Page 477 - Foundations of Marketing

444 Part 6 | Promotion Decisions

Sometimes sales promotion and advertising are used in conjunction with personal selling to
push the products down through the channel.
As Figure 15.4 shows, a firm that uses a pull policy promotes directly to consumers to
develop strong consumer demand for its products. It does so primarily through advertis-
ing and sales promotion. Because consumers are persuaded to seek the products in retail
stores, retailers in turn go to wholesalers or the producers to buy the products. This policy
is intended to pull the goods down through the channel by creating demand at the consumer
level. Consumers are told that if the stores do not have it, then they should request that the
stores begin carrying the product. Push and pull policies are not mutually exclusive. At times,
an organization uses both simultaneously.

LO 6 . Understand word-of- THE GROWING IMPORTANCE OF
mouth communication and how
it affects promotion. WORD-OF-MOUTH COMMUNICATIONS

When making decisions about the composition of promotion mixes, marketers should rec-
ognize that commercial messages, whether from advertising, personal selling, sales promo-
tion, or public relations, are limited in the extent to which they can inform and persuade
customers and move them closer to making purchases. Depending on the type of customers
and the products involved, buyers to some extent rely on word-of-mouth communication
from personal sources, such as family members and friends. Word-of-mouth communi-
pull policy Promoting a cation is personal, informal exchanges of communication that customers share with one
product directly to consumers another about products, brands, and companies. Most customers are likely to be influenced
to develop strong consumer
demand that pulls products by friends and family members when they make purchases. Word-of-mouth communica-
through a marketing channel tion is very important when people are selecting restaurants and entertainment along with
automotive, medical, legal, banking, and personal services like hair care. Vail Resorts used
word-of-mouth communi-
cation Personal informal word-of-mouth marketing to encourage skiers to share their experiences with their friends
exchanges of communication and family right from the slopes. The company released an online and mobile app called
that customers share with one EpicMix that allowed skiers to track where they rode, how many feet they traveled, and other
another about products, brands, useful statistics. Skiers could then use the EpicMix application to share their achievements
23
and companies with their friends and family without having to leave the mountain. Research has identified

Encouraging Word-of-Mouth
Communication
Funny ads that capture con-
sumer interest, such as this
CareerBuilder.com ad, can go AP Images/ CareerBuilder.com
viral and generate a significant
amount of free impact and
exposure.

Copyright 2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.