Promotion is one of the four key aspects of the marketing mix. The other three elements are Product, Placement and Price. I will be explaining how promotion relates to product, price and placement in this campaign for Sony.
Product – the product aspect of marketing deal with specifications of the actual goods or services, and how it relates to the users needs and wants. The scope of a product generally includes supporting elements such as warranties, guarantees, and support. The product that Sony is promoting is DVD camcorders. Sony has extremely successfully promoted their product through the use of T.V. ads and by running a print campaign.
Place/distribution – refers to how the product gets to customer, for example, point of sale or retailing. Sony has highlighted their campaign at 39 Sony Style Stores across the country, which featured live, interactive face detection technology displays, continuous loops of the television spots in high definitions, and store windows showcasing the campaign. The online presence also included sponsorship of internet websites like Yahoo’s tech centre, MSN’s homepage, Disney’s activity pages and more. The out of home promotion elements included billboards, bus shelters, bus wraps and phone booths. The ads premiered during Fox’s ‘Prison Break’ finale and CBS, 2 and a half men, and then premiered on additional network television programs ad select cable outlets. Sony’s promotional methods became a huge hit and so did their product, they very cleverly premiered their ads when such popular shows like Prison Break were on television which only meant one thing that thousands of people were watching at that time across the country.
Price – this refers to the process of setting a price for a product, including discounts. The retail price for the camcorder was £335. Sony offered a new method of paying online ‘bill me later’, which meant that you can buy the product and have the option of paying it later through monthly installments, with this method you can manage your account and pay your bill online instantly. You could also buy the product by using bill me later method in store not just online. Sony has improved their online checkout system by making it easy and fast to checkout e.g. speed through checkout – no account number, no waiting and no worries, it only takes a few easy steps to checkout and you’re done. Sony also introduced a special offer ‘no payment for up to 6 months’, this promotional offer was is valid at a purchase of £100 or more.
Sony camcorders turned out to be the most popular camcorder in their price category, partly due to the use of the 4 marketing mix that Sony was able to be successful as they wisely promoted their product through many methods such as ads on T.V, on popular websites, prints etc. Sony launched such a product with such unique feature that no one was able to compete and that was the camcorders USP. The place/distribution of the product was huge, by demonstrating and promoting all over the world they attracted millions of people and targeting families with children was an intelligent strategy. The fact that Sony was extremely successful at the launch of their product was partly because of promoting, the product itself, price (special offer) and place/distribution was conducted with great strategies at the same time which is essential for any business to adapt these marketing strategies. If the 4 marketing mix are not successful before/during the time of launch, your product is nothing.
Analyzing Marketing Mix in relation to the achievement of the marketing and promotional objectives and through them the business aims and objectives
The marketing mix is known elements that make up the marketing process. They include: Price, Product, Place, and Promotion.
Price – in relation to the achievement, the price is related to the business aims and objectives in many ways e.g. the prices of many products in Sony are highly competitive compared to their rivals such as Panasonic and Philips. Sony’s aim was to provide low cost services for their customers. Their aim is to provide quality product in less price, in other words value for money. Sony has successfully met their aim when they launched their camcorders. Sony’s camcorders where unique with great features installed, their USP was actually the DVD in the camcorders which allows you to record your home videos and then you just simply play it in your DVD players, which makes your life much easier as you skip the whole process of converting the video on to the DVD CD which is troublesome and most of the customers didn’t know how to do that. Sony’s camcorders were also the most popular in their price category which means a quality product in low price. Therefore Sony’s aims and objectives have been met.
Product – The promotional objectives of Sony is to generate demand and increase sales of their products. Sony is way ahead of their game in this case and has succeeded in creating that demand of their products. The launch of their camcorders was a huge accomplishment as camcorders were flying off the shelves. The product is very high tech with all the new features e.g. records high quality, compact, LCD touch screen, light weight etc, which tells us that Sony has been highly successful in meeting their promotional objectives.
Place – Sony’s aim in relation to the place is to expand their business and have their business recognised across the globe. The way they can actually expand is by an increase in their current sales. In relation to the achievement, the place is related to the business aims and objectives in many ways. When Sony launched their camcorders their adverts were placed everywhere e.g. on internet, bus stops, television, magazines etc. The product was being sold at all electronics store around the country and Sony had an huge increase in their sales, so therefore their whole process have been great because Sony had used all the elements of marketing mix exceptionally well which was bound to take Sony one step closer to become the market leader e.g. to provide the right products at the right price, in the right location and promoting it appropriately.
It is important for an organization to have a good understanding of the marketing mix. Each element is important when developing a marketing plan. The specification of these four variables creates a promotional mix, or promotional plan. A promotional mix specifies how much attention to pay to each of the four subcategories, and how much money to budget for each. A promotional plan can have a wide range of objectives, including: sales increases, new product acceptance, creation of brand equity, positioning, competitive retaliations, or creation of a corporate image.
How the professional campaign advertising agencies can contribute to the success of a marketing campaign
Advertising is the most important feature of the marketing mix, as it is how you inform your potential customers of the other three P’s. Advertising provides an opportunity to inform your potential customers of the advantages of using your product or service, the price and the place where they can obtain it from. Therefore it is not the case of ‘do I need to advertise’; it is why you must advertise.
Business organizations often use professionals from specialist agencies to help them produce an effective campaign that will achieve the promotional objectives. A good campaign must also use the right media in order to convey their message to their worldwide audience.
Some agencies specialize in particular media, such as print ads or television commercials. Other agencies, especially larger ones, produce work for many types of media (creating integrated marketing communications, or through-the-line (TTL) adverting). Many well known business such as Sony, would contact established advertising agencies for a professional campaign for their product, rather than making the campaign themselves. However, if they did make the campaign themselves than it would not have that professional look which people expect from these well-known companies. Moreover, the campaign could be misleading or might contain illegal context which could have a negative influence on people and can be offensive to others. Therefore I personally think it is better to use an advertising agency as they would know what the audience is looking for, what would catch their attention, how to engage them etc. The reason why reputable business would use advertising agencies is because, they are professionals and experienced and they will give you exactly what you want, or when you’re not certain they will even design a campaign for you, however it will not be advertised until you give your consent. Your business is paying them to make a promotional campaign, in other words paying for the service they provide, if you’re not satisfied with their idea or they haven’t produced to meet your standards, then you can simply tell them to do it again as you are not happy with what they have produced.
When it comes to determining which marketing approach is best for your business, you will want to examine the advantages and disadvantages:
Advantages: Convenient (saving time) – when using the services of a professional promotional ad agency, many business owners appreciate the time that they are able to save. It is no secret that business marketing and business advertising are time consuming tasks, especially if you are unfamiliar with the process. Should you decide to allow a professional promotional ad agency handle your business’s marketing and advertising, you will likely find yourself able to focus on other important tasks.
Expertise – in addition to saved time, using the service of professional promotional ad agency often produces professional results. Many promotional ad agency employees have experienced with business advertising and business marketing. Most promotional ad agencies have taken the time to research and test out numerous marketing approaches. This essentially, means that they already know which approaches are successful, like promotional gifts, and which ones are only a waste of time and money.
Comply with legislation - most agencies offer copywriting service. This ensures the text of the advert is as effective as possible in terms of quality of response as well as cost. They are mindful of discrimination issues and are able to advise employers if the text of an advert is not fully compliant with equal opportunities legislation. They specialise in design work, to ensure that the advert stands out from the crowd on the newspaper page.
Disadvantages: cost of hiring - hiring a professional promotional ad agency can be fairly expensive. Despite, the cost of doing so, many business owners find it well worth the costs. In fact, many look at it from the standpoint of a business investment; an investment that they will likely see a return on.
Doing it yourself - The main disadvantage to doing your own direct marketing promotions, you will find that it can be time consuming to do. If you are relatively unfamiliar with business marketing and business advertising, you may spend a good deal of your time doing research and then relying on trail and error. As previously stated, many promotional ad agencies already have proven marketing and advertising plans in place, which include reward or incentives programs.
Perhaps, the biggest advantage to doing your direct marketing promotion, either yourself or by having one of your staff member do it, is the money that you may be able to save yourself and your business. This is ideal if you are operating your business on a budget. Although your time or the time of your employees will cost money, you will find that the cost if often lower than that of using a promotional ad agency. It is also nice to have complete control over all advertising and marketing decisions.
How the selection and use of media contributes to a successful campaign
The term ‘media’ refers to the type of outlet that will run your ad. These include elements such as newspapers, television, radio, magazines, online, and many other potential advertising opportunities. Many marketing and advertising plans include a combination of several media in the same campaign.
When you’re advertising, you need to choose the most cost-effective media to get your message to the right people.
There are five things you should consider when choosing where to advertise:
- Your target audience
- The comparative costs of reaching that audience through different media
- The timing of your campaign
- Creative opportunities
- Editorial stature
Selecting advertising media involves comparing and balancing all of these factors to develop an advertising media mix that’s right for your product. There’s not one advertising solution that works for everyone.
Since the cost of the media is usually the largest expenditure in an advertising program, your budget will be a major factor in deciding which media to choose. No matter how ideal an ad vehicle may seem, it can only be so for your business if you can realistically afford to buy the ad space or time. Prioritize which media you want to use and which ones you can afford. There is no straightforward about whether newspaper is better than radio or magazines are better than newspapers. It all boils down to knowing and reaching your customers.
The yellow pages are most obvious ad vehicle for services such as plumbing because that’s the first place your customers will turn when they need assistance. On the other hand, very few people turn to the yellow pages for fast food ideas. A fast food franchise owner may choose instead to use a billboard or run a radio ad during heavy drive times.
In some cases, you may choose your ad based on what your competitors are doing. If you’re rival is running hourly radio ads on a certain station, that station probably will not be the best media for your ad. The good news is there is often many ways to reach your target audience, and many businesses will find that a mix of different media is the best way to reach their customers.
The selection of a media can have a huge impact towards the success of a campaign. For example, Sony wants to advertise their camcorders and choosing the right media vehicle is essential. In this particular case Sony’s most appropriate media vehicle would be television, magazines etc, because the customers would want to see the product first therefore advertising on television would be far more effective and successful. If Sony chooses a radio for instance, it would be impossible to actually advertise the camcorder by using just the audio because customers would want to see the visuals of the camcorder first and be satisfied before they can go and buy it. Therefore using the right media according to the product you want to advertise plays a vast role in the success of that campaign.
The advantages and drawbacks of using a professional agency in promoting a product
The decision whether or not to use an advertising agency to help market your product is a difficult one. In order to survive in such a competitive market, advertising agency generally has to have a good business model and an even better method of campaign-channel utilization. Whereas no advertising agency, no matter how skilled or experienced can know your product and your demographics as well as you do.
Advantages:
- Some agencies can place your product in the correct market category for gaining popularity
- They use creative and artistic resources and provide access to these resources more cheaply or for short term requirements, they provide an independent view of your product.
- They have a better understanding and information on demographics across a broader region of the country or internationally.
- They can also buy advertising at rates lower than individual companies can.
- Know better methods of communicating the benefits of your product to your target audience. They’ll know your challenges and your opportunities.
Disadvantages:
- Expensive
- They take things out of control such as delivery schedule
- They can have a conflict if they also advertise for your competitors; they may not fully understand your product value or your customers as well as you do.
My own campaign
I have selected the wedding campaign to prepare a promotional campaign through which I will seek to convince the owners or managers of my business that my campaign can succeed.
A new company has set up devoted to weddings, offering everything from a packet of confetti to a complete wedding planning service. It has a small shop in a high street location, but expects most of its business to be conducted via telephone or its website. It has to appeal to a wide range of brides-to-be and their mothers. The available budget is £8,000 for a two-month period. The website has been set up and is managed by an external agency.
Aims of my business:
- To attract national audience
- Increase market share
- Achieve global recognition
- Be a reputable company and gain trust of consumers
- Provide a high standard service to local and wider community
- Expand sales or profits and expand into new areas of the country or world.
Planning
Firstly I will present my campaign on PowerPoint which will then turn into an information booklet and cost around £10 for one booklet, I will be making 50 booklets to begin with therefore the total cost for that will be £500 per week. I will also advertise it in women’s magazine (which would be around £400 for a full page) and make 200 professional business cards with all our contact details which would cost around £1000 and the price for one business card is £5. I will also have it advertised on the radio which can cost around £500 for three sessions in a week. The other way I will be advertising is in the yellow pages which will cost around £500. The total price for this campaign will be £2,900, which is within our budget of £8,000 and the leftover money (£5,100) will be invested in the business again for maintenance and other use. Our services will include:
- Meeting other brides – you can meet other brides, who have previously used our service; you can swap advice and ideas and ask for help planning your big day.
- Website – we have a website set up which is managed by our external agency especially to help you make your wedding day perfect.
- Car hire/ horse carriage
- Cakes/confetti
- Reception venues
- Photography
- Catering
- Entertainment
- Decorations and many more.
D) How I can improve my campaign
Firstly to begin with I didn’t do any relevant research to get an insight of my competitors e.g. what they offer and what I can do in order to be different and unique to attract customers. The difficult thing with advertising is choosing the right medium in order to attract the customers that you are looking for. I chose the yellow pages, radio and magazine which are the sources of communicating with your customers and getting your message across to them about your product/service. The total of the budget was £8000 for two months and I only used £2,900 which leaves me with (£5,100) enough money to advertise on television as well which could be another way to attract consumers around the country and have an increase in my sales. If I had to do my campaign again I would make sure I reach to a national audience by advertising on television. The other thing that I thought my campaign lacked was keeping an eye on the website and checking how many customers come to visit the website and what I can do to improve it. If I had more money then I would keep an administrator for the maintenance of the website, who can even personalise the website according to consumer’s wants and needs.
If I had more time on this campaign then I would have used promotional items such as key rings in which you can put your wedding photo in and can be made in any shape you like such as heart, wedding bells etc. I believe that this could have been very beneficial for my campaign as it shows that we are investing a lot in our business to make it perfect for you and consumer’s wants and needs are our first priority. Promotional marketing products are powerful businesses tools and are great medium to build your corporate identity, reinforce your message and boost sales promotions. They are a form of advertising that gives your brand visibility for months and even years to come. From achieving short-term goals like boosting sales, to long-term brand reinforcement.
Evaluating my campaign
I based my campaign on a company that has been set up devoted to weddings. My campaign in relation with the business aims and objectives is to a standard to provide quality service and to meet all my aims. The fact that I have used many methods to communicate to my target audience, that will help meet my aims such as to be appealing to a wider community. By publishing about my company in a women’s magazine I’m being specific and targeting only women who are planning on getting married. This can meet business aims and objectives in many ways e.g. by attracting customer which would then result in increase in market share and make your business financially stronger.
The strengths and weaknesses of my promotional campaign
The promotional campaign that I did has many strengths and weaknesses e.g. My evidence for the campaign consists of an information booklet, a business card, magazine article, yellow pages and advert on radio.
Strengths:
- I have included all the contact details for my consumers as well as website address if they want to order online or make any appointments then they are welcome to do so.
- I’ve made my information booklet and magazine article very eye catchy and colorful
- I’ve also included many special offers for brides-to-be and their mothers
- The fact that I will be advertising about my company on many different channels on the radio is a strength itself as it will be targeting many more customers around the country
- The other strength is that while I was making my business cards I used the help of professionals to give my company and the business card a professional look which shows that our company maintains its high standards.
Weaknesses:
- The thing that my campaign lacked was the use of promotional items such as key rings which would have targeted many consumers which would then result in a rapid increase in sales.
- The other thing was that at the time of planning my campaign I didn’t do any research on my competitors in the same market, which was a downfall because then I didn’t have competitive prices for my products/services, offering same products/services and had no USP of my company. This relates to my business aims and objective because one of the aims of my business was to increase market share and if I’m struggling with the sales then my aims are not met and in the worst case scenario my company could fall.
- The presentation that I made for this company was not very long, in other words that I didn’t add detailed information which could have worked in a negative way and not convince consumers to use our products/service. This relates to my business aims and objective as one of the other aim of my business is to be a reputable company and gain trust of my consumers and if I’m struggling to convince my customers then its impossible to gain their trust therefore I haven’t met my aim in this criteria.
Suggestions as to how the promotion could be more effective in meeting business aims and objectives
There are many ways that my promotional campaign could have been more effective in meeting business aims and objectives e.g. before planning my campaign I should have firstly researched on relevant companies to get a clear idea of where they stand in the market place and what would I need to do in order to be competitive and ways in how I can steal their customers by being unique and becoming the market leader. This would have been very effective and would guarantee that I meet all my aims and objectives such as to increase market share.
The other thing I could have done in order to be effective is to advertise on television as I had enough money but not much time to prepare a professional T.V. ad using a professional ad agency. This would then meet my aims and objectives criteria as one of my business aims is to attract national audience and by advertising on television I am bound to attract many more customers and meet all my aims and objectives and become a successful company. The other thing that I could have mentioned is to show my long term plans as a business e.g. where does this company stands after 5 years or to which countries I’m planning to expand to. This shows that we are a strong company, very well organised and most importantly know what we are doing and aiming at.
Furthermore, one of the other things that I thought my campaign lacked was the use of promotional items. This could have been very effective way of handing over a promotional item as a consumer incentive. For example, like corn flakes manufacturers used to offer a free plastic soldier in every box, a small incentive properly marketed can make all differences between a sale being closed and losing to a competitor. For my promotional campaign I could have used the idea of giving out free key rings to those consumers who’d use our products/services. You would get a choice of selecting different types of key rings, shapes, colors etc, moreover we could even personalise the key ring according to your wants and needs and can even put your wedding photo in for you. This method I believe could have taken my campaign one step closer to success as this would have attracted more customers and put our company in a strong position as we would get global recognition which will then help us meet all our aims and objectives.
In the end, all marketing efforts must contain an element of branding. All marketers should be emphasizing the priority of their brand and building its position in the minds of their prospects in all efforts and all sales techniques.
