Online sales promotions for consumer products

Abstract: Promotion is one of the key of the four Ps in the marketing mix and as such
has a key role to play in market success. The Internet's potential to
provide an efficient channel for marketing communications is overwhelming.
Many marketing communication researchers have realized that this new medium
would bring new opportunities for the marketing communication process with
its popularity as a medium to target consumers. An increase in the use of
websites for promotion of consumer products by organizations is expected.
Organizations encourage visits to their websites by the use of integrated
marketing communications. However, while advertisements are quite popular
and a big business on the Internet, sales promotions on the Internet have
not caught up yet.

The aim of this thesis is to provide better
understanding on the use of sales promotions for consumer products in an
online environment. In order to reach this purpose, research questions on
the types of sales promotions used online, as well as describing the
environment in which they existed, were stated. Based on these research
questions, a review of the literature was conducted, resulting in a
conceptual framework. This framework became the guide for this study’s
data collection. A qualitative approach was used, consisting of two case
studies. Data was collected by interacting with specific websites. The
findings indicate that firms use ‘games’ as major type for online sales
promotion of consumer products. In addition, firms also use advergames,
contests, and sweepstakes for online sales promotions. Sampling was found
useful for digital products. These firms take necessary aspects to make
their websites effective. Studied firms use presentation elements and
contents that are essential for effective websites. Firms ensure
transactions security for online sales and provide playfulness in websites
which make them more effective. The findings support past research in that
showing that, while firms use aspects to make websites effective, they do
not use many of sales promotion types for online promotions. Overall, case
studies show that firms have clear approach in adopting online sales
promotions and making their websites more effective.