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Business Studies for Secondary Schools

Sales promotion
selling. It is all about direct, face-to-face Sales promotion is an activity or material
interaction to convince customers to buy. that acts as a direct inducement, offering
Advantages of personal selling added value or incentive for a product to
The method provides immediate feedback salespeople, resellers, or consumers. The
and is therefore linked to a greater impact most common sales promotion methods
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on sales. Moreover, personal selling for products include free samples,
involves two-way communication, allowing cents–off offers, consumer content, and
marketers to adjust their messages to consumer sweepstakes. Marketers invest
improve their clarity and effectiveness. In in activities related to sales promotion for
addition, with personal selling, salespeople various reasons, including new product
can customise their messages to fit the needs introduction or informing customers
and behaviours of individual customers. regarding changes related to product
improvement. Then, marketers seek to
Disadvantages of personal selling increase the number of users or enhance
Although personal selling has advantages, the usage rate of a certain product or brand
this promotional tool also has several and to offset competitors’ marketing
disadvantages. A major disadvantage is
its cost. It is generally the most expensive efforts. An example of a sales promotion
element in the promotional mix. The costs campaign would be when a customer
are attributed by a face to face interaction buys two bottles of a soft drink and gets
between a representative of a business one free.
meeting just one person/few people at Public relations and publicity
a time. Hence, for raising awareness Public relations is a planned and sustained
to a large group of potential customers, effort to establish and maintain goodwill
many interactions are needed which
have cost implications. Expenditures and mutual understanding between an
for salespeople’s salaries, commissions, organisation and its stakeholders during
travel expenses, and the expenses of business interactions. It involves activities
managing these salespeople also add to that intend to maintain good relationships
its cost. with the public and business stakeholders,

Activity 1.7 such as customers, suppliers, government,
employees, local communities, media,
Use Form Two business idea or any and investors.
other you are interested in to create Although public relation is often
an advertising campaign or personal interchanged with publicity, they are not
sales pitch for your good or service. Be the same. Publicity is a subset of public
sure to include key features, benefits, relations that deals with the visibility of
persuasive language or visuals, and a product or an organisation. Specifically,
how you would set up the advertising publicity is a non-personal form of demand
campaign or personal sales pitch, such stimulation that is freely offered to the
as where and how. person or organisation benefiting from it.

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