Sales Promotions and Personal Selling

1. Oakley Grove and Abraham Enterprises both market oranges and grapefruits. Oakley Grove has been in business for almost 40 years, while Abraham Enterprises has only been selling citrus fruit for about 18 months. Abraham Enterprises would like to take business away from Oakley Grove, and Oakley Grove wants to retain all of its customers. Explain which sales promotions each should emphasize in its marketing mix and why.

Since Oakley Grove has been in business four decades, retaining customers should be paramount. Expressing appreciation for customer loyalty may be as simple as a handwritten "Thank You" note, or a special discount for repeat business. With Abraham Enterprises, the focus is on attracting customers. This may be achieved through "special introductory pricing" that provides for stiff competition to Oakley Grove. A reference is included in the solution for this part.

2. You are the sales promotion manager for Vita-Balls, a new children's vitamin that is designed to be chewed like gum. Your company uses a pull strategy, and you are responsible for recommending sales promotion tools to accomplish this strategy. Describe three specific sales promotion activities you would recommend for Vita-Balls. Explain the reason for each of these activities.

The pull strategy is all about creating "hype" for a product whereas the consumers drive demand from suppliers. Examples in pursuing could be for Vita-Balls to be advertised in parenting magazines or with popular websites; to entice consumers to ask their local retail stores for the product. This part includes a reference as well; the entire solution is about 600 words.