Every businessman wants to increase the sale of goods that he deals in. He can adopt several ways for that purpose. You might have heard about “lakhpati bano”, “win a tour to Singapore”,
“30% extra in a pack of one kg”, “scratch the card and win a prize” etc. You might also have seen gifts like lunch box, pencil box, pen, shampoo pouch etc. offered free with some products.
There are also exchange offers, like in exchange of existing model of television you can get a new model at a reduced price. You may have also observed in your neighbouring markets notices of “winter sale”, “summer sale”, “trade fairs”, “discount upto 50%” and many other schemes to attract customers to buy certain products. All these are incentives offered by manufacturers or dealers to increase the sale of their goods. These incentives may be in the form of free samples, gifts, discount coupons, demonstrations, shows, contests etc. All these measures normally motivate the customers to buy more and thus, it increases sales of the product. This approach of selling goods is known as “Sales Promotion”. Sales promotion adopts short term, non-recurring methods to boost up sales in different ways. These offers are not available to the customers throughout the year. During festivals, end of the seasons, year ending and some other occasions these schemes are generally found in the market. Thus, sales promotion consists of all activities other than advertising and personal selling that help to increase sales of a particular commodity.
Objectives of Sales Promotion
The objectives are:
i. To introduce new products ii. To attract new customers and retain the existing ones iii. To maintain sales of seasonal products iv.To meet the challenge of competition
Let us learn about these objectives in details:
(i) To introduce new products: Have you ever heard about distribution of free samples?
Perhaps you know that many companies distribute free