Some US estimates project that Sales Promotion will soon account for 65 – 75% of total marketing budgets. The reason this is one of the fastest growing sectors worldwide is that Sales Promotions directly promote profitable relationships with profitable customers.
With the evolution of modern retailing, ‘Promotions’, the 4th ‘P’ of marketing, have become the focus of marketers worldwide. With increasing product and brand clutter, promotions are seen as the best way of reaching out to the customer directly without any loss of communication in transit. The fact that they provide immediate and measurable results is another major attraction for marketers, who themselves are increasingly under the scanner to deliver ROI for monies spent. Hence increasingly the world over, marketing spends are shifting from above the line to below the line activities. In fact in countries like US, studies estimate that budget outlays for promotions will increase to 65 – 75% of marketing budgets compared to 40% earlier.
Traditionally promotions have adapted any one of the following tactics:
- Contests, games, sweepstakes, lotteries
- Premiums and gifts
- Sampling
- Fairs and trade shows
- Exhibits
- Demonstrations
- Coupons
- Rebates
- Entertainment
- Trade-in allowances
- Continuity programs
- Tie-ins
Even though these tactics vary widely in application and effectiveness, they offer three distinct benefits:
- Inform : They provide information about the product to the customer, first hand,
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which may persuade many customers to try out the product.
- Incentivise: They induce the indecisive customer to decide in favour of the product by providing an incentive to buy it.
- Invite: They include an invitation to the customer to complete the transaction immediately as the promotions create an inviting ambience and compelling offer to draw the customers to the product.
Well conceived and executed promotions are the marketer’s potent weapon to tactically increase sales, respond to competition and kick start a new product.
DIREM with its superior analytical skill approaches executions of promotions as an opportunity to interact effectively with the customer to position the brand and product in the customer’s consciousness. This is done through superior execution across the board, including planning of promotions, training promoters to capture the nuances of interaction, and analyzing promotion effectiveness with the help of proprietary tools. DIREM also assists clients in testing multiple concepts of promotion before these are rolled out across the country. DIREM’s strength in capture and analysis of data helps marketers understand the customers’ reaction to their brand, positioning and promotion. |
