Page 467 - Foundations of Marketing

434 Part 6 | Promotion Decisions

new features of its operating system at the Mobile World
Congress before the release date. Educating consumers
about its product’s features is important, as Windows 8 was
the company’s first operating system to operate on both
8
desktop and tablet computers.
Creating awareness is important for existing products,
®
too. Cesar dog food promotes awareness that its five
savory entrees are appropriate for every dog. To gener-
ate this awareness, the advertisement uses a humorous
photo of a large dog trying to be just like the small lap dog
used as the Cesar trade character. The advertisement also
equates buying Cesar dog food with an act of love for your
dog. Promotional efforts may aim to increase awareness
of brands, product features, image-related issues (such as
organizational size or socially responsive behavior), or
operational characteristics (such as store hours, locations,
and credit availability). Some promotional programs are
unsuccessful because marketers fail to generate aware-
ness of critical issues among a significant portion of target
market members. Other times, the campaign itself is at
fault. For example, an Arby’s commercial that criticized
rival chain Subway for slicing its meats in a factory rather
than in its restaurants outraged Iowans after featuring
Courtesy of Cesar officer of Arby’s issued an apology.
an actual Subway factory in Iowa. The chief marketing
9

Generating Brand Awareness Stimulate Demand
Cesar uses this advertisement to increase brand awareness and When an organization is the first to introduce an innovative
®
make consumers aware that its savory delights are for every dog. product, it tries to stimulate primary demand —demand for a
product category rather than for a specific brand of product—
through pioneer promotion . Pioneer promotion informs potential customers about the product:
what it is, what it does, how it can be used, and where it can be purchased. Because pioneer pro-
motion is used in the introductory stage of the product life cycle, meaning there are no competing
brands, it neither emphasizes brand names nor compares brands. When Apple introduced the new
iPad (the third iteration of the iPad), it envisioned a product that would be different from desktop
computers and notebooks and that would be used in and around the home for easy access to news,
e-mail, entertainment, and a broad diversity of service options. The goal was to promote the iPad
10
line as a new product category, not as a replacement for a product you might already have.
To build selective demand , demand for a specific brand, a marketer employs promotional
efforts that point out the strengths and benefits of a specific brand. Building selective demand
also requires singling out attributes important to potential buyers. Selective demand can be
stimulated by differentiating the product from competing brands in the minds of potential buy-
TM
ers. For instance, Origins stimulates demand for its Plantscription SPF 25 anti-aging face
cream by describing the benefits of its product and encouraging those who are interested to
read online testimonials from among its 4.6 million customers. It also describes the technol-
ogy used in creating the product to demonstrate its natural origins.
primary demand Demand for a Selective demand can also be stimulated by increasing the number of product uses and
product category rather than for promoting them through advertising campaigns, as well as through price discounts, free sam-
a specific brand ples, coupons, consumer contests and games, and sweepstakes. For example, Ace Hardware
pioneer promotion Promotion offers promotions whereby consumers can receive 20 percent off everything that fits into a
that informs consumers about a bag. Such a promotion supports selective demand for Ace Hardware. Promotions for large
new product package sizes or multiple-product packages are directed at increasing consumption, which in
selective demand Demand for turn can stimulate demand. In addition, selective demand can be stimulated by encouraging
a specific brand existing customers to use more of the product.

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