A study to investigate how promotional techniques influence consumer buying decisions in the context of two contrasting events: “Love Saves the Day” and “Bristol International Balloon Fiesta”.

Abstract

Promotion is the voice of any company or event sending out a brand message loud and clear to its audience (Mishra, 2015). Successful events need to incorporate promotional activities into their practice ensuring their consumers are updated. To create successful promotion, the marketing department must identify their target market. In doing so, this will guarantee that the promotion is reached by a wide proportion of attendees making the promotion worthwhile. The quality of promotion reflects either positively or negatively on the overall event, illustrating how crucial it is for promotion to be done properly. This study aims to investigate how promotional techniques influence consumer buying decisions in the context of two contrasting events; “Love Saves the Day” and “Bristol International Balloon Fiesta”. Primary research has been conducted in the forms of focus groups and semi-structured interviews. Qualitative research was chosen due to being more effective to the study. The participants varied from around the UK enabling the researcher to access a wide array of opinions. Secondary research was used to give the reader an understanding of the current promotional activities for these two events, and how their consumers communicate with them. Throughout the results, analysis and discussion chapter of this study an abundance of themes occurred creating controversy and confirmation of the literature review. It became apparent that the strongest form of promotion was through the use of social media. A high percentage of the participants agreed they would pay attention to social media posts rather than printed media. The study focuses on market segmentation and the importance of event managers recognising the segments. The researcher indicates that both events have different ways in which they could promote more sufficiently to achieve greater outcomes increasing their brand reputation. This is portrayed within the conclusion and recommendations sector at the end of the study. Conclusively, this study investigates how both events use promotional activities to persuade consumers to purchase their tickets. The study establishes truthful opinions from guests on whether the promotion is successful or needs updating to encourage sales and interest.