Marketing Terms and Focus on Consumer Promotions (Essay Sample)

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Consumer promotions are incentives aimed toward the customers of a company. The aim of promotions is to acquire potential customers or keep current customers satisfied. There are a number of consumer promotions that can be used to boost sales and ensure that customers keep coming back (Hardesty & Bearden, 2003). Companies normally use market research to develop consumer promotional ideas. There are seven main consumer promotional methods, they include; coupons, premiums, contests and sweepstakes, refunds and rebates, sampling, bonus packs, and price-off. These are the most commonly used promotional techniques and the method adopted depend on a number of factors such as size of the firm and the type of activity undertaken by a firm.
A coupon in marketing refers to a document or a ticket that can be exchanged for a rebate or financial discount when buying a product. Normally coupons are issued by manufacturers who produce packaged goods as means of sales promotion (Lamb, Hair, & McDaniel, 2011). Coupons are often widely distributed through coupon envelopes, mail, newspapers, magazines, and even the internet. Coupons are used to target low profile consumers who are conscious about price and have low claims to put on savings. The second promotional method is premiums. Premiums refer to promotional tools such as household products, collectables, toys, and souvenirs offered to consumers when they purchase products. Premiums are classified into two categories, that is, free premiums and self-liquidating premiums. Free premiums only require customers to purchase a product, while self-liquidating premiums require consumers to pay a certain or the whole price of the premium (Shimp & Andrews, 2013). Premiums main strength involves image enhancement and this was the basis upon which first loyalty marketing programs were formed.
The next promotional method is the use of contests and sweepstakes (Lamb, Hair, & McDaniel, 2011). These promotional techniques are unique from others in that they provide consumers with a chance of winning a valuable prize by taking part in events organized by a firm. These contests require participants to perform certain activity and the winner is selected based on performance. Contests and sweepstakes allow firms especially marketers to interact with customers and gain a better understanding of their target audience. Moreover, marketers use this chance to portray a good image to their customers. A rebate is a sum of money paid as a refund, return, or a way of reduction on what has already been contributed (Shimp & Andrews, 2013). This sales promotion method helps marketers in supplementing product sales. Rebates are also beneficial to consumers because they offer lower pricing rates. Rebates and refunds are normally confused to mean the same thing. A refund is the return of the entire sum of money paid by a customer on the acquisition of a particular product or service. Refund done is due to dissatisfaction on the part of a consumer on a particular product.
Sampling is a customer promotional method aimed at giving customers what they need and when they need it. To achieve this, marketers need to come up with ways of identifying the right marketing mix for a given target audience. Sampling as a promotional technique emphasizes on the needs of the customers (Lamb, Hair, & McDaniel, 2011). Thus, it is upon marketers to offer better products and services than their competitors to attract potential customers. Bonus pack refers to a package containing two items but only contain the price of one of the items. Bonus packs are normally used when introducing a new product especially where the manufacturer is one entity. For instance, a detergent can be purchased with another new detergent attached to it for free. This is a way of introducing a new product in the market. Additionally, manufacturers at times use bonus packs as an incentive to purchase by attaching similar products but of the same size together (Hardesty & Bearden, 2003).
A price-off as the name suggests is the reduction of price for a particular commodity for a given period to a consumer. Consumers can detect price-offs themselves or by methods such as signage, or display. This tactic is aimed at convincing a consumer to pu