The Necessity of Business Promotion in The Current Global Scenario

There is a very famous Japanese proverb, which says that the fish lays a thousand eggs but does so quietly, but a hen lays a single egg and cackles loudly. Hen eggs are widely appreciated but one cannot say the same about fish eggs. Actually the entire process of promotion of business is based on this one crucial principle. It is of paramount importance that one gets to know about a business that is geared towards the satisfaction of the customer needs. It is of equal importance that this generated interest is sustained. A much maligned but necessary component of doing business today is marketing strategy and business promotion. It's a bit like the excruciating hours of practicing at the barre for ballet, to ensure a flawless stage performance. It might not be popular with the traditionalists but its entirely necessary.

Many small enterprises are often deterred by the flash and dazzle of large marketing campaigns and product launches, the intimidating upper echelons of busy PR firms. Such businessman often shies away from business promotion, preferring the old world way of letting the product or the service speak for itself through performance. But business promotion is gradually making inroads into this traditional mindset. It has been realized as the need of the hour to dramatically increase customer bases. Eyeballs must be grabbed and attention must be sought and held. Even the most conservative of businessmen are gradually altering the fixed parameters of their earlier views about business promotion.

Business promotions do not necessarily require a large outlay. While the blitzkrieg often launched by large multi national companies can often drown out the smaller products, smart and savvy businessmen have found ways and means to stay afloat and more importantly be noticed in this rat race. Business promotion does not always mean international campaigns and celebrity endorsements. There are small businesses that have coined a catchy slogan along with an eye catching logo and simply put it on all their stationary along with the company name and address, be it bills, receipts, letters or even envelopes. Why let go of any opportunity to let other people know what the business is all about?

Newspapers are read with care and insertion discounts are carefully clipped. Special blurbs are written in advance and kept ready along with brief write ups on the company activities and these are kept ready for any special features that all newspapers do from time to time on different specialized business activities and voila...its business promotion at a quarter of the cost! In fact I know of a smart restaurant owner who was hamstrung by limited funds who put out messages on a public forum like Facebook. The relaunching of the restaurant got oodles of publicity and dozens of would be customers were happy to receive updates about table availability and menu revamps. Maybe the creators of public forums like Facebook, Orkut and Twitter hadn't quite envisaged this aspect, but the fact of the matter is that business promotion makes sense on sites like these, where user traffic is high.

Some businessman tries the time tested tactic of offering freebies for business promotion. Thus a little known shampoo brand begins flying off the shelves because a free conditioner is clubbed with it. Yet others use the 'buddy sharing' tactic for business promotion. Buy a dress and get a discount at the neighboring salon. Or buy some books and get a good offer from the music store next door. And of course there are the die hard businessmen always on the look out for business promotion who wear tee shirts with their company logos and blurbs printed on it. And if the wife does not complain too loud even have the company's office address and contact numbers painted on his car. The ideas are limitless and the needs are ubiquitous. Business promotion is longer simply an add on fringe, it's part of the main fabric of the business itself. It is as essential to promote a product as it is to create and produce it.