Promotional Marketing
eBook - ePub

Promotional Marketing

Roddy Mullin

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eBook - ePub

Promotional Marketing

Roddy Mullin

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About This Book

In today's connected world, promotion is fundamental to everything we do to drive business. This is a new edition of an established book, updated with the latest research on the shopper/buyer and how to reach their 'tipping point' when the decision to buy is made, now covering mobile, online and bricks-and-mortar sales and marketing. This book clarifies why a focus on the customer is key, and how to communicate with them from even before they discover a want or need, to the point of purchase and after. The author of this important book explains how and when to use suppliers (agencies, printers, insurers, etc.) for promotions of all types, including advertising (outdoor, on websites and in print), experiential marketing (road and trade shows, exhibitions, merchandising) and sales promotions (in-store/web and mobile promotion offers). Processes describe and explain how to implement promotional marketing to achieve business objectives.

Promotional Marketing is a practitioner guide to sales and marketing for agencies, entrepreneurs and small businesses and those seeking a career in retail. It is packed with real-life and award-winning case studies and practical briefs (NatWest, Diageo, Sainsbury's, Shell and Radisson, for example) as a starter for when the client needs a creative answer yesterday! It is also tuned to those studying, providing a chapter on how marketing and sales fit into business.

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Information

Publisher
Routledge
Year
2018
ISBN
9781351341257
Subtopic
Marketing
Edition
2
Part I
The context
Chapter 1
Introduction
Promotional marketing in actionā€¦
ā€¦ is a sequence of promotional messages along the shopper/buyer journey that adds fun, rewards, stimulates excitement and spontaneity and persuades the minds of shoppers/buyers (and even retail therapists!) to reach a tipping point ā€“ and buy!
What effect do promotions have on the shopper/buyer?
Put simply: all marketing communications build a shopper/buyerā€™s mind file, and research shows that six communications are needed along the journey to purchase before the decision to buy is taken! Adding a promotion to each of these communications does what it says above.
Shopper/buyer Insights now show that, unsurprisingly, on the journey to purchase, the shopper/buyer builds up a ā€˜mind fileā€™ on a brand or product or retailer or supplier. The shopper/buyer adds every relevant message to that mind file, whether from advertising, from direct messages online, through the post, from mobile/social media and word of mouth or personal experience. Promotions alongside create a favourable impression that is added to the ā€˜mind fileā€™.
This ā€˜mind fileā€™ builds to a tipping point for the shopper/buyer as to whether to purchase or not and at the point of sale, a ā€˜sales promotionā€™ā€“ online or in-store ā€“ can tip the balance and get the shopper to buy or a buyer to place an order. ā€˜Buyersā€™ for B2B are given a mention throughout the book as they too are human beings and the same logic operates for them as for shoppers, though they are constrained by process and their work culture (see Chapter 3).
Marketers have to react to the shopper/buyer journeyā€™s researched Insights, with matched promotional marketing
So, one key to future success for all marketers is to really understand shoppers/buyers from Insights gleaned from big data and market research. Technology allows a marketer to analyse data and social media for better Insights and to be more precise in targeting messages so that there is less waste and less sending of inappropriate messages to the wrong shoppers/buyers, which of course can irritate. Finally, build with promotions, through multi-channels tuned to the shopper/buyer, the messages that persuade and convince along the shopper/buyerā€™s journey until that tipping point is reached.
Remember to think retail therapy as well as shoppersā€™ commodity buying. People go shopping for a rewarding experience. No one buys chocolate to be miserable, so make promotions add to the fun of buying any product or service. If the fun goes out of it, so does the spirit that makes buying and selling part of our lives, whether as customers or as business clients. Of all the marketing tools available to the marketer, a promotion can most readily be used to give that sense of fun to the customer.
The marketer, however, has other ā€˜customersā€™ to consider: the shareholder, the employee and the management team (including the accountant and finance director), which raises serious points too. Some of this book necessarily talks about detailed mechanics ā€“ how the customer or buyer responds ā€“ and the codes of practice that apply. Itā€™s also impossible to look at price promotions without some reference to economics.
BRIEF 1.1. What do British shoppers really want? (Adyen Survey 2017)
ā€¢ Sixty-three per cent say they are more likely to complete a purchase in-store than online.
ā€¢ Sixty-nine per cent say they shop online to avoid queues.
ā€¢ Only 3% of Britons say they no longer shop in-store.
ā€¢ Fifty-seven per cent of consumers name queuing as their biggest frustration with the in-store experience.
ā€¢ Sixty-four per cent of people will abandon a purchase if they think the queue is too long.
ā€¢ Seventy-three per cent of shoppers have abandoned an online transaction because the delivery cost was too high.
ā€¢ Sixty-four per cent of people enjoy browsing.
ā€¢ For 75%, it is important to see, sample, touch and try on items.
ā€¢ Sixty-eight per cent go online to compare prices.
ā€¢ Seventy per cent enjoy the convenience of having goods delivered.
ā€¢ Ninety-five per cent of people shop online.
ā€¢ Forty per centt of people have never shopped via an app.
ā€¢ Seventy-five per cent have never purchased an item through social media.
ā€¢ Sixty-eight per cent would jump ship if they spotted a better deal ā€“ Ā­proving once and for all how much Britons love a bargain.
ā€¢ Forty-eight per cent of shoppers prefer to deal with a person rather than a machine.
ā€¢ Twenty-five per cent donā€™t like talking with checkout staff.
ā€¢ Sixty-three per cent like shopping online as their contact details are saved, meaning they can pay quickly.
ā€¢ Fifty-six per cent of men enjoy in-store shopping due to its sociable nature.
ā€¢ Eighty per cent say they would rather not use cash in-store.
ā€¢ Sixty-two per cent believe they know more than the store staff.
ā€¢ Sixty-one per cent of people would like store staff to have mobile payment terminals to avoid queues.
The extent of promotional marketing
Everywhere ā€“ especially mobile. A cursory check in your supermarket, your local paper or pub and the direct mail sent to both your home and your business address will give an immediate feel of the extent of promotion today. Promotional marketing is found whenever a supermarket offers ā€˜three for the price of twoā€™, a pub offers a happy hour, an insurance or charity mailer offers a free pen for replying or a product offers a free draw, competition or mail-in. On the mobile phone, too, if permission has been given, offers will appear for drinks and for happy hours; and from estate agents, the latest houses and flats coming on to the market. Whatever you allow will appear. The mobile phone can now also be used to respond to advertisements, texting a number with a code word; ā€˜mobile vouchersā€™ allow a message to be sent back that includes access to a promotion included at the point of purchase through a QR or barcode reader. A main use of the mobile is sharing anything with others. As a marketer, if you are not doing so, you should āˆ’ indeed you must āˆ’ ā€˜go mobileā€™.
A good promotion will stop customers for a moment in this world of choice, cause the shopper/buyer to think about a brand and product and, if it has the right impact, move him or her to make a decision to follow up on the promotion. There are hidden benefits ā€“ if customers take up your ā€˜three for the price of twoā€™ offer, they will not be purchasing a competitor product while using yours, and their experience of enjoying a product or service is a great influence on future purchases. Indeed, a second promotion delivered with the product or service when the customer takes up the first promotion can entice them to make their next purchase of that product or service. In mobile marketing parlance, use a ā€˜bounce-backā€™ or two.
More is now spent on promotion than on all other media, including advertising and direct marketing. Always check the basis for comparisons ā€“ the amount spent on advertising in the United Kingdom (UK) is now quoted as a figure that includes production costs, agency fees and commission as well as media expenditure. It also includes direct mail. So, when making comparisons, it is important to know what is included. The figures in Figure 2.2 are media spend only, and the direct mail figure is placed under direct marketing (i.e. not included in advertising). Figure 2.2 shows that all advertising media spend ā€“ TV, press, outdoor etc. ā€“ is about a third of the spending on promotion. In a nutshell, promotion is really big ā€“ about the same as the rest (advertising, PR, direct marketing) all put together.
BRIEF 1.2. Promotional merchandise spend. BPMA research shows that just under Ā£1 billion was spent in 2016. Merchandise such as pens, USB sticks, branded clothing, desk items and calendars are popular across all industry sectors, and the recall of brand names is high across all management levels (BPMA survey in 2014).
Who participates in promotions? Research, started in 1986 and repeated annually since, shows that over 70 per cent of the population has taken part in competitions or games on products and services, with almost 60 per cent of the population actively participating in some form of promotion in any given month ā€“ whether it be entering a competition, sending in for a free gift or using a money-off coupon. This makes participating in promotions one of Britainā€™s biggest active leisure activities. Compare that with, for example, the 11 per cent of the UK population participating in golf in any way over a year.
Everyone else is using promotions. If you are not undertaking promotion in your organisation, you should be wondering why not. The figures given above demonstrate that promotion is no longer an also-ran in the business of marketing products and services, but one of the most important tools available to companies and a major part of our day-to-day lives. The best basis for understanding promotion is from the inside. Get involved in promotions: collect coupons, send in for offers and seek out special offers. Have a look at how others do it. Study the rolls of honour and the winners of the latest IPM and IMC competitions. Read why the judges awarded the prizes.
Why promotional marketing keeps growing
There are eight main reasons for the extensive growth of promotions and for why managers find that promotions are essential to building customer relationships:
1 Firms are getting better at what they do. A promotion offers a way to be better in markets in which most products are excellent. The European vice-president of a major toiletries group commented, ā€˜Itā€™s no longer enough to have an excellent product at an excellent price; I need a tie-breakerā€™. Companies everywhere are facing declining real differences between products and services, increased distributor power and faster communication of alternatives. They have to fight harder and faster for every sale.
2 Customers look for more from the brands they buy. A promotion offers novelty, excitement and humour at the point of purchase, which customers respond to. Firms are having to rethink the relationship between attitude and behaviour. Trying to create awareness of and a positive attitude towards a brand by means of advertising is seen as less effective than encouraging a sale that may lead on to just such a positive attitude to the brand. That encouragement is achieved by promotion. It is, in effect, advocating a kind of experiential marketing ā€“ a much-in-favour part of field marketing.
3 The pressure to achieve short-term results is growing. The fortunes of brands and companies are increasingly volatile. Promotions can be devised and implemented and take effect far more quickly than other forms of marketing. This is of growing importance as demands for short-term profit performance grow, despite people urging a long-term view.
4 TV audiences are fragmenting as the number of channels grows, making it more expensive to reach certain audiences even though TV advertising has probably never been cheaper; the decline in community identity at a local level is making it more difficult to reach particular groups (such as the young) via local media ā€“ only mobile and social media work. A 15-year-old achieved prominence by describing how his generation switches off from TV advertising and Twitte...

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