We have been talking about a lot of P’s – here are more of them. In marketing theory, there are two promotional strategies in the broadest sense. These are Push and Pull. Let’s take a look at them.
Push
When we say that something is a push promotional strategy, you utilize your sales force to engage in activities that will create a demand for your product or service. What happens here is that you go directly to your consumers to get them attracted to what you have to offer. Though I said “directly†I do not mean that you have to get in touch with your customers yourself (although this is part of the strategy). In fact, you can “push†your product or service to wholesalers, which are the first line of people between you and your customers. They can then push the product to retailers, who in turn promote it to the end users.
Pull
The other P in promotional strategy means that you focus your efforts on advertising in order to build up a demand for your product or service. Notice that advertising plays a very big role in this kind of strategy. Naturally, this strategy could mean that you would have to spend a considerable amount of money, that is, unless you can find a way to advertise for free or for almost no cost.
So which one is better? I don’t think that one can be simply labeled as being better than the other. Which strategy you employ would depend on various factors. Either one works well if implemented properly.
Originally posted on February 16, 2011 @ 10:20 am
