The management has to work on the Marketing Public Relations through proper planning to get effective results. The management must have clear idea on the objective it wants to achieve, finalise the public relations message and tools, implementing the plan and evaluation.

1) Marketing objectives – The organisation can be greatly benefitted by MPR before the launch of a product, service, organisation, personality, etc. Even before the advertisement or other promotion tools are utilised in the target market, MPR can create lot of excitement about a product, etc. in the market place. It can be an editorial in a leading newspaper that will boost the dealers, shareholders, salesforce, business partners, and public at large. The announcement through PR campaign of a launch of a new product creates lot of awareness in the market place. For example, Reliance Jio created lot of news through its MPR campaign of cheapest call and internet service provider through its mobile SIM in the India. As a result of this, major international players in the Indian market were forced to change their plans and strategies.

Continue Reading »

Direct Marketing involves communicating directly with buyers about their products via different channels. The individual buyer is the target in direct marketing and not the masses. Examples: direct mail, e-mail, apps, telephone calls (telemarketing), catalogues, fliers, promotional letters, etc.The goal is to generate sales or leads for sales representatives to pursue. If the customer is interested, he/ she can directly contact the concerned department or person on the telephone number of address given with the message. Direct marketing allows a business to engage in one-way communication with its customers. It helps organisations inform the prospective buyers about product announcements, special promotions, etc.

People in today’s times prefer at-home shopping rather than travelling to different outlets. Marketers take this opportunity to reach out to the customer directly with all the information about the product, special promotions, etc. in order to generate sales. The marketer’s ensure that customers have easy access to them via toll-free numbers, chat tools, email, etc. at any time of day or night throughout the week to justify their credibility and commitment towards customers.

Continue Reading »

There are many tools at a marketer’s disposal for contacting the prospective buyers through Direct Marketing. We will discuss the major tools-

1) Direct mail – It is referred to a message sent to the prospective buyers through mail. It can be an announcement, offer, reminder, products (pre-approved credit cards, etc.), etc. It advertises the organisation, and its product and services. Marketers need to shortlist the buyers carefully and send the messages accordingly. Most of the organisations get the benefit of lower rates when the mails are sent in bulk. The organisations get the details of buyers when they visit store.

For example, some retailers ask the buyers to fill small form to get membership at minimal costs. This way the organisation gets the contact details as well as the preferences of the buyer. The online shopping sites track the visitor’s site visits for certain products. Then mostly a reminder message is sent to the visitor. For example, “you were interested in an x product. Now it’s available at a discounted rate.”

Continue Reading »

Advertising is an audio or visual form of non-personal and paid marketing communication about an organisation or its products directed towards target audience through mass medium. It is also sometimes referred to as “ad”.

The communication is through non-personal, paid media. The audience clearly know the source of the message – which organisation or company the message is from.

From the above definition we see that it encompasses the following aspects-

Continue Reading »

The channel of communication is considered as a medium to carry a message from the source to the receiver. In advertising the channels of communication are newspapers, magazines, television, radio, etc. It is a medium or a vehicle utilized by advertisers to convey their message to a large audience.
Advertising media refers to the device, channel, or vehicle through which an organisation communicates its promotion content to mass audience.

A decade ago, marketers needed to know only a few of the advertising tools or media. But today, they need to be aware of various advertising options available to survive in the market. This is because of advances in communication technology. We will look at important channels of advertising, their advantages and disadvantages.

1) Newspapers – there are millions of people who are accustomed to reading the newspaper in the morning to keep themselves updated about the happenings around the world. Newspapers remain as the most reliable message career as it is a mode that not only educates, but also entertains.

Continue Reading »

Organisation allocate millions and even billions of dollars for advertising. It is important that the marketers effectively use the advertising resources to make the marketing effort successful.The steps involved vary from company to company but there are five major steps that organisations can take in developing an advertising program.

1) Mission/ Objective
2) Budget
3) Message
4) Media plan
5) Evaluation

Continue Reading »

Sales promotion forms all the promotion activities other than personal selling, advertising, direct selling, and public relations. It covers non-personal and non-media activities like free samples, coupons, rebates, discounts, etc. Sales promotions are used to stimulate purchasing and sales by way of giving incentives or offers, and the objectives are to increase sales by informing potential customers about new products. The potential buyers know the source of the message as the organisation which arranges the activity.

Definition –
In a specific sense, Sales Promotion includes those sales activities that supplement both Personal Selling and Advertising and co-ordinates them and helps to make them effective, such as, displays, shows and expositions, demonstrations and other non-recurrent selling efforts not in the ordinary routine – The American Marketing Association.

Most of the organisations adopt sales promotions as it is less costly as compared to the increasing Television advertising and personal selling costs. Sales promotion is widely used for creating brand awareness and liking among consumers.

Consumers are lured by the incentives of buying through sales promotion activities like discounts, rebates, contests, coupons, product samples, price promotion signs, coupons, exhibitions, setting kiosks in malls, displays, free samples, gifts, etc. The customer who buys a product sees an extra value in the purchase like a discount, etc.

Continue Reading »

The Sales Promotion tools are directed towards Consumers (Consumer promotion tools), Dealers or middlemen (Trade promotion tools), and Sales force. These tools are unique in their way and directed differently to these three groups. So basically, these are different tools with purpose of encouraging consumers, dealers as well as the company’s sales force.

Sales promotion tools for consumers (Consumer promotion tools) –
The marketers need to choose the right sales promotion tool to reach its audience. Below are the major promotion tools directed towards consumers –

1) Free samples – The manufacturer offers free samples to consumers in various ways doing door-to-door visits, at retail stores, malls, attached to another product, etc. For example, attaching a sample of a shampoo sachet with a bottle of a beauty lotion. The purpose is to gain new customers or enter into a new market.

Continue Reading »

Sales Promotion decisions follow the framework set for the steps decided on promotion activities as part of market planning. (Kindly see chapter – Promotion Mix – Marketing Communications;Discuss the steps involved in Promotion Decisions?).

All the Sales Promotion activities are guided by the marketing plan like any other Promotion activity. The market plan decides on the target market and objectives. A decision is taken on which of these objectives are achievable through sales promotion activities.

Continue Reading »

Definitions of Services –

“Activities, benefits and satisfactions, which are offered for sale or are provided in connection with the sale of goods” (American Marketing Association, Committee of Definitions 1960, p. 21).

“Services include all economic activities whose output is not a physical product or construction, is generally consumed at the time it is produced, and provides added value in forms (such as convenience, amusement, timeliness, comfort or health) that are essentially intangible concerns of its first purchaser” (Quinn, Baruch and Paquette, 1987).

“A service is any act or performance that one party can offer to another that is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything. Its production may or may not be tied to a physical product (Prof. Philip Kotler)

Continue Reading »