ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the variety of methods, costs, and challenges associated with sales promotion programs. It explains how promotional strategies are used to support other Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) activities and events. The image of a brand must always be maintained and the sales promotion strategy must conform to IMC creative and media strategies. Advertising tends to focus on the process of communicating brand value and user benefits, while promotions usually concentrate on the immediate stimulation of sales. Each promotion program has a number of different costs involved with its planning, implementation, and management. There are hundreds of ways to use promotion to stimulate the immediate sale of a product or service, but most companies use one of the strategies. These include: coupons, sampling, premiums, loyalty programs, sweepstakes, contests, buy one, get one (BOGO), extra amounts, brand demonstrations, cash back, bonus packs, shared programs, logo merchandise, and experiences.
