1.3.2. Branding and Promotion Flashcards
What is promotion?
Promotion is the ‘promotional mix’, and involves every aspect of communications that a company uses to promote its products/services.
Examples of promotion?
- personal/direct selling
- sponsorship
- advertising
What is public relations?
Increasing selling potential of a product/service by building a positive image for the external market to see,
Examples of public relations?
- sponsoring charity events
- positive media coverage
- respectful and positive employees
- understanding how to deal with negative publicity
Adv of public relations?
- this promotion creates a name for businesses, which consumers remember
- businesses promote themselves through storytelling, which incites interest
Disadv of public relations?
- difficult to measure the success level
- business stories can become skewed through word of mouth
What is direct marketing?
Contacting carefully selected target audiences on an individual basis, either by telephone, in person or through personalised letters.
Aim of direct marketing?
To get an immediate response, so that businesses can create long lasting relationships and build on their customer database.
Adv of direct marketing?
- can track success of their work
- can test usefulness of a method, before opening it to a full-scale marketing campaign
Disadv of direct marketing?
- many consumers do not want to be contacted, especially in an unsolicited manner
- can lead to poor-quality leads
What is personal selling?
Sending a sales representative to meet with potential customers in person, which promotes the human side of the business and injects personality into the marketing process.
Adv of personal selling?
- method can be adjusted to whoever the business is contacting
- good way of building strong personal relationships
Disadv of personal selling?
- has a high cost per action (CPA), i.e. the cost of finding a consumers high
- employees require training in order to practise personal selling
What is advertising?
Any paid form of business communication that is not personal, used to inform consumers and persuade them to buy their product/service without having any real contact.
Examples of advertising?
- newspapers
- TV
- radio
- bus shelters
- cinema
Adv of advertising?
- potential for customer reach is great
- some types can be easily tracked
Disadv of advertising?
- if campaign becomes too ubiquitous (you see/hear it everywhere you go), there may be consumer backlash
- targeting is impersonal and consumers may not respond well
What is sales promotion?
A short-term incentive technique designed to encourage and persuade the consumer to buy a product/service.
Examples of sales promotions?
- in-store samples
- competitions
- coupons
- giveaways
- buy-now bonuses
Adv of sales promotions?
- helps encourage repeat purchases
- entices customers who may have been reluctant to make purchases
Disadv of sales promotion?
- sales from promotions can often be one time purchases and then never again
- expensive to manage
Why is sponsorship used?
To promote products/services to consumers that might not be aware of them.
Examples of sponsorship?
- sponsoring live events
- product placement (in film/TV)
- celebrity endorsement
Adv of sponsorship?
- if people like sponsored event, there can be a positive knock-on effect
- since people are already watching the event, the firm can easily disseminate its brand
Disadv of sponsorship?
- if people dislike sponsored event, there can be a negative knock-on effect
- if numerous brands are sponsoring one event, there can be ad clutter and limited genuine brand exposure
Examples of digital communications?
- online advertising
- product-focused apps
- mobile adverts
- viral marketing
- social media sponsorship
- user-generated content
Adv of digital communications?
- can target consumers they actually want through paid search results and banners
- much cheaper than physical communications
Disadv of digital communications?
- great potential for ad clutter
- consumers are learning to ignore digital communications
What is digital communications?
The ability to create persuasive communication in different media, (e.g. websites) allowing businesses to reach out to more potential customers than ever before.
What are 6 factors that need to be considered when choosing the right promotional mix?
- budget
- competition
- promotion objectives
- product
- product life cycle
- target market
Choosing promotional mix: budget?
How much money has been allocated to the promotional budget and how long will it last?
Choosing promotional mix: competition?
Who are the competition, what is their potential threat and what promotional mix would best help to combat them?
Choosing promotional mix: promotion objectives?
Are the promotion objectives to create product awareness, promote a business identity or generate sales or enquiries?
Choosing promotional mix: product?
What mix would best suit the product?
Choosing promotional mix: product life cycle?
What stage is the product at in its life cycle?
Choosing promotional mix: target market?
Who are they? What do they need/want? When do they need it? Where do they want it and why?
What has been a change in traditional marketing?
Advertising on TV is no longer the most cost-effective option, as the number of channels has greatly increased.
What is the difference between promotion and branding?
Promotional activities can be used to generate an immediate reaction, so that consumers buy a product/service, whereas branding is a way of increasing consumer recognition of their product/service/name, promoting the way they wish to be seen.
What does a strong brand mean?
Less reliance on direct selling, sales promotions or price cuts, as the customers will hopefully come to you!
What are some types of branding?
- manufacturer/corporate
- product
- own brand product
What is ‘manufacturer/corporate’?
This branding focuses on the business itself by getting the name into consumers’ heads, along with an idea of who they are and why their product is the best e.g. Apple
What is ‘product’ branding?
Ensuring that their product is the one that every consumer thinks of when they have a specific need. This can include selecting a few flagship products/services, which are the most successful things they sell e.g. Microsoft: Windows and Office
What is ‘own-brand product’?
This started as a way for some supermarkets to offer more choice to low-income consumers e.g. Tesco Value. Nowadays, most supermarkets offer their own brands.
What is rebranding?
A marketing strategy in which a company changes a brand to give it a new, refreshed image. Companies rebrand by creating a new name, term, symbol or design (or a combination) with the hope that consumers/stakeholders/suppliers will see the brand differently.
What is the effect of strong branding?
Strong branding adds value to a product, which allows the producer to command large ares of a market. If consumers see a brand as high quality, they might be willing to pay a premium for it and even seek it out directly. This can lead to a reduction in price elasticity of demand (PED) for a product, so the producer can charge a higher price without affecting sales.
Pitfalls in branding?
- if a brand has a history of providing low-quality products, this opinion will be difficult to shift
- when a product becomes so famous that every similar product becomes known by the same name e.g. Sellotape
What is differentiation?
How different a product appears compared to it’s competitors.
Why might companies choose to invest in differentiation rather than price cutting?
- price cutting can create a negative image for a product/service, as customers can associate quality with price
- consumers are more likely to remain loyal if a product appears different from competitors (in a good way)
- high quality brand images allow for producers to charge a premium without losing sales
Examples of types of USP?
- design
- unique features
- after-sales service
- distribution
- quality
- durability
What type of business does advertising generally work for?
Businesses with large budgets, who can afford to reduce their profit margins.
Successful marketing campaign?
Budweiser beer (1990s)
Controversial type of sponsorship?
Advertorial - a brand advertisement that has been formatted to seem like a genuine article.
What are some changes in branding or promotion?
- viral marketing
- social media
What is an advantage and disadvantage of social media for businesses?
Communication is instant - so, while companies can respond quickly to consumer questions/complaint and promote their brand personality, consumers can do this too. If they are unhappy with a product/service and tell all their followers, this can lead to lots of negative attention, which needs to be dealt with quickly.
What is emotional branding?
This form of branding plays on the emotional states of consumers; their needs, wants and aspirations, associating a product with an emotional response e.g. Disney - happiness and family values.
