Ch. 17 - Advertising and Public Relations

CAT INC.'s promotion/advertising doesn't occur much in their Machinery sector but more in their Financial sector. Big businesses/organizations don't usually have promotion sales because their income relies entirely on the sale and pricing of their products, but because CAT INC. isn't confined to one area of business (three sectors) they have more flexibility to use any practices required to keep themselves at the top of their industry.

CAT INC. focuses on two advertising practices; product advertising, and sometimes comparative advertising. Like any other business/organization product advertisement plays a important role. If you were to throw out a new product out of nowhere without describing the purpose of it, then the product would just sit there in the open and rot. CAT INC. rarely practices product advertisement because of their industry standing, however it doesn't mean that they are bad at it, merely that they don't have to rely on it as much as other businesses/organizations. An example of when CAT INC. practiced product advertisement would be the Brazilian quarry market, 2010. I've discussed this before in Ch. 2 - Strategic Planning for Competitive Advantage, but for those who haven't read it here is a recap. In 2010 CAT INC. noticed that they had a lack of sales in the Brazilian quarry market and later found out that it was because they were purchasing Brazilian company trucks which costed half the price of their trucks. CAT INC. then came up with a plan to increase sales in the Brazilian quarry market by demonstrating the capabilities of their trucks backed up with supporting data and so on. They also communicated with the quarry market the benefits of purchasing/using CAT INC. trucks compared to the Brazilian company trucks (CAT Financial sector, etc.). Product advertisement occurred when CAT INC. devised a plan to increase their sales and image in the Brazilian quarry market because they were publicizing/promoting their trucks.  Comparative advertisement was present as well because there was comparison amongst the trucks, Caterpillar and Brazilian.

Competitive advertisement isn't practiced as much in CAT INC. compared to other businesses/organizations because they are at the top of their industry with a great lead amongst their competitors. Like I've discussed in Ch. 6 - Consumer Decision Making, CAT INC. machines are viewed by businesses/organizations as a last resort because of pricing and other factors. The last resort itself is a form competitive advertisement. When someone compares or makes a derogatory statement about a product such as "x is better than this product because of y", or "why am I having this problem with x, I've never had this problem before with y", that is where competitive advertisement exists. This can't be said for every business/organization out there, but this is how it works for CAT INC..

Public relations/product placement is practiced with ease for CAT INC. because of their overwhelming amount of publicity and awards. All CAT INC. has to do in order to increase their public relations/product placement is to attend their award ceremony/party or etc., and just accept said award; simple as that. Most of CAT INC.'s awards are all the same, which is for Superior Quality Excellence Process, but even that alone helps them increase their public relations/product placement because it shows that they're doing something right. Another award that is usually given to CAT INC. is for Green Technology/Practices if I'm correct, and that to helps increase their public relations/product placement because it gives off a good image/feel to others, showing that they're reliable.