OMAR SAMATAR SECONDRY SCHOOL (OSSS)

PRODUCT PROMOTION

MEANING OF A PRODUCT AND PRODUCT PROMOTION

A product is good or service produced for the purpose of satisfying a human want. it is also
referred to as a commodity.

Product promotion is the use of various methods and techniques to inform, influence and persuade
consumers to buy and consume the products.

Purpose of product promotion

a) To introduce new products: it aims at providing information about new products and
persuade to consumers to adopt them.
b) To highlight the benefits of a product: product promotion aims at providing information
about the benefits of the product.
c) To increase awareness: it aims at educating the customer on product’s features, qualities
and usage.
d) To stimulate demand and increase sales for the product: aims at stimulating consumption,
leading to an increase in sales.
e) To monitor consumer loyalty: it aims at ensuring that customers continue buying the
product.

Methods of product promotion

There two types of product promotion and they are

Personal selling and non-personal selling

Non-personal selling is also classified into

a) advertising
b) sales promotion
c) Publicity relations

1. Personal selling
Personal selling is a method of selling products through personal interaction with consumers. To
make an effective sale, the salesperson should;

a) Gain the attention of the consumer.

b) Stimulate the interest of the consumer in the product.
c) Arouse a desire in the consumer to buy the product.
d) Convince the consumers to buy the product and adopt the product.

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 OMAR SAMATAR SECONDRY SCHOOL (OSSS)

Qualities of an effective sales person

a) Attractive personality: having interest in people and the ability to attract and influence
them.
b) Knowledge of the product: having through knowledge of the product and being able to
explain and demonstrate its technical aspects and operations.
c) Ability to asses customers: being able assess different types of customer, their
behavior and background.
d) Educated: having good educational background to cope with people from different
educational backgrounds.
e) Good communication skills: possessing good communication skills, talking fluently and
clearly and being a good listener.
f) Smart appearance: being smartly and decently dressed.

Circumstances under which personal selling suitable

i. When introducing a new product.
ii. Where a product has been designed and produced to meet individual needs or
specifications.
iii. Where the products are expensive and durable such as cars.
iv. Where the market consists of a few customers who are easily accessible.
v. Where the firm is capable of hiring a large number of salespersons.

Methods of personal selling

i. Field sales
Salespersons go out with samples of products and catalogues to meet prospective customers.
They may carry out some of the products for sale. During the journey they will:

 Display samples of the products.

 Give detailed presentations, talks and demonstrations.
 Assist customers in identifying and selecting the products suitable for them.
 Obtain orders and sell products to those who decide to buy.

ii. Showroom displays and sales

Products are displayed in showrooms for prospective customers to view and buy them. The sales
people in the showrooms.

 give detailed presentation, talks and demonstration.

 Provide detailed information and answer questions about the products.
 Teach consumers how to use the products.
 Assist customers to select products that are suitable for their needs.
 Negotiate and conclude sale of product.

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 OMAR SAMATAR SECONDRY SCHOOL (OSSS)

iii. Shows, exhibitions and trade fairs

These bring together manufacturers, producers and consumers. Its purpose are

i. See the country’s level of development in agriculture, industry, trade, technology and
services.
ii. See range of goods and services available from different producers.
iii. Buy various goods and services at reasonable prices.
iv. Establish new business contacts and make orders for goods and services.
v. Meet and socialize with old friends and make new friends.

Advantages of personal selling

(i) gives an opportunity to explain and persuade consumers to buy the products.
(ii) It facilitates exchange of ideas between salespeople and consumers.
(iii) It enables sales people to collect information about consumer’s response to products, their
features and prices.
(iv) It gives consumers a chance to ask questions and clears their doubts about the products.
(v) It creates confidence and mutual trust between salespersons and customers.

Disadvantages of personal selling

(i) It is expensive methods of sales promotion
(ii) doesn’t guarantee high returns.
(iii) The resulting overheads are passed to the consumer in form of high prices.
(iv) It has very limited areas coverage.
(v) Salespersons may pressurize customers into buying products they do not need.

2. Non-personal selling

i. Advertising
Is the process of informing the public about the existence of goods, service or even through
various media such as newspapers, radio, television, magazines and journals. Its objective
are

i. informing
ii. educating
iii. Influencing or persuading consumer

Function of advertising
Advertising has following functions

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 OMAR SAMATAR SECONDRY SCHOOL (OSSS)

i. To provide information about the products: adverting provides information and

education to the public about the products such as their features, price, use,
ingredients and where to find the product.
ii. To create demand for their products: advertising creates interest and inclines the
consumer towards buying the advertised product.
iii. To retain the market for products: it reminds consumers that the products are still
the best thus enable the producers to retrain their market share.
iv. To fight off competition: producers use advertising to fight off competition from
other producers.
v. To counter misconceptions of consumers: producers use advertising to correct
misconceptions that consumers may have about their products or company image.
vi. To increase awareness of the products in the market: producers use advertising to
remind consumers of the products in the market and create a positive image.

Types of advertising
a) Informative advertising: - a form of advertisement meant to give the customer
more information about the product to enable them makes an informed decision.
b) Persuasive advertising: persuasive advertising is also called competitive a form of
advertisement carried out with organizations producing similar product to persuade
the customers to buy their products ahead of their competitors should buy.
c) Educating advertisement: this is the advertising that has both features of being
informative and persuasive. it educates the consumer about the products and leaves
the consumer to make the choice on buying the products.
d) Corrective advertising: - a form of advertising meant to correct misleading
information that may have been given out about the product.
e) Institutional advertising: - this is a form of advertisement meant to improve the
image of the institution or organization and not a particular product. It is meant to
create confidence in the customers about the institution.
f) Reminder advertising: - a form of advertising meant to remind the customers that
the product still exists in the market and is still capable of satisfying their needs.

Advantages of advertising
a) Introduces a New Product in the Market: Advertising plays significant role in the
introduction of a new product in the market. It stimulates the people to purchase the
product.
b) Increased Sales: Advertisement facilitates mass production to goods and increases the
volume of sales
c) Fights Competition: Advertising is greatly helpful in meeting the forces of competition
prevalent in the market. Continuous advertising is very essential in order to save the
product from the clutches of the competitors.
d) Enhances Good-Will: Repeated advertising and better quality of products brings more
reputation for the manufacturer and enhances goodwill.

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e) Elimination of Middlemen: It aims at establishing a direct link between the manufacturer

and the consumer, thereby eliminating the marketing intermediaries.
f) More Employment Opportunities: Advertising provides and creates more employment
opportunities for many talented people like painters, photographers, singers, cartoonists,
musicians, models and people working in different advertising agencies.

Disadvantages of advertising
a) Increase Costs of the product: An organization has to spend large amount on advertising.
It increases the cost of the products. To meet this expenditure, price of the product is
raised.
b) Confuses the Buyers: Many a time distorted version of reality is shown in the advertising.
Believing in advertising, consumers buy the product. On its use, they feel cheated. Thus,
people lose confidence in advertising because of wrong presentation.
c) Encourages Sale of Inferior Products: Every manufacturer projects his product as
superior one in the advertisement. The buyer is unable to decide as to which product is
really good. If a seller gets good price for some inferior product, it becomes a habit with
him. Therefore, it is said that advertisement encourages the sale of inferior products.
d) Promotion of social evils: Some firms support immoral and amazing programs and crime
stories in television and radio, by choosing them as vehicles for their advertising. These
programs corrupt the values of young people, promoting social evils
e) Lack of feedback: possible to gather immediate and precise feedback of the message
communicated.

ii. Sales promotion

The sales promotion involves the applications of the various techniques to attract customers and
increase sales. These techniques are

i. Customer delivery service: the sellers attract customers by offering carriage of goods to
the buyer’s premises free charge.
ii. Self-service: customers are allowed to pick the goods they wish to buy directly from
shelves without assistance from the sales staff.
iii. personal attention: the trader personally attracts to customers with aims of:
 Creating a friendly atmosphere and good relations.
 Identifying customer’s unique needs and providing the goods and service that
satisfies them.
iv. Attractive displays: this involves displaying products for sale inform of shelf organization,
window displays and list price display.
v. pricing: pricing of various goods and service can be used to promote sales through offering:
 Lower prices than other competitors.
 Discounts (trade discounts, cash discounts, and quantity discounts.
 Credit facilities to credible customers.

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 OMAR SAMATAR SECONDRY SCHOOL (OSSS)

vi. Free samples: there are small packs of products distributed free charge to prospective
consumers with the expectation that when they try the products out, they will like them and
be influenced to buy the products.
vii. Gifts: this form of sales promotion involves offering customers free gifts for purchase of
certain product. This induces impulse buying.
viii. Multiples packs: this technique involves offering cheaper prices for particular product if
bought in multiplies. The customers could also be offered a free pack of a product for every
given number of packs purchased. This technique encourages impulse buying.

Advantages of sales promotion

(i) It increases sales almost instantly.
(ii) It results in expansion of market share for the product.
(iii) It gives prospective customers an opportunity to see, test and experience the product
before adopt it.
(iv) It increases demand for the product.

Disadvantages of sales promotion

(i) It involves expenditure and hence increase overheads cost.

(ii) it pressurizes customers into buying products that they may not quite needs. .
(iii) it leads to impulse buying and customers end up having unbudgeted spending.
(iv) Overhead costs arising may be passed on to consumers in form of higher prices.
(v) The intensive nature of the techniques interferes with the customer’s freedom choice in
buying.

iii. Publicity
The publicity involves the promotion of good image of the company and its products. This is done
through participation in various social, charitable activities such as sponsoring events like football
matches athletics or games and making donations of the products to charity activities. These
activities raise the awareness of the public and create positive attitudes towards the company and
its products.

Advantages of public relations

(i) It is effective way of creating awareness of the company and its range of products.
(ii) It can be effectively used to create a positive image, goodwill and inclination toward
buying the company’s product.
(iii) It can be used to correct a negative image about the company and its products.
(iv) It is an effective way of targeting a particular audience or specific community.

Disadvantages of public relations

i. it is expensive method of promoting the company and its products.
ii. Its impact is long term. It takes time for the increase in sales to be realized.

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 OMAR SAMATAR SECONDRY SCHOOL (OSSS)

iii. It doesn’t guarantee increase in sales.

iv. It difficult to evaluate its impact on sales

Choosing a method of production

The factors that should be considered are

a) Nature of the product: some product may need to be seen, inspected and
demonstrated while others may need a description only.
b) Target group: the target group to be reached will determine the most suitable
promotional massage and method to be used.
c) Geographical region: some products may require country wide coverage while others
may require regional coverage.
d) Cost of the method and the available budget: the budget allocated to the
promotion will influence the promotional method to use.
e) The impact and effectiveness of the method: some methods are have more
instant impact on sales than others. Some methods have a more long term impact on
sales than others. The desired impact should be considered.
f) Level of demand for the product: producers with high nationwide demand will need
different methods from products whose demand is regional.

The product promotion media

These are methods or means by which the product promotion massage is communicated. The
method may be written form, visual, audio or audio-visual form. There are six major types of
promotion and they are print, broadcast, film, direct, outdoor and transport

1. The print media: this also known as the press. It consists of news papers, magazines and
journals.
2. The broadcast: the broadcast media consist of radio and television.
3. The film media: film media consist of mainly cinema and video. Similar to the television
media, it combines the power motion pictures, music and spoken words. Cinema and video are
attractive mainly to the youth and fairly high-income class people.
4. The direct media: it consist of producers, manufacturers and traders communicating
directly with prospective consumer.
5. The transport media: the transport media consist of advertisements in form of poster and
painting on or in transport vehicles such as lorries, buses taxis, trains and company vehicles.

Factors considered in selecting a product promotion medium

i. Cost of the medium: it should be economical, affordable and within the available budget.
ii. Flexibility: consider the ease with which possible its possible to change from one medium of
promotion to another.
iii. Life of the promotional massage: some promotional media give the massage advertised a
short life while others give it a long lasting. for example radio, television and cinema give an

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advertisement a short life while newspapers, journals and magazines gives the massage a
longer life.
iv. Quality of promotional massage: consider the capability of the medium to produce the
quality of the massage desired.
v. Availability of the medium: the medium should be readily available.
vi. Nature of the product: consider whether the product to be promoted is for countrywide
consumption or limited to certain consumers only.

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