Question

How can a business firm promote its brands?

What are the methods of brand promotion?

Answer 1

Brand promotion comprises all the activities which a business performs to persuade and motivate people to buy the brands of the company. The methods adopted for brand promotion are as follows.

1. Advertising: It is a widely used medium for brand promotion. Advertisements on TV, radio, newspapers and magazines reach a large number of people. It is due to repeated advertisements that Pepsodent toothpaste, Rin detergent powder, Surf Excel, Hero Motor bike, Suzuki car, Samsung mobile, Horlicks and other brands have become popular in the market.
2. Sales promotion: These are the short-term incentives to promote the sale of a brand. It induces buyers to purchase a brand through various incentives like discount coupons, prize contests, money refund. It provides the buyers incentives to purchase the brand 'now' - immediately and without any delay. If you do not buy now then you lose the incentives which are, in fact, available only for a specified short period. It temporarily raises the demand and when incentives are withdrawn, the demand falls down. Nowadays mobile companies are using sales promotion techniques which induces consumers to buy a connection from a particular company.
3. Maintaining and improving quality: In order to promote their brands, business firms are continuously maintaining and improving the quality of their brands. Brands continue to enjoy confidence of consumers only when their quality is maintained and improved.
4. Public relations and publicity: A firm can build good relations in several ways for example, quick and correct disposal of customer complaints is an effective tool for creating customer relations. Sometimes the public relations department creates items that are worthy of being covered in news. These come in the form of corporate stories or events that are special and place the brands manufactured by company favourably in the eyes of the public. Sometimes business houses associate themselves with public services; for instance, a company may involve itself in the upkeep of parks and gardens.