ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

Advertising is the dissemination of information by non-personal means through paid media where the
source is the sponsoring organization. The messages carried in-medias. Advertising objectives serve as
guidelines for the planning and implementation of the entire advertising programmed. It helps the consumer
to save their time in purchases.

It helps the manufacturer sell their products. The relation between wholesalers and retailers is improved
through advertising. Sales Promotion consists of diverse collection of incentive tools, mostly short-term
designed to Sales promotion tools vary in their specific objectives. A free sample. Stimulates consumer
trial, while a free management advisory service comments a long-term relationship with a retailer
stimulates quicker and / or greater purchase of a particular product by consumers or the trade. Rationale of
sales promotion may be analyses for Short-term results, Competitive Pressure, Buyers’ expectations, Low
quality of retail selling. There is wide acceptance that sales promotion is one of the most mismanaged of all
marketing functions. The report contained advantages, purpose of advertising and sales promotion. It also
discussed rationale, plan preparation, integrating and planning advertising and sales promotion.

INTRODUCTION
Advertising is only one element of the promotion mix, but it often considered prominent in the overall
marketing mix design. Its high visibility and pervasiveness made it as an important social and encomia
topic in Indian society. Promotion may be defined as “the co-ordination of all seller initiated efforts to set
up channels of information and persuasion to facilitate the scale of a good or service. Promotion is most
often intended to be a supporting component in a marketing mix. Promotion decision must be integrated
and co-ordinates with the rest of the marketing mix, particularly product/brand decisions, so that it may
effectively support an entire marketing mix strategy. The promotion mix consists of four basic elements.
They are:-
1. Advertising
2. Personal Selling
3. Sales Promotion, and
4. Publicity

1. Advertising is the dissemination of information by non-personal means through paid media

where the source is the sponsoring organization.
2. Personal selling is the dissemination of information by non-personal methods, like face-to-face, contacts
between audience and employees of the sponsoring organization. The source of information is the
sponsoring organization.
3. Sales promotion is the dissemination of information through a wide variety of activities other than
personal selling, advertising and publicity which stimulate consumer purchasing and dealer effectiveness.
4. Publicity is the disseminating of information by personal or non-personal means and is not directly paid
by the organization and the organization is not the source.

DEFINITION OF ADVERTISING
The American Marketing Association, Chicago, has defined advertising as “any form of non-personal
presentation or promotion of ideas, goods or services, by a identified sponsor.”
FROM THE ABOVE DEFINITIONS:

• Advertisement is a MESSAGE to large groups.

• It is in the form of NON_PERSONAL COMMUNICATION.
• It persuades the GENERAL PUBLICS to purchase the goods or services, advertised.
• It is PAID FOR by advertiser to publisher.
• Advertising messages are IDENTIFIED with the advertiser.
Advertising includes the following forms of messages:
The messages carried in-
• Newspapers and magazines;
• On radio and television broadcasts;
 • Circular of all kinds, (whether distributed by mail, by person, thorough tradesmen, or by inserts in
packages);
• Dealer help materials,
• Window display and counter – display materials and efforts;
• Store signs, motion pictures used for advertising,
• Novelties bearing advertising messages and Signature of the advertiser.

Advertising Objectives
Each advertisement is a specific communication that must be effective, not just for one customer, but for
many target buyers. This means that specific objectives should be set for each particular advertisement
campaign. Advertising is a form of promotion and like a promotion; the objectives of advertising should be
specific. This requires that the target consumers should be specifically identified and that the effect which
advertising is intended to have upon the consumer should be clearly indicated. The objectives of
advertising were traditionally stated in terms of direct sales. Now, it is to view advertising as having
communication objectives that seek to inform persuade and remind potential customers of the worth of the
product. Advertising seeks to condition the consumer so that he/she may have a favorable reaction to the
promotional message. Advertising objectives serve as guidelines for the planning and implementation of
the entire advertising programmed.

Advantages of advertising

• Advertising is considered multi dimensional.

• It helps number of marketing activities.
• It is a technique of sales promotion.
• Sales volume is increased by advertising.
• It helps and supports the salesman in selling the products.
• Consumer knowledge about the product is increase by advertising.
• It helps the consumer to save their time in purchases.
• It helps the manufacturer sell their products.
• It helps quick selling is possible which leads to more production at less cast.
• The relation between wholesalers and retailers is improved through advertising.
• Advertising introduces new products, stimulates markets regarding the existing Product and
repeated sales

BENEFITS TO MANUFACTURERS:
1It increase sales volume. On the one hand, it reduces the cost of production and, on the other increases
profits.
1. It helps easy introduction of products into the markets.
2. It helps to create an image and reputation not only of the product but also of the advertiser.
3. Retail price maintenance is possible.
4. It helps to establish a direct contact between manufacturers and consumers.

BENEFITS TO WHOLESALERS RETAILERS:

1. Easy sale of the products is possible since consumers are aware of the product and its quality.
2. It increases the rate of the turnover of stock.
3. It supplements the selling activities.
4. The reputation credited is shared by the wholesalers and retailers and alike.
5. It enables them to have product information.
BENEFITS TO CONSUMERS

1. Advertising stresses quality and very often prices. This forms an indirect guarantee to the consumers.
Further more; large scale production assured by advertising enables the seller to sell the product at a
lower cast.
2. It provides an opportunity to the customers to compare the merits and demerits of various substitute
products.
3. This is perhaps the only medium through which consumers could know the varied and new uses of a
product.
4. Modern advertisements are highly informative.

BENEFITS TO SALESMEN

1. Introducing the product is made easy.

2. Advertising prepares necessary ground for a salesman to begin his work. Hence sales efforts are
reduced.
3. The contact established with the customer by a salesman is made permanent through advertising.
4. The salesman can weigh the effectiveness of advertising when he makes a direct contact with the
customer.

BENEFITS TO COMMUNITY

1. Advertising in general is educative in nature. In the words of the late president Roosevelt of the
USA, ‘Advertising brings to the greatest number of people actual knowledge concerning useful
things; it is essentially a form of education and the progress of civilization depends on education.
2. Advertising leads to large scale production creating more employment opportunities.
3. Advertising has made more popular and universal the uses of such inventions as the auto mobiles,
radios, various household appliances. “Advertising nourishes the consuming power of man. Its
creates wants for a better standing of living.. It spurs individual exertion and greater production”.

CONCEPT OF SALES PROMOTION

Sales promotion consists of diverse collection of incentive tools, mostly short-term designed to stimulate
quicker and / or greater purchase of a particular product by consumers or the trade.. Sales promotion
includes tools for consumer promotion (for example samples, coupons, prizes, cash refund, warranties,
demonstrations, contest); trade promotion (for example buying allowances, free goods, merchandise
allowances, co-operative advertising, advertising and display allowances, dealer sales contests); and sales-
force promotion (for example bonuses, contests, sales rallies).Sales promotion efforts are directed at final
consumers and designed to motivate, persuade and remind them of the goods and receives that are offered.
Sales persons adopt several techniques for sales promotion.

Definitions of Sales Promotion

W.J. Stanton defines sales promotion as all those activities other than advertising, personal selling, public
relations and publicity that are intended to stimulate customer demand and improve the marketing
performance of sellers.

Purpose of sales Promotion

Sales promotion tools vary in their specific objectives. A free sample stimulates consumer trial, while a free
management advisory service comments along-term relationship with a retailer. From the marketer’s
perspective, sales promotion serves three essential roles it informs, persuades and reminds prospective and
current customers and other selected audiences about a company and its products. Because distribution
channels are often long, a product may pass through many lands between a producer and consumers.
Therefore, a producer must inform middlemen as well as the ultimate consumers or business users about
the product. Wholesalers, in turn must inform retailers and retailers must inform consumers. As the number
of potential customers grows and the geographic dimensions of a market expand, the problems and costs of
informing the market increase.

Objectives of Sales Promotion

The basic objectives of sales promotion are:
i) To introduce new products
To induce buyers to purchase a new product, free samples may be distributed or money and merchandise
allowance may be offered to business to stock and sell the product.
ii) To attract new customers
New customers may be attracted through issue of free samples, premiums, contests and similar devices.
iii) To induce present customers to buy more
Present customers may be induced to buy more by knowing more about a product, its ingredients and uses.
iv) To help firm remain competitive
Sales promotions may be undertaken to meet competition from a firm.
v) To increase sales in off season
Buyers may be encouraged to use the product in off seasons by showing them the variety of uses of the
product.
vi) To increase the inventories of business buyers
Retailers may be induced to keep in stock more units of a product so that more sales can be effected.

Methods of sales promotion

There are many consumer sales promotional techniques available, summarised in the table below:

Price promotions

Price promotions are also commonly known as” price discounting”

These offer either (1) a discount to the normal selling price of a product, or (2) more of the product at the
normal price.

Increased sales gained from price promotions are at the expense of a loss in profit – so these promotions
must be used with care.

A producer must also guard against the possible negative effect of discounting on a brand’s reputation

Coupons

Coupons are another, very versatile, way of offering a discount. Consider the following examples of the use
of coupons:

- On a pack to encourage repeat purchase

- In coupon books sent out in newspapers allowing customers to redeem the coupon at a retailer

- A cut-out coupon as part of an advert

- On the back of till receipts

The key objective with a coupon promotion is to maximise the redemption rate – this is the proportion of
customers actually using the coupon.
One problem with coupons is that they may simply encourage customers to buy what they would have
bought anyway. Another problem occurs when retailers do not hold sufficient stocks of the promoted
product – causing customer disappointment.

Use of coupon promotions is, therefore, often best for new products or perhaps to encourage sales of
existing products that are slowing down.

Gift with purchase

The “gift with purchase” is a very common promotional technique. It is also known as a “premium
promotion” in that the customer gets something in addition to the main purchase. This type of promotion is
widely used for:

- Subscription-based products (e.g. magazines)

- Consumer luxuries (e.g. perfumes)

Competitions and prizes

Another popular promotion tool with many variants. Most competition and prize promotions are subject to
legal restrictions.

Money refunds

Here, a customer receives a money refund after submitting a proof of purchase to the manufacturer.

These schemes are often viewed with some suspicion by customers – particularly if the method of
obtaining a refund looks unusual or onerous.

Frequent user / loyalty incentives

Repeat purchases may be stimulated by frequent user incentives. Perhaps the best examples of this are the
many frequent flyer or user schemes used by airlines, train companies, car hire companies etc.

Point-of-sale displays

Research into customer buying behaviour in retail stores suggests that a significant proportion of purchases
results from promotions that customers see in the store. Attractive, informative and well-positioned point-
of-sale displays are, therefore, very important part of the sales promotional activity in retail outlets.

RATIONALE OF SALES PROMOTION

Rationale of sales promotion may be analyzed under the following points.

Short-term results
Sales promotion such as coupons and trade allowances produce quicker, more measurable sales results.
However critics of this strategy argue that these immediate benefits come at the expense of building brand
equity. They believe that an over emphasize on sales promotion may under mine a brand’s future.

Competitive Pressure
If competitors offer buyers price reductions, contest or other incentives, a firm may feel forced to retaliate
with its own sales promotions.
Buyers’ expectations
Once they are offered purchase incentives, consumers and channel members get used to them and soon
begin expecting them.

Low quality of retail selling

Many retailers use inadequately trained sales clerks or have switched to self service. For these outlets,
sales promotion devices such as product displays and samples often are the only effective promotional tools
available at the point of purchase.

SALES PROMOTION PLAN PREPARATION

There is wide acceptance that sales promotion is one of the most mismanaged of all marketing functions.
This can be attributed to the confusion as to what sales promotion really is - which often results in
expenditures not being properly accounted for. Some companies record it as advertising expenditure, others
as sales force expenditure and others as general marketing expenditure - while the loss of revenue from
special price reductions is not recorded at all.

The companies can no longer afford not to set objectives or to evaluate results after the event, or to fail to
have some company guidelines. For example, a 1 Euro case allowance on a product with a contribution rate
of 3 Euro per case has to increase sales by 50% just to maintain the same level of contribution.
In order to manage a company's sales promotion expenditure more effectively, there is one essential step
that must be taken. First, an objective for sales promotion must be established in the same way that an
objective is developed for advertising, pricing, or distribution.
Advertising, Promotion and the Brand
By now it is clearly understood that the role of Advertising and promotion in fast moving consumer Good
Markets. Advertising has been seen as one of the primary tools of Brand Building. The high cost and
difficulties of mass advertising are seen as one of the major challenges to fast moving consumer good
brands.

Do All Brands Need Advertising?

The basic assumption is that brands need advertising but some strong brands apparently do not. Spencer
used to spend almost nothing on advertising, yet it was an enormously powerful brand. Of course, Both
these are retailers; they have stores which people pass by go into. The Stores Themselves Are – In Their
Way – Advertising, and It Is Difficult to think of major brands other than retailers those have done without
advertising.

We can safely make two statements about brand communication:

Every brand must have some means of communicating with its buyers.
This may not be advertising, but it must be direct if it is to be controllable and frame can be achieved, but
the message has to be one that it’s really new and interesting.
All the means of communication and the messages transmitted must be Co-ordinate to make some that they
are saying the sense thing, confused consumers don’t buy.

There Is a Price Paradise

The standard model of advertising and the brand suggests that a strong brand is less sensitive to price than a
weaker one. When advertising increases sales, the average sensitivity to price also increases. In other
words, a seemingly successful campaign has made buyers more sensitive to price, where as we would
expect our brand buyers to be, if anything, less sensitive.
Integrating Advertising and Promotions

The answer to the problem of conflicting communications must be to Integrate advertising and Promotion.
There are two common sense reasons for integration.
The First reason is that integration creates synergy. This is a much – Abused word, but the evidence shows
clearly that advertising and promotion can work together to produce a greater effect.
In addition, the integration of advertising and promotion gives the consumer a coherent message. If
advertising and promotion are to achieve synergy and to build a cumulative
Effect in consumers’ minds, they must be mutually consistent.

Planning Advertising and Promotion

The advertising and promotion plan is only one part of the over marketing plan and must fit within it. In
order to start the advertising plan, we need some background – which is not a very formal restrictive
planning, but for a process of thinking through what the advertising and promotion are trying to achieve.

From The brand plan we should expect to find the following elements.

1. A situation analysis (Where we are and why)

2. Objectives (What the brand is aiming for in sales, share and other targets)
3. Positioning (How the brand is positioned in the consumer’s mind )
4. Strategy (How the brand is Going to compete in this market)
5. Advertising strategy (What role advertising has next period with in the overall strategy)
6. Budget (What moneys are available to spend on advertising promotion).
7. Advertising objectives must include Long-Term brand building. They may of Course also include
shorter-term tasks such as announcing a new variation or promotion.

CONCLUSION
Advertising: A firm as its basic of fundamental tool production uses it. It normally has long-term objectives
like building brand awareness or building consumer’s loyalty or repositioning a brand. It helps sales by
adding some durable and long-term value to the product. Advertising in mostly an indirect way for
consumer to buy a product.

Sales: It is generally designed to supplement advertising and facilitates personal selling. It performs the
immediate task of increasing current sales. It aids selling by temporarily changing the existing price value
relationship of the product. Sales promotion is a direct and almost open inducement to consumers to
immediately try the product.

Thus from all the above studies it can be concluded that for the marketing of any product, the best way to
increase sales is through the Sales promotion rather than advertising. It is so because in advertising a
product there is many criteria’s, which are to be, fulfilled which is not an easy task. Thus it is easier to
increase the sales through sales promotion.