Sales Promotion Marketing

Sales promotion marketing is, in simple terms, any initiative by a brand or other organisation that works to promote sales, usage or trial of a product, resulting in their increase.

What this means for sales promotion is that it is an umbrella term that can be used to describe everything from a simple, money-off voucher, to a pack promotion offering prizes, and anything in-between. As suggested by the name of this form of promotion, the primary focus of sales promotion campaigns has been to have a direct impact on sales, however, with the ever increasing number of channels this promotion can be pushed through, there are obvious, significant positives that can also result from this type of marketing, such as increasing brand communications and getting a better idea from the mouths of consumers themselves as to just what they think when it comes to your products and services.

Some of the objectives that can best be impacted through effective sales promotion marketing include product trial, purchasing frequency and brand loyalty, all of which are metrics which can be measured successfully through sales promotion. This ability to successfully measure these metrics is what makes sales promotion such an attractive proposition to marketers, as their return and investment can be easily demonstrated through sales promotion. As well as this, the impact that sales promotion activity can have on sales is often felt quickly, far sooner than the measurable impact of other marketing activity, making sales promotion marketing a definite must for any brand needing to positively impact their sales.

Sales promotion marketing campaigns will often utilise associations between a brand and certain celebrities, events, films or other properties and even other brands, working to maximise their impact by appealing to the wider interests of target consumers. Good examples of such associations would be McDonalds, whose Happy Meal product has often been linked to the latest children’s movie releases, Carlsberg’s promotions which highlight their sponsorship of the England football team and Robinson’s on pack promotions that coincide with the Wimbledon championship of which they are a lead sponsor. When utilising sales promotion in this way, it is of the utmost importance to plan these associations carefully as picking the wrong brand, event or celebrity to link your brand with could have a negative impact on sales.

Forms of promotion which come under sales promotion commonly include competitions and prize draws, self-liquidating promotions, free mail, gift with purchases, and of course voucher codes and discounts. The mechanics of sales promotion has changed in recent years in response to the surge in social media and digital as a whole, creating new opportunities for sales promotion and far greater transparency to your sales promotion activities, allowing them to continue within the social space long after your activity has ceased being live, providing considerably better value to what is traditionally already a high yielding method of promotion.

Broken down, sales promotion advertising is quite simply providing consumers with an additional reason beyond the product itself to make a purchase, and could be as simple as a chance to win, loyalty reward or future discount, and in an increasingly challenging market incentivising consumers to choose your brand, and to continue coming back to it, will give you and your brand a significant edge.