Final answer:
The true statement about sales promotion programs is that they are often targeted not just at consumers, but also at distributors and retailers to motivate them to carry and promote products. Tying sales, which force the purchase of additional, potentially unwanted products, are a separate and controversial practice.
Step-by-step explanation:
The correct statement about sales promotion programs is: Many sales promotion programs are designed to motivate distributors and retailers to carry a product and push it through to their customers. While sales promotions can be targeted at consumers, they are not exclusively so.
Sales promotions can also be aimed at distributors and retailers to ensure that they are motivated to carry products and actively promote them to the end consumers.
This type of sales promotion, which is intended for those in the channel of distribution rather than the final consumer, often takes the form of discounts, allowances, or special incentives given to retailers and distributors.
Tying sales are indeed a type of controversial sales promotion where the customer is required to buy a secondary product in order to purchase the desired primary product.
This practice can be seen as problematic because it takes away consumer choice and can result in the purchase of unwanted or unneeded items. An example of this would be a store requiring the purchase of a specific portable TV model in order to buy a popular DVD, even though these items are only loosely related.