PROMOTION

1. DEFINING PROMOTION

Promotion is a term used to describe the process of marketing goods and services to create or
raise public awareness of these goods or services.

2. DIFFERENT PROMOTIONAL METHODS

An organisation may use one or all of the following promotional methods:

(a) Advertising

Advertising is a way for service providers, manufacturers and traders to inform potential
buyers about their products and services. The main purpose of advertising is to persuade
people to buy the advertised product, instead of buying competitors goods. Products are
advertised through different media, including television, radio, newpapers, magazines,
posters, leaflets and the Internet.

 Advertising informs consumers of the wide range of goods and services available and
tells them more about products.
 It contributes to lower prices when businesses try to compete with each other. Consumers
are able to compare adverts and make their choices. Through advertising, businesses are
able to increase their market share.
 It contributes to increases in prices, as businesses include the costs of their adverts in the
prices of the goods promoted. Some producers can use their adverts to mislead
consumers.

(b) Ethics in advertising

The following ethical principles should be followed by businesses when advertising:

 Advertisements should be truthful, not dishonest or misleading. An advert should not

lie what the product is or can do. It should not say confusing things about the product.
 Adverts should not make misleading claims about products. The content of a product;
e.g., if a product is made from artificial leather or only partly made with real leather,
the advert must say so, not say ‘pure leather’ when it is not.

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  Adverts should not include information that is likely to cause damage to competitors.
It should not mention or condemn a competitors’ product.
 Adverts should not use strong, obscene or insulting language or disrespect other
peoples’ religious or cultural beliefs.
 Adverts should not discriminate in any way. E.g., showing racial or gender
discrimination is unethical.

(c) Sales Promotions

Sales promotions include demonstrations in shops, free samples, discounts, special offers,
prizes and competitions involving simple questions about a product. Sales promotions are
usually used for short periods; e.g., to support the introduction of a new product. It is used
to;

 Increase sales during times when sales are traditionally low. Thus, during month
end or year period when customers are not buying much. In Botswana, month end
specials take place mostly.
 To clear old stock. For goods that have had a longer shelf life, sale promotions can
be done to clear the old stock.
 Encourage customers to try a new product. Promoters can give people samples to
try out, if they like the product they are likely to buy.
 Encourage customers to buy a product more often or in greater quantities.

(d) Personal Selling

This occurs when salespeople make direct contact with customers. Personal selling becomes
important if the product is expensive and the customer requires technical advice and
information; e.g., if a customer wanted to buy a car, the sales staff should be able to respond
to the raised questions about the car performance.

(e) Publicity Campaigns

Publicity campaigns are designed to promote the brands and products of businesses. They
include press releases to the media, sponsoring events in communities, and donations to
charity.

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 A publicity campaign makes the public aware of what a business is doing for a
community.
 It increases the likelihood of people choosing the promoters’ products over competitors.
 Promoters also take advantage of the events they sponsor by adverting, donating or
selling their products at these events.

3. MARKET RESEARCH & SELECTING PROMOTIONAL METHODS

Market research can provide information about the following issues:

(a) People’s attitude to a product or service

Through research of the market one can identify what people like or dislike about a product, a
business can use this opportunity to promote their product. If customers like a feature about a
product, that will be used as the promotional focus. E.g., if customers like the high quality of
a product, the advert would stress quality.

(b) Potential Customers

Market research reveals the target market or type of customers who are likely to buy a
particular product. It can reveal their age, gender, income and location. This will help
selecting the promotional method, e.g., if customers are located in one area it will be cost
effective to use mass media (television or radio) or leaflets to target the customers at once.

(c) Competitors

One gets information about competitors – who they are and what they are doing. This gives a
business a chance to come up with a unique product feature to gain more market share.

(d) The Right Promotional Method

Market research gives a business the most cost effective method to do their promotion and in
achieving its set objectives.

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4. APPROPRIATE PROMOTIONAL MESSAGES

All promotional techniques aim at making customers think of the benefits of owning or using
the product or service promoted. Businesses do this using the AIDA Principle represented
below;

 Attention – first draw attention to the advertisement. If the audience does not pay
attention to the advertisements, its messages will be ignored. Asking a question or
surprising the audience is a common method used by promoters to attract attention; e.g.,
‘Have you...?’
‘Are you...?’
‘Can you...?’
 Interest – once the audience is paying attention, try to create interest in the advertisement,
to retain the audience’s attention. Promoters create interest by addressing the audiences’
problems, demonstrating something, or getting the audience involved.
 Desire – the next step is to create a desire in the audience, for whatever the promoters
want the audience to do. Desire is the motivation to act and leads towards the next stage.
The audience can recognise that they have a need, but this is not desire. Desire is like fire,
and promoters try to stroke it up by using many methods, e.g., by showing the audience
that:
The item promoted is exclusive or will not be available for long.
Other people approve of the item and have it themselves.
The item promoted will solve some of their problems.
 Action – when the individual feels some desire for the item, the next stage is to get them
to take action on their desires and actually buy or use the product, promoters try to do this
by telling the audience when and where the item is available.

5. PLANNING AN ADVERISEMENT

When using advertisement as the promotional method, promoters do the following:

(a) Identify the Target Group

An advertiser must the very clear who are potential buyers of a product or users of the
service. This information is obtained through market research, and the advertiser would be
able to find out what the target group feels, thinks and believes.

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(b) Developing Marketing Objectives

An advertising campaign forms part of the businesses’ overall promotional or marketing

campaign. The marketing objectives should link to the business objectives; e.g., if a business
wants to increase market share by 20% over two years, then the marketing objectives would
be “to increase product awareness amongst customers within six months’. After target those
who had ignored the adverts previously.

(c) Developing the key message

Advertisers design messages to persuade an audience, but they can also inform, remind,
instruct and entertain. The key message for an advertisement should be clearly stated in one
sentence, e.g.:

Use Sensodyne toothpaste and get maximum teeth whiteness.

Tastic Rice cooks perfectly all the time and double the size

Sunlight dishwashing powder removes dirt permanently giving cleanest shine

(d) Deciding on the advertising medium

The following media can be used to advertise a product or service:

The web(internet) e-mail

Television radio

National newspapers local newspapers

Magazines and journals mail-outs and leaflets

Posters and billboards brochures

The type of medium selected is influenced by the target group, the message, and the amount
of money available for advertising.

(e) Creating the Advertisement

All good advertising starts with understanding the target audience. Advertisers follow the
KISS principle; Keep It Simple and Straight. Thus people are likely to remember a simple,
clever statement than a longer message.