Marketing Communications

SALES PROMOTIONS 377

z trade promotions by manufacturers, aimed at distributors;

z sales force promotions by manufacturers.

Th e fi rst two types are essentially similar in nature, since they are aimed at the end-consumer.

Consumer promotions can have several objectives and target groups^10 ( Figure 12.4 ). Poten-

tial new customers can be attracted to try the product. Inducing trial by new customers is

one of the most important objectives of a promotion campaign. Th is ‘horizontal’ eff ect

results from brand-switching (i.e. consumers of competing brands purchase the promoted

brand), or from attracting consumers who have never tried the product category before.

Trial promotions are particularly important when launching a new brand or a new item in a

product line. When a retailer opens a new store, trial promotions (in this case by the retailer)

can be an important tool to generate store traffi c, in other words to make consumers enter

the store.

Existing customers can be made loyal, and loyal customers can be rewarded for their

loyalty. For a marketer it may be more important (and certainly less expensive) to retain a

(loyal) customer than to convince a competitor’s client to switch brands. Th erefore, promo-

tions are frequently aimed at inducing repeat purchase or rewarding loyal customers to stop

them trying a competitor’s product on promotion.

Figure 12.3 Basic types of sales promotions

Figure 12.4 Objectives and target groups of consumer promotions

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