Question

“Successful launch of a product depends upon various factors. Entrepreneurs have to keep in mind the various ways of reaching the customers and persuade them to buy their products.”

Comment on any two such methods used by an entrepreneur in attracting the customer to buy their product.

Answer 1

The promotional tools are:

(1) Advertising - Advertising is a paid form of communication designed to persuade potential customers to choose the product or service over that of a competitor. Successful advertising involves making the products or services positively known by that section of the public most likely to purchase them.
It should be a planned, consistent activity that keeps the name of the business and the benefits of products or services uppermost in the mind of the consumer.

Objectives -

The objective of advertising is to increase profit by increasing sales. Advertising aims to:

• Make business and product names familiar to the public
• Create goodwill and build a favourable image 
• Educate and inform the public
• Offer specific products or services
• Attract customers to find out more about your product or service

(2) Personal selling - It means selling products personally. It involves oral presentation of message in the form of conversation with one or more prospective customers for the purpose of making sales. Companies appoint salesperson to contact prospective buyers and create awareness about the company’s product. Thus a salesperson plays three different roles 

• Be persuasive
• A service provider
• Be informative

(3) Sales promotion - Sales promotion relates to short–term incentives or activities that encourage the purchase or sale of a product or service. Sales promotions initiatives are often referred to as - "below the line" activities.

Sales promotion activities can be targeted towards final buyers (consumer promotions), business customers (business promotions), retailers and wholesalers (trade promotions) and members of the sales force (sales force promotions). 

(4) Public relations - It is deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organisation (or individual) and its (or their) public. Put more simply, public relations is about building good relations with the stakeholders (public) of the business by obtaining favourable publicity, building a good corporate image and handling or heading off unfavourable rumours, stories and events. By building good relationships with the stakeholders, particularly customers, we can generate positive word of mouth and referrals from satisfied customers.