Meaning of Sales Promotion

Sales promotion refers to those marketing activities — other than personal selling and advertising — that stimulate consumer buying and improve the effectiveness of dealers, by offering a short-term extra incentive to buy. In everyday language, when a shop announces "buy two, get one free", gives away a free sample of a new product, or runs a lucky-draw contest, it is engaging in sales promotion. These are the added attractions, over and above the product and its usual price, that push a hesitating buyer into an actual purchase now.

Salesmanship rests on three great promotional tools that together make up the promotion mix:

• Personal selling — face-to-face persuasion by a salesman.
• Advertising — a paid, impersonal message carried through the mass media.
• Sales promotion — the short-term incentives and devices that supplement the other two.

Sales promotion is best understood by what marks it off from the other two tools. Advertising and personal selling give the buyer reasons to buy; sales promotion gives an incentive to buy at once. Its distinctive features are:

• Short-term in nature. A sales-promotion offer runs for a limited period — a festival week, a season, the launch of a product — and is not meant to continue permanently.
• An extra incentive. It offers something more than the normal terms — a gift, a discount, a sample, a chance to win — to make buying more attractive.
• Supplementary, not a substitute. It supports advertising and personal selling; it does not replace them. Advertising builds awareness; sales promotion converts that awareness into an immediate sale.
• Aimed at three targets. It may be directed at the consumer (to buy), at the dealer/retailer (to stock and push the product), or at the firm's own salesmen (to sell harder).
• Non-recurring devices. Free samples, coupons, contests and displays are one-time or occasional efforts, not a routine feature of every sale.

Because it works quickly, sales promotion is especially useful for launching a new product, clearing surplus stock, meeting a competitor's move, and lifting sales during a slack season. It is, in short, the bridge that carries a customer from interest (created by advertising) to action (the purchase itself). The principles set out here are the general principles of marketing and selling studied across Indian commerce courses; only the everyday examples are drawn from the market a student sees around them.