Free Promotional And Advertising Strategies Essay Sample

Compare and contrast the promotional strategies used by two (2) different companies for a similar product within the category that you selected.
A promotional strategy is a how a company informs its target market about its new or existing products and then persuades them to buy the product. Companies achieve this using the promotional mix which is made up of advertising, customer relations, personal selling and sales promotion (Kar, 2011).
Both Sony and Samsung use advertising to promote their television sets. They use TV adverts, newspapers, mail and billboards. Samsung unveiled a new marketing campaign dubbed “The curve Changes Everything” to promote its new Curved UHD TV (Schoultz, 2014). Though Sony also has a range of curved OLED and 4K TVs, they are yet to launch a full marketing campaign for them. This is perhaps due to the fear among many TV manufacturers that the curved TV might not be here to stay.
Sales promotions are also used by both companies to promote their various types of televisions. Sony has a reward program which gives credit cards, prizes and a chance to save on its products. Customers get to earn I point for each dollar spent at the Sony online store which can be redeemed for other Sony products, movies, music and other experiences such as concerts (Sony, 2014). On the other hand, Samsung offers free 3D glasses to all the buyers of their 3D televisions, this put them ahead of their competitors who did not give the same offer. Though Samsung also has an online store, their rewards program is only for their smartphones (Samsung, 2015).
In terms of customer relations, both companies have highly trained staff at their stores who assist their customers and give them more information about their products. Both companies have online stores where their customers can easily browse their catalogues and even buy their products online. Unlike Samsung, Sony has online tutorial courses which educate their customers on how to use computers, business, photography and entertainment. Those customers who have used this tutorial have rated their satisfaction with Sony at 90% and are more likely to buy Sony products (Sony, 2015).
Recommend two (2) ways in which a company within the selected product group could use marketing information to differentiate itself in the marketplace to gain an advantage over its competitors. Provide a rationale to support your recommendations.
Sony has recorded losses for the fiscal years 2013 and 2014 (Sony, 2014), which is shocking because this is a company that has always been a pioneer in research and development since the post war era. Recently Sony has come under a lot of competition from Samsung and LG especially in the television product group. To different itself from its competitors, it should revamp its research and development department and also work on its response to the shift in market demand.
In the recent years, Sony has always been the last to adopt new television technologies. A good example is the advent of the LCD television where Sony was complete caught unawares by its competitors Samsung and LG. the situation was so bad that Sony had to buy LCD panels from Samsung and Sharp, this meant that their production costs were high and they had no control over the quality of their panels. This, coupled with a strong Yen, had a negative impact on their TV, sales which dropped by 24% (Sparrow, 2014).
There are other TV technologies such as 3D and curved Screen where Sony has adopted a “me -too” strategy by producing the products long after its competitors have already skimmed the profits. It looks like Sony is unable to predict where the market is headed and thus it always suffers losses. It has started producing curved screen TVs, long after Samsung has made huge profits from them and when some analysts are saying that this technology may be a fad.(Sparrow, 2014).
Sony needs to differentiate itself as the leading company in television innovation and the company that is not only able to anticipate the consumers’ needs but to also meet them. If it does this, not only will it be gain a competitive advantage, it will also be able to charge a premium for its televisions and return to profitability.
Propose two (2) uses for consumer-oriented promotions that could assist a company in both the short and long term for the product group that you selected. Provide a rationale for your response.
These include price reductions, coupons, loyalty points and rebates that attract customers to a product. They have short term and long term uses.

Increasing brand loyalty

When done correctly, sales promotion can increase brand loyalty on the long term and the short term. When consumers know that a certain company consistently gives promotions on quality products, they are likely to be loyal to the brand (Ray, 2014).
Currently, the Sony rewards program where a customer gets 1 point when they shop at the online store which can be redeemed for other Sony products creates loyalty (Sony, 2014). This brings back the customer to Sony product creating short term loyalty since they want to accumulate enough points to redeem something. This promotion also gives consumers a chance to constantly interact with Sony products thus creating long term brand loyalty.
Care should be taken to avoid overburdening consumers with too many promotions; marketers should instead use loyalty programs that reward loyal customers.

Increasing sales

Sales promotions increase sales since they attract many customers, this is because people like bargains. On the short term they increase sales and consequently profits due to the increase in customers. When used during strategic times of the year, such as when sales are low, they have a long term effect of increasing sales and thus profits of the company (Ray, 2014).
Sony has weekly sales on their online store (Sony, 2014), which ensures a constant flow of customers throughout the year and enables the company to clear its stock and remain profitable.
Analyze the strategic manner in which the leading company in this product group has made its pricing decisions by using one or more of the four (4) pricing objectives.
Samsung uses status quo pricing objective in its home appliances section, which includes televisions. This objective ensures that the prices of Samsung TVs are in line with the prices of its competitors TVs. This ensures that Samsung gains a stable amount of profit from its televisions and prevents undercutting from its competitors.
This objective gives rise to the competitive pricing strategy which keeps the prices of Samsung TVs in line with the prices of those of its competitors. An increase in prices above that of the competition will lead to a decrease in sales while a decrease in prices below that of the competition will lead to a decrease in profits. This strategy is important since it enables Samsung to remain relevant and profitable in the flooded television market (Roth, 2007).
For its televisions that have the latest technology such as the curved UHD TV or the OLED TV, Samsung uses the quality leadership pricing objective so as to show consumers that that product is of the highest quality in the market.
This pricing objective gives rise to the premium pricing strategy which is used for selling high quality products profitably even if the volumes are low. Samsung gets maximum profits from this strategy and also recognition as a brand that produces high quality products (Roth, 2007).
Suggest two (2) actions that other companies within the same product group may take in order to differentiate themselves and gain a competitive advantage. Provide a rationale for your response.
Sony can use the leadership pricing objective if it increases its research and development efforts. Whereas Samsung also uses this strategy, it only uses it for its innovative products. If Sony becomes an innovation leader in television, it will be able to use the premium pricing strategy to reap maximum profits and also gain competitive advantage since its televisions will be differentiated from the others because of their quality and innovativeness (Roth, 2007). Sony will then use competitive pricing when its competitors develop similar products. By then Sony will have already profited from the premium pricing and will keep profiting from the competitive pricing.
Currently, Sony is really lagging behind in innovativeness and is forced to use survival pricing objectives to ensure that it remains afloat. To remedy this, Sony can use the quantity maximization strategy which ensures sales of a lot of units. This will increase the profits and also increase brand recognition due to an increase in the market share. This will cause Sony to gain competitive advantage over its competitors (Roth, 2007).
Determine the most effective advertising medium for a company in the selected product category. Support your response with two (2) examples of the effectiveness of the chosen medium.
Even with the advent of the internet and social media, TV remains to be the most effective medium of advertising television sets. This is evident from the buzz that has been created by the television adverts of many television manufacturers. There is Samsung’s “The Curve Changes Everything”
Campbell reports that television advertising has the highest return on investment; it is also the most profitable (2014). This means that television manufacturers stand to profit more from television adverts than from any other medium of advertising. Samsung’s advertisement is proof of that since it sparked interest on curved televisions and drove up the sales of those televisions.
Television adverts boost brand searches when they are viewed by people with multiple screens such as phones or computers (Campbell, 2014). These viewers went ahead and searched the products they had seen on television adverts. These searches have increased by 33% per rating on Google between 2011 and 2014. This is especially important for television manufacturers who have online stores since these brand searches always lead to these stores. There consumers are able to learn more about the product being advertised and also about other products by the same manufacturer.
These two reasons make television the most effective medium of marketing televisions since it has a high return on investment and a positive domino effect which increases brand recognition.

REFERENCES

Campbell, T. (2014). Still your television: TV remains most effective way to advertise. Iptvnews.com Retrieved from http://www.iptv-news.com/2014/05/still-your-television-tv-remains-most-effective-way-to-advertise/
Schoultz, M. (2014). Magic of the Samsung Marketing Campaign for curved TV. Digitalsparkmarketing.com. Retrieved from http://www.digitalsparkmarketing.com/uncategorized/samsung-marketing-campaign/
Kar, A. (2011). 4 P’s of Marketing . business- fundas.com. Retrieved from http://business-fundas.com/2011/the-4-ps-of-marketing-the-marketing-mix-strategies/
Samsung. (2015). Samsung rewards. Samsung.com. Retrieved from http://www.samsung.com/in/consumer/tv-audio-video/television/
Sony. (2015). Sony Online Store. Sony.com. Retrieved from http://store.sony.com/weekly-deals/cat-27-catid-All-Weekly-Deals-Featured-Offers
Ray, L. (2014). The Long-Term Effects of Customer-Oriented Sales Promotions. Chron.com. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/longterm-effects-customeroriented-sales-promotions-21921.html
Roth, S. (2007). Understanding Pricing Objectives and Strategies. Psu.edu. Retrieved from http://pubs.cas.psu.edu/FreePubs/pdfs/ua441.pdf
Sparrow, M. (2014) Sony Spins Off TV Business In Bid To Reconquer Market. Forbes.com. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/marksparrow/2014/02/09/sony-spins-off-tv-business-in-bid-to-reconquer-market/