MODULE-II ADVERTISING & SALES PROMOTION

April
State the importance of measuring Advertising Effectiveness.
2025
April
Discuss the need to integrate different advertising media in a campaign.
2025
Evaluate the balance of traditional and digital advertising media used by April
'Fresh Fizz' in their campaign. 2025
If you were the marketing manager, which medium would you invest more in April
5
and why? 2025
June
Enlist the benefits of Print media advertising.
2025
June
Write a note on: ii. Advertising
2025
Enlist the sales promotional tools that enable the salesforce to meet targets July
and improve the bottom-line of the organization. 2025
April
Discuss the types of Sales Promotion tools with examples.
2025
June
Explain the process of evaluating sales promotional effectiveness. 10
2025
Sales promotion is an important tool of Integrated Marketing Communication. July
Explain the benefits of Sales Promotion with examples. 2025

Role of advertising in Integrated Marketing Communication

1. Advertising is a crucial component of IMC as it helps brands reach a large audience,
build awareness, and influence consumer perception. In an IMC strategy, advertising
works alongside public relations, social media, sales promotions, and direct
marketing to create a consistent brand message across multiple platforms.
2. Advertising is a powerful tool in IMC, helping brands create awareness, communicate
brand values, drive sales, and support other marketing activities. When integrated
with public relations, digital marketing, sales promotions, and direct marketing,
advertising ensures a brand’s message reaches the right audience effectively.
Example: When Apple launches a new iPhone, it uses TV ads, social media,
influencer marketing, website banners, and billboards to ensure the same message
reaches consumers from different sources.
Key Points:
1. Creates Brand Awareness: wider audience/ Helps in positioning the brand in the
minds of consumers.
2. Reinforces Brand Messaging: consistent tone, voice, and image / uniformity in
messaging
3. Educates & Informs Consumers: explains product features, benefits, and uses /
new product launches and promotions
4. Supports Other IMC Elements: Advertising acts as an anchor for other IMC
activities, for example:
a. Public Relations: Ads generate interest before PR campaigns.
b. Sales Promotions: Ads promote discounts and special offers.
c. Social Media Marketing: TV ads drive traffic to social media platforms.
 5. Builds Emotional Connections with Consumers: storytelling and creative visuals /
Encourages customer loyalty and trust
6. Increases Sales & Business Growth: Drives purchase decisions / Generates
repeat sales and customer retention.
Medium of Advertising
Print Media
Newspaper, Magazines, Newsletter, Brochures
Advantages / Benefits
1. Loyal reader base
2. High trustworthiness / promoting brand via word of mouth
3. Highly flexible options - very easy to reach a target audience at particular
demographic region or language
Limitations
1. Limited shelf life
2. The reach is limited to the area in circulation
3. High chances of your message being lost. If message is not advertised in a prime
space, there are high chances of it going unnoticed by the reader.

Broadcast Advertising
Television, Radio
Advantages / Benefits
1. High reach and credibility
2. Can leave a lasting impression of the viewers
3. Flexible advertisement options - form of short audio/visual clips, still images and
much more
Limitations
1. Not suitable for a low budget option
2. No guarantee that your ad will be viewed/heard

Outdoor Advertising
1. Banners and Billboards, Point of Sales Displays, Kiosk, bus stops, and telephone
booths
2. Transport advertising and wraps, for example, trains, subways, and taxis
3. Guerrilla advertising strategies which are also known as ambient media advertising
Advantages / Benefits
1. Most low-cost and flexible solution
2. Can be placed strategically
3. Efficient way to advertise
Limitations
1. Not useful in advertising long messages or statements as they generally carry a low
attention span
2. It can become a distraction in roads or junctions and may even cause accidents

Digital Advertising
Internet, Social Media, Videos, Mobile Phones, Media Devices, Podcast
Advantages / Benefits
1. An extremely high reach
2. Interactive advertising
3. Very cost-effective
4. Targeted advertising by tracking internet usage history
Limitations
Low trustworthiness - The internet today is bombarded with spams and fake promotional
articles.
Measuring Effectiveness of Advertisement
1. Advertising effectiveness is a method used to determine if a brand’s marketing efforts
are hitting the mark with its target audience and whether it’s getting the best returns.
2. It enables brands to measure the strengths, weaknesses, and benefits of specific
advertising campaigns, so the company can adjust accordingly.
3. Measuring advertising effectiveness helps you understand the impact and reach of
your campaign, allowing you to find the optimal amount of exposure and determine
what is and isn’t working about your advertising strategies.
4. Once marketers begin tracking advertising effectiveness, the next logical step is for
them to begin maximizing it. This usually means looking at a campaign that has
concluded (or been in flight for several weeks) and ensuring there’s a proper balance
between the ad’s reach and relevance, while ensuring it synergizes with any
connected touchpoints.
5. It is not at all possible to measure advertisement effectiveness accurately as there
are many factors like making a brand image, increasing the sales, keeping people
informed about the product, introducing new product, etc, which affect the
effectiveness of an advertisement.
Importance of Measuring Advertising Effectiveness
1. It acts as a Safety measure
2. Provides feedback for remedial measures
3. Avoids possible failure
4. To justify the Investment in Advertising
5. To know the communication Effect
6. Compare two markets - For exploring better reach and impact of advertising
Methods of Measuring Advertising Effectiveness
1. Set clear goals
2. Measure the quantitative data
a. Analyze Site Traffic / Shop Footfall / Tickets sold etc.
b. Review Lead Quality for prospective buyer
c. Analyze Key Metrics Before and After
3. Analyze and collect your data
a. Measure your advertisement’s reach
b. Work out your audience size
c. Choose your frequency
d. Decide on your mix
i. The mix can optimize a campaign by showing you which mediums are
working.
4. Evaluate the true impact of your campaign against your goals
5. Conclusions which can help for future advertising campaign
a. Identify which campaign metrics need improvement
b. Identify which media types are most valuable
c. Link campaign outcomes to revenue
Sales Promotion
1. The term ‘sales promotion’ has been defined as under:
a. Those marketing activities other than personal selling, advertising, and
publicity that stimulate consumer purchasing and dealer effectiveness, such
as display, shows, demonstrations, expositions, and various other non-current
selling efforts, not in ordinary routine.
b. Sales promotion consists of a diverse collection of incentive tools, mostly
short-term, designed to stimulate quicker and/or greater purchase of
particular products/services by consumers or traders.
2. A sales promotion is a marketing strategy in which a business uses a temporary
campaign or offer to increase interest or demand in its product or service.
3. A sales promotion, or promo, is a set of marketing strategies used to boost the
demand for a product or service, raise brand awareness, and increase revenue.
Companies use sales promotions within a limited period via various channels – social
media, email campaigns, websites, etc. They are accompanied by quality visuals,
influential text, and a reasonable objective to reach out to the target audience.
4. Sales promotion includes the short-term incentives offered to middlemen, salesmen,
and/or consumers. The popular methods used for sales promotion are
demonstration, trade show, exhibition, exchange offer, seasonal discount, free
service, gifts, credit facilities, contests, etc.
Features
1. It does not include advertising, personal selling, and publicity.
2. These activities are generally performed at certain times like the display, fairs, and
exhibitions, demonstration, seasonal discount, free gifts, etc. thus, these are not
regular activities,
3. Helps in selling and it makes advertisements and personal selling easy and effective.
4. Encourages dealers and distributors to sell the product more.
5. Encourages consumers also to buy the product.
6. Short Term Impact
7. Not Used Universally
a. Not necessary that company uses same sales promotions techniques in all
markets
Benefits / Advantages
1. Raises awareness 9. Increasing last-minute revenue
2. Useful in New Product Launch 10. Prevents Competitor Entry or
3. Creating new leads Promotions / Helps to take an edge
4. Generates more customers over Competitors
5. Positive effect on consumer 11. Helps to Gain Distribution Channel
behaviour Support
6. Introducing a new product a. Support and involvement
7. Selling out overstock push the product
8. Rewarding current customers /
Retains current customers
Limitations / Disadvantages
1. Increased price sensitivity
a. Customers expect low prices and may wait/switch for that
2. Used for short-term results
 3. Quality image may become tarnished / Excessive use of it can also harm the brand
value / Spoils Product Image
4. Increasing sales promotion activities may turn expensive
5. Reflects crisis
a. Frequent use of sales promotion may give the impression that the numbers of
consumers are very less or a firm is unable to manage its sales
Strategies
1. Pull Strategy: Attempts to get the customers to ‘pull’ the products from the company.
It involves making use of marketing communication and initiatives like seasonal
discounts, financial schemes, etc.
2. Push Strategy: Attempts to push the product away from the company to the
customers. It involves convincing the intermediary channels to push the product from
the distribution channels to the final consumers using promotional and personal
selling efforts. This strategy involves making use of tactics developed especially for
resellers, merchants, dealers, distributors, and agents.
3. Hybrid Strategy: Makes use of both the pull and push strategy to sell the product
with the least resistance possible. It involves attracting the customers using special
coupons and also providing incentives to the merchants to sell the brand’s products.
Types
1. Consumer-oriented Promotion Tools
When the sales promotion strategies are targeted to the end consumers, it is referred
to as consumer sales promotion.
2. Trade-oriented Sales Promotion
When the promotion activities are strategized keeping in mind the dealers,
distributors, or agents, it is called trade sales promotion.
3. Salesforce promotions
When the promotion activities are strategized keeping in mind a staff who is
appointed by the manufacturer to sell manufactured products to the resellers and
customers through personal selling.
Tools
Trade-oriented Sales Promotion
1. Price-Off Promotion / Discount / Cashbacks to dealers
2. Advertisement Allowances / Materials
3. Free Gifts to Dealers/Distribution
4. Involvement in decision making
Meetings and Seminars by Producers of all dealers/ distributors where all problems
of middlemen are discussed and solutions given
5. Stock return
6. Flexible / Lenient Credit terms
7. Dealer trophies
8. Push incentives
To push and promote the sale of a product, especially a newly launched product
9. Point Of Purchase Displays
Free point of purchase (POP) display units to the retailers to increase their sales.
10. Sales Contest
11. Free merchandise
Providing merchandise like keychains, T-shirt etc. with product / brand / company
name / logo to retailers
 12. Training
……. Any other creative and innovative offers to motivate dealers to push the product.
Salesforce promotions
1. Sales Contest 4. Trade Shows and Conventions
2. Bonus and Commission 5. Organizing at different locations in
3. Gift Items premium / Star hotels
……. Any other creative and innovative offers to motivate salesforce.
Measuring Effectiveness of the Promotional Program
1. Reasons to Measure Effectiveness -
a. Avoid costly mistakes
b. Evaluating alternative strategies
c. Increasing the efficiency of advertising in general
d. Determining if objectives are achieved
2. Limitations / Shortcomings / Challenges to Measure Effectiveness –
a. Expensive
b. Research problems
i. Difficult to measure effectiveness of each marketing measure
ii. Difficult to measure synergic impact of overall promotion program
c. Disagreement on what to test
d. Objectives sought in the promotional program may differ by industry, by stage
of the product life cycle, or even for different people within the firm.
e. The objections of creativity
f. Time
How To Evaluate Promotional Effectiveness
1. Studying Past Performance
2. Defining Key Performance Indicators (some of the examples of KPIs are - )
a. Sales / sales per day f. Achievement of Set Goals
b. Profit / Margin g. Customer Satisfaction
c. Return on Investment h. Conversion Rate (website
d. overall average order size traffic or offline enquires
e. New Customers from into actual sales)
Promotion
3. Organizing Promotional Data
a. Data collected from different sources for measuring effectiveness
4. Conducting necessary tests (some of the examples of tests are - )
a. Positioning Advertising Copy Testing
b. Rough Art, Copy and Commercial Testing of advertisement / promotion
campaign
c. Pretesting of Finished Ads
d. Pretesting of Finished Broadcast Ads
e. Physiological Measures
f. Market Testing of Ads
5. Analysing Results
6. Reporting / Conclusion