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|464 PART 3 Designing a Customer Value-Driven Strategy and Mix

In a push strategy, the company
“pushes” the product to resellers,
which in turn “push” it to consumers.

Producer Producer marketing activities Retailers and Reseller marketing activities Consumers
Producer (personal selling, trade wholesalers (personal selling, advertising,
promotion, other)
sales promotion, other)

In a pull strategy, the Push strategy
company promotes
directly to final Demand Retailers and Demand
consumers, creating wholesalers
a demand vacuum Consumers
that “pulls” the
product through the Producer marketing activities (advertising, sales promotion, online and social media, other)
channel. Most
companies use some
combination of push
and pull.

FIGURE | 14.4 Pull strategy
Push versus Pull Promotion
Strategy Some industrial-goods companies use only push strategies; likewise, some direct
marketing companies use only pull strategies. However, most large companies use some
combination of both. For example, Unilever spends more than $9.1 billion worldwide each
year on consumer marketing and sales promotions to create brand preference and pull
customers into stores that carry its products.18 At the same time, it uses its own and dis-
tributors’ sales forces and trade promotions to push its brands through the channels, so that
they will be available on store shelves when consumers come calling.

Companies consider many factors when designing their promotion mix strategies,
including the type of product and market. For example, the importance of different promotion
tools varies between consumer and business markets. Business-to-consumer companies usu-
ally pull more, putting more of their funds into advertising, followed by sales promotion,
personal selling, and then public relations. In contrast, business-to-business marketers tend
to push more, putting more of their funds into personal selling, followed by sales promotion,
advertising, and public relations.

Integrating the Promotion Mix

Having set the promotion budget and mix, the company must now take steps to see that
each promotion mix element is smoothly integrated. Guided by the company’s overall com-
munications strategy, the various promotion elements should work together to carry the
firm’s unique brand messages and selling points. Integrating the promotion mix starts with
customers. Whether it’s advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations, or
digital and direct marketing, communications at each customer touch point must deliver
consistent marketing content and positioning. An integrated promotion mix ensures that
communications efforts occur when, where, and how customers need them.

To achieve an integrated promotion mix, all of the firm’s functions must cooperate
to jointly plan communications efforts. Many companies even include customers, suppli-
ers, and other stakeholders at various stages of communications planning. Scattered or
disjointed promotional activities across the company can result in diluted marketing com-
munications impact and confused positioning. By contrast, an integrated promotion mix
maximizes the combined effects of all a firm’s promotional efforts.

Socially Responsible Marketing Communication

In shaping its promotion mix, a company must be aware of the many legal and ethical
issues surrounding marketing communications. Most marketers work hard to communi-
cate openly and honestly with consumers and resellers. Still, abuses may occur, and public
policy makers have developed a substantial body of laws and regulations to govern adver-
tising, sales promotion, personal selling, and direct marketing. In this section, we discuss
issues regarding advertising, sales promotion, and personal selling. We discuss digital and
direct marketing issues in Chapter 17.