Promotional Strategies and Tools For Marketing

1. Advertising:

a. Print and broadcast ads:

There are various options available in adverting, the top most is print and broad cast ads,. Dell is focusing on rebuilding its image as cool and compatible to contemporary lifestyle of people that despite hectic schedules, Dell’s is around to add vibrancy to life, therefore the ads should have lively and vibrant colors like red, they should have a tag line which can help them recall Dell instantly, brand music also plays an important role in positioning, for e.g. Nokia, Intel, Airtel have adopted a specific brand associated music. Moreover, Dell should never forget its business markets for which ads should have a more serious approach with colors like blue, black grey which can interpret their idea of business executives, their seriousness towards their business and need for superior technology, impeccably. Their ads should also highlight the differentiation features about the product like easy to carry, newer technology or battery life.

b. Billboards

Dell marketers should plan billboards that have attention grabbing features for e.g. audio visual bill boards which are digital in nature, moreover, the placement of billboards both digital and print must be such that the driving by audience in vehicles or pedestrians can easily have a look at the content of the message.

c. Point of purchase displays and display signs

Dell should set up point of purchase displays at large regularly visited super markets and hyper markets. The displays can be audiovisual material that can make people focus for few minutes they stand in the line to make the payments.

2. Sales promotion:

a. Fairs and trade sows

A diverse audience helps trade shows market products like laptops, machines etc. Dell should focus on arranging fair and trade shows that can attract masses to the venue where they will get exposed to the message effectively.

b. Exhibitions.

Dell should also set up events like exhibitions, may that be life style exhibition or entertainment exhibitions or Dells entire range of product exhibition. The deal is to attract people towards the place where the marketers can help them get exposed to their message and possibly provoke a purchase decision.

c. Low interest financing can also helps customers particularly households and students to make purchases since low interest financing is an attractive alternative for majority.

d. Premiums and gifts also encourage people to make a purchase. Dell can employ this tool to increase sales for e.g. it can advertise getting a portable printer with a purchase of Vostor1520 laptop or similar ideas.

3. Public relations:

Dell must employ public relations tools to promote Vostro 1520.

a. Mainly, by arranging events at colleges, universities or for corporate employers that can provide entertainment to them as well as great exposure to Dells products ad content. These events also allow direct interaction of the marketers with the consumers both current and prospective. It also helps increase the awareness, knowledge and likeness of the product by the consumers. 

b. Charitable donations and community service is also another tool that can help improve the company’s image in the society. Dell must steer its efforts in this direction too for long term brand loyalty and likeness by the population. 

c. Sponsorships to various not-for-profit organization, or providing scholarships to students will also help them gain better image positioning.

4. Personal selling:

Samples can be given to top executives of the big companies or to the officials of various universities who later can influence the purchase decision of laptops for their students. In this regard, correct information and appropriate incentive programs can help the sales persons to achieve the targets. For e.g. university students should be given lower prices for the laptops or low interest financing for the laptops, because price is the most important element in the purchase decision of the laptops by students these days.

5. Direct marketing:

a. Catalogs.

Dell should send catalogs and brochures to credit cardholder so of banks, whenever they receive their monthly statement. This is the most effective method of direct marketing, the brochures or catalogs get huge attention and this also can help audiences decide for a purchase because catalogs provide complete information about the product which reduces the consumer dissonance about the purchase. 

b. TV shopping although is not a very successful medium for shopping still, but these TV shopping shows provide excellent persuasion to the viewers by providing complete information about the predicts and highlight the weaknesses of the competitive brands.

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Constraints Business Women Face In Their Companies

The working environment is changing day by day and companies are now employing more and more women. Even though women are moving up the corporate ladder they are still faced with constraints in their companies. For example, the women in my company are usually faced with constraints like glass ceiling, concrete ceilings, gender wage gap and sexual harassment. 

Glass ceiling is a metaphor that divides women from the top management positions in the firm. You must be wondering that why this glass ceiling does persists in this time of equal employment? Well to answer this question; the explanation to the persistence of glass ceiling is the monoculture at the top levels in the organization. I have seen my superiors face such kind of a challenge all the time, they are unable to climb the ladder that reaches the top management positions within the company and there are no specific reason for what they are unable to do so.

Concrete ceiling has been perceived by the minority women in a study as a social barrier, this prevents them from getting top level positions in organization of the corporate world especially in a country like America. While all the companies are diversifying themselves, but there have been no gains for the minority females who are working in an organization. For example, I was reading this report and I found out that in United Kingdom there are now few women are being appointed as MPs, police chief and senior judges then in the past few years ago, they are even less then from last year as well. the number of female holding a top level job have decrease due to the Equality and Human Rights Commission list which was complied and the progress has slowed down quite a bit because even now most employers believe that the place of a women is to stay at home and raise children even though these days women are getting an higher educated and are very particular in having careers in the corporate world.

Women in my organization and me including are faced with the problem of wage gap, that is there is a guy in same level of position in another department, gets more money that I do, the reason being that he is able to stay more late in the office than me and plus he is a guy. This wage gap is always present in all the fields of the professional life for example, in the blue collar positions as well as in the managerial positions and professional occupations as well.

Sexual harassment is not actually about sex but rather about power but more to the point, abuse of power. This is the most common of all problems that a woman is faced in the organization is sexual harassment, i.e. they are harassed by the co-male workers in the office. For example, a friend of mine was working in this organization where she was sexually harassed verbally; one of her workers would make comments and whisper some obscene phrases to her during the work time. Harassment is not just sexual but also includes harassment based on race, religion or disability etc. 

Constraints have caused a great deal of problem for the women in working environment; it is something that is not changing with the changing cultures of the organizations. There are still some men out there, who do not give women the respect or believe in their capabilities or are just plain scared that if a woman has the ability, she would exceed me and this leads to them causing problems like glass ceiling, concrete ceilings, gender wage gap and sexual harassment.

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Assess the pros and cons of various media channels in communicating brands to diverse audiences

Media planners can choose among the following options to employ for their marketing plan:

Newspaper

It is impossible to believe that any business at any point in time will not require newspaper advertising. This option has certain advantages in the shape of higher flexibility of managing and designing the content, timeliness of the exposure because the ad remains in the paper for as long as the paper on a particular date can be accessed again. Good market coverage for a product locally by means of local newspaper. Newspaper advertising also results in broad acceptance and high believability because, audience perceives information available in the newspapers as less exaggerated more believable content, thus it increases the effectiveness of the message. 

However, newspaper advertising also has disadvantages mainly in the shape of small pass along audience, because rarely it happens that people carry newspaper to share an ad, moreover, once is the paper reading is done, the exposure to the ad is zero, hence the ad’s exposure life is very short in case of newspaper advertising. Lastly, if the ad is not reappearing at regular intervals it will be out mind of the audiences.

Television

Television adverting is the most highly employed medium for advertising these days. It has the highest reach and also gains high attention from the audiences. Television ads not only have messages but the content combines sight, sound and motion which appeals to the senses. Hence TV ads help increase the exposure and frequency along with increased effectiveness of the message to be conveyed.

The list of advantages does not mean that the medium is free of disadvantages. The biggest advantage is huge cost associated with TV ads. Moreover, high clutter also reduces the effectiveness of the message. Clutter is increased due to many thousands of ads running on the channels which results in reduction of ads high degree of selective attention by the audience. Moreover, markets cannot fully control the audience selection in case of TV ads unlike in other mediums.

Direct mail

Direct mail allows the marketers to specifically select their audience and provide information in as flexible manner as possible which they deem can result in higher effectiveness of the ad. And the most important advantage of direct mail is the high level of personalization which not only grabs attention and provokes a purchase but also enables the audience to feel valued which strengthen the brand image or increase brand loyalty. 

 

However, direct mail results in junk mail image because many a times audiences don’t have time or willingness to get exposed to the ads contents, which results in higher cost borne by the company which is getting wasted since it does not produce the required results. Moreover, the marketers cannot make sure that their ad has been viewed by the audiences in the right manner.

Radio

The advantages of radio adverting include lowest cost advertising medium, along with mass coverage in domestic regions. Not only this, but marketers can also select the type audience which should be exposed to their ads by opting for broadcasting their ads based on different channels nature.  The disadvantages are the audio presentation only which is very unimpressive and hence gains very low attention as compared to tv ads. Secondly, radio ads have fleeting exposure, i.e. audience

Magazines

Magazines provide marketers with high geographical and demographic selectivity because there are different types of magazines available and at different regions in the world that can cater to large markets globally. It also has high credibility and prestige because readers associate the ads contents credibility with the magazines credibility and prestige. They have multiple readership hence, magazines ads have long life and good pass along readership  because, magazines are borrowed and lent amongst a  good percentage of population and are kept for a longer time period. 

The disadvantages include long deadlines i.e. magazines require two three months prior notice before putting the ad up in the magazines. Moreover, there is no guarantee of where will the ad be placed in the magazine, which might result in reduction of the message effectiveness.

Outdoor

Outdoor advertising has high repeat exposures because neither can this be thrown out nor switched off. It also low competition and zero clutter because at a time not all the companies can adopt outdoor advertising at a particular region. It also is low in cost and finally it also helps in increasing the permanence of the message in the target market. 

The disadvantages for outdoor advertising include brief message life, because an audience is exposed to it for a very short time period on outdoor regions. Secondly in outdoor advertising limited audience selectivity becomes a disadvantage too because such messages provide exposure to only a particular locality’s regular visitors or audiences.

Yellow pages

This medium has the excellent local coverage, wide reach domestically and allows people to get aware about your product or service even if initially they did not know about it. Secondly, it has highest believability because people do not doubt the information available in yellow pages, the higher longevity of the message and better positioning of your product in the directory and yellow pages results in stronger brand image of your product. 

The disadvantages of yellow and directory advertising are high competition, since a lot of companies advertise in yellow pages. Secondly ads are not creative or the creativity is limited which fails to gain instant attention. Finally, long ad purchase lead time requires markets to wait for two three moths before their ad appears which might not be the right time for the ad.

Printed promotion materials

It ranges from business cars and brochures to flyers and newsletters. The advantages of such advertising include low cost because you print only as many as you need, high selectivity because you give such materials only to the target audiences, also it allows higher flexibility in the message conveyance.

The disadvantages are that such materials if overproduced can result in increased costs and these materials can also be thrown away hence zero exposure for the audiences.

Telephone

It allows the opportunity to give a personal touch which can help improve brand image, increase brand loyalty and also can provoke a purchase behavior. But this can result in audiences getting irritated and not responding to the messages s required, and higher advertising cost.

Internet 

The biggest advantage of internet advertising is the huge audience exposure globally, relatively low cost of doing advertising. Moreover it also allows interactive possibilities with customers, which helps increase mass customization and differention. Finally high selectivity is also an advantage because marketers can select exactly target audience will get exposed to their message. For e.g. CNN website can have ads related to cars, cruises and airlines. Business executive who visit CNN website will get exposed to such ads which is a huge proportion of the target audience of such industries. The disadvantage is lack of credibility and avoid-ability of audiences to look into these ads on the websites.

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