Promotion makes up one of the four P’s in the marketing mix; alongside Product, Price, and Place (Distribution). Your promotional mix are the activities your company invests in to reach its target audience to let them know about your products.
In MikesBikes Introduction there are two types of promotional activities; Product Advertising and Corporate Branding.
Product Advertising
Customers in each of the markets can be reached by advertising across up to five possible media channels.
Search: Places paid advertisements within organic internet search results (examples: Google, Bing, Yahoo). Your company’s advertisements will be shown when users type relevant keywords and phrases into their favorite search engine, enabling you to reach a very targeted audience. This channel is most effective in reaching customers in the Road segment.
Digital Video: Allows viewers to watch on-demand content free of charge (examples: Youtube, Hulu). As the service is free, paid advertisements are played before, during or after the streaming content. Advertisements can be accurately targeted based on the viewer’s preferred genre. This channel is most effective in reaching customers in the Kids segment.
Social Media: Enable users to connect and share their stories with others (examples: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter). These platforms provide companies with the ability to integrate paid advertisements within the user’s news feed. Very specific audience targeting is achieved based on
the user’s interests. This channel is most effective in reaching customers in the Mountain segment.
Television (TV): Advertising on cable and free-to-air broadcasts is still one of the most effective methods of reaching a large audience. Live viewers do not have the ability to skip advertisements, so your promotional content is seen by the majority of the viewing audience. This channel is most effective in reaching customers in the Kids and Mountain segments.
Print: Print advertising covers promotional content featured in magazines, newspapers, direct mail and out of home advertising (e.g. billboards, signage). Print media covers a wide range of audiences including specialist bike and outdoor magazines. This channel is most effective in reaching customers in the Road and Kids segments.
Note: Some markets consumers will respond strongly to a well promoted product, whereas in other, other aspects of the marketing mix may be more important to them. You can view Customer Preferences by Market Segment within the Market Research report.
Corporate Branding:
While Product Advertising is product-specific, Corporate Branding is an investment in promoting your company as a brand.
As customers become more aware of your company, they also become more aware of your individual products. Therefore, Corporate Branding expenditure will boost the awareness of your individual products.
The Corporate Branding decision is available in Year 2 of the simulation.
Video: How to Promote your Product
