Question

Crowdfunding is not only a profitable and beneficial way of generating funds for the company but can also be a useful promotion tool. What role do you think crowdfunding has played in the promotion of Amazfit – X. How does this approach relate to the promotion mix you studied in this course?

Answer 1

Gatekeepers used to be everywhere.

Very few people could start a business, publish a book, release a record, or broadcast their opinion without someone else’s financial backing.

Unless you had a particularly wealthy and supportive relative, you would have to try your luck at the bank or in countless soul-crushing meetings with the investors. And even then, you’d lose large portions of equity or be crippled by high-interest rates.

Thankfully, today there’s another way.

Crowdfunding is the process of funding a venture or project by raising small amounts of money from a large number of people.

Crowdfunding for startups is a common practice, and it’s also often used by inventors, entrepreneurs, musicians, filmmakers, artists, and charities.

It began in 1997 when British rock band Marillion challenged the status quo.

Lacking the money to finance their U.S. tour, the band raised $60,000 from fans – and in the process, created the blueprint for today’s crowdfunding sites. That’s when the gatekeepers started to lose their stranglehold.

With so few business models you can start without capital, crowdfunding brought opportunity and democracy to funding. Then crowdfunding went mainstream, and online crowdfunding platforms flourished. Suddenly, entrepreneurs and artists could simply ask their fans and customers to fund their new ventures.

Today, most crowdfunding is conducted through crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter or Kiva. Crowdfunders will create a page on one of these sites, where they’ll pitch their project or venture to potential backers.

Then, they’ll attempt to drive traffic to this page using marketing tactics like PR, pay-per-click advertising, and social media marketing.

Role crowdfunding has played in the promotion of Amazfit – X: -

Amazfit X and ZenBuds have been extremely popular on Indiegogo, collectively raising over $3M. The results have been surprising to the team. The campaigns significantly surpassed our internal goals. The team is working extra hours to make sure we can deliver on time. We’re going to ship in batches instead of all at once.

Crowdfunding is a good way to build brand awareness. We have used it to get press coverage and find influencers. Our campaigns have let us show a new audience that our wearables are good for health.

Their campaigns have also indicated interest in these innovative new devices, and the team has found the response exhilarating. The campaigns have shown demand.

Promotion mix

In marketing, the promotional mix describe a blend of promotional variables chosen by marketers to help a firm reach its goals. It is believed that there is an optimal way of allocating budgets for the different elements within the promotional mix to achieve best marketing results, and the challenge for marketers is to find the right mix of them. Activities identified as elements of the promotional mix vary, but typically include the following: -

• Advertising
• Personal selling
• Sales Promotion
• Public relations
• Direct Marketing
• Corporate image campaigns have been considered as part of the promotional mix.
• Sponsorship of an event or contest or race is a way to generate further positive publicity.
• Digital marketing

This approach does relate to the promotion mix we studied in this course.

As, promotional mix talks about where to put money as their are so many mediums and allocation of budget amongst the mediums so that it reaches to large number of people.

However, Crowdfunding is receiving money from large number of people who are layman.

Crowdfunding is the preceeding event and promotional mix is the subsequent event and both the events must be successful to achieve the goal.