Chapter 19 Chapter 18 Promotion Strategy and Management

Promotion strategy is an important part of enterprise marketing strategy, and it is promotion in 4P.Modern enterprise management not only requires enterprises to produce marketable products, provide perfect sales services, set attractive prices, and make products easy to reach target customers through smooth sales channels, but also requires enterprises to control their image in the market, Design and disseminate information about product appearance, features, purchase conditions, and benefits to target customers, so as to ensure the success of marketing activities.The role of promotional activities in the modern marketing mix has been paid more and more attention.

1. The concept of promotion Promotion refers to the activities that enterprises providing products and services disseminate information to consumers, intermediaries and other publics in various ways, establish an image and win favor, so as to influence and promote people's purchasing behavior and consumption.Promotion is one of the basic strategies of enterprise marketing activities. The essence of promotion is a kind of communication activity. The information provider sends out information as a stimulus and transmits the information to one or more target objects to influence their attitudes and behaviors. .Communication activities that promote the sale of products or services on distribution channels not only disseminate information, but also persuade consumers to accept these products or services. It generally includes advertising, personal selling, public relations, and sales promotion.

2. The function and effect of promotion (1) Spread information.Through promotion and publicity, customers can understand what products the company produces and manage, what characteristics they have, where to buy them, and what the conditions for buying them are, so as to attract customers' attention, stimulate their desire to buy, and prepare for the realization and expansion of sales. (2) Expand sales.Due to the increasingly fierce market competition and various factors of the enterprise itself, the sales volume of the enterprise in each period fluctuates in a curve, and sometimes even has a continuous downward trend.In order to expand the market size and achieve the purpose of stabilizing and expanding sales, it is not enough for enterprises to only have high-quality products and smooth distribution channels. They must also establish a good image of the enterprise and products through effective promotional activities, so that consumers will have a preference , so as to promote purchases, expand sales, and increase the company's market share.In the fierce market competition, enterprises promote the characteristics of their products through promotional activities, strive to increase the popularity of products and enterprises, encourage customers to deepen their understanding and love of their products, and enhance their sense of trust, thus improving the reputation of enterprises and products. competitiveness.

(3) Strengthen corporate image and consolidate market position.Through promotional activities, a good corporate image and product image can be established, especially through the promotion of famous, high-quality, and special products, which can encourage customers to have a good impression of the company's products and the company itself, thereby cultivating and improving "brand loyalty". Consolidate and expand market share. (4) Establish the image of the enterprise and products, that is, while expanding sales, establish the image of the enterprise and its products in the minds of the public, and cultivate consumers' loyalty to the product brand and the enterprise, thereby expanding the space for marketing strategy choices and providing long-term benefits for the enterprise Create favorable conditions for development.

Modern enterprise sales promotion is an activity in which enterprises use various communication methods and means to deliver goods or services and enterprise information to consumers to achieve two-way communication. It is an activity in which consumers generate interest, favor and trust in enterprises and goods or services, and then make purchase decisions. . Communication is the sending out of information as a stimulus by the information provider or sender, and the transmission of the information to one or more target objects to influence their attitudes and behaviors.Under the conditions of modern socialized mass production and market economy, enterprises must carry out extensive information communication activities with their customers, suppliers, distributors, and the public.While delivering products and related information to target customers, promotion attempts to arouse the communicators' expectations among specific target customers, thereby having an effective impact on the behavior and attitude of target customers and achieving the fundamental goal of increasing sales.But before reaching this state, as the promotion progresses, the customer has to go through a stage from cognition to perception to action.Therefore, from the perspective of promoting target customers to go through different stages of response to the enterprise and its products through promotional activities of the enterprise, the goals of promotion are divided into the following six categories:

(1) Know.The target customer's perception of the name of the company or product.If the vast majority of target customers do not know anything about simple information such as company or product names, the purpose of the promotion should be to help people build awareness, which can be achieved by repeating these simple information.For example, the home appliance products of Shenzhen Konka Group in China need to enter the Eastern European market, but the problem is that the brand is not well-known in Eastern European countries.Therefore, the group's possible promotional goal for a period of time is to let customers in the region know the name "Kon-ka" as soon as possible.

(2) Understand.Promote target customers from the stage of just knowing its name to understand the basic situation of the company and its products.On the basis of conducting surveys on target customers, Konka may decide to make its product knowledge its primary dissemination target. (3) love.Enterprises should strive to make target customers establish a good impression of the enterprise and products.If the target customers understand the company's products, but are not optimistic about the company's products, then the promotion work will focus on shaping the company's image.If there are deficiencies in the actual work, it must be made up, and the quality after making up should be communicated to the public.

(4) Preferences.Target customers may like a certain product, but they don't necessarily have a preference.In this case, communicators must work hard to create consumer preferences, such as advertising the product's quality, value, performance, and unique features. (5) persuasion.Target customers may have a preference for a certain product, but not necessarily to the extent that they are convinced by the product and buy it.For example, a consumer wants to buy a color TV and thinks Konka TV is good, but he is not sure whether to buy this product. At this time, the purpose of the promotion staff is to convince the consumer that buying Konka TV is the best choice for him.

(6) BUY.Some of the target customers may have a sense of trust in the product, but they do not plan to buy it. They expect more information or make a decision later.The promoter's goal is to guide this segment of consumers to the final step.Strategies to stimulate action include low prices, preferential rewards, etc. Promotion process is a kind of information communication process.Enterprises communicate with intermediaries, consumers, and different publics, intermediaries communicate with consumers, and different publics, and there are also information exchanges among consumers.There are four main ways for enterprises to communicate with consumers and the public: advertising, business promotion, public relations and personal selling.

The information communication process is a complete action process.Figure 18-2 shows the most typical nine-element information communication model. The information sender is the subject of information transmission, also called information source or communicator. Coding is the process of encoding information into symbols. Information is the basic content to be disseminated, which is expressed as a set of signals after encoding. The media is the means and channels for information dissemination. Decoding is the process by which the receiver confirms the meaning of the symbols conveyed by the sender.

Information receivers are the audio-visual masses or the end point of information dissemination, also known as the audience. Noise is unplanned interference or distortion in the communication process, which may cause the receiver to receive different information from the sender's message. The above communication models highlight some key elements in effective communication: (1) The sender must understand the audience, determine the target of communication, and be able to effectively code the information according to the audience, adopt effective communication channels, and must also establish information feedback channels to understand the receiver's response to the information. (2) To make the information effective, the encoding process of the sender must be consistent with the decoding process of the receiver. The more the experiences of the sender and receiver overlap, the better the effect of the information will be. (3) The impact of noise on information communication is mainly based on the following reasons: first, the receiver pays attention selectively, and it is impossible to pay attention to all the stimuli; second, the receiver will selectively misinterpret the information according to his own intention ; Again, the receiver will selectively remember, and may only remember a small part of the information obtained. Establishing an effective promotion system includes the following processes: The sender of marketing information must determine the target customer, understand the characteristics of the target customer, then determine the communication goal of the enterprise, determine the content of the information, select an effective information communication channel, prepare the total promotion budget, and formulate Promotional mix, evaluation of promotional effectiveness, and management and coordination of the marketing communications process. Study the characteristics of target customers, and require companies to understand the depth of understanding and impressions of target customers on the company and products from the aspect of promotion. 1. Depth of understanding Depth of understanding refers to the target customer's understanding of the enterprise and its products.To study the depth of target customers' understanding of the company and its products, scoring methods can usually be used.For example, the customer's understanding depth is divided into five levels from not knowing at all to knowing very well, namely: (1) Don't know at all. (2) I have heard a little bit. (3) Know something. (4) Learn more. (5) Very familiar. Of course, the grades can be divided into more or fewer grades as needed.Through the investigation, we can know the target customers' understanding of the company and its products. 2. Impression Impression refers to the image that a company and its products have established in the minds of target customers.In order to make it easier for the company to formulate targeted promotion goals, after understanding the depth of knowledge of the target customers, it is also necessary to know the target customers' impressions of the company and its products.In this aspect of research, the above-mentioned scoring method can still be used.For example, the customer's impression of the company and its products can be divided into five levels from very bad impression to very good impression: (1) Bad impression. (2) The impression is not very good. (3) General impression. (4) The impression is better. (5) Very good impression. Likewise, there can be more or fewer grades of points. 3. Comprehensive If the depth of knowledge and impression are taken as the horizontal axis and the vertical axis respectively, an analysis block diagram as shown in Figure 18-3 can be established.The depth of knowledge in the figure starts from "a little knowledge", because when the depth of knowledge is "not at all", it is impossible to say whether the impression is good or bad.Mark the survey results of the enterprise and its products on the graph, and according to its position in the graph, you can roughly understand the basic characteristics of the target customers that the enterprise is facing.For example, through the investigation of target customers, company A finds that the average score of target customers' understanding of the company is 5, and the average score of impression is 3. The position of the company in the figure is at point A, that is, customers know more about the company, but the company Poor image in the minds of target customers. The content of information design includes determining the content of information, determining the structure of information, selecting the format of information, selecting the source of information, and selecting channels of communication. 1. Determining the content of the information Information content is the theme to be expressed in information communication, and it explains why target customers are interested in products.There are three types of information content: One is rational appeal.The rational appeal is to demonstrate the real benefits of the product, such as information about the quality, economy, value and performance of the product. The second is emotional appeal.Emotional appeals use emotions such as love, humor, pleasure, fear, guilt, etc. to persuade people to do or not to do something.Such as using dire consequences to dissuade people from taking drugs, drinking alcohol, etc. The third is moral appeal.It is set according to the value concept of target customers, and is used to motivate people to support social public causes, such as using the concept of "environmental protection" to motivate consumers to purchase CFC-free refrigeration products. 2. Determine the structure of the information Information structure is the way of expressing the information to be conveyed in communication.Specific choices for the sender of the message include: whether a definitive conclusion should be presented for the audience, or left to the audience to figure out; whether to praise the product only, or to mention some of its shortcomings as well; exhibit. The information structure often has a very important impact. For example, too clear conclusions will limit the degree of acceptance of the product by customers. If the "cover in cover" emphasizes that it is a product for middle-aged and elderly patients, it may drive away patients of other age groups .Ambiguous stimuli can lead to wider market boundaries.For complex products and specialized products tending towards a single and defined use, it is necessary to draw clear conclusions. 3. Format of selected information The format of the information should be determined in combination with the specific characteristics of the communication media.In print advertising, the communicator must decide on titles, text, illustrations, and colors; in advertising, the planner must carefully choose the wording, pronunciation and sound quality; Other non-linguistic factors are taken into consideration. 4. Select sources of information The audience's attitude towards the source of information or the propagandist has an important impact on the effectiveness of information communication.Advertisers often choose film and television stars, sports stars, etc. to shoot advertisements, just to take advantage of the persuasive power of celebrity effects.For example, the British football star David Beckham advertises for Pepsi. The credibility of an information source is jointly determined by professionalism, reliability and likability.Professionalism means that the information transmitter has enough professional knowledge to refute different opinions. For example, doctors or medical experts are used in drug advertisements to take advantage of their professional authority.Reliability is related to the apparent objectivity of the source of information, and generally speaking, friends tend to be more trustworthy than strangers or salespeople.Favorability is used to describe the attractiveness of a source to a recipient.Qualities such as enthusiasm, humor, and naturalness can make a source more attractive. 5. Choose the communication channel The information sender must choose an effective information communication channel to disseminate the information.Communication channels can be divided into personnel information communication channels and non-personnel information communication channels. The personnel information communication channel is two or more people who communicate directly with each other, and can use face-to-face conversation, one person talking and one person listening, phone calls, etc., or contact through written mail or e-mail.Specifically, it includes the contact between the salesperson of the enterprise, relevant experts or other personnel in the society and the target customers.Human influence can play a greater role when the product is expensive, risky, purchased infrequently, or the product has certain social significance characteristics. Non-personal information communication channels refer to information dissemination that does not require human contact or interaction, and it includes three elements: media, atmosphere, and events.Media include mass media for a large number of target customers and selective media for special audiences, such as print media (newspapers, magazines), broadcast media (radio, television), electronic media (Internet, videotapes), and display media (billboards, signs, posters).Atmosphere refers to a specific environment designed to strengthen buyers' understanding of products. For example, law firms use oriental-colored carpets and oak furniture to convey a sense of "steadiness" and "experience".Events refer to activities that are occasionally used to disseminate special information to target customers, such as press conferences, large-scale opening ceremonies, sports sponsorships, etc. arranged by the public relations department, so as to achieve special communication effects on target customers. Promotion is a huge and complicated activity, which will inevitably require a lot of activity funds. Without sufficient expenses as a basis, a perfect promotion plan is just a wonderful castle in the air.According to the business content involved in the promotion process, the promotion fee consists of the following expenses. 1. Sales force compensation Sales staff remuneration is an important part of promotional funds. The level of remuneration and the form or composition of remuneration directly affect the effect of sales activities.The remuneration of sales staff generally consists of basic salary, bonus (including commission or profit percentage), allowance, welfare (including insurance), special incentives, etc.Among them, basic wages and benefits are fixed expenses; bonuses and allowances are variable expenses, which are drawn according to the ratio of business volume.It should be noted that the salesperson here refers to all kinds of personnel engaged in promotional activities, including salespersons, management personnel of sales organizations, market researchers, maintenance personnel, drivers and warehouse customs declaration personnel, etc. 2. Advertising costs Advertising is an important means to establish corporate image, enhance competitiveness and expand sales channels.Advertising expenses are various expenses that enterprises use for advertising activities, including advertising planning expenses (including advertising research fees), media fees, production fees, management fees and other related expenses. 3. PR expenses PR campaigns are also an important promotional attack, sometimes even more cost-effective than advertising because of their newsworthiness and credibility.The forms of public relations activities are flexible and diverse, and the required expenses are also varied in thousands of ways.The cost of public relations is usually divided into daily administrative costs and special costs.Daily administrative expenses consist of public relations staff remuneration, facility material costs and management costs.If the public relations activities are completely represented by a public relations company, the public relations fees shall be paid according to the charging standards of the public relations company.Special expenses include sponsorship fees, conference fees (press conferences, press conferences and exhibitions, etc.) and celebrations, etc. 4. Business Expenses Business expenses are the expenses required by the salesperson to engage in specific business work.With the increasingly fierce market competition, the scope of business has expanded from specific sales work to the prerequisites for the successful completion of sales tasks, such as sales staff training.The corresponding business expenses include training expenses, travel expenses, conference expenses (order fairs and exhibitions), business entertainment expenses, sales discounts and discounts, bad debt losses and printing expenses, etc. 5. After-sales service fee Now the market is full of gunpowder, and the market competition is extremely fierce, which can be tolerated by cruelty.Market competition has shifted from single price competition to all-round competition, and providing high-quality after-sales service has become an important weapon for enterprises to improve market competitiveness.The cost of after-sales service generally includes: consumable materials and fuel power costs, wages and surcharges, customer loss compensation and some management costs. 6. Sales logistics costs In the sales process, along with the transfer of commodity ownership between producers and consumers, the displacement of commodities in time and space (that is, logistics activities) also requires payment.For example, the enterprise needs to have enough inventory to meet the possible sales volume and avoid the opportunity cost of being out of stock, and the inventory itself needs to bear the cost of the site and the interest on the loan.Logistics costs mainly include inventory costs, packaging costs and transportation costs. 1. Economic conditions Some companies tend to cut promotional budgets in bad times and increase them in good times.Companies following this approach tend to treat promotions as an "expense" rather than an investment. 2. Company profitability The promotional budget may be limited or reduced based on the need to achieve the company's next year's profit.Few companies can provide a promotional budget that allows promotional managers to do whatever they want while generating a steady stream of profits that satisfy shareholders.Boosting promotions and increasing profits are often, to some extent, antithetical to each other. 3. Competition in the market Many companies use their competitors' promotional expenses as an indicator when budgeting for promotional expenses.For example, the Toyota car manufacturer has increased its promotional expenses by a large amount, and its advertising expenses have been widely exposed by the TV media. If other car manufacturers do not follow up, they may gradually lose their market share, so they have to follow up the competition. 4. Stages of the product life cycle Products in different life cycles have different promotion methods, promotion tools, and promotion costs.When a new product is widely promoted to the market during the launch period of its life cycle, it usually requires considerable promotional funds.In the growth stage, in order to successfully promote the product, still need to have a large amount of promotional expenses.Products in a mature or declining period often start from price competition and do not need a large promotional budget. 5. The level of product profit If the profit of the product is high, part of the expected profit can be easily allocated as promotional funds. If the profit of the product is low, due to the limited promotion budget, the cost must be spent wisely, so we have to find ways to promote it through various channels. 6. Product attributes Consumer goods require a lot of promotional expenses, because it uses intensive distribution methods, so it is biased towards using a lot of advertising and doing pre-marketing work before customers go to the self-service store to buy.Trendy products require less promotion because buyers often feel they can judge the product's quality for themselves. 7. The usage status of promotional expenses in the past Some companies think that promotional activities are roughly fixed every year, and they use absolute figures to prepare budgets. Referring to the data of previous years, if the situation does not change much, the company's budgets are as close as possible to the previous year. 8. Length of time Companies use a specific length of time to prepare promotional budgets, most of which are based on "years".When a long-term investment is required, a longer period of time may be used to prepare a promotional budget. 1. Allocation of promotional expenses in the marketing mix Profit maximization is the goal pursued by every enterprise. Promotional activities are conducive to expanding sales, but at the same time they have to pay sales costs.Each kind of sales activity requires a certain cost, and the cost varies, and the effect is also different.How to rationally allocate the total sales cost of priority to various marketing activities, and make use of every penny to achieve the most reasonable use is a major task for enterprise managers.For example, what percentage should be spent on advertising, how much should be spent on personal sales, what percentage should be spent on market research, etc. Under the condition of a certain total sales cost, various sales activities in the marketing mix can be substituted for each other, and the cost should be allocated among the various sales activities in the following way, that is, the marginal income from the marginal expenditure on each marketing means The profits are distributed equally. The allocation of promotional expenses is affected by many factors.There is an interaction among the elements of the marketing mix. For example, higher advertising expenses can make consumers have a desire to buy in advance, and can reduce the cost of personal selling.In addition, the allocation of promotional expenses is also affected by non-marketing factors in the enterprise, such as the labor productivity, personnel policy, and investment decision-making of the enterprise. 2. Allocation of promotional costs among target markets A company must face more than one target market, it will face several different target markets, and business managers are also faced with the problem of allocating promotional expenses among different target markets.The allocation of promotional expenses should be based on marginal sales response rather than average sales response. Suppose a company spends 30 million yuan on promotional expenses in two target markets. In target market A, the company’s sales are 400 million yuan, while in target market B it is 200 million yuan.Therefore, target market A has a greater average sales response per dollar of marketing effort than target market B, which is 40/3 for target market A and 20/3 for target market B.But we can't simply use this as a basis to allocate expenses, but we should further analyze their marginal utility.The marginal response is the slope of the sales function at that point.If the slope of target market B is larger than that of target market A, when the promotion cost increases by another 10 million yuan, target market B will increase sales by 100 million yuan, while target market A may only increase sales by 20 million yuan, so it should be Marginal utility is used to guide the allocation of promotional costs. 3. Allocation of promotional expenses among various products It is impossible for each enterprise to produce only a single commodity. Each company has a variety of different products, so the promotional expenses should be allocated to various products using appropriate standards, so as to calculate the promotional expenses that each product should bear. Provide a basis for pricing decisions for a product. In principle, the distribution of promotional expenses should be carried out according to various business items and their beneficiaries.If the cost is not large, it can also be allocated in a combined manner, or only the items with a large cost can be allocated separately, and the rest can be allocated in a combined manner.The criteria for allocation are generally: (1) Freight and miscellaneous charges are allocated according to the weight or volume of the shipped product. (2) The packing fee shall be allocated according to the quota of packing cost of various products. (3) If the advertising fee of a single product is directly included in the cost of the product, if it is a joint advertising fee, it will be distributed among multiple products according to the sales volume. (4) The exhibition fee is allocated according to the value of the product. (5) Insurance premiums are determined separately for each product. (6) Fees for special sales agencies are distributed according to the sales of products sold by independent sales agencies. (7) Other expenses are allocated according to product sales. 4. Evaluation of the effect of the overall promotional activities Manufacturers use various promotional combinations and design various promotional strategies to promote the progress of marketing, but the effect must be evaluated after the overall promotional effect. The specific evaluation items are as follows: (1) Sales.In the overall effect evaluation, sales is the first evaluation item.The measurement of sales must have a specific and quantitative basis, and use the changes in the data before and after as the effect test.For example, "the product sold 5 million yuan per month before the implementation of the promotion", "the product sold 6.7 million yuan in the first month after the promotion", "the product sold 5.7 million yuan in the second month after the promotion", etc. Sales returns and discounts must be deducted from sales, which is an important criterion for evaluating a manufacturer's operating performance.Net sales can be expressed in monetary or quantitative units.When a company sells multiple products, it usually uses product-by-product net sales, and the calculated difference, whether it is an increase or decrease, is an indicator of the company's promotion status.Similarly, the sales of this year can also be compared with the sales of previous years to observe the sales trend. Especially for the effect of the overall promotion, the sales volume must be compared with the pre-planned target amount, and it is clear at a glance by comparing the success rate of the promotion effect. (2) Distribution rate.The so-called distribution rate refers to the ratio of its own brand in the distribution channels of the same type of products.The more distribution points are developed, the higher the distribution rate is, and the exposure of products to consumers will also increase. Therefore, the product sales channels will be wider and its sales opportunities will be more and more. To evaluate the distribution rate of promotional activities, it is first necessary to prepare a marketing map to clearly mark the distributors in the target area; secondly, to set the promotion target for the distribution rate.Every time a distribution point is added, the distribution rate will increase (1/all distribution points)×100%.To know whether the goal in this regard has been achieved, as long as the newly increased number of distributions is divided by the number of distributions after the end of the promotion, the increase in the distribution rate can be known. (3) The number of people participating in the promotion.The promotion effect is directly proportional to the number of promotion people and the sales promotion; if the number of promotion people is large, the probability of purchasing goods will be relatively improved; the momentum of the crowd flow is large, and the sales volume will naturally increase in terms of buying and selling.Therefore, the number of participants is the most important thing in evaluating the effect of the entire promotional activity. If a company organizes promotional activities, if it can persuade more dealers to participate in the promotion, it will definitely improve its performance; if it can attract more participants, the promotional activity will achieve better performance. For example, a company organizes a lottery promotion for purchasing goods. If there are many participants, it means that there are more customers and high sales volume; for retailers, attracting crowds is an important promotion goal. For example, supermarkets use specific products as Giveaways to attract crowds. (4) The number of trial products.It is better to see once than to hear a hundred times, and to try is worse than seeing a hundred times.If it is difficult to explain the strong and powerful features of the product itself, it can be directly resorted to trial methods, so that consumers can immediately understand the features of the product after trying it on the spot. Consumers are more likely to have a purchase demand because they understand the features of the product.For example, hold food tasting activities in supermarkets, hold supermarket tastings in the media, and match a group of trained product promotion personnel, wearing bright and distinctive uniform clothing, to explain product features and sell products on the spot.In order to evaluate the overall effect of promotional activities, enterprises can evaluate the number of people who listen to product introductions, the number of people who taste and try products on the spot, the number of customers who buy on the spot, and the total number of transactions on the spot. Establishing a promotional budget is one of the most important promotional decisions.John Wanamaker, an American department store tycoon, said: "I know that half of my advertising expenses are wasted, but I don't know which half." The promotion expenses of different industries vary greatly. For example, the promotion expenses of the cosmetics industry account for The proportion of the amount is as high as 30% to 50%, while the proportion of the machinery industry is only 10% to 20%.The promotional expenses of different companies in the same industry also vary greatly. How should a business decide its promotional budget?The following four are commonly used. 1. Sales Percentage Method The percentage of sales method is to determine the size of promotional expenses based on the percentage of the company's current or forecasted sales.Its advantages are: (1) The promotional expenses will change with the payment ability of the whole company to ensure the stability and health of the company's financial situation. (2) Motivate the management to try to coordinate the balance among promotion cost, sales price and unit profit, and consider the development of the company on this basis. (3) If all competing companies adopt the method of sales percentage, the stability of competition can be maintained to a certain extent. Still, the percentage-of-sales method is not practical, and it is logically confusing to use sales as a cause rather than an effect of a promotion.At the same time, the use of this method is not conducive to the company's implementation of counter-cyclical promotion strategies and aggressive promotion strategies based on sales conditions. 2. Do what you can The method of doing according to one's ability means that the enterprise determines the promotional budget according to its own affordability, and spends as much money as it can for promotional publicity.This method of determining the budget does not consider the promotion as an investment and the direct impact of the promotion on sales.This often leads to the uncertainty of the annual budget, which makes long-term marketing communication planning very difficult. 3. Goal task method The goal task method means that the enterprise determines its promotion goals in advance, and then decides the required promotion expenditure according to the promotion goals to be completed.When using the target task method, the enterprise must first determine the target of the market share, and then speculate on the market breadth that the promotion method can reach and the intensity of the public's response to the promotion, and then determine the intensity, frequency and cost of the promotion. 4. Competitor Law When deciding on the promotional budget, the enterprise determines the promotional expenses of the enterprise based on the promotional expenses spent by the competitors, and keeps the same percentage of sales as the competitors.The purpose of using this law is to maintain the balance of market competition and a stable market share.However, it is not very scientific to use the opponent's promotion expenses as the basis, because the effect of promotion is not only related to expenses, but also related to the company's goodwill, resources, opportunities and goals. Promotion mix refers to the organic whole formed by combining different promotion methods to achieve the promotion goal of the enterprise.According to the characteristics of the promotion mix and the factors affecting the promotion, the enterprise should effectively combine the four types of promotion methods such as advertising, personal selling, business promotion and public relations, make appropriate selections, and use them comprehensively so that the enterprise can invest in the promotion with the lowest cost. Achieve the best promotion effect. 1. Push strategy Push strategy refers to the strategy that enterprises mainly adopt various marketing methods to push products to the market, from manufacturers to wholesalers, from wholesalers to retailers, and finally to consumers (see Figure 18-4 ). In this strategy, the direction of the promotion is aligned with the flow of the product through the sales channel.The push strategy usually takes middlemen as the main promotion target, and adopts personal selling and business promotion methods.For more expensive products, especially some special-purpose products, the push strategy is mainly used, requiring salespeople to use different methods for different products and different customers. 2. Pull strategy Pull strategy refers to the direct marketing of enterprises to consumers, stimulating consumers' purchase demand for products, and then prompting consumers to buy products from intermediaries. A strategy to achieve the goal of selling a product to the market (see Figure 18-5).In the pull strategy, advertising and public relations promotion methods are mainly used.For some products with low prices or a wide range of sales targets, especially daily consumer goods, the pull strategy is mainly used.When a new product is launched and needs to expand its popularity, a pull strategy is often adopted. 3. Push-pull combination strategy Under normal circumstances, companies can also combine the above two strategies to stimulate market demand through advertisements while promoting vigorously to middlemen. This strategy is called a push-pull combination strategy.Its program is shown in Figure 18-6. Carrying out pull promotion at the same time as push promotion, using two-way promotional efforts to bring products to the market, is more effective than using push or pull strategies alone. There are four types of modern sales promotion communication methods: personal selling, advertising, business promotion, public relations and publicity, etc., which have their own communication characteristics. 1. Personal Selling Personal selling means that enterprises send sales personnel to introduce, promote, publicize and sell products to target customers in person.Under the guidance of modern marketing concepts, the function of personal selling is not only to sell existing goods, but also to cooperate with the overall marketing activities of the enterprise to meet the needs of customers.In the process of face-to-face and unrestrained negotiation with customers, salesmen can understand customers' requirements more specifically and collect more accurate relevant information.In addition, the relationship between salespersons and customers can develop from the original simple business relationship to interpersonal friendship and affection, and establish a long-term cooperative relationship, which is beyond the reach of other promotion methods. 2. Advertising Advertisement refers to a promotion method in which an enterprise pays a certain fee according to a certain budget and transmits product information to a large number of target customers through certain media.在信息化程度越来越高的现代社会中，广告是企业促销活动中最有效和最常见的手段。广告能迅速而广泛地向消费者和用户提供产品信息，因为广告媒体通常是大众化的传播方式，如广播、电视、互联网、报纸、杂志及其他醒目的有形物体等。 3.营业推广 营业推广是指企业运用各种短期诱因鼓励购买以促进企业产品或服务的销售的一种方式。营业推广方式包括以消费者或用户为对象的推广方式、以中间商为对象的推广方式以及以推销人员为对象的推广方式。营业推广的最大特点是即期效用明显。在推销新产品或服务时或为了与竞争对手进行直接竞争时，营业推广的作用非常明显。 4.公共关系与宣传 公共关系与宣传是指企业为了获得人们的信赖，树立企业或产品的形象，或者帮助实施销售的活动，用非付款的方式通过各种公共宣传工具所进行的活动。公共关系活动包括一切对企业有利的公共宣传。为达到预期目的，企业组织的公共关系部门可运用加强与新闻界的关系、产品宣传、企业内部与外部的信息沟通、对立法者和政府官员进行游说及提出建议和提供咨询等各种方式方法。 促销组合不是绝对的，在实际的促销活动中不存在绝对单一的促销方式，促销以及促销组合在如今硝烟弥漫的商战中发挥着重要的战略作用，越来越受到大家的认知和重视，因而需要有效的促销策划。对企业来说，有诸多复杂的因素影响到促销形式和手段的选择，于是，依据不同的因素就应该形成不同的促销组合策略。一般来讲，影响促销组合的因素有以下几种。 1.促销目标 企业在不同时期及不同的市场环境下有不同的具体的促销目标。由于目标重点各异，因此促销组合策略应因地因时而异。 比如在一定时期内，某企业的促销目标是在某一特定市场迅速增加销售量，扩大市场份额，则其促销组合应更注重于广告和营业推广，强调短期效益。 若企业的目标是塑造企业在消费者心目中的形象，为其产品今后占领市场、赢得有利的竞争地位奠定基础，则促销组合应更注重于公共关系并辅之以必要的公益性广告，强调长期效益。 2.产品因素 不同类型的产品，面对的购买者不同，购买的要求和目标自然也不同，因此所使用的促销组合也应不同。比如，消费品和业务产品所适用的促销组合就存在很大的差异，不同的促销方式对其促销效果的相对重要性是不同的，如图18-7所示。 如图18-7所示，对于消费品，首先广告是最重要的促销方式，其次是营业推广、人员推销，公共关系的相对重要性最小。而对于业务产品，首先最重要的促销方式是人员推销，其次是营业推广、广告、公共关系。可见，对这两种不同类型的产品，广告和人员推销的相对重要程度差别很大。一般消费品的技术结构比较简单，购买者众多，销售范围广且分散，所以广告方式促销最为有效；而业务产品技术性及专用性都较强，需要专人操作示范和讲解，所以人员推销的方式最为有效。但是，除此之外的其他促销方式的结合运用对于提高促销效益的作用也是不容忽视的。比如，根据美国Morrill的研究结果，在业务产品的营销中，人员推销结合广告实现的销售额比没有广告的情况下的销售额高23%，同时还可以减少20%的促销成本。所以，应当灵活运用各种促销方式，发挥组合的优势。 此外，同一类型的不同产品，由于价格、规格、结构、购买量等各方面的差异，所适用的促销方式及促销组合应该也是各有侧重的。 3.顾客与市场特性 根据顾客对企业或产品的认知程度，可以将购买行为过程划分为知晓、了解、信任和购买四个阶段。在不同的认知阶段，不同促销方式的促销效果是不同的。如图18-8所示，在建立购买者知晓阶段，广告和公共关系与宣传促销的作用最大；在促进顾客对企业及其产品的了解阶段，除了广告和公共关系与宣传外，人员推销也起着重要的作用；在信任阶段，首先为顾客对企业及产品的信任程度受人员推销的影响最大，其次为广告、公共关系与宣传和营业推广；在促成顾客购买的阶段，首先是人员推销发挥最主要的作用，其次是营业推广。了解不同促销方式在不同认知阶段的效果差异，有助于企业克服促销工作中的盲目性，以有限投入取得最大的效益。 对于不同的市场，各种促销方式的作用大小也是不一样的。而且，不同的市场对不同的促销方式的接受程度也不同。如在某些地区，顾客在选购产品时比较信赖推销人员的推荐，此时人员推销就显得较为重要。而对于一些消费者对广告普遍持不信任态度的地区，广告的效果显然就不会高。 因此，企业在选择促销方式的时候，必须首先对所面临市场的特性有充分的了解，然后再选用与之相适应的促销组合。 4.促销的基本策略 促销策略根据直接和间接促销的方法可以分为推式策略还是拉式策略，企业是采取推式策略还是拉式策略，对于促销组合的影响也很大。 5.产品生命周期阶段 在产品生命周期的不同阶段，各种促销方式的促销效果相差较大，因此也应该使用不同的促销组合。图18-9为产品生命周期不同阶段不同促销方式的相对效果。 在导入期，促销的目的主要是建立产品的知名度，让更多的顾客认识并了解新产品，所以广告和公共关系在这方面具有最显著的作用。在成长期，由于有了导入期强大的促销攻势，整体促销水平可能降低，但影响最大的促销方式仍是广告和公共关系促销。在成熟期，因为顾客对产品已经比较熟悉，所以，广告和公共关系与宣传方式虽具有较强的促销效果，但营业推广的作用已开始超过广告和公共关系与宣传促销。在衰退期，除了营业推广的效果继续进一步提高外，其他各种促销方式的效果都在显著下降。因此，在产品寿命周期的不同阶段，应根据不同促销方式的相对效果，选择相应的促销组合。 6.促销预算 促销方式的选择在很大程度上受促销预算的制约。在促销预算不足的情况下，费用比较昂贵的促销方式，如电视广告、高强度的营业推广促销就无法使用。只有在促销预算充足，或者采取目标任务法决定促销预算的情况下，促销预算才不会对促销组合的选择产生实质性的影响。 7.实际因素 任何商品都会面临销售时机和非销售时机。显然，在销售时机(如销售旺季、流行期、特别活动和节假日等)应当限期促销商潮。一般都要以广告、销售促进为重点，而在平时则应以公共关系与宣传和人员促销为主。 8.其他营销因素 促销组合的确定还需要与其他营销策略相配合。例如，价格策略，如果企业实行的是薄利多销的低价策略，可能就无力承担较高的促销费用；相反，如果企业实行高价策略，则可以支出较多的促销费用，进行更多的促销活动。又如，渠道策略，若企业采取直接渠道模式，则主要由人员推销来完成促销过程，同时辅之以少量广告即可；反之，若采取的是间接渠道模式，则应以广告为主要信息传播方式，同时辅之以其他促销方式。 在对不同促销方式特点以及促销组合影响因素的研究基础上，结合其他企业的成功经验和本企业的实践，企业一般便可制定出比较合理的促销组合策略。但是，要使企业有效利用各种促销方式，实现最大促销效果，也即达到最佳促销组合，必须依靠科学的决策方法。在实际的促销组合决策中，一般按照图18-10所示的程序进行。 第一阶段，在对企业所面对的目标顾客特征研究的基础上，确定企业相应的促销目标，是提供顾客所需信息，或是稳定销售等。 第二阶段，根据企业促销目标，采取一种或几种促销方式进行促销，即为建立初始的促销组合。 第三阶段，对企业的促销组合及其所产生的效果进行评价。促销组合评价是下一阶段促销调整的依据。在对促销组合进行评价之前，首先必须选择评价指标，评价指标应该反映企业的促销目标，据此才能对促销组合效果进行判断。不同的促销目标，反映促销组合效果的指标不同。如果企业的促销目标是提供信息，则可以以接触到相应信息的人数作为反映促销效果的指标；若企业的促销目标是在淡季稳定销售，则可以以淡季销售量与旺季销售量的差额作为促销效果评价指标；对于其他促销目标，同样也可以选择相对应的指标。如果企业促销目标发生变化，反映促销效果的指标也应相应地变化。通过对促销组合进行评价，可以分析促销组合中所存在的问题和不足，从而以此为依据对企业的促销组合进行调整。根据促销组合决策的理论模式，最佳促销组合只有在各种促销方式的边际促销效果相等时才能达到。因此，这一条件就是是否需要对促销组合进行进一步调整的判断标准。达到了这一条件，促销组合就不需要调整了；否则，还需要对促销组合进行调整。 第四阶段，促销组合调整。促销组合评价是促销组合调整的依据。在对促销组合进行调整时，一般是对促销费用的分配进行少量调整；或是对某类促销方式去掉效果明显很小的促销方法，而增加可能会产生较大促销效果的促销方法。这种调整一般应该使得每种促销方式逐步发挥其最大作用。经过调整后的促销组合，需要再进行促销组合评价，直至达到最佳。 在进行促销组合评价以及调整时，必须考虑到促销效果的显现具有滞后性。只有将滞后时间考虑在内所进行的评价才可能是客观真实的，据此评价结果而进行的调整才会有效。 由于市场竞争日趋激烈，企业越来越多地运用一些营业推广方式来刺激中间商和消费者的购买行为，以达到带动销售的目的。如何作出正确的营业推广决策是企业面临的重要课题之一。 营业推广又称销售促进，是指企业运用各种短期诱因鼓励购买以促进企业产品或服务的销售的活动。营业推广的形式多样，有赠送优惠券、折扣优待、付费赠送、陈列、演示、展览等，几乎包括除人员推销、广告和公共关系以外的各种促销手段的总和。美国市场营销委员会的定义就是：除了人员推广、广告和宣传报道以外的刺激消费者购买和经销商效益的种种企业市场营销行为。 营业推广在20世纪六七十年代得到迅速发展，1969~1976年，美国营业推广的支出额每年增加9.4%，而同期的广告支出每年增长5.4%。1986年，美国营业推广的费用高达1020亿美元，占促销活动总费用的64.4%，而广告费只占35.65%。我国企业在20世纪80年代后也开始使用某些营业推广方式来刺激购买、招徕顾客，如奖券、竞猜等。 1.营业推广的作用 (1)沟通作用。企业可通过各种营业推广的方式，使消费者尤其是潜在消费者体会到产品的实际功效，获得对该产品的了解，达到加强与消费者沟通的目的。在买卖行为发生的特定时间和空间，广告和公共关系等促销方式的效果可能消失，而在这种情况下，销售人员如果在购买地点和购买时间及时运用适当的营业推广促销方式来通知、提醒、刺激顾客，可以促成立即交易，使潜在购买变为现实购买。 (2)激励作用。企业可以运用营业推广方式来吸引产品的新试用者和报答忠于本企业的老顾客。比如向买主提供某些额外的利益、赠送样品、价格让利等，从而刺激消费者试用和购买。在品牌繁多、竞争激烈的产品推广和新产品进入市场的过程中，运用营业推广方式是必要的。先让消费者免费使用新产品样品，可引起消费者对新产品的兴趣。 (3)协调作用。制造商在销售过程中可以与中间商发展和保持良好的关系，取得他们的合作是至关重要的。比如向中间商提供购买馈赠、陈列馈赠以鼓励订货；向零售商提供交易补贴以弥补其制作产品广告、张贴商业通知或布置产品陈列时所花费的费用；通过批量折扣、类别顾客折扣、经销竞赛等方式来诱导中间商购买更多的商品。 (4)竞争作用。当竞争者大规模地发起促销活动时，如不及时地采取针锋相对的促销措施，往往会大面积地损失已享有的市场份额。对此，可采用减价赠券或减价包装的方式来增强企业经营的同类产品对顾客的吸引力，以此来稳定和扩大自己的顾客队伍。此外，还可采用购货累计折扣和优待的方式来促使顾客增加购货数量和提高购货频率等。 2.营业推广的特征 (1)非连续性。典型的营业推广不像广告、人员推销、公共关系那样作为一种常规性的促销活动出现，而是用于短期的和额外的促销工作，其着眼点在于解决某些更为具体的促销问题，因而是非规则性、非连续性的使用和出现的。 (2)形式多样。营业推广的工具多种多样，这些方式各有其长处与特点，可以根据企业经营的不同商品的特点和面临的不同市场营销环境灵活地加以选择和运用。主要有以下三种： ·针对消费者，有赠送样品、提供各种价格折扣、消费信用、赠券、竞赛、现场表演和服务促销等。 ·针对中间商，包括批量折扣、现金折扣、购买折让、合作广告津贴、经销商销售竞赛、为经销商培训销售人员、展览会和联合促销等。 ·针对销售队伍，比如奖金、红利提成、推销竞赛和推销宣传材料等。 (3)即期效应。营业推广往往是在某一特定的时间里，针对某方面的消费者或中间商提供一定特殊优惠购买条件，能给买方以强烈的刺激作用。一般来说，该方式如果运用得当，其效果可以很快地在经营活动中显示出来，而不像其他的促销方式那样有一个较长的滞后期。因此，营业推广最适宜应用于完成短期的具体目标。 1.建立营业推广的目标 营业推广目标在总体上是受企业市场营销总目标制约的，是这一总目标在促销策略方面的具体化。在不同类型的目标市场上，营业推广的目标是各不相同的。 对消费者来说，推广目标可以确定为鼓励经常和重复购买、吸引新购买者试用，改进和树立品牌形象等。 对中间商来说，推广目标可以确定为促使零售商购买新的产品项目和提高购买水平，鼓励非季节性购买，建立起零售商对该品牌的忠诚度，打进新的零售行业等。 对推销人员来说，推广目标可以确定为鼓励对新产品成熟型号的支持，鼓励更高的销售水平等。企业营销部门要通过多因素的分析，确定一定时期内营业推广的目标并尽可能使之数量化。 2.选择营业推广的工具 营业推广的工具是多种多样的，各有其特点和使用范围，在选择使用何种营业推广工具来达到以上目标时，推广策划人员需要综合考虑的主要因素包括： (1)营业推广目标。营业推广目标是选择营业推广工具时应考虑的首要因素，它决定营业推广工具的选择范围及其必备条件。若营业推广的目标是吸引新试用者，一般主要采用赠送样品、免费使用等营业推广工具；若营业推广的目标是增加中间商的库存，则价格折扣是最直接的工具。 (2)产品类型。不同的产品，面临不同的目标顾客，因而使用的营业推广工具也应不同。对于日常用品，可以向消费者赠送样品；对生产资料则通常使用数量或价格折扣方式。 (3)市场环境。不同市场的营业推广对象因市场环境的差异，对不同营业推广方式有不同的反应。如对于抽奖活动，有的市场反应热烈，而有的市场反应冷淡。所以应对不同的市场有针对性地选择推广工具。 (4)竞争状况。一是要针对竞争者所使用的营业推广工具，选择有利于本企业竞争的推广工具。二是要分析企业采用某种营业推广工具以后，是否会引发竞争者的强烈反应及强硬的应对措施。 (5)各种营业推广工具的成本与效益。企业市场营销费用预算中多少用于促销，促销预算中多少用于营业推广，这是对营业推广工具选择的硬约束。另外，每种营业推广工具的成本效益以及不同工具组合的综合效益也是不同的。 3.制定营业推广方案 营业推广方案是指营业推广活动实施的具体安排，也即企业对推广的刺激强度、对象、途径、时间及营业推广的预算作出具体安排。 (1)激励的强度。激励的强度是指企业营业推广活动所产生的刺激程度的大小或规模的大小。一般来说，营业推广的强度越高，对推广对象产生的刺激越大，可能产生的营业推广效果越大。但营业推广强度与效果并不是呈线性关系，一般随营业推广强度的提高，营业推广效果的提高呈递减规律。因此，对营业推广强度的决定，应以达到预期推广目的为原则。 (2)激励的对象。由于不同营业推广工具对推广对象的作用差别较大，所以，在确定了具体的营业推广工具以后，应选择对这种工具反映强烈的顾客、中间商或推销人员开展营业推广活动。对营业推广的范围，可选择目标市场的一部分，也可以是选择整个目标市场；可选择对整个营业推广对象施以相同营业推广工具，也可以针对不同的对象，以不同的推广工具开展营业推广活动。 (3)营业推广途径。具体的营业推广方式，往往可以通过多种途径来实施，而不同的实施办法，常会产生不同的效果。如对消费者以奖金方法开展营业推广活动，可将现金装在包装袋里，可在包装袋中附上标有特定标志或金额的奖券，也可以通过广告媒介进行宣传，对