Ch. 18 - Sales Promotion and Personal Selling

In addition to using advertising, public relations, and personal selling, marketing managers can use sales promotion to increase the effectiveness of their promotional efforts. Sales promotion is marketing communication activities, in which a short-term incentive motivates consumers or members of the distribution channel to purchase a good or service immediately, either by lowering the price or by adding value. For sales promotion, MAC does short-term use of incentives such as discounts, displays, exchange offers, exhibitions, fashion shows, movies, and television. The company does this to attract the potential customers and to achieve more sales value. MAC also promotes recycling. They do this through their "Back to MAC" program, where if you return six MAC primary packaging containers to either online or at a MAC counter, you get a free MAC lipstick of your choice. This is the company's way of thanking consumers for keeping our planet green.

Personal selling is a purchase situation involving a personal, paid-for communication between two people in an attempt to influence each other. The most important advantage is that personal selling is considerably more effective than other forms of promotion in obtaining a sale and gaining a satisfied customer. MAC performs the task of selling through individual or representative by face to face, and oral communication with potential buyers of a product with the intention of making a sale. MAC focuses initially on developing a relationship with the potential buyer, but will always ultimately end with an attempt to "close a sale".