(b) In-store merchandising refers to using promotional displays in shops to attract attention to a product and increase sales. Merchandising is important for many businesses, as seven out of ten supermarket purchases are estimated to be impulse purchases. Impulse purchases are unplanned decisions to buy a particular product or brand. Many goods, such as books and sweets, are very prone to impulse purchasing by consumers.
Research
1. Pick any product of your choice. 2. Explain who the product is aimed at (the target market). 3. Design an advertisement that will try to persuade the target market that they should buy the product.
4. Explain what your advertisement is trying to say to these people.
(c) Sales promotions refer to specific incentives offered to customers to attract their attention, increase sales and encourage customer loyalty. Techniques used include special offers, free samples, money-off coupons, loyalty cards, competitions and merchandising.
Did you know? Common sales promotion techniques are: • free gifts • special offer prices • buy one get one free • money-off coupons • competitions
(d) Direct selling means contacting customers in person to generate sales. This can be done: • face-to-face by sales representatives (reps) of the business. Sales reps must have good communications skills and product knowledge to convince customers to buy.
• over the telephone using telemarketing. Telemarketing means communicating with customers by telephone to generate sales and deal with customer queries and complaints. It can involve calls to targeted consumers, e.g. encouraging consumers to make enquiries and place orders using a freephone number.
