Q.
(a) Elaborate the factors taken into account for the selection of the best promotional mix in the promotional planning process ( 10 marks )
(b) Explain three(3) factors that may affect the design of the promotional area (15 marks)
(25 marks, 2022 Q6)
A.
(a) Factors affecting selection of promotional mix.
The four elements of a promotional mix
The traditional promotional mix has four main tools businesses use to create meaning for their service or product and influence the public to buy it:
1. Advertising: Companies pay to advertise their service or product to a high number of people at the same time. Common forms of advertisements include ads in television, newspapers, direct mail, radio, magazines or online.
2. Sales promotion: Sales promotions are short-term incentives to encourage people to buy a product or service. Examples include coupons, rebates or games and contests that the public can participate in.
3. Public relations: This type of promotion communicates a company’s services and image to the public. Examples can include news conferences or press releases.
4. Direct marketing: This strategy is a more personal approach, targeting customers directly through in-person promotions, catalogs, e-mail, telephone calls or mail.
A promotional mix is part of the overall marketing mix, which is the foundational model many companies use. The marketing mix is made up of four essential parts that can form a strong strategy when used together:
-
Price: The price is how much money consumers pay for your product. You should consider taking time to come up with a price where the company makes a profit but the cost is still attractive to the consumer.
-
Product: The product is the service or good that meets the customer's demand or need. You may revise this over the years to adapt to changes in the market
-
Promotion: Promotion involves all marketing techniques and strategies, such as special offers, advertising or sales promotions. The product and price are the result of a promotion.
-
Place: Place entails knowing the best area in which to distribute your product. This can include knowing the demographics and purchasing habits of the consumers in that location.
Ref:
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/marketing-promotional-mix
However, beware that the question is not asking you to state the factors but to choose what promotional mix best fit the marketing objective. Therefore, do NOT stop at stating the factors but give more elaboration how certain promotional mix is preferred over the others.
Below I offer my suggestion.
For example, when a project is to be marketed out of the project city, the choice of promotional mix might be different. In most foreign project sale, digital media is preferred rather than direct marketing using sales force. Most digital media like email blasting, video clips and WhatsApp marketing would be used.
Example 2, when a plot of land is promoted, it is a vacant land rather than a furnished house. Hence, hanging banners and erecting billboard might be a promotional mix that is more preferred than doing AR (augmented reality) or VR - virtual reality (3D) pictures. Drone aerial view video clips might be more preferred than banners or billboards. Thus, advertising with digital media might have better effect than newspaper print.
(b) 3 factors which affects promotional area (scale).
I think the interpretation of promotional area is how extensive or big the scale of promotion.
Repeat in 2018 Q6 (b)
In short:
- Budget
- Stage of product life cycle
- Buyer characteristics (buyer groups)
- Competitors
- Market condition and environment
Budget - small budget cannot do expensive TV advertisement.
Stage of product life cycle - if only left few units to sell, no need big scale road show.
Buyer characteristics - industrial buyers, no need to use retail channel of advertising.
Competition - competitors using channel A, you might want to change your channel.
Market condition - if MCO, go online.
Ref:
Earlier posts