Promotion

Promotion refers to the act of communicating the benefits and value of your product to consumers. It then involves persuading general consumers to become customers of your business using methods such as advertising, direct marketing, personal selling and sales promotion.

The most controllable of these factors is the first ‘p’ – product(service). All products and services have what have been traditionally called ‘product life cycles’.

The stages of the product life cycles are: introduction, growth, maturity and decline.

The length of a product cycle depends upon the

¾ intensity of the competition

¾ extent to which the new product is an innovation, a modification of an existing product

¾ introductory timing of technologically superior products

¾ marketing techniques

 

The stage of the life cycle of the product affects how it is marketed.

The table shows the product life cycle stages and the different marketing characteristics that accompany and identify them.

· During the introduction stage, the product is promoted to create awareness and develop a market for the product.

· In the growth stage, the firm seeks to build brand preference and increase market share.

· The primary objective during the maturity phase is to defend market share while maximizing profit.

·Firms have several options when deciding how to deal with a product in the decline phase. For the marketing mix that remains during the decline stage, the focus is generally on reinforcing the brand image of the product to stay in a positive light in the eyes of the product-loyal customers.

 

Marketing operations are very expensive. They make up more than half of the customer’s dollar.

Exercise 1. Match the words (1-10) with their definitions (a-j)

1. market a. Guiding the long-run use of the firm's resources based on its existing and projected capabilities and on projected changes in the external environment.

2. market segmentation b. The business philosophy that a company's effort should be adapted to the needs and wants of its customers.

3. marketing c. The process of dividing a total market into sub-groups of consumers who exhibit differing sensitivities to one or more marketing mix variables.

4. marketing concept d. These systems create rather than simplify manipulated data, presenting data in a form useful to a variety of people within the organization.

5. marketing information e. Total of all individuals or organizations

systems (MIS) that represent potential buyers.

6. marketing mix f. The planning, collection, and analysis of data relevant to marketing decision making, and the communication of the results of this analysis to management.

7. marketing research g. The percentage of the total sales of a product in a particular area obtained by one company

8. marketing strategy h. A specific group of people who have similar lifestyles, wants, or needs.

9. target market i. The unique blend of product pricing, promotion, offerings, and distribution designed to meet the needs of a specific group of customers.

10. market share j. The process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives.