Promotion. Promotion is also a part of the marketing mix and is basically shows how different businesses make their customers aware of their products and persuade them

Promotion is also a part of the marketing mix and is basically shows how different businesses make their customers aware of their products and persuade them to buy their products by advertising them in media. Businesses also have promotional objectives, which include:

 

• Making the customers aware, that their products exist
• Create or change the brand and product image or make them popular
• Increasing sales and profits
• Becoming more competitive in promotion than competitors (bigger promotion campaigns more advertising in media and etc.)

The key in Promotion is to grab consumers’ attention and make them interested in your product. In order to this, businesses use above-the-line and below-the-line methods of promotion.

Above-the-line promotion involves advertising products to the public by using various media, examples of which are given bellow:

 

Using Television

Advantages:

• Allows targeting particular groups of people by advertising products in particular programs. For example, car producers might advertise their cars in the TV programs about the cars
• People can see the logo- which makes the product, company or brand recognizable
• Attracting customers’ attention by the use of colours, funny pictures, videos and etc.-grabs people’s attention
• Businesses can demonstrate products in use and show how useful, necessary or desirable the products are.
• There can be millions of people watching the advert. Therefore, an advert can reach a vast audience.
• If the businesses continuously advertise their products few times a day during a certain period of time, then the message, which businesses are trying to send to the customers might be reinforced. People eventually become aware of the product, because they see an advert every day, which makes them more likely to go, buy and try the product and see whether they like it or not.
• Businesses can also use celebrities in their TV adverts, in order to grab people’s attention.
• Some advertisements of addictive or desirable products, like food can make you want to buy it. For example, Marks & Spencer and ASDA advertise food on the TV in the very delicious way in order to make their audience hungry. When brewing companies advertise drinks, like beers or even products like Coca Cola, they are trying to make their audience feel thirsty.
• Even though the initial costs of TV advertising are relatively expensive, it can pay the businesses back, if it turns out to be very effective. Also, after the businesses have advertised their products and made people aware of their products, they don’t necessarily need to advertise as often as they used to, so they can decrease the costs of advertising.

 

Disadvantages:

• Businesses canonly advertise the products on local or national channels like SKY, but not BBC
• Expensive initial costs of advertising. E.g. only relatively big companies with big budgets can afford to advertise their products on TV.
• The live cycle of the message depends, how often the business advertises it on a TV.
• Some consumers don’t watch commercials, because e.g. they want to have a break, see what other programs are on the TV, or they just don’t want to watch it.
• For businesses which produce high-tech products, it is more difficult to explain technical information about the functions of the product. Only a limited amount of information can be shown. Businesses pay for the time on TV which costs a lot of money. Also, if they tell too much of technical information, the consumers might not be able to remember it and it will lead to high costs, as it takes longer to explain them on TV.
• Businesses need to be very careful when advertising on TV. Some people can remember the advert or the catch phrase used in the advert, but cannot remember the name of the brand or product.

 

 

Using Radio

Advantages:

 

• Products can only be advertised on local and national radio stations excluding all BBC channels.
• Use of catchphrases. Some companies use catchphrases on the radio, which remind consumer about the product.
• It’s cheaper to advertise on the radio
• However, it is also possible to target certain groups of people, because there’s a range of different radio stations. Some radio station have political and business news. E.g. the employer might decide to advertise some of the jobs in his company on this particular radio stations. The majority of people who listen to such radio stations, are intellectuals, are interested in business and are likely to have more skills. E.g. music radio stations always advertise new CD albums, music players and other products, which are targeted on the young group of people, who are likely to listen to these radio stations. This helps businesses to select the most suitable radio station for advertising their jobs, goods and services.

 

Disadvantages:

• There’s no image, which means weaker visual effect.

• There’s no copy of the material being advertised, which means the customer cannot go back and listen to the message again. However, the adverts on the radio are usually repeated during the day.
• Audience might be concentrated on listening the music, and advert interruptions might be ignored, which makes it less effective.
• There might be too much advertising on one radio stations, so the listener may decide to change the radio station.

 

Using Cinema

Advantages:

• Captures audience’s attention and makes them watch an advert.
• Use of movement, colour and size of the picture in addition to the surround sound system can make an advert very effective.
• Depending on the film, different age groups may be targeted. Eg. If it’s a movie for kids, like ‘Ice age’, then the main impact will be on the children and their parents. Usually, after you finish watching a movie, on the way back there are many shops which sell toys with the main characters who played in some particular movies. Therefore, if you e.g. watched a new ‘Sponge Bob’, when you go out of the cinema theatre you can go into the shop and buy Sponge Bob toy.
• It is expensive, but costs less than advertising on TV.

 

Disadvantages:

• Although there may be a limited number of people (audience and potential consumers) coming to the cinema. Therefore, advertising in the cinema has a limited effect on the people.
• Not all products can be advertised in the cinema (E.g. cigarettes). For example, toilet paper or domestic products like ‘Tide’ wouldn’t normally be advertised in the cinema.
• Message being send to the audience might be short lived, so the consumer doesn’t remember what an advert was about. E.g. usually, after watching a great film, it is difficult to remember what was in the advert before the movie had started.
• Message can only be send once to the audience, unless he or she goes to the cinema again.

 

Using press (newspapers)

Advantages:

• Regional and local newspapers can be used to target particular area and groups of people. For example, ‘Hyundai’ motor company can target particular cities and towns in Britain, where people are more likely to buy their cars.
• Details and specifications of the product can be provided.
• The reader can refer back and read an advert again.
• Can target particular groups of people. For example, ‘The Guardian’ and ‘The Times’ newspapers are usually being read by intellectual and clever people and target older group of people. ‘The Sun’ newspaper might be more suitable for the young audiences.
• Newspapers are relatively cheap.

 

Disadvantages:

• No sound or movement.
• Newspapers can be easily lost or thrown away after being read.
• Some newspapers are only printed in black and white, which means they have less visual effect.
• Regional newspapers are less cost effective, because the cost per reader is higher than for national newspapers.
• Because there are so many newspapers being printed, the quality of the pictures in the adverts and layout may suffer.
• Because of the big size of some newspapers, it is more difficult to find the advert you were interested in. Might take a long time, before you read an advert or an article about particular product.