The Four P's Of Promotion Strategies

PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITIES

Promotion refers to all activities concerned with involving consumers about an organisation’s offerings, persuading them to buy it, and reminding them about it from time to time (Kruti Shah, 2009). According to McCarthy (1964), promotion refers to raising customer awareness of a product or brand, generating sales, and creating brand loyalty. It is one of the four basic elements of the market mix, which includes the four P 's: price, product, promotion, and place. Promotional planning is the planned application of marketing resources to achieve sales promotion objectives (Gelder & Woodcock, 2003). Promotional mix elements include advertising, public relations, sales promotions, personal selling, direct marketing and online

As such, the perceptions and attitudes of brand messaging are determined in part by the individual, such perceptions and attitudes are significantly influenced by the attitudes and opinions of social network community members. Consistent with this line of reasoning, Smith (2004) wrote, ―Passed via peer to peer, “word of mouse” messages can help endorse a brand among like-minded consumers, thus spreading its influence. This context represents a significant shift in credibility

Bypassing traditional retail chains not only can eliminate huge amount of cost required for transportation or charged by third party distributors, it also contributes to higher profit margin. Selling iCase on the official Apple’s online store allows the company to reach out to the consumers easily and able to gather consumer information directly. Moreover, consumers could enjoy the free delivery service provided by the Apple’s store website. People from anywhere around the world can simply purchase their iCase by a couple of clicks. However, only one distribution channel is clearly not enough. In terms of the traditional “brick-and-mortar” business approach, Apple has its own retail store chains in certain large cities, but not in Malaysia. Here we have Machines, the largest Apple Premium Reseller (APR) in Malaysia. The Machines stores project an arousing and carefree atmosphere with its attractive interior layouts and lightings. Numbers of demo unit of iCase allow the store visitors to get their hands on the new gadget. Customers can obtain in-depth information regarding iCase from the well trained Apple-certified retail staffs. Most of the Machines stores are located at the landmarked shopping centers in Klang Valley, one of the fastest growing metropolitan cities where the population is