B Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of sales promotion for the marketing communicator?

Answer 1

Advantages:

• Good sales promotion campaign result in good and close relation between manufacture and key customers.
• Good sales promotion campaign will attract or convince retailer or dealer to stock manufacture's product in their store because product is added-value so consumers demand for that product.
• Impulse buying can be induced
• Attention to a new product can be drawn
• Good sales promotion campaign support consumer to switching brand.
• if create collection of tokens, habit buying may be occurred
• Because of consumers are encourage to buy large volume, consumers might buy competitor's product less.
• Sales promotion is marketing tool which easy to control and measure because there are period of time limited and it can be measure by sale sheet.
• Good sales promotion campaign can create good public relation
• Sales promotion can be used for competitiveness with rival competitor such as regaining market share.

Disadvantages:

• If sales promotion campaign is not well developed or planned, retailer might not cooperate because inefficient sales promotion campaign is seen as a trouble. Moreover, Jefkins also state that "there are problems that they may not yet have received (or put on display) stock bearing promotional packing, which has been advertised; or the scheme has gone so well that they are out-of-stock when customers want to buy further units with the promotional packing. These customers go elsewhere".
• Customer might feel not satisfied if they did not complete the collection of tokens before the campaign is closed. As a result of this, negative public relation is occurred. In addition, if retailer did not stock promotion package as much as it should be, when consumer did not get what company advertised, this also result in negative public relation. Moreover, delay in delivery is another cause of negative public relation.
• Jefkins (1993) suggest that "some large supermarket chain quite blatantly accept cash vouchers as price cuts on any product they stock, thus negating the whole point if a manufacturer's promotion".
• After sales promotion campaign is ended, customer who switched from competitor's brand might go back to their previous brand.
• Customer might only buy a product only for extra offers.