Chapter 18: Sales Promotion and Personal Selling

        Sales promotion is an initiative taken by an organization to promote an increase in sales and usage of a certain product. Sales promotion could be directed to into different aspects. For example, a company could promote sales of a product to either their customers, their sales staff or even the distribution companies purchase the companies certain product. I think it's important to promote sales because it will give that product a better chance of selling and when times are difficult, and sales are slowing down, sales promotion plays a big role in getting your sales back up. 

       Right now when you bring one Coca-Cola can to a Six-Flags theme-park, you get a free admission ticket. Another example is this promotion in the video below, which is also for the Coca-Cola beverage and is promoting a game the company has going-on right now. On every Coca-Cola Beverage, there is a code and if you text to the code from your cellular phone, you enter a sweepstakes that can win you a brand-new BMW car! We've seen many companies take this approach when promoting their product and they do it to increase sales. 

     In 2009, the Coca-Cola Company started to promote their new touchscreen soda fountain called "Coca-Cola Freestyle".  The fountain is called Coca-Cola Freestyle because you can mix whichever drinks you want that satisfy your taste at the moment. It has 125 drink choices from the Coca-Cola Company to choose from and also includes new flavors, like Raspberry Diet Coke and Fanta Grape. Coca-Cola Freestyle once gave away V.I.P. tickets to this past years Ski Championships in Park City, Utah. These fountains can now be found at select movie theaters around NYC and also at the McDonalds restaurant right across the street from BMCC. 

     Coca-Cola Company is one of the best companies at promoting their products, in my opinion. They are constantly looking at and for new ways to promote their beverages and they end up working for them very well. For an organization to last through tough economic times and handle loss in sales, they must promote to bring their numbers back up and remind their customers why they admire the product so much in the first place. The Coca-Cola Company does this year-in and year-out which is what makes them on of the best companies and advertising, promoting and marketing their product. Also one of the worlds most recognized companies as well.