Keegan 14

		Updated on 05/05/2015
	BusAd 177: Introduction to International Marketing
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Chapter 14:

Global Marketing Communications Decisions
2. Sales Promotion, Personal Selling, Special Forms


	with your questions

of Marketing Communication

	Overview
	Lecture Outline

	Discussion Questions
	Test Your Knowledge

Summary

Sales promotion is any paid, short-term communication program that adds tangible value to a product or brand. Consumer sales promotions are targeted at ultimate consumers; trade sales promotions are used in business-to-business marketing. Sampling gives prospective customers a chance to try a product or service at no cost. A coupon is a certificate that entitles the bearer to a price reduction or other value-enhancing consideration when purchasing a product or service.
Personal selling is face-to-face communication between a prospective buyer and a company representative. The Strategic/Consultative Selling Model that is widely used in the United States is also being utilized worldwide. The model's five strategic steps call for developing a personal selling philosophy, a relationship strategy, a product strategy, a customer strategy, and a presentation strategy. The six steps in the presentation plan are: approach; presentation; demonstration; negotiation; close; and servicing the sale. Successful global selling may require adaptation of one or more steps in the presentation plan. An additional consideration in global selling is the composition of the sales force, which may include expatriates, host country natives, or sales agents.

Chapter Overviews, Outlines, Sample Questions

Several others forms of communication can be used in global marketing. These include direct marketing, a measurable system that uses one or more media to start or complete a sale. One-to-one marketing is an updated approach to direct marketing that calls for treating each customer in a distinct way based on his or her previous purchase history or past interactions with the company. Direct mail, catalogs, infomercials, teleshopping, and interactive television are some of the direct marketing tools that have been successfully used on a global basis. Global marketers frequently try to place their products in blockbuster movies that will reach global audiences. Sponsorships and product placement are also becoming vital communication tools that can be used on a global basis.

Overview

In 2005, China’s Lenovo Group acquired IBM’s personal computer business for $1.25 billion. The acquisition vaulted China’s top computer company into third place among the world’s PC marketers, behind Dell and Hewlett-Packard.

The crown jewel in the acquisition was the popular ThinkPad, a laptop that features an exceptionally well-designed keyboard. Chief Executive Amelio was tasked with gradually eliminating the IBM logo as Lenovo built a global brand identity. Chief executive Amelio and his marketing team decided to use the Olympics as a vehicle for building awareness about the corporate name and its products. Lenovo paid more than $60 million to become China’s first Olympic sponsor.

Lenovo is also the computer provider for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. Sponsorships have been a crucial marketing tool for Lenovo as it rebrands the ThinkPad. When developing IMC solutions and strategies, global companies and advertising agencies are giving sponsorship and other forms of promotion an increasingly prominent role; in the first decade of the twenty-first century, worldwide expenditures on sales promotion are growing at double-digit rates.

Sales promotion, direct marketing, and specialized forms of marketing communication such as infomercials and the Internet are also growing in importance. Of course, personal selling remains an important promotional tool as well. Taken together, the marketing mix elements discussed in this chapter and Chapter 13 can be used to create highly effective integrated promotional campaigns that support global brands.

Discussion Questions

1.	Briefly review how the main tools of sales promotion (e.g., sampling and couponing) can be used in global markets. What issues and problems can arise in different country markets?	Click here for hint.
2.	What potential environmental challenges must be taken into account by a company that uses personal selling as a promotional tool outside the home country?	Click here for hint.
3.	Identify the six steps in the strategic/consultative selling model and the six-step presentation plan. Do these steps have global applicability, or are they only used for selling in the home-country market? What special challenges face a sales representative outside his or her home country?	Click here for hint.
4.	How does management's orientation (e.g., ethnocentric, polycentric, or regiocentric) correlate with decisions about sales force nationality? What other factors affect sales force composition?	Click here for hint.
5.	Procter & Gamble (P&G) has a “golden store” program in Mexico and other emerging markets. P&G’s representatives visit participating stores to tidy display areas and arrange promotional material in prominent places. At first, P&G, used its own manufacturer’s sales force; now it relies on independent agents who buy inventory (paying in advance) and then resell the items to shopkeepers. Is this approach in line with the recommendations in Table 14-4?	Click here for hint.
6.	What role does direct marketing have in a global company's promotion mix? Name three companies that have successfully used direct mail or other forms of direct-response advertising.	Click here for hint.
7.	Why are infomercials, sponsorship, and product placement growing in importance for global marketers?	Click here for hint.