Sales Promotion Essay

B2C transactions are likely to use marketing such as advertising, direct and Internet selling to market their products and services. They may also use discounts and loyalty programs to attract prospect customers as well as retaining repeating customers. B2B’s have a different marketing strategy. As stated above, B2B’s have a longer buying process compared to B2C’s. Because of this, B2B marketers need to focus on building a relationship with its business prospects and taking into account the buyer's specific

S – Strengths General Motors Company’s strengths include strong brand image, a focus on safety and advanced technology, innovation in automated driving and a strong presence in the global market. GM is recognized worldwide for its major brand vehicles – Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC and Buick. This diverse portfolio of vehicles appeals to a variety of customers and addresses a wide-range of needs for consumers. GM maintains a strong focus on its customers by investing billions of dollars in research and development. This research deals with vehicle emissions control, fuel economy, alternative fuels, safety and automated driving.

The American Marketing Association (AMA), in its Web-based "Dictionary of Marketing Terms," defines sales promotion as "media and non-media marketing pressure applied for a predetermined, limited period of time in order to stimulate trial, increase consumer demand, or improve product availability." Sales promotion is one level or type of marketing aimed either at the consumer or at the distribution channel (in the form of sales-incentives). It is used to introduce new product, clear out inventories, attract traffic, and to lift sales temporarily. It is more closely associated with the marketing of products than of services. The need for promotion arises from the intensity of competition.

Three sales promotion tools used in my country to target customers are sampling, coupons and loyalty programs. Sampling is where a small amount of a product is given to consumers to try for free. (Tanner, & Raymond, 2010, p. 243). Sampling helps to increase awareness, so the strategy encourages trial

W H Smith is a company based in the United Kingdom and is one of the leading retail groups that specialize in selling stationary, magazines, books, entertainment products, and other impulse products. Its target market is travelers in places such as airports and train stations in addition to workplaces and hospitals. The company has grown over the years and has managed to open more branches all over Europe and internationally. Porter’s Five Forces Analysis The porter’s five forces analysis is mainly used to analyze the competition levels of an industry as well as the growth of strategic business developments. This analysis can be used to determine the overall profitability of a company, which marks a company’s success in its respective industry.

to increase selling efforts and intensity by dealers and by sales personnel. Sales Promotion also supplements and co-ordinates efforts of advertising/personal selling. It is usually difficult to choose a particular sales promotion tool for achieving the specific objectives. An important area that concerns sales promotion objectives is directly related to the specific promotional techniques to be used. Sarangi S.(2011c)

These tools mostly used for spreading the awarenes of the new products, enhancing the recall of the brand but mostly for increasing the number of sales as the company needs profits to survive in the long term. The report have deeply looked at the communication tools in practice when the creative strategy for the new Cadbury product was set. The paper analysed in what situation it is better to use advertising, PR or direct marketing for the Cadbury brand, therefore the advantages and disadvantages of the tools were found. For example, it has been identified that advertising is one of the useful tool for brand promotion because it is able to reach a wider audience within the shortest possible time frame (Egan, 2007. P 194).

It is clear that Mercedes is a multinational automobile manufacturer with a strong global presence although their target. Mercedes Benz targets the upper middle and high income market. However, it implements similar strategies to motivate their human resource as its competitors do and these include non-monetary and monetary forms of motivation. In terms of marketing, it uses print, electronic and Internet media for advertising. It also relies on their brand names for attracting customers and maintaining customer loyalty.

When developing a sales promotion strategy for your business, it is important that you keep the following points in mind. • Consumer attitudes and buying patterns • Your brand strategy • Your competitive strategy • Your advertising strategy • Other external factors that can influence products availability and pricing. There are three types of sales promotion strategies: • A push strategy • A pull strategy or • A combination of the two A Push Strategy: A ‘push’ sales promotion strategy involves ‘pushing’ distributors and retailers to sell your products and services to the consumer by offering various kinds of promotions and personal selling efforts. What happens here is that a company promotes their product/services to a reseller who in turn promotes it to another reseller or to the consumer. The basic objective of this strategy is to persuade retailers,