The counter-side to pull marketing, push marketing relies on promoting a business or product directly to customers. This method is useful for new products or businesses who are hoping to establish a market presence. Push marketing can be seen in door to door sales, placing products with retailers, point of sale displays and trade shows. A general idea of push marketing is the company bringing their product to the customer – in whatever the appropriate method of doing that may be. The increased visibility of products generally leads to increased sales, and may result in a pull marketing campaign as customer awareness grows.
Most traditional advertising methods can be classified as push marketing. Television commercials, coupons, direct mail campaigns are all push marketing strategies that are developed to reach a large number of people quickly. Push marketing campaigns can be effective with new technologies, new products or when trying to introduce an item into a given area.
The downside of push marketing is the lack of customer relationship. Push marketing brings the product to the customer, so the customer may not identify the product with a brand or have any loyalty for the company. In addition, push marketing campaigns are usually expensive and have only short term effects. With no long-term customer relationship, there is always a need to keep the product in front of the customer so that they are compelled to purchase again.
An effective marketing campaign is composed of multiple methods of reaching the customer, and is a blend of both push and pull marketing. A push campaign that involves a television commercial may also include a website address. The website will pull the customer into investigating other products that the company may offer and will help to engage the customer into a relationship. Both are essential to a comprehensive marketing strategy.
