Game of Words: View vs Counter View 3.08

METHODS OF BRAND AND PRODUCT PROMOTION

In the present era leaning towards customer-orientation, businesses have found their key tool to beat the competition by utilizing numerous marketing methods. To be more precise, tools such as publicity, sales promotion and advertising are adopted. These tools are instrumental in creating and popularizing a brand curated by the company to achieve favorable visibility. Each one of them has its own benefits and limitations and the applications of the same depend upon varying types and sizes of the business. 

View:

Mukesh Kumar S, owner of Sri Krishna Jewelers, believes that sales promotion methods are more suitable for small firms such as his. The reasons being—firstly, advertising is an expensive method of promotion and not all small firms have adequate resources for the same. Secondly, the advertising method is more suitable for firms with an already established brand name. Mr. Mukesh explains this point by giving an example from his industry: People often remember the advertisements of big companies such as Tanishq and Kalyan, but a very few remember advertisements of small firms. 

Mr. Mukesh credits his success to the use of sales promotion techniques. His unique “lottery card” system not only attains consumers but is also successful in retaining them. This system also promotes word-of-mouth publicity. The money saved by compromising on large scale advertisements is then utilized towards enhancing consumer experience by investing in technology. This is the main reason behind Sri Krishna Jewelers maintaining its position in such a competitive market for almost two decades. 

Counter View:

On interviewing an employee at Sebamed, a German brand of Sebapharma GmbH & Co. KG, which manufactures medicinal skin care products, a new perspective on promotional activities was attained. The employee described that it depends on the product and various steps such as figuring out the target demographics, targeted regions such as pan India or region specific, and then selecting a promotional method specific to that market which can then be adopted. Newspapers, radio, social media, TV, sports are all viable options. 

Sebamed recently adopted these promotional techniques for one of their products: a shampoo. They targeted people with larger disposable income as their products are generally expensive when compared to their competitors in the industry. The method they adopted was to distribute small trial sachets of their shampoo on major airlines along with information about where the product can be obtained. This method was accompanied with the assumption that the individual’s families back home would also come across the shampoo, thereby increasing visibility of the firm. Sebamed focused on large scale promotions that resulted in a favorable increase in product visibility and sales. 

Written by:

Aditya

Shashank