CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION
 INTRODUCTION

In saying, marketing involves the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas,
goods and services. The fundamental objective of marketing is to exchanges of goods and
services (Frances Brassington and Stephen Pettitt, 2005) By designing products setting
sensible, acceptable and justifiable prices, creating awareness and preferences, and ensuring
availability and service, the marketer can influence the volume of exchange therefore
marketing can be considered as a demand management activity on the part of the selling
company.
Promotion is an important component of marketing mix which has got a very significant
impact on the demand managing activity of marketing. The key components of promotion
includes personal selling, direct marketing, advertising, sales promotion, and public relations.
Sales promotion is a range of marketing techniques designed with in a strategic marketing
frame work to add extra value to a particular product or services, developing a promotion
strategy involve deciding on the objectives of marketing communication. Promotion
objectives are so vital that these objectives are the key in determining the role of each
components of the promotion mix in the marketing objectives of the organisation. The role of
promotion mix components depends on the type of organization, nature of products, etc.
Promotion is a part of integrated marketing communication which recognizes the advantages
of having a complete plan to find better ways of understanding and connecting with
consumers

Sales are the lifeblood of a business, without sales there would be no business in the first
place; therefore it is very important that if a business wants to succeed, it should have a sales
promotion strategy in mind. The primary objective of a sales promotion is to improve a
company’s sales by predicting and modifying your target customers purchasing behaviour
and patterns.

Sales promotion is very important as it not only helps to boost sales but it also helps a
business to draw new customers while at the same time retaining older ones. There are a
variety of sales promotional strategies that a business can use to increase their sales, however
it is important that we first understand what a sales promotion strategy actually is and why it
is so important.

A sales promotion strategy is an activity that is designed to help boost the sales of a product
or service. This can be done through an advertising campaign, public relation activities, a free
sampling campaign, a trading stamps campaign, through demonstrations and exhibitions,
through prize giving competitions, through temporary price cuts, and through door-to-door
sales, telemarketing, personal sales letters and emails. The importance of a sales promotion
strategy cannot be underestimated this is because a sales promotion strategy is important to a
business boosting its sales.

When developing a sales promotion strategy for your business, it is important that you keep
the following points in mind.

Consumer attitudes and buying patterns follows brand strategy, competitive, advertising
strategy, and other external factors that influences the availability of products and their
pricing.
 NEED FOR THE STUDY

As consumers have developed a resistance to advertising, the use of sales promotion has
increased. There is scope for a variety of activities with sales promotion and companies seek
to create a promotion that singles it out from competitors. Advertising is partly restricted by
the media that can be used.
The role of sales promotion is to encourage purchase by temporarily improving the value of a
brand. However, it is part of the overall marketing mix and should tie in with advertising,
product performance and pricing. The purpose of advertising is to improve dispositions
towards a brand, while the objective of sales promotion is to translate favourable attitudes
into actual purchase. Advertising cannot normally close a sale because its impact is too far
from the point of purchase, but sales promotion can.
Sales promotion is often managed in isolation from other elements of marketing, because
there is the need to gain shelf space through retailer support and in this context it is referred
to as ‘the silent salesman’.
Collectively, these tools of sales promotion are often referred to as ‘below-the-line
promotion’ which contrasts to advertising which, as discussed earlier, is termed ‘above-the-
line’ expenditure. We now describe and discuss some of the more frequently used tools of
sales promotion. With such variety of techniques, we need to be sure that the planning of
sales promotion is systematic, so the key steps in planning sales promotion, along with
appropriate techniques, are now discussed.

Planning sales promotion

The starting point is the identification of the target audience and the specific objectives that
the sales promotion intends to achieve. Sales promotion can be aimed at one or more of the
following:
 consumers;
 the ‘trade’ (retailers, wholesalers, distributors etc.);
 the sales force.
In consumer sales promotion, typical objectives include encouraging customers to switch
brands, to try a new product or encourage heavier purchase/consumption. Much of the
literature on sales promotion relates to the use of this tool in markets for fast moving
consumer goods. It is also prevalent and effective in industrial product markets, through the
use of, for example, trade fairs, executive gifts and sponsorship. Sales promotion can play an
important part in a market where competition is fierce and where relatively minor
‘incentives’ to purchase might swing the balance in favour of a particular supplier.
In trade sales promotion, objectives might include encouraging the trade to stock a new line
or exhorting them to put more effort into selling a company’s brands to the final customer.
Naturally, the trade will only be interested in doing any of these if it is profitable. Because of
this, effective trade sales promotion needs to be supported by imaginative marketing,
including sales promotion efforts to the trade’s customer. More importantly, the trade will
need to be convinced that there is a market for the product.
Promotion aimed at motivating the company’s own sales force might include these
objectives: stimulating greater effort to support a new product launch, encouraging the
opening of new accounts and encouraging more visits per day. We see that achieving a given
objective may require targeting sales promotion at various parties. Where this is the case, it
needs to be effectively co-ordinated and controlled along with other elements of the
marketing and promotional mix. The next step is to select the most appropriate and cost-
effective sales promotional tools. There is little empirical evidence to suggest which tools
work best in which situation and why. As an indication of the types of sales promotion tools
available for each target audience, we outline the major ones used for consumers, trade and
the field sales force

OBJECTIVES
The specific objectives set for sales promotions will vary with the type of the target market.
For consumer promotions, objectives include encouraging purchasing of larger sized units,
building trial among non-users and attracting switchers away from the competitor’s brands.
For trade promotions, objectives may include; including retailers to carry new items and
higher level of inventory, encouraging off-seasonal buying, of-setting competitive
promotions, building brand loyalty of retailers and gaining entry into new retail outlets. The
sales force promotions help in encouraging support of a new product or model, encouraging
more prospecting and stimulating off-seasonal sales. But most importantly, sales promotion
should be focused on consumer relationship building

Following are the objectives of the study:

 To find out the influence of Sales promotion on the sales of the Big Bazaar at Abids
Hyderabad
 To find the most effective tool of Sales promotion technique to entice customers used by
Retail businesses.
 To study various sales promotion techniques used by Big Bazaar in Abids Hyderabad
 To find the effectiveness of the Brand recall and Recognition of Big Bazaar.
 To find out the ranking of Big Bazaar with its relative competitors as per the customers.
 To find certain new techniques that Big Bazaar can adopt to improve its services
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Methodology adopted for study

 Observation Method (Observing the working of various departments like finance,
marketing, purchasing, production.)

 Questionnaire method (Enquiring about the Sales promotion techniques adopted by

Big Bazaar from its Managers and employees, also from the customers visiting the
store)

 Visiting & surfing websites of company.

Meaning
Research Methodology is a set of various methods to be followed to find out various
Information’s regarding market strata of different products. Research Methodology is
required in every industry for acquiring knowledge of their products.

Area of study
The study is exclusively done in the area of marketing. It is a process requiring care,
sophistication, experience, business judgment, and imagination for which there can be no
mechanical substitutes.

Sources of Data
 Primary Source - The primary data was collected by means of a survey.
Questionnaires were prepared and customers of the big bazaar at two branches were
approached to fill up the questionnaires. The questionnaire contains 20 questions
which reflect on the type and quality of services provided by the Big bazaar to the
customers. The response of the customer is recorded on a grade scale of strongly
disagree, disagree, uncertain, agree and strongly agree for each question. The filled up
information was later analyzed to obtain the required interpretation and the findings.
  Secondary Source - In order to have a proper understanding of the customer service
of Big Bazaar a depth study was done from the various sources such as books, a lot of
data is also collected from the official websites of the Big bazaar and the articles from
various search engines like Google search and answers.com.

RESEARCH DESIGN
The research design is exploratory till identification of customer services parameters. Later it
becomes descriptive when it comes to evaluating the promotion techniques of the big bazaar.

Descriptive research, also known as statistical research, describes data and characteristics
about the sales promotion techniques being studied. Descriptive research answers the
questions who, what, where, when and how.
Although the data description is factual, accurate and systematic, the research cannot describe
what caused a situation. Thus, descriptive research cannot be used to create a causal
relationship, where one variable affects another.
The description is used for frequencies, averages and other statistical calculations. Often the
best approach, prior to writing descriptive research, is to conduct a survey investigation.
Qualitative research often has the aim of description and researchers may follow-up with
examinations of why the observations exist and what the implications of the findings are.

RESEARCH SAMPLE

SAMPLING PLAN:
Since it is not possible to study whole universe, it becomes necessary to take sample from the
universe to know about its characteristics.
 Sampling Units: Customers and Employees of Big bazaar.

 Sample Technique: Random Sampling.

 Research Instrument: Structured Questionnaire.

 Contact Method: Personal Interview/Filling the Questionnaires.

SAMPLE SIZE:
The work is a case of Big bazaar one of the Retail Sector industry together representing great
per cent of the market share of Indian retail sector. The survey was conducted in the city of
Hyderabad at abids branch of big bazaar, with 100 customers as respondent.

DATA COLLECTION TOOL

Data is collected from various customers through personal interaction. Some other
information is collected through secondary data also. Data was collected through a structured
questionnaire is used for analysis.

SOURCES OF DATA

Primary Data Secondary Data

Questionnaire Newsletter

Observation Journals

Interviews Magazines

Visits to other Newspapers

Companies information Books

Through departmental heads Websites

 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

 Change is Constant” rule of nature. Hence, the study undertaken may not hold good
for longer duration.

 The study was conducted under the assumption that the information given by the
respondents is authentic.

 The analysis and suggestion are given only with respect to marketing aspects as
technical suggestion with respect to the product could not be given.

 Confidential matters were not disclosed by the company.

 There were time constraints

 Difficult to differentiate the actual shoppers to window shoppers.

 Many customers are not interested in responding to the questionnaires as they are
busy in shopping