PROMOTION MIX
In our daily life we
all are exposed to various tools of promotion aiming at communicating one thing
or the other to us. To illustrate, while at home welcome across advertisements
when reading a newspaper, watching TV, listening to radio or even examining the
water, electricity or telephone, bills. On our way to the office similar
communications face us on bus panels, roadside hoardings, neon sighs, posters
and banners etc. And, while at a retail shop these take the shape of traffic
builders, product displays, streamers, hangers, bins etc., all sharing
information relating to a specific product of a company.
Listed above are just
a few types of the various promotion tools available to a marketer. Before
proceeding further, let us take a look at the definitions of the four major
methods of promotion. These are: advertising, personal selling, sales
promotion and publicity. The committee on Definitions of the American
Marketing Association defined these components as under:
Advertising: Any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of
ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor. It includes the use of such
media as magazines, newspapers, outdoor posters, direct mail novelties, radio,
television, bus posters, catalogues, directories, programmes, circulars and
very recently online ads and social media ads.
Personal
selling: Oral presentation in a conversation with
one or more prospective purchasers for the purpose of making sales.
Sales
promotion: Those marketing
activities-other than personal selling, advertising, and publicity-that
stimulate consumer purchasing and dealer effectiveness such as displays, shows
and exhibitions, demonstrations, coupons, contests, and other non-routine
selling efforts. These are usually short-term activities.
Publicity: Non-personal stimulation of demand for a product, service or
business unit by generating commercially significant news about it in published media or
obtaining favourable presentation of it on radio, television or stage. Unlike
advertising, this form of promotion is not paid for by the sponsor.
