Product Promotion & Communication

Product Promotion

• In marketing, product promotion involves communicating the value of products to the target market.
• Marketing involves delivering and effectively communicating value to consumers.

Effective Promotion

• A startup coffee shop uses local coffee beans to attract a specific market segment in the 16-30 age range.
• Ways to communicate value include:
  • Social media
  • Flyers
  • Newspaper advertisements
  • TV advertisements
  • Salespeople

Promotion as Communication

• Promotion is a communication process where a sender transfers a message to a receiver.

The Communication Process

• Promotion transfers a message from a sender to a receiver.
• The Senders will encode the message using symbols and pictures, then transmit these through a medium.
• The Receiver decodes by giving meaning to the sent symbols.
• Feedback is the receiver communicating back to the sender.
• Response is the receiver's reaction after receiving the message.
• Noise can interfere with any stage.
• An example is a tech company introducing a smartphone; the marketing department creates illustrations/ads during the encoding process to convey the message.
• The appropriate media must be chosen and noise considered.
• Customers respond and give feedback via sales or product inquiries.

Promotional Tools

• Promotional tools engage customers, communicate customer value, and build customer relationships

Types of Promotional Tools

• Include:
  • Advertisements
  • Public relations
  • Sales promotions
  • Personal selling

Advertisements

• Advertisements are a popular form of promotion
• Utilizes mass media to deliver the company's marketing message to its target market.
• Radio and television ads are called "commercials" and vary based on geographic location.
• Print advertisements are printed magazine or newspapers.
• Direct mail advertising uses emails sent to possible consumers and delivers target messages effectively.
• Outdoor advertising happens outside on billboards, public transportation, exteriors, etc.
• Internet marketing is the fastest-growing form of advertisement, including social media, websites, and SEO marketing.

Public Relations

• Public relations aim to build a positive relationship between the company and the public.
• Necessary for:
  • Building a good corporate image.
  • Handling negative rumors, stories, and events.

Public Relations Promotions

• Press releases
• Product publicity
• Corporate communication
• Lobbying and counseling

Sales Promotion

• Sales Promotions provide customers direct motivation to buy a product or service, as well as generate loyal customers.
• These are usually short-term.

Personal Selling

• Personal Selling involves face-to-face communication between company salespeople and a possible target consumer.
  • This involves huge amounts of money, business presentations, and staff training.
  • Suited for expensive, technical products (cars, houses, equipment, etc.)

Promotional Mix

• The Promotional Mix combines promotional tools to engage, communicate, and build customer relationships.
• Factors include:
  • Objectives of the promotion.
  • Target audience.
  • Company values.
  • Company resources.
  • Marketing mix.
• Objectives should inform, remind, and persuade the target consumer.
• The target audience should be appropriate to the characteristics of the market segment (ex: age range, access to technologies, etc).
• Company values should agree with the organization's stated core values.
• Company resources should maximize the current resources.
• The marketing mix should enhance and support the product, pricing, and distribution decisions.
• An entire marketing mix should communicate the product's value persuasively and profitably to customers.

Bizarre Cola Commercial

• In 2020, a famous soft drink brand released a bizarre commercial on social media, focusing on a teenager with an adopted child storyline.
• The brand stated their objective was to capture Gen Z's interest.
• The commercial increased sales by 67% and penetrated social media due to the format without a concrete story.
• This promotional viral advertising strategy took hold on social media.

Keep In Mind

• Marketing entails developing, communicating, and delivering value; communicating the market offering's value is done through promotion.
• Promotion is a communication process that transfers a company's market message.
• The process comprises the sender, the encoded message, the media, the decoded message, and the receiver.
• Promotions aim to generate responses and feedback.
• There are four types of promotional tools: advertisement, public relations, sales promotions, and personal selling.
• Each uses a particular set of media companies should ensure their choice of tools is appropriate to their target audience.
• Businesses typically use a mix of promotional tools to capture a target market with different characteristics. Designers of a promotional mix must consider the objective, target audience, company values, and marketing mix.