Answer to Question 1
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Answer to Question 2
Promotion has four basic components: advertising, sales promotion, publicity, and personal selling. Collectively, these components make up the retailer's promotional mix.
All four components of the retailer's promotional mix need to be managed from a total systems perspective. The management of promotional efforts in retailing must also fit into the retailer's overall strategy. Promotion decisions relate to and must be integrated with other management decisions such as location, merchandise, credit, cash flow, building and fixtures, price, and customer service.
A retailer's location will help determine the target for promotions. A retailer should direct its promotional dollars first toward households in its primary trading area, and then to secondary trading areas. However, e-tailers who are global in presence must determine specific areas, whether they be countries or communities, in which to focus their promotional efforts.
Retailers need high levels of store traffic to keep their merchandise turning over rapidly; promotion helps build traffic.
A retailer's credit customers are more store loyal and purchase in larger quantities. Thus, they are an excellent target for increased promotional efforts. A retailer confronted with a temporary cash-flow problem can use promotion to increase short-run cash flow.
A retailer's promotional strategy must be reinforced by its building and fixtures decisions. Promotional creativity and style should coincide with building and fixture creativity and style. If the ads are exciting and appeal to a particular target market, then so should the building and fixtures.
Promotion provides customers with more information. That information will help them make better purchase decisions because risk is reduced. Therefore, promotion can actually be viewed as a major component of customer service.