Often, advertising is not always enough to promote a particular product or service. That is why you have to resort to other means of marketing, in particular, to conduct sales promotion. This concept means the use of various means in order to increase the value of a product or service in a period limited by time. In other words, this is an additional method of promoting a product (or service). Today it is difficult to find a company or enterprise that does not use sales promotion to sell its products.
There are three main methods of such stimulation:
1. Stimulation of wholesalers and retailers (push method). The main action is aimed at retailers. It is important to convince them that this product must be accepted for sale. The manufacturer, as it were, pushes the goods, using trade advertising and promotion.
2. Stimulating customers (pulling method). With this method, the goods have to be dragged through all the channels until it reaches the final consumer. For this purpose, an advertising company is used, accompanied by various promotion actions.
3. Mixed incentive method. The most common method that combines the two previous methods. The mixed method is the most convenient and practical, since it is allowed to simultaneously affect both traders and buyers.
When is sales promotion of goods and services used? First of all, when you want to increase sales and bring to the market a new product previously unknown to customers. There is also a need for this when it is necessary to revive the fallen demand for products or to single out goods among competing goods.
What funds are used in sales promotion? To achieve the goals set above, the use of promotions, sweepstakes, lotteries and contests, the provision of discounts, the issuance of gifts or additional goods when purchasing appropriate products and much more. In order to attract wholesalers and retailers, free lots of goods and special discounts may be provided , as well as the holding of trading contests and the issuance of bonuses to the most active. If we talk about buyers, then in order to stimulate them, promotions and draws are most often held, discounts are provided, and a free trial of the goods is organized.
Despite all its significance, sales promotion has not only advantages, but also disadvantages. Speaking about the advantages, the following can be noted: stimulation accelerates sales and improves the effectiveness of advertising, makes a clear offer and encourages consumers to make purchases. The main disadvantage is the short duration of stimulation. It is temporary. The disadvantages of incentives are the following: a poorly conducted one or another promotion can seriously spoil the image of the product and its manufacturer; this method does not make it possible to stand out among competitors, since competitors themselves use it in most cases; primitiveness - customers have long been accustomed to holding various promotions and discounts, so they do not always pay attention to them.
Advertising and sales promotion are ineffective without each other. To achieve the best result, you need to try to combine these two methods of promoting goods or services. It is also important to clearly define the tasks to be set, choose the most suitable incentive methods in this or that case, and also, if possible, organize a trial of the developed program to correct all the shortcomings and evaluate the results obtained as a result.