The Marketing Book 5th Edition

Promotional

advertising

POS

Public

relations

Place Promotions

Product Packaging

Price

Personal

selling

Special

displays

In-store

coupons and

competitions

Special editions

Banded

packs

Free samples

Trade promotions

Retailer specific offers

Donations

Trade fairs

Sponsorships

'Spadspend' Salesforce

contests

Product literature

Coupons Money off

Credit terms

Value packs

Re-usable packs

On-pack competitions

games, recipes, etc.

474 The Marketing Book

by offering a free curry from The Curry Club.
The link between entertainment and refresh-
ments has also led to a wide range of co-
promotions, with different fast food and soft
drink brands locked in a fierce bidding war for
the right to develop promotions based on the
latest movie blockbusters. Given that the biggest
box office hits for 2001 were Harry Potter, Shrek
andMonsters Inc., the ultimate value of their
combined promotional merchandising and tie-
ins should be extraordinary. Recently, there has
been a trend towards co-promotions shared
between major brands. Kelloggs, for example,
has recently shared promotions with Pepsi and
McDonald’s. An early example of such partner-
ships occurred when General Motors (GM)
teamed up with P&G to give away 750 1988
Cadillacs at a cost of $9 million. This was each
company’s biggest ever promotion at that time.
For P&G, Cadillacs as prizes attracted con-
sumers while reinforcing P&G’s quality image,
while the seven key P&G brands involved gave
GM a direct communication channel into 98 per
cent of American homes.

Sales promotion’s role in the marketing mix

Promotions which aim to build relationships

require a much longer-term approach to pro-

motions management than the ‘quick fix’ cam-

paign stereotype. Major joint promotions can

take years to plan, and loyalty schemes or

major mechandising programmes may run for

many years. The relationship building capabil-

ities of promotions is just one of several factors

causing a re-evaluation of what promotions can

achieve for marketers. Awareness of the poten-

tial strategic impact of promotions is leading to

a more integrated approach to their manage-

ment and their role within the marketing mix.

The intertwining of promotion with the rest of

the mix is demonstrated in Figure 18.6. The

model’s ‘nine Ps’ are less memorable than the

classic four, but they demonstrate the difficul-

ties of isolating promotions within the mix (and

it is worth emphasizing that the interactions

mentioned are only an illustrative selection). To

Figure 18.6 Promotions and the marketing mix: an integrated model