Student Corner - 253
TOOLS OF TRADE PROMOTION
Display as a Trade Promotion tool has some very effective
advantages. First of all, it catches the
attention of the shop visitor. There are some shop-goers who have not made any
purchase decision. They just enter attracted by the shop and its appeal; they
do not have yet any definite idea about the product they intend to purchasethey
are called impulsive buyers; they just feel like buying the product and they
buy it. An impulsive buyer turns into a
customer for some company and its product in the shop. . His impulsiveness is
very well understood in terms of marketing and exploited; that is, such point
of sale display increases the sale of a product, thereby adds to the profit of
the company. Ponds are made up of a large number of small drops of water; accumulated
single purchases constitute profit of some size to the company.
The visibility of the product at the right moment, so to say, at the
right place with the right ads as
additional display for the product helps ultimately introducing the product to
the prospective customer very cost-effectively.
How long the display should continue there depends on the marketing
decision of the company; the company may like to use this display for some
required span of time. Frequency
of sales, the demand for the space from
other competitive companies, the amount involved in allotting the space-- all
these factors might influence the decision of the company in terms of the time
for display.
Next tool for Trade Promotion is Demonstration.
It is said the measures that a company must take must aim at influencing
the customer behavior. Rare buyer must be turned into frequent buyer; it means,
the customer loyalty is reinforced; that is, the customer cannot be tempted to
switch to some other brand for the same product. The underlying significant
fact is the customer remains beyond the reach of the future ads from other
companies. An impulsive buyer is transformed into a loyal customer. His
behavior, that is, his purchase behavior is formed into brand-bound habit. Briefly, a very effective marketing practice
focuses on impacting the buying pattern of the customer.
Researches are said to have established a vital fact regarding customer
behavior; most of his purchase decisions are made in the store amidst sea of
products and brands. His intellectual knowledge of a product is changed into
instinctually oriented purchase feeling; feeling overpowers knowledge; so,
experts aver that the place to impact the buying behavior of the customer is
the store and the place must be fully exploited by what is called in-store
demonstration. We shall see more of it in our next.
