Tools of Sales Promotion

The business environment today has become very competitive because of rising number of companies offering their products to the customers. Today's customer is spoilt for choice and hence, only those companies having the right kind of product mix can increase their market share. By being aware of the major tools of sales promotion, the management will be able to achieve its goals comfortably and increase the popularity of their products to a great extent. So let us discuss these tools one after the other in the next section.

Sales Promotion Tools

• Offering Products for Free

Offering company manufactured products for free, for a specified period like some days or months, could be one of the finest tools of sales promotion. Customers, in this period can use and test the company's products and decide for themselves whether the products are useful or not. The customers pay for the products later, and also give the company management a feedback about the product quality. This can also be referred to as test marketing of a product.

• Distributing Free Samples

Distributing free samples is also one of the widely used tools of sales promotion. Many times, when you go to a shop for purchasing some essential products, you are given free items for trial by the shop keeper. As a promotional strategy, you may even receive these free items without buying high quality goods from the shop. Distribution of free samples is definitely one of the techniques of introducing a product into the market to get an idea of customer expectations.

• Exhibitions and Fairs

Exhibitions and fairs are also one of the successful marketing techniques for already introduced goods as well as new goods. Exhibitions can be arranged in major locations in the city, generally in the most popular areas to attract maximum customers to the venue. For this method to work, the company needs to advertise about the exhibition in the newspapers and give an idea of the kinds of goods kept for sale/display.

• Competitions and Contests

Competitions can be a fun way of promoting a product. You can organize online or in-house competitions in which you will ask questions related to your product. You can award your winners with trophies, certifications and also gift them your products, as this will increase awareness. Scratch and win offers and quizzes are also some other promotional tactics which you can try out.

• Discount Coupons

For a company to succeed in achieving its sales targets, understanding the buyer psychology is very essential. A buyer always looks for discounts and is always interested in schemes which offer quality products at attractive rates as compared to the prevailing market rates. So, distributing discount coupons by publishing them in newspapers, leading and most read magazines, or handing them over personally to the customers would be a good idea to boost the sales of certain select products. Offering discounts can help you attract customers who have not bought your products earlier.

• Money Back and Warranty Offers

When a buyer pays you for the goods purchased, he expects products that are value for money and long lasting. However, in the course of their use, if he finds that there are some technical faults in the product or it is not that useful as shown in promotional campaigns or advertisements, he would feel cheated. To avoid this negative feeling, money back schemes can work wonders. You can assure the customers that your company executives will look into the faults and correct them immediately so that they turn up to buy the products later. Offering a few years of warranty (more than offered by competitors) can be useful for getting more customers.

• Exchange Offer

Exchange offer is yet another innovative tool of sales promotion. In an exchange offer, the customer will get a particular product for a price which is less than its actual price if he gives the company the old product which he is currently using. Such offers can help draw customers in huge numbers who are interested in buying technologically advanced and new products.

So, these were the standard tools for sales promotion which are effective in winning confidence of customers. If you are in the senior management, then you should make sure that these promotional activities are executed professionally and the company dies not drift away from its goal in any way.

source: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/tools-of-sales-promotion.html

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Ditulis oleh AriE ONly - Friday, June 17, 2011 - 8:35 AM