Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Sales Promotion
Sales promotion, a key ingredient in marketing campaigns, consists
of a collection of incentive tools, mostly short term, designed to stimulate
quicker or greater purchase of particular products or services by
consumers or the trade.
Objectives
Sales promotion tools vary in their specific objectives. A free sample
stimulates consumer trial, whereas a free management-advisory
service aims at cementing a long-term relationship with a retailer.
Major Decisions
In using sales promotion, a company must establish its objectives,
select the tools, develop the program, pretest the program, implement
and control it, and evaluate the results.
Establishing Objectives
Sales promotion objectives derive from broader
communication objectives, which derive from more basic
marketing objectives for the product. For consumers, objectives
include encouraging purchase of larger-sized units, building trial
among nonusers, and attracting switchers away from
competitors brands. Ideally, promotions with consumers would
have short-run sales impact as well as long-run brand equity
effects. For retailers, objectives include persuading retailers to
carry new items and higher levels of inventory. encouraging off-
season buying, encouraging stocking of related items, offsetting
competitive promotions, building brand loyalty, and gaining entry
into new retail outlets. For the sales force, objectives include
encouraging support of a new product or model, encouraging
more prospecting, and stimulating off-season sales
Events Objectives
Marketers report a number of reasons to sponsor events:
1. To identify with a particular target marketor lifestyle----
Customers can be targeted geographically, demographically,
psychographically, or behaviorally according to events. Old Spice
sponsors college sports and motor sports-including driverTony
Stewart's entries in the Nextel Cup and Busch Series-to highlight
product relevancy and sample among its target audience of 16-to
24-year-old males.oo
2. To increase awareness ofcompany or product name----
Sponsorship often offers sustained exposure to a brand, a
necessary condition to build brand recognition and enhance
brand recall. Frito-Lay used balloon festivals and street parades
to sample its Flat Earth baked fruit and vegetable crisps, build
awareness, and drive retail traffic.o9
3. To create or reinforce perceptions ofkey brand image
associations-Events themselves have associations that help to
create or reinforce brand associations.90 To toughen its image
and appeal to America's heartland, Toyota Tundra elected to
sponsor BAS.s. fishing tournaments and a Brooks & Dunn country
music tour.
4. To enhance corporate image----Sponsorship can improve
perceptions that the company is likable and prestigious. Although
Visa views its long-standing Olympic sponsorship as a means of
enhancing international brand awareness and increasing usage
and volume, it also engenders patriotic goodwill and taps into the
emotional Olympic spirit.91
5. To create experiences and evoke feelings-The feelings
engendered by an exciting or rewarding event may indirectly link
to the brand. Online activation accounts for a large portion ofLG
Electronics MobileComm USA's sponsorship leveraging efforts.
The company uses sites such as MySpace and YouTube to extend
its personality online and created its own proprietary Web site,
LifeWithLG.com, as a central place for information about events
and celebrity endorsers and related content for downloading.92
6. To express commitment to the community or on social issues-
Cause-related marketing sponsors nonprofit organizations and
charities. Firms such as Timberland, Stoneyfield Farms, Home
Depot, Starbucks, American Express, and Tom's of Maine have
made causerelated marketing an important cornerstone of their
marketing programs.
7. To entertain key clients or reward key employees-Many events
include lavish hospitality tents and other special services or
activities only for sponsors and their guests. These perks
engender goodwill and establish valuable business contacts.
From an employee perspective, events can also build
participation and morale or be used as an incentive. BB&T Corp.,
a major banking and financial services player in the South and
Southeast United States, uses its NASCAR Busch Series
sponsorship to entertain business customers and its minor league
baseball sponsorship to generate excitement among employees.
8. To permit merchandising or promotional opportunities-Many
marketers tie in contests or sweepstakes, in-store merchandising,
direct response, or other marketing activities with an event. Ford,
Coca-Cola, and CingularWireless all used their sponsorship of the
hit TV show American Idol in this way.