Promotion and Promotion Mix

Promotion

Promotions are decisions about advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, and publicity used to attract potential customers. Companies use promotion to inform people about their products and services and also to enhance their public image and reputation.

There are two methods of promotion:

Product promotion: promotion method businesses use to convince consumers to select its products or services.

Institutional promotion: promotion method used to create a favorable image for a business, help it advocate for change, or take a stand on trade or community issues.

Promotional Mix Concept

To reach its promotional goals, an organization develops an effective promotional mix which is a combination of strategies and a cost-effective allocation of resources.

The strategies in the mix are designed to complement one another. 

In large companies, the marketing department has many roles. It determines the promotional mix, establishes the budget, allocates resources, coordinates the campaign, supervises any outside resources, and measures the results. 

Manufacturers often develop a promotional mix for each segment of the distribution channel. To promote a product to large retailers that sell its products, a manufacturer might want to use a mix of personal selling, advertising, and buying discounts. This is known as the push policy. (The manufacturer pushes the product to the retailer.) The same manufacturer might use a different promotional mix of local and national advertising, in-store displays, sales promotion, and public relations to reach consumers. The pull policy directs promotions towards the consumers. It is used to create customer interest and demand. 

1. Personal Selling

Basically personal selling is one-to-one communication between seller and prospective purchaser. It generates direct contact with prospects and customers. It is one of the most expensive forms of promotion.

Examples: personal meetings, telemarketing, e-mails, and correspondence

2. Advertising

Advertising is a form of nonpersonal promotion. It is when companies pay to promote ideas, goods, or services in a variety of media outlets. It can be found everywhere. With advertising, a company engages in a one-way communication to the prospect or customer.

Examples: magazines, newspapers, television, websites, city buses, etc.

3. Direct Marketing

Direct marketing is a type of advertising directed to a targeted group of prospects and customers rather than to a mass audience. Two forms of direct marketing are printed by mail, or direct by e-mail. The goals of direct marketing are to generate sales or leads for sales representatives to pursue. Direct marketing allows a business to engage in one-way communication with is customers about product announcements, special promotions, bulletins, customer inquiries, and order confirmations.

Examples: direct mail, e-mail

 4. Sales Promotion

Sales promotion basically represents all marketing activities other than personal selling, advertising, and public relations. Sales promotions are used to stimulate purchasing and sales and the objectives are to increase sales, inform potential customers about new products, and create a positive business or corporate image.

Examples: coupons, product samples, point-of-purchase displays

5. Public Relations

Public relations activities enable an organization to influence a target audience. Most of the time, public relation campaigns try to create a favorable image for a company, its products, or its policies. Companies give news releases to announce newsworthy developments about a company's products or services, distribution channels, facilities, operations, partners, revenues and earnings, employees, and events.Publicity is one tactic that public relations professionals use. This means bringing newsworthy information to the public.

Examples: a campaign to encourage businesses to donate computers to schools, donating to hospitals, donating to a cause