PROMOTION OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS ON LOCAL MARKETS OF THE REGION: ANALYSIS OF THE IMPORTANCE OF THE MAIN COMMUNICATION DIRECTIONS
The article assesses the role of the main communication directions in the promotion of agricultural products to the local markets of the region: advertising, public relations, sales promotion, personal sales, visual presentation of goods. Highlighted their weaknesses and strengths. The results of a survey of leading employees of various types of trade enterprises in the field of promoting agricultural products are presented: retail markets, specialty stores, department stores, supermarkets. Their importance in trade organizations has been determined in terms of their impact on revenue and cost indicators. A direct relationship has been established between the cost indicators for each element of the promotion complex and the financial performance of their application. The specificity of promotion in the context of individual trading formats is revealed. Thus, promotion in retail markets is more focused on the areas of personal sales, visual presentation and sales promotion, and advertising and public relations are not of great importance in them. In supermarkets, promotion focuses on sales promotion and visual presentation, and to a lesser extent it focuses on advertising and public relations. Promotion in department stores and specialty stores for the considered means of promotion is generally balanced with a slight prevalence of advertising and personal sales. The features of the use of elements of the complex for the promotion of agricultural products in the most common types of trade organizations are generalized. Thus, the use of advertising media is largely biased towards department stores and specialty stores. In them, personal sales play a large role in comparison with supermarkets and retail markets. Visual representation is more prevalent in supermarkets and specialty stores, as well as in retail markets, and higher-level public relations are carried out by specialty and department stores.