PLANNING PROMOTION
You should be thinking about how to promote your product a long time before you start producing it. Your visits to shops and interviews with shopkeepers and wholesalers will give you an opportunity to find out what sort of promotion your potential competitors are doing and what sort of promotion you could organize with shopkeepers.
Types of promotion
The word “promotion” covers a range of activities to make people aware of, and want to buy, your products. Examples of techniques that are used around the world include the following:
advertising;
point-of-sale displays;
free samples;
word-of-mouth;
coupons;
tokens;
special prices;
free publicity.
Advertising:
This can be on radio or television, in newspapers or magazines, on posters and billboards, or by using leaflets handed out in the street or delivered to homes. For small agroprocessors, television and national newspapers are not realistic options, but other approaches could be used. In many countries the number of rural radio stations is expanding rapidly, and these may offer the possibility of relatively low-cost advertising.
Point-of-sale displays.
These are special displays of a product or range of products inside a shop. In addition to the products being on their usual shelves, they are displayed at other locations, often, in the case of supermarkets, near the check-out area. A printed cardboard display stand could be used, possibly with posters and banners, which can be displayed around the shop.
Free samples.
This technique is particularly useful for new products. People may be reluctant to try something new when they see it in a shop, without having first tasted it. In developed markets companies often deliver small samples of their new product to every household in a country. Agroprocessors could consider handing out samples at shops for people to taste when they are going in. This would have to be done in conjunction with a good point-of-sale display.
Word-of-mouth.
For small processors this can often be very effective. You can organize parties and gatherings at your home or at the homes of employees and friends, in order to taste your products. If people like them they will, in turn, tell their friends about them.
Coupons.
Manufacturers sometimes include coupons on their packaging. These can be used by consumers to get a reduced price on their next purchase.
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