Marketing: the balance between "push" and "pull"

The various brand marketing strategies in the current market can be divided into two basic forms, namely the “push” and “pull” strategies.

The strategy of “push” is mainly to rely on a strong sales force, with the support of various promotional measures, to push products to various sales channels and push them on the shelves of dealers. In this sense, it refers to the penetration of the product sales network.

The strategy of “pull” is mainly about how to “pull” customers into sales points and encourage consumers to “pull” goods from the shelves. It often creates a new customer demand through a large number of advertising campaigns to highlight the corporate and product brand image.

For the application of the “push” and “pull” strategies, different companies have different orientations. In fact, “push” and “pull” are often two elements that constitute an interaction and an indispensable part of a company's marketing strategy. A large number of advertisements (pull) will promote the sale of products, which in turn will make the sales staff more forcefully promote the products (push).

The two companies that use the "push" and "pull" strategies to form a stark contrast are the world's larger and more successful two consumer goods companies, Unilever and P&G Procter & Gamble. The former emphasizes the role of “push”, while the latter tends to “pull” to shape the brand and stimulate consumer demand. Despite the different strategies adopted by the two companies, both companies have achieved tremendous market success.

McDonald's is a company that is good at combining "push" and "pull". We found that McDonald's ads are aimed at younger generations of consumers who have not yet stabilized their tastes, like to chase fashion and accept new products and new things. They attract young consumers to cities through a lot of humorous and lively media advertisements. McDonald's monopoly point consumption in all corners. At the same time, it uses the flexible and diverse forms of promotion in the store to guide and promote consumers' consumption of specific products.

But it must be seen that in order to achieve long-term market success, it is not enough to push or pull. The success of any product in the market often depends on a balanced marketing mix. A large amount of advertising investment may successfully attract consumers' needs and purchase motives, but if the products are placed in some wrong places (such as some places that are not in line with brand positioning or inconvenient for customers to buy), good advertising Plans can fail. Maybe less advertising ("pull"), and more investment into sales training ("push"), or direct investment in the construction of sales channels (such as delivery vehicles, more drivers, more adequate Inventories, more small orders, faster delivery services, etc., may be more conducive to delivering the right products to the right place at the right time, according to the customer's needs. Obviously, if the advertisement creates customer demand and purchase motives, and the goods in the advertisement are not widely displayed on the shelves of dealers and retailers in time, this will undoubtedly lead to the failure of advertising investment.

Similarly, if the product has penetrated into a variety of different marketing channels, consumers are also attracted to the point of sale by advertising, but lack of support from other elements of the marketing mix, such as too high a price or poor sales service, may also Consumers are discouraged from buying the product.
Later, if long-term market success is to be achieved, the products (or services) that the company provides to its customers must match the promises in advertising promotions. Otherwise, the consumer will only buy one product that he thinks is bad.

In practice, the elements of each marketing mix must work well with other elements (such as public relations) to play a good role. For example, when British Airways announced a free flight to any corner of the world in a promotion, it did not need to cost anything to become the headline news that the major media rushed to report. Foreign campaigns are often good at using the media to capture the characteristics of the news to create many free media positive opportunities for the campaigner.

“Push” and “pull” are the two basic orientations of marketing strategy. There is no difference between good and bad. However, if you can skillfully grasp the balance between the two in actual operation, and notice the use of other marketing elements, the hope of success is even greater.