Product promotion is a process of engaging the customers with sole aim of increasing sales. Sales promotion methods aim to capture market through creating demand hence increasing the volume of sales. In the present world, sales promotion is an essential tool to boost sales. In broader sense it is not expenditure, it is an investment as it pays rich returns in future. (R.S.N Pillai & Bagavathi, modern market principles, 2008, pg 173). The sales promotion methods I will use are the ones that focus on less expense with regards to the $50,000 we have been allocated to use among the three different restaurants. These includes: giving free samples the first day when launching the new product, offer of price reduction on the product, introduction “buy two get one free” slogan on some specific days of the week.
Fast food restaurants in USA are nowadays visited mostly by people who are in a hurry. Most of the customers eat and leave within a short period of time. Market segmentation is the process of dividing the mass market into groups of consumers with similar combination of needs, wants, demographics, lifestyles and behavior. In this case, my market will be focused on the working class and college student regardless of their gender. The reason behind this is that, these customers have limited time but always yearn for delicious meal in the shortest time possible. Cajun chicken sandwich will be the perfect choice as it is delicious and goes well by their tight schedule hence they can make a maximum utilization of available time. (Ronald D. Michman & Edward M., Food industry war,1998, pg 48)
The objective of this sales promotion method is to inform the public about the new product, Cajun chicken sandwich. It is our goal to increase buying response at the customers’ level, attract new customers and ultimately capture the major share of the market as we keep the memory of the existence of the product alive in the consumers mind. (R.S.N. Pillai &Bagavathi, pg174)
The characteristics of a good tactical promotion are due to good strategic promotion. (Roddy Mullin & Julian Cummins, 2008 pg 43) There should be proper strategy for sales promotion so that each promotion increases the effectiveness of the next. The first strategy is through contacting individual customer. Treating customers well by offering quality service, and presentation of special offers on a specific day of a week. For example on all Mondays, whenever a customer buys one Cajun chicken sandwich, he/she gets another one free. This encourages new customers to be attracted. Through this, a bond between seller and buyer is built up, so that the tactical objectives are linked in with some overall plan leading to a better application of resources. The existence of Cajun chicken sandwich is therefore made known to the customer. (Malcom McDonald & Hugh Wilson, Market Plans, 2011 pg 288) This will be done mostly by word of mouth.
The objectives we have set are both short term and long term. The time allocation for this plan depends on the objective itself. Creating awareness for the new product will not take a lot of time. Within a period of one month, the product will be known far and wide. Capture the major share of the market will take some time. This may be between 2 to 3 years.
Since we are working with three different restaurants, the cost of the promotion is high. We are providing free samples in the first leg,$20,000, cost of labor $10 000, value of Monday offers, $18000. This will amount to $48000.
I will use marginal costing techniques such as cost-volume profit analysis and break-even analysis to evaluate the viability of new the new product at different levels of sales and payback analysis to determine the payback period on new product. (John Westwood, Marketing Plan,2002 Pg 190) This will guide in knowing the exact return on investment.
Work cited:
McDonald, Malcolm. Marketing Plans: How to Prepare Them, How to Use Them. Chichester: Wiley, 2011. Print.
Michman, Ronald D, and Edward M. Mazze. The Food Industry Wars: Marketing Triumphs and Blunders. Westport, Conn: Quorum, 1998. Print
Mullin, Roddy, and Julian Cummins. Sales Promotion: How to Create, Implement & Integrate Campaigns That Really Work. London: Kogan Page, 2008. Print
Westwood, John. The Marketing Plan: A Step-by-Step Guide. London: Kogan Page, 2002. Print
Pillai, R S. N, and Bagavathi. Modern Marketing: Principles and Practices. New Delhi: S Chand, 2009. Print.
