Theme 1 - Branding And Promotion - 1.3.2

Question 1

What is the definition of promotion ?

Answer 1

The use of marketing tools to bring a product/service to the attention of potential buyers

Question 2

What are the main types of promotion ?

Answer 2

• personal selling
• direct marketing
• above-the-line marketing
• below-the-line marketing
• public relations (PR)
• Sponsorship

Question 3

What is personal selling ?

Answer 3

• It is an effective way to manage business to customer relationships
• The sales person acts on behalf f the organisation and is useful to customers as a technical advisor
• Sales people are well trained in the approaches and techniques of personal selling

However sales people are very expensive in terms of salary , trialing and commission

Question 4

Whats direct marketing ?

Answer 4

It is highly focussed targeted mail based on what customers have bought before - can be email or post

It could include special offers to re-engage customers who have stopped buying

Question 5

What’s above the line advertising (ATL) ?

Answer 5

It involves mass media methods for targeting larger and more general customers: TV, radio, cinema, billboards, newspapers

Above the line advertising is advertising that is used to target larger more general customers through mass media methods such as TV radio newspapers cinema etc

Question 6

What are the advantages and disadvantages of above the line advertising ?

Answer 6

Advantages:
- ATL is tailored to reach a mass audience
- Advert communication is repeated so the message is clear
- great for building brand awareness

Disadvantages:
- It is very expensive and it is difficult to measure clear results from campaigns
- costs about 10,000 GBP for a radio ad for a week

Question 7

What is below the line advertising ?

Answer 7

It is the same as direct marketing but for reaching smaller but more targeted audiences - the main methods include - search engines, social media marketing

Question 8

What are the advantages and the disadvantages of below the line advertising ?

Answer 8

Advantages:
- Easy to measure if the campaign has the reached the audience - through website visits etc
- easy and inexpensive to use social media to increase brand awareness
- BTL is more targeted to specific niche segments rather than a imaging at the whole mass market

Disadvantages:
- Extensive training on working social media and IT may be needed for marketing staff
- deeper understanding of customer behaviour for e.g. what do they read / what webs do they visit
- targeting diverse cultures with the same theme is difficult

Question 9

What are public relations (PR) ?

Answer 9

• Public relations aim to build a relationship between the business and the public, to create a favourable corporate image
• PR is unpaid communication about an organisation which appears in mass media
• PR can include publicity stunts

Question 10

Is PR a long term or short term strategy ?

Answer 10

PR is a long term strategy

PR gives the business less control over what is said but consumers find it more believable / authentic

Question 11

What’s sponsorship ?

Answer 11

It is a positive association of the product with a celebrity or a sport

It can be very expensive

Difficult to tell what impact this has on brand loyalty or sales

Question 12

What are the main types of sales promotions ?

Answer 12

BOGOFF
Price discounts
Money off coupons
Samples/giveaways
Special events
Point of sale

Question 13

What is BOGOFF ? And what are the advantages and disadvantages ?

Answer 13

it stands for buy one get one free
It is used to encourage customers to go into the shop and buy the item

Advantages:
- Very popular with customers
- Encourages trial and use of the product
- Good way to encourage shoppers to switch for their normal brand
- boosts sales therefore sales revenue will increase

Disadvantages:
- Loss of profit because there is an increase in costs, this will not be balanced by the increase in sales

• Only useful in the short term

Question 14

What are price discounts and what’s are the advantages and disadvantages ?

Answer 14

Price discounts mean that the normal RRP ( recommended retail price ) of the product or service has been reduced

Advantages:
- Great way to clear old or out of date stock

Disadvantages:
- Customers may regard the business as a cheap option
- too many discounts and the customers become suspicious

Question 15

What are money off coupons and what’s are the adv and dis adv ?

Answer 15

Coupons can be used to capture new customers

Coupons can also be used with exiting customers to encourage impulse spend

Companies like BZZ agent give out free coupons in return for reviews

Advantages:
- Coupons can help the customer feel they are getting better value for money

• They encourage repeat purchase

Disadvantages:
- Reduced profits because ur running a promotion
- Customers may have been wanting to make a purchase anyway

Question 16

What are samples/giveaways and what are the advantages and disadvantages of them ?

Answer 16

This is where the business may send out free samples in order to persuade the customers to try the product for the first time - they may also occur on magazines

Advantages:
- ideal for new product launches
- works well with some products like food etc
- encourages word of mouth promotion

Disadvantages:
- can be complicated to send in the post - needs a database of customers

• can be expensive as giving away some of the product for free

Question 17

What are special events and what are the adv and dis adv ?

Answer 17

• Special events are activities that the business does to encourage consumers to try the product - events can be shows, fairs etc

Advantages:
- Encourages customers to attend
- Rewards loyal customers with a special event
- ideal for small businesses

Disadvantages:
- Can be expensive
- Hard to measure how valuable this marketing is

Question 18

What is Point of sale and what are the ads and dis adv ?

Answer 18

Point of sale is usually a cardboard display stand located close to the till within a shop - this is to trigger customers to impulse buy by drawing their attention to the cardboard design

Advantages:
- Ideal way to promote new products
- Works best with products that have an event or holiday tie in - crème eggs for Easter
- Manufacturers can add extra punch to the promotion by giving a discount

Disadvantages:
- Only successful if the product meets the needs of the customer
- Needs to be designed and out to stores in time for the event/holiday
- Displays may be put in poor locations by shops e.g. next to a broken till or one that is rarely opened

Question 19

What are the main digital communications used to promote products and services ?

Answer 19

• Online adverts
• Mobile communications
• “advergaming”
• Social Media
• Consumer generated content
• Viral strategies

Question 20

What are online adverts and what are the adv and dis adv ?

Answer 20

Online ads include:
- Banner and commercial classified adverts
- pop-up adverts - YouTube for e.g.
- paid-for search listings
- paid-for listings on price comparison sites

Advantages:
- powerful ad management tools can deliver accurate data and statistics about the effectiveness of the adverts
- Potential to reach large markets of customers shopping online

Disadvantages:
- Customers may ignore the ads
- ads may get lost amongst all the other content and other ads
- Click through ads may be expensive

Question 21

What are mobile communications and what are the advantages and disadvantages of it ?

Answer 21

• They are adverts that appear on things such as smartphones, tablets and other on-the-go devices
• They may appear as text messages and in apps

Advantages:
- Mobile marketing can be used to extend the online reach so that customers can interact with the brand whilst on the move

• Doing m-commerce transactions do not require the users to plug in a computer or wait for the laptop to load

Disadvantages:
- security issues of conducting transactions online

• Websites now need to be adapted to be more mobile friendly which can be an expensive process

Question 22

What is “advergaming”
And what are the advantages and disadvantages of it ?

Answer 22

• An advergaming is a video game which contains an advert for a product, service or business
• For e.g. in a car racing game the cars may pass billboards which are genuine advert

Advantages:
- Many games are multiplayer so the ads reach huge audiences

• customers will be concentrating on the game so are more likely to concentrate on the brand message

Disadvantages:
- If the game and the brand don’t make sense together - e.g. call of duty with a car ad

• many games are played by consumers too young to make a purchase decision

Question 23

What is social media and what are the adv and dis adv of it ?

Answer 23

Social media ads are free or low cost so they are very cost effective

All brands now need a web presence and can do this with social media marketing

Advantages:
- customers can be kept up to date with new products
- increases customer engagement with the brand
-can show customer service with a quick response

Disadvantages:
- blogs, twitter, facebook pages all need to be updated on a regular basis which means hiring committed staff - additional cost

Question 24

What is consumer generated content and what are the adv and dis adv ?

Answer 24

This mean any form of content such as video, blogs, discussion form posts, digital images, audio files and any other content that has been made by consumers

Content has been made available to other consumers online

Advantages:
- Opportunities for consumers to read reviews before they make the purchase

• positive responses to complaints can be very valuable marketing and reputation enhancement for the business

Disadvantages:
- consumers have lots of ways of publicly complaining about the product or service

• Not just about brands anymore, now about online reputation, which could be expensive to manage

Question 25

What are viral strategies and what are the adv and dis adv ?

Answer 25

Viral marketing describes any strategy that encourages customers to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth

Advantages:
- Consumers spread the message amongst themselves which reduces costs and also increase authenticity of the brand message as it is endorsed by a friend

Disadvantages:
- original message might get lost
- hard to get funding as its still a new idea

Question 26

What is the definition of branding ?

Answer 26

A brand is a characteristic name or symbol that distinguishes one product from another supplier

Question 27

What are the best designs for logos ?

Answer 27

The best designs for logos are simple, attractive and memorable

Question 28

What is manufacturer/corporate branding ?

Answer 28

Corporate branding aims to build communications and relationships between the main business name and the customers

The business may itself own a range of brands like nestle with Buxton, Kit Kat etc

They may use slogans and images to establish the brand

Question 29

What are the advantages and disadvantages of corporate / manufacturer branding ?

Answer 29

Advantages:
- Spreads the cost of marketing across all the individual brands

• awareness of the company can spread worldwide

Disadvantages:
- Takes a long time to build a solid brand image
- too much advertising exposure can cause indifference towards the brand

Question 30

What is product branding ?

Answer 30

A product branding strategy will aim to show the customer the features and benefits of a product which will differentiate it form other homogeneous products

Question 31

What are the adv and dis adv for product branding ?

Answer 31

Advantages:
- branded products can command higher prices than non-branded products
- so businesses can expect higher profits from branded cash cows
- good branding also differentiates the product and creates customer loyalty

Disadvantages:
- product branding may require a high investment

• product branding may take many years to build up

Question 32

What are own brand products ? And what are the advantages and disadvantages ?

Answer 32

Own brand / label products are made by a manufacturer on behalf of a supermarket for example Sainsbury’s cookies

Advantages:
- boosts customer loyalty to the supermarket - because for e.g. the ASDA toilet paper is very good so customers would go to Asda instead of Tesco to get toilet paper and this instils brand loyalty
- competes with manufacturers brands
- fills gaps left by competition - usually because its far cheaper than the manufacturers brands

Disadvantages:
- store brands can be made by numerous companies but all under the supermarkets name so for e.g. ketchup can taste goof but the cornflakes might taste very bad

Question 33

What is Rebranding ?

Answer 33

It is a marketing strategy in which a new:
Name, symbol, term,design will be developed for an established brand with the intention of developing new differentiated identity in the minds of consumers, investors etc …

Question 34

Give an example for rebranding

Answer 34

In 2010 Old Spice , a men’s body care, wanted to change from their traditional older customer to a new younger customer image so that they can target more of the mass market instead of just for the older people - this can in turn lead to more revenue

Question 35

What are the benefits of strong branding /

Answer 35

Added value - A strong brand can add value to the product for both the customer / business - for e.g. The kudos of having an iPhone as a consumer but also it benefits the business as the brand will gain value.

Ability to charge premium price - when brands become household names such as ‘ im going to hoover the house ‘ - people would rather buy a hoover than a non-branded vacuum cleaner as they know that hoovers have a consistent quality.

Reduced PED - a well known brand will make the product more price inelastic or reduced its PED so this means that if the business raises prices up then the demand will not fall as people would rather stick with the brand than an inferior brand

Question 36

Whats PED ?

Answer 36

PED stands for price elasticity of demand

PED measures the responsiveness of demand to a change in price

PED can be either elastic or inelastic - if its elastic then the business is responsive to a change in price so if the business puts the price up then demand will fall - and vice versa - so if inelastic then if price goes up, demand doesn’t shift down, it stays the same as you don’t want to switch to another company because it’s inferior

Question 37

What are USP’s ? And how can they help build a brand ?

Answer 37

USP stand for unique selling point - these are small details that makes one product or business different from another

And these USP’s can be exploited to build the brand - for e.g. Toms shoes donate a shoe to a child in need for every shoe you buy therefore it differentiates themselves from different companies and its the unique selling point of the toms brand and therefore some people pick toms over other companies

Question 38

How can advertising help build a brand ?

Answer 38

Customers will purchase from brands they’re familiar with and customers also see 100s of adverts everyday so to build a brand, a business will need to use a mixed media approach therefore print and digital - print (e.g. newspapers) or digital e.g. yt ads

Also brand awareness is a sense of loyalty between the customer and advertiser so its very good to make ads as it helps customers be more aware of the brand and therefore it will give your business a higher chance of generating revenue

Question 39

How can sponsorship help build a brand ?

Answer 39

This is because sponsorship ( association with a celebrity ) can result in increased brand recognition, awareness ( which is a sense of loyalty between the customer and advertiser ) and perception

As having a famous person might influence peoples feeling towards the brand and change peoples perception of the brand

Question 40

How does social media help build a brand ?

Answer 40

You can build a brand by engaging with customers (followers) on social media channels

For example twitter (x) can help build trust with the customer though engagement and interaction with the customers

A business looking to build a brand by social media should look at what content their competitors are sharing and find out where their customers are online

Also social media can help to build and promote products and it can be used to show the features and benefits of products which helps to differentiate itself form the competition

Question 41

What is viral marketing ?

Answer 41

Viral marketing is a method of marketing whereby consumers are encouraged to share information about a company’s goods or service via the internet

Question 42

Whats emotional branding ? And what does it do to the brand ?

Answer 42

Emotional branding seeks to create a bond between the consumer and the product by provoking an emotional response to the advertising

Emotional branding leads to long lasting attachment to a product and therefore creates strong brand loyalty