SALES PROMOTION AND OTHER MEANS OF MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

SALES PROMOTION AND OTHER MEANS OF MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS.

 Sales promotion:

The main aim of any business is to earn maximum profit and this is possible only through maximum sales. The maximum sales can be achieved by using various techniques of sales promotion. Sales promotion includes those marketing activities, other then personal selling, advertising and publicity, that stimulates consumers purchasing and dealers effectiveness such as window display, shows and expositions, demonstrations etc. Sales promotion is concerned with the creation, application and dissemination of materials and techniques that supplement advertising and personal selling. Sales promotion makes use of direct mail, catalogues, trade shows, sales contents, premiums, samples, window display and other aids. Its purpose is to sell a certain brands and to make consumers more eager to buy that brand. Personal selling and advertising do include prospects to make their decisions. ‘Sales promotion provides an extra stimulus’.

According to various authors sales promotion can be defined as: –

“Sales promotion means any step that are taken for the purpose of obtaining an increased sales” By, A. H. R. Delens

“Sales promotion as a tool of market promotion gives rise to increase in production usage as well as expansion of market for a product or introduction of a new product” By, John. L. Luickkand and William Lee Ziegler.

Classification of sales promotion:

There are three types of sales promotion – Customer promotion, trade promotion and sales trade promotion

Customer promotion

There the target beneficiaries are the customers. Here the offers are offered to the unlimited customers. Such an offer is always for a short period. If the
period increases, the validity of the promotional measures decreases.

Trade promotion: 

There the target is the middleman. They are being offered the incentives with the hope that they will stock more and push the product to the customers. This
type of sales promotion is very important effort to seek the cooperation of the middleman.

Sales trade promotion:

This type of sales promotion emphasis to increase and boost up the morale of the sales people. They are being offered commissions, bonus and other incentives
for the increase of sales so that they work directly.

Target audiences for sales promotion

Objectives of sales promotion:

To influence the customer for purchasing the product or service instantly because the sales promotion time is very limited and if the customer does not respond to it quickly, they may lose the offer. It increases the sales directly by publicity through media that are complementary to the press and poster advertising.

– To introduce new product

– To attract new customers

– To face the competition effectively

– To maintain old customers

– To improve public image of the firm

– To popularize the brand name of the product

– To induce customer to purchase more items

Principles of sales promotion:

The promotional program should proceed in the light of the pretest experiences. There should be some pre testing in order to check that proposed method is likely to attain the desired result. Clear objects must be ascribed to the campaign. Result must be evaluated at the end of exercise. The most effectively of attaining these objectives must be throughout and selected.

Sales promotion devices used are:

–Money refund offer

– Contests of sweepstakes

– Price off or temporary price reduction

– Coupons

– Premium or bonus offer

– Trading stamps

– Fair and exhibition

– Free samples

Money refund offer:

This offer is generally stated in media advertising that the manufacturer will return the price if the product is not to the satisfaction of the consumer within a stated period. For example – bull- worker exercise is promoted the way.

Contest or sweepstakes:

At times, contests are arranged with a view to attract new users to the company’s products. An opportunity under this device is given to consumer to contest with a chance to win a cash price, free air trips or goods. It is an indirect manner of introducing new product.

Price off or temporary price reduction:

This involves an offer to consumer, a certain amount of money off over the regular price of a product. This is done to attract consumers to other brands
to its product/brand.

Coupons:

A coupon is a certificate that entitles the consumer to a specified saving on the purchase of a specified product. The manufacturers through the retailers
usually issue these coupons. The retailers are later or initially reimbursed the value of coupons by the manufacturers.

Premium or bonus offers:

In this technique the firm offers a certain quantity of the product free of cost on the purchase of a specified quantity of the product. The premium offers
can be of three types: – With pack premium –T he customer gives the free product along with the product
purchase. For example – one stainless steel teaspoon is inserted as free gift
inside the 240 ml bottle of cough syrup.

A reusable container: The product is packed in the container that has utility for the customer after it has consumed. For example – The container of ayurvedic
preparation chawanprash is available in attractive container, which can be reused in kitchen.

Free in the mail premium: A free gift is given to the consumer on sending a
proof of purchase i.e. cash memo or wrapper of the product.

Trading stamps:

Trading stamps are issued to customers through retailers in proportion to the amount of purchase. The customer goes on collecting the stamps on his purchase.
Once he has collected the stamps of an adequate amount, he obtains a free product in exchange of his stamps. This technique induces customers to buy products
from those retailers who offer such stamps.

Fair and exhibition:

Fair and exhibition are organized to display and popularize products of the firm. For example – in various medical and pharmaceutical conferences, seminars,
a scientific congress, the pharmaceutical firms and their allied industries participate in the exhibition organized by their organizing committee. On such occasions the firms also distribute free literature to introduce itself and its products.

Free samples:

Many pharmaceutical firms send their medical representatives to the physicians for detailing and distributing of free samples of their manufactured goods.
The technique is very useful way of introducing new products. However it is very expensive method and used only by big concerns.

Flow chart for sales promotion:

Salesman:

A person who is engaged in selling of goods to customer is known as a “salesman”. It is generally said that salesman are born and not made. However, it is not true these days, because any person who wants to adopt a sales profession gets intensive coaching and training. The success of a firm mainly depends on the performance of their sale force. Therefore, it is essential to engage well-qualified trained, energetic and young persons as the company’s sales force.

Qualities of a salesman: The sales man has personal, mental,
social qualities and vocational skills

Personal qualities:

A good salesman must have an attractive personality. He must posses good health and sound physique. A salesman’s job involves a great physical stain because of its touring nature. So only the person with a good health can work effectively. He should have a clear voice and his tone of speaking should be natural so as
to impress the persons dealing with him. He should also be well dressed because it adds to his charming personality always creates a goods impression on buyers.

Mental qualities:

A good salesman should posses a sound memory, presence of mind, imagination, foresightedness, sound judgment and initiative. He should be intelligent enough
to understand the nature and requirement of potential buyers. He must have the imagination to look at things from the viewpoint of customers. A salesman can
win regular and permanent customers only through good mental qualities.

Social qualities:

A good salesman must have a linking for people and the ability to mix with them. He must not be shy and have reserved nature. He should be sincere, dependable,
cooperative and honest. A salesman has to deal with different types of customers. Therefore ho should have patience to listen to them i.e. his customers and remove
their objections. He should always be polite and courteous while dealing with his customers. He must help the customers in selecting the right type of goods.
Courtesy costs nothing but wins favor and permanent customers.

Vocational skills:

A good salesman must have specialized knowledge of selling techniques. Salesmanship is a highly skilled vocation. It requires certain training and aptitude to have
a through knowledge of the product, customers and competitive products already available in the market. Such knowledge is essential to handle objections of
the customers and also for convincing them to buy the product. A person cannot be good salesman unless he has the required ambition and enthusiasm to become
a successful salesman.

Steps in sales promotion process:

   Step I

Defining the sales promotion target.

  Step II

Setting sales promotion objectives.

  Step III

Setting the sales promotion budget.

  Step IV

Developing the sales promotion strategy.

  Step V

Selecting type of sales promotion.

  Step VI

Coordinating the plans.

  Step VII

Evaluating sales promotion effectiveness.

MERCHANDIZING IN THE PHARMACY ENTERPRISES

One of the effective means of advertising and attraction of attention of buyers is merchandizing. Merchandizing is marketing in the retail point consist¬ing of technical equipment on accommodation of the goods, development and an arrangement of promotional materials on a place of purchase.

The interior of a drugstore should have corresponding style, a lay-out, a direction of a stream of visitors, smells, sounds. Execution of a trading hall and show-windows provides observance principles – then more demand that should be visible more. The arrangement of the goods at a level of eyes is effective, for lhese purpose arrows; inscriptions near the goods, which promote its sales are used. It is recommended not to expose the goods symmetrically and precisely. Promotional materials should be spread near to turn or a congestion of visitors. The goods exposed on show-windows are sold at 6-12 time more often, than on shelves. Accommodation of the goods from left to right – the goods in the big¬gest packing – on the right.

The share of the goods in the market is a share of the goods on a shelf. Demand should be determined in money terms, instead of in quantitative ones. A buyer should find easily the goods in the certain place. It is necessary to react quickly to advertising campaigns and to do the re¬spective alterations in the calculation.

Employees of a drugstore should define, which promoted materials to spread, on which ones to emphasize depending the category of a drugstore, a structure, from the social status of buyers. There are three laws of merchandizing:

>       The law of a stock: all laid out goods are provided at least with a 3-day’s stock;

>       Arrangements are assumed with the obligatory presence of the minimal set of positions certain for each shop.

>       Presentations: one name of the goods is submitted in several units (3 times). For example, 2 variants of packing increase commodity circulation by 15 %, 3 variants – by 30 %, 4 variants by 60%, 5 variants more than by 100 %.

The priority point is near to the pharmacist, it is a little more to the right at the height 120-170cm. It should take 20-25 min to the customer to orient in the trading hall. Inscriptions “Vitamins”, «Remedies for cold and cough» are used for it.

There are some rules of a drug demonstration:

>       A rule of balance: for fast and easy orientation of the buyer the goods of one commodity group should be settled down horizontal line, symmetrically to each other.

>       A rule of price lists: the price for the exposed goods is necessary.

>       A rule of “walls of the lock”: the most popular production of one company is located as walls of the lock on edges;

 A rule of the corporate bloc;

 A rule of duplication: leading positions should occupy the area 2 times larger

than other groups; y A rule of the order – the certain order of brands should be observed; y A rule of a priority place: the most sold production and profitable one take priority place.

 

Pharmacy merchandising implies merchandising consisting of the combination of techniques related to products layout as well as advertising materials development and their location at the point of purchase.

The main task of merchandising implies the right demonstration and location of products and medicines on the pharmacy shelves for the purpose of increasing volumes of sale.

The additional tasks of merchandising are:

Ø     improving the manufacturing company image

Ø     simplifying the purchase process

Ø     providing convenience for customers

Ø     preservation of old customers and attraction of new ones

Ø     increasing volumes of sales.

 

At the first sight, one can think that merchandising can bring profit only to a manufacturing company as it helps it to sell its products faster and to enhance its image at the market. But it’s not right. Merchandising is also effective for pharmacies as well as for customers. Pharmacy merchandising promotes faster sale of products, improves the quality of customer service, which contributes to the improvement of the pharmacy image. The thought-out merchandising in respect of customers provides a possibility of quickly choosing a product by performing the first purchase, easily finding your way by buying a certain product (brand) as well as getting acquainted with new goods.

Merchandising starts by front side and shop-window decoration. By making a decision about front side and shop-window decoration, one should remember that customers tend to stick to the right side of a pedestrian path or a sidewalk. So it’s necessary to determine what side is regarded as right by pedestrians. In order to do it, one should analyze prevailing streams of customers, location of public transport stops, parking lots, large trading and cultural centres, offices and enterprises.

Depending on personal peculiarities and mood, customers’ look as well as attention can be explorative, roving, abstract. To fix a potential customer’s eyesight, one should make a decision about locating daylights and models at the front side or in the shop-window attracting the attention and inducing one to visit a drug-store or a pharmacy.

The importance of over-the-counter medicines is determined by the following:

self-treatment development an end-customer has a possibility of choosing from a wide range of products a great number of over-the-counter medicines provided for reasonable prices spontaneous purchase directly in point of sales and pharmacies

 There can be three types of purchase:

closed planned (determined) – a customer knows beforehand what he/she is going to by open planned (non-determined) – a customer knows what type of products he/she needs but hasn’t decided about a brand yet spontaneous purchase – a customer does not plan to make a purchase.

 

According to the research results, 60% of customers make a decision about a purchase in the point of sale and only 25-33% of customers use a list of products they want to buy. Information and product demonstration in the store often provides a decisive impact on a decision about a purchase.

The pharmacy owner pays a lot of attention to the fact that a potential customer’s subconscious desire to buy a product should transform into a decision about a purchase as soon as possible. The matter is that it’s scientifically proved that the desire to buy something is located within human subconsciousness, so advertising of products tends to make a customer fulfill this desire creating a certain image of a product and a medicine. Physical characteristics, quality and usefulness of a product are in a latent state within customers’ subconsciousness. In this case almost everything depends on the right layout of products in the pharmacy so that a potential customer could easily “find” them.

 By planning merchandising measures, it’s necessary to remember about some peculiarities of customers’ behavior in the point of sale:

95% of customers entering a point of sale stop after passing 1/3 of the shop

90% of customers want to find all products they want to buy without passing large distances and coming back most customers (right-handers) prefer going straight without turning to the right or left but nevertheless tend to look at and take products located on the right most customers turn to the left, counterclockwise, while passing through the store customers avoid noisy, dark, dirty and poorly lit places. The route customers stick to while going through the pharmacy can and shall be corrected so as all parts of the store should be visited on a high frequency level. It’s achieved by means of the so-called “loss leaders” (those that are most frequently searched for by customers).

Tasks of products display on the shelves:

–         to induce a customer who has already bought this medicine before to make a repeated purchase in case of the first purchase,

–          to make a customer acquire a trade mark of the company to induce a customer to replace a competitive trade mark with a trade mark of the company in case of spontaneous purchase,

–         to make a customer decide for a trade mark of the company in case of planned purchase,

–         to provide an opportunity of easily finding the very trade mark a customer is looking for Judging by the experience, in winter, when the light day is shortened, specially developed information daylights (cases) make a pleasant impression and attract the attention of potential customers.

It’s common knowledge that within a pharmacy a customer moves by the average speed of 1m/sec, while the human eye is capable of seeing an object image if it’s located in field of vision for at least 1-3 seconds. Besides, best of all a customer can see a product located at the eye level (120-160 cm from the floor). Taking into consideration these data, the place on the shelve meant for a certain medicine should be over 33 cm, only in this case it’ll be noticed by a customer. It’s a basis for the principle of shop-windows decoration: medicines by therapeutic groups in the format of displays should be located at the distance of at least 33 cm. Such a display located in shop-windows takes little space and contains brief information related to each medicine.

At cash-operating units where a customer spends enough time paying for his/her purchase, one can install plates for coins displaying some information about medicines.

After determining a place of products location, one should define their right layout on the shelves. It should consider the main stereotypes of customers’ behavior, who as it’s know tend to first of all look at and take a product located to the right, which means that this product has more chances to be seen and bought. A great deal of customers’ attention is paid to the central group of products on the shelf.

         Taking into consideration customers’ behavior, one can determine the following parts on the shelves: strong horizontal parts: in the middle of the shelf and in the middle of a products group, next to the right side weak horizontal parts: to the left of the middle of the shelf or side sections of a products group strong vertical parts: at the eye and breast level weak vertical parts: at the waste level and lower, over the head level (in order to take a product, a customer has either to bend or to reach the place of a product location).

Products that can be easily seen and taken from the shelf are the most attractive for the customer.

 Methods of products display on the shelves

 Gondola is a stand-alone counter with shelves. The gondola contains strong and weak parts. Strong parts include those parts located from the waste to the eye level where a product is easily and conveniently viewed and perceived by a customer.

Gondola end is a front gondola part, the most efficient and perfect place for new products and offers due to their standing out amidst the general background.

Products facing is an amount of product packages on horizontal shelves (only front rows are implied, back and vertical rows are not considered). The decisive factor for the amount of facings in the pharmacy depends on the volume of products sale and measures related to their promotion performed by a manufacturer. The final decision related to products facing is made by a retail seller.

Traditional places of products facing include places next to competitive products of the same category. Besides, by products facing, it‘s important to consider a trade mark popularity as well as a manufacturer’s advertising support. The famous and well advertised trade marks of medicines should be located in the most efficient places on the store shelves. The location of competitive products with less advertising support and popularity next to the famous and well advertised ones increases the volume of sales of a competitive product.

 Additional places of products facing

 Additional places of products facing are not strictly determined but used for special offers or types of products promotion.

Vertical location of a product is one of the preferable options of a product location providing the highest degree of probability that this trade mark will be noticed by a customer.

Horizontal location of a product is mostly effective in case of location at the eye level and can include a vertical element in the form of locating a product on two-three shelves.

Advertising point of sale materials include materials located next to a product in traditional or additional places of products facing. The examples include posters, flags, strips for attracting attention, information stands, etc.

         Pharmacy merchandising provides a considerable economic effect. The simple location of a product from the waste to the breast level increases the volume of sale by 34%, while the location from the waste to the eye level – by 78%. The location of a product from the breast to the eye level allows to step up the volume of products sale by 63%. Pharmacy shelves enjoy different degrees of customers’ attention but products located at the eye or breast level have much more chances to be purchased.

1.  Mnushko Z.N., Sofronova I.V., Pestun I.V. Management and marketing in pharmacy. P.2. Marketing in pharmacy: Texts of lectures. – Kh.: PH of NUPh, 2008. – 148 p.

2.     Vikram, Raja. “The Five Concepts of Marketing”. Saching.com. Retrieved 21 May 2013.

3. Kotler, Philip & Keller, L. Kevin (2012). Marketing Management 14e. Pearson Education Limited 2012

4. Framework for Marketing Management (4th ed.). Pearson Prentice Hall. 2009.

5. Adcock, Dennis; Al Halborg, Caroline Ross (2001). “Introduction”. Marketing: principles and practice

6. “Marketing Management: Strategies and Programs”, Guiltinan et al., McGraw Hill/Irwin, 1996