1. Consider the contact lens industry. What are the three most effective ways to promote [no messages] the product? Why?
The ultimate aim of promoting the use of contact lens products is to reach the consumers who will or will not use the product. Therefore, the essential question is how best to reach the targeted consumers. One obvious way is the use of advertising that addresses issues related to vision enhancement that are important to consumers. A second (and possibly more effective) way is to promote contact lens products to consumers in an indirect way through dispensing optometrists (as opposed to ophthalmologists and non-dispensing optometrists) who prescribe the use of contact lens for most of the people who use the product. Providing sales incentives for dispensing optometrists is an effective way of promoting the use of contact lens products. A third way of promoting the use of contact lens products is to assure that ancillary products required for prolonged use of contact lens products are widely distributed and easily accessible to users of contact lens products.
2. What is the difference between a sales promotion and an advertisement? Please offer examples of each.
An advertisement is a paid promotional piece (delivered via any mass medium) that is designed to (a) develop awareness among the members of a target market of a product or service, (b) convey the benefits of the product or service, and (c) tell the members of the target market where and how the product or service can be obtained. Generally, neither governmental regulators nor consumers hold advertisements to high standards of truthfulness. Marketing organizations can and do exaggerate the benefits and ignore to the extent possible the drawbacks associated with a product or service. Consumers especially expect marketing organizations to be less than truthful in advertisements, while governmental regulators tend to ignore such d
...