Promotion

Finally, it must communicate with target customers about the offering and persuade them of its merits (promotion). The firm must blend all of these marketing mix tools into a comprehensive integrated marketing program that communicates and delivers the intended value to chosen customers. PAGE 13 Given that the idea of selling whole-grain pancakes sounding interesting on its own as a concept seems like a good promotion, just as a start. Another way of promoting my product is to offering some free samples to help boost its recognition. There could be a sampling stand inside of a Whole Foods (the ideal store I would like to be selling the pancakes) and it could be set up during the morning. It would make sense since people generally eat pancakes for breakfast. I think it will likely be a success to do my sampling in this way since people are in that frame of mind of breakfast so they’re be expecting foods that they typically eat in the morning. Often, consumers themselves don’t know exactly what influences their purchases. “The human mind doesn’t work in a linear way,” says one marketing expert. “The idea that the mind is a computer with storage compartments where brands or logos or recognizable packages are stored in clearly marked folders that can be accessed by cleverly written ads or commercials simply doesn’t exist. Instead, the mind is a whirling, swirling, jumbled mass of neurons bouncing around, colliding and continuously creating new concepts and thoughts and relationships inside every single person’s brain all over the world PAGE 137 But since some of the pancakes sales will be going to the relief fund for the victim in Philippines that were affected by the hurricane, it would be important to point that out to the consumer as well. Promoting the idea that they will be contributing to the desperate aide in the Philippines would be an effective tactic to gain some promotion, I believe. And lets face it: people do want to help others but they only want to do it in the most effortless way possible. That’s why there are Salvation Army donations you see outside of stores like Walmart since all they are having people to do is to drop a few coins and bills into the tin and suddenly they feel like a saint. So if people are willing to do that, then it would be easy for them to buy the whole-grain pancakes and yet at the same time provide some aid for the hurricane victims.