Promotion involves communicating with customers to inform, influence, and persuade them to buy a product. The promotional mix includes advertising, sales promotions, personal selling, public relations, direct marketing, and merchandising. The optimal promotional mix depends on the product's life cycle, nature, competition, marketing budget, strategy, and target market. Promotion aims to increase awareness, change attitudes, and encourage purchase. Effectiveness is measured by whether objectives are achieved, while efficiency considers objectives achieved relative to costs.

1. Promotion

2. What this topic is about
• What is promotion?
• Effective methods of
promotion for different
types of product/business
• Factors to consider when
choosing the promotional
mix

3. Promotion = marketing communication
• Communication techniques
aimed at informing,
influencing and persuading
customers to buy or use a
particular
• It involves communication
about the product or service
• Promotion is an element in
the marketing mix

4. The Many Uses of Promotion
• Increase sales • Change attitudes
• Attract new customers • Create an image
• Encourage customer • Position a product
loyalty
• Encourage trial • Encourage brand
switching
• Create awareness
• Inform • To support a
distribution channel
• Remind potential
customers
• Reassure new
customers

5. Main Aims of Promotion
• The main aim of promotion is to ensure
that customers are aware of the existence
and positioning of products
• Promotion is also used to persuade
customers that the product is better than
competing products and to remind
customers about why they may want to
buy

6. Promotional mix
• The specific mix of promotional methods that
a business uses to pursue its marketing
objectives
• The main elements of the mix are:
– Advertising (offline & online)
– Sales promotion & merchandising
– Personal selling
– Public relations/publicity / Sponsorship
– Direct marketing
• The elements must be integrated in a
cohesive, consistent and logical manner

7. Composition of promotional mix depends on:
Stage in the E.g. advertising & PR are often important
product’s life cycle at the launch stage
Nature of the What information do customers require
product before they buy?
Competition What are rivals doing ? What promotional
methods are traditionally effective in a
market?
Marketing budget How much can the firm afford?
Marketing strategy Other elements of the mix
Target market Appropriate ways to reach the target
market

8. Two tests of promotional effort
Was it Did it achieve its objectives?
effective? How was response measured?
Was it Were objectives achieved at the
efficient? acceptable cost?
Were any promotional
overspends justified by better-
than-expected sales?

9. Promotional effectiveness and efficiency
Effective Ineffective
Efficient Objectives achieved Low promotion
at lowest costs budget but objectives
Effective and cost not achieved
efficient
Inefficient Objective achieved Expensive promotion
but at high cost which fails to achieve
objective

10. Advertising
• Paid-for communication
• Many different advertising
media
– TV & radio, newspapers &
magazines, online, cinema,
billboards
• Consumers subjected to many
advertising messages each
day = hard to get through
• Mass market advertising is
very expensive

11. Advertising + / -
Advantages Disadvantages
Wide coverage Often expensive
Control of message Impersonal
Repetition means that One way communication
the message can be Lacks flexibility
communicated
effectively Limited ability to close a
sale
Can be used to build
brand loyalty

12. Personal selling
• Promotion on a person to
person basis
• Two way communications
• Meeting with potential
customers to close a sale
• By telephone, at meetings, in
retail outlets and by knocking
on doors
• Highly priced, low volume and
highly technical products rely
heavily on personal selling

13. Personal selling + / -
Advantages Disadvantages
High customer attention High cost
Message is customised Labour intensive
Interactivity Expensive
Persuasive impact Can only reach a limited
Potential for development of number of customers
relationship
Adaptable
Opportunity to close the sale

14. Sales promotion
• Tactical, point of sale
material or other incentives
designed to stimulate
purchases
• Short term incentives to
increase sales
• Some promotions aimed at
consumers; -others at
intermediaries or sales force

15. Examples of sales promotion
• Coupons • Free gifts
• Money off • Point of sale
• Competitions displays
• Demonstrations • BOGOF
• Free samples • Merchandising
• Loyalty points • Trade in offers

16. Sales Promotion + / -
Advantages Disadvantages
Effective at achieving a quick Sales effect may only be
boost to sales short-term
Encourages customers to Customers may come to
trial a product or switch expect or anticipate further
brands promotions
May damage brand image

17. Merchandising
• The process of maximising
the effectiveness of retail
distribution
• Displaying products to
maximise sales
• Usually operates at the
“point-of-sale”

18. Public relations (“PR”)
Activities that create
goodwill toward an
individual, business,
cause or product

19. Main Aims of PR
• To achieve favourable publicity about the
business
• To build the image and reputation of the
business and its products, particularly
amongst customers
• To communicate effectively with
customers and other stakeholders

20. Typical PR Activities
• Promoting new products
• Enhancing public awareness
• Projecting a business image
• Promote social responsibility
• Projecting business as a good
employer
• Obtain favourable product
reviews / recommendations

21. Sponsorship
• Sponsorship takes place when a
payment for an event, person,
organisation is given in return
some consideration of benefit
• A specialised form of public
relations
• Common in the worlds of arts and
sport
• Sponsorship should benefit both
sides

22. Direct Marketing
Promotional material
directed through mail,
email or telephone to
individual households or
businesses

23. Why Use Direct Marketing?
• Allows a business to generate a specific
response from targeted groups of
customers
• Allows a business to focus on several
marketing objectives:
– increasing sales to existing customers
– building customer loyalty
– re-establishing lapsed customer relationships
– generating new business

24. Direct marketing + / -
Advantages Disadvantages
Focus limited resources on Response rates vary
targeted promotion enormously
Can personalise the marketing Negative image of junk mail
message and email spam
Relatively easy to measure Databases expensive to
response & success maintain and keep accurate
Easy to test different marketing
messages
Cost-effective if customer
database is well managed

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26. Promotion