Sales Promotion

Electronic Delivery

Sales promotions are delivered to customers in many ways such as by mail, in-person or within print media.  However, the Internet and mobile technologies, such as cellphones, present marketers with a number of new delivery options.  For examples, the combination of mobile devices and geographic positioning technology will soon permit marketers to target promotions to a customer’s physical location.  This will allow retailers and other businesses to issue sales promotions, such as electronic coupons, to a customer’s mobile device when they are near the location where the coupon can be used.

Tracking

As we discussed in our coverage of advertising, tracking customer’s response to marketers’ promotional activity is critical for measuring success of an advertisement.  In sales promotion, tracking is also used.  For instance, grocery retailers, whose customers are in possession of loyalty cards, have the ability to match customer sales data to coupon use.  This information can then be sold to coupon marketers who may use the information to get a better picture of the buying patterns of those responding to the coupon.