Product Differential
Palisades has used both unique selling position (USP) and emotive selling position (ESP) to gain its competitive advantage. Its convenient location, celebrity endorsement, impeccable customer service, longest track record, best selection, irresistible offers, endorsement of events and/or education make it a real attraction to the youths who are the main targeted population for the shopping centre.
As much as USP provides logic and reason as to why one should select a particular store, Palisades’ primary reason has always been an emotive one hence it has managed to make its customers feel an elite which is important, and valued for this store.
Above-the-line advertising media
This form of advertisement involves the traditional media, such as television, newspapers, and radio to reach a wider audience. ATL advertising is usually used by companies that seek to build and promote their brands. For Palisades, the best above-the-line marketing media appropriate for promoting itself to the customers are television and internet.
Television advertising uses a short message which is instantly repeated several times so as to direct consumers to the other media sources where the information regarding their brands can be found. For example, these can be the print media, websites and other related sources of information (Varey, 2002).
Consequently, as more cable and satellite channels develop, there is an increase in targeted opportunities but with a decreased coverage. Many analysts also concur that consumers have a wide range of media channels to choose from. Internet marketing uses online media to promote particular products or services.
This kind of marketing is sometimes known as e-marketing. With the current rapid technological advancements which have increased bandwidth and internet speeds, advertisement is increasingly becoming more interactive. Joining the social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook, by major companies as well as Palisades is the way to enter the 21st century as this platform allows them to interact with the customers via the Internet, in order to be always in touch with them and listen to their views.
Advertising via the social blogs is also one of the best ways to attract the youths, particularly with regard to the fact that they spend a significant amount of their time on the internet surfing. Social network marketing strategies, like endorsement of a company by celebrity, is also an effective method to interest the youths in the brand. In most cases, the use of online marketing is often seen to be a cheap way of reaching out customers when compared to the traditional forms of marketing.
This is because online marketing enables the customers to get more data related to the products, for example, the pieces of information concerning the prices and quality. This can be done just in the comfort of their homes. Additionally, it is a cheaper alternative to the business marketers as the information posted over the internet can be easily edited or changed in case of need.
One of the disadvantages of online marketing is that consumers cannot gain first hand experience of the product to be purchased. Security is also another issue to be discussed; personal information of a customer can be exploited by unscrupulous merchants. Another big problem related to the online marketing is the difficulty to differ legitimate and spam e-mails.
For example, customers may sometimes be lured to illegitimate websites and prompted to divulge their personal information by filling out forms. This is because the malicious programs are usually designed to conceal themselves, and the unsuspecting customers may be extracted some sensitive information by cyber criminals in such a way.
Below-the-line advertising media
Below-the-line media are generally printed communication which include such activities as point of sale (POS), door-to-door, direct mail (DM), and in-store promotion (Frain, 1999). Below-the-line advertising is conducted by the company itself. Point of sale media acts as a stand alone salesperson and is mostly used in hypermarkets and supermarkets with staff shortages.
POS is usually a complex cardboard designed and printed in a number of colours as a way of repackaging the products and attracting customers (Varey, 2002).They is relatively cheap and can be used to address its brand to a wide auditory across a region, country or even worldwide.
Direct mail can be an effective means of advertising if used properly. It should be professionally designed and the message should be irresistible. The cost of direct mail is relatively low compared to most types of the above-the-line advertising.
The disadvantage of direct mail is that it reaches fewer people. Door-to-door campaign is the most common form of below-the-line marketing since it takes selling to a personal level. It requires highly trained sales staff with impeccable customer relationship skills.
The cost is low since most door to door campaigns are commission based. Most companies have decided to avoid using this type of marketing because it is an outdated marketing technique that has shown that knocking on people’s door is not a good experience. Competition and prizes are another good way of marketing aimed at improving brand awareness, particularly for the target customers.
Consequently, this strategy can significantly be important in increasing the sales for a temporary period and ensure usage among the first time users. Palisades mainly uses this type of below-the-line advertising to attract the youths. It is expensive, and in most cases, it is ineffective amongst those with a strong brand loyalty.
References
Frain, JR 1999, Introduction to Marketing. International Thomson Business Press, London.
Varey, RJ 2002, Marketing Communications: Principles and Practice. Routleadge, London.