Sales Promotion Techniques

Sales Promotion Techniques

Many companies are focusing more on sales promotion that gears towards trade and consumers. In fact, a portion of the marketing communications budget geared towards sales promotions are increasing. The promotions are designed to build interest and encourage consumers to purchase the product or service. Sales promotions are important to introducing new products and services into the market as well as create and/or increase short term sales. There are four key sales promotion techniques that marketing firms direct towards trade and consumers. Discounts and deals and increasing industry visibility are two techniques directed towards trade, and price-based and attention-getting consumer sales promotions are sales promotion techniques directed towards consumers.

Trade promotions focus on the commercial exchange of goods and services including those employed in a retail store and wholesale distributors. The first form of a key sales promotion directed towards trade are discounts and deals. A manufacturer may offer their products to retailers and wholesalers at a discounted bulk price or reimburse them for promoting their products. By this form of trade promotions, companies are able to use certain techniques such as an incentive program to drive sales for that particular manufacturer. For example, Office Depot offers their employees ten dollars for each time that employee attaches a Microsoft Home and Student 2007 software to any notebook or pc computer. This incentive program usually happens once a year when the company purchases the software at a discounted price, especially when the manufacturer will be upgrading the software to a new version and no longer be distributing that particular software in the near future. However, the downside to selling products to trade channels at a discounted price is that retailers or wholesalers may take advantage of the program and purchase the products in bulk and wait to sell them after the promotion...