Perceived Effectiveness of Sales Promotion Techniques amongst South African Generation Y Students

Abstract

The increasing competition and the predicted changes in the retail sector are pressurising marketers to be more competitive in order to ensure that their brands are amongst the leading brands on the market. Marketers constantly need to develop innovative marketing strategies to create brand awareness, as well as to stimulate demand for specific brands. An important tool in this regard is the marketing communication mix, of which sales promotion is one of the most effective elements in the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector. It is the responsibility of marketers to select the most appropriate sales promotion technique for a specific market segment or, more specifically, to select the most appropriate technique to effectively encourage the desired effect on the consumer buying behaviour. The South African Generation Y cohort (individuals born between 1986 and 2005) accounts for 38 percent of the total South African population. The African portion of this cohort (hereafter referred to as African Generation Y represented 83 percent of the total South African Generation Y cohort in 2013, making this a very attractive market segment. Marketers in the FMCG sector seeking to target this lucrative segment would need to understand their preferred sales promotion techniques. Therefore, this study sought to determine which sales promotion techniques (coupons, discounts, free samples, bonus packs) were perceived as being the most effective in encouraging brand loyalty, brand switching, purchase acceleration, stockpiling and product trial in the FMCG sector amongst the African Generation Y cohort in South Africa. A quantitative study, following the descriptive research design, was undertaken, whereby a structured self-administered questionnaire was used to gather the required data. A convenience sample of 600 African Generation Y students across two South African public registered higher education institutions’ campuses situated in the Gauteng province was taken. The collected data were analysed using descriptive statistics and a one-sample t-test. The findings suggest that in South Africa, African Generation Y students have positive attitudes towards different sales promotion techniques and that these techniques are suitable for inducing specific consumer buying behaviours concerning low involvement products. Furthermore, the findings indicate that the buy one get one free and free sample offers are the most preferred sales promotion techniques and are more likely to exert an influence on this cohort’s buying behaviours than the other sales promotion techniques. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n21p51