Sales promotions as strategic communication: the case of Singapore

Pages103-114
Date01 April 2002
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/10610420210423473
Published date01 April 2002
AuthorChun Wah Lee
Subject MatterMarketing
Sales promotions as strategic
communication: the case of
Singapore
Chun Wah Lee
Associate Professor and Division Head, Division of Public and
Promotional Communication, School of Communication Studies,
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Keywords Sales promotion, Pricing, Coupons, Brands, Management, Advertising
Abstract Although an integral component of many marketing communications strategies,
relatively little has been written about the management of consumer sales promotions.
Explores a framework that examines the relative importance of key factors on managers'
use of two consumer promotional tools: coupons and lucky draws. The results show
that brand managers use trade and consumer sales promotions more extensively than
media advertising, but do not consider sales promotions to be more effective in meeting
objectives. The current sample of Singaporean supermarket managers heavily favors
price-oriented over non-price promotions. Concludes that managerial use of
sales promotions is influenced primarily by competition and short-term pressures. The
findings provide tentative support for the proposed framework.
Since the 1990s, retail trade has played an important role in Singapore's
marketing communications industry. The combined turnover for wholesale
and retail trade was more than S$358 million for 1999, which was an
increase of more than 11 percent from the previous year (Singstat Online,
2000). At the same time, the advertising expenditure in the newspaper and
television belts reached 84 percent ± a slight increase from 1998
(Association of Accredited Advertising Agents of Singapore, 2000). This
was expected, as Singapore's economy was then recovering from the Asian
financial crisis of 1997/1998. In many Asian countries, an important sub-
component of advertising sales has been and continues to be the use of sales
promotions (Kotler et al., 1999). Some of the major promotion tools used are
samples, coupons, rebates, premiums, contests, prizes, among others. Studies
have indicated that sales promotions are a valuable form of communication
within the larger advertising media (Abraham and Lodish, 1990; Blattberg
and Neslin, 1990; Farris and Quelch, 1987). Despite this, little research has
examined the management of sales promotions by brand managers from the
communicative angle. Most of the existing literature covers analyses in
consumer response to promotional tactics, primarily price-oriented
promotions such as coupons and free gifts (e.g. Bawa and Shoemaker, 1987,
1989; Davis et al., 1992; Kirshnan and Rao, 1995; Leone and Srinivasan,
1996). Since brand managers are often the main agents involved in managing
sales promotions, it is necessary to study their response to and use of sales
promotions as a value-added communicative component.
This study is a preliminary step towards understanding brand managers'
attitudes towards and use of sales promotions as a strategic form of
communication. Because of a lack of theory regarding the management of
sales promotions, this study is primarily exploratory in nature. Using a
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Marketing communications
industry
JOURNAL OF PRODUCT & BRAND MANAGEMENT, VOL. 11 NO. 2 2002, pp. 103-114, #MCB UP LIMITED, 1061-0421, DOI 10.1108/10610420210423473 103
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