- How realistic do you believe your promotional plan is? Why do you believe this?
It can be argued that this promotional plan is realistic. It is because it can get in front of potential customers by employing diverse marketing channels. One of the aspects which makes the goal practical is that it defines its audience efficiently. For instance, the plan provides a sub-set of the targets to enable easy reaching of the willing users. The other aspect is that the marketing plan identifies the resources effectively. Indeed, it clearly defines the amount of money and resources which should be spent on the marketing process. Besides, the marketing plan is also realistic because it explores different platforms effectively. It is an aspect that has led to the identification of the media, which works best to reach the target audience.
- What advantages and disadvantages can you see using external promotional agencies to execute your promotional campaign?
It is appealing to have a team of people taking care of the company’s promotion activities because it allows a company to focus elsewhere. Indeed, it is a luxury that comes with a cost and price. One of the advantages of hiring an external promotional agency is introducing new creative minds to its promotional department. Most of these firms have creative managers who have much experience in marketing because of working in different firms across a wide area. The other advantage is that the agencies have qualified areas of expertise because they have various departments (full) that are dedicated to diverse aspects of marketing. Other benefits are that they introduce new ideas, and they create more time for the hiring company.
On the other side, hiring a marketing agency is not always beneficial, and it comes with costs. One of the disadvantages is that they charge expensively, thus making the entire situation more expensive. Besides, the other aspect is that some agencies do not have the industry’s experience, which can turn up to be disadvantageous to a company. The other element is that there are different priorities and clients on which the external agencies have to focus. It is an aspect that can project the pushing of some deadlines. Sometimes, it is hard to set deadlines and achieve them while taking care of the priorities. As a result, a company needs to make the final decision to hire or not hire an agency depending on the advantages and disadvantages of hiring.
- What would be the most effective methods for evaluating the effects of a promotional campaign? Why would you say this?
The evaluation strategies of a promotion strategy should compare the effectiveness of the current and the past plans by assessing their effectiveness after, during, and before the promotion. It is an element that depends on the area of promotion that is supposed to be tested, such as the sales effect, promotion itself, and consumer awareness, just mentioning a few. Research shows that some of the practical techniques of evaluating the promotional campaign methods include pre-testing, concurrent testing, post-testing, and employ the previously recorded data. The pre-testing approach of evaluation allows the determination of the level of effectiveness of the strategy of promotion. On the other side, the concurrent testing technique enables the manager to modify the sales promotion progress as needed. The post-testing method is employed to evaluate whether a company meets the campaign’s desired measures of performance.