Promotion Strategy

Table of Contents Sr none Title P No. 1. Introduction 2-5 2. promotional Mix 5 3. gross revenue process 7-8 4. advertize 9-13 5. Other Methods 14-15 6. unexclusive traffic 15 7. References 18 Introduction What is promotional dodge ? forwardingal system is the function of assureing, persuading, and influencing a consumer decision. It is as important to non gather plaques as it is to a profit oriented consecrate like Colgate-Palmolive. Some promotional strategies argon aimed at cast down outing primary demand, the desire for a common carrefour category.For example, the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board supercharges natural high m exclusivelyow by means of advertizings without referring to any particular cheese renderr. But al almost promotional strategies argon aimed at creating selective demand, the desire for a particular product. work O Lakes parkwayThe druthers that stands above. Land O Lakes 4-Quart Cheeseis an example. The objectives of promotion, the components of the promotional mix private selling, de none, gross gross revenue promotion, and unexclusive transaction are discussed, and finally, the factors that influence victuals marketers decisions in selecting a promotional mix are explained.Objectives of Promotional Strategy Promotional strategy objectives vary among organizations. Some use promotion to expand their markets, former(a)s to hold their current positions, still others to familiarise a corporate view contingent on a humankind issue. Promotional strategies can similarly be employ to r to each one selected markets. just about sources identify the specific promotional objectives or goals of providing culture, differentiating the product, increasing gross gross revenue, stabilizing sales, and accentuating the products esteem. An organization can consequence up multiple promotional objectives.The National Pork Producers Council has developed The Other White substance promotional excite primarily to position pork barrel as a white meat sort of than a red meat. Other goals of the hunt include increasing the sale of pork and in operateing consumers that pork is low in calories and cholesterol, high in nutrition, easy to prepare, and versatile. To illustrate the versatility of pork, one advertising in the sweat features 21 different pork dishes and offers consumers a free booklet for those and other pork recipes. Providing InformationIn the early geezerhood of promotional causal agencys, when there was often a short supply of many levels, most advertisements were designed to inform the public of a products availability. Today, a major portion of advert in the United States is still informational. A large section of the daily news report publishers on Wednesdays and Thursdays consists of advert that tells shoppers which products are featured by stores and at what price. health insurance advertisements in Sunday newspaper supplements emphasize information about rising h ospital appeals.Industrial salespeople keep an eye on buyers aware of the latest technological advances in a particular field. Fashion retailers advertise to keep consumers abreast of current styles. Promotional campaigns designed to inform are often aimed at specific market segments. Warner Bros. Records, for example, created a compact disc advertisement markinged at the baby-boom genesis. In explaining the purpose of the ad, a Warner executive said, We believe that most boomers are unaware that our classic recordings of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s are on CD a coherent with the current releases. The ad informs baby boomers that Warner releases not only contemporary recordings but also some of its best albums from previous years, including those by Fleetwood Mac, Van Morrison, and ZZ Top, on compact discs. Included in the ad is a list of classic recordings immediately available on compact discs. Differentiating the Product Marketers often develop a promotional strategy to dis cern their crackings or operate from those of competitors. To accomplish this, they attempt to occupy a position in the market that appeals to their target customers.Promotions that apply the concept of positioning communicate to consumers meaningful distinctions about the attributes, price, quality, or usage of a darling or avail. Positioning is often used for goods or services that are not leaders in their field. The advertisement for Murphys Oil Soap in Figure 13. 2 is part of a promotional campaign The Murphy-Phoenix Company uses to differentiate its household cleaner from its much larger competition. While market leader Mr. exculpated and other large competitors such as Top Job are promoted as tough on dirt cleaners, Murphys Oil Soap is positioned as a gentle household cleaner.The positioning strategy is carried through with(predicate) in other ads in the campaign, in which caretakers of churches and opera houses emphasize the soaps gentle cleaning attribute. Increasing Sales Increasing sales volume is the most common objective of a promotional strategy. Some strategies reduce on primary demand, others on selective demand. Some condemnations specific audiences are targeted. In an effort to general anatomy the sales volume of its bodywear, Danskin developed an advert campaign targeted at women age 18 to 44. Advertisements in the $3 million campaign, helped boost the sales of Danskins adult garments by 30 percent in one year.The campaign themeAll the Worlds a Stagecommunicates the communicate that Danskin garments can be buyd not only for calculate and dance but also as everyday apparel. Stabilizing Sales Sales stabilization is another(prenominal) goal of promotional strategy. Sales contests are often held during slack periods. Such contests offer prizes (such as pass trips, color televisions, and scholarships) to sales soulnel who toy certain goals. Sales promotion materialscalendars, pens, and the likeare some terms distributed to stimulat e sales during off-periods.Advertising is also often used to stabilize sales. Hotels are crowded on weekdays with trading travelers, but these people go home on Friday. So many hotels promote weekend packages at scorn rates to attract tourists and vacationers. A stable sales pattern allows the firm to improve financial, purchasing, and market planning to even out the production cycle and to reduce some management and production costs. The catch up with use of promotional strategy can be a valuable tool in accomplishing these objectives. Accentuating the Products ValueSome promotional strategies are base on factors, such as warranty programs and repair services, that add to the products value. Many cut through Motor Company advertisements promote specific car and light truck models. Some ads, however, are designed to promote Fords 6-year, 60,000-mile powertrain warranty, while others concentrate on the supporttime Service Guarantee offered by Ford dealers. These promotions poin t out greater ownership utility to buyers, thus enhancing the products value. The Promotional Mix Firms use various elements to obtain their promotional objectives.Promotion consists of two components personal selling and nonpersonal selling. Personal selling is a promotional institution made on a person-to-person flat coat with a strength buyer. Nonpersonal selling consists of advertising, sales promotion, and public relations. The promotional mix is a combination of personal selling and nonpersonal selling. Marketers attempt to develop a promotional mix that goodly and efficiently communicates their message to target customers. Personal Selling For many companies, personal sellinga promotional pre moveation made on a person-to-person basis to a potential buyeris the key to marketing ffectiveness. The promotional strategy of Merrill Lynch, a financial services firm, focuses on its 12,000-person sales force. Selling was the original method of promotion. Today, selling employs o ver 6 million Americans. The sales function of most companies is changing rapidly. In some cases, the change has been only cosmetic, such as when the championship shop clerk is changed to account representative but the hypothecate function remains the same. Yet, many firms are devising significant changes in their sales force. Sales duties have been expanded, and in some instances, the function itself has changed.The primary bring down is toward increased professionalism on the part of sales personnel. Todays sales people act as advisors to their customers, helping them utilise more efficiently the relics they buy. Sales Tasks Sales chores vary significantly from one community or attitude to another, but it usually includes three introductory tasks order processing, creative selling, and missionary selling. Order Processing The task of order processing involves the receipt and treatment of an order. Needs are identified and pointed out to the customer, and the order is pr ocessed.The handling of orders is especially important in satisfying customer needs. The Willamette Industries advertisement points out that the firms salespeople take a customer-oriented nest to order processing. They check the quality of the products their retail customers receive, know their customers market, and ensure that products are available when customers need them. travel plan sales personnel for such consumer products as bread, milk, and soft drinks are examples of order processors. They check a stores stock, constitution the inventory level to the store manager, and work out the sale. about sales jobs have at least a minor(ip) order-processing function. It becomes the primary duty in cases where needs are readily identified and acknowledged by the customer. fictive Selling Sales representatives for most industrial goods and some consumer goods are involved in creative selling, a convincing type of promotional presentation. Creative selling is used when the benefi ts of a good or service are not readily apparent and its purchase is being based on a overcareful analysis of alternatives. In new-product selling, sales people need to be very creative if sign orders are to be secured.Missionary Selling An indirect form of selling in which the representative markets the free grace of a family or provides technical or operational assistance to the customer is called missionary selling. For example, many technically based organizations, such as IBM and Xerox, provide systems specialists who consult with their customers. These people are problem solvers and sometimes work on problems not presently involving their employers product. A person who sells a highly technical product whitethorn do 55 percent missionary selling, 40 percent creative selling, and 5 percent order processing.By contrast, the job of retail salespeople whitethorn be 70 percent order processing, 15 percent creative selling, and 15 classifying a particular sales job. The Sales P rocess Years ago, sales personnel memorized a sales talk provided by their employers. Such a canned sales presentation was mean to provide all the information the customer needed to make a purchase decision. The entire sales process was viewed as a situation in which the pictureive customer was passive and ready to buy if the appropriate information could be identified and presented by the representative.Contemporary selling recognizes that the interaction between buyers and sellers usually rules out canned presentations in all but the simplest of sales situations. Todays professional sales personnel typically follow a consequent pattern, but the actual presentation varies according to the circumstances. Figure 13. 5 records that seven steps can be identified in the sales process prospecting and qualifying, the approach path, the presentation, the materialisation, handling objections, the closing, and the follow-up. Prospecting and Qualifying In prospecting, salespeople identi fy potential customers.They may come from many sources, such as previous customers, friends, business associates, neighbors, other sales personnel, and other employees in the firm. A recent study indicated increased advertising in business publications results in more prospects for salespeople promoting industrial goods and services. In the qualifying process, potential customers are identified in terms of their financial ability and position to buy. Those who lack the necessary financial resources or who are not in a position to make the purchase decision are destinen no further attention.The Approach Salespeople should carefully prepare their approach to potential customers. All available information about prospects should be collected and analyzed. Sales representatives should remember that the initial impression they give prospects often affects the prospects future attitudes. The Presentation The presentation is the stage at which the salesperson transmits the promotional mes sage. The usual method is to describe the goods or services major features, highlight its advantages, and cite examples of consumer satisfaction. The Demonstration A monstrance allows the prospect to become involved in the presentation.Demonstrations reinforce the message communicated to the prospective buyer. In promoting some goods and services, the demonstration is a critical step in the sales process. Paper manufacturers, for example, produce elaborate booklets that their salespeople use to salute different types of paper, paper finishes, and graphic techniques. The demonstration allows salespeople to show art directors, designers, printers, and other potential customers what different paper specimens look like when they are printed. Handling Objections Many salespeople fear objections from the prospect because they view them as a rebuke.Actually, such objections should be welcomed, because they allow superfluous points in support of the sale and to answer questions the consu mer has about the good or service to be presented by the sales representative. The Closing The closing is the critical point in sellingthe time at which the seller actually asks the prospect to buy the product. The seller should watch for signals that the prospect is ready to buy. For example, if a prospect starts discussing where the new equipment would fit in the plant system they are inspecting, it should give the sales agent a signal to attempt to close the sale.Effective closing techniques might be that the salesclerk can ask the prospect directly or propose alternative purchases. Or the salesperson may do something that implies the sale has been completed, such as walking toward a gold register. This forces the prospect to say no if they do not want to complete the sale. The Follow-Up After-sale activities are very important in ascertain whether a customer will buy again later. After the prospect agrees to buy, the salesperson should complete the order processing quickly an d efficiently and reassure the customer about the purchase decision.Later, the salesperson should check with the customer to determine whether the good or service is satisfactory. Many firms employ telemarketers to conduct post-sale activities. Telemarketing is a personal selling approach conducted entirely by telephone. Telemarketers sedulous by the Apple Bank for Savings in New York make follow up calls to customers to measure their reaction to the banks services. Telemarketers also perform other functions in the sales process. At Apple Bank, they handle customer inquiries and help market the banks financial services.For example, telemarketers call customers when their certificates of touch on are about to mature and suggest other savings alternatives. Advertising For many firms, advertising is the most effective type of nonpersonal promotion. Advertising is a remunerative, non personal sales intercourse usually tell at a large number of potential buyers. Firms in the United States account for about half(prenominal) of worldwide advertising expenditures. U. S. marketers spend more than $100 one million million each year, or about $420 for each man, woman, and child.The nations leading advertisers are Philip Morris Procter & Gamble General Motors Sears, Roebuck and Ford Motor Company, each of which spends more than $1 billion on advertising annually. Advertising expenditures can vary considerably from industry to industry and company to company. In the nonresidential general building contracting industry, for instance, advertising spending amounts to only two-tenths of 1 percent of sales. At the other extreme is the retail mail-order house industry, which spends 14 percent of sales on advertising. Types of AdvertisingThe two basic types of advertising are product and institutional. Product advertising involves the selling of a good or service. Advertisements for Nike aura shoes, Marriott hotels, and Packard Bell computers would be classified as produc t advertising. Institutional advertising involves the promotion of a concept, idea, or philosophy, or the goodwill of an industry, company, organization, or government entity. For example, Texas promoted tourism with the theme Visit a country where the natives are friendly and the language barrier is easily overcome. Institutional advertising by profit-seeking firms is called corporate advertising. A form of institutional advertising that is growing in importance, advocacy advertising supports a specific viewpoint on a public issue. Its purpose is to influence public opinion and/or the legislative process. Advocacy advertising is used by many nonprofit organizations. For example, advertisements by the National Rifle acquaintance support Americans underlying right to keep and bear arms and speak out against the passage of gun-control rectitudes.The Chemical Bank advertisement an example of a corporate advocacy advertisement. The ad expresses Chemical Banks viewpoint concerning a c urrent law that prohibits commercial banks from competing in the securities underwriting market. Advocacy advertising is sometimes referred to as cause advertising. Advertising and the Product Life Cycle Product and institutional advertising can be subdivided by its purposes to inform, persuade, or instigate. Informative advertising, intended to build initial demand for a product, is used in the introductory phase of the product vivification cycle.When Johnson Johnson introduced its Acuvue disposable contact lensthe nations first disposable lensit launched a massive advertising campaign directed at consumers and eye-care professionals to explain the health benefits of using the new product. Persuasive advertising attempts to improve the private-enterprise(a) status of a product, institution, or concept. It is used in the growth and maturity stages of the product smell cycle. The Kinder-Care advertisement in Figure 13. 7 is an example of persuasive advertising. Since it was esta blished in 1969, Kinder-Care used informational ads that promoted the centers hours and programs.But now that the company has grown to almost 1,400 centers and competitors such as La Petite Academy, Childrens World, and Gerber Childrens Center have entered the market, Kinder-Care has shifted to a persuasive advertising approach. The theme of the campaignThe Joys of Kinder-Carepromotes the idea of trust, which the firms marketing research indicated was parents major child-care concern. One of the most general approaches to persuasive product advertising is comparative advertising, which makes direct comparisons with competitive products. Numerous companies have used comparative advertising in recent years.The Pepsi Challenge is an example of comparative advertising. Pepsi-Cola ads have used blind taste tests in which a majority of consumers choose Pepsi over Coca- Cola. Although Coca-Cola still leads the soft-drink market, the Pepsi Challenge helped increase Pepsi sales considerabl y. Reminder-oriented advertising, used in the late-maturity and dec rail line stages of the product life cycle, attempts to keep a products place in front of the consumer or to remind people of the importance of a concept or an institution. Soft drinks, beer, toothpaste, and cigarettes are products for which reminder-oriented advertising is used.The Association of Railroads used an advertisement that began Todays railroads, Americas great untapped resource. Even police cars in some areas of the United States sprout reminder-oriented themes such as We protect and serve. E. D. Bullard Company designed the note shown in Figure 13. 8 to remind workers of the importance of habiliment hard hats. Advertising Media All marketers face the question of how to best allocate their advertising expenditures. Cost is an important consideration, but it is equally important to choose the media best suited for the job. All media have dvantages and disadvantages these are discussed in the section s that follow. Newspapers Newspapers, with 26 percent of amount of money advertising volume, are the largest of the advertising media. 9 Because newspaper advertising can be tailored for individual communities, local advertising is common. Newspapers also reach more or less everyone in the community. Other advantages are that readers can refer back to them, and they can be coordinated with other advertising and merchandising efforts. In fact, advertising is considered the third most useful feature in newspapers, after(prenominal) national and local news. A disadvantage is the relatively short life span.Television Television ranks second general to newspapers with 22 percent of all advertising volume, but it is the leader in national advertising. Television advertising can be classified as network, national, local, and cable. Television has a significant impact on potential customers despite its high cost. Mass coverage, repetition, flexibility, and prestige are other advantages. The mediums ability to reach huge audiences was demonstrate vividly by the 1989 Pepsi commercial featuring pop singer Micahael Jackson. The firm spent $5 million to cock the commercial to 250 million viewers in 40 nations, from Finland to the Philippines. The ad was pulled because of Michael Jacksons image and level-headed problems. ) In addition to high cost, its disadvantages include the temporary nature of the message, some public distrust, and lack of selectivity in the ability to reach specific target market segments without considerable wasted coverage. curb Mail Direct mail is the third-leading advertising medium, with about 17 percent of rack up advertising expenditures. Its advantages include selectivity, intense coverage, speed, flexibility, complete information, and personalization. On the other hand, direct mail is extremely costly.It is also dependent on effective mailing lists, and it sometimes meets with consumer resistance. Radio With 99 percent of all U. S. h ouseholds owning on average five radio sets, radio is another important broadcast advertising medium. Radio, which accounts for 7 percent of total advertising volume, can be classified as network, spot, and local advertising. Advantages of radio are immediacy, low cost, targeted audience selection, flexibility, and mobility. Disadvantages include the short life span of a radio message and a highly fragmented audience.Magazines Magazines account for about 5 percent of advertising volume. Modern Maturity, with almost 20 million subscribers, is the nations largest magazine in terms of paid subscriptions. It is followed by Readers Digest and TV Guide, each with about 17 million subscribers. Advantages of magazines include selectivity, quality reproduction, long life, and prestige. The main disadvantage of magazines is that they lack the flexibility of newspapers and broadcast media, but the appearance of local advertising in various regional editions of national news magazines suggests that this problem is being overcome.Outdoor Advertising One percent of total advertising expenditures are on outdoor advertising such as billboards. Its strength is in communication simple ideas quickly. Other advantages are repetition and the ability to promote goods and services available for sale nearby. However, the message must be brief, and there are aesthetic considerations. Other Media Options Other media include advertising in movie theaters and on airline movie screens. Recently, several firms such as Coca Cola, PepsiCo, Chrysler, and Hershey placed ads on videocassette movies.Many firms display their advertising message on trucks, while others use transit advertising. An advertising vehicle gaining in popularity is the hot-air balloon, used by organizations such as Maxwell House, Coors, Eastman Kodak, and the states of Maryland and Connecticut. These alternative media can be employed separately or in conjunction with advertising campaigns using more traditional media. C an you name the candy the space creature picked up in the film E. T. ? Reeses Candy companys sales of Reeses Pieces went through the profit ceiling for this exposure.As such, many other companies now pay thousands of dollars for this type of theatrical exposure and advertising. Sales Promotion Sales promotion consists of the forms of promotion other than advertising, personal selling, and public relations that increase sales through one-time selling efforts. Sales promotion was traditionally viewed as a supplement to a firms sales or advertising efforts, but now it has become an integral part of the promotional mix. Expenditures for sales promotion total more than $100 billion each year. Point-of-Purchase Advertising (POP)Point-of-purchase advertising (POP) consists of displays and demonstrations promoting an item at a time and place near the location of the actual purchase decision, such as in a retail store. Video advertising on supermarket shopping carts is an example. POP can be very effective in continuing a theme developed by some other aspect of the firms promotional strategy. rarity Advertising Specialty advertising is the giving away of useful merchandise such as pens, calendars, T-shirts, glassware, and goop calculators that are imprinted with the donors name, logo, or message.Because the items are useful and are often personalized with the recipients name, they tend to be kept and used by the targeted audience, giving the advertiser repeated exposure. Originally designed to identify and create goodwill for advertisers, specialty advertising is now used to generate sales leads and develop traffic for stores and business show exhibitors. Trade Shows A trade show is often used to promote goods or services to resellers in the distribution channel. Retailers and wholesalers attend trade conventions and shows where manufacturers exhibit their lines. Such shows are very important n the toy, furniture, and formulate industries. They have also been used to promote the products of one nation to buyers from another. L. A. Gear used a trade show extravaganza to let retailers know about its diversified product line. The company, which originally produced a line of teenage fashion athletic footwear, expanded its offerings to include 80 womens shoe styles, a mens and a childrens line, and an apparel collection. But most retailers carry a limited number of L. A. Gear styles compared to those of nationally acknowledge brand names such as Nike and Reebok.To build its brand recognition among retailers, L. A. Gear designed a trade show display replicating the city of Los Angeles, complete with a Beverly Hills Hotel and a 25-foot City Hall. The display includes a stage where dancers, gymnasts, and other performers entertained retailers attending the National Shoe Fair in New York and the superior Show, the trade show of the sporting goods industry. Don Wasley, L. A. Gears vice-president of promotion, said, When we created this trade show bo oth, it was to let the retailers know wed arrived.We wanted them to take us seriously. Other Sales Promotion Methods Other sales promotion techniques include samples, coupons, premiums, contests, and trading stamps. Most of these methods are used to introduce new products or encourage consumers to try a new brand. A sample is a free gift of a product distributed by mail, door to door, in a demonstration, or inside packages containing other products. Samples are particularly useful in promoting new products. PepsiCo used a novel sampling promotion to boost the market share of Pepsi Cola in Brazil.Young male students wearing T-shirts with the Pepsi logo dispensed Pepsi samples from refrigerated backpacks to beachgoers sunning themselves on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro. The promotion supported PepsiCos Taste of a new generation advertising campaign in Brazil, where 50 percent of the population is younger than 20. A coupon is an advertising clipping or package inclusion stamps are simi lar to premiums in that they are redeemable for additional merchandise. Historically, they have been used to build loyalty to a certain retailer or supplier. Contests, sweepstakes, and games offer cash or merchandise redeemable by the customer.Offering what amounts to a small price discount, it can help get a customer to try a new or different product. Many retailers, including southern supermarket large Winn Dixie, double the face value of manufacturers coupons. In a recent survey comparing various methods of consumer promotion, 83 percent of respondents said coupons increased the value of their shopping dollar. The respondents gave sweepstakes and other sales promotion techniques much lower ratings. A premium is an item given free or at a reduced cost with the purchase of another product. Premiums are most effective when they relate in some way to the purchased item.To promote its new cinnamon-and-raisin biscuits and increase overall breakfast traffic, Hardees fast-food restauran ts offered the premium of a atomic number 20 Raisin figurine for 99 cents with the purchase of two biscuits. Sales during the four-week promotion increased 18 percent, well above Hardees goal of increasing sales 4. 5 percent. McDonals and Burger King promote theatrical releases through their Kids Meals. Trading as prizes to participating winners. The transit poster advertises an American Natural Beverage Corporation sweepstakes in which the grand prize is a 1957 Thunderbird Classic.The first person to spell Cruisin by collecting specially marked bottle caps from Soho Natural Soda wins the car. Public Relations Public relations is an organizations communications with its various publics, such as customers, vendors, news media, employees, stockholders, government, and the general public. Many of these communication efforts have a marketing purpose. Johnson Johnson Health Care Company launched a five-year public relations campaign to educate the public on reducing childhood injuries .The Safe Kids program includes a free guard duty kit for children that contains Band-Aids and other JJ products. The firm hopes the goodwill generated by the program will not only enhance its image as a caring and concerned company but also translate into more sales. Building our image builds our business, said a JJ executive. 14 Public relations is often used to supplement advertising and personal selling efforts. In some cases, however, public relations is used as a dominant element in a firms promotional campaign. For example, in ddition to advertising, Paramount Pictures developed a public relations program to promote the Eddie Murphy movie feeler to America. The program was designed to change Murphys image and broaden his appeal beyond his hard-core, young male fans. In the movie, Murphy plays a romantic and humorous leading man, a departure from his familiar tough-guy role in previous films such as Beverly Hills Cop and Trading Places. To stress the versatility of Murphys talent, Paramount prepared publicity releases for newspapers and magazines and sent electronic press kits to television stations.These efforts resulted in extensive media coverage for the movie. For example, several magazines featured Murphy in cover stories, and radio stations gave the movies soundtrack additional playing time. Selecting a Promotional Mix Selecting the appropriate promotional mix is one of the toughest tasks confronting marketers, but there are some general guidelines to assist in determine the relative allocations of promotional efforts and expenditures among personal selling, advertising, sales promotion, and public relations. These guidelines might be stated as a series of four rules.The first guideline is the decision whether to spend promotional monies on advertising or personal selling. Once this decision is made, the marketer needs to determine the level of sales promotion and public relations efforts. A second consideration is the market served by the good or service. For instance, a utilization press is change to the industrial market, so the manufacturers strategy must emphasize the sales force. By contrast, California Raisins are sold to consumers an effective advertising campaign is important to consumer products like raisins.The third rule deals with the value of the product. Most companies cannot afford to emphasize personal selling in marketing a low-priced item and instead choose advertising for the promotional strategy of goods like toothpaste, cosmetics, soft drinks, and candy. Higher-priced items in both industrial and consumer markets rely more on personal selling. Examples include time-share vacation condominiums and Boeing aircraft. Finally, the marketer needs to consider the time frame involved. Advertising is usually used to precondition a person for a sales resentation. An effective and consistent advertising theme may favorably influence individuals when they are approached by a salesclerk in a store. But except f or self-service situations, a salesperson is typically involved in completing the actual transaction. Advertising is often used again after the sale to assure consumers of the rightness of their selection and to precondition them for repeat purchases. Alternative Promotional Strategies The selection of a promotional mix is directly related to the promotional strategy the firm will employ.The marketer has two alternative strategies available to meet these goals shifting strategy or pulling strategy. A pushing strategy is a sales-oriented approach. The product, product line, or service is marketed to wholesalers and retailers in the marketing channels. Sales personnel explain to them why they should carry this particular item or service. The marketing intermediaries are usually offered special discounts, promotional materials, and cooperative advertising allowances. In the die case, the manufacturer shares the cost of local advertising of the product or line.All these strategies ar e designed to motivate wholesalers and retailers to push the product or service to their customers. The kiwifruit advertisement is an example of a pushing strategy. In it, the New Zealand Kiwifruit trust suggests ways retailers can merchandise the fruit so consumers will buy it. A pulling strategy attempts to generate consumer demand for the product, product line, or service, primarily through advertising and sales promotion appeals. Most advertising is aimed at the ultimate consumer, who then asks the retailer for the product or service the retailer in turn requests the item or service from the supplier.The marketer hopes that strong consumer demand will pull the product or service through the marketing channel by forcing marketing intermediaries to carry it. The General Foods advertisement for Maxwell House hot chocolate in illustrates a pulling strategy. The ad announced a sales promotion that tied in with the Taste of Chicago outdoor food festival. Consumers who brought two em pty coffee cans to the Maxwell House cafe at the festival received $6 worth of free food tickets. The consumer pull influenced Chicago-area retailers to prominently feature the brand at their stores. With consumers edeeming about 49,000 empty cans, the promotion was so roaring it produced record sales and moved the Maxwell House brand from third place to first in the Chicago market. Most marketing situations require the use of both strategies, although the emphasis can vary. Consumer products are often heavily dependent on a pulling strategy, while most industrial products are sold through a pushing strategy. References 1. Colton. M. Jo Ann (2000). The Entrepreneurs Guide to Business Basics 101 Advanced Marketing Technologie 2. http//www. smallbusiness. wa. gov. au/marketing-promotion-strategy/selling