It as an effective tool to informed, an art to invite, and an element to persuade. Generally speaking, promotion was an attempt to influenced the market with its utmost creativity and strategy. Promotional tools were important for the business to developed solid sales and customer service approaches. Owners of different kinds of businesses needed to be keenly aware of the importance of promotional strategies in promoting their products.
In the aspect of product promotions, Sales promotion was one of the most effective ways of promoting what a business has to offer to the market, it offered direct incentives, coupons, rebates, and premiums that titivated people to buy a brand immediately even in greater quantities. Promotional tools may also call for the use of personal selling and public relations which greatly expanded communication opportunities of the marketers. Milliner Philippines was one of the most renowned companies in the country and VA (Availability Visibility Accessibility) Distribution Corporation was the exclusive distributor of Milliner products in Button City.
One of their distributed products is Nor Real Scrap Seasoning, it was an all- in-one seasoning mix that contains real herbs and spices that provides to add flavor and real goodness to any dish. Nor Real Scrap Seasoning mix has been distributed to different channels in orgy. Liberate, Button City like Service Cooperative store, Family Grocers, Pick n Go Convenient Store, Cargo enterprises, RL and San Shoppers mart, Public Market, Block Attendants, Vamoose Mart. Buy and Load Store, JUNK Pharmacy & Store, Pros meat Shoppe and store, berry happy meat Shoppe and store, singsong mart and meat Shoppe, and Green Apple Mart.
Issues and concerns took place and so observations were made to know the very reason why Nor Real Scrap Seasoning mix found it hard to catch the attention of consumers to patronize their products. Nor Real Scrap Seasoning mix has a good packaging, good taste, labeling and all and yet still covered by the greatness of its competitors. It was not that scalable in the market and tends to be the alternative when the most patronized all-in-one seasonings are out of stock. Some consumers said that Nor Real Scrap Seasoning mix tastes good but the other seasoning tastes better so they tend to go for the other choices.
Nor Real Scrap Seasoning mix preferred to do Personal Selling and had been placing In store Marketing Assistant in every establishment to further promote the product and yet it is not that effective. Every marketer must needed to be concerned and sensitive to how the way consumers accepted the products of the business for them to be aware and further developed the product as well. It was on this premised that the researchers wanted to evaluate and determine the VA Distribution Corporation Promotional Tools and Customer Acceptance of Nor Real Scrap Seasoning mix among selected Household at Barbarian Liberate, Button City.
Review of Related Literature This section presented the related readings and studies that served as the references of the researchers on interpreting the data and results. Promotional tools were technique and materials relating to the publicizing of a product, organization, or venture so as to increase sales and public awareness. Promotion was communicating information between the seller and buyer. It was a combination of different strategies used by company or an organization to promote their products and let the people be aware.
The key to these tools was first deciding what motivated the customers. According to Managerial (2002), promotion was the way of the business to informed, persuaded or remind people about its products. It Was also used to improve the public image of the organization. Promotional campaigns should be something that would get the attention of the public. It was not as simple as just telling someone about their products. They should do something to organize creatively so that the customers will not only enjoyed but also learned something about their product and the business.
The reason why they needed to promote their business is to inform the public about what they can offer them. They have to established communication with the public in order the business to survive. Otherwise, they will end up existing in their own world. Promotion can be hassle, but if it will made the business active, hey must be willing to toke on the challenged. And if they saw the result of their labor, nothing can compare to the fulfillment that they may get out of it. With hard work and the right promotional tools, they can take their business to the next level.
There were varying types of promotional tools; these were the Advertising Personal Selling, Public Relation, Publicity, and Sales Promotion. One of the indicators used in the independent variable was Personal Selling, it is a communicative channel that involves a live, immediate and interactive relationship between persons. It leads to relationship where he customers feel obligated to respond the salesman at least with a polite and simple thank you. In addition to that, personal selling was more human, flexible and dynamic. Keller (2009) also added that it was an ancient art.
Effective sales people today however have more than instinct; they were trained in methods of analysis and customer management. Futures (2006) added that, it was a personal communication of information to unselfishly persuade a prospective customer to buy something that satisfies his/her needs. He added a word “unselfishly’ to the definition that makes a big difference in how someone might look at selling. The word unselfish told salesperson to be caring towards the customers, served and helped the person or organization without expecting to get something in return.
On the other hand, Lock (2011) cited that the behavioral scientist would probably characterize personal selling as a type of personal influence. Operationally, it is a complex communication process that allows sales representative and account manager to tailor the message to fit each customers particular needs, behavior and concerns, it allowed them to learned more about the product, to knew more about their customers, allow them to see customer’s sections to a particular sales approach and have adjustments on the spot.
Personal selling was an interpersonal encounter in which efforts are made through product demonstration or presentation to educate customers, to promote and give preference for a particular brand and product. It was a very effective way to informed prospective customers to buy a good, a service, an idea or something else that satisfied their needs and wants. Personal selling can be focused on individuals or firms that were known to be prospective customers if an organization has done an adequate job of segmenting and targeting its market.
In this way, wasted effort Was minimized and it may lead directly to its goal which was to make a sale. According to Deal Cruz (2000), it was usually a promotional tool to build the image of a company or an institution, although certain aspects of it were also used to promote products and brands. He said, it must be equated with publicity, a planned program of policies and conduct aimed at building public confidence in an organization, and creating public understanding of what it was trying to do. Public Relation was a management tool designed to favorably influence attitudes towards an organization, its product and its policies.
On the other hand, Peter (2000) revealed that public relation was much broader now and it includes building awareness and a favorable image for a company or client within stories and articles found in relevant media outlets, closely monitoring numerous media channels for public comment about a company and its products, managing crisis that threaten company or product image, and building goodwill among an organization’s target market through community, philanthropic and special programs and events.
Its focus was on how public relations support marketing by building product and company image. Every organization or company, no matter how large or small, ultimately depends on its reputation for survival and success. Because in today’s competitive market, reputation can be the company’s biggest asset, the things that make them stand out from the crowd and give them a competitive edge. These perceptions will drive the customers’ decision about whether they want to shop with. Nor Real Scrap Seasoning mix by Milliner Philippines gives sponsorship through smart tips for happy home cooking.
They have selected some of great tasting recipes to go with favorite Nor Real Scrap Seasoning mix product and for nonusers to be inspired by great tasting recipes for their families. Another indicator used in the independent variables was Sales Promotion it was a sponsor funded, demand stimulating activity designed to supplement advertising and facilitated personal selling. It frequently consist a temporary incentive to encourage a sale or purchased. Many sales promotions were directed at customers (Stanton, 2004). The premiums offered by fast-food outlets in conjunction with popular movies were example.
Similarly, Gotten and Keller (2009), cited that sales promotions was a key ingredient in racketing campaigns, consists of a collection of incentive tools, mostly short terms designed to stimulated quicker or greater purchased of particular products by the customers or the trade. On the other hand, Tells (2000) stated that sales promotions are temporary change in price, benefits or the product itself to make an offered more attractive to the customers. Price cuts were common and effective form of sales promotion and were called “price promotion”. Firms may indulge in price promotion that was explicitly or implicitly deceptive.
Thus regulation to ensured honest price promotions instituted an important form of the regulation promotion. Sales promotion was used by the companies to promote their products and increased the level Of purchased and to attract more customers to patronized their products. It was a stimulation of sales achieved through contest, discounts, giveaways, special offers, price- cuts, and samples and giving incentives. Customer Acceptance was very important. It was when a customer accepts the product through its packaging, features, content and other aspect of the product.
Customer needs to accept the product before purchasing it and so on using it or even endorsing it. The sales representative needed to push it through the limit. In order to achieve it, the agents or the sales representative needed to convince the customer to accept the product. A product must be accepted to the public before using it. The approval and the acceptance of the customer was highly needed, to attain the high sales of the product, the agents introduced the product well. If the agents would try hard in using his marketing skills he/she will get the heart of the customer to fully accept the product, Impacting, (2003).
In order for most companies to be successful, they needed to sell their product or services. To sell product or revise consumers must accepted them and they were willing to purchase or at least tolerated them. Consumer acceptance was directly linked to satisfaction. Although acceptance does not guarantee satisfaction, it was a necessary step for there to be any chance of approval and repeat buying. The degree of consumer acceptance can vary depending on if the product or service in question was a necessity or want. Consumer acceptance of necessary product was much higher and easier to obtain than acceptance of luxury items.
People were more selective with unnecessary purchases, therefore acceptance can be more difficult to obtain. The strategy off company often depends on the level Of consumer acceptance. If a product was accepted by consumers immediately, it may not require a lot of marketing and may be sold at a higher price. A product which takes longer to be accepted by consumers will require more promotion to convince people of this merit, (www. Oho. Com/Facts_7292560_meaning-consumer-acceptability . HTML). The primary objective of Customer Acceptance was to manage any risk that the services provided by the firm may be exposed to.
The aim to address the responsibility of the firm was to provide for the identification of the efferent types of customer, provide for the identification and assessment of risk provide for the identification of risk indicators such as the customer background, county of origin, business activities, linked accounts or activities and public or other high profile positions. And last was to managed and controlled the risks through effective and proportional enhance controls, within which customer acceptance, maintenance and monitoring were managed, (www. Bob. Com/fulsomeness/ customer acceptanceobecomef)PDFp>
One of the indicators used in the dependent variable was price, as the consideration given and in exchanged or transfer or ownership, price forms the essential basis of commercial transactions. It may be fixed by a contract, left to be determined by an agreed upon formula at a future date, or discovered or negotiated during the course of dealings between the parties involved. It was criminal offense to manipulate price in collusion with other suppliers, and to give a misleading indication of price such as charging for items that were reasonably expected to be included in the advertise, list, or quoted price, StigStiller02).
Few would consider a price model to be an innovation but in fact it’s a core lynclinchpinany breakthrough innovations. Pricing has a substantial and immediate impact on profitability. Most companies, however, still use costs or competition as a main basis for setting prices. Product or business model innovation has a high priority for many companies whereas innovation in pricing has received scant attention. Innovation pricing deals with innovative tools to measured and increased customer willingness to pay and to communicate valued to customers.
The changed in the price of a good alters the consumers desire to buy it and the amount of the surplus. If the price goes up, then the surplus may be limited. To encourage channel members or even ultimate customers, to purchase more of the product, a manufacturer might offer a price reduction for ordering in large quantities. To avoid charges of illegal price discrimination against smaller purchaser, the size of such discounts should be justified by the cost savings that manufacturers gain by filling larger orders. Cash discounts was a price reduction to encourage customers to pay their promptly.
A common example of such a discounts was “2/10,net 30” this means that payment is full and is due within 30 days, but the buyer can deduct 2 percent from the price if aymemomentmade within 10 days. Such discounts help reduced the capital the seller has tied up in accounts receivable and lower collection costs and bad debts. Allowances on the other hand are similar to discounts in that they were inducements to encourage channel members or final customers to engaged in specific behabehaviorssupport of the product, Walker and CarrCarried02).
Customer Focus was quite literally and quite obviously focusing on the customer. That means thinking about them when decisions were made, policies were implemented, and employees were trained. It spans across the hole business and was a cultural thing as much as it was anything else. Customer focused businesses think about what they can do to make customers happy (as opposed to get the most money out of them, sign up the most accounts, etc. ) all the time and think about they can make the customer experience better, (www. erviRepresentativem/Comt-does-it-mean-to-be- customer-focused/2008/05/1 2). Customer Focus was a marketing term that means keeping the customer in mind when selling products and services. Customers have certain needs and wants, which companies must meet to increase sales and profits. Some companies structure their management teams around specific customers. Customers can include individual consumers and businesses. The best way to keep track of customers was through marketing research such as phone or internet surveys.
Customer Focus was as well customer service training for companies who wanted to create a stronger service culture that builds loyal relationships with their customers and a better environment for their employees. It was also a strategy used by companies that involves meeting its clients or customer needs. Customer Focus was used by creating products that a consumer was illiailing able to buy the company’s products in the future. Customer focus was maintained by asking customers what they think of a product, then changing details about the product to match the opinions of the customers.
Marketing strategies were used to display the value of a product to appeal to consumers, (www. ehowOhom)Comnother indicators used in the dependent variables was Product Add-ons,ones was having an additional new feature to the products or services. prodProduct-ons ones you offered additional items which the client had a yes or no choice over and were billed separately from the rodurotguttlKettle00). Gaining new customers was an expensive proposition, and increasing your marketing budget was not always an option. Increasing the value of each sale, on the other hand, was as simple as asking for those fries or their equivalent in your business.
Often, you will be adding value to the initial sale improving the customer’s overall experiences. Thoughtful add- on sales far from coming across as pushy can helped you differentiate your organization as one that takes its customers seriously, (wvwvWVowOhom/Comout_672901 8_add_on-selling_. htmlHTMLupons can be an effective way to argearguecounts to specific customer segments, particularly as information technology made it possible for forms to collected more detailed information about customers. A marketer can direct coupons to the most price sensitive households while maintaining higher regular prices for less price-oriented buyers.
Coupons were also useful for accomplishing specific strategic marketing objectives, such as motivating first time buyers to try a product or encouraging the purchased of larger package sizes. Product add-ons oneso referred to a product designed to complement another product. Rebates educed the price of the product through a money refund offered. Such offers typical required the consumer to mail some proof of purchased to manufacturer to receive the refund. Premiums were attempted to attract buyers by offering a product or services free or at substantially reduced price to encourage the purchase of another product.
Premiums can be included in a package, sent by mail, or via another product, Walker and CarrCarried02). This part shows the interrelationship of the Independent and Dependent Variables. The Independent Variables of the study were the Promotional Tools while the Customer Acceptance was the Dependent Variables. The Independent Variables of the study was the Promotional Tools which will be measured in terms of Personal Selling, Public Relations and Sales Promotions. persPersonalling is the process Of communicating with a potential buyer (or buyers) face-to-face with the purposed of selling a product or service.
The main thing that sets personal selling apart from other methods of selling was that the salesperson conducted business with the customer in personal. Though personal selling was more likely to be effective with certain types of products or services, it has important applications for nearly all kinds of small usingenuineness fact, most of history’s successful entrepreneurs have been skilled salespeople, able to represent and promoted their companies and products in the marketplace. Personal selling was one part of a company’s promotion mix, along with advertising, sales promotion, and public relations.
Advertising was any form of paid sales presentation that was not done face- to-face. Television and radio commercials, newspaper and magazine advertisements, and direct mail inserts were well-known forms of advertising. Sales promotion was the used of incentives-?such as coupons, discounts, ebatabatesntests, or special displays-?to entice a customer to buy a product or service. Public relations were the act of building up a company’s image in the eyes of the community in the hopes of translating the feelings of goodwill into sales. An example of Public Relation might include a company sponsoring a charity event, (mvwwmoveweAnswersm/Comic/personal- selling). According to KotlKettle Armstrong (2008), public Relation- building good relationships with the companies various publics by obtaining favofavorablelicity, building a good corporate image, and handling or heading off unfaunfavorableorse, stories and events. Sales promotion referred to those promotion activities- other than advertising, publicity, and personal selling- that stimulated interest, trial, purchased by final customers or others in the channel. Sales promotion was generally used to complement the other promotion methods.
While advertising campaigns and sales force strategy decision tend to have longer-terms effects, a particular sales promotion activity usually last for only a limited time period. But sales promotion can often be implemented quickly and get sales results sooner than advertising. Further, sales promotions objectively focused on prompting some short-term action. For a middleman, such an action might be a decision to stock a product, provided a special display space, or give the product special emphasis in selling efforts to final customers, PerrPerpetual McCarthy (2002).
There were factors to be considered in measuring the Dependent Variables which is the Customer Acceptance. These were the Price, Customer Focus, and Product Add-ons.onescording to PerrPerpetual McCarthy (2002), price was one of the four major variables a marketing manager control. Price-level decision price-level decisions were especially important because they affected both the number f sales a firm makes and how much money it earned.