Role of service promotion are as follows:
1. Increasing Awareness: Promotion becomes a highly critical activity when a service is at a nascent stage in the market or it is to be launched in a new potential market.
Thus, the overall market awareness of the service has to be increased by citing research about the service, validating the usefulness and appeal of the service, and attracting maximum media attention to the service, to portray a popular image of the service.
The existence of the new service in the market has to be effectively conveyed to the target consumers.
2. Increasing Knowledge and Preference: Customers would not directly purchase the new service or brand only by knowing that it exists in the market.
The promotion has the responsibility to further communicate the usefulness of the brand to customers by assuring them that the service is required by them.
Putting together service (or brand) awareness and information is a way to attract more customers to the stores for finding promoted services.
3. Increasing Sales: An increase in sales is the final measure of a successful promotional strategy. As the three basic objectives of promotion are to inform, to persuade, and to remind, an effective promotion strategy leads to the sales increment of a particular service or service mix.
It describes how products and services offered by organizations are different from those of competitors. Thus, it helps in sales increment and thereby building-up brand loyalty.
4. Increases Customer Traffic: Various promotional techniques like frequency programs are introduced by movie theatres, beauty salons, etc., to increase customer traffic.
Under a frequency program, customers are rewarded for the number of visits and the amount of money spent with a retailer.
To begin with, the customers have to fill out an application form provided by the service provided. They then issue cards having magnetic strips that track purchases through registers and computers and customers can use these cards each time they buy a product or service from the provider.
Frequency card promotions are outlined basically to grab the attention of existing customers and increase traffic. There is also a probability of new customers getting attracted to such promotions if they hear about them.
5. Motivating Intermediaries: Service marketing promotes services provided by different service organizations with the help of intermediaries. Intermediaries play a very crucial role in promoting such services.
Generally, service providers perform promotional campaigns to encourage the intermediaries and foster their service facilities to acquire increased customer patronage of the service delivery points.
6. Maintaining Public Profile: A sound public profile of the organization and its services are developed through the effective use of promotion.
It helps in communicating the capabilities and importance of the organizational services to target customers. Thus, it enables the customers to buy more.