Personal selling can be critical to increasing sales of high-involvement products like cars.
Promotion is one of the basic tools in the marketing mix, along with product, price and distribution. It is effective in increasing sales because of its role in educating potential consumers, persuading and incentivizing them to buy. Promotion is implemented by using some combination of four communication tactics: advertising, sales promotion, personal selling and public relations.
Advertising
Advertising is an effective means of building sales over time by communicating information about brands to large numbers of consumers at once, using mass media like television, radio and Internet. It engages people with creative applications of sight, sound and motion. Using techniques like head-to-head product comparison, advertising can persuade a buyer that one brand is better than another in meeting her needs. It also can make shopping simpler by reducing the amount of time and effort she must spend at the store searching for appropriate alternatives.
Sales Promotion
Sales promotion is a set of tactics used by marketers to incentivize people to act right away. It is generally less expensive than advertising and more effective in stimulating short-term sales. Some forms of sales promotion, like discount coupons, loyalty reward programs and buy-one-get-one-free deals, are targeted to household consumers. Others focus on trade buyers. For example, wholesalers and retailers may be offered rebates or premiums if they place orders larger than their usual size.
Personal Selling
Because personal selling is a form of promotion delivered one-on-one, it is more expensive than other devices. But it is often critical to increase sales of complex, costly and high-involvement products. It also is important when significant risk is associated with making the wrong purchase. For example, few consumers will buy a house or car without the opportunity to interact with a knowledgeable salesperson. Likewise, business buyers expect personal sales communication before making an industrial or technology purchase.
Public Relations
Public relations enables the firm to promote its products and activities to a broad array of stakeholders, including not only customers but also employees, vendors and the community at large. While it may not stimulate purchases directly, public relations can boost sales indirectly by using press releases and media events to create a positive corporate image. However, a drawback for marketers is that public relations must be delivered through journalists and other third parties, which reduces their control over the message.
Tags: public relations, expensive than, high-involvement products, increasing sales