Abstract

The Head of Sales at Tata Steel, responsible for the product promotion activities of Galvanised Corrugated (GC) sheets of Tata Shaktee, was mulling over how he would allocate the Product promotion budget across the various product promotion activities. Targeting primarily a rural segment, the Tata Shaktee brand was engaged in a number of below the line promotional activities. He wanted to find out the effectiveness of each product promotion activity so that he could allocate the budget according to this. He asked a management intern to conduct marketing research to get an understanding of this. Now, he has to analyze the report and decide his next course of action. The case is designed for MBA-level students as part of their Marketing Management/ Brand Management/ Marketing Research curriculum.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Understand the various issues and challenges involved in planning and implementing the promotion of a brand, especially sales promotion activities
• Understand the various issues and challenges in promoting a commodity-like product to a predominantly rural target audience
• Understand issues in conducting consumer research to get to know the effectiveness of various promotional activities

Keywords

Promotional strategy, Promotional mix, Promotional budget, Allocation of promotional budget, Sales promotion, Effectiveness of product promotion activities, Consumer research, Marketing research, Rural marketing, Branding a commodity