Answer to Question 1
What promotions can accomplish (students can discuss any 3):
1 . Stimulate sales force enthusiasm for a new, improved, or mature product. Exciting sales promotions give salespeople persuasive ammunition when interacting with buyers, reviving enthusiasm and making the saleperson's job easier and more enjoyable.
2 . Invigorate sales of a mature brand. Promotions cannot reverse the sales decline for an undesirable product or brand, but promotions can invigorate sales of a mature product that requires a shot in the arm.
3 . Facilitate the introduction of new products to the trade. Promotions to wholesalers and retailers are typically necessary to encourage the trade to handle new offerings (SKUs). Many retailers refuse to carry additional SKUs unless they receive extra compensation in the form of off-invoice allowances, display allowances, and slotting allowances.
4 . Increase on- and off-shelf merchandising space. Trade-oriented promotions, often in conjunction with consumer promotions, enable a manufacturer to obtain extra shelf space or more desirable space for a temporary period.
5 . Neutralize competitive advertising and sales promotions. Sales promotion can effectively offset competitors' advertising and promotion efforts.
6 . Obtain trial purchases from consumers. Marketers depend on free samples, coupons, and other sales promotions to encourage trial purchases of new brands.
7 . Hold current users by encouraging repeat purchases. The strategic use of certain forms of promotion can encourage at least short-run repetitive purchasing.
8 . Increase product usage by loading consumers. The effect of many deal-oriented promotions is to encourage consumer stockpiling (i.e., purchase more of a particular brand than they normally would to take advantage of the deal). Research has shown that consumption rate accelerates in the short term.
9 . Preempt competition by loading consumers. When consumers are loaded with one company's brand, they are temporarily out of the marketplace for competitive brands.
10 . Reinforcing advertising. An exciting promotion can reinforce advertising's impact, and advertising is increasingly being used as a communication mechanism for delivering promotional offerings.
What promotions cannot accomplish:
1 . Inability to compensate for a poorly trained sales force or for a lack of advertising. Promotions will provide at best a temporary fix of an underlying problem.
2 . Inability to give the trade or consumers any compelling long-term reason to continue purchasing a brand. Repeat purchasing is based on continued satisfaction with the brand.
3 . Inability to permanently stop an established brand's declining sales trend or change the basic nonacceptance of an undesired product. A declining sales trend can be reversed only through product improvements or perhaps an advertising campaign that breathes new life into an aging brand.
Answer to Question 2
c