Promotion of sales: methods, tools

Often, advertising is not always enough to promote a particular product or service. That's why you have to resort to other means of marketing, in particular, to promote sales promotion. This term means the use of various means in order to increase the value of a product or service in a time-limited period. In other words, this is an additional method of promoting the goods (or services). Today it is difficult to find a firm or enterprise that does not use sales promotion to sell its products.

There are three main methods of such stimulation:

1. Stimulation of wholesale and retail traders (pushing method). The main action is aimed at retailers. It is important to convince them that this product should be accepted for sale. The producer seems to be pushing the goods, using commercial advertising and promotion.

2. Stimulation of buyers (method of dragging). With this method, the goods have to be dragged through all the channels until it reaches the end user. For this purpose, an advertising company is used, accompanied by various promotion actions.

3. Mixed method of stimulation. The most common method, combining the two previous methods. The mixed method is the most convenient and practical, as it is allowed to simultaneously affect both traders and buyers.

When is the promotion of goods and services used? First of all, when you want to increase sales and bring to the market a new product, previously unknown to buyers. Also, there is a need to revive the fallen demand for products or to allocate goods among the same competing products.

What tools are used to promote sales? To achieve the above goals, it is used to hold shares, draws, lotteries and competitions, provide discounts, give gifts or additional goods when buying the appropriate products, and much more. In order to attract wholesale and retail traders, free shipments of goods and special discounts can be provided , as well as the holding of trade competitions and the issuance of premiums are the most active. If we talk about customers, then to stimulate them, promotions and rallies are most often held, discounts are given, and a free trial of goods is organized.

Despite all its importance, sales promotion has not only advantages, but also drawbacks. Speaking about the merits, we can note the following: stimulation accelerates sales and improves the effectiveness of advertising, makes a clear proposal and encourages the consumer to make a purchase. The main disadvantage is the short duration of stimulation. It is temporary. The disadvantages of stimulation are also the following: poorly conducted one or another promo campaign can seriously damage the image of the product and its manufacturer; Such a method does not allow one to stand out among competitors, since the competitors themselves, in most cases, use it; Primitiveness - buyers have long been accustomed to holding various actions and discounts, so do not always pay attention to them.

Advertising and sales promotion are ineffective without each other. To achieve the best result, you must try to combine these two ways of promoting goods or services. It is also important to clearly define the objectives to be set, to select the most suitable incentive tools in any given case, and, if possible, to organize a trial run of the developed program in order to correct all deficiencies and evaluate the results obtained in the end.