ling, hoardings, mailers, contests, sponsorships, posters, clothes, events, colours, sounds, visuals and even people (endorsements, when famous actors or activists advertise certain products) .Promotion: promotion is one level or type, element of the promotional mix aimed either at the consumer or at the distribution channel (in the form of sales-incentives). It is applied to introduce new product, clear out inventories, attract traffic, and to lift sales temporarily. It is more closely associated with the marketing of products than of services. The American Marketing Association (AMA), in its Web-based Dictionary of Marketing Terms, defines sales promotion as media and non-media marketing pressure applied for a predetermined, limited period of time in order to stimulate trial, increase consumer demand, or improve product availability. Selling: the language of sales and marketing, personal selling singles out those situations in which the actual salesperson is trying to sell something to another face-to-face. Personal selling is a promotional method in which one party (eg, salesperson) uses skills and techniques for building personal relationships with another party (eg, those involved in a purchase decision) that results in both parties obtaining value. In most cases the value for the salesperson is realized through the financial rewards of the sale while the customer s value is realized from the benefits obtained by consuming the product. However, getting a customer to purchase a product is not always the objective of personal selling. For instance, selling may be used for simply delivering information and the messsage. Because selling involves personal contact, this promotional method often occurs through face-to-face meetings or via a telephone conversation, though newer technologies allow contact to take place over the Internet including using video conferencing or text messaging (eg, online chat) .Relationsrelations (commonly abbreviated as PR) is the way organizations, companies and individuals communicate with the public and media. A Public Relations specialist (a PR specialist) communicates with the target audience directly or indirectly through media with an aim to create and maintain a positive image and create a strong relationship, even bond with the audience. Examples include press releases, newsletters, public appearances, etc. as well as utilization of the internet. (world wide web.) were the basic and integral elements of the promotional mix. There are definitely more to each one of them, but the basic idea should be clear from that and tendencies do change over time, since trends are oftentimes altered by ever changing people and the world around us. At this point, all of the general points of promotional activity have been brought up and briefly discussed. Now is the time to make a transition to the second chapter of the course project.
Chapter II. Promotion in the Sphere of Financial Services
2.1 Overview and the Unique Aspects of Financial Services Industry
commencing the actual analysis of the promotional activity in the sphere of financial services, the sphere itself should be described and some of its peculiarities should be brought up and considered as well.term financial services became more prevalent in the United States, partly as a result of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of the late 1990s, which gave an opportunity to different types of companies operating in the US financial services industry at that time to merge. Financial services can be described as the economic services provided by the finance industry, which encompasses a wide range of organizations that manage money, including credit unions, banks, credit card companies, insurance companies, accountancy companies, consumer finance companies, stock brokerages, investment funds, real estate funds and some government sponsored enterprises.unique aspect of financial services marketing which differentiates it from other marketing and promotional practices is the illusive notion of quality. In the traditional context of marketing manufactured goods, quality is typically measured using standard quality assessment methods and by assessing product defect rates on the production line. However, unlike the traditional marketing manufactured goods, in the context of financial services, the notion of quality is a highly subjective phenomenon. Let us appeal to the following example: while the objective quality of an insurance company might be reflected by the willingness of the company to pay out customer claims, the average customer seldom knows this measure. In the insurance business, the majority of policyholders do not utilize their policy benefits since the events being insured typically have low probabilities of occurrence. As a result, most policyholders never experience the process of fi...
