Brand Savvy: Of assignments and sales strategies

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There are four aspects in the promotional mix but today I will attend to two, that is, personal selling and sales promotion.

There are four aspects in the promotional mix but today I will attend to two, that is, personal selling and sales promotion.

By Stha

stha mgida

Personal selling

Personal selling is the process of communicating with potential customers or clients face-to-face with the hope of selling a product or service. Personal selling works very well where the product is technical and the sales person may want to demonstrate its use to the potential buyer. It is often used to introduce a new product or service using a live presentation. It is used for products that would not necessarily be purchased randomly because of their technical aspects.

Technical products are normally highly priced; therefore a sales person would also have to be there physically to justify the price. A good example of personal selling is when a salesman sells a car. He or she would have to demonstrate how it works by test driving it with the potential buyer and explaining its benefits face to face. Personal selling is also widely used in the insurance industry, where agents sell life assurance, short term insurance and health insurance. By the way, speaking about insurance, it is very important for one to have medical insurance. The one that has worked extremely well for my kith and kin is Altfin Medical Aid. I would recommend it any day to someone who needs such insurance.

Sales promotion Sales promotion is used to introduce a new product, or to clear existing stock, or to attract traffic and to lift sales beyond their normal levels. I suppose some readers may relate with the Vaseline winter warmer promotion. Sales promotion is there to stimulate trial and to increase consumer demand. It works on the consumer in order for them to make an impulsive decision. Sales promotion items will in most cases be placed on the front end of the gondola or at the till point to attract the attention of the buyer. The tools of sales promotion are having ‘’sales”, distribution of samples and coupons, special store displays and road show. The collect stamps and win cutlery promotion and Pick and Pay is a good example of a sales promotion. It is easy to then determine which promotional mix aspect to use at what point given my explanation of both.

Lastly, I am an avid listener of ZiFM’s The Ignition programme in the morning on week days. I find it so entertaining and look forward to the next and the next programme. On the morning of the day I wrote this article, they broadcast the results of a survey where Denmark was listed as one of the happiest countries in the world. Burundi was last out of over 150. Zimbabwe was rated 130. I could not help but go back in the years to the time I was in Denmark. I can attest to the fact that I was generally happy when I was there and yet it has been so many years. Denmark is a small peace-loving country with a well educated, happy people. The only thing that perhaps gave me a bit of unhappiness was that literally, all the people that I interacted and worked with at the Confederation of Danish Industries had at least a Master’s degree. At that time I had not yet attained a Master’s degree and I felt really out of place despite the reassuring environment. When I came back home I made it a point to read for my Master’s degree as I was highly motivated. I will tell you where I am going with this self-praise in a moment but before I get to that, I have received so much feedback from readers regarding the content of Brand Savvy and the writing style I use. I also have received so many requests for help by students who are reading for various qualifications in marketing.

While I am unable to help conclusively, I hope that my content will continue to stimulate your own thoughts so that you may write good papers. Otherwise, I wrote my own assignments, the same is required of you so that you are trained along the way. You see, it is easy to remember something that you have written yourself. This makes it easier at exam time. This therefore is the reason behind the self praise earlier. If I could do it, so can you. It is so much easier these days as information is easier to obtain. That said, keep reading and remain brand savvy.

l Stha Magida can be contacted on [email protected]