The Promotion Mix Framework
Task 1
• You are required to write an essay using appropriate academic language and applying the Promotional Mix framework to explain and assess the effectiveness of Aldi’s promotional mix strategy.
Task 2
• Explain the ways in which advertising agencies contribute to the development of a promotional campaign.
• Explain the advantages and disadvantages of using promotional agencies.
Promotional mix is one of the key elements of four P’s of marketing. Promotion mix can be defined as a combination of various marketing activities such as direct marketing, publicity, point of sale displays, personal selling, advertising and sales promotion. These activities are coordinated in a way that it effectively communicates with the target consumers directly (Anaerobic digestion is a sweet mix at food manufacturer, 2015). The promotion mix is a tool which is used by the companies to remind the customers about their existence and to attract and persuade them to make a repurchase with them or place new orders. It is very crucial for an organization to use these tools in order to boost their profits and sales as only producing goods and services will not sell, unless its availability is communicated to the consumers.
The promotion mix consists of various key elements as follows:
Advertising is a paid form of impersonal presentation which promotes the idea, or goods and services which is provided by recognized sponsors. A standard message is sent out to large audiences about the price, benefits and availability of such products and services offered by a marketer (Bickhoff, Hollensen and Opresnik, 2014). A marketer needs to appropriately express the idea and choose correct media to connect with the consumers and maintain the legitimacy of the advertisement.
Sales Promotion uses those promotional strategies which will encourage the consumers to purchase the product within a short period of time (Biddle and Biddle, 2013). Sales promotion has immediate effect on sales and helps the companies to clear their stock which ultimately helps them to get an edge over its competitors. Ex: discounts, rebates, gift vouchers etc.
Personal Selling is a medium where the product is made available to the consumers directly by the seller. Here a personal interaction occurs between the buyer and the seller (Feldman, Wolfe and Twedt, 1971). This concept is based on customer’s satisfaction as it involves two way communications which helps the marketer to build relationship and get better response from the consumer.
Understanding Aldi’s Promotional Mix Strategy
Public Relations a tool which is used by marketers to maintain public relations that creates goodwill for the company. To gain public acceptance, the companies evaluate the policies and procedures and identify public attitudes (Kaur and Das, 2014). Public includes suppliers, customers, shareholders and intermediaries and the success of the firm is dependent upon them.
Aldi makes use of above and below the line promotions activities which focus on it “like brands” i.e. to demonstrate a same quality for its famous brands like Heinz and Fairy Liquid. Aldi tries to meet the aims of AIDA model, by adopting various communications channels to increase the impact on consumers. To reflect the balance of their marketing mix they use advertisements on television, distribute printed leaflets in stores, newspaper advertisements and make use of posters to emphasize on the message of ‘Swap and Save’ (Loda, 2014). They also make use of social media to directly interact with consumers to get critical feedback and creating Aldi advocates who can help in boosting their sales. They also make use of direct e-mails and have maintained a websites which features all the products of Aldi.
If a business is relatively new, then they should hire an advertising agency in order to get the best from their promotional activities as they know the current trends and what will work best for the company. The agency will devise the optimum creative tactics and strategies to achieve the objectives of the campaigns (Lucarelli, 2014). If the business is already established such as Aldi, then too, they should hire these agencies in order to ensure that their strategies are set in the right direction. They can use the service where these agencies deal with the crucial elements of the campaigns and rest is tackled by the business itself. Professional advertising agencies help its clients to design the advertise, select the suitable target audience and segments the markets, production of the advertisements, making purchase decisions regarding the channel/medium used for advertisements and also in managing the public relations and press releases.
Due to rapid technological advancements, it has become extremely important for firms to stand out of the crowd in this digital age (Pride and Ferrell, 2013). To respond to the changing ways of consumer engagements, advertising agencies are helping their clients to develop funny digital images and videos, conduct viral marketing or flash sales activities to appeal to the highly aware consumers. These agencies make strategic recommendations to the clients to develop an optimal promotion campaigns.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Promotional Agencies
An agency will help the firm to develop the entire promotional campaign right from a scratch. This can be highly beneficial for those businesses with little or no knowledge of advertising.
They can provide access to artistic and creative resources for short term which can be cheaper for the firm. This will also save the valuable time of the business.
They have better understanding about the market trends, demographic division of the international markets which can help the firm to accurately segment the market and to identify its target market (Promotional feats: the role of planned events in the marketing communications mix, 1992). This will help them to understand the needs so that they can cater to the diverse demand of the customers.
Professional agencies bring in a high level of expertise and specialized knowledge to the business. They can create strong brand awareness and help the firms to increase their market share.
The agencies provide a diverse team of professionals to develop the campaigns in the most innovative way which can reach to large audiences can create a positive impact.
Hiring advertising can be a costly affair than the in house marketing teams of the firm. It will increase the startup cost of a new business.
The firm’s values and beliefs may not be reflected in the campaigns designed by the agencies as they adopt a pure professional approach.
If the client’s objectives and goals are misinterpreted by the agency, then the campaign may create havoc for the firm (Siddhanta and Banerjee, 2014). Thus it is important that the firm sends out clear guidelines.
The agency might also be working for one of the competitor of the business; this would negatively impact the firm.
It is very important for a firm to select right media to appeal the target market. Media selection plays an important role which decides the success of any promotional campaign. The firm needs to accurately identify the lifestyles of its consumers and what will catch their attention easily. Aggressive promotion is used for FMCG products as they are low cost and produced to serve the masses (Winston and Granat, 2014). For global promotion, it becomes all the more important to select right media due to cultural differences. There promotion camping can take place through various means such as local, regional, national, digital, internet, trade magazines etc. Different means is useful for different purpose, such as:
Media Selection in Promotional Campaigns
Newspaper and Magazines advertisement- this media send out clear message either through images or simple texts. Firm can decide to use this for local or national markets if suitable.
TV advertisement- This can reach and appeal to a huge audience when used in a correct manner.
Internet and Digital media- with a surge in use of social media, this is the most popular media in the present scenario. Youngsters are highly glued to internet these days.
There are various factors that need to be considered before choosing any particular media. There has to be clear understanding of the target audience characteristics. The message needs to be consistent and clear which can be adapted to suit different media. Each element of the message should be integrated in the promotional campaign to make it successful.
For the purpose of this study, Heinz baby food products by ALDI have been selected. The promotional campaign should be as follows:
Since the parents are highly concerned about what they feed their babies, Heinz has come up with 23 varieties of food products that are available in the forms of dried instant flakes. In the baby food market, it is the mother who is the ultimate decision maker who seeks nutritional value in baby foods (Russell-Jones and Jones, 2014). Thus it’s important for Aldi to create a strong emotional connect with the mothers through advertising which promotes the health benefits of the product, through attractive packaging with all the related information available on it and by engaging personally with the parents through child care exhibitions and fairs. To ensure repurchases they are offering 23 varieties of food. They should place their ads in television commercials, lifestyle magazines used by women such as Vogue etc; they can market their products through portals which provide child care remedies, through parenting exhibitions and seminars, direct mailings and endorsements by health professionals should be highlighted. Aldi has been able to balance their marketing mix very well and they should maintain this balance to ensure the desired results for its baby food products. The AIDA model used by them will help them to achieve their goals.
Anaerobic digestion is a sweet mix at food manufacturer. (2015). Filtration + Separation, 52(3), pp.20-21.
Bickhoff, N., Hollensen, S. and Opresnik, M. (2014). The Quintessence of Marketing. Dordrecht: Springer.
Biddle, R. and Biddle, D. (2013). What Public-Sector Employers Need to Know About Promotional Practices, Procedures, and Tests in Public Safety Promotional Processes: After Ricci v. DeStefano.Public Personnel Management, 42(2), pp.151-190.
Feldman, L., Wolfe, H. and Twedt, D. (1971). Essentials of the Promotional Mix. Journal of Marketing, 35(4), p.112.
Kaur, S. and Das, M. (2014). Nutritional and functional characterization of barley flaxseed based functional dry soup mix. J Food Sci Technol.
Loda, M. (2014). Suggesting a More Effective Way to Use the Promotional Mix in Services. Services Marketing Quarterly, 35(4), pp.304-320.
Lucarelli, J. (2014). Super Baby Food: Your Complete Guide to What, When, and How to Feed Your Baby and Toddler. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 46(5), pp.456.e1.
Pride, W. and Ferrell, O. (n.d.). Foundations of marketing.
Promotional feats: the role of planned events in the marketing communications mix. (1992). Choice Reviews Online, 29(08), pp.29-4600-29-4600.
Russell-Jones, N. and Jones, L. (2014). Marketing Pocketbook. New York: Management Pocketbooks.
Siddhanta, S. and Banerjee, N. (2014). The impact of promotional mix on profit in the B2B sector.Mrkting Intelligence & Plan, 32(5), pp.600-615.
Winston, W. and Granat, J. (2014). Persuasive Advertising for Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.
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