Business Promotion: How to Do it Effectively
Promotional Tactics Range from Personal Selling to F1 Sponsorship
Jan 19, 2009
Promoting your business involves extensive use of marketing communications. You can channel these communications through very different kinds of media from flyers distributed door to door to displaying your branded product in a Hollywood blockbuster. Promotional tactics are so numerous and varied that you can get quite confused as to which tactic to use.
Promotion Mix
One way to reduce the confusion is to classify the tactics into meaningful categories. Such categorization has been attempted in different ways. Two examples follow:
EXAMPLE 1:
- "Above Line" promotional tactics clearly reveal themselves for what they are, business promotion. These include the advertisements you see on TV, radio, newspapers and elsewhere.
- "Below Line" promotional communications try to disguise themselves as news items, personal recommendations or other forms, as in the case of press release based news stories, celebrity endorsements, characters in films using clearly branded products and public relations exercises of companies.
EXAMPLE 2:
- Personal selling where trained salespersons seek to establish fruitful relationships with prospective customers and sell company products.
- Sales promotion through couponing or promotional codes, free promotional products, sweepstakes, introductory offers, price discounts and so on.
- Public relations are communications that seek to create a favorable image about the company in the minds of its public. Thus a company might publish its efforts to provide relief to the people of a disaster-affected area.
- Direct mail are focused communications with a clear call to action, sent to a targeted group through the mail. The target group is selected by interest and the call to action helps to measure the response.
- Trade show promotions are more for creating awareness about a business and developing contacts than for selling merchandise. Contacts can be established with prospective associates and even competitors, as well as customers.
- Advertising through different media seeks to sell products, build brands and provide specific information.
- Sponsorships seek to associate desirable attributes of an event, cause or image with the sponsoring business. Sponsoring a sports event, for example, can associate an image of healthy activity with the company.
Some of the categories above, such as sales promotion, can involve very different kinds of tactics.
Business Promotion Objectives
Business promotion need not always seek to increase sales. It can be oriented to brand-building, information about new products, creating a corporate image, product positioning or responding to a competitor action.
Business promotion involves using communication tools to deliver marketing messages. It can take numerous forms from straight advertising to subtle communications that does not look like a promotional activity. Promotion also can have different objectives.
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