STRATEGIC VS TACTICAL NATURE OF SALES PROMOTIONS

Strategic Versus Tactical Nature of Sales Promotions



Strategic Versus Tactical Nature of Sales Promotions

Introduction

Sales promotions (SP) have been labeled almost exclusively as short-term and tactical instruments. After presenting the main arguments sustaining that categorization, we discuss several SP characteristics evoking their complexity, such as SP communicational traits, diversity of SP tools, marketing affiliation, and the SP's consumer behavior impact dimension. The exclusive labeling of SP as short-term techniques, though pedagogically useful, start to appear rather restricted in their scope. The strategy versus tactical goals potentially associated with SP tools is rooted not only in the marketing concept, but also in the IMC framework. While the strategy framework vantage point emerges, three of its axioms are applied to ground the strategic nature of SP (or at least some of their tools).

Strategic versus Tactical Goals

During the 1980s, the traditional dichotomy splitting the marketing discipline into operational and strategic marketing ceased to achieve theoretical and managerial support. Several authors conceptualized a 'new' framework, which incorporated the operational into the strategic. Explicitly, the goal was that the marketing mix should be thought, planned, and managed strategically. The process of affirmation of this theoretical movement very likely gained robustness thanks to the intensity of the branding research stream that occurred throughout the 1990s. The concept of brand equity makes most sense if a strategic framework is adopted (Raju, 1995).

Although it may be rooted in the previous discussions involving compatibility of advertising and SP, the Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) concept took root in the late 1990s reinforcing the strategic orientation in the communication mix. The attractiveness and applicability of IMC derives from the ability of 'integrating' not only on thinking but also on practice tools such as branding (product/service or company focused), promotion mix, database marketing and relationship marketing. Under an IMC approach, 'the communication' is worked out strategically and pragmatically (Murthy and Mantrala, 2005). What are seen to matter are the outcomes (revenue, profitability and sustainability). Only when the synergy effect among several communication tools is taken into account can the media budget allocation be optimized (Leone and Srinivasan, 1996).

The IMC framework also can be applied within the SP arena. First, the diversity and quantity of SP instruments make it feasible. Second, the scope and the loose borderline among such an amalgam of tools, which includes, for example, merchandising, POP, demonstrations and features, displays, make it very flexible. ...