MBA DISSERTATION MODULE

PROJECT PROPOSAL

Candidate Name:

Enrolment Date :

Candidate reference number:

Project Title: “ AN EMPIRICAL  STUDY ON IMPACT OF ADVERTISING VS SALES

PROMOTION IN CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR”.

Project Background:

Introduction:

Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing ,promotion, and
distributing of goods and services to create exchange that satisfy individual and organizational
goals.

Marketing communication is considered as the means through which an organization attempts

towards informing, persuading and reminding its consumers, both directly and indirectly,
regarding the products and brands they are selling or they intend to sell. Companies should
allocate their budget of marketing communications on 8 modes of major communications which
include: advertising, sales promotion, PR, publicity events and experiences, word of mouth
marketing strategy, direct marketing, interactive marketing and sales force. Most of the
companies differ in their media as well as channel choices even in the same industry.

Advertising:

Organization use advertising as a tool to create awareness about their goods or services or
sometimes about themselves (when a new organization wants to connect with the target audience
and would wish to communicate their modus operandi to them). Advertisements pledges to
induce interest develop a desire to buy and finally motivate the target audience to take some
action like buying the product, service or ideas or reacting to some issues.

Sales Promotion:

Sales promotion is more action oriented when compared with other methods of promotional mix.
The basic concept behind the sales promotion activity is to offer the customer more for less.
Customers are price sensitive and if they get anything which is of good value at a discounted
price or if they get more at that price, then that stimulates their buying decision. (Brannen, W. H.
,1993).
Reaserch Objectives:
The purpose of my thesis is to study the impact of advertising and sales promoton in consumer
buying behaviour.

My research with the following objectives:

1. Understanding the concept of consumer buying behavior

2. Understanding the concept of advertising and sales promotion as a marketing
communication tools.
3. Emphasizing the difference between the advetising and sales promotion techniques of
marketing communication.
4. Studying the impact of advertising on the revenues of the company.
5. Understanding how the companies are managing their sales by advertising in today’s
trend of marketing.

Literature Review:
Marketing communication is considered as the means through which an organization attempts
towards informing, persuading and reminding its consumers, both directly and indirectly,
regarding the products and brands they are selling or they intend to sell. Marketing
communications are said to represent “voice of the company” whereas its brands are considered
as the means through which a firm can establish dialogues as well as build relationships with its
customers[ CITATION Pau04 \l 1033 ].

Marketing communication is also believed to perform many functions for its customers.
[ CITATION Pau04 \l 1033 ]They can give the details about the product; teach about the usage of the
product and the advantages of the product. Consumers can also know about the brand of the
company and which company is manufacturing the product. Marketing communication is helpful
for the companies in linking their brands with that of other people, places, things, experiences
and feelings. Through marketing communication companies can create a brand image, inculcate
brand loyalty among its customers which can further be helpful in deriving sales and
shareholder’s value for the company.

[ CITATION Phi09 \l 1033 ]In this developing trend of marketing communication environment,
although advertising is considered as the central element of every communication program, it is
not considered most important in building brand equity and deriving revenues for the company.
The marketing mix for every product in every organization can provide the option of 8 modes for
connecting with its customers.
 Research Methodology

The research methodology can be made in two forms

 Primary research
 Secondary research
Primary research

Research in which the information collected from natural observation, like experiments, case
studies etc.

Secondary research:

The information which are already collected and used in research is known to be secondary
research. The information which already taken by others .This information are mainly taken for
clarification and analysis. If you want to find the strategy of an organization the annual report
has to be taken. So in such cases the annual report which was already taken is known as the
secondary research.

Exploratory research will be used to gather data and for this purpose questionnaire will be
designed and the responses will be analyzed. Sample size will be 20-30

Data collection and Data recording:

Initial step involved in conducting a survey is to design a Questionnaire, once the survey is
carried out then the conclusion is drawn based on the analysis of the data. Primary data is
collected by various ways by interacting with the employees, asking them the reason why they
want to leave, also asking them about the problems they are facing. For this dissertation research
both kinds of data are needed that is primary as well as secondary, primary data can be collected
by direct interaction with the employees,
The main source to collect secondary data is through news paper, magazines, records and
documents available with company, journals and through company’s website.

Once the collection is complete of both the primary as well as the secondary data, then the main
part is to do the analysis of the collected information, analysis actually helps in identifying the
changes to be done in the present system in order to resolve the problem and make the
recommendations.

Data Analysis

The study of evidence will need the use of qualitative method of case study to take action on
research questions. After assortment of information analysis commences using case study and to
be able to gain an in depth study of this research there will be triangulation. The triangulation
will entail using an element of quantitative; statistical data to aid the qualitative case study.

And with a case study, the result of the interviews granted will be compare with other company
that use advertising and sales promotion in consumer buying behaviour.

MBA Dissertation

Key Activities Time-scale Resources required

 (Milestones) (Plan of (Equipment, software, personnel
action) etc)

Selecting a research topic 1 week Books, Journals, articles, News

Papers

Books, Journals, articles, News

Preparing Research Proposal 1 week Papers

Identifying and collecting relevant 1 week Relevant books and online

literature information based on apple
projects

Doing a literature review 5 weeks Relevant books and online

information based on apple
projects

Selecting and adapting a Research 2 weeks Books based on Research methods

methodology and methodology

Presentation of results 1 week Books based on Research methods

and methodology

Interpretation and analysis of data 1 week Books based on Data analysis

Report writing 1 week MS WORD

Formatting and proof reading 4 days MS WORD

Binding and submission 3 days

Total 15 weeks

References:

 Brannen, W. H. (1993). Advertising and sales promotion: cost-effective techniques for

your small business. Prantice Hall.
 Copley, P. (2004). Marketing Communications Management. Ellevier Butterworth.

 Keller, P. K. (2009). Marketing Management. Prantice Hall.

 Kotler, P. (2000) Marketing Management, 10th edition, London, Prentice Hall.

 Alvarado, U. &. (2001). Industrial Marketing Management. In U. &. Alvarado, Supply

Chain Management: The integration of logistics in Marketing (pp. 183-198).