Promotion Decisions

Factors Affecting Promotions Choice

With four promotional methods to choose from how does the marketer determine which ones to use?  The selection can be complicated by company and marketing decision issues.

Company Issues:

• Promotional Objective – As we discussed, there are several different objectives a marketer may pursue with their promotional strategy.  Each type of promotion offers different advantages in terms of helping the marketer reach their objectives.  For instance, if the objective of a software manufacturer is to get customers to try a product, the use of sales promotion, such as offering the software in a free downloadable form, may yield better results than promoting through Internet advertising.
• Availability of Resources – The amount of money and other resources that can be directed to promotion affects the marketer’s choice of promotional methods.  Marketers with large promotional budgets may be able to spread spending among all promotion options while marketers with limited funds must be more selective on the promotion techniques they use.
• Company Philosophy – Some companies follow a philosophy that dictates where most promotional spending occurs.  For instance, some companies follow the approach that all promotion should be done through salespeople while other companies prefer to focus attention on product development and hope word-of-mouth communication by satisfied customers helps to create interest in their product.