Tell apart three methods by how they reach customers: linking several media, publishing content that customers find on their own, and using location data.
Explain how advertising and sales promotion both belong to promotion yet play different roles.
Recognize that the term "sales promotion" can mean either the whole Promotion element of the 4Ps or only short-term incentives to buy.
Cross-media marketing (クロスメディアマーケティング) links several media of different kinds, such as TV, the web and the store front, and leads customers from one to the next to create a synergy effect.
Learn about a new product from a station poster
Scan the QR code and read the details on a campaign site
Follow the site's guidance to a store and buy
The last touchpoint turns interest into a purchase
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Each medium has its own strength: reaching many people at once, explaining in depth, or letting people pick up the product on the spot. Rather than using each one on its own, this method is designed so that interest sparked in one medium is handed on to the next.
AnalogyLike a baton in a relay race, each medium passes the interest it gained to the next until it reaches the finish line: a purchase.
How to remember"Cross" means crossing over: picture a path that lets customers move back and forth between media.
Exam points
Mix-upMedia mix (メディアミックス) spreads the budget across several media to widen reach, while cross-media (クロスメディア) centers on linking media so customers are led on to the next one.
Inbound marketing (インバウンドマーケティング) publishes useful information so that customers find the company themselves, gathering prospects and eventually turning them into customers.
Publish useful articles and videos
Get found by people searching for information
Keep providing information to grow interest
Become paying customers
Nurtured prospects buy and convert into customers
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A prospect (見込み客) is someone who has not bought yet but is interested in the product and may become a customer later. This method uses content such as articles and videos to introduce the company to people who are already looking for information. Instead of the seller making the first contact, it sets up a flow in which the other party comes closer.
AnalogyInstead of calling out to passersby in front of a shop, it is like running a popular cooking class and waiting for interested people to sign up on their own.
How to rememberInbound means "inward." Japanese also uses インバウンド for foreign visitors to Japan; in both cases it means coming in from outside, and here it means customers coming to the company.
Exam points
ExamInbound marketing (インバウンドマーケティング) publishes information online for people who search on their own and nurtures the prospects it attracts into customers.
Mix-upOutbound marketing (アウトバウンドマーケティング) has the company reach out to customers, for example through sales calls or delivering advertising (広告), so the direction of contact is the reverse of inbound.
Location-based marketing (ロケーションベースマーケティング) uses location data from smartphones and similar devices to deliver information that fits where the customer is right now.
Get the device's location
Identify nearby shops and facilities
Send information usable at that spot
Besides GPS, location can be estimated from Wi-Fi or from beacons placed inside a store. For example, when a user enters a shopping mall, the app can show coupons for shops in the building. Because the message reaches people who can act right there, it readily leads to visits and purchases.
AnalogyLike a tour guide at a sightseeing spot who points out only the sights near where you are standing.
How to remember"Location" means where something is. It is the same word as in a film's location shoot, which Japanese shortens to ロケ.
Exam points
Mix-upBehavioral targeting ads (行動ターゲティング広告) choose whom to reach from behavior data such as browsing history, whereas location-based (ロケーションベース) methods take the customer's current position as the cue.
Advertising (広告) is an activity in which an advertiser pays for space or time in media such as TV, newspapers and the web to make products and services known to many people.
Advertising is one of the tools that make up Promotion in the 4Ps, and it suits making a product known and leaving a good impression. A strategy in which the manufacturer appeals directly to end consumers so they want the product and come to the store is called a pull strategy (プル戦略), and advertising is its main tool.
AnalogyLike paying to rent a spot on a town bulletin board for a large notice, it tells many passersby at once.
How to rememberThe kanji of 広告 literally mean "tell widely."
Exam points
ExamIn a pull strategy (プル戦略), the manufacturer creates demand through advertising (広告) aimed at consumers, so customers head to retailers on their own.
Mix-upPublicity (パブリシティ) gets news organizations to report on a company, and unlike advertising (広告), no fee is paid to the media.
Sales promotion (販売促進) uses perks such as discounts, coupons, free samples and premiums to push customers to buy on the spot.
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It is shortened to 販促 in Japanese and called sales promotion (SP) in English, and it takes effect quickly. Japanese also uses 販売促進 as the translation of Promotion in the 4Ps, covering all promotion including advertising, so the context decides which meaning is intended.
AnalogyLike a free-tasting stand in a store, it gives a hesitant shopper the final nudge.
How to rememberThe kanji in 促進 mean "urge forward": it moves the shopper one step past the hesitation to buy.
Exam points
ExamThe four elements of the marketing mix (マーケティングミックス) are sometimes given as product, price, distribution and sales promotion, and here sales promotion (販売促進) means all promotion, advertising (広告) included.
ExamMerchandising (マーチャンダイジング) plans and manages which products to carry, when, in what quantity and at what price to match customer needs, and sales promotion (販売促進) in the narrow sense is one of the activities within it.
Mix-upAdvertising (広告) builds awareness and favor broadly over time, while sales promotion (販売促進) uses perks to draw out an immediate action such as buying or visiting the store.