What is Promotion in the 4Ps of Marketing Mix
Promotion in the 4Ps of marketing mix is the activities that communicate the value of a company’s product to its target and persuade them to purchase it. The promotion mix helps a company to provide product information, emphasize the value, build a company’s image, and promote positive relations to the public.
Promotion of the marketing mix is what people think of when we talk about what is marketing. However, promotion refers to all marketing communication including advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing, personal selling, and public relation.
- Advertising is a paid promotional (to the comminication) channels to communicate about goods and services of the company.
- Sales promotion is a set of tools designed to stimulate quicker and more frequent purchases of a product.
- Direct marketing is a direct communication from the company to an existing customer or a potential customer.
- Personal selling is the two way communication between a salesperson and a customer to influence the customer’s purchase decision.
- Public relations is the communication focused on promoting positive relations of the company to its stakeholders.
In the very beginning, you need to answer these questions to determine which promotion mix is right for your product:
- Where should I advertise?
- How do I want the public to view my product?
- How many customers and potential customers will see it?
- What is the impact of this promotion?
- Is it relevance to the target customer?
- It is relate to the customer interest?
- What is the call to action?
- What will the potential customers do after they seeing advertise or promotional?
Key Points
- Promotion mix in the marketing mix is the activities that communicate the value of a company’s product to its target and persuade them to purchase it.
- Promotion mix elements includes 5 elements of marketing communication: advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing, personal selling, and public relation.
Promotion Mix
The promotion mix is a subset of the marketing mix which include 5 elements of marketing communication: advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing, personal selling, and public relation.
In the past, the 5 promotion mix was processed with little attention on how each promotion mix’s elements coordinate together in the company. This results in each promotion mix sometimes focusing on a different message on the same product.
Today, the company works together to integrate the five elements of the promotion mix into a single message, providing customers with a clear and consistent message about the company’s products. The integration between the 5 elements of the promotion mix is called the “integrated marketing communications”, also known as the IMC.
Advertising
Advertising is a nonpersonal promotional communication that is paid by the company (to an advertiser) to communicate a brand message to the public. Advertising is the promotion mix element that people think of first and it is the most basic promotion mix element that you found easily around you.
Marketers can use these advertising channels to communicate their message:
- Internet advertising includes paid search advertising, paid display advertising (like a banner on websites), YouTube, influencer, and social media advertising.
- Print advertising typically comprises magazines and newspapers.
- Media advertising includes television and radio advertising.
- Outdoor advertising includes sports arenas ads, billboards, ads on the buildings, buses, and cars.
Sales Promotion
Sales promotion is a nonpersonal communication focused on stimulating customers to purchases your products faster, more quantity, and more frequent. Sales promotion typically accounts for most of the company budget for the promotional.
The sales promotion of promotion mix includes the following methods:
- Coupons is a document that entitle the customers who carry them to a discount on a product.
- Rebates allow your customer to regain an amount of money after they make a purchase.
- Samples (or Trials) offer potential customers the chance to try your product like 30-day trial period of Netflix.
- Initial prices allow your customer to buy your product with a reduced price for the first time.
- Loyalty programs allow customers to accumulate points for a benefit.
- Contests are sales promotions in which customers compete against another with skill to win a prize.
- Sweepstakes are sales promotions in which customers has a chance to win a prize.
Direct Marketing
Direct marketing is a communication from the company directly to an existing customer or a potential customer. To put it simply, direct marketing is the opposite version of advertising, instead of mass communication, direct marketing sent messages directly to a potential customer.
Direct marketing of the promotion mix channels includes email marketing, phone call, and SMS campaign.
Personal Selling
Personal selling is the two-way communication between a salesperson and a customer that is paid for by the company to influence the customer to purchase the product.
The advantage of personal selling is the two-way communication between a salesperson and a customer, which means the salesperson can immediately receive feedback from the customer and allows the business to develop a personal relationship with the customer.
Public Relations
Public relations aims at providing information, building a company’s image, and promoting positive relations to the public, which includes: stakeholders, customers, and staff.
The company can use a variety of public relations tools, such as annual reports, blog posts (or social media posts), corporate social responsibility (CSR), interviews, speeches, and public donations,
