Sales promotions need to have objectives to be successful.
In order to plan a successful sales promotion, you need to understand its major objectives. This will help you create the supporting marketing materials to make the event a success. Defined objectives also allow you to monitor the success of various marketing methods and determine if you want to use those methods in the future.
Establishing a New Market
When you are ready to expand, you can open up new markets with a sales promotion. Doing preliminary advertising in your new target market can help set up your sales promotion for greater success. According to online marketing resource Marketing Magic, a new market does not need to be geographic. If your business commonly attracts an older audience, you may want to devise ways to get a younger crowd into your establishment to try and get a portion of that demographic as well. Pricing specials, free giveaways or celebrity guests at an open house can be effective ways to introduce your company or product to a new market.
Strengthen Brand Loyalty
In a free market economy the consumer usually has many choices of different manufacturers for the same product. For example, your company manufactures automobile tires, but there are many other tire manufacturers that you have to compete with and often you are competing in the same store. A sales promotion can be used to help establish brand loyalty with customers that buy based on price, and strengthen brand loyalty for customers that tend to buy top brands but have no set manufacturer preference.
A retail store can also hold a sales promotion to strengthen brand loyalty. The brand, in this case, is the store itself. Promotions such as free product giveaways and pricing specials can work to get the consumer into your store. From there you need to have additional promotions in place that will show the consumer why they should choose to shop in your store on a regular basis.
Introduce a New Product Line
If your company is known for manufacturing or selling one particular type of product, then it may be difficult to convince customers to accept an expansion into new product lines. For example, if your company is known for manufacturing computers then making televisions may not seem like a giant leap to you, but your customers may be hesitant to give your new product line a try. Use your existing product lines to help push your new product lines by offering pricing specials on bundled products. Other sales promotions that will help introduce a new product line include manufacturer pricing coupons, discounted or free accessories along with the purchase of the main product and a discount towards a purchase of the more popular product if the customer purchases the new product at full price.
Tags: your company, brand loyalty, product lines, sales promotion, company known