CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Promotion is an important arm of the total marketing system.  The need to promote a product, service or idea can not be over emphasized.  This is infirmed by the fact that a successful marketing outfit can not be put in place without making mention of promotional methods and the tools used in achieving the objectives.  The understanding of promotion is closely tired to the understanding of the basic concept of marketing.

The process of matching product or services or idea with consumer need as the main focus of the marketing activity.  A marketer should be quick at capitalizing on newly identified needs.  The marketing activity does not however end with the matching of product, services or ideas.  Consumer should be persuaded that the match is a good one.  As Kincaid (1985:20 – 30) has it “of course the marketing process does not end with the initial marketing of the product with consumer need somehow the product must be made available to consumers and appear more desirable than competiting alternative or substitutes”.  This is what the marketing function is all about.

Getting to know of the existence of a product, services or idea is not automatic.  No matter how good the product, how reliable the service or how sensible the conceived idea, its existence will be unknown unless there is a concerted effort to make the needed information available.  The information should be communicated in a manner persuasive enough to induce the kind of acceptance, reaction or response desired.  The effectiveness of any promotional message depends upon the skill, versatility and talent of the designee.

Promotion is an art of informing, persuading and educating.  These three elements are related in the sense that to persuade is to inform and for these two to be effective, they have to be properly communicated.  Promoting is in a way persuasive in nature more so to our socio economic system.

Neil (1982: 10 – 15) of Harvard University puts in this way “the use of influence in commercial relation is one of the attributes of a free society, first as persuasion and counter persuasion are exercised freely in many walks of life in our force, society, in the home, in the press, in the class room, in the pulpit, in the courts, in the political forum, for information. Going by the system approach, a company should handle all the promotional efforts as a sub-system, which includes – the product, the price the place and the promotion.  The sub-systems of the promotional activity include, Advertising, Personal Selling, Sales promotion, publicity and relation.

For the purpose of this research work, sales promotion, which is the main focus of this research work, is technique for stimulating consumer buying and any augmenting middlemen effectiveness.

This technique however is most widely used to complement personal selling and advertising to produce a synergistic effect.  It is one way of providing additional incentives to consumer to pick ‘our” brand of soft drink from and often wide range of soft drink product on display.  Sales promotion should not be confused with the umbrella term “promotion” of which sale promotion is first a part.  Immediate purchase action or attitude notification is the main goal of sales promotion.  Sales promotion can be in form of shop display, product sampling, premium offers, trade shows, sweep stake contests and games, give away demonstration or point of purchase display.

Shop display is one of the tactics of sales promotion used by the soft drinks manufacturers.  The manner and aesthetic nature of soft drink display in fridge with glass doors and the layout in the stop could be strong driving force for a purchase decision.  Many soft drink manufacturers use product sampling as one of the most effective means of persuading and encouraging consumer to try a new brand of soft drink when it is introduced.  At times, the consumer is given a free trial sample of the soft drink being introduced.

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