Purchase Advertising Typically, a Point-Of-Purchase

¶ … Purchase Advertising

Typically, a point-of-purchase advertising objective falls into one of six categories: developing awareness and improving attitudes, generating trial, stimulating an impulse purchase, remind/repeat purchase stimulation, new usage idea/repeat purchase stimulation or brand differentiation (Liljenwall, 2004). This paper discusses my experience with two of these, generating trial and developing awareness and improving attitudes. My experience generating trials was positive while the attempt to develop awareness was not.

Cosmetics companies are very good at generating trails of their products. Most recently, I visited Lancome's makeup counter at Macy's and was offered a free gift set with any Lancome purchase of $29.50 or more. According to Schultz, Robinson, and Petrison (1997), this is an example of a near-pack promotion where an item is offered free or for an additional charge at the point of purchase. These authors mention that near-packs are very effective at generating trial for other items in a product line. I agree with this statement and add that it's very good at getting a shopper who is just browsing to move forward and make a purchase. After seeing the offer on signs displayed above the counter, I bought an item, a moisturizer, which I was only thinking about purchasing, in order to receive the free gift. Furthermore, I discovered that I really like one of the items in the gift set, a Lancome lipstick that I had never bought before and probably would have never tried without the point-of-purchase advertising. As a result, I will probably purchase this item in the future. The advertising was in no way annoying. I viewed it as an unobtrusive offer that would allow me to sample some free products. I would strongly advise marketing executives at cosmetics firms to conduct this type of advertising frequently, changing gift pack items so that consumers try more and more items. Cosmetics have high markups, so getting the consumer to buy additional products is well worth the cost of offering the additional samples. However, I believe the downside of near packs for cosmetics is that consumers may hold off making purchases until a promotion is in place.

Recently, my car broke down and I had to rent a car. The rental car agent at Hertz spent a lot of time trying to get me to purchase the company insurance as well as a costly prepaid gas option where I would purchase a tank of gas. Even after I had said no to the insurance offer, the agent continued to trying to convince me to do so because I would avoid paying my own insurance company's deductible if I was in an accident and I would have this benefit for only nine dollars a day. This was very annoying because I was in a rush and had already waited in line for a long time. Plus, I felt like the agent was trying to convince me to buy something that I just didn't need. And, the agent kept saying that nine dollars was cheap, but it was more than 25% of my daily car rental fee of 35 dollars. So, I really didn't view this as such a great deal. The prepaid gas option was also annoying because I had told the agent that I would only need the car for one day. Once again, I felt pressured to buy something I didn't need. After doing some research, I have discovered that rental car agents use aggressive selling because they make commission on expensive rental car add-ons (Travelers feel pressure at car rental counters, 2004). I would advise any marketing executive to tamper the level of aggressive sales pitches by rental car agents. Obviously, the add-ons are high profit items, but customer satisfaction should come first and future rental car agent training should teach agents when they are going too far. Agents should be rewarded on sales and customer satisfaction scores.