Marketing, Advertising & Promotions
Marketing, advertising, and promotions are often used interchangeably by small businesses that don't really understand the process of effectively bringing products or services to the marketplace. The more subjective disciplines of advertising and promotions support objective, upfront marketing research. Understanding what each of these terms means and how they relate to each other will help you effectively increase your sales. Marketing Marketing is an objective discipline that involves the research, creation, pricing, testing, and distribution of a product or service. Marketing involves analyzing the competition by researching their pricing, products, where they sell, and age, race, gender, and other characteristics of their customers. A small business uses market research to test ideas and products on potential customers and to get feedback on the products or service. Marketing company in Mumbai also discovers what price consumers would pay for a proposed product or service, where they would purchase it, and how often they would use it. Advertising Advertising is paying to get your message to potential customers. Unlike public relations, advertising lets you control your message. A classic advertising strategy includes demonstrating a need or a problem to your potential customer; offering a solution to help fill that need or solve the problem; and showing how your product or service does that. Good advertising sells the benefits of a product or service, rather than simply discuss the product or service. Advertising a product that is overpriced or unavailable in stores doesn't make sense, nor does placing an ad for women's personal care products in a men's sports magazine. This is why marketing functions come first in the sales process. Advertising supports marketing and applies a specific message to specific audiences defined by market research as the best way to achieve success. Promotions Promotions are events, activities, sponsorships, and contests that create and increase awareness of your product or service. Promotions differ from advertising because they are less educational in nature than traditional advertisements. Sponsoring a youth sports organization, giving away free samples at a mall, offering coupons in grocery stores, or promoting a sweepstakes or contest that bring customers to your website are all examples of promotions. Promotions should be geared toward the consumer demographic your market research determined is your best potential customer. Branding Branding is creating a consistent image for your company, products, and services. Brand Promotions agency in Mumbai Using the key to success in branding is to communicate a consistent message to consumers about your product or service in all of your advertising, promotions, and public relations. For example, a local pizzeria that wants to brand itself as the best Italian restaurant in town should not offer tacos or stir-fry on its menu. That dilutes its brand and confuses consumers as to what type of restaurant it really is. All small-business advertising and promotions should reinforce the brand. Evaluation It's important for small businesses to evaluate the effectiveness of their marketing, advertising, and promotions on a regular basis. This ensures that your communications support the original marketing research and strategy. Audits of your advertising, public relations, and promotions may reveal flaws or incorrect assumptions in your original marketing plan. Examples of Advertising Strategies Highlight Your Benefits Regardless of what media you choose, sell the benefits of your product or service, rather than the product or service it. For example, carmakers rarely advertise the number of cylinders in their engines or what type of brakes a car offers as their main selling points. They attempt to "brand" their autos by selling a particular benefit, such as reliability, status, affordability or safety. Don't just tell consumers to come to your restaurant, dry cleaning store or car wash -- tell why. If you have a kids-eat-free special, sell your benefit of being an economical, family-oriented restaurant. Retail Advertising Ads that encourage potential customers to buy a specific product or service are known as retail ads. These ads often include specific products, their prices, sales dates, coupons and a call to action. Examples of retail advertising include car dealer ads, supermarket inserts in newspapers and clothing and jewelry store ads. These ads are often nothing more than a list of products with prices, often pointing out the discounts offered. Image Advertising Some advertising never mentions a particular product, price, store location or other information about the business. These ads create an image in the mind of consumers about the product or service. For example, Nike ran TV commercials with no dialogue, showing a consumer jogging, by herself, for 30 seconds. As the commercial faded to black, the words, "Just Do It" appeared on the screen. Nike's goal was to position itself as a maker of athletics shoes, clothing and accessories for consumers who were serious about exercise, sports, competition or training. Many perfume or cologne commercials feature bizarre sets, lighting and close-ups of models saying things completely unrelated to the product in an attempt to brand the product as hip or cutting edge. How Promotional Activity Is Integrated to Achieve Marketing Objectives Personal Selling Personal selling involves salespeople who use their skills to persuade consumers to buy a product or service. Salespeople often use pricing strategies to convince customers to buy a product, thus integrating the price and promotion categories of the four Pu2019s. Other personal selling tactics include highlighting the specific benefits of a product and offering free delivery, which, respectively, integrate product and place strategies. Sales Promotion Sales promotions are temporary incentives that make a product more attractive to buyers, according to the book u201cAdvertising, Promotion and Other Aspects of Integrated Marketing Communications,u201d by Terence A. Shrimp. Coupons, discounts, sales and bulk pricing are forms of sales promotions. Sales agencies in Mumbai using this tactics obviously integrate well with a businessu2019s overall pricing strategy, but they also can integrate well with product and place strategies. For example, a coupon might inspire customers to try a new product, and a store-wide sale might help generate publicity for a new store location. Public Relations The public relations element involves promoting a product or service in an informal sense, for example, by developing a companyu2019s reputation for customer service so that people recommend its products to others. Associating a company with charitable endeavors is another way to generate public goodwill. Companies also can integrate other marketing strategies. For example, a business might advertise that the profits from an upcoming sale will fund a charity located in a geographic region into which the company hopes to expand its operations.
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