Marketing Fundamentals: Promotion, Distribution, Analysis
Product Promotion Strategies
Key Steps in Publicizing a Product
- Identifying the target audience.
- Selecting the message and determining the desired response.
- Choosing appropriate communication channels.
- Establishing a method for feedback.
Media Communication Channels
Channels used by a company to publicize its product:
- Advertising: Transmitting an informational message about your product using various media.
- Sales Promotion: Encouraging product purchase by offering advantages (e.g., discounts, samples).
- Direct Marketing: Communicating directly with target customers (e.g., email, telemarketing).
- Public Relations: Managing the spread of information between an individual or organization and the public.
Product Distribution
Understanding Distribution Channels
Distribution channels are the paths a product takes from its manufacturing point until it reaches the consumer. Key factors influencing channel choice include product features and firm characteristics.
Main Distribution Channels
- Producer to Consumer: Direct sales.
- Producer to Retailer to Consumer: Products sold through stores.
- Producer to Wholesaler to Retailer to Consumer: Involving intermediaries before reaching the public.
Market Analysis and Strategy
SWOT Analysis for Business Strategy
A SWOT analysis helps companies establish their business strategy by examining internal and external factors.
- Strengths and Weaknesses: Internal aspects of the company.
- Opportunities and Threats: External factors impacting the company.
Essential Marketing Vocabulary
- Marketing:
- A set of techniques designed to understand the company's environment and identify opportunities it offers.
- Marketing Mix:
- A combination of the four controllable elements a company uses (product, price, distribution, promotion) to meet consumer market needs and achieve objectives.
- Competition:
- Rivalry in the same market among different suppliers of goods and services.
- Target Market:
- Potential customers or buyers of a product.
- Prescriber:
- A person who does not buy or sell but influences the sale of a product.
- Product Enhancements:
- Benefits added to a product to make it more competitive (e.g., home delivery, financing, installation).
- Distribution Channel:
- The path a product takes from manufacturing until it reaches the consumer.
Communication Media: Pros and Cons
- Advantages: Audience selectivity, high message retention.
- Disadvantages: High cost, risk of being perceived as spam.
Newspapers
- Advantages: Geographic flexibility, audience selectivity.
- Disadvantages: Limited message scope, limited permanence, poor print quality.
Journals (Magazines)
- Advantages: Demographic and socioeconomic audience selectivity, high print quality.
- Disadvantages: High cost, limited audience reach.
Radio
- Advantages: Geographic selectivity, wide audience reach.
- Disadvantages: Lack of visual support, short message permanence.
Television (TV)
- Advantages: Combines vision, sound, and moving images; high attraction power; large audience.
- Disadvantages: Low message permanence (except with repetition), high cost.
Outdoor Advertising
- Advantages: Low cost, local flexibility.
- Disadvantages: High cost at a national level, no audience selectivity.