Introduction
Marketing consists of many tasks and decisions, one of which is product promotion. In order to create awareness of a product, promotion is inevitable in helping to achieve the company's objectives. Advertising is one useful method of promotion and the most glamorous and attractive. It is due to the fact creativity is invested to distinguish the product from competitor's product (Bosiljevack 2009).
Promotion, being a form of corporate communication that uses various methods to reach a targeted audience is useful all kinds of organizations (whether profit-making of not).
Personal selling
It entails using salespeople randomly in streets to interact with the public, especially near shopping areas such as malls and recreational areas like children-play places. Though such people are perceived as irritating in their effort to persist in sales, Bosiljevac explains that they accomplish their task that is making the sale. The product will go a long way to create awareness for instance; if a mother buys the product, the family will be aware that such a product exists because they live together and are likely to find the product again.
Training
In two months prior to the launching of the product, weekly training begins on the weekends. Qualified and interviewed participants will be invited to attend training sessions.
Training shall include topics on marketing methods, their distinctions and effectiveness. At the end of the training, the trainees should be able to come up with creative ideas to effectively market the product in a competitive market.
Salesmen incentives
Working on a commission of 20% earning on the sales shall be the motivational factor for the employees before they are promoted to permanent status employment. Paying sales-men by performance will be a method to keep a record of performance. Evaluation of the performance will hence be easy.
Communication strategy
Each sales representative should submit a report filled by customers at random. The report should contain comments by users of the product. After a customer care session, the customers will also be asked a few questions to determine they were satisfied with the services and also the performance of the product.
Within the first year, working with 100 salesmen, I intend to sell half the products produced that year. It will mean the product has been recognized and accepted by the customers. In the second year, I will reduce promotion cost to maximize profits since the products will be well known.
Advertising media
I will invest in television advertising so as to address the audience in homes and bill-boards to capture the travelers. Road-side bill-boards capture the attention of motorists and travelers in a more effective way as there are less competition and congestion as in television advertisements. Big and outstanding yet simple creativity is needed on the bill-boards to communicate effectively.
Public relations plan
Sales promotions
Special programs for instance, supporting orphanages and schools for the disabled are also included the public relations plan. According Paul (2011), they are much cheaper yet more involving than media advertisements hence the impact is massive.
Organizing contests and academic competitions for school-going children is high-cost method of promoting a product but far more effective than advertising. The congestion experienced in advertising is not only costly but barely convincing to customers.
Effectiveness of Advertisements
During high school contents, participants of the competitions will be required to state how they got the information about the product. Customers who were attended to by customer-care agents will also be required to state how they got to know about the product. Records of the sales in the area will be identified and analyzed over time to measure the effectiveness of the advertisements and promotions on the public.
References
Burrow, J., & Bosiljevac, J. (2009). Marketing. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.
Paul, C. (2011). Strategic communication: Origins, concepts, and current debates. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger.
