SRM UNIVERSITY

A study on Sales Promotion Techniques with special reference to Poonam Badam Milk Pvt. Ltd.,
Project Submitted

SRM UNIVERSITY
By

Prabavathi.G Reg No 3511010503

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the award of the degree

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS ADMINSITRATION SRM UNIVERSITY KATTANGULATHUR, KANCHEEPURAM DISTRICT, CHENNAI.

BONAFIDE CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the entitled A STUDY ON SALES PROMOTION TECHNIQUES WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO POONAM BADAM MILK PVT. LTD., submitted for the degree of Master of Business Administration by Prabavathi.G, is the record of the research work carried out by her, during the period Of April 2012 under my guidance and supervision and this work has not formed the basis for the award of any Degree, diploma, Associate ship, fellowship or any other title in this University or any other University or Institution of higher learning.

Submitted for the viva-voce examination held on ---------------------

. S.CHANDRAN (project Guide)

. Dr.JAYASHREE SURESH ( Dean, MBA)

.. (External Examiner)

DECLARATION

I declare that the dissertation entitled A STUDY ON SALES PROMOTION TECHNIQUES WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO POONAM BADAM MILK PVT. LTD., submitted by me for the Degree of Master of Business Administration, is the record of research work carried out by me during the period from April 2012 under the guidance and supervision of Mrs. S..CHANDRAN , Asst Prof, Department of Business Administration, S.R.M School of Management, SRM University Chennai and that this work has not formed the basis for the award of any degree, diploma, associate ship, fellowship or any other title in this university or any other university or Institution of higher learning.

Place:Kattankulathru Date:

Signature of the Student (G.Prabavathi)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I convey my sincere gratitude to my guide Mrs. G.Chandran, Department of Business Administration, S.R.M College, Chennai

S..CHANDRAN

for his excellent guidance, support and encouragement

throughout the period of study.

I Thank to S..CHANDRAN for hisr support to carry out my studies in this institution.

I owe my thanks to all the staff member of the Business Adminsitration Department, S.R.M College for their constant hope and encouragement.

I Thank my family members, for their support extended throughout my study.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER

PAGE NO CONTENT

INTRODUCTION

ABOUT THE COMPANY

INDUSTRY PROFILE

ABOUT THE COMPANY

HR PRACTCES BY THE COMPANY

CONSUMER SALES PROMOTIN & METHODS OF PROMOTION FINDINGS

SUGGESTIONS

CONCLUSION

Introduction
IMPORT:
In a time when customers are exposed daily to a nearly infinite amount of promotional messages, many marketers are discovering that advertising alone is not enough to move members of a target market to take action, such as getting them to try a new product. Instead, marketers have learned that to meet their goals they must use additional promotional methods in conjunction with advertising. Other marketers have found that certain characteristics of their target market (e.g., small but geographically dispersed) or characteristics of their product (e.g., highly complex) make advertising a less attractive option. For these marketers better results may be obtained using other promotional approaches and may lead to directing all their promotional spending to non-advertising promotions. Finally, the high cost of advertising may drive many to seek alternative, lower cost promotional techniques to meet their promotion goals.sales promotion. Sales promotions are used widely in many industries and especially by marketers selling to consumers. We will see that the objectives of sales promotion are quite different than advertising and are specifically designed to encourage customer response.Sales promotion describes promotional methods using special short-term

techniques to persuade members of a target market to respond or undertake certain activity. As a reward, marketers offer something of value to those responding generally in the form of lower cost of ownership for a purchased product (e.g., lower purchase price, money back) or the inclusion of additional value-added material (e.g., something more for the same price). Sales promotions are often confused with advertising. For instance, a television advertisement mentioning a contest awarding winners with a free trip to a Caribbean island may give the contest the appearance of advertising. While the delivery of the marketers message through television media is certainly labeled as advertising, what is contained in the message, namely the contest, is considered a sales promotion. The factors that distinguish between the two promotional approaches are: 1. whether the promotion involves a short-term value proposition (e.g., the contest is only offered for a limited period of time), and 2. the customer must perform some activity in order to be eligible to receive the value proposition (e.g., customer must enter contest). The inclusion of a timing constraint and an activity requirement are hallmarks of sales promotion. Sales promotions are used by a wide range of organizations in both the consumer and business markets, though the frequency and spending levels are much greater for consumer products marketers. One estimate by the Promotion Marketing Association suggests that in the US alone spending on sales promotion exceeds that of advertising.

Objectives of Sales Promotion Sales promotion is a tool used to achieve most of the five major promotional objectives discussed in the Promotion Decisions tutorial:

Building Product Awareness Several sales promotion techniques are highly effective in exposing customers to products for the first time and can serve as key promotional components in the early stages of new product introduction. Additionally, as part of the effort to build product awareness, several sales promotion techniques possess the added advantage of capturing customer information at the time of exposure to the promotion. In this way sales promotion can act as an effective customer information gathering tool (i.e., sales lead generation), which can then be used as part of follow-up marketing efforts.

Creating Interest Marketers find that sales promotions are very effective in creating interest in a product. In fact, creating interest is often considered the most important use of sales promotion. In the retail industry an appealing sales promotions can significantly increase customer traffic to retail outlets. Internet marketers can use similar approaches to bolster the number of website visitors. Another important way to create interest is to move customers to experience a product. Several sales promotion techniques offer the opportunity for customers to try products for free or at low cost.

Providing Information Generally sales promotion techniques are designed to move customers to some action and are rarely simply informational in nature. However, some sales promotions do offer

customers access to product information. For instance, a promotion may allow customers to try a fee-based online service for free for several days. This free access may include receiving product information via email.

Stimulating Demand Next to building initial product awareness, the most important use of sales promotion is to build demand by convincing customers to make a purchase. Special promotions, especially those that lower the cost of ownership to the customer (e.g., price reduction), can be employed to stimulate sales.

Reinforcing the Brand Once customers have made a purchase sales promotion can be used to both encourage additional purchasing and also as a reward for purchase loyalty (see loyalty programs below). Many companies, including airlines and retail stores, reward good or preferred customers with special promotions, such as email special deals and surprise price reductions at the cash register.

Classification of Sales Promotion

Sales promotion can be classified based on the primary target audience to whom the promotion is directed. These include:

Consumer Market Directed - Possibly the most well-known methods of sales promotion are those intended to appeal to the final consumer. Consumers are exposed to sales promotions nearly everyday, and as discussed later, many buyers are conditioned to look for sales promotions prior to making purchase decisions.

Trade Market Directed Marketers use sales promotions to target all customers including partners within their channel of distribution. Trade promotions are initially used to entice channel members to carry a marketers products and, once products are stocked, marketers utilize promotions to strengthen the channel relationship.

Business-to-Business Market Directed A small, but important, sub-set of sales promotions are targeted to the business-to-business market. While these promotions may not carry the glamour associated with consumer or trade promotions, B-to-B promotions are used in many industries.

Sales Promotion Trends: Customers Expectations

Marketers who employ sales promotion as a key component in their promotional strategy should be aware of how the climate for these types of promotions is changing. For instance, the onslaught of sales promotion activity over the last several decades has eroded the value of the short-term requirement to act on sales promotions. Many customers are conditioned to expect a promotion at the time of purchase otherwise they may withhold or even alter their purchase if a promotion is not present. For instance, food shoppers are inundated on a weekly basis with such a wide variety of sales promotions that their loyalty to certain products has been replaced by their loyalty to current value items (i.e., products with a sales promotion). For marketers the challenge is to balance the advantages short-term promotions offer versus the potential to erode loyalty to the product.

Sales Promotion Trends: Internet Communication

For many years consumers typically became aware of sales promotions in passive ways. That is, most customers obtained promotions not through an active search but by being a recipient of a marketers promotion activity (e.g., received coupons in the mail). The Internet is changing how customers obtain promotions. In addition to websites that offer access to coupons, there are a large number of community forum sites where members share details about how to obtain good deals which often include information on how or where to find a sales promotion. Monitoring these sites may offer marketers insight into how customers feel about certain promotions and may even suggest ideas for future sales promotions. Objectives of the study Primary objective To study the effective training and sales promotion program

conducted in Poonam Badam Milk Pvt. Ltd

Secondary objectives To study whether training enhances the skills of the employees. To study the H.R functions been carried out by the organisation To determine the developmental task of the individual through training. To find out the satisfactory level of employees on training and development programs being conducted at Poonam Badam MilkPvt. Ltd

The direct interview schedule has not be followed due to employees engagement in work.

Since the sample size is small it cannot be considered as true representation of the whole population.

Time of financial constraints has also been a limitation for the study.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY The survey has been confined to the employees in different levels.. The study covers introduction to the Sales training program and various type of Sales training programs which Poonam Badam Milk provide to its employee The results of this study will be useful to the organization in designing effective Sales promotions and training programmers by considering the employee interest.

INDUSTRY PROFILE

INDUSTRY PROFILE:

Soft drink production Soft drinks are made by mixing dry ingredients and/or fresh ingredients (for example, lemons, oranges, etc.) with water. Production of soft drinks can be done at factories or at home. Soft drinks can be made at home by mixing either a syrup or dry ingredients with carbonated water. Carbonated water is made using a home carbonation system or by dropping dry ice into water. Syrups are commercially sold by companies such as Soda-Club. Drinks like ginger ale and root beer are often brewed using yeast to cause carbonation. Ingredient quality Of most importance is that the ingredient meets the agreed specification on all major parameters. This is not only the functional parameter (in other words, the level of the major constituent), but the level of impurities, the microbiological status, and physical parameters such as color, particle size, etc.[10] Potential alcohol content A report in October 2006 demonstrated that some soft drinks contain measurable amounts of alcohol. In some older preparations, this resulted from natural fermentation used to build the carbonation. In the United States, soft drinks (as well as other beverages such as non-alcoholic beer) are allowed by law to contain up to 0.5% alcohol by volume. Modern drinks introduce carbon dioxide

for carbonation, but there is some speculation that alcohol might result from fermentation of sugars in an unsterile environment. A small amount of alcohol is introduced in some soft drinks where alcohol is used in the preparation of the flavoring extracts such as vanilla extract. Thus we can really challenge the hygienic and the ill effects of having a soft drinks which is on rise by glamorous advertisements given by the popular figures. Considering the above factors a feel of insecurity captures the mind of every individual who inclines towards keeping up the health in a natural way.

ABOUT THE COMPANY

POONAM BADAM MILK

Poonam Badam Milk is one of the leading Manufacturer & Distributor of Fresh Kesar Badam Milk & Fruit Drinks, Situated at Velachery in Chennai,India.

Poonam Enterprises, is a First Fresh Kesar Badam Milk Maker in Chennai.They started basically for the considering the Health of the Customers.The Organization purchase the natural ingredients directly from the Formers.The farming community is an integral part and forms the backbone of the organization. specialize in the production of Fresh Kesar Badam milk, Fruit drinks that stand high in terms of quality. Purity and hygiene being the distinct features of this range, their Products are manufactured as per the Industrial Norms and Standards. Backed by an expert and qualified team of professionals, to fulfill their customers expectations with superior quality products at industry leading prices. Owing to their knowledge and experience of the industry, they have been able to deliver our range of Poonam Products and its by Products and Spices as per the defined quality standards. The company works with adopting to current marketing scenario whereby adapting the modern techniques in implementing its promotions. They also emphasize on the various factors that have made them a preferred choice to most of the people and their customers numbers is on rise.

COMPANY PROFILE Poonam Badam Milk was prime supplier of health drinks.Poonam Badam Milk carries a good trade names and enables to harness the benefits of its size

Overview Poonam Badam Milk is one of the largest supplier of badam milk drinks in Tamilnadu and the prominent player in Chennai having a wide range of network through which they supply. Its main activities are providing drinks which to everybody at a reasonable prices and with a good on not compromising on the health issues of the customers.. The company has employees serving near to 6 lakhs customers in southern part of Tamilnadu.

Background Poonam Badam Milk planned journey towards being recognized as a worldclass standard of refresh drinks. They are also making more effective use of our marketing spend, particularly in advertising and sponsorship. The Poonam Badam Milk matches the aspirations we have for our customers.

The Poonam Badam brand today Today the Poonam Badam Milk brand is alive and trading in many part of Chennai and Tamilnadu as been recognized as a progressive company one that creates a healthy soft drinks keeping in mind the customers needs. It is this

insight this ability to think beyond what is called a just a soft drinks sales that makes them who they are.

Standards of business conduct Poonam Badam Milk is committed to ensuring that their business is

conducted in all respects according to the Govt.Health regulation, professional and legal standards. Customers Poonam Badam Milk seeks to provide their customers with a product that hallmarked by integrity, quality, and care.

Workforce Poonam Badam Milk is guided by the aim to be the employee into a noble profession in which they operate. Health and safety Poonam Badam Milk is committed to providing a working environment, which is both safe and fit for the intended purpose and ensures that health and safety issues are a priority for all business operations. Suppliers Poonam Badam Milk regard suppliers as their partners and work with them to help achieve their policy aspirations in the delivery of products Environment

Poonam Badam Milk is committed to a programme of management, continuous improvement and reporting of direct and indirect impacts, which marks its contribution to improving the product by which they live. Poonam Badam Milk recognizes that their business activities have direct and indirect impacts on the societies in which they operate. Poonam Badam Milk endeavor to manage these in a responsible manner, believing that sound and demonstrable performance is a fundamental part of business success. Poonam Badam Milk are committed to continuous improvement in the products and encourage their network partners to strive for quality performance.

HR PRACTISES IN POONAM BADAM MILK PVT . LTD

JOB ANALYSIS
The job analysis or the information about the job is provided to the aspirants are usually done through conventional methods like advertisements as well as through thenotifications in the official website of Poonam Badam Milk Pvt.

Ltd RECRUITMENTS Poonam Badam Milk Pvt. Ltd adopt an unique procedure of screening,
they usually send a structured questionnaire to the applicants. The responses or answers to the questionnaire are evaluated by the managers and on the basis of that they downsize the candidates before the interview. and The company usually hire the employees by this method and for jobs which does not need expertise they select by personal contacts.

TRANING
The company provide a range of professional management training and development services and solutions from the design of self managed learning tools, providing a coaching service to delivering a broad range of interpersonal skills training courses leadership, and sales and people management,. They work with their clients to ascertain their real training needs and provide customised training solutions that fit seamlessly with their organisation's requirements and culture.

They provide:

Executive coaching
Executive coaching is aimed at individually nurturing starting level and mid-level executives to achieve their career and personal goals, thus to excel in their life. POONAM BADAM MILK COMPANY recognises the fact that Executive Coaching and business mentoring today, is widely accepted as an essential part of the process of continuous learning in the arena of competitive business. It is an integral part of leadership development for top-rung executives. POONAM BADAM MILK COMPANY provides a one-to-one collaboration between a certified coach and an executive, who wants to better his/her leadership skills, access new perspectives and above all reach maximum potential. At the same time they, make executives into groups of 10 or less, can provide excellence through group activities and case studies. Training and coaching provides continuous support and is an investment that is made in developing your key HR resource, high-level managers, for the long-term benefit of the organization. POONAM BADAM MILK COMPANYs training and coaching engrains a unique methodology, where the framed strategic goals of the organisation are made easier to achieve by understanding the organisational behaviour and change required for the firm.

Main features

Profound analysis of the organisation and their managerial and leadership

objectives, planning and implementing personal and business strategy.

Identifying strengths and weakness in personal performance through selfreflection or/and feedback and thus developing in response

Planning for next role and indentifying development needs. Manage up and manage down Successfully sell your ideas Achieve results with ease Become an inspired leader and raise your emotional intelligence (EI)
quotient

Boost your creative intelligence Create deep and satisfying people relationships Attract success in life, work, and business Business Coaching
The company delivers Business Coaching using its expert professionals in the particular field of business and the programme content is tailored to address specific needs of the client. It is delivered by a mixture of the coach being an expert and a facilitator, using directive management of the programme and a nondirective style of coaching throughout. It focuses on such kind of individualised development programmes rather than scheduled training programmes as, CEOs, company directors and senior executives do not have time to wait for a conventional coaching modules which leads to spending days away from the office. Although more expensive than training, business coaching is more convenient and thus entails a lower opportunity cost for a busy company director or executive, since our business coaches will be flexible enough to meet where and when the client wishes. Typical issues addressed through business coaching:

Developing a compelling vision, mission and strategy Understanding and using numbers (Key Performance Indicators) Planning and Execution Sales and Marketing Recruiting Winners Influencing and Presenting Managing Time Leading People Coaching Winners Team Development Thinking like a winner, to be a market leader.

Sales training
POONAM BADAM MILK COMPANYs Professional Sales Training teaches effective selling skills for marketing and sales professionals helping them to significantly improve the ability to shoot up the sales of the organization. Its Sales Training programs of help sharpen the selling skills of even experienced sales representatives, enabling them to take advantage of sales opportunities and aggressively expand the business. By providing a simulated class room environment where they can make mistakes and learn from them, organizations can benefit from having sales representatives who can make the greatest impact on a daily basis.

The companys sales training focuses on the following areas:

Determine the needs of the customers Understanding the selling process Talking the customers language Avoiding common sales mistakes Maximizing the sales on the feebacks of the customers.

Consumer Sales Promotion and Methods of Promotion

A sales promotion is a marketing technique that is designed to entice a customer to take a specific action such as make a purchase or request more information. A sales promotion usually occurs for a limited period of time to help create a sense of urgency. Examples of sales promotion can include coupons, free trial periods and discounts, to name a few. Sales promotions offer a number of advantages to the owner of a small business. By offering a reduced price on a popular item, you can lure customers away from competitors, which may ultimately help turn them into regular shoppers. For example, if you own a small electronics store that's competing with a large retailer, offer a discounted price on a popular cell phone model for a limited time. If you serve the customers well during the purchase process, they may be willing to come back.

Price discounts or price-off deals:

Price deals are probably the most commonly used promotional techniques and Badam milk company is no exception to this. Since its sales have a great

impact on the climatic conditions normally to during winter seasons to boost up the declining sales during this period it offers a discount on its price.

Price discounts are communicated through POP advertising, window displays, sales people, advertising in newspapers, magazines and TV ads.Such promotions work very well in gaining the attention of consumers, particularly at the point of purchase among similar brands and may also encourage unplanned or impulse buying.

A price deal for a customer means a reduction in the price of the promoted product and the consumer saves money on purchase.

The below data shows the actual price of the product and the total sales

Year

Actual Price

Discounted Price

Total Sales

In Rupees

In Rupees

(In bottles)

2008-2009

17

15

18468 bottles

2009-2010

17

16

19210 bottles

2011-2012

18

16

21574 bottles

Fig. 1.1

From the above figure we can conclude that the discounted price has a very good impact towards sales and so the company continues to adopt the sales promotion strategy in future also.

Advantages of Discounted Prices

The main advantage of this tool is that extra product may encourage increased usage and help sustain the habit. Also among other similar brands, a bonus pack stands out at the point of sale.

1.Profit Improvement-So far as Individual capacity is concerned, cost reduction helped Poonam Badam Milk Company in profit improvement. The more the profits, the more the stable the company becomes. It enhanced the improves investment opportunities and facilitates the collection of capital. value,

2. Benefit to the Consumers-The consumers are the ultimate beneficiaries. They are benefited by the reduced prices which may be possible by savings form cost reduction programs. Competitive position will improve and the industry as a whole will strive to improve the productivity and pass on the advantage of such programs to the consumers.

3. Increase in the Staff Wages- Workers and staff of the industry may also be benefitted through increased wages and improved staff welfare amenities. Since

4. Increase Market - The company is also benefitted by identifying their potential areas as the sale differs in various region and thus helps the company to implement a different plan according t he variation in the regions.. Also internal revenue will increase through more tax savings.

Disadvantages There are many important factors that affected.For example, elasticity of demand for consumer products, as product prices, while a substantial increase in the number of consumers to buy, the firm may be more so then and more profit. The contrary, or if there is no obvious change in sales volume, the company profits will be reduced. 3. Price war- Companies of similar products too offered discounts by the period where it went to stage that the lowest bidder reaps more sales. It ultimately make the company into a price war. Prices may lead to other business enterprises have also followed the price, which have lead to price wars. Price war is cruel, if the enterprises do not have the strength of strong support, such as financial strength, channel power, etc., soon, businesses will be peer-to break down. But this company with strong strength defeated the opponents finally to achieve the desired sales. Therefore, enterprises should think twice on the price war. 4. Quality Re-check- This is evident as many of the customers rechecked with the retailer about the quantity and the quality as of fact there was no change but the tendency of the customers on reduction leads to the creating a conscious of the decline in quality.

Product price adverse selection problem exists, that consumers may think that product quality is the price to drop down and therefore, some consumers have in mind to "get what you pay" concept. However, the company ensured product quality, makes the product "inexpensive", there by consumers are more favored in their enterprises. Samples, Free Product and Premiums This is one of the technique been implemented by Poonam Badam Milk Pvt. Ltd. and just like reduction in prices it also enabled them to capture a huge market share. Enticing members of a target market to try a product is often easy when trial comes at little or no cost to the customer. The use of samples and free trials may be the oldest of all sales promotion techniques dating back to when society advanced from a culture of self-subsistence to a culture of trade. Sampling and free trials gave customers the opportunity to experience products, often in small quantities or for a short duration, without purchasing the product This leads the customer to get acquainted with the taste of the product and be a customer of it in mere future.

Though these methods are used in almost all industries especially useful for getting customers to try a product for the first time. This has been very much successful to the Poonam Badam Milk company Increase in Year Total expenditure Total Sales sales in the next year

Rs-3.43 lacs 2008

8.43 lacs

15.63%

Rs-3.54 lacs 2009

9.26 Lacs

17.21%

2010

Rs- 2.64 lacs

12.54 Lacs

34.57%

2011

Rs- 1.89 lacs

16.47 Lacs

43.51%

Fig-1.2 From the above figure we can conclude that there is a huge improvement in sales from the year the plan been implemented and gradually during the course of time the promotional cost been is reduced as the out put been increasing which resulted in future profits. From the above a we can very easily conclude that this strategy work out positively for the company and resulting the increase of sales of the product there by affirming that the price discounts is always is

one of the very powerful method of sales promotion irrespective of its product a company deal with.

Internal Competition Fostering a sense of healthy internal competition is another method adopted by Poonam Badam Milk Company for developing a sales team. They made availability of incentives and rewards for performance. Most sales people involved in the competition seek out new and creative methods to improve on their own, and attempt to learn best practices from high-performing team members. For example, in Velachery branch the staffs use do work for long hours for the completion of assigned project. This been for their own benefit as the company offered a cash bonus for the highest sellers in a given period. They also created a contest in which the entire sales team attempts to hit a certain goal, with a reward of a company sponsored retreat. The Rewards includes a trip to Ooty , Kodaikanal and other places. The result of was so fruitful to the company that it was able to see a high production and there by increasing the sales volume to a considerable amount.

Those who are excelling at sales helped those who are less effective by sharing techniques and tips, and performing role-playing training exercises. At the same time Poonam Badam Milk H.R was very much cautious and concerned that they make the internal competition light-hearted and friendly, so as not to destroy the sense of teamwork. It was successful and helped the human resources department to adopt a plan based on their experience.

Positive Motivation As the sales manager of Poonam Badam Milk, they also provided positive, e motivation. Focussing on the good points of each salespersons individual style, and compliment them when they are successful. They framed necessary criticism in such a way that it is not derogatory or personally hurtful. For example, if one salesperson is not aggressive enough at making sales, they commented as you know they have a strong sense of boundaries and professionalism that makes them hesitant to bother busy executives, but that it is important to be aggressive with repeat phone calls.

Thus by creating a team atmosphere in which their sales team feels that they are supported by their supervisors, and they created a a group of willing individuals who genuinely enjoyed their work and want to do better at it.

Poonam Badam Milk derived the following advantages by adopting the Sales Promotion Techniques.Luring New Customers with Price- There customers increased to a considerable number in quick span of time.

Gaining Community Favor It created a good name for their business by staging the promotion that supports a worthy cause. For example, in velachery area they installed a free cold water stand near the bus stops during summer seasons and also they donated .Traffic Police booth near a prominent road junction to facilitate the traffic police there by helping the , which is a win-win for everyone and may leads to more business by becoming more familier and was a good brand building process.

Encourage Repeat Purchases Poonam Badam company used rewards programs to encourage customer loyalty, and they executed it for the business. They introduced a purchase card and that you hole-punch each time the customers make a purchase. After they make 10 purchases, they can redeem the card for a free bottle of badam milk.

Thus a sales promotion has helped to retain o potential customers that aids them in making a decision. This is beneficial for company to face the severe competition prevailing in the market.

Findings The company has shown a gradual increase in its Sales The amount of expenditure spent towards the sales promotion is moderate & the output is at inclining state. The Employees Morale is been kept at a healthy conditions by being successful in their operations. Packages like Extra over time & perks increased the employee out put.

 Marginal amount been invested allotted on the budget towards the sales promotion of the company on yearly basis and this is been on rise. The machinery and the plant cost has seen an maximum utilization whereby the replacement of the machines and the maintenance cost is on high during the period. There is a drastic improvement in the sales when the new schemes been introduced and by that they were able to spread their markets in an untargeted areas. During the period there is an increase of employees since the production has gone high and so it demands a new recruitment of skilled and unskilled manpower

1. Increasing Competition Due to increase in competition, Soft drinks companies are finding it increasingly difficult to compete on quality. They are therefore resorting to more innovative methods of sales promotion. In order to have a competitive advantage over its competitors like Pepsi, Coke and other soft drinks once a year such kind of sales promotions should be followed. 50%.

2. Customers Have Become More Price Sensitive This increased price sensitivity is a direct result of rampant inflation. Economic recession is likely to fuel this trend further, as consumers and dealers become more sensitive towards prices. If the customers get branded drinks at half the actual price, then they are definitely going to make huge purchases of Poonam Badam drinks because they want value for their money, as they are price sensitive.

3. Sales Promotions Generally Create An Immediate Positive Impact On Sales Advertising, personal selling and other methods of promotion produce slower sales response compared to sales promotion. Sales promotions are mostly adopted by Poonam Badam Milk company mostly for short duration, for a specified period, leading to a sense of urgency in consumers to buy now. This creates an immediate positive impact on sales.

4. Products have become more standardized

In many soft drinks company, there is a proliferation of brands. Most drinks are being perceived by consumers to be more or less similar

within a given price range because of the inability of manufacturers to develop truly differentiated products. Under these circumstances, advertising messages are unable to strongly influence the consumers perceptions and create brand franchise. As a result of these perceptions of similarity among brands, marketers have no way but to compete on the basis of extra benefit offered through sales promotion.

There are many unbranded soft drinks sold at ice cream shops and shopping malls and places like outer Chennai which are bought at half the price of actual branded drinks. People who are money conscious buy such drinks ingnoring the health. Therefore, Poonam Badam Milk Jeans comes up with such discounts, which helps them in increasing their sales and also in stock clearance, if any.

5. Consumer Acceptance As competition intensifies and promotions proliferate, consumers have learnt to earn the rewards of being smart . Over a period of time, they have also learnt that brands on promotion are not necessarily of lower quality.

Poonam Badam Milk sold at disount rates, are not perceived to be a brand of low quality. Instead, people even time their purchase accordingly.

6. Advertising Has Become More Expensive And Less Effective All the advertising media have become quite expensive. Audiovisual medium, which is considered as the most effective for shortduration ads, may cost in excess of Rs. 1 lakh for a 10 second exposure during prime time. In many cases, consumers have reached a point of boredom due to excessive advertising on TV. Some consumers even consider advertising as an intrusion into their privacy, leading to zapping (surfing channels). Firms with small budgets cannot compete with big companies, which spend huge sums of money on advertising. For these small budget firms like Poonam Badam Milk sales promotion is a more cost-effective promotion method to produce sales results.

7.Trade Has Become More Powerful

Retailers and wholesalers have become powerful and find themselves in a position to demand extra facilities from the companies. They Channel members demand more incentives to get the desired results. Manufacturers do not seem to have any alternatives but to concede to their demands, keeping in view the competitive market conditions. In soft drinks shop decent margins have to be paid to them in order to have shelf visibility for Poonam Badam Milk brand.

8. Emphasis On Sales Volumes Towards achieving the long-term profit goals, Poonam Badam Milk manufacturers try to attain high sales volume. Brand managers and product managers find themselves under pressure to achieve short-term sales results for the sake of their careers. Compared to any other promotional method, sales promotion is a more effective method to generate short-term sales volume.

9. Sales Promotions Maximise Profits A number of economic theories conclude that a company can maximise profits by using sales promotion. Such promotions can permit price discrimination by allowing the brand to compete in 2 or more different market segments. Sales promotion may allow a

premium brand to compete with a lower tier brand among price sensitive consumers. For example, a premium brand of soft drinks may be on promotion in some price sensitive markets, while in the remaining markets it is sold at its normal price.

10. Introducing An Element Of Interest:

There are a number of promotions, which are often called interest promotions. Some of the more popular interest promotion techniques are samples, contests, and sweepstakes, free premiums and mail-in premiums. These promotions create an element of interest and excitement, and consumers enjoy these and response enthusiastically to such contests and sweepstakes, etc.

11. Impulse Buying Is Increasing The number of marginal customers is increasing. Displays at the point of purchases lead to impulse buying by consumers, more so if the items on display are not expensive. Poonam Badam Milk company adopted a popular saying in Tamil, Ungal Nalanai manadhil kondu thayaritha baanam. Which the

manufacturer is much focused on the health of the customers consuming their drinks. This had a very good impact in the long term in gaining a brand image.

13. Excess Stocks Because of increasing number of brands, it is difficult for Poonam Badam Milk Company to anticipate future sales. This, at times, leads to excessive inventories, and the quickest way to clear that is to go for sales promotion.

SUGGESTIONS Sales promotion activity such as trip to places had incurred a major expenses though the sales been increased. But cost per bottle has gone high during the period as the expenses is so high during the period for the employees. So a proper cost control system should be adopted to avoid such a situation.. The maintenance cost has gone doubtle the level and so the other cost. Therefore though there the sales figure been inclined in the very next season it has touched the below normal level which shows it was a short term profit mechanism. So a pragmaticc approach is the need by the time.

Due to over allocation of work and high out put from the employees which also resulted in huge employee turnover. This also leads to situation where the toughest one been retained which is not a healthy sign in the long run for the organization. So there should be a benchmarks been set up and proper standards on an employee out put should be taken and a realistic measurement of performance should be implemented rather than focusing only on the quanity based.

Companies of the sectors should be revised in order to make the allocations much more effective.

More departmental

allocation of work

should be focused

.hence the focus only towards the numbers should be reduced.

The allocations made in different departments

should be

revised every year to make the allocation of fund to be a reasonable one to carry on the functions without affecting the company budget allocation.

CONCLUSION

Sales promotional progamme is an important progamme in developing an organization. Every organization conducts training programs for the development of the personnel in the organization.

The employees in POONAM BADAM MILK are happy with their overall training programs, which were conducted in the organization. The company implements promotion techniques programs based on the latest scientific techniques. And also such promotions are required for organizations to boost up the sales.

The people who are provided training facilities & execute such promotional techniques should give an opportunity to the employees also to clear their doubts at the time training programs and also implement it in their work processes.

The Sales promotion programs are conducted on yearly basis because they are transferred from one job to another so as to improve their skills in different areas.

POONAM BADAM MILK being a Pvt. sector organization, it can be called as a model employer, not only in accomplishing its objectives in other fields, but also in the matter of equipping themselves in all manners by conducting various promotional programs to enhance their Sales & human resources skills.

A STUDY ON Sales Promotion Techniques at Poonam Badam Milk Company LTD, Chennai.

A STUDY ON Sales Promotion Techniques at Poonam Badam Milk Company LTD, Chennai. PERSONAL INFORMATION 1. Name(optional) --------------------

2. Age: a) Below 25 b) 26-30 40 c) 31-35 d) 36-40 e) Above

3. Gender: a) Male b) Female

Consumer Experience : a) Below 2 years b) 3-5 years c) 6-8 years d) 9-12 years e) Above 12 years

4. Educational qualification a) HSC b) Diploma c) Graduate d) Master degree e) Others

QUESTIONNAIRE ( On Consumers)

1.

How long since you have used this Product?

a)0-6 months b) 6-12 months c) 1 year and above .

2.In Case of fresh consumer

Is there any reason you switch over to this product?

a)Good taste b) just like that

c) No comments

2. What is the satisfaction level about the product?

a)Highly satisfied b) Satisfied c) Neutral d) Dissatisfied e) Highly dissatisfied

3.What do you feel about the discount given to you? a) Its good comments b) Satisfied c) I consume more d) No

5. Do you know that you can express your views in the company? a) Yes b) No

6.If yes, have you done it before ?

a) Yes b) No c) No idea

7.If so is the response was satisfactory?

a) Highly satisfied

b) Satisfied c) Neutral

d)

Dissatisfied e) Highly dissatisfied

QUESTIONNAIRE ( On Employees)

8.What type of relations are you having with your superior, peers and subordinates?

a) Very Good b) Good c) Average d) Bad e) Very Bad

9.What is your view on the practice & policies of the management?

a)

Strongly agree b) Agree c) Neutral d) Disagree e) Strongly disagree

10.What type of training is provided by management?

a) Induction or Orientation Training b) Job Training c) Internship Training d) Training For Promotion

e) Refresher Training or Retaining

11.Are you satisfied with the promotional policy?

a)Highly satisfied b) Satisfied c) Neutral d) Dissatisfied e) Highly Dissatisfied

12.What types of monetary benefits provide by the management to employees? a) Increment Bonus b) Increment with promotion d) Gifts c)

e) Travelling Allowances

20.Whether you are satisfied with the financial support from the organization? a) Strongly agree b) Agree c) Neutral d) Disagree e) Strongly disagree

21.What are the kinds of non monetary benefits provided by Any other specify ------

22. Any suggestion for Product Improvement-----------------