Introduction:

Companies always try to establish the contact with target market. This is a prestigious
status for company to address the customers. Company wanted to enhance its image in the
minds of common man so that in future, whenever it would be visited to customer court, it
would be having enough matter to communicate the customers. The company presents it's
history products history and even national history. Companies have these processes in all
continuance and consistency. Promotion is a term, which means the moving from one end
to another. In marketing, promotion means all those took that a marketer uses to take his
product from the factory to the customers and it involves the advertising sales promotion,
personal selling, public relations, publicity and merchandising. Promotions are result
oriented. Promotion system works with proper communication system. This has sender,
receivers and feedback system. Feedback is form of action which customer gives bark to the
company about product, advertisement or strategy.

Promotion involves the following steps:

(i) Common Understanding

(ii) Demographic and psychographics profile
(iii) Media habits
(iv) Level of Awareness.

The ultimate expectation of the company is to make the people for purchase of product. The
AIDA Model works in this process.

The sales promotion and advertising functions and stimulate the customer purchase decision
in accordance with this model. Present research paper will examine the comparative
effectiveness issue of Sales promotion and advertising measures.

Objectives:

The research paper will highlight the effectiveness and applicability factors of sales
promotion and advertisement techniques. How does these techniques affect the cognitive,
affective and connective stages. The research study consists of empirical nature. It has
following objective

(i) To investigate the effectiveness of sales promotion technique on purchase decision.

(ii) To study the effectiveness of Advertising on same purchase decision.
(iii) To compare the effects of both techniques.
(iv) To suggest a balancing role of both the techniques in the promotion of products.

The process of communication starts with a clear identification of target receivers. The
target receivers will belong to i.e. potential purchasers, present users, decision makers,
influencers, individual groups, and general citizen. There can be a use of familiarity scale
and favor ability scale.

Familiarity scale

Never Heard of Heard of Only Know a little bit Know a fair amount Know very well

Favor ability Scale

Very Unfavorable Some what Unfavorable Indifferent Some what Favorable Very Favorable

After the identification of target market and the perceptions, which are driving in the minds
of customer, marketer will have to decide what does he desires to seek from consumers
mind. The response may follow cognitive, affective or behavioral stages. These can be a role
of three stages i.e. learn – feel – do, learn – do – feel and do- feel- learn etc. The objectives
can be decided from following (1) Awareness (2) Knowledge (3) Liking (4) Preference (5)
Conviction (6) Purchase.

The communicator will also have to depend on the role of message. The contents of
message many involve appeal, theme, idea (unique selling proposition) Rational appeals will
speak of self-interest and benefits. Emotional appeals will strike about negative and positive
emotions. Sometime humor, love, pride and joy play a very important role in
communicating the whole theme to customers. The message can be of two type i.e. One
sided presentations and two sided presentations. The message format also plays a very
important role. For a print copy, Words, headlines, color etc. are important features. The
television message will have facial _expressions gestures, dress, posture and hairstyle as
important factors. Color also decides the importance of situation. In a variety of products
the color will play an important liking and disliking role. Always the popular and attractive
sources gather higher attention and recall for the message. Credibility, likability and
expertise are the important role for message sources.

Personal communication channels are engaging two or more persons communicating directly
with each other face to face, person to audience over the phone or e-mail. The company
may hire advocate channels, Expert channels and social channels. The word of mouth
sources also deliver some results. Non-personal channels may include media, atmosphere
and events. The big question remains that how do companies decide the communication
budget. A brand team will be formed. They will do situation analysis, forecasting etc and
decides the budges for advertising sales promotions and trade promotion. Low and Mohr in
the study (1980) found that

1. As brands move to the more mature phase of product life cycle. Manager allocates less to
advertising and more to promotions.
2. If a brand is well differentiated then advertising will get preference.
3. When focus is for short term then promotion gets weightings.
4. If retailers are having mere influence then promotion gets priority.

Advertising and sales promotions can be two promotions. Advertising consist of (i) Pricing
and brand cast ads (ii) Packaging outer (iii) Packaging – inserts (iv) Motion pictures (v)
Brochures and Booklets, (vi) Posters and leaflets (vii) Directories (viii) Reprints of ads (ix)
Bill boards (x) Display signs (xi) Point of purchase (xii) Audiovisual material (xiii) Symbols
and logos (xiv) Video tapes, Sales promotions consist of (i) Contests, (ii) Games (iii)
Premium (iv) gifts (v) sampling (vi) fairs and trade shows (vii) Exhibits (viii)
Demonstrations (ix) Coupons (x) Rebates (xi) Low- interest financing (xii) Entertainment
(xiii) Trade in allowance (xiv) Continuity programs.

There is a role of push V/s pull strategy. Push strategy involves the manufacturer using
sales force and trade promotion to induce intermediaries to carry, promote and sell the
product to end users. Push strategy is useful when there is low brand loyalty. Pull strategy
involves the use of consumer advertising and promotion to present product to the customer
for purchase when the brand loyalty is high. When there is awareness building stage the
advertising is the appropriate. When the product is known then mostly the sales promotion
is beneficial.

The companies keep focus on market in building the brand image. They remain with focused
attitude to remain at the top position. Price reduction can improve the brand cavity with the
increase ad spend. The POP materials are used in following

[1] Posters [2] Danglers [3] Signboards [4] Streamers [5] In-store closed circuit Television
[6] Merchandizing [7] Window Displays

Outdoor advertising could be considered as traffic seeking attention. Highways and main
routs are with hoarding and billboards. The site is chosen on the basis of give consideration
on the basis of no of vehicles are passing from the route. Pole signs are placed on electric,
telephone or special poles meant for the advertisement. Mobile billboards are also useful for
this purpose. Many vehicles are used to these advertisements. Even the animals like camels
and elephants are in use for outdoor advertising.

In many products there is a talk of applying sense and understanding. In some product ads
talk is to focus on watching common sense. Many times emotional seen are presented to
the company like valve for money. Most advertisers like to present the unique selling
proposition. Many products are having many features like problem solving, demonstration,
testimonials or endorsements by the celebrities presenting the product from various
criteria's and Idea push is the situation with the advertising. The visual ad is the full of art
and creativity. Lines, shapes, color, size, sound, texture is important areas. Designing and
formatting plays on important role in total presentation of add. The new Traffic technology
is very useful in this regard.

No wonder that many companies have grown weary of traditional advertise in have
confidence media dollars into sales promotion and direct-response marketing activities -
where effects are easy see, and easy to measure. To successfully utilize advertising in the
marketing mix, three types of research are compulsory.

-- Strategy research. How advertising works differs from one product category to other
product category, and from brand to brand within a category. -- Advertising pre testing.
Once the advertising creativity is finalized, it's really important to test the advertising. Pre
testing helps in knowing outstanding the effects of commercials and flags under-performing
commercials. In the importance criteria, protesting provides help to the improvement of the
ad, and to the improvement of all future ads.

Tracking research is the only way to know if the advertising is working. It's the way to know
about advertising effectiveness. The term tracking research refers to telephone interviews
to a representative sample of target-audience consumers. These interviews can be taken in
continuous manner.

The tracking questionnaire

Tracking questionnaire:

-- 1 Unaided and aided brand awareness. Brand awareness.

-- 2 Advertising message recall.
-- 3 Brand image –
-- 4 Brand trial and usage. –
-- 5 Demographics.
-- 6 Aided advertising message recall. Consumers have a tendency to claim that they recall
all aided messages - even messages not actually in the advertising itself.
-- 7 Aided commercial recall performance.
-- 8 Market segment characteristics.
-- 9 Media habits.

It is wise to decide your sample in a general manner. The broader definition of the sample is
a safe aspect as per the demographics of a market can alter over time.

Continuous and consistent interviewing offers a number of advantages. The standards of

interview seemed to be high with continuous surveys. Continuous tracking dismiss out the
effects of short-term disturbances such as adverse publicity, new product introductions, bad
weather, etc. Continuous tracking is a better indicator of competitive information.

sales promotion is one of theimportant aspect of promotion. Sales promotions are non-
personal promotional efforts that are designed to have an immediate impact on sales. Sales
promotion is media and non-media marketing communications employed for a pre-
determined, limited time to increase consumer demand, stimulate market demand or
improve product availability. Examples include:

[1] coupons [2] discounts and sales [3] contests [4] point of purchase displays [5] rebates

Sales promotions can be focusedat either the customer, or to sales staff, or distribution
channel members (such as retailers). Sales promotions targeted at the consumer are called
consumer sales promotions. Sales promotions targeted at retailers and wholesalers are
called trade sales promotions

Consumer Sales Promotion Techniques include:

 Price work: A temporary reduction in the price

 cents-off deal: offers a brand at a lowe price. Price decrease may be a percentage
marked on the package
 price-pack deal: The packaging presents a consumer a certain percentage more of
the product for the same price (eg: 25% more free)
 Coupons: coupons have become a standard dealfor sales promotions.
 Free Standing Insert (FSI). A coupon booklet is fixed into the local newspaper for
delivery
 on-shelf couponing: Coupons are placedat the shelf where the product is available.
 checkout dispensers: On leaving storet the customer is given a coupon based on
products purchased
 on-line couponing: Coupons are available on line. Consumers print them out and
take them to the store.
 Rebates: Consumers are presented money back if the receipt and packaging is
mailed to the producer.
 contests/sweepstakes/games: The consumer is automatically entered into the event
by purchasing the product.

Trade Sales Promotion Techniques include:

  Trade Allowances: short term incentive offered to induce a retailer and stockist to
stock up on a product.
 Dealer Loader: An incentive/offer given to induce a retailer to purchase and display a
product.
 Trade Contest: A contest or compettion to reward retailers that sell the most product
 Point-of-purchase displays: Extra sales tools given to retailers to boost sales
 Training Programs: dealer employees are trained in selling skills the product

Trade Sales Promotion

Techniques Push Policy emphasizes promotions targeted on the next intermediary.

Trade Sales Promotion Techniques-influences distribution members to take products and to
market them aggressively. Producers use sales promotion techniques to encourage
distribution members to carry their products and to promote them more effectively.

o Allowances and Discounts: § Merchandise.

* Finance....
o Cooperative Advertising: Manufacturer agrees to pay a certain amount of distribution
media.
o Training of Sales Staff

Research Methodology:

The Research exercise has been accomplished with the sample size of 300 customers and
100 retailers. The questionnaire method was applied for this exercise. The Research design
was a blend of descriptive and exploratory research design. The respondents have been
selected through strata wise and cluster sampling method. The customers have been
presented with an advertising campaigns and sales promotion schemes.

The Research problems have been identified in a process is following:

1) Confusion and reminding problems in an advertising campaign and sales promotion

schemes.
2) The role of controllable and uncontrollable variables in both the process.
3) The longevity and continuity of advertising and sales promotional tools.

The research study has investigated the effect of advertising in both test marketing stage
and post launch stage.

Data Collection and Analysis:

The age factor was an important issue. The age wise variations have been highlighted in the
research process. The age factor has become a factor for the comparative analysis of
advertising and sales promotions.

Age wise Opinion of Customers about Sales Promotion and Advertising

Sales Promotion Advertising

Age in years
Like Dislike Like Dislike
Below 25 35% 65% 55% 45%
 25-35 38% 62% 65% 35%
35-45 42% 58% 52% 48%
45-55 51% 49% 53% 47%

The table is showing the variations in response as per age wise situation. At below 25 years
dislike factor for sales promotion is in higher proportion. The dis likeliness factor for
advertisement is also moderately higher.

Sales Promotion
Gender
Like Dislike Like Dislike
Male 60% 40% 55% 45%
Female 43% 57% 53% 47%

The Males have a likeliness figure of 60% and dis likeliness for 40% for sales promotions.
Males have less likeliness for Advertisement as (55,45) The Female (43,57) for Sales
Promotion and (53,47) for advertisement. Focus Group approach has also given the varied
results.

Consumers perceived Sales Promotion as a purchase decision factor

Sex
Perceived Status
Male Female
Heavy 23% 77%
Moderate 55% 45%
Non affected 35% 65%

The perception is in effective stage. Female have 77% as a heavy perceived mind with the
selection of consumer durable. The Non affected stage is also very high in this regard.

Perceived Status of advertising with consumer

Sex
Perceived Status
Male Female
Heavy 44% 56%
Moderate 36% 64%
Non affected 40% 60%

Advertising presents the perceived state of mind of the consumers. It affects the Male and
Female in the different propositions.

Conclusion

(1) Advertising and Sales Promotion play and important role.

(2) The Age factor plays and important role for the selection of products advertising and
sales promotion.
(3) The Gender factor also plays an important role in the selection of sales promotion and
advertising.
(4) The Sales promotions and advertising are not affective at some purchase stages.