SALES PROMOTIONSales promotion is the promotional tool that stimulates consumer purchasing and dealer interest by means of short-term activities (such things as displays, shows and exhibitions, and contests). Those free samples of products that people get in the mail; the cents-off coupons that they clip out of the newspapers; the contests that various retail stores sponsor; the catalogs you look through; and those rebates that have been so popular in recent years all are examples of sales promotion activities. Sales promotion programs supplement personal selling, advertising, and public relations efforts by creating enthusiasm for the overall promotional program. In 1988, marketers sent out some 12 billion catalogs, or roughly 50 for every man, woman, and child in the United States. You can see, therefore, how big and important sales promotion is. Sales promotion can be both internal (within the company) and external (outside the company). It is just as important to get employees enthusiastic about a sale as it is potential customers. Often, the most important internal sales promotion efforts are directed at salespeople and other customer-contact persons such as complaint handlers and clerks. Sales promotion tries to keep the salespeople enthusiastic about the company through sales training; the development of sales aids such as Flip charts, portable audiovisual displays, and movies; and participation in trade shows where salespeople can get leads. Other employees who deal with the public may also be given special training to make them more aware of company programs and a more integral part of the total promotional effort. After enthusiasm is generated internally, it is important to get distributors and dealers involved so that they, too, are enthusiastic and will cooperate by putting up signs and helping to promote the product. After the company’s employees and salespeople have been motivated with sales promotion efforts, and middlemen are involved, the next step is to promote to final consumers using samples, coupons, cents-off deals, displays, store demonstrators, premiums, and other incentives such as contests, trading stamps, and rebates. Sales promotion is an ongoing effort to maintain enthusiasm, so different strategies are used over time to keep the ideas fresh. When thinking about a sales promotion scheme for Fiberrific, we might learn from General Food’s promotion of Super Golden Crisp, Honeycomb, Fruity Pebbles, and other children's cereal. They sent a “fun book” to children featuring Sugar Bear. Cents-off coupons were placed in the book for the parents. Sales went up 80 percent. Some 90 percent of the households replying wanted more mailings. Wouldn't you feel more comfortable promoting our high-fiber, low-sugar cereal to children rather than the high-sugar content cereals promoted by General Foods? Don’t firms have some social responsibility in the area of nutrition? You wouldn’t believe the number of coupons sent out by marketers such as General Foods. Recently the number of coupons reached over 215 billion! "Advertising Age" reports that sales promotion is a hot area of marketing and is getting hotter. One relatively unexplored area in promotion is specialty advertising. Specialty advertising involves the use of specially designed products such as pens, calendars, business cards, balloons, and hundreds of other items to promote a business or a product. One of the authors of this text has used several specialty items to promote his books, including pens with the book’s name on them and balloons. One year a book fair was enlivened by "jumping nickels" that explained why everyone was jumping into Nickels’ book rather than the competition’s. Jumping nickels ended up in people's drinks and other strange places. They caused much word of mouth for the book. The clever use of tennis ball cans, T-shirts, microwavable popcorn bags, and other items can make any other promotion come alive.
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