PROMOTIONAL TOOLS

 

PROMOTIONAL TOOLS

          Apart from sales promotion, there are other promotional tools that exist at the same time contribute to the growth of marketing organizations. They include:

                                i.            Advertising

                             ii.            Personal selling

                           iii.            Public relation

                           iv.            Direct marketing

                             v.            Publicity

 

      I.            ADVERTISING:

Advertising is one of the major tools of promotional mix that companies uses to direct, persuade, inform and communicate to target buyers and publics. It consists of non-personal or one way form of communication conducted through a paid media by an identified sponsor. Unlike sales promotion that serves an inducement, the advertiser include not only commercial firms but museums, fund raisers and various social organization seeking to advertise their product or services in various different ways.

 

   II.            PERSONAL SELLING:

This is face-to-face or person-to-person communication with potential buyers to inform and persuade them to patronize product of an organization. It is the most effective tools at certain stage of buying process, particularly in building up buyer’s preference, conviction and actions. It involves personal interaction between two or more people so that each person can observe the others needs and characteristics and make quick adjustments. Personal selling unlike sales promotion allows all kind of relation to spring up, ranging from selling and buying relationships to personal friendship.

 

 

 

III.            PUBLIC RELATIONS:

This programme is designed to promote or protect a company’s corporate image or its individual products. Wise company takes concrete steps to manage successful relations with its key publics. Public relation is also used to build and maintain sound and productive relations with special publics such as customers, employees or stockholders with the public at large so as to adopt itself to its environment as well as the society. Unlike sales promotion that is used to persuade consumers through the use of some incentive tools such as premium, sweepstakes, demonstration and free samples, public relation is basically use to protect and promote the image of an organization.

 

IV.            DIRECT MARKETING:

It entails the use of e-mail, telephone, fax, or internet to communicate directly with or solicit response or dialogue from specific customers and prospect, it is also seen as a means of interacting marketing system that uses one or more advertising media to effect a measurable transaction at any location. It is interesting and allows a dialogue between the marketing team and the customer, message can be altered depending on the consumer’s response. Thus direct marketing is a well suited means that is used to locate prospective customers directly and also to build one-to-one customer relationship.

 

   V.            PUBLICITY:

Is any promotional communication about an organization or its product that is present by the media.Although it is not paid for by the organization. Publicity usually takes the form of a news story appearing in a mass medium or an endorsement provided by n individual informally or in a speech or interview, it has certain distinctive features such as:

a.     It prepare story called new release and circulate it to the media, the intention is for the selected newspaper, television stations or other media to report the information as news.

b.    The organization has less control over publicity than other forms of promotion.

c.      It is a one-on-one personal communication, often called lobbying that companies’ legislators or other powerful people use in an attempt to influence their opinion and subsequently their decision.