Answer to Question 1
Promotion refers to any incentive used by a manufacturer to induce the trade (wholesalers, retailers, or other channel members) and/or consumers to buy a brand and to encourage the sales force to aggressively sell it. The incentive is additional to the basic benefits provided by the brand and temporarily changes its perceived price or value.
In contrast to advertising, which typically, though not always, is relatively long term in orientation and best suited to enhancing buyer attitudes and augmenting brand equity, promotion is more short-term oriented and capable of influencing behavior (rather than just attitudes or intentions). Promotion has the character of urgency in its injunction to act now. Promotion has the power to influence behavior because it offers the buyer superior value in the short term and can make buyers feel better about the buying experience.
All three groups - the sales force, retailers, and consumers - are targets of sales promotional efforts, even for this type of product. First, trade- and consumer-oriented sales promotion provide the manufacturer's sales force with the necessary tools for aggressively and enthusiastically selling to wholesale and retail buyers. They are, in other words, encouraged to actively sell those brands that are being promoted. Manufacturers' promotions also can encourage retail salespeople to devote more attention to the manufacturer's brands. A second target of sales promotion efforts is the trade, including wholesalers but especially retailers. Various types of allowances, discounts, contests, and advertising support programs are used in a forward thrust from manufacturers to trade accounts that provide retailers with reasons for stocking, displaying, advertising, and perhaps placing the promoted brand on a price-discounted deal. Third, the use of consumer-oriented promotions (e.g., coupons, samples, premiums, cents-off deals, sweepstakes, and contests) serve to pull a brand through the channel by providing consumers with a special reason to purchase a promoted brand on a trial or repeat basis.
Answer to Question 2
d