Hello everyone! Recently, i seem to have developed an increased interest in business. Today i will be talking and discussing about product promotion. I won't give a large huge post that will  be exhausting to read. Instead, i will try to give out and outline the main important key points that are essential to understand when it comes to product promotion.

Hello everyone! Recently, i seem to have an increased interest in business. Today i will be talking and discussing about product promotion. I won't give a large huge post that will  be exhausting to read. Instead, i will try to give out and outline the main important key points that are essential to understand when it comes to product promotion.

Hello everyone! Recently, i seem to have an increased interest in business. Today i will be talking and discussing about product promotion. I won't give a large huge post that will  be exhausting to read. Instead, i will try to give out and outline the main important key points that are essential to understand when it comes to product promotion.Hello everyone! Recently, i seem to have an increased interest in business. Today i will be talking and discussing about product promotion. I won't give a large huge post that will  be exhausting to read. Instead, i will try to give out and outline the main important key points that are essential to understand when it comes to product promotion.

Anything that can be given in a market for consumption to satisfy human wants or needs is referred to as a product. 

Promotion involves a collection of methods by which a seller persuades,informs or influences the consumers either indirectly or directly to buy a company's good or service.The purpose of promoting is to create awareness of a product or service which in turn leads to development of interest/loyalty in the goods or service by consumers hence leading to generation of sales. Now that we have both the meaning of product and promotion ,what is product promotion? In simple words:

Product promotion is action taken by a company to encourage the sale of product and services to their target market or prospective buyers. Product promotion is important and significant in the following ways:

• It helps to improve the image of the company.
• It allows creation of demand for a new product.
• Expands the sales of an existing product.
• Helps in creating large sales volume. 
• Helps in maintenance of sales of  a product or service.
• Allows a company/individual to create an image brand.

There is a list of methods You can use  to promote your product.

Methods of product promotion

Public relation

This is the process of passing information on a company and its products/services to the public or a specific group of consumers.It involves:

• Branding
• Consumer research 
• Packaging
• Market research
• Product differentiation
• Market segmentation

However this method of promotion has specific advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages of public relations

1. Responsible for upholding company's image.
2. Builds the relationship between a company and its customers.
3. The company gets to choose the method to relay the message.
4. Message addresses the target consumers/buyers.
5. Its crucial at correcting a company's bad image.

With public relations,its difficult to assess the impact of the message on the target audience at times. Also it takes a lot of time and may be expensive to finance.

Personal selling

This is where a specific individual or sales person presents the company's goods/services to a potential buyer in person.A good salesman should have the following qualities:

• Be able to persuade a consumer.
• Have full knowledge of the product.
• Have the capability to communicate clearly.
• Have personal attributes.

Advantages are:

1. Facilitates quick instant feedback.
2. Buyer is able to make informed decisions.
3. Directed to a specific prospective customer.
4. Its much more flexible than other methods.
5. Allows demonstration of a product.

Disadvantages are: 

It is time consuming and labour intensive. It is also a quite expensive method and the sales people are capable of misusing resources given to them. With this method of product promotion,its difficult to reach a wide range of consumers.

Sales Promotion

Sales promotion includes: Coupons, Discounts, Free gift cards, Credit facilities, Reducing the price, After sales services, Point of sale displays, Contests with prizes and Point of sale demonstration. 

Advantages

1. Improves company's image.
2. Teaches customers to operate technical equipment.
3. Gives buyers opportunities to buy goods and services at a low price.
4. Helps in improving loyalty from customers.
5. Helps in easy convincing by the seller to the buyer.

Disadvantages

1. Customers are tied to one seller who might not be efficient.
2. There is no guarantee of increased sales.
3. Various sales promotion activities may be expensive to provide.
4. May lead to impulse buying due to the rigorous effect of sponsors

Publicity

It is free advertising where the desire for a product is created by presentations that are not paid for in the media.Its advantages and disadvantages are:

Advantages

1. There is no costs incurred per message ,time or space.
2. Improves sponsor's image.
3. The credibility of the message is high since its reported in independent media.
4. Reaches large audience. 

Disadvantages

1. No guarantee the media will cover about the specified company all the time.
2. It is short-lived and cannot be used in isolation of other promotional tools.
3. Companies have less control over timing,coverage,placement and message by the given medium. 

Advertising

This refers to the unpaid form of non-personal presentation of goods and services in the media by a specific identified sponsor. It is meant for existing and potential customers by informing them about a product or service in the market.

Purpose for advertising

• Increase sales of an existing product.
• Create and maintain consumer loyalty.
• Build an initial demand for a product or service.
• Acts as reminder to customers.
• Building organization/company's image.

Methods of advertising

• Product-Involves promoting a new or an already existing products.
• Persuasive-Can also be referred to as competitive. It involves persuading and convincing a customer on why he or she should really buy a specified product or service. 
• Celebrity-Well known and famous celebrities take part in the advertisement.
• Informative- It involves and emphasizes on giving full information about a product or service.
• Institutional-Promotes an organization/company and its services.
• Primary-demand-Its purposed to increase demand of a specific line of product.

Advantages of advertising

1. Generates revenue for the government.
2. Allows customers to have  access to a wide variety of products.
3. Helps in improved quality production of a product/service.
4. Improves sales volume of products.
5. Informs customers on the use of an advertised product.
6. With adverts,a customer is able to know a product's quality and price.

Disadvantages of advertising

1. Covering the whole market is expensive
2. It might be misleading at times.
3. Costs are passed on to consumers in terms of pricing.
4. Some adverts become wasteful when they encourage unproductive competition.
5. Rigorous adverts leads to cut-throat competition.

If you are an organization/company or an individual looking to promote your product /service,the points above are some of the things and factors you need to know and consider. In my next post i will be talking about product market. Always feel free to give your contribution.

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