to them, the consumer's relationship with the advertisements, following this data collection, is frequently positive. However, when data is covertly collected, consumers can quickly feel like the company betrayed their trust. [12] It is important for brands to utilize personalization in their ads, without making the consumer feel vulnerable or that their privacy has been betrayed.

Sponsorship

Sponsorship generally involves supplying resources (such as money) to a group or an event in exchange for advertising or publicity. Company will often help fund athletes, teams, or events in exchange for having their logo prominently visible. This is done through the use of product placement or by placing logos on team uniforms/equipment. [14]

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guerrilla marketing</span> Unconventional advertising strategy

Guerrilla marketing is an advertisement strategy in which a company uses surprise and/or unconventional interactions in order to promote a product or service. It is a type of publicity. The term was popularized by Jay Conrad Levinson's 1984 book Guerrilla Marketing.

Personalized marketing, also known as one-to-one marketing or individual marketing, is a marketing strategy by which companies leverage data analysis and digital technology to deliver individualized messages and product offerings to current or prospective customers. Advancements in data collection methods, analytics, digital electronics, and digital economics, have enabled marketers to deploy more effective real-time and prolonged customer experience personalization tactics.

Multichannel marketing is the blending of different distribution and promotional channels for the purpose of marketing. Distribution channels include a retail storefront, a website, or a mail-order catalogue.

Marketing communications refers to the use of different marketing channels and tools in combination. Marketing communication channels focus on how businesses communicate a message to its desired market, or the market in general. It is also in charge of the internal communications of the organization. Marketing communication tools include advertising, personal selling, direct marketing, sponsorship, communication, public relations, social media, customer journey and promotion.

Email marketing is the act of sending a commercial message, typically to a group of people, using email. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing. It involves using email to send advertisements, request business, or solicit sales or donations. Email marketing strategies commonly seek to achieve one or more of three primary objectives: build loyalty, trust, or brand awareness. The term usually refers to sending email messages with the purpose of enhancing a merchant's relationship with current or previous customers, encouraging customer loyalty and repeat business, acquiring new customers or convincing current customers to purchase something immediately, and sharing third-party ads.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social media marketing</span> Promotion of products or services on social media

Social media marketing is the use of social media platforms and websites to promote a product or service. Although the terms e-marketing and digital marketing are still dominant in academia, social media marketing is becoming more popular for both practitioners and researchers. Most social media platforms have built-in data analytics tools, enabling companies to track the progress, success, and engagement of social media marketing campaigns. Companies address a range of stakeholders through social media marketing, including current and potential customers, current and potential employees, journalists, bloggers, and the general public. On a strategic level, social media marketing includes the management of a marketing campaign, governance, setting the scope and the establishment of a firm's desired social media "culture" and "tone".

Virtual engagement is a metric to determine the level of affinity between a company and its customers.

Online presence management is the process of creating and promoting traffic to a personal or professional brand online. This process combines web design, and development, blogging, search engine optimization, pay-per-click marketing, reputation management, directory listings, social media, link sharing, and other avenues to create a long-term positive presence for a person, organization, or product in search engines and on the web in general.

Social advertising is advertising that relies on social information or networks in generating, targeting, and delivering marketing communications. Many current examples of social advertising use a particular Internet service to collect social information, establish and maintain relationships with consumers, and for delivering communications. For example, the advertising platforms provided by Google, Twitter, and Facebook involve targeting and presenting ads based on relationships articulated on those same services. Social advertising can be part of a broader social media marketing strategy designed to connect with consumers.

Data-driven marketing is a process used by marketers to gain insights and identify trends about consumers and how they behave — what they buy, the effectiveness of ads, and how they browse. Modern solutions rely on big data strategies and collect information about consumer interactions and engagements to generate predictions about future behaviors. This kind of analysis involves understanding the data that is already present, the data that can be acquired, and how to organize, analyze, and apply that data to better marketing efforts. The intended goal is generally to enhance and personalize the customer experience. The market research allows for a comprehensive study of preferences.

References

  1. ↑ McCarthy, Jerome E. (1964). Basic Marketing. A Managerial Approach . Homewood, Illinois: Irwin. pp.  769. ISBN   0256025339.
  2. 1 2 Rajagopal (2007). Marketing dynamics theory and practice. New Delhi: New Age International. ISBN   978-81-224-2712-7.
  3. ↑ Online Etymology Encyclopedia, <Online: "Promotion | Etymology, origin and meaning of promotion by etymonline". Archived from the original on 2018-01-08. Retrieved 2018-01-07.>
  4. ↑ Online Etymology Encyclopedia, <Online: "Promotion | Etymology, origin and meaning of promotion by etymonline". Archived from the original on 2018-01-08. Retrieved 2018-01-07.>
  5. ↑ Pickton, D. and Broderick, A. Integrated Marketing Communications, Harlow, Essex, Pearson, 2005, pp 4–5
  6. ↑ Boone, Louis; Kurtz, David (1974). Contemporary marketing. Hinsdale, Illinois: Dryden Press. ISBN   978-0-03-088518-1.
  7. ↑ instead of spending on free samples, giving a larger amount to a paying customer to whom an expiration date matching that of the small size promotes self-medicating Christina Thompson (December 13, 2015). "Philadelphia Lawyer Finds His True Passion In Technology". CBS. Why is the 100-count Advil only 25% more than the 50-count?
  8. 1 2 Mulhern, Frank (2009). "Integrated marketing communications: From media channels to digital connectivity". Journal of Marketing Communications15 (2–3): 87.
  9. ↑ Hudson, Simon; Huang, Li; Roth, Martin S.; Madden, Thomas J. "The influence of social media interactions on consumer–brand relationships: A three-country study of brand perceptions and marketing
  10. ↑ Hudson, Simon; Roth, Martin S.; Madden, Thomas J.; Hudson, Rupert (2015-04-01). "The effects of social media on emotions, brand relationship quality, and word of mouth: An empirical study of music festival attendees". Tourism Management47: 68–76. doi : 10.1016/j.tourman.2014.09.001.
  11. ↑ Ashley, C., & Tuten, T. (2015). Creative Strategies in Social Media Marketing: An Exploratory Study of Branded Social Content and Consumer Engagement. Psychology & Marketing, 32(1), 15–27.
  12. 1 2 Aguirre, Elizabeth; Mahr, Dominik; Grewal, Dhruv; de Ruyter, Ko; Wetzels, Martin (2015-03-01). "Unraveling the Personalization Paradox: The Effect of Information Collection and Trust-Building Strategies on Online Advertisement Effectiveness". Journal of Retailing91 (1): 34–49. doi:10.1016/j.jretai.2014.09.005.
  13. ↑ Celebi, Serra Inci. "How do motives affect attitudes and behaviors toward internet advertising and Facebook advertising?". Computers in Human Behavior 51: 312–324. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2015.05.011.
  14. ↑ Mariela, Steeve; Portesi, Mariela; Portesi, Mariela (July 2008). "Some entropic extensions of the uncertainty principle". 2008 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory. IEEE. pp. 1676–1680. doi:10.1109/isit.2008.4595273. ISBN   978-1-4244-2256-2. S2CID   14967814.
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