Understand promotional channels used to communicate with targeted audiences.

• Discuss differences between advertising and sales promotions.
• Advertising is a non-personal form of promotion that is delivered through selected media outlets that, under most circumstances, require the marketer to pay for message placement.
• Sales Promotions are short-term incentives to encourage the purchase or sale of a product or service
• Explain reasons that businesses use sales promotions.
• Attempts to provide added value or incentives as well as stimulate sales

• Describe types of consumer sales promotions.
Types: (will be defined later)
• Coupons
• Rebates
• Promotional pricing
• Trade-in
• Loyalty programs
• Sampling/free trials
• Free products
• Premiums
• Contest and sweepstakes
• Demonstrations
• Personal appearances

• Discuss/explain types of trade sales and business-to-business sales promotions.
Types: (will be defined later)
• Point-of-Purchase Displays
• Advertising Support Programs
• Short Term Allowances
• Sales Incentives or Push Money
• Promotional Products
• Trade Shows

• Buy-One-Get-One-Free (BOGOF) - which is an example of a selfliquidating promotion. For example if a loaf of bread is priced at
$1, and cost 10 cents to manufacture, if you sell two for $1, you are still in profit - especially if there is a corresponding increase in sales.
This is known as a PREMIUM sales promotion tactic.
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) incentives such as bonus points or money off coupons. There are many examples of
CRM, from banks to supermarkets.
• New media - Websites and mobile phones that support a sales promotion. For example, in the United Kingdom, Nestle printed individual codes on KIT-KAT packaging, whereby a consumer would enter the code into a dynamic website to see if they had won a prize. Consumers could also text codes via their mobile phones to the same effect.

• Merchandising additions such as dump bins, point-of-sale materials and product demonstrations.
• Free gifts e.g. Subway gave away a card with six spaces for stickers with each sandwich purchase. Once the card was full the consumer was given a free sandwich.
• Discounted prices e.g. Budget airline such as EasyJet and Ryanair, e-mail their customers with the latest low-price deals once new flights are released, or additional destinations are announced.
• Joint promotions between brands owned by a company, or with another company's brands. For example fast food restaurants often run sales promotions where toys, relating to a specific movie release, are given away with promoted meals.

• Free samples (aka. sampling) e.g. tasting of food and drink at sampling points in supermarkets. For example Red Bull (a caffeinated fizzy drink) was given away to potential consumers at supermarkets, in high streets and at petrol stations (by a promotions team).
• Vouchers and coupons, often seen in newspapers and magazines, on packs.
• Competitions and prize draws, in newspapers, magazines, on the
TV and radio, on The Internet, and on packs.
• Cause-related and fair-trade products that raise money for charities, and the less well off farmers and producers, are becoming more popular.
• Finance deals - for example, 0% finance over 3 years on selected vehicles

• Describe types of point-of-purchase displays that are used for sales promotion
• Allow products to be prominently presented, often in high traffic areas, increasing the probability it will stand out
• Stand alone displays

• Compare the similarities and differences between coupons and rebates
• Both provide a discount to customers
• May reward customers for their loyalty
• Coupons are redeemed at the point of purchase, while rebates must be submitted and sent to the customer

• Distinguish between push and pull sales promotion strategies.
• Push sales promotions: used by a manufacturer to convince or “push” retailers to carry and promote products in their retail establishments.
Relies heavily on personal selling and sales promotion
• allowances, buy-back guarantees, free trials, contests, specialty advertising items, discounts, displays, premiums
• Pull sales promotions: directed towards customers to increase their interest and demand for products. Customers will “pull” or convince retailers to carry the products. Relies heavily on advertising.
• samples, coupons, cash refunds, rebates, loyalty programs, contests, sweepstakes, POP

• Explain how contests, sweepstakes, and games differ.
• Contests are special promotions awarding value to winners based on skill they demonstrate compared to others
• Sweepstakes are not skill based, but based on luck. Winners are determined by random selection
• Games come in a variety of formats, such as scratch-off cards and collection of game pieces. To participate in games, customers may be required to make a purchase

• Marketers need to balance the advantages short-term promotions offer versus the potential to erode loyalty to the product
• Customer Expectations: Many customers are conditioned to expect a promotion at the time of purchase otherwise they may withhold or even alter their purchase if a promotion is not present.
• Electronic Delivery: The Internet and mobile technologies, such as cellphones, present marketers with a number of new delivery options.
• Tracking: For instance, grocery retailers, whose customers are in possession of loyalty cards, have the ability to match customer sales data to coupon use. This information can then be sold to coupon marketers who may use the information to get a better picture of the buying patterns of those responding to the coupon.
• Internet Communication: In addition to websites that offer access to coupons, there are a large number of community forum sites where members share details about how to obtain good deals which often include information on how or where to find a sales promotion.
• Clutter: Competing with other promotions for customers’ attention. This is particularly an issue with inserted coupon promotions that may be included in mailing or printed media along with numerous other offerings.

• Explain the role of public relations in business.
• building awareness and a favorable image for a company or client within stories and articles found in relevant media outlets
• closely monitoring numerous media channels for public comment about a company and its products
• managing crises that threaten company or product image
• building goodwill among an organization’s target market through community, philanthropic and special programs and events

• Discuss advantages/disadvantages associated with public relations.
• Advantages
• Considered a highly credible form of promotion
• Can result in the target market being exposed to more detailed information than they receive with other forms of promotion
• Can be widely spread
• Very low cost
• Disadvantages
• Marketers do not have direct control over whether a message is delivered and where it is placed for delivery
• The news media may not give the exact message as planned by the marketer
• May not yield a high return on promotional expense if the news media feels there is little value to the story
• Could get “bumped” from media coverage for a more critical breaking news story

• Describe the main tools used in public relations to communicate with targeted audiences.
Tools: (will be defined later)
• Media relations
• Media tours
• Newsletters
• Special events
• Speaking engagements
• Sponsorships
• Employee relations
• Community relations and philanthropy

• Explain tools used to communicate public relations messages to the media.
Tools: (will be defined later)
• Press Kits
• Audio/Video Releases
• Matte Releases
• Website Press Room

• Discuss reasons that public relations specialists monitor markets.
• Watching what is written and reported in traditional print and broadcast media
• Keeping an eye on discussions occurring through various Internet outlets such as forums, chat rooms, blogs and other public messaging areas.
• Marketers must be prepared to respond quickly to erroneous information and negative opinions about products as it can spin out of control very quickly through the new technology channels.
• Failure to correct misinformation can be devastating to a product or company’s reputation.

• Describe the purpose of crisis management in public relations.
• Crisis Management: the process by which an organization deals with a major event that threatens to harm the organization, its stakeholders, or the general public
• To respond quickly to negative information about the company.
• Marketers can track the issues and respond in a timely fashion.
• To manage response effectively, many companies have crisis management plans in place that outline steps to take and company spokespeople to speak on behalf of the company should an event occur.

• Explain trends in public relations.
• Blogs
• Podcasting
• Search engine optimization
• Describe the use of blogs for public relations activities.
• Report in-house blogs that report the happenings at the company
• Allows company employees to post messages updating the company developments

• Describe the use of web forums in public relations activities.
• Web Forums: where people can post their opinion often anonymously.
• Helps build credibility for an organization as forum members recognize a company’s effort to reach out to the public.
• Forums can cause major problems as a breeding ground for rumor and accusation.

• Explain how RSS feed can be used for public relations activities.
• Really Simple Syndication: this technology makes it easy for people to know when new content is posted to a website.
• The nature of the technology allows anyone who links to the RSS feed to instantly receive details of the content.
• Many journalists and other media members are finding this to be a more convenient way to acquire information, particularly if they follow a specific industry and can identify specific information websites to monitor.
• By subscribing to relevant RSS feeds they have information delivered rather than spending time searching

• Describe the use of podcasting for public relations activities.
• Quick and easy way to send out audio/video news releases and other promotional material
• Explain how search engine optimization (SEO) can be used for public relations activities.
• Helps third party media outlets (search engines) to mention the company at no direct cost to the company
• Can work to influence results in search engines