How to promote a new product. Encyclopedia of Marketing

Beautiful signs, commercials on television and radio, leaflets and gifts given by promoters, tastings and exhibitions, promotions and sales are “tricks” known to every consumer, forcing him to pay attention to the enterprise’s offer. Using them, an entrepreneur tries not only to attract attention to his organization, but also to stimulate the first purchase and turn a random client into a regular buyer.

It is already obvious to many that promotion of goods and services is a set of enterprise activities aimed at stimulating customers to make purchases. A modern enterprise has in its arsenal a “portfolio” of lazy marketing tools through which it influences its customers.

Why “promote” products? This is needed:

> to attract new customers (each product must find its consumer, and the consumer must find its product);

> to stimulate repeat purchases (it is not so much the first purchase that is important, but the subsequent ones);

> to increase consumer loyalty to the organization and its product (if the buyer is satisfied with the purchase, then he develops a favorable attitude about the company);

> to increase consumer interest in the company’s activities (a company that always satisfies the needs of its consumers and pleasantly surprises them becomes interesting in all its manifestations);

> to establish compliance with consumer expectations (promotion activities have become a habitual and expected activity of the organization from the consumer’s perspective, the consumer expects promotions, discounts, competitions, etc.);

> to get rid of the remnants of “obsolete” products (often, through promotional activities, an organization can “get rid” of the remnants of “not entirely necessary” products).

Let's look at how the above tasks are implemented in the context of lazy marketing.

You can start attracting new consumers long before the store opens. This will inform large number potential consumers and warm up their attention to your offer. It is for this purpose that large stores at least two weeks before opening, begin active advertising, broadcasting their commercials on television and radio. Outdoor advertising and bright signs with corresponding calls have no less effect: “Opening soon!”, “New collection”.

Directly on the opening day or presentation of new collections, you can use the distribution of leaflets or promoter dolls inviting you to the store. As an addition, you can offer the buyer a tasting, a discount or a gift for a purchase.

Forming a first impression of the store– one of the decisive moments in promotion. It is important to create a welcoming and festive atmosphere so that in the future consumers will have only pleasant impressions of your company. If you simultaneously want to stimulate long-term relationships with consumers, then this is a very convenient moment for distributing discount or club cards, as well as collecting event and consumer information about consumers for the purpose of implementing event marketing. Remember, a satisfied customer shares information about the store he likes with at least 20 more friends!

If the buyer is already yours, the next task is keep it and stimulate future purchases. To do this, you can use discount and club cards, which will create an idea of ​​the benefits of cooperation with your company. It is desirable that the discounts be cumulative, which will provoke an increase in the amount of one purchase and the frequency of purchases. However, this is also not the main thing...

It is necessary to serve the buyer in such a way that he feels comfortable and has a desire to come back again. This impression is made up of the following elements:

> attentive attitude (consulting, providing additional information about the product and methods of use, providing additional services);

> taking into account consumer preferences and desires (notification of the arrival of a new collection);

> attention to individual consumer characteristics (congratulations on your birthday, happy holidays);

> creating a comfortable environment (no queues, the presence of comfortable chairs, places to park a car and for a baby stroller, pleasant music, beautiful retail equipment, etc.).

Imagine yourself in your buyer's shoes, and you will immediately understand what he needs. Or ask him about it. Modern buyers are no longer intimidated by consultants’ questions and willingly answer them, expecting that the level of service will increase next time.

Increased loyalty - a complex marketing task, the solution of which is assigned to the entire staff. Especially for “first line” workers who directly communicate with clients. These should be not only outwardly pleasant sales consultants, but also, to some extent, psychologists. Their task includes not only selling goods, but also identifying needs and satisfying them, as well as creating an atmosphere of goodwill. The buyer may not find the model he needs, but if he likes the way he was communicated with, he will appreciate it and come again. Sales personnel must always remember that he is the “face” of the company and the impressions from communication with him are projected onto the image of the entire enterprise.

Interest in the company from consumers is manifested in following cases:

> if she is interested in the lives of customers;

> if it is focused on meeting the needs of its consumers;

> if she values ​​and respects their time, costs and time;

> if it is open and provides information about itself;

> if it values ​​its consumers and is ready to make some concessions in order to retain them;

> if it accompanies its consumers during periods of time that are important to them.

In cases where at least some of these “ifs” are met, the consumer will be interested in what is happening with the organization. In order to satisfy this interest, it is necessary create a communication system. IN As communication channels, you can use information boards, corporate newspapers, leaflets, reports about the company in the media, interviews and personnel of the organization, personal communication with customers, a website, Direct-mail, exhibitions and fairs and much more. Tell the consumer about the history of the company, about the basic principles of activity and development prospects, about products and services, about how you love and value your consumer. Offer to participate in the development of promotions or a survey, or in holding a children's competition.

The modern consumer is tempted by various unique commercial offers. The competitive market environment has led to offers everywhere for price reductions, additional services, gift vouchers, etc. These tools have become “expected”. If a female buyer comes to a store and is not offered a discount on a product she likes or is not given a discount card, then her expectations are not met. For the buyer of household appliances, purchases on credit and delivery of goods to their home have become “expected”; for the buyer of a mobile phone – free setup access to the Internet and MMS, for a client of a sports club - a personal locker in the locker room and always clean towels. That is why an organization must constantly enrich its product, complementing it with related products and services in order to meet the “expectations” of its consumers.

In turn, if your offering exceeds customer expectations, then you have developed a competitive advantage that will set you apart from your competitors.

Each product, just like a person, just like an organization, has its own life cycle. And it happens that it ceases to be popular or as necessary for the consumer as before. This leads to a significant decrease in sales volume and accumulation of goods in the warehouse. In this case, you can use promotion tools. For example, offer this product at a reduced price or use it as a free gift (after first finding out whether your consumer needs it).

All of the above tasks are implemented by enterprises to varying degrees depending on the market, field of activity, specifics of the product or service, consumer expectations and level of communication with him. However, despite the fact that some task at some point becomes the most urgent, the rest cannot be forgotten either. This will significantly reduce the overall impact on the consumer. That is why we are talking about a promotion system in which all elements are important and interconnected.

The elements of the promotion system include advertising (in all its forms), sales promotion activities, merchandising, participation in exhibitions and fairs, personal selling, direct mail, event marketing.

They can also be presented structurally (see Table 3).

Promotion of products and services is carried out differently in different companies. However, it is possible to define some stages that are standard for all:

> defining goals and objectives for promotion;

> identifying the target audience;

> selection of promotion tools;

> budgeting for promotion;

> determining the time frame for promotional activities;

> determination of promotion efficiency indicators.

Promotion of products and services can be carried out either directly by the enterprise or by resorting to assistance from specialized agencies.

If an entrepreneur decides to organize the promotion process using his own employees, then he needs to be prepared for painstaking and creative work. It is important to identify not only the products that need to be promoted, but also to conduct a consumer survey to determine which tools will be effective. Here, the role of sales personnel is invaluable, since it is the sales floor workers and managers, who actively communicate with customers, who can provide the correct information about their interests and expectations.

At the same time, if you decide to entrust this responsible task to a specialized agency, then you need to remember the following:

> young agencies can often be very creative and provide a more comprehensive range of services and options at a lower cost;

> involve the agency in budget planning so that they know the limits of your financial capabilities and act within them;

> be sure to describe the promotion model proposed by the agency to managers and sales personnel; they will certainly be able to provide useful comments and additions.

The promotion process consists of the following stages: preparing information for the consumer, choosing a channel for transmitting information, transmitting information, receiving feedback, assessing the effectiveness of promotion and conclusions.

The information message for the consumer should be bright, short, and memorable. This could be a small and bright slogan that could be passed on from mouth to mouth.

The message transmission channel must be accessible and convenient for the consumer. When posting a television commercial, determine whether the broadcast time will be convenient for the potential consumer. If you plan to use outdoor advertising, then think about whether your target audience pays attention to it. The same applies to the placement of POS materials. If the sticker contains information about a children's product, it should be located at the child's eye level.

Information transfer process should be quick and easy for the consumer. Also, it should not be accompanied by large financial costs.

It is important to find out what effect the information message had on the consumer, whether he found it interesting and whether it allowed him to solve the problems.

Evaluating the effectiveness of the promotion process depends on the planned indicators that were determined before the implementation of the promotion program. It is possible to determine not only economic efficiency, focused on an increase in sales, but also a social effect, due to which the company’s image is enhanced and consumer loyalty is increased.

Promotion management has in its arsenal a variety of means to achieve goals: advertising, publicity, sales promotion, point-of-sale advertising, the use of sports and entertainment events, personal selling. We offer the following brief definitions of the concepts used.

In a broad sense, advertising influence is carried out through the use of media: newspapers, magazines, radio, television and others (outdoor advertising: billboards, banners, advertising on transport, signs), or through direct contact with the buyer using mail.

In order to develop a bright and meaningful advertising message, as well as select optimally effective channels and means of advertising, it is better to contact a specialized advertising agency.

Publicity is not a personal appeal to the target audience. Forms of publicity include: official statements in the press by company representatives, messages in news programs, comments by editors in the press about the company’s products or its activities. This information is not paid for by the company itself and forms an idea of ​​reliability and objectivity in the minds of consumers.

Modern marketers have come to the conclusion that to increase the effectiveness of publicity, it is better to use a wider range of public relations tools (public relations) than just publicity.

Sales promotion is a set of marketing activities aimed at stimulating customers to purchase the company's products or services in the near future. Sales promotion in the activities of companies is presented in the form of promotions (BTL and ATL), loyalty and customer retention programs, events, merchandising, bonus schemes, exhibitions, fairs.

Sales promotion affects all participants in the supply chain: from the distributor to the end consumer. For each link, programs are developed that stimulate specifically its purchasing activity.

Sales promotion in the sales channel includes presentations of the company's products and services, development of retail equipment that allows better presentation of the product to the end consumer, incentive programs for distributors, supervisors, and sales representatives. In order to develop an effective program, you need to analyze the effectiveness of previous programs, find out the needs and motivational expectations of the sales entity.

Information about programs aimed at stimulating customer purchases or increasing consumer satisfaction is placed on product packaging, advertising materials, POS materials, and television and radio commercials. Such information can be transmitted by special consultants (distributors), promoters - during promotions, consultants - at exhibitions and fairs, dispatchers - on hotlines.

As part of the implementation of sales promotion activities, other marketing tasks can be solved.

Sales promotion activities undoubtedly include various competitions that are held in the store. For example, a “competition for the best drawing” in a supermarket. This event can pursue the following objectives: attracting consumers to the store, informing customers about new products and forming a positive attitude towards the company. Parents who bring their children to this competition can shop and receive information about new products and services. At the same time, they will enjoy the fact that the store took care of their children, appreciated their creativity and gave gifts.

Product presentation at the time of purchase is also a sales promotion tool that is often used by fast food companies. For example, sellers at McDonald's, before issuing a receipt for a purchase, will definitely offer some additional product from the assortment, which will increase the amount of the order. If the form of presenting this information is unobtrusive and polite, then the consumer perceives it positively and often buys the recommended product. Thus, investments in personnel training in sales promotion techniques at the time of communication with the consumer are justified and allow the company to increase profits.

The use of entertainment and sporting events as sales promotion activities is not carried out as often as promotions, but their effectiveness is also justified. In addition to the fact that they have a significant impact on sales growth, they also carry a large image-forming load. The positive emotions that a consumer or buyer receives while attending a concert or participating in a sports relay race further form positive associations with the organizing company (customer).

Personal selling is an important sales promotion tool, focused primarily on creating optimal contact with the consumer at the time of selling a product or service to him.

The above promotional tools can be called a complex for promoting the company’s products and services. Thus, promotion management is the coordination and balancing of various marketing tools in order to stimulate additional sales, create a positive image, and attract new consumers.

Promotion management must be consistent with the company's overall marketing goals and contribute to their achievement.

According to marketing research, 85% of purchasing decisions are made directly in the store. The buyer, while in the sales area, is exposed to displays, advertising materials, music and makes unplanned purchases. It is for this purpose that modern retailers use various tools to increase the consumer’s time in the store and stimulate his purchasing activity. Therefore, by beautifully and correctly displaying the product on the shelf, you can significantly increase its sales. Thus, merchandising can also be used as an effective lazy marketing tool.

Merchandising of the sales area- This is a very effective lazy marketing tool that significantly affects the competitiveness of a trading enterprise. How comfortable the consumer will be in your store greatly determines how much money he will spend and whether he will return to you again. Modern literature provides a large number of definitions of merchandising. However, in this manual, merchandising will be understood as a system of measures aimed at attracting the attention of consumers and stimulating their purchases through the design of the sales floor and ensuring effective display of goods.

All merchandising techniques are obvious and simple. There is no need to carry out any complex calculations and measurements here. The solution to the problem, as a rule, is on the surface. This is why it has everything to do with lazy marketing.

To understand the essence of merchandising, it is necessary to determine some of its categories.

Place of sale– a place on the sales floor where the buyer can see the product and make a decision about its selection and purchase.

Main point of sale– the only place in the sales area where the entire range of a certain product group is presented.

Additional point of sale– a place on the sales floor used to increase the likelihood of purchasing a product (outside the main point of sale).

Assortment group– products with similar consumer characteristics, presented under the same brand.

Assortment item (SKU – Stock Keeping Unit)– one brand in one type of packaging, one volume.

Single corporate block– all the company’s products are grouped into a single corporate unit at the point of sale.

Facing– a unit of product of a certain brand, type, packaging, visible to the buyer.

POSM (Point of Sales Materials)– advertising materials located in the sales area or directly at the point of sale.

TO main areas of merchandising can be attributed:

> ensuring effective stock;

> the location of product sections in combination with the needs of consumers and the benefits of the retail enterprise;

> ensuring display of goods;

> use of additional points of sale;

> musical accompaniment of the purchasing process;

> provision of POSM materials;

> decoration of the sales area in accordance with the corporate style of the enterprise;

> ensuring a comfortable consumer presence in the store;

> development of economic efficiency of merchandising.

Modern merchandising is based on several principles:

1. Ensuring cleanliness. The first thing the consumer pays attention to is the cleanliness of the floor in the sales area, the absence of dust on the shelves and goods, and the neatness of salespeople and consultants. Therefore, before arranging commercial equipment and goods, it is necessary to ensure cleanliness. Imagine yourself in the consumer’s place: you go into a store, choose a product, and there is a layer of dust on it... Surely, you will form a negative attitude towards the store and get the feeling that the consumer is not loved here.

2. Providing an overview of the entire product for the consumer. When a consumer enters a sales area, he must immediately understand where he needs to go to buy everything he needs. For this purpose, indicators of product sections are placed in the sales area and maximum visualization of goods is ensured.

3. Availability of goods for consumers. The product should be as accessible to the buyer as possible. Availability refers, first of all, to the ability to take a product without making any serious effort. It is also necessary to take into account the consumer purpose of the product. If this is a product for children, for example, a toy, then it must be placed at the child’s height level.

4. Comfortable presence in the store. The concept of comfort is very broad, and its essence largely depends on individual characteristics person, his psychographic characteristics. However, it is possible to define a number of standard comfort requirements for the general population of consumers. These include the following.

1. Ease of movement in the sales area. A person must move freely through product sections without bumping into other people or touching store equipment.

2. Music in the shopping area. Musical accompaniment of the shopping process is an effective means of stimulating sales. According to the results of marketing research, dynamic music causes active movement around the sales floor and accelerates the purchase decision-making process, increasing impulse purchases. Slow (most often classical) music relaxes the buyer and ensures a longer presence in the sales area. It is used in sales areas where carefully selected and expensive goods are presented. Modern retailers select music that is most suitable for the store’s positioning, as well as the behavioral characteristics of the buyer.

3. Quality service. Store personnel must be ready to assist the consumer at any time. The politeness of salespeople and consultants and the ability to provide all the necessary information are highly appreciated by customers and form loyalty to the store. Quality service also requires careful attention to the needs of the buyer. For example, if a woman with a small child comes into the store, a good consultant will certainly help her place the baby stroller and buy everything she needs as quickly as possible.

4. Providing additional services (entertainment, information and others). Often, a buyer comes to a store not only to make purchases, but also to receive advice about a product or how to use it or, for example, to pay for services through a machine cellular communications. That is why the store must have the necessary attributes to satisfy the corresponding needs.

5. Availability of auxiliary equipment, facilitating the shopping process - shopping baskets, trolleys, chairs for relaxation, stands for bags, special places for entertainment and distraction of babies accompanying their mothers.

6. Comprehensive use of merchandising tools. All merchandising tools must be used together. While arranging the product beautifully on the shelf, it is also important to ensure the presence of price tags and POSM. In the children's goods section, it is necessary not only to make toys accessible, but also to organize a place for entertainment for children, allowing their mothers to shop in peace.

7. Ensuring shelves are stocked. It is important to give the consumer the impression of constant availability of all the assortment he needs in the store. Therefore, shelves should always be stocked with products that satisfy consumer needs.

8. Ensuring that products are informative. Product packaging must contain all the information necessary for the consumer. Moreover, its main part (name, weight, fat content, etc.) should be duplicated on the price tags.

9. The price should be clear to the consumer.

10. Layout structure. The placement of brands and assortment items on shelf space must be carried out in strict accordance with the assortment matrix and consumer expectations. As a rule, manufacturers, when presenting a product to a store, provide a ready-made assortment matrix that corresponds to the positioning of the product.

11. Compliance with the rule of priority of product location. The store has to take into account the needs of not only the consumer, but also the manufacturer or supplier of the product. Therefore, the priority of product placement on the shelf is determined in accordance with the marketing strategy of the enterprise. A product for which a promotion or some kind of marketing program is being carried out during a given period is placed in priority place.

12. Ensuring cost-effectiveness of using merchandising tools. All merchandising tools and methods should help increase sales and generate profit. Therefore, it is necessary to constantly evaluate the economic feasibility of their use.

Thus, following these principles will allow the trading enterprise to provide effective sales promotion and build consumer loyalty to the store.

The following factors influence how the product will be presented in the store:

1) the image of the store - for example, all sizes of one product are presented at once - this creates a sense of orderliness;

2) packaging - by piece, by weight, etc.;

3) nature of the product - bottles (on the shelf), cosmetics (samples).

There are the following methods of presenting goods in the store:

> ideological presentation of the product - it is based on the image of the outlet (furniture is arranged to show how it would look in a home environment), products are grouped to show options for their use;

> grouping by assortment groups and styles (remedies for fever, painkillers, cough suppressants, etc. - pharmacies display appropriate signs next to groups of medications to facilitate search and selection);

> organization for color scheme(rarely used);

> price equalization (several goods of the same category, sold at different prices, are displayed side by side) - allows you to create the illusion of price choice;

> vertical representation that takes into account the movement of the human eye;

> volumetric presentation – a large amount of goods is displayed (for example, mountains of fruit in the vegetable department), which creates the impression of redundancy of goods;

> frontal presentation – the most attractive side of the product is demonstrated (for example, books are shown front side).

Under the atmosphere of the store visual components are understood - color, smell, lighting, music, which stimulate the emotional state (for example, a restaurant with a cozy atmosphere, dim lights). Lighting allows you to highlight the product (the direction of the light beams highlighting the product should be 3 times brighter than the main lighting). Different shades of light can be used to create a certain mood. Different colors can also cause a certain reaction. There are warm (red, yellow) and cold (blue, green) shades of color. They create the exact opposite psychological reaction. Warm colors are more suitable for food service outlets, stimulating the appetite. Cool tones are useful when selling expensive items. When it comes to odors, women are more sensitive to them than men. To attract customers, some stores use timed fragrances that spray the scent at certain intervals, i.e. they use aroma marketing.

Merchandising can be represented as a set of rules for the effective presentation of goods on the sales floor, as well as their highlighting through various POS materials. Merchandising Tools allow you to stimulate product sales without the use of sales personnel. Thus, merchandising technology to some extent replaces sales assistants in stores and allows you to more actively attract customers.

The main thing in merchandising is that all rules must be tested in practice, directly on the buyer. The manufacturer's opinion on how the product should be displayed on store shelves will have no meaning if it does not correspond to the buyer's opinion. Changing the location of product categories and displays in the sales areas of household appliances, mobile phone and grocery stores often lead to significant changes in sales. If you attract a buyer to a product by highlighting it in some way, you can significantly increase its sales. Thus, the main subject of merchandising, in relation to whom all its tools are used (POSM, display, sound effects, aromarketing), is the buyer. It is to attract his attention that planograms, display diagrams, beautiful and bright posters, signs, price tags, etc. are developed.

The merchandising concept is based on three basic laws: Stock, Location, Presentation. Let's take a closer look at them.

Law of stock. In order for the store to always have the product the buyer needs, it is necessary to determine the volume of the maximum stock, i.e. the amount of product that should be presented on the shelf and stored in the warehouse for a certain period of time (until the next order).

Law of location. In the sales area, you can distinguish both priority places (places that are as close as possible to the buyer and attract his attention) and non-priority places (badly visible places with low level accessibility for the consumer). In this regard, it is necessary to know the sales volumes of certain product groups, brands, types and packaging and, in accordance with this, organize all this on the sales floor and on the shelf space. It is also important to position the product facing the buyer. However, this is not always possible due to limited shelf space and the uncertainty of the “face” of the product.

Law of representation. The consumer must and has the right to know all the necessary information about the product: consumer properties, manufacturer and seller data, weight, dimensions, composition, safety data, method of use, side effects, expiration date, etc. Therefore, the packaging of the product or the documentation accompanying it must contain all this information. The buyer should not make an effort to get all of his questions answered regarding the product he wants to buy. In order to provide additional information that attracts the buyer's attention, POS materials and various information tools are used.

The practice of interacting with consumers shows that several points are a priority for them when making a purchase.

1. Specifications, and especially the properties that ensure the safety of using the product. If a buyer wants an iron with an automatic shut-off, this is the feature they will be looking for.

2. Brand. If the buyer has already formed a certain positive attitude towards trademark, then it will be difficult to convince him with a product from another brand. For example, if the buyer for a long time If he used Sony household appliances, he is unlikely to want to buy a TV or radio of any other brand in the future.

3. Price. When making a purchase decision, the buyer is guided by a certain price that he is willing to pay for the product. If the product is more expensive, then there will need to be compelling reasons for him to purchase it.

4. Design . The current stage of technical development of household appliances has practically equalized household and computer equipment, means of communication. Therefore, the buyer, when choosing a microwave oven, having determined the functional category, the next step will be to choose the design of the oven in accordance with the design of the kitchen. Thus, product design became a priority factor in the purchasing decision.

Merchandising in the field of household appliances has become very important important role. This is due to the fact that the buyers of this product, for the most part, are not specialists and have little understanding of the intricacies of the design of various devices. Moreover, they don’t want to know this, since they prefer to spend time studying some more important things and solving other problems.

An important concept in merchandising is zoning. Zoning– this is the distribution of service and retail areas of the premises. In a store, the location of product categories and service areas must comply with certain rules and requirements (safety, convenience, compatibility). Service areas should be located away from the customer so that the work of the staff does not interfere with customers.

According to certain sanitary standards food products should be located at some distance from household chemicals. Packaged dairy products must be placed in special refrigerators that ensure the safety of their consumer properties and are as accessible to the buyer as possible.

In each store, you can identify certain areas that require special requirements due to their importance to the buyer. For example, "entry" zone is extremely important, since it allows a person to “enter” the store and understand that he is no longer on the street. Therefore, depending on the time of year and weather, these areas are equipped with split systems, which, by blowing cold or warm air, create a feeling of comfort when entering the store. Lighting is also important - it should be bright, but not shocking.

Service areas, which include the consultants' area and the cash register area, occupy a certain fixed amount of space. This size can only change depending on customer flow. The usable area can be calculated as follows: subtract all service areas from the area of ​​the sales floor. As a result we get to the buyer (which should be at least 70%) and the display area, respectively, about 30% of the usable area. If the buyer's area is smaller than the specified size, then it will be uncomfortable for buyers to walk around the sales floor; they will push each other and violate each other's “intimate” space. Therefore, the buyer’s main thought will be to leave this store, since he is not comfortable in it.

5. Grouping . Correct grouping greatly simplifies the problem of choosing a buyer. It becomes much easier for him to find the product he needs and get information about it by studying the packaging. Only if this does not satisfy him will he call a seller or consultant.

An effective grouping must satisfy the following requirements: attractiveness and interchangeability.

Maximum attractiveness – dedicated, clearly visible blocks of products. They allow the buyer to quickly determine where the desired product category is located.

Maximum interchangeability – interchangeable goods should be located nearby, which will allow the buyer to quickly find an alternative to the desired product.

This criterion can also be applied to household appliances. For example, buyers choose a TV based not on the brand, but on the diagonal size. If a person has already decided on this indicator, then he does not need a TV of a different size; therefore, in the corresponding block with a given diagonal, different brands and designs can only be presented. Models with a different diagonal will need to be separated into other blocks.

6. Additional sales locations - This is a springboard for wars between suppliers, since they are a source of large profits. Additional sales points are used to attract buyer attention to a product outside the product category block.

When registering an additional point of sale It is important to follow the following rules.

1. The priority place in the hall is located where a person either makes a purchase decision, or in a place where he is forced to stay for a relatively long time (for example, a checkout area, an area of ​​durable goods).

2. Limited number of SKUs. No more than 1–2 product SKUs should be presented at an additional point of sale. A person should not have a problem choosing one product item. If the buyer sees an additional place for selling the goods he needs, then there is no need to provoke him to think long and hard.

3. Remoteness from the main place of sale. The additional point of sale should be located so far from the main one that it is not entirely convenient for the buyer to return to the main display (where he may want to choose a competitor’s product).

4. Duplication of products. At an additional point of sale, it is advisable to duplicate products, and even better to ensure a maximum stock of the product designed for higher demand.

7. Product placement on the shelf. The buyer should, without effort, find the product he needs on the shelf space and understand how he will use it. Therefore, it is important not only to provide goods necessary information, but also provide it with additional materials that allow the buyer to imagine how it will look during its use (mannequins, catalogs, interior modeling). It is for this purpose that furniture showrooms create an imitation of a real kitchen, with a certain decor and kitchen utensils, to demonstrate the advantages of products.

The buyer should always be sure that when he comes to the store, he will find all the products he needs (depending on the specialization of the store). If this is a grocery supermarket, then it must have bread, meat, semi-finished products, drinks, etc. Moreover, they must be as accessible as possible as the buyer moves in the sales area. In order to make this path easier, you need to use indicators of product categories, various navigation pictures and drawings, and beacons. The use of such tools will ensure maximum independence for buyers and will largely free sales staff from consulting on these issues.

When using pointers It is advisable to place photographs or drawings of product groups on them. In the description of the product, it is important to indicate its advantages and priority consumer characteristics. The list of properties that are important to the consumer must be consistent with the real opinion of the buyer. If, when choosing an iron, the buyer is guided by the following indicators: brand, presence of a steamer, energy intensity, presence of additional functions, then on the price tag or information sheet they should be indicated in the same sequence. Thus, the buyer, having glanced at this text, will immediately determine whether this product is suitable for him or not.

It often happens that, despite the efforts of the sales staff and reasonable prices, customers still feel uncomfortable and want to leave the sales floor quickly. What is the reason? You need to decide on the criteria for comfort.

To the factors that shape comfort, These include lighting, design of the sales floor and its attributes in a corporate style, easy navigation, smells, uniforms of sales personnel, availability of rest areas, and sound. To create comfort and coziness in the sales area, luxury clothing stores play classical music, listening to which, customers relax and are in no hurry to leave the store. Sportswear stores use dynamic music that matches the style and prompts quick purchasing decisions.

Lighting of the trading floor, design of commercial equipment should also be executed in the same corporate style of the company and emphasize the advantages of the product. Using this technique helps to “accustom” the buyer to the corporate combination of colors and fonts, and after a while he will automatically recognize the company’s products on the shelves.

Similar brand association companies are achieving this not only in the field of trade and production, but also in the b2b sphere, for example, cellular operators. The Beeline brand in its black and yellow design is represented on a huge number of attributes, from clothing to kitchenware. That is why almost every resident of Russia associates this color combination with the Beeline brand and, accordingly, the company and its products.

Sound accompaniment of the purchasing process, as noted above, it also plays a big role in stimulating sales and is a merchandising tool. It can be noted Several rules in the selection of sound accompaniment.

1. Music should not be too loud. Unusual loud sounds irritate the buyer and arouse the desire to leave the premises in which they are distributed. Therefore, the music should not be loud, but also not strain the ears, otherwise the buyer may be distracted by trying to hear what is being sung in the song.

2. Music should be melodic and non-aggressive. Even sporting goods stores, when selecting music for sound, try to avoid aggressive notes and melodies. Calm and medium tempo music calms the buyer, makes him move slower, relaxes him, and increases his propensity to buy.

3. It is advisable that music selection contained melodies that were classic in a certain style. The latest hits of music competitions may be unknown to some or irritate some buyers.

4. In order to make the optimal selection of music, find out from your consumer what he listens to and try to take into account his preferences.

We must not forget that seller – continuation of equipment. Vendors must wear a uniform that distinguishes them from ordinary visitors, using corporate colors and, preferably, a company logo. Sewing a uniform and putting the salespeople in it is an important task, but making sure the uniform is always in a clean and tidy condition is even more important. A dirty and torn uniform causes irritation and hostility among the buyer, which is undoubtedly projected onto the company to which it belongs.

Labels, tags, shelf talkers and similar attributes indicate quality, price and other characteristics, highlight the product and encourage customers to purchase it. Thus, make sure that they are bright, memorable and effective.

Various coupons and vouchers for gifts from the company, which can be attached to the product or located next to it on the shelf, also encourage the buyer to make additional purchases and help increase demand for the product.

When developing your display, make sure that the main product is accompanied by complex sets. Some shoppers may want to buy a set of products, so this kind of product ensemble may come in handy. Also remember that it is much easier to convince a buyer to buy several products at once than to come back for the product again.

If the buyer seeks advice from the seller, then these recommendations should not be too intrusive, since not many people like to have a product imposed on them. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct training with sales personnel on the subject of their work with customer requests and constructing an appropriate conversation.

In order to create a feeling of high demand for a product, you can use a merchandising technique such as "caries effect" . Its essence lies in the fact that an empty gap is left in the display of a certain product, either in a central place or close to the center. It seems that this product is popular and is actively purchased by store visitors. Therefore, there is a desire to purchase it as well.

You can also use another merchandising rule in your practice, which is called "borrowing popularity": Products should occupy space on shelves in accordance with their sales level. Therefore, place products with a low sales rate in the middle of the shelf, and with a high one - at the beginning and end of the row (thus, being surrounded by strong products, weak products receive additional customer attention from them).

Placing the product at eye level significantly increases its sales (according to various estimates by 70–80%). Therefore, this place is the most priority and expensive.

The use of branded price tags, shelf talkers and labels from manufacturers significantly improves the image of the store and product.

Obviously, buyers are more willing to choose goods whose price is clearly visible (obviously, thanks to our mentality, we are embarrassed to ask for a price that we can’t see well or not see at all, and approaching a device that reads it is generally a problem). Therefore, price tags need to be placed exactly under the product to which they correspond, and to ensure maximum accessibility of this information for “modest and shy” buyers.

Demonstration stands, posters, as well as labels, tags etc., provide an additional opportunity to tell potential buyers about your products, their competitive advantages and help them decide that your product is exactly what they need.

Can you suggest the following algorithm for organizing a merchandising management system, following which, achieving the set goal is possible without the expenditure of serious effort.

1. Development of a store positioning concept: for whom the goods are sold, for what customers does the store exist?

2. Identification of target customers, segmentation, identification of major and minor groups.

3. Determining the behavioral characteristics of the target buyer.

4. Development of merchandising standards, planograms and determination of shares of brands, product groups, categories.

5. Direct placement of goods on the shelf.

6. Control over compliance with merchandising standards.

7. Monitoring merchandising performance indicators and monitoring consumer behavior.

8. Changing standards and planograms.

POS materials, depending on their functionality, are divided into POSM advertising and POSM information. TO advertising POSM include materials advertising a specific product or brand, as well as equipment and devices that perform an advertising and demonstrative function.

Product manufacturers are generally interested in highlighting their products and placing promotional materials. There are a few simple rules to remember when placing POSM.

1. Advertising will be effective only when placed on no more than 15–20% of the total area where goods are displayed. An oversaturation of advertising materials confuses the consumer and does not achieve its goal - highlighting one product.

3. Information POS materials are placed to provide the consumer with important consumer information about the company’s products, services, department locations, etc.

Types of POS materials:

> signs;

> floor stickers;

> price holders; shelf stickers and posters, wobblers;

> wall posters;

> framework systems;

> racks for printed products;

> auxiliary accessories;

> additional layout.

> find consumers (distribute through available communication channels);

> be understandable to the consumer (the information message must be understandable);

> be pleasant (not cause irritation and aggressiveness);

> be timely (provide information about relevant and available products);

>be memorable ( information messages and slogans should be easy to remember by the consumer and evoke associations with the product or manufacturer (seller)).

If an advertisement meets all the above requirements, then it can be called good. However, this is not exactly the indicator that businesses should strive for when developing and placing advertising. Advertising must be effective and bright. This is ensured by the presence of extraordinary creative ideas, the use of creative plots, and humor. Advertising must evoke certain emotions - this is the key to its effectiveness.

Advertising effectiveness assessment involves determining the ability of an advertising message and an advertising medium to convey certain advertising information to the target audience or to form a desired attitude towards a product (service) or company for the advertiser.

Most often, to evaluate effectiveness, the increase in sales volume (or profit) obtained solely as a result of advertising events is determined. And this is despite the fact that in practice the reporting period is taken to be the period of the advertising campaign, taking into account costs and sales growth accordingly.

However, as a rule, after an advertising campaign has been carried out for some time, there is also an increase in buyer interest in the product, the so-called “exhaust”, which can also be accompanied by an increase in sales volumes and increased loyalty to the product and the company.

The preliminary stage of calculating economic efficiency is determining the profitability of advertising events, showing the ratio of profit received to costs. It is determined by the formula:

Additional turnover is calculated using the formula:

Тд – additional turnover under the influence of advertising (in value terms);

P – increase in average daily turnover for the advertising and post-advertising period (in%);

D – number of days of accounting for turnover during the advertising and post-advertising period (in days).

Widely used in practice method for determining economic effect (E):

Нт – trade markup, margin (as a percentage of the selling price);

We can offer several ways to calculate advertising campaign performance indicators:

> the “implementation” indicator, defined as the ratio of the number of people who remembered the advertisement to the number of people who did not remember it;

> indicator of “involvement” in consumption, which is defined as the difference between the number of buyers for every 100 people who remember the advertisement and the number of buyers per 100 people who are not familiar with the advertisement.

The degree of attractiveness of outdoor advertising can be determined by calculating the ratio of the number of people who paid attention to advertising media during a certain period of time to the total number of people who passed by the advertising medium during the same period.

Exhibitions and fairs are effective and popular sales promotion tools.

Exhibition is an organizational event where you can demonstrate and present the company’s products and services. Exhibitions can be either periodic (annual, quarterly, etc.) or situational (timed to coincide with an event, for example, Trade Day). Exhibitions have a distinct industry character, i.e. they involve enterprises from the same industry or market.

Purpose of participation in the exhibition – demonstration of the product portfolio and its development potential, informing about the company, collecting information about competitors. Often, after participating in an exhibition, a company defines new horizons and directions of development for itself, begins to cooperate with new partners, and identifies new consumer segments for itself.

Participation in the exhibition is in many ways an image event. You need to clearly understand that not only your competitors will probably be present at the exhibition, but also partners, intermediaries and, of course, consumers. That is why the information that the company will present must be analyzed from the point of view of safety for the company and importance for all these categories of participants.

Need to prepare visual materials, product samples, catalogues, which can attract attention and which can be distributed to everyone. Souvenir products, which carry manifestations of corporate identity, play a major role in shaping the image at exhibitions.

If a company has the opportunity to participate in exhibitions, then it should take advantage of it. Companies that are actively developing their own exhibition activities, as a rule, are able to demonstrate their own competitive advantages and do not suffer from a lack of clients. Moreover, it is obvious that they are aimed at long-term and successful development.

Fairs is an organizational event, the purpose of which is not only to demonstrate the company’s products, but also to conclude contracts. Fairs are held on an annual basis and attract a large number of consumers.

At fairs, consumers have opportunity to taste the product. Accompanying elements of the fair are entertainment events: concerts, performances of ensembles. At the fair you can not only see, but also buy.

Fairs also have a pronounced image focus, but are mainly focused on popularizing the product among consumers.

Organizing a company’s participation in exhibitions and fairs is an important and responsible task that is best entrusted to professionals. IN modern conditions The organizers of these events offer their services to assist in preparing a company for an exhibition or fair, producing souvenirs, promotional materials, etc.

Thus, The company's participation in exhibitions and fairs provides the following advantages:

> demonstration of goods and services;

> providing interested parties and companies with information about the company;

> drawing attention to goods and services;

> obtaining information about market development trends and competitors;

> formation of a positive image;

> product positioning;

> search for profitable partners;

> conclusion of transactions;

> identifying potential consumers and partners.

Organizing participation in exhibitions is a complex multi-stage process, the implementation of which is best left to specialists. However, if lazy marketers want to do this on their own, there are a few important issues that need to be addressed first.

1. Determine the goals of participation and correlate them with the profile of the exhibition. If your goal is to find new suppliers, then it is better for you to register as a visitor or guest to an exhibition in which suppliers are participants. If the purpose of the exhibition is to find new clients and demonstrate your own advantages, then you need to declare participation in an industry exhibition or fair.

2. Prepare demonstration materials: catalogues, prospectuses, brochures, leaflets, presentations and souvenirs.

3. Send invitations to your clients and partners.

4. Book an exhibition space.

5. Ensure maximum visibility and accessibility of exhibition materials to exhibition participants.

By following the above tips on using lazy marketing tools in the field of promotion, a company can significantly increase its own competitiveness with maximum effect.

From this article you will learn:

• What are the main methods of promoting a product to the market?
• Which methods of promoting a product to market are right for you?
• How to correctly apply the method of promoting a product to the market

The modern market is oversaturated with goods and services - both domestic and imported. Output task trading platforms Development of a new product is difficult and very expensive, and it also takes a lot of time. However, marketing specialists and marketing agencies have reliable technologies and methods for promoting a product in the market.

Basic methods of promoting a product to the market

The main tool that comes to mind when it comes to looking for methods to promote products on the market is advertising. But you need to keep in mind that it is not an independent activity, but one of the marketing tools and should be used in conjunction with other technologies in order to mutually enhance each other’s effects.

Marketing campaigns aimed at bringing a product to market can take various forms, but they will certainly use basic promotion methods, without which it is impossible to implement an integrated marketing strategy. These include:

• advertising;
• direct marketing;
• telemarketing;
• press information;
• relationship marketing;
• sales support;
• printed materials.

An integrated approach to promoting goods and services implies that all elements of the campaign act in concert, enhancing each other’s effect. For example, a promotion that provides a return coupon (which verifies payment of postage and encourages the consumer to respond) is typically combined with direct mail followed by a telemarketing program.

In principle, each of these methods individually - mailing lists, print advertising, telemarketing - are also effective, but not to the same extent as their combined use.

Learn more about methods of promoting goods and services on the market

Advertising.

If you have a sufficient budget and a well-designed media plan (channels that ensure the greatest effectiveness of the advertising campaign are selected), then you can use advertising as the only method of promoting a product to the market.

In this case, it will perform several tasks, namely:

• inform the consumer about a new product;
• clearly demonstrate the advantages that distinguish this product from analogues offered by the market;
• stimulate curiosity, fuel initial interest and motivate the consumer to learn more about the product.

The success of a program to introduce a new product to the market, including only advertising, will be determined by the volume of financial investments and the reasonableness of the use of these funds.

But if you add other marketing practices and methods of promoting a product to the market to advertising, then it will be possible to use it more narrowly: to achieve specific goals set by the strategic program. This will significantly increase the effectiveness of the campaign and allow you to spend your budget more economically and rationally.

1. Make it a means of direct contact with the target audience (for example, provide consumers with the opportunity to quickly respond by sending a return coupon with the order, calling, requesting additional information, etc.). This is usually carried out on a national scale and is the stage preceding direct or telemarketing campaigns (for this, “leads” must be received - a customer base has been formed).
2. The same thing, but on a narrower – regional – scale. The information obtained about consumers is then used in events carried out by local contractors to stimulate sales of goods.
3. Use as part of a product promotion campaign in certain regions. In this case, potential buyers are not just asked to leave their data, but also given financial incentives.

One of the popular marketing tools is direct marketing. It is used in cases where it is necessary to increase the effect of other promotion methods, but it can also perform other functions and be used in a very diverse manner.

Thus, direct mail often becomes an excellent replacement for traditional advertising in the press or other media, since it is targeted and makes it possible to reach only the necessary market segments. In addition, it can be used as a channel for subsequent contacts with the target audience, namely the part that was interested in the product and requested detailed information about it.

Direct marketing, by the way, is an excellent method of forming and maintaining long-term relationships with clients. Being part of an integrated marketing campaign also increases its effectiveness.

At the first stage of a campaign to promote a service or product on the market, direct marketing can be combined with consumer advertising to solve the following problems:

• Continue the direct response campaign by collecting basic data from interested potential customers who may become the customer base for future direct marketing campaigns.
• Develop differentiated offers for different groups of potential buyers who took part in the first promotion.
• Reach other markets or target market segments in an ongoing marketing campaign.
• Attract market segments and niches that cannot be reached in other ways and influence them more frequently or aggressively.
• Strengthen the advertising campaign through special marketing events in the future.

Telemarketing

This method of promoting a product to the market, telemarketing, is used together with traditional advertising or direct marketing. The goal may be to collect data from potential customers and inform them. More specific tasks solved by telemarketing are varied:

• concluding deals over the phone (in fact, these are the same direct sales);
• building good relationships with existing clients;
• development and release of new products based on the needs of customers (for this, relationships must be established with them);
• identifying the most promising “leads” from the general client base to which the mailing is sent;
• carrying out promotional activities following the direct marketing program;
• winning back lapsed customers (usually by offering them other products they might be interested in);
• processing the database of “cold” contacts received through advertisements, using direct marketing, from intermediaries;
• market research, studying the response of the target audience (through surveys, reviews) to a product or the measures that the company takes to sell it;
• maintaining contacts with potential clients (relationship marketing).

Telemarketing is also a convenient way to obtain any information of interest from consumers in order to analyze it and use it to plan and implement further marketing programs.

Press information

This set of actions is one of the classic public relations methods used in large PR campaigns. For example, this could be sponsoring entertainment or sporting events. It increases the target audience’s awareness of the company’s activities and strengthens its reputation. In parallel to this work, direct marketing campaigns and advertising activities are carried out, aimed at promoting the brand as a whole and obtaining direct feedback from consumers.

Sales support

With the help of advertising and direct marketing, which are part of an integrated marketing program, the company collects leads on potential customers. In the future, this information will be necessary for sales personnel.

Many companies are introducing a method of promoting a product to the market, such as telemarketing, for convenient and modern management of ongoing interaction with potential clients, and this significantly increases sales efficiency.

It is very important to provide managers with timely information about the product or service being promoted on the market and about the current market situation. This will make their work more productive.

The sales support program includes the following measures:

• direct support for sales workers (wholesale and retail);
• informing sellers about specific products (creating instructions, manuals);
• preparation of standard and customized presentations for each market segment;
• informing about advertising and marketing activities to promote goods that are currently being carried out;
• providing information about competitors.

Relationship Marketing

This method works with a database of “cold” contacts of potential buyers, which was collected through advertisements or direct marketing.

In addition, relationship marketing great way maintaining and strengthening connections between sellers and customers, increasing consumer loyalty.

Relationship marketing, as part of a comprehensive marketing campaign to promote a product or service on the market, performs a whole range of functions:

• strengthens control over regular customers;
• maintains the base of existing clients;
• forms a constant, clearly planned information flow;
• strengthens consumer loyalty.

Printed materials

As a rule, the publication of information and image materials in print media is not included in an integrated marketing campaign to promote a product on the market. However, it is the most important method of enterprise communication policy that cannot be ignored.

Publications in the media are necessary to solve problems such as:

• strengthening the brand image;
• informing the target audience about the points of sale of the product, its characteristics and advantages;
• maintaining trade events (as an auxiliary method).

Beginning craftsmen who want to sell their products online are faced with the problem of selling their goods. Economic education does not fit well with the creative component of life, so it is often absent, and along with it, Internet trading skills.

Let's start with the fact that the offered product has its own life span: birth - promotion to the market, growth - a period of stable, systematically growing sales of services or goods, maturity - sells well, is well known, decline - the market is saturated with the product. Each period has its own characteristics. At first glance they will be similar, but if you dig deeper, the differences become noticeable.

1. At the stage of introducing a product to the market, work should be carried out to form the USP of the product, its competitive advantages or characteristics of services. Actively work with the audience, carry out branding online.
2. At the growth stage, in order to strengthen and speed up promotion, in addition to the above, work on web analytics is added. The conversion level is monitored and bottlenecks are eliminated. A “safety cushion” is being created in case you need to order services contextual advertising at the stage of decline.
3. The level of maturity is characterized by the need for further work on branding the site and the services offered.
4. The level of decline requires reaching new target audience groups on the Internet; accordingly, the product will be promoted to new markets, and product promotion will begin anew.

Analysis of the target audience and competitive environment

Even before launching a product on the market, it is necessary to take several steps, without which promoting the product on the Internet is simply impossible. We will not consider now technical points like creating a website, buying a domain name, etc. Let's assume that we are talking about a product that is already presented on a website that has its own showcase for selling products and a corresponding list of services.

1. Get to know potential consumers of your products or services online as closely as possible. You must know literally everything about them and, moreover, maintain close friendly contacts, as much as possible with a large number people. Create a written profile of your average online buyer. This should not be the “ideal” buyer, and not someone who pesters you endlessly before and after purchasing the product. It should be something in between. A character with gender, age, a certain level of income, social status, with his own fears, beliefs, moral and ethical values, family or without, etc. This is what you will need to focus on when preparing content.
2. Assess the competitive environment from the perspective of “Why is my product better?”, record in writing how competitors promote their products online? What product characteristics do they indicate? Which forums do you visit most often, on which social networks? What range of related services do they provide? Be sure to check external links and keywords used to promote their sites on the Internet.
3. Based on the first two points, create a unique selling proposition for your product or service on the Internet. Include in it those characteristics that, on the one hand, characterize your product, distinguish it from competitors’ products, and, on the other, solve a customer’s problem, work with their fears, give some pleasant emotions, and entertain.
4. Develop a “voice.” The manner in which content is presented on the Internet can be different: emotional, dry, laconic, detailed, rude, affectionate, caring, tough. Depending on what target audience you are targeting, write down a description of the tone in which you will communicate with them. In most cases, this happens unconsciously. We attract those who we ourselves are, so the manner of communication is the same. But when it comes to a website on the Internet, it is better to document the approach in presenting the material, so that under the influence of a change of mood or a copywriter, an unpleasant “patchwork quilt” effect does not occur. If the presence of a large number of authors writing in different styles is not the leitmotif of your site development policy, provide copywriters with clear instructions regarding the intonation of writing texts.

Optimization of the virtual site

1. In order to improve the visibility of a resource on the Internet for free, create a semantic core using the Wordstat services from Yandex and Adwords from Google. Include in it those phrases by which users on forums and social networks are searching for your product, as well as those by which competitors are promoting, if you find them interesting enough. Use internet search engine suggestions. After the semantic core has been compiled, work to optimize existing content and add recommendations for creating new material to the content calendar.
2. Carry out work to optimize the conversion funnel. If there is no traffic on the site at all, ask your friends to go through the path of a simple buyer on your site to assess the presence of bottlenecks. A bottleneck is a segment in a process that cannot handle the volume it is supposed to complete, resulting in the failure of its objectives. Eliminate any identified deficiencies. Pay special attention to distracting elements: redundant graphics, animated elements, pop-ups, unnecessary set of services, etc. – in large quantities they can not attract, but scare away the buyer.
3. If the traffic is more than 50 people per day, you can connect the Yandex.Metrica and Google.Analytics analytics services. Systematic analysis once a week will allow you to track the occurrence of problems before they become an avalanche. It should be remembered that an increase in website traffic on the Internet leads not only to an increase in the number of sales, but also to the emergence of a greater number of visitors dissatisfied with the service or quality of services. At the initial stage of product promotion, you have a choice: spend time now working with each client, eliminating shortcomings, or in the future, when there is high traffic, justify yourself to visitors on all kinds of “reviews” on the Internet.

Branding, Working with forums

Once the work on the site is established, you can begin to attract additional audiences, bypassing the search results. The best way to do this is for free through social networks and forums. At the stage of analyzing the target audience, you may have already found those sites on the Internet where your target audience is particularly well represented. Register your accounts there, carefully fill out your profiles, and build yourself a reputation as an expert over some time. Plan to publish some particularly good materials that may be useful and interesting to your visitors. Be based on solving those problems that users encounter on a regular basis, but do not find a complete solution on the Internet. Place a link to this material on forums or social networks in appropriate threads, comments, groups, posts.

The main condition is that the material on the site must answer the user’s question as accurately and comprehensively as possible or help him solve the problem that has arisen. This way you can build up your link mass for free and improve site traffic.

Subscriber database collection

E-mail marketing has been “buried” several times throughout the history of its existence. Today's pessimistic forecasts regarding the further development of this tool in the future are nothing more than ordinary gossip. E-mail marketing provides a unique opportunity to reach every user who wishes to leave their contact details for free; it is unlikely that this property will cease to be used by marketers in the future.

If your site does not yet implement an algorithm for collecting subscriber data, fix this error. Offer notification of new promotions, a free book, or access to valuable video content. Prepare a series of email newsletters for which you outline the goals: collecting data about the target audience, identifying errors on the site, offering to enter into a direct dialogue, establishing contact, solving problems in the lives of users, and so on.

Building a product promotion strategy

After all preliminary information has been collected, you can proceed to planning the product promotion process.

First, write down the goal you want to achieve. It must have a clearly defined time frame for its implementation, and it itself must be expressed in numbers. For example, “by September 3, 2016, 8,000 copies of the book had been sold, each costing 300 rubles.” The wording: “Sell as much product as possible”, “Grow a large target audience” - these are not goals, these are wishes to yourself for the New Year, which, as you know, do not come true.

Plan intermediate goals, that is, write down intermediate results in monthly increments. Do the same operation with weekly and daily results. The more specific your action plan is, the better.

Highlight the main areas of upcoming work: conversion optimization, web analytics, working with forums and social networks, collecting subscriber data, preparing viral content, etc. For each area, write down the actions you plan to take. For example, working with content: creating a content calendar, analyzing the content available on the site, optimizing it for key queries, assessing whether it meets user expectations, quality of design, photographs, analyzing content on competitors’ sites, working with content on forums, etc.

Rank the actions by degree of importance (“analysis of the content available on the site” should come before “optimization for key queries”) and write down the dates by which you plan to close this aspect. If it's too big, break it down into smaller pieces. For example, “content analysis on competitors’ sites” fits perfectly into the task of “analyze 1 competing site daily.”

Review your work plan weekly, adjust or supplement if necessary, most importantly, move slowly but persistently towards your intended goal. And then you will definitely succeed.

Product promotion is understood as a combination of various types of activities aimed at conveying information about the merits of a product to potential consumers and stimulating their desire to buy it. The concepts of “marketing communications” and “product promotion methods” are essentially identical, although experts classify different groups of methods as product promotion and marketing communications. Thus, direct marketing can refer to methods of marketing communications or methods of organizing retail trade.

However, it should be borne in mind that the communication function is also performed by other elements of the marketing mix. For example, sometimes the design of a product, its characteristics, packaging and price tell the consumer much more about the product than its advertising. In this regard, the classification of promotion methods, however, like many other classifications, is relative in nature and is used primarily to facilitate the process of learning marketing.

When establishing communications, you need to know at what stage of product acceptance the consumer is and what information he primarily uses. So in Fig. Figure 11.1 depicts one of the most commonly used approaches to identifying the stages of the process of consumer acceptance of a new product and the information he uses in doing so.

Establishing effective marketing communications is carried out in the following sequence: the target audience is identified; her desired response is determined, which in most cases involves a purchase; the goals of the communication campaign are determined; a communication message is developed; communication channels are selected; the person who makes the message (transmits information) is determined; is installed feedback with the target audience; a general promotion budget (communications budget) is developed; promotion methods are selected and the effectiveness of communication activities is assessed.

The target audience is a collection of potential or existing buyers or consumers who make or influence purchasing decisions. Individuals, groups of people, and various segments of the public can be considered as the target audience.

As an example, here are the following goals for establishing communications to promote a product:

• Bringing information to the consumer about the emergence of a new category of goods, for example, CDs.
• Providing information to the consumer about individual brands of goods belonging to a certain category, for example, about Sony CD players.
• Developing a positive attitude among consumers towards products of a certain brand.
• Ensuring that the consumer desires to buy a product of this brand.
• Creating conditions for convenient purchases on favorable terms. For this retail outlets must be conveniently located, the product must have the right characteristics, have the right environment, including price.

To create initial awareness, the communicator can simply repeat the name of the company or product brand in his message, transmitted several times. Next, consumers who have expressed interest must be provided with additional knowledge about the company and/or its specific products. The communication campaign is aimed at developing a favorable opinion among consumers about the subject of interest. The next step is for the switch to develop in consumers a sense of preference towards the promoted product by describing its advantages. Next, you need to translate the feeling of preference into conviction about the need to make a purchase. Not everyone who wants to buy something does so immediately. They may postpone the purchase for various reasons. To prevent this from happening, the communicator must strive to persuade the consumer to take the final step - making a purchase. This can be achieved through various means: providing price discounts, the opportunity to test the product, etc.

Once the desired audience reaction is determined, a communication message is developed. At the same time, it is determined what to convey (the content of the request), how to convey it (from the point of view of the logic of the request), its structure and how to convey (from the point of view of its execution) the format of the message.

Defining a message format involves choosing correct heading, content, illustrations and their design (color, font, etc.).

Communication channels can be personal or impersonal. In the first case, two or more communicating people contact each other directly or through various means (telephone, mail, Internet, etc.). This makes it easy to establish effective feedback. Some personal communication channels are controlled by the organizations that create them, such as the activities of sales agents. Others are not controlled, for example, contacts with consumers of independent experts. Communication with target buyers - their neighbors, friends, family members, colleagues - is carried out through word of mouth channel. Having identified opinion leaders in different target audiences, they carry out, first of all, establishing communications with them, creating for them some favorable conditions for purchasing goods.

With the help of impersonal communication channels, information is transmitted without personal contact and direct feedback. Impersonal channels consist primarily of the media and external media (advertising stands, posters, notices, etc.).