Push Marketing Strategy

A strategy concerned with making a product marketable and visible to customers at the point of purchase to generate quick sales.

Author: Ranad Rashean
Ranad Rashean
Ranad Rashean
I am a pharmaceutical, who decided to shift my career to be an Analyst.
Reviewed By: Elliot Meade
Elliot Meade
Elliot Meade
Private Equity | Investment Banking

Elliot currently works as a Private Equity Associate at Greenridge Investment Partners, a middle market fund based in Austin, TX. He was previously an Analyst in Piper Jaffray's Leveraged Finance group, working across all industry verticals on LBOs, acquisition financings, refinancings, and recapitalizations. Prior to Piper Jaffray, he spent 2 years at Citi in the Leveraged Finance Credit Portfolio group focused on origination and ongoing credit monitoring of outstanding loans and was also a member of the Columbia recruiting committee for the Investment Banking Division for incoming summer and full-time analysts.

Elliot has a Bachelor of Arts in Business Management from Columbia University.

Last Updated:October 16, 2023

What Is A Push Marketing Strategy?

Push marketing is the practice of using promotions, discounts, "Buy Now" buttons, primetime television advertising, buy one, get one free coupons, and direct mail catalogs, and the appearance of a limited supply to encourage consumers to purchase a product as quickly as possible.

For example, push marketing and affiliate marketing can be used together.

For an affiliate marketing example, a store collaborates with an affiliate network, develops a special affiliate link for a newly released product, distributes it to the network, and notifies app users via push notifications. As a result, the store experiences a rise in sales, and the publisher's profits from any increased sales.

Push marketing is usually employed by start-ups and businesses launching new products. However, push marketing might be a business's best option if they offer specialized goods or services. 

Directly targeting potential customers raises the possibility that they will respond to the advertising because it is pertinent and specific enough to compel them to take action.

This strategy aims to "Push" products to consumers starting at the time of purchase by utilizing a variety of marketing channels or strategies.

Push marketing shouldn't be used, though, if your objective is only engagement or awareness, as your returns will be fewer due to how specific it is. But you'll probably see that more of the interacting customers go on to make purchases.

Key Takeaways

  • Push marketing uses promotions and discounts to encourage immediate purchases and create product demand.
  • Combining push and pull marketing strategies can optimize marketing efforts.
  • Push marketing targets short-term sales, while pull marketing focuses on building an audience over time.
  • Push notifications can be an effective tool for personalized marketing messages.

Push Marketing Strategy Examples

Here are a few examples of outbound marketing strategies used by companies that you could include in your marketing plan:

1. Arabica Cafe

Arabica Cafe is one of the leading experts in coffee made from arabica beans in the UK and the Middle East. They employ coupon-based marketing techniques but with a slight twist. 

It provides a coupon that you must stamp each time you purchase at the branch to receive free coffee and a discount on dessert after reaching a certain number of stamps. This is done to urge you to make additional purchases.

2. Krispy Kreme 

It is one of the world's strongest doughnut brands when consumers go by the branch and observe the "Hot Light Theater Shops" and fresh donuts being made. 

Krispy Kreme employs the push marketing method. For example, when the lamb is red, it implies that you can obtain the hot, fresh doughnuts, which encourages customers to stand in line to get them and encourages them with offers to try different kinds.

Additionally, many corporations increasingly embrace the idea of utilizing both tactics. For a business to reach as many clients as possible, it must employ pull and push strategies. 

3. Coca-Cola

The push method employed by Coca-Cola entails using trade promotion funds and sales force to persuade middlemen to carry, advertise, and sell the product to end customers. By giving out free pet bottles and trade schemes to distributors and agencies

On the other side, it employs a pull technique that entices customers to ask middlemen for the company brand product through promotions and ads—using standees, display racks, flanges, and mobile chargers.

4. Samsung

It is implementing the pull-first, push-second method. Utilizing aggressive advertising, e.g., a TV advert for a Samsung Galaxy Z fold 

When a person discovers further deals, including discounts and a Bluetooth speaker being given out for free for visiting the showroom. 

It motivates an individual to go and test the device and maximize the possibility of buying it.

Implementing Push Marketing Strategy

After a business has decided on a strategy, it must know how to put it into action in a way that is appropriate for its target audience. There are several approaches to implementing push marketing, both traditional and digital marketing media or channels, including:

Product exposure to various market sectors and audiences, consumer awareness of a product, and eventually, product demand depend on traditional and digital PUSH techniques. 

Traditional push marketing techniques

The traditional method is the most widely used because it is simple and inexpensive, making it accessible to businesses of all sizes.

Let's examine the various approaches:

  • Direct Selling: you need strong communication skills to persuade the customer to buy the product without making him feel under pressure, like the customers in showrooms.
  • Point of sale displays: often known as POS, has several benefits in-store and can encourage customers to love your business. Retail sales and brand recognition have been shown to rise with point-of-sale displays.
  • Direct mailers: used for lead nurturing or newsletters mailers. Typically, the intention is to alert clients of impending deals, events, or news.
  • Packaging ideas to promote purchase or trial: Your company may overcome the odds by paying attention to your product packaging. Packaging can dramatically influence consumer purchasing decisions and be just as memorable as the product itself.
  • Trade show Promotion: A promotional strategy that brings a product directly to the customer so that they are aware of it when they purchase it uses the sales force of the company and trade promotion activities to generate demand.

Digital Push marketing

One of the fastest-growing and largest marketing strategies in the outbound marketing toolkit, digital advertising includes a variety of options, including:

  • Push channels: display advertising on various devices through social media, emails, and video advertising. 
    A direct digital marketing strategy is to purchase commercials that appear as text, photos, or videos across multiple websites, social media platforms, or email messages.
  • Search engine marketing: the marketing procedure to gain more free traffic search engine optimization (SEO) or paid traffic (PPC) to increase exposure in search engines (Paid search advertising). ADS directly pay Google, Bing, or Yahoo to appear higher in their rankings.
  • (OTT) advertising- The service used to stream digital information to a TV or similar device is essentially what the phrase "over-the-top" refers to. 
    The group of devices, sometimes referred to as OTT, is similar to TV advertising in that they transmit media on OTT platforms. Such as (Android TV, Apple TV) or (NetFlix, or HBO).

How is a push marketing strategy created?

Analyzing the customer needs, typically using push channels, is the most effective way to identify a buyer's need or create one.

Push channels must be included in strategy if developing a market for a new good or service and hoping to increase demand and stir up a need. This is because push channels can effectively evoke emotion, which is crucial in developing needs.

Then supplying pertinent information to prospective customers who have identified a need. And this important state remains the desire of customers. 

A business needs to support the decision of customers. Regular blogging enables enterprises to publish new, pertinent content on a monthly, weekly, daily, or even hourly basis, all of which are searchable online. 

The internet and "family and friends" are consumers' top two sources of information. Moreover, consumers consider online reviews almost as credible as those from friends and family, mainly if many reviews are available for a given service.

After-Purchase Conduct, i.e., After making a purchase, a business wants customers to be happy with their choice and to ensure they are satisfied so they will either buy again or promote. 

The most common outbound channels for customer post-purchase follow-up are phone, email, and in-person interactions.

Pull vs. Push Marketing Strategy

Push vs. pull marketing appears to be opposed at first glance. However, they do overlap in practice. We've outlined the main characteristics of each and how they appear in practice.

Comparison Between Push & Pull Marketing Strategies
  Push Market Pull Market
Demand Works well with products that users are already familiar with or are curious about Effective for selling something new to people and creating demand in areas where there is no competitor yet, to begin with.
Length of time Concentrates on short-term sales It May take more time to establish
Product Type Products are well-known to audiences and require very little comparison shopping. Products are usually one-of-a-kind in some way, so audiences may need to be told exactly what they are.
Goal Aims to make sales immediately Builds an audience over time and often from the ground up
Cost They use similar channels, but they serve different audiences. So it depends on the product and the audience. They use similar channels, but they serve different audiences. So it depends on the product and the audience.

Push Marketing Strategy Advantages 

Push marketing takes a lot of effort to be completely successful, but it can yield significant advantages as:

  1. Push marketing is beneficial for manufacturers attempting to establish a sales channel and looking for distributors to assist with product promotion.
  2. It generates product exposure, product demand, and consumer awareness.
  3. Demand can be more forecastable and predictable because the producer can produce and deliver as much or as little product to consumers as needed.
  4. Economies of scale can be realized if the product can be produced at scale due to high demand.

Push Marketing Strategy Disadvantages

As effective as push marketing can be, it should not be the sole focus of a business marketing strategy. The disadvantages of the push marketing strategy are:

1. Marginally Low 

Offering discounts to resellers is a common push marketing strategy. While this may entice buyers, it also implies that your company is sacrificing some of its profit margins by cutting costs.

Some businesses even lose money when they offer discounts because they sell each unit for less than the cost of manufacturing or acquisition. 

This may assist in getting your products into retail shelves and customers' hands, but it will take time to recoup the lost profits.

2. Precedent 

Related to the discounting strategy, the longer you use a push strategy, the more difficult it is to get resellers to pay your regular prices. 

You hope the retailer sees enough customer demand to carry the product regardless of your price. However, what usually happens when you offer discounts regularly is that the reseller comes to expect them and considers them a part of the equation. 

Limiting the long-term use of discounts may help to avoid this. Other buyers will expect discounts if they discover you provide them to competitors.

3. Lack of end-user focus 

Every dollar and minute spent on a push marketing strategy is money and time spent away from creating demand with end users. 

Suppliers frequently attempt to balance the two approaches, knowing that long-term success depends on end-customer interest. 

If you place too much emphasis on marketing to direct buyers, you risk failing to communicate the benefits of your product to the ultimate decision-maker – the customer.

4. Costs  

Push marketing can sometimes cost more than pull marketing. Push marketers typically have sales personnel who meet with retail buyers and offer incentives to resellers. 

These salespeople are compensated with base pay, commissions, or a combination of the two. Costs also include travel and materials used by your sales representatives.  The more aggressive you are in selling your products, the more expensive your strategy becomes.

Conclusion

Push marketing is most effective when marketing campaigns promote goods and services already in high demand. It eliminates the need for branding and quickly promotes a new product. Its short-term effects attract new customers, even though it can be costly, and the results are frequently short-term.

Marketing plans are frequently complex documents, and putting them into action necessitates the coordination of numerous projects, processes, personnel, and even third-party vendors. 

Maintaining marketing plans without the right marketing planning tools, such as calendars that sync across teams and robust work management software, can be difficult.

After the marketing strategy has been established and documented, the marketing plan can be developed. The marketing plan is critical when outlining the specific actions that the marketing department will take to achieve the company's goals.

The primary distinction between push and pull marketing is how you approach customers. Another clever innovation is the push notification, which allows you to send a message-like notification that appears on your mobile device or computer screen. 

To create personalized and customized notifications, schedule them, and monitor the response and conversion generated by your push notification. Overall, push marketing is an excellent way to generate immediate results and leave a lasting impression on prospective customers. 

 Researched and authored by Ranad Rashwan / LinkedIn

Reviewed and edited by Tanay Gehi | Linkedin And Abhijeet Avhale | LinkedIn

Free Resources

To continue learning and advancing your career, check out these additional helpful WSO resources: