Sales promotion 469
to react to consumer uptake and stock
availability.
4 Micro-marketing approaches. In response to
fragmenting markets, where promotions can
provide more tailored and targeted
communication than mass media. The Kelloggs’
2002 Red Letter Day promotion offered as
prizes over 300 different experiential days out,
providing something to attract almost
everyone.
5 Declining brand loyalty. Caused by widening
choice, narrowing perceived differences
between brands, and the increasing strength of
retailer own label products.
6 A ‘snowball’ effect. In some markets, companies
increasingly feel obliged to match rivals’ sales
promotion activity, or risk losing market share
and competitive position (Lal, 1990).
7 Affordability. National mass media have become
prohibitively expensive for many companies,
particularly during recessionary squeezes on
marketing budgets. Promotions allow national
coverage at a lower cost, cost sharing with
co-promoters and can even be self-funding.
8 Interactivity. With the increase in interactive
media like the Internet and interactive TV,
there are growing opportunities for sales
promotions to play a key role in customer
communication. The web surfer is quite likely
to ‘click through’ an on-line advert or may
install a program such as AdWiperto remove
banner ads. An on-line promotion can engage
with customers and generate a response
through the offer of benefits.
A decision to offer the consumer extra value
has some potential drawbacks. Some critics
suggest that overuse is training customers to
buy products only on promotion (Mela et al.,
1997), while others claim that promotional
overkill is desensitizing consumers to their
benefits. There is also the concern that empha-
sizing promotions leads marketers to focus on
short-term tactical issues instead of longer-term
strategy (Strang, 1976).
Consumers and sales promotion
There is general agreement that the marketing
mix should be managed as an integrated
whole. However, in practice the approach to
managing the mix often follows the Product,
Price, Place, Promotion sequence, reflecting
the perceived importance of each element in
winning customers (see Figure 18.4). Once the
product is specified, part of the total available
market will be lost because the product fea-
tures (such as colour, size, flavour or facilities)
are unsuitable for some potential customers.
Further customers will be screened out who
desire, but cannot quite afford the product;
others will find the channels used inconven-
ient, and still more will remain untouched by
the brand’s advertising. The specification of
the standard marketing mix therefore creates a
customer group for whom the basic product
offer is not ideal. These marginal consumers
represent a prime target for promotions
which, by offering additional benefits, may
overcome their reservations about the brand
to stimulate a purchase.
The targeting of such marginal consumers
is standard practice in political marketing, but
has often been neglected by commercial mar-
keters. Cummins (1989) suggests that such
non-core, low-loyalty consumers ‘tend to be
regarded by many companies with the distaste
felt for the morally promiscuous’. In fact, the
promotional battle to capture and convert
marginal consumers can be an important part
of marketing strategy because: They are very lucrative. Extra sales from
marginal consumers, minus variable costs,
equals pure profit.
Those who like the brand may become loyal
consumers.
Each marginal consumer won over deprives a
competitor of a potentially lucrative sale.The good news for marketers needing to win
over additional consumers is that promotions