Page 156 - Marketing the Basics 2nd

148 Marketing: the Basics
to 13- to 19-year-olds in its database. Lured by the chance to win products, the teenagers endorse products chosen by Tremor’s clients. Keeping the supply limited in the incipient stages of the process fuels the buzz and drives demand. Teenagers generally avoid mainstream products, so unique gear that ‘you’ve got to have’ drives youngsters crazy. When the company launches the product in the mass markets, there is no need to build awareness as teenagers already know about the product. Few realize that by the time they buy it the product is mainstream. When the inevitable strikes them, they will rush to jump on the new latest trend and crave another
new gear.
PERSONAL SELLING AND DIRECT MARKETING
Unlike the other three promotional tools, personal selling and direct marketing are highly interactive experiences. Buyers and sellers are in constant communication with each other, with each party adjusting their message according to the other’s specific needs. The other three promotional approaches are impersonal in nature: the firm releases the message and tries to devise methods of increasing the chances of the audience absorbing the information. Since we discuss personal selling and direct marketing in the next chapter, we shall not discuss these two promotional tools at this point.
SUMMARY
• Marketers choose between employing a push or pull strategy to communicate to their customers. The strategy chosen depends heavily on the product.
• When the appropriate strategy is chosen, the manager must decide how best to measure success.
• Managers better get used to the idea that certain promotional tools do not account as neatly as they would like, especially when evaluating the level of buzz surrounding a product.
• Measuring success should be secondary to the real goal of promotion, which is to send messages to the customer. Done properly, every message that the customer receives will be consistent.