Sales Promotion Activities - Essay Example

? Sales Promotion Plan Contents Introduction 3 The Product 3 Hardware/Objects involved 4 Activities 4 Prizes 6 Field sales promotion 6 Time allocatedfor the sales promotion 7 Engage/affect with your campaign 8 Free publicity 8 Reference 10 Introduction The project would deal with the business of retail industry particularly in the non food segment. The retail industry is booming and with a fierce competition, it becomes necessary for retailers to involve all the possible techniques to induce sales. The techniques to be used is sales promotion which are the marketing activities which provides an extra value to the sales force, the distributors and finally to the customers. The Product The retail business has many segments under a single banner and a brand name. It usually includes products from the food sector to non food such as clothing, accessories, and cosmetic products. The product whose sales promotion is to be discussed is for the cosmetic segment. The cosmetic segment has been growing and with the rise of retail sector it has find a place and is regarded as one of the important grooming sector. Therefore the product is perfumes and as a sales promotion manager it is the duty to promote and generate awareness about the new perfumes and also maintain the brand value of the existing brands. The perfume introduced will be promoted to both the females and males as it can be used by both the gender simultaneously and is targeted to the premium sector of the society. Hardware/Objects involved Sales promotion would be done with the help of the sales force and to monitor the sales, certain software can be used so that a track can be maintained as to how the sales promotion will be performed and also after effects. Sales force will be mainly responsible for conducting sales promotion in various malls and other places associated with the brand. Apart from the sales force, high technology hardware would be appropriate in determining the results obtained after proving a heavy discount and offers by the business. Activities Sales promotion involves variety of activities in order to promote and increase the sales. The target market is the consumers and so all the activities will be undertaken keeping the consumers in mind. Some of the activities which are often used in sales promotion targeting the consumers include discounts, increase in the product quantity, offering complementary products, issuing discount coupons and vouchers, contest, prizes, gifts and samples. For the sales promotion of the perfume, the sales promotion manager would propose for activities such as distribution of free samples where the company would provide free samples to the consumer’s visiting the stores or the segment in the retail outlet. The objectives of free sample are to get the consumers to make purchase of the perfume and make them as regular customers. The consumers visiting the stores would be offered a sample of the perfume and in return give their feedback. The perfume would be designed in a small bottle with attractive packaging in order to attack the customers. The free samples would be distributed in the outlets of the brands. Coupons and vouchers would be used in sales promotions. Coupons will be mainly used to target new customers to try the product and increase the value of the brand in the long run (Schultz, et.al, 1998, p.40). Vouchers are mainly used to introduce the product to a new set of consumers. The discount coupons and vouchers would include 25% off on beauty products on selected brands. By offering 25% off on beauty products, the main idea or objectives of the sales manager is to widen the target market and introduce new customers who would prove to be beneficial for the brand in the long run. In addition to the coupons and vouchers, the sales promotion manger had decided to offer complementary product with the sale of the perfume. This would induce the customers to buy the product as customers get easily attracted toward any complementary gifts or gifts with the main product. The complementary product offered to its customers would be gift hamper inclusive of products from the same brand. This will induce sales and enhance the brand value. In the process of promoting the new perfume, the sales promotion manger has proposed to hold contest such as lucky draw and the person winning the contest would get a gift hamper or prizes. Also the brand can tie up with some fashion contest and offer the perfume to the winner of the contest. This way it will be able to promote its product. Point of Purchase is also one of the effective tools in sale promotion and the sales promotion manger thinks that it would help to increase the sales. Point of Purchase is used to generate enthusiasm among the consumers and an appealing POP display would encourage impulse shopping and at the same time look products attractive (Berman, 2007, p.583). Thus through attractive POP, sales can be induced and hence promote the brand. Prizes The prizes in connection with the sales promotions entail to gifts such as gift hamper from the particular brand or a certain percentage of discounts on the holiday package offered to the customers. Contents or quizzes are often held in order to stimulate the interest of the customer for the product. The participants compete for prizes. In other methods of sales promotion, sweepstakes the consumers submit their names to include in draw of prize (Chandrasekar, 2010, p.502). Field sales promotion Sales promotions are usually held in places where the number of footfall is high especially on weekends. The product being a premium product so the sales promotion would be field in places where the number of target customers are high. The business falls under the retail segment and mostly operates in a mall thus; the most appropriate field for its promotions would be the shopping malls. There are usually a high number of footfalls experienced in the malls during and weekends so promoting its product would result in sales and increase the brand awareness. The promotion would be conducted on malls where the brand exits so that it can influence the customers to a great extend. Apart from the malls, sales promotion can be conducted in collaboration with other companies or ties up with a particular brand. For example if the perfume brand ties up with some beauty contest it can well promote its product through the show. Since the target audience of the perfume brand is the premium section of the society thus fashion show or a beauty contest would be a show which would target the premium section and at the same time enhance the brand value and generate brand awareness. Time allocated for the sales promotion Promotional activities are the biggest activity in a brand and especially when the product is new and it needs to be promoted to the target audience. Sales promotions usually go for around a month and in some cases it may get extended to more than a month. When the sales promotion gets extended consumers do not get excited any more as they get in the initial stage of the promotion. Therefore the sales manager of sales promotion should at a maximum stretch to a month. After the launch of the product, the sales promotion starts and in the case of premium products if the brand provides discounts or offers for a longer period, the brand would itself run into loss if it continues to offer sales promotion for a longer time frame. If the brand is to be promoted in a particular city, 20 to 25 days is sufficient for the promotion of the product. When it goes for national promotions it would take a much higher time as compared to local promotions. The idea and the process in execution take time but the promotional activities requires less time. Engage/affect with your campaign The brand of perfume has targeted the premium section of the society so naturally the campaign would target the premium sector. Consumers who are price sensitive fall prey towards the technique of sales promotion and whereas consumers who do not care about the price usually do not buy products when a special discount or offers are provided. They are termed as the regular or the loyal customers of the brand. But the main motive of sales promotion is to target the new customers of the society so that they can in future become the loyal customers of the brand. The campaign would include indulging the new customers who have an interest to try out new products or are persons who love shopping perfumes and other accessories. At the same time higher middle class segment can also be targeted as they are likely to try out products offered in sales promotion. In the process promotions, the brand can tie up with other cosmetic brand and also endorse a brand ambassador maybe a well known model, which would enhance the brand and increase the sales of its product and would hold back customers for a longer period of time. Free publicity Publicity is an important tool while promoting a product; it increases the brand awareness in between the target audience. An important form of free publicity is through word of mouth which ultimately results from customer satisfaction. Also when the brand name is huge, any activity would result in publicity (Mantau, 2001, p.228). The business can obtain free publicity mainly through word of mouth resulting from the customer’s using the product. Apart from it, when the product form a partnership with other brands in the cosmetic sector or sponsors events which would ultimately lead to free publicity for the brand. Distribution of pamphlets will also induce free publicity. Reference Berman, B., 2007. Retail Management: A Strategic Approach, 10/E. South Asia: Pearson Education India. Chandrasekar, K. S., 2010. Marketing Management: Text & Cases. India: Tata McGraw-Hill Education. Mantau, U., 2001. Recreational and Environmental Markets for Forest Enterprises: A New Approach Towards Marketability of Public Goods. UK: CABI. Schultz, D. E. et.al., 1998. Sales Promotion Essentials: The 10 Basic Sales Promotion Techniques-- and how to Use Them. USA: McGraw-Hill Professional. Read More