Consumer-Oriented Promotion
Consumer-Oriented Sales Promotion
I. A.
Sales Promotion Overview What are Sales Promotions? All of us occasionally delay a purchase until the wanted item “goes on sale.” Sometimes we make an unplanned purchase because of a coupon. Perhaps our loyalty to some brands we use now began with a free sample. If any of these are true for you, then you took advantage of an extra incentive to buy broadly known as “sales promotion.” 1. Sales promotion definition and classifications. More formally, we define sales promotion as any of a variety of techniques designed to offer purchasers an extra inducement to buy in the form of value or benefits beyond those offered by the product being purchased. The examples in the previous paragraph represent a branch of sales promotion directed at consumers. Not surprisingly, this part of sales promotion is referred to as “consumer-oriented sales promotion.” However, extra inducements to buy may be offered at any point of exchange anywhere in a channel of distribution. Exhibit 1 describes these distinctions and shows the names we will use to classify the various sales promotion techniques. In these notes, we will discuss consumer-oriented sales promotion, which itself may be further categorized in terms of who actually makes the promotional offer to consumers. The names under which these promotions get classified can be confusing, so I encourage you to look carefully at Exhibit 1. In these notes I largely adopt the names most commonly used among promotion professionals, which are sometimes not particularly descriptive. For example, promotional offers made by retailers to consumers are called retail promotions, which seem clear enough. But promotional offers made by manufacturers to consumers are not called manufacturer promotions; they’re called consumer promotions – not to be confused with the broader category of promotion I refer to as “consumer-oriented sales promotion.” Again, look carefully at Exhibit 1. Making these sometimes
I. A.
Sales Promotion Overview What are Sales Promotions? All of us occasionally delay a purchase until the wanted item “goes on sale.” Sometimes we make an unplanned purchase because of a coupon. Perhaps our loyalty to some brands we use now began with a free sample. If any of these are true for you, then you took advantage of an extra incentive to buy broadly known as “sales promotion.” 1. Sales promotion definition and classifications. More formally, we define sales promotion as any of a variety of techniques designed to offer purchasers an extra inducement to buy in the form of value or benefits beyond those offered by the product being purchased. The examples in the previous paragraph represent a branch of sales promotion directed at consumers. Not surprisingly, this part of sales promotion is referred to as “consumer-oriented sales promotion.” However, extra inducements to buy may be offered at any point of exchange anywhere in a channel of distribution. Exhibit 1 describes these distinctions and shows the names we will use to classify the various sales promotion techniques. In these notes, we will discuss consumer-oriented sales promotion, which itself may be further categorized in terms of who actually makes the promotional offer to consumers. The names under which these promotions get classified can be confusing, so I encourage you to look carefully at Exhibit 1. In these notes I largely adopt the names most commonly used among promotion professionals, which are sometimes not particularly descriptive. For example, promotional offers made by retailers to consumers are called retail promotions, which seem clear enough. But promotional offers made by manufacturers to consumers are not called manufacturer promotions; they’re called consumer promotions – not to be confused with the broader category of promotion I refer to as “consumer-oriented sales promotion.” Again, look carefully at Exhibit 1. Making these sometimes