The marketing “P”, Promotion, is marketers’ main chance to communicate the key benefit of the merchandise to the customer, in order to make it memorable and unique in their minds. A section in the promotional mix is “sales promotion”, which refers to short-term promotion, in order to further drive sales.
An excellent example of this is McDonald’s recent two-week campaign, in which they are giving away free small coffees at all of their locations. This campaign goes on 24-hours a day and is from November 15th-28th. This promotion makes McDonalds seem very generous, in that, they are giving coffee away for free for two whole weeks, all day along. However, the cost of coffee for McDonalds is extremely low, and by promoting it in this way, they seem generous, when really, it isn’t costing them much.
By offering customers a commodity that most people enjoy almost every morning, for free, they are allowing consumers to try out their product (if they have not before), or simply enjoy something they have to pay for, for free. This is their “thank-you” to their already loyal consumers, and also, an offer to attract new customers to their fast-food chain.
