Promotional Mix Notes

Promotional Mix

What is Promotion?

  • Any form of communication a business or organization uses to inform, persuade, or remind people about its products.

Aim of Promotion

  • To inform potential customers about the product.
  • To persuade them to buy it.
  • To increase market share/sales.
  • To improve brand image.
  • To compete with competitor’s products.

The Promotional Mix

  • A combination of the different types of promotion.

Four Basic Types of Promotion

  • Personal selling
  • Advertising
  • Sales promotion
  • Public relations

Personal Selling

  • This type of promotion requires contact with potential buyers.
  • The salesperson acts on behalf of the organization.
  • They tend to be well trained in the approaches and techniques of personal selling.

Public Relations

  • Any activity designed to create a favorable image toward a business, its products, or its policies.

Publicity

  • A specific kind of public relations that involves placing positive and newsworthy information about a business, its products, or its policies in the media.
Publicity Disadvantage
  • Its contents cannot be controlled by the business.
Publicity Advantage
  • It is free!
Principal function of publicity
  • Building an image.

Advertising

  • Any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor.
What makes a good advertising campaign?
  • Eye-catching design
  • Catchy slogan
  • Humor
Examples of Advertising Media
  • Radio
  • Billboard
  • Television
  • Newspaper
  • Internet
  • Leaflet
  • Magazine

Sales Promotion

  • All marketing activities, other than personal selling, advertising, and public relations that encourage consumers to purchase the product.
Sales Promotion Examples
  • Buy now, pay later
  • Temporary price reduction
  • Running a competition
  • Free gift with purchase
  • Free sample
  • Testers
  • Loyalty cards etc.
Sales Promotion Advantages
  • Help beat competition and generate more sales.
  • Increases market share.
Sales Promotion Disadvantages
  • Decrease profitability, not sustainable in the long run.

What do they do?

  • Advertising – Creates awareness of a business’s product.
  • Public Relations – Creates a favorable image for the business itself.
  • Sales Promotion – Efforts stimulate sales.
  • Personal Selling – Builds on all of the other efforts by helping customers complete the sale.

Modern/Alternative Strategies

  • Innovative ways of communicating with potential customers and persuading them to buy their products
  • Social Media
  • Guerrilla Marketing
  • Stealth marketing/product placement
  • Relationship Marketing