Method
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Explanation
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Advantage
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Disadvantage
|
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Advertising
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- Promotion through paid channels such as television, radio, print media, online advertising and outdoor advertising
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- Can reach large audiences and increase brand awareness
- Can create a specific brand image or message, e.g. the advertising campaign run by Compare the Market (Meerkat)
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- Memorable advertising campaigns can be very expensive
- The effectiveness of advertising is often difficult to measure
- Many customers tune out or ignore advertising
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|
Direct
Marketing
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- Communicating directly with customers through email, text message, social media or post
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- Targets specific audiences and allows personalisation of the message to individual customers
- Businesses can track results (for example, online advert clicks) and adjust their strategy accordingly
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- Can be intrusive as customers may perceive it as spam
- Can also be costly, especially if businesses need to purchase customer databases
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Sales
Promotions
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- Temporary incentives or discounts such as free samples, buy one get one free (bogof), discount coupons, loyalty cards,] and rebates (customers have to mail in to receive money back)
|
- Can quickly boost sales or customer engagement through impulse purchases
- Can help to clear out stock or promote a new product
- Can be targeted at specific groups of customers
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- Heavy discounting reduces revenue significantly
- Attract deal-seeking customers who may not be loyal to the brand
- May reduce sales of full-priced products
|
|
Personal
Selling
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- A salesperson interacts with potential customers one-on-one either in person or through digital channels
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- Builds relationships with customers and helps to understand their specific needs
- Can provide personalised advice and guidance to customers
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- Hiring and training sales staff increases costs
- Difficult to scale the approach to larger audiences
|
|
Sponsorship
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- Agreement where a business provides financial or other support to an event, team, or organisation in exchange for marketing exposure
- Can take many forms, such as logo placement or naming rights (For example, Arsenal's Emirates Stadium)
|
- Builds brand awareness and credibility
- Creates emotional connections with the target audience
- May support specific business objectives such as entering new markets or reaching new customers
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- Sponsoring high-profile events or properties can be expensive
- May not directly drive sales
- Negative publicity is a risk
- E.g. In 2022 Kanye West was dropped by sponsor Adidas when he made a series of offensive statements
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Public
Relations (PR)
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- Building relationships with the public and manage business reputation
- Include media relations, product launches, crisis management and community outreach
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- Can enhance a business's reputation and credibility
- For example, a brilliant PR strategy helped KFC to communicate with customers in 2018 when supply chain issues causes UK and Ireland KFC outlets to run out of chicken
- Cost-effective when compared with advertising or personal selling
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- Can be time-consuming
- Difficult to measure the direct impact of PR activities on profits
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Digital Communications
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- Promotions or communication delivered electronically, such as social media, search engine optimisation (SEO) or social media apps such as Instagram and Twitter
- Can be used for building brand awareness, generating leads or driving sales
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- Can be highly targeted to specific customer segments
- Can provide real-time engagement and feedback from customers
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- Easily ignored or filtered out by customers
- May require significant investment in technology or data infrastructure
- May not be effective for reaching older or less tech-savvy customer segments
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