CHAPTER 8: PROMOTION

8.1. The Meaning of Promotion

Promotion has been defined as the coordination of all seller initiated efforts to set up channels of
information and persuasion in order to sell goods and services or promote an idea. While implicit
communication occurs through the various elements of the marketing mix, most of an
organization’s communications with the marketplace take place as part of a carefully planned
and controlled promotional program. The basic tools used to accomplish an organization’s
communication objectives are often referred to as the promotional mix.

8.2. Factors Affecting the Promotion Mix

8.3. The Promotion Mix Elements

A company's total marketing communications mix—also called its promotion mix consists of the
specific blend of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations, and direct
marketing tools that the company uses to pursue its advertising and marketing objectives. Each
promotion tool has unique characteristics and costs. Marketers must understand these
characteristics in selecting their tools. The company now must divide the total promotion budget
among the major promotion tools— advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public
relations, and direct marketing. The concept of integrated marketing communications suggests
that it must blend the promotion tools carefully into a coordinated promotion mix. But how does
the company determine what mix of promotion tools it will use? Companies within the same
industry differ greatly in the design of their promotion mixes. We now look at factors that
influence the marketer's choice of promotion tools.

8.3.1 Sales Promotion

Sales promotion is generally defined as those marketing activities that provide extra value or
incentives to the sales force, the distributors, or the ultimate consumer and can stimulate
immediate sales. Sales promotion includes a wide assortment of tools—coupons, contests, cents-
off deals, premiums, and others—all of which have many unique qualities. They attract
consumer attention, offer strong incentives to purchase, and can be used to dramatize product
offers and to boost sagging sales. Sales promotions invite and reward quick response—whereas
advertising says, "Buy our product," sales promotion says, "Buy it now." Sales promotion effects
are often short lived, however, and often are not as effective as advertising or personal selling in
building long-run brand preference.

Sales promotion is generally broken into two major categories: consumer-oriented and trade-
oriented activities.

Consumer-oriented sales promotion is targeted to the ultimate user of a product or service and
includes couponing, sampling, premiums, rebates, contests, sweepstakes, and various point-of-
purchase materials. These promotional tools encourage consumers to make an immediate
purchase and thus can stimulate short-term sales. Trade-oriented sales promotion is targeted
toward marketing intermediaries such as wholesalers, distributors, and retailers. Promotional and
merchandising allowances, price deals, sales contests, and trade shows are some of the
promotional tools used to encourage the trade to stock and promote a company’s products.

Among many consumer packaged-goods companies, sales promotion is often 60 to 70 percent of

the promotional budget.

In recent years many companies have shifted the emphasis of their promotional strategy from
advertising to sales promotion. Reasons for the increased emphasis on sales promotion include
declining brand loyalty and increased consumer sensitivity to promotional deals. Another major
reason is that retailers have become larger and more powerful and are demanding more trade
promotion support from companies

8.3.2 Public Relations and Publicity

Public relations is defined as “the management function which evaluates public attitudes,
identifies the policies and procedures of an individual or organization with the public interest,
and executes a program of action to earn public understanding and acceptance.”
Public relations generally has a broader objective than publicity, as its purpose is to establish and
maintain a positive image of the company among its various publics. Public relations uses
publicity and a variety of other tools—including special publications, participation in community
activities, fund-raising, sponsorship of special events, and various public affairs activities—to
enhance an organization’s image. Organizations also use advertising as a public relations tool.

Traditionally, publicity and public relations have been considered more supportive than primary
to the marketing and promotional process. However, many firms have begun making PR an
integral part of their predetermined marketing and promotional strategies. PR firms are
increasingly touting public relations as a communications tool that can take over many of the
functions of conventional advertising and marketing

Public relations are very believable—news stories, features, and events seem more real and
believable to readers than ads do. Public relations can also reach many prospects who avoid
salespeople and advertisements—the message gets to the buyers as "news" rather than as a sales
directed communication. As with advertising, public relations can dramatize a company or
product. Marketers tend to under use public relations or to use it as an afterthought. Yet a well-
thought-out public relations campaign used with other promotion mix elements can be very
effective and economical.

Major functions of Public Relations

Public relations involves building good relations with the company’s various publics by
obtaining favorable publicity, building up a good corporate image, and handling or heading off
unfavorable rumors, stories, and events. Major functions are:

1) Press relations or press gentry.

2) Product publicity.
3) Public affairs.
4) Lobbying.
5) Investor relations.
6) Development.
Public relations are used to promote products, places, ideas, activities, organizations, even
nations.

The Role and Impact of Public Relations

Public relations can have a strong impact on public awareness at a much lower cost than
advertising. Despite its potential strengths, public relations are often described as a marketing
stepchild because of its limited and scattered use. This may be changing, however. Many
companies today are looking for public relations to take a more active role in marketing and
promotion planning.

Marketing public relations departments are being formed. Public relation tools are being used by
the companies in evaluating public attitudes, identifying the issues of public concern and to
execute the different programs that can gain public acceptance. It means that the public relations
is that marketing function which evaluates public attitudes, identifies areas within the
organization that the public may be interested in, and executes a program of action to earn public
understanding and acceptance.

Major Public Relations Tools

Major tools include:

a) News.
b) Speeches.
c) Special events (mobile marketing).
d) Written materials (such as annual reports, brochures, articles, and company
newsletters).
e) Audiovisual materials (such as films, slide-and-sound programs, video and audio
cassettes).
f) Corporate identity materials (such as logos, stationery, brochures, signs, business forms,
business cards, buildings, uniforms, and company cars and trucks).

Companies also improve public relations by contributing time and money to public service
activities. A company’s Web site can be a good public relations vehicle. Consumer and members
of other publics can visit the site for information and entertainment. Major public relations
decisions include:

 Setting public relations objectives.

 Choosing public relations messages and vehicles.
 Implementing the public relations plan.
 Evaluating the results.

Publicity

Publicity refers to non-personal communications regarding an organization, product, service, or

idea not directly paid for or run under identified sponsorship. It usually comes in the form of a
news story, editorial, or announcement about an organization and/or its products and services.
Like advertising, publicity involves non-personal communication to a mass audience, but unlike
advertising, publicity is not directly paid for by the company. The company or organization
attempts to get the media to cover or run a favorable story on a product, service, cause, or event
to affect awareness, knowledge, opinions, and/or behavior. Techniques used to gain publicity
include news releases, press conferences, feature articles, photographs, films, and videotapes.

An advantage of publicity over other forms of promotion is its credibility. Consumers generally
tend to be less skeptical toward favorable information about a product or service when it comes
from a source they perceive as unbiased. For example, the success (or failure) of a new movie is
often determined by the reviews it receives from film critics, who are viewed by many
moviegoers as objective evaluators.

Public information is information about a company’s goods or services appearing in the mass
media as a news item. Stimulation of demand for a good, service, place, idea, person, or
organization by unpaid placement of commercially significant news or favorable media
presentations. Publicity is more credible to consumers than any other promotional mix element
Although publicity is generally thought of as not paid for, firms incur publicity-related expenses
that include the cost of employing marketing personnel assigned to create and submit publicity
releases, printing and mailing costs, and related expenses.

8.3.3 Advertising
Any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an
identified sponsor is termed as advertising.

Advertising can reach masses of geographically dispersed buyers at a low cost per exposure, and
it enables the seller to repeat a message many times. For example, television advertising can
reach huge audiences. Beyond its reach, large-scale advertising says something positive about
the seller's size, popularity, and success. Because of advertising's public nature, consumers tend
to view advertised products as more legitimate. Advertising is also very expressive—it allows
the company to dramatize its products through the artful use of visuals, print, sound, and color.
Advertising also has some shortcomings. Although it reaches many people quickly, advertising is
impersonal and cannot be as directly persuasive as company salespeople. For the most part,
advertising can carry on only a one-way communication with the audience, and the audience
does not feel that it has to pay attention or respond. In addition, advertising can be very costly.
Although some advertising forms, such as newspaper and radio advertising, can be done on
smaller budgets, other forms, such as network TV advertising, require very large budgets

Advertising decisions

Marketing management must take five important decisions when developing an advertising
program:

A. Setting advertising objectives.

B. Setting advertising budgets.
C. Developing advertising strategy.
 Message decisions.
 Media decisions.
D. Evaluating advertising campaigns.
A. Setting Advertising Objectives

Setting advertising objectives is the first step in developing an advertising program. These
objectives should be based on past decisions about the target market, positioning, and marketing
mix, which define the job that advertising must do in the total marketing program. An
advertising objective is a specific communication task to be accomplished with a specific target
audience during a specific period of time. Advertising objectives can be classified by primary
purpose as:

1) Informative advertising, which is used to inform consumers about a new product or

feature or to build primary demand.
2) Persuasive advertising which is used to build selective demand for a brand by
persuading consumers that it offers the best quality for their money.
3) Comparison advertising which is advertising that compares one brand directly or
indirectly to one or more other brands.
4) Reminder advertising, which is used to keep consumers thinking about a product. This
form of advertising is more important for mature products.
B. Setting advertising budgets.

After determining its advertising objectives, the marketer must set the advertising budget for
each product and market. Four commonly used methods for setting promotion budgets were
discussed in last Lesson. No matter what method is used, setting the advertising budget is no
easy task. How does a company know if it is spending the right amount? Some critics charge that
large consumer packaged goods firms tend to spend too much on advertising and business-to-
business marketers generally under spend on advertising. They claim that, on the one hand, the
large consumer companies use lots of image advertising without really knowing its effects. They
overspend as a form of "insurance" against not spending enough. On the other hand, business
advertisers tend to rely too heavily on their sales forces to bring in orders. They underestimate
the power of company and product image in pre-selling to industrial customers. Thus, they do
not spend enough on advertising to build customer awareness and knowledge.

Some specific factors that should be considered when setting the advertising budget are:

I. Stage in the product life cycle. New products typically need large advertising budgets.
II. Market share. High-market share brands usually need more advertising.
III. Competition and clutter. More advertising is usually required in a market with many
more competitors and their advertising clutter.
IV. Product differentiation. When a brand closely resembles other brands in its product
class, more advertising (and therefore budget) is needed.
The primary questions to be answered during the budget process are how much to spend and
what impact is expected or acceptable. This process is difficult because measurement techniques
of effectiveness rarely give precise answers.

C. Setting advertising budgets.

Advertising strategy consists of two major elements:

I. Creating advertising messages

II. Selecting advertising media.

In the past, companies often viewed media planning as secondary to the message-creation
process. The creative department first created good advertisements, and then the media
department selected the best media for carrying these advertisements to desired target audiences.
This often caused friction between creatives and media planners.

Today, however, media fragmentation, soaring media costs, and more focused target marketing
strategies have promoted the importance of the media-planning function. In some cases, an
advertising campaign might start with a great message idea, followed by the choice of
appropriate media. In other cases, however, a campaign might begin with a good media
opportunity, followed by advertisements designed to take advantage of that opportunity.
Increasingly, companies are realizing the benefits of planning these two important elements
jointly.

Thus, more and more advertisers are orchestrating a closer harmony between their messages and
the media that deliver them. Media planning is no longer an after-the-fact complement to a new
ad campaign. Media planners are now working more closely than ever with creative to allow
media selection to help shape the creative process, often before a single ad is written. In some
cases, media people are even initiating ideas for new campaigns.

Creating the Advertising Message

No matter how big the budget, advertising can succeed only if commercials gain attention and
communicate well. Good advertising messages are especially important in today's costly and
cluttered advertising environment. If all this advertising clutter bothers some consumers, it also
causes big problems for advertisers. Until recently, television viewers were pretty much a captive
audience for advertisers. Viewers had only a few channels from which to choose. But with the
growth in cable and satellite TV, VCRs, and remote-control units, today's viewers have many
more options. They can avoid ads by watching commercial-free cable channels. They can "zap"
commercials by pushing the fast-forward button during taped programs. With remote control,
they can instantly turn off the sound during a commercial or "zip" around the channels to see
what else is on. In fact, a recent study found that half of all television viewers now switch
channels when the commercial break starts.

Thus, just to gain and hold attention, today's advertising messages must be better planned, more
imaginative, more entertaining, and more rewarding to consumers. Some advertisers even create
intentionally controversial ads to break through the clutter and gain attention for their products.

Selecting advertising media.

The major steps in media selection are:

i. Deciding on reach, frequency, and impact;

ii. Choosing among major media types;
iii. Selecting specific media vehicles;
iv. Deciding on media timing.

I. Deciding on Reach, Frequency, and Impact

To select media, the advertiser must decide what reach and frequency are needed to achieve
advertising objectives. Reach is a measure of the percentage of people in the target market who
are exposed to the ad campaign during a given period of time. For example, the advertiser might
try to reach 70 percent of the target market during the first three months of the campaign.
Frequency is a measure of how many times the average person in the target market is exposed to
the message. For example, the advertiser might want an average exposure frequency of three.
The advertiser also must decide on the desired media impact—the qualitative value of a message
exposure through a given medium. For example, for products that need to be demonstrated,
messages on television may have more impact than messages on radio because television uses
sight and sound. The same message in one magazine may be more believable than in another. In
general, the more reach, frequency, and impact the advertiser seeks, the higher the advertising
budget will have to be.

II. Choosing Among Major Media Types

The media planner has to know the reach, frequency, and impact of each of the major media
types. The major media types are newspapers, television, direct mail, radio, magazines, outdoor,
and the Internet. Each medium has advantages and limitations. Media planners consider many
factors when making their media choices. The media habits of target Consumers will affect
media choice—advertisers look for media that reach target consumers effectively. So will the
nature of the product—for example, fashions are best advertised in color magazines, and
automobile performance is best demonstrated on television. Different types of messages may
require different media. A message announcing a major sale tomorrow will require radio or
newspapers; a message with a lot of technical data might require magazines, direct mailings, or
an online ad and Web site. Cost is another major factor in media choice. For example, network
television is very expensive, whereas newspaper or radio advertising costs much less but also
reaches fewer consumers. The media planner looks both at the total cost of using a medium and
at the cost per thousand exposures—the cost of reaching 1,000 people using the medium. Media
impact and cost must be reexamined regularly. For a long time, television and magazines have
dominated in the media mixes of national advertisers, with other media often neglected.

Recently, however, the costs and clutter of these media have gone up, audiences have declined,
and marketers are adopting strategies beamed at narrower segments. As a result, advertisers are
increasingly turning to alternative media—ranging from cable TV and outdoor advertising to
parking meters and shopping carts—that cost less and target more effectively.

III. Selecting Specific Media Vehicles

The media planner now must choose the best media vehicles—specific media within each
general media type. Media planners must compute the cost per thousand persons reached by a
vehicle. The media planner ranks each magazine by cost per thousand and favors those
magazines with the lower cost per thousand for reaching target consumers.
The media planner must also consider the costs of producing ads for different media. Whereas
newspaper ads may cost very little to produce, flashy television ads may cost millions. In
selecting media vehicles, the media planner must balance media cost measures against several
media impact factors. First, the planner should balance costs against the media vehicle's audience
quality.

IV. Deciding on Media Timing

The advertiser must also decide how to schedule the advertising over the course of a year.
Suppose sales of a product peak in December and drop in March. The firm can vary its
advertising to follow the seasonal pattern, to oppose the seasonal pattern, or to be the same all
year. Most firms do some seasonal advertising. Some do only seasonal advertising. Finally, the
advertiser has to choose the pattern of the ads. Continuity means scheduling ads evenly within a
given period. Pulsing means scheduling ads unevenly over a given time period.. The idea is to
advertise heavily for a short period to build awareness that carries over to the next advertising
period. Those who favor pulsing feel that it can be used to achieve the same impact as a steady
schedule but at a much lower cost. However, some media planners believe that although pulsing
achieves minimal awareness, it sacrifices depth of advertising communications.

Recent advances in technology have had a substantial impact on the media planning and buying
functions.

D. Evaluating Advertising

The fourth step in the advertising campaign is evaluation of the campaign. The advertising
program should evaluate both the communication effects and the sales effects of advertising
regularly. Measuring the communication effects of an ad—copy testing—tells whether the ad is
communicating well. Copy testing can be done before or after an ad is printed or broadcast.
Before the ad is placed, the advertiser can show it to consumers, ask how they like it, and
measure recall or attitude changes resulting from it. After the ad is run, the advertiser can
measure how the ad affected consumer recall or product awareness, knowledge, and preference.

But what sales are caused by an ad that increases brand awareness by 20 percent and brand
preference by 10 percent? The sales effects of advertising are often harder to measure than the
communication effects. Sales are affected by many factors besides advertising—such as product
features, price, and availability.

8.3.4 Personal Selling

The direct presentation of a product to a prospective customer by a representative of the selling

organization is termed as personal selling. Personal selling is the personal communication of
information to persuade somebody to buy something. Personal Selling occurs when a company
representative comes in direct contact with a customer in order to inform a client about a good or
service to get a sale. Personal selling is especially important for business-to-business marketers
since products and services are complex and expensive. In many companies, personal selling is
the largest single operating expense.

Personal selling is the most effective tool at certain stages of the buying process, particularly in
building up buyers' preferences, convictions, and actions. It involves personal interaction
between two or more people, so each person can observe the other's needs and characteristics and
make quick adjustments. Personal selling also allows all kinds of relationships to spring up,
ranging from a matter-of-fact selling relationship to personal friendship. The effective
salesperson keeps the customer's interests at heart in order to build a long-term relationship.
Finally, with personal selling the buyer usually feels a greater need to listen and respond, even if
the response is a polite "no thank you."

These unique qualities come at a cost, however. A sales force requires a longer-term
commitment than does advertising—advertising can be turned on and off, but sales force size is
harder to change.

The Nature of Personal Selling

Selling is one of the oldest professions in the world. Today, most salespeople are well-educated,
well-trained professionals who work to build and maintain long-term relationships with
customers. They build these relationships by listening to their customers; assessing customer’s
needs, and organizing the company’s efforts to solve customer problems. The term salesperson
covers a wide variety of positions and responsibilities. The person can be:
1). An inside order taker.

2). An order getter (a great amount of creative selling skills are demanded in this position).

Personal selling is likely to be emphasized in a promotional mix when the market is concentrated
or the product has a high unit value, is technical in nature, and requires a demonstration. It is also
useful if the product can be tailored to an individual customer’s need, or the product is in the
introductory stage of the product life cycle

The characteristics of personal selling

Personal selling is having flexibility of system it provides one to one contact between the buyers
and sellers. It Identify specific sales prospects the first step in the selling process is prospecting
identifying qualified potential customers. Approaching the right potential customers is crucial to
selling success. Direct contact with the potential buyers provides opportunity to demonstrate the
product and to customers and to answer the queries and questions of the customers. Answer
questions during the presentation step of the selling process, the salesperson tells the product
"story" to the buyer, showing how the product will make or save money. The salesperson
describes the product features but concentrates on presenting customer benefits. Using a need-
satisfaction approach, the salesperson starts with a search for the customer's needs by getting the
customer to do most of the talking. During demonstration there can be certain objections raised
by the customers, which can be overcome at very same time. Customers almost always have
objections during the presentation or when asked to place an order. The problem can be either
logical or psychological, and objections are often unspoken. In handling objections, the
salesperson should use a positive approach, seek out hidden objections, asks the buyer to clarify
any objections, take objections as opportunities to provide more information, and turn the
objections into reasons for buying. Every salesperson needs training in the skills of handling
objections.

Basic Sales Tasks

Order Getting: It is creative selling ad is more time consuming. It is used for selling products to
new prospects (pioneers) and to sell to continuing customers (account managers). Some times
telemarketing is used particularly to small accounts for seeking customers, analyzing their
problems, Discover solutions and finally selling solutions to customers. Order Taking: This task
is related with very little creative selling, used for Write up of orders, for checking invoices for
accuracy, to assure timely order processing and may use suggestive selling for different problems
that is supporting the customers in acquiring solution for problem.

The advantages of personal selling

The advantages of personal selling over the other promotion tools…

 It can be adapted for individual customers.

 It can be focused on prospective customers.
 It results in the actual sale, while most other forms of promotion are used in moving the
customer closer to the sale.

The disadvantages of personal selling

 The major disadvantages of the personal selling are:

 Expensive per contact
 Many sales calls may be needed to generate a single sale
 Labor intensive
 It is costly to develop and operate a sales force.
 It may be difficult to attract high-caliber people

Types of the personal selling

There are two types of personal selling:

1) The customers come to the salespeople. Mostly involves retail-store selling. Most
salespeople fall into this category.
2) The salespeople go to the customers. Usually represent producers or wholesaling
middlemen and sell to business users. Some outside selling is relying more on
telemarketing.

Salesperson Attributes:
Salesperson is an individual ( like: Serving, and Information gathering Salespeople, sales
representatives, account executives, sales consultants, sales engineers, agents, district managers,
marketing representatives, account development reps, etc) acting for a company by performing
one or more of the following activities. Salesperson is an individual acting for a company by
performing one or more of the following activities: Prospecting, The first step in the selling
process is prospecting—identifying qualified potential customers. Approaching the right
potential customers is crucial to selling success. Than during the presentation step of the selling
process, the salesperson tells the product "story" to the buyer, showing how the product will
make or save money. The salesperson describes the product features but concentrates on
presenting customer benefits.

Using a need-satisfaction approach, the salesperson starts with a search for the customer's needs
by getting the customer to do most of the talking. To be more effective in this process sales
person should possess certain attributes, they should be honest should be competent to
demonstrate the products and handle objections should be customer oriented so that customers
can be satisfied, should possess the skills so that potential customers are ready to listen about the
offered products.

8.3.5 Direct Marketing

What is Direct Marketing?

Mass marketers have typically sought to reach millions of buyers with a single product and a
standard message delivered through the mass media. Under this mass-marketing model, most
marketing involved one-way Communications aimed at consumers, not two-way interactions
with them.

Direct marketing consists of direct communication with carefully targeted individual consumers
to both obtain an immediate response and cultivate lasting Customer relationships. Direct
marketers communicate directly with consumers, often on a one to-one, interactive basis. Today,
improved databases permit more sophisticated direct marketing and tailoring of marketing
efforts. Beyond brand and image building, direct marketers seek a direct, immediate, and
measurable consumer response.
Although there are many forms of direct marketing— telemarketing, direct mail, electronic
marketing, online marketing, and others—they all share four distinctive characteristics. Direct
marketing is nonpublic: The message is normally addressed to a specific person. Direct
marketing also is immediate and customized: Messages can be prepared very quickly, and they
can be tailored to appeal to specific consumers. Finally, direct marketing is interactive: It allows
a dialogue between the marketing and the consumer, and messages can be altered depending on
the consumer's response.

Thus, direct marketing is well suited to highly targeted marketing efforts and to building one-to
one customer relationships.

The New Direct Marketing Model

Early direct marketers--catalog companies, direct mailers, and telemarketers--gathered customer

names and sold goods mainly through the mail and by telephone. Today, advancement in
database technologies and new marketing media—especially the Internet and other electronic
channels--direct marketing has undergone a dramatic transformation. Direct marketing may be
perceived as being a distribution function (direct distribution) and a communication function
(direct contact with the consumer). Some firms use direct marketing as a supplemental medium.
However, for many companies today, direct marketing is more than just a supplemental channel
or medium.

The Internet and electronic commerce now constitute a new and complete model for doing
business. Some say the Internet is the foundation for a new industrial order. Some firms (and the
number is growing) use the new direct model as their only approach. Experts envision the day
when all buying and selling will involve direct connections between companies and their
customers. The new model will change customer’s expectations about convenience, speed,
comparability, price, and service.

Benefits and Growth of Direct Marketing

Direct marketing brings many benefits to both buyers and sellers. As a result, direct marketing is
growing very rapidly.
i. Benefits to Buyers

Direct marketing benefits buyers in many ways:

1) It is convenient.
2) Buying is easy and private.
3) Greater product access and selection.
4) Provides a wealth of comparative information.
5) Online buying is interactive and immediate.

ii. Benefits to Sellers

Sellers benefit by:

1) Direct marketing is a powerful tool for customer relationship building.

2) Direct marketing can also be timed to reach prospects at just the right moment.
3) Because of its one-to-one, interactive nature, the Internet is an especially potent
marketing tool. Continuous relationships can be developed.
4) Reduce costs and increase speed and efficiency.
5) Online marketing offers greater flexibility.
6) The Internet is a truly global medium

The Growth of Direct Marketing

Sales through traditional direct marketing channels have been growing rapidly. Sales through
direct marketing channels are growing at about 8 percent annually (as compared to only 6
percent overall sales growths). Online marketing is growing explosively. Sales on the Internet
have been growing at about 60 percent per year for the last five years. Trends that seem to
moving our society toward even more direct marketing include:

a) Degasification--focus is toward mini markets.

b) Lack of time and congestion. Higher costs of driving.
c) Growth of delivery services and the support infrastructure.
d) Growth of computer power and databases.
 e) Growth has also occurred in the business-to-business sector.

Forms of Direct Marketing

Major forms of direct marketing are summarized below:

i. Face-to-Face Selling

The original and oldest form of direct marketing is the sales. Today, many companies’ still use
salespersons or representatives to reach their prospects, develop them into customers, build
lasting relationships, and grow the business.

ii. Telemarketing

In telemarketing telephone is used to sell directly to consumers. Two general types of telemarketing
include:

1). Outbound telephone marketing to sell directly to consumers.

2). Inbound toll-free 800numbers to receive orders from television and radio ads, direct mail, or
catalogs. 900 numbers are used to sell consumers’ information, entertainment, or the opportunity
to voice an opinion on a pay-per-call basis. Many customers appreciate the offers they receive by
telephone, however, because of the recent explosion in unsolicited telephone marketing,
lawmakers are responding with efforts to control unsolicited telemarketing during certain hours
of the day. Most telemarketers support some form of legislation.

iii. Direct-Mail Marketing

Direct mail marketing involves sending an offer, announcement, reminder, or other item to a
person at a particular address. Direct mail is well suited to direct, one-to-one communication.

Advantages include:

1) High target-market selection

2) Personalized.
3) Flexible.
4) Allows easy measurement of results.
Even though the cost per thousand can be high, the people who reached through direct marketing
are better prospects than those who reached with other media. New forms of direct mail include:

1) Fax mail.
2) E-mail.
3) Voice mail.

iv. Catalog Marketing

Catalog marketing involves selling through catalogs mailed to a selected list of customers or
made available in stores. A catalog is a printed, bound piece of at least eight pages, selling
multiple products, and offering a direct ordering mechanism. Some stores offer a complete line
of goods through their catalogs. Most direct retailers have put their catalogs on the World Wide
Web. Web catalogs are passive and must be marketed themselves.

v. Direct-Response Television Marketing

Direct-response television marketing takes one of two major forms.

1). Direct-response advertising occurs when marketers air television spots or infomercials.

2). Home shopping channels are entire programs or channels dedicated to selling goods

and services.

In the near future, two-way interactive television and linkages with Internet technology will
make television shopping much different from what it is today and it will become one of the
major forms of direct marketing.

vi. Kiosk Marketing

Some companies place information and ordering machines (called kiosks) in stores, airports, and
other locations (in contrast to machines which dispense products--vending machines). Business
marketers can also use kiosks (such as at trade shows). Kiosks are also going online as
companies merge real-world and virtual worlds of commerce. The Gap interactive kiosk is a
great example of this technology.
vii. Online Marketing and Electronic Commerce

Online marketing is conducted through interactive online computer systems, which link
consumers with sellers electronically.

There are two types of online channels:

1) Commercial online services offer information and marketing services to subscribers who
pay a monthly fee. The best known is America Online.
2) The commercial online services are now being overtaken by the Internet as the primary
online marketing channel. The Internet is a vast and burgeoning global web of computer
networks. The World Wide Web is a popular meeting place for consumer and business
commerce.