How does the Promotion Strategy Affect the Customer Purchase - Dissertation Example

An effective marketing strategy is based on the identification of the target audience and then identifying means to influence this target segment. Marketers usually build upon existing standard strategies adopted by others. However, a standard strategy such as celebrity endorsement is no more sufficient to entice the customer. Consumers today can choose where, when and how they engage with a brand and they prefer to do so online (Launchfire Interactive, 2008). They respect innovative marketing programs that value their customers as partners, and that reward them for their interest and engagement. This consumer demand and consumer consciousness has resulted in the emergence of a new marketing mix element – interactive promotions. Launchfire Interactive cites a study by Borrell Associates which forecast that expenditure on interactive promotions would go up phenomenally over time. This is because interactive promotion is a direct response to the media-and-marketing-saturated environment.
Any marketing campaign has one motive – to move the consumers to action, to make them respond the way the marketers want (Launchfire Interactive, 2008). Promotion strategy is an important part of the marketing mix variable as it is known to enhance sales. In fact, it is aimed at influencing consumer preferences to purchase. However, other factors too can influence consumer purchase but consumer promotions are persuasive (Currim & Schneider, 1991). Several studies find evidence that promotions are associated with purchase acceleration which is measured in terms of quantity increase in the purchase and to some extent the purchase timing is decreased. Promotions can also lead to brand switching and brand acceleration but the focus of this study is how promotions impact customer purchase.
In recent times online gaming has gained immense popularity. Online gaming is also being promoted through different strategies such as conduit toolbar creation and viral marketing. The toolbar is offered as a free download to site visitors which sits at the top of the browser window and is branded with the logo and title (Conduit, 2012). It offers a one-click link to the gaming site for those interested. Flashy promotion might bring in customers in the short-term but long-term sustainable benefit in online gaming can be obtained by cultivating deep and regular permission with the right online audience (iQuantum, 2011). Every service or product serves a unique purpose and hence the company should have a niche long-tail promotion strategy in place.
League of Legends (LoL) launched by Riot Games Inc, Santa Monica, in 2009 was based on the plan to make people take up online gaming as a career path. Riot Games is a leading independent developer and publisher of premium free-to-play online video games targeted at hardcore gamers (IDA Ireland, 2010).  LoL has become the game of choice for millions of online players, some of whom have even given up their jobs to take this up as their career. As of March 2012, LoL had 32 million registered players with 4 million of whom play daily for an average of three hours per day (Los Angeles Times, 2012). The game is free to play but the company makes money selling virtual items and special characters which they call Champions.