Sales Promotions Standing out from the crowd

Slashing prices, giving 50% off, buy one get one free, Stock clearance sales, will these promotions get you repeat business? We have all heard them before, they are on every street shop window in every town they do not work.

Today, more than any other time in the past, you need to define how you're going to be distinctive—in marketing that is called branding. For example, the standard marketing model believes that if you shovel enough prospects into the top of the sales funnel and then use mass marketing, you can reach a whole lot of people cheaply and simply, and therefore you'll get enough business and be profitable. That doesn't seem to be working as well as it used to because of strong competition and look-alike offerings.

Marketing has also swung around to support selling, instead of the other way around. Marketing today often starts with, "What do we want to sell?" instead of addressing, "Who is the customer and what does he want?" It is aimed at getting people to buy things that the company wants to sell when it should be aiming at, "How can I provide things the customer wants to buy?" In addition, there is the problem of companies separating their sales from their marketing efforts. Marketing is really the planning function that drives all the other tactics you use in your business. Think of marketing as the umbrella, sales as the handle, and the spokes (public relations, direct mail, advertising, sales promotion, and research) as the individual tools you can use to make your marketing plan work. All of these elements are what makes the umbrella and your marketing plan work.”