RETAIL PROMOTION Retail promotion includes any communication by a retailer that informs, persuades, and/or reminds the target

market about any aspect of that firm. Retailers devote significant sums to promotion. For e.g. a typical department store spends nearly 4% of sales on ads and 8-10% on personal selling and support services. ELEMENTS OF RETAIL PROMOTION MIX. 1. ADVERTISING Advertising is paid, non personal communication transmitted through out of stores mass media by an identified sponsor. Four aspects of this definition. Paid form: This distinguishes advertisement from publicity. Non-personal presentation: A standard message is delivered to the entire audience, and it cannot be adapted to individual customers. Out-of- store mass media: These include news papers, radio, TV, the web, and other mass channels, rather than personal contacts. Identified sponsor: The sponsors name is clearly divulged, unlike publicity. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RETAILER AND MANUFACTURER ADVERTISING STRATEGIES: Retailer usually has more geographically concentrated target markets than manufacturers. This means they can adapt better to local needs, habits, and preferences. However many retailers are unable to utilize national media as readily as manufacturers. Only the retailer chains and franchises can advertise on national TV programs. Many retailers stress prices in ads, where as manufacturers usually emphasize key product attributes. In addition retailers often display different in one ad, where as manufacturers tend to minimize the number of products in a single ad. Media rates tend to be lower for retailers. Because of this and the desire of many manufactures and wholesalers for wide distribution, the costs of retail advertising are sometimes shared by or retailers. Two or more retailers may also share costs Objectives A retailer would select one or more of these goals and base advertising efforts on it: Lifting short term sales

Increasing customer traffic Developing and reinforcing a retail image. Informing customers about goods and services and company attributes. Easing the job for sales personnel. Developing demand for private brands.

Advantages A large audience is attracted. The costs per viewer, reader,or listener is low. The retailer has control over message content, graphics, timing, and size, so a standardized message in a chosen format can be delivered to the entire audience. In print media, a message can be studied and restudied by the target market. Editorial content often surrounds an ad. This may increase its credibility or the probability it will be read.

Disadvantages: Standardized messages lack flexibility. They do not focus on the needs of individual customers. Some media require large investments. This may reduce the access of small firms. Media may reach large geographic areas, and for retailers this may be wasteful. Some media require a long lead time for placing ads. Some media have a high throwaway rate. Circulars may be discarded without being read. A 30- second TV commercial or small newspaper ad does not have many details. 2. PUBLIC RELATIONS Public relations entail any communications that fosters a favorable image for the retailer among its publics. It may be non personal or personal, paid or non paid, and sponsor controlled or not controlled. Publicity is any non personal form of public relations whereby messages are transmitted through mass media, the time or space provided by the media is not paid for, and there is no identified commercial sponsor. Pioneer message Advertising content. Competitive messages Reminder message Institutional message

Full payment by retailer Vertical Manner of payment Co-operative advertising Horizontal

Objectives Public relations seek to accomplish one or more of these goals. Increase awareness of the retailer and its strategy mix. Maintain or improve the company image. Show the retailer as a contributor to the publics quality of life. Demonstrate innovativeness. Present a favorable message in a highly believable manner. Minimize total promotion costs. Advantages An image can be presented or enhanced. A more credible source for presenting the image. There are no costs for a messages time or space. A mass audience is addressed. Carryover effects are possible. People pay more attention to new stories than to clearly identified ads. Disadvantages Some retailers do not believe in spending any funds on image related communication. There is little retail control over a publicity message and its timing, placement, and coverage by a given medium. It may be more suitable for short-run, rather than long run planning.

3. PERSONAL SELLING Personal communication involves oral communication with one or more prospective customers for the purpose of making a sale. The level of personal selling used by a retailer depends on the image it wants to convey, the products sold, the amount of self-service, and the interest in long term customer relationships-as well as customer expectations. Objectives Persuade customers to buy. Stimulate sales or impulse items or products related to customers basic purchases.

Complete customer transactions. Feed back information to company decision makers. Provide proper levels of customer service. Improve and maintain customer satisfaction. Create awareness of items also marketed through the web, mail, and telemarketing. Advantages A sales person can adapt a message to the needs of an individual customer. A sales person can be flexible in offering ways to address customer needs. This attention span of the customer is higher than with advertising. There is less waste; most people who walk in to a store are potential customers. Customers respond more often to the personal selling than to the ads. Immediate feedback is provided. Disadvantages Only a limited number of customers can be handled at a given time. The cost of interacting with each customer can be high. Customers are not initially lured in to a store through personal selling. Self service may be discouraged. Some customers may view sales people as unhelpful and as too aggressive.

4.SALES PROMOTION Sales promotion encompasses the paid communication activities other than advertising, public relations, and personal selling that stimulates consumer purchases and dealer effectiveness. It includes Displays, Contests, Sweepstakes, Coupons, Frequent shopper programs, Prizes,

 Samples, Demonstrations, Referral gifts, And other limited- time selling efforts outside of the ordinary promotion routine. Objectives Sales promotion goals include the following: Increasing short term sales volume. Maintaining customer loyalty. Emphasizing novelty. Complementing other promotion tools. Advantages It often has eye- catching appeal. Themes and tools can be distinctive. The consumer may receive something of value, such as coupons or free merchandise. It helps customer traffic and maintains loyalty to the retailer. Impulse purchases are increased. Customers can have fun, particularly with contests and demonstrations. Disadvantages: It may be hard to terminate certain promotions without adverse customer reactions. The retailers image may be hurt if trite promotions are used. Frivolous selling points may be stressed rather than the retailers product assortment, prices, customer services, and other factors. Many sales promotions have only short-term effects. It should be used mostly as a supplement to other promotional forms. SALES PROMOTION SCEMES Point purchases Contests of Window, floor, and customer displays that allow retailer to remind customer and stimulate impulse purchases. Customers compete for prizes by completing a contest (game), such as a crossword puzzle, a slogan, or a football lottery. Winning at least based on a correct answer (skill).

Sweep stakes

Coupons Frequent shopper programs

Similar to a contest, except that participants merely fill out application forms and the winner is picked at random (chance). No skill is involved. Direct mail retailers use this tool quite often. Customers clip coupons from print media or POP displays, and redeem them with retailer. Customers are given points or discounts based on the dollar amounts of their purchases. The points are accumulated to acquire goods or services.

Prizes

Similar to frequent purchase programs, except that the retailer gives prizes immediately, such as glasses, silverware, and others. Usually, one piece of a set is obtained with each purchase. Free tastes or smells or items are given to customers. Products are shown cleaning up floors, mixing foods, and so on. Services are also demonstrated (e.g. judo instructions). Presents or gifts are given to current customer when they bring in new customer. Items that contain the retailers name are given to customer.

Samples Demonstrations

Referral gifts Match books, pens, calendars, shopping bags etc. Special events

Include fashion shows, autograph sessions with book authors, art exhibits, and holiday activities (such as childrens rides).

PLANNING A RETAIL PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY. 1.DETERMINING PROMOTIONAL OBJECTIVES. A retailers broad promotional goals may be drawn from this list: Increase sales. Stimulate impulse and reminder buying. Raise customer traffic. Get leads for sales personnel. Present and reinforce the retailers image. Inform customers about goods and services. Popularize new stores and websites.

 Capitalize on manufacturer support. Enhance customer relations. Maintain customer loyalty. Have consumers pass along positive informative to friends and others. 2.ESTABLISHING AN OVERALL PROMOTIONAL BUDGET: There are five main procedures for setting up a retail promotional budget All-you-can afford method: An this method the retailer first allots funds for each elements of the retail strategy mix and the remaining funds go to promotion. Incremental method: It relies on prior promotion budgets to allocate funds. A percentage is either added or subtracted from one years budget to determine the next years budget. Competitive parity method: In this method a retailers promotion budget is raised or lowered based on competitors actions. If the competitor raises its budget by 8%, other retailers in the area may follow this. Percentage-of-sales method: In this method the retailer ties his promotion budget to revenue. A promotion-tosales ratio is developed. Then during succeeding years this ratio remains constant. Objective-and-task method: In this method the retailer clearly defines his promotion goals and prepares a budget to satisfy them. 3. Selecting promotion mix 4. Implementing promotion mix 5. Reviewing and revising the promotional plan STORE LAYOUT Store layout is the way merchandise is laid out for inspection and accessed by consumers. It determines the appearance of the store. It limits the way in which customers may negotiate their way round the store, which affects customer traffic flow or circulation. These two aspects affect customers impressions of the store and so level of customer spending within the store

Models of Store Layout THE GRID The grid or gridiron pattern usually has main, secondary and tertiary aisles.(narrow passages).it is widely used today in supermarkets ,variety and discount stores. the purpose of the design was originally to steer the customer past the whole range of goods, which are displayed on the shelves. this relieves the intimidating appearance of long rows of shelving and allows customers to shortcut to aisles they want. The advantages It uses space efficiently It allows the easy siting of merchandise and the linking of products together throughout the store. It allows more customers in store at any one time and increases the rate at which they pass through the store. It allows staff to work easily alongside the customers without disrupting traffic circulation. It allows for self-service, reducing the use of staff. Disadvantages are: It makes displays rigid. it also limits effective linking together of different items.. It deters browsing in order to maximize efficiency gains from the layout, tores limit the width of their aisles. It increases security risks.(shoplifting) It may leave customers feeling isolated. FREEFLOW

The free flow system is widely used in department and specialty stores. Its advantages are: The pattern allows greater flexibility in a layout and reduces fixed areas. The retailer can arrange counters to give maximum visual impact and focus customer attention on areas of merchandise. The use of cross aisles makes shopping easier by increasing the width of aisles .this method also increases the number of end caps(displays at the end of rows) in use. It encourages browsing. It encourages impulsive buying. The disadvantages are: It is relatively expensive on space requirements. It makes stock control more difficult as there is less visual perception of items that need restocking. The cost of fixtures is higher BOUTIQUE The boutique or concept pattern as its name suggests, is widely used in small shops and in specialty areas in department stores. a major benefit of this layout allows customers to access various parts conveniently and with least effort. Advantages: The layout can create a sense of space within a small area and conveys a sense of higher class. The customer can easily see the complete range of merchandise. There are spill-over benefits between sections as the customer can link items in different categories. Disadvantages: There is increased cost of using space, as the centre space is left empty. The boundaries between different categories of goods may become blurred and distract customers from their planned purchases. LOOP (RACE TRACK) It is useful in large stores to guide the customer round the store and increase exposure of the more distant parts from the entrance. the merchandise areas may be laid out in different ways according to the type of product sold. Advantages: It guides customer round a large area while presenting a sense of order within the store. It exposes large amount of merchandise. Disadvantages: Customers may see too much at once in a large store and not focus effectively on their intended purchases.

 The store may need to use internal walls or island screens in order to help customers focus on the particular ranges they are near to SPINE This layout uses a central walkway to access the various sections of the store, with branch lines, if required , leading into the various sections. The advantage to the retailer is that the layout can utilize the benefits of free flow, grid and loop systems as appropriate. The disadvantage is that the retailer may need to vary the shape of the central walkway and increase expenditure on fixtures and fittings in order to break monotony. CHANGING LAYOUTS Store layout models reflect the experiences of retailers in managing customers and merchandise. Consequently, stores continue to adapt the various models to their own situation as retailers seek to provide better customer service and stock management. The PRINCIPLES behind the different layouts are the same and can be summarized as follows: Support store image: the store layout is one of the signals customers receive that tells them whether they should go into rummage mode to look for bargains or into receptor mode waiting for the retailer to tempt them. The customer does not expect special treatment and is encouraged to move quickly as possible. Manage space: increasing exposure of a product is likely to increase sales .space is costly and the retailer must balance the benefits of extra exposure of the product against extra cost of space. The wider aisles are more comfortable and improve accessibility, particularly for the elder and reduce stress. Manage customer flow: retailer can improve store layout to accommodate higher traffic counts. More space needs to be allowed at the points where customer tends to concentrate. Keep cost down: This covers a number of different aspects, including efficient replenishment of stock on display.