Student Corner - 253

TOOLS OF TRADE PROMOTION

Display as a Trade Promotion tool has some very effective advantages.  First of all, it catches the attention of the shop visitor. There are some shop-goers who have not made any purchase decision. They just enter attracted by the shop and its appeal; they do not have yet any definite idea about the product they intend to purchasethey are called impulsive buyers; they just feel like buying the product and they buy it.  An impulsive buyer turns into a customer for some company and its product in the shop. . His impulsiveness is very well understood in terms of marketing and exploited; that is, such point of sale display increases the sale of a product, thereby adds to the profit of the company. Ponds are made up of a large number of small drops of water; accumulated single purchases constitute profit of some size to the company.

The visibility of the product at the right moment, so to say, at the right place with   the right ads as additional display for the product helps ultimately introducing the product to the prospective customer very cost-effectively.  How long the display should continue there depends on the marketing decision of the company; the company may like to use this display for some required span of time.   Frequency of   sales, the demand for the space from other competitive companies, the amount involved in allotting the space-- all these factors might influence the decision of the company in terms of the time for display.

Next tool for Trade Promotion is Demonstration.

It is said the measures that a company must take must aim at influencing the customer behavior. Rare buyer must be turned into frequent buyer; it means, the customer loyalty is reinforced; that is, the customer cannot be tempted to switch to some other brand for the same product. The underlying significant fact is the customer remains beyond the reach of the future ads from other companies. An impulsive buyer is transformed into a loyal customer. His behavior, that is, his purchase behavior is formed into brand-bound habit.  Briefly, a very effective marketing practice focuses on impacting the buying pattern of the customer.  

Researches are said to have established a vital fact regarding customer behavior; most of his purchase decisions are made in the store amidst sea of products and brands. His intellectual knowledge of a product is changed into instinctually oriented purchase feeling; feeling overpowers knowledge; so, experts aver that the place to impact the buying behavior of the customer is the store and the place must be fully exploited by what is called in-store demonstration. We shall see more of it in our next.