Promotional Mix
Project #4 :: Promo Blitz
Principles of Marketing
Mrs. Schroeder
Purposes of Promotion
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To tell consumers about a company’s goods, services, images, or ideas
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To persuade consumers to buy
What is Promotion?
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Promotion consists of communication activities that inform potential consumers about goods, services, images, or ideas to achieve a desired outcome
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The variety of communication techniques used to give consumers promotional
 messages include:
 Advertising
 Personal selling
 Publicity
 Sales promotion
The combination, or blend, of marketing communication channels that a business uses to send its messages to consumers is known as the
promotional mix
 Example: a local department store may decide that a combination of newspaper advertising, coupons, quarterly catalogs, and local television commercials is the best promotional mix for it to use
 Other businesses will use different combinations of these communication channels in order to communicate best with their customers
 The successful marketer carefully blends the elements of the promotional mix for the best possible results
The Promotional Mix
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Elements of the promotional mix:
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Advertising
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The most visible element of the promotional mix
Defined as any paid form of nonpersonal presentation of ideas, images, goods, or services
Businesses which advertise will have to pay for the opportunity to tell their
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 promotional messages to consumers
The same message will be delivered to many people – not just to one
 Since many people will receive the message, the per contact cost of an advertisement will usually be low
 The actual cost of the advertisement will usually be quite high
Advertising is not limited to goods
 It can be used to promote services
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Bridal consultants
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Dry cleaners
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Dentists
 It can be used to promote images
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Image of company as community conscious
Image that the company is patriotic
Image that the company is environmentally conscious
 It can be used to promote ideas

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Anti-drunk driving campaigns
Giving to the United Way
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Preventing forest fires
Advertising messages can be delivered to consumers through a variety of mass media
 Television
 Radio
 Newspapers
 Magazines
 Direct mail
 Outdoor advertisements
 Directories
 The Internet
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Personal selling
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Defined as form of promotion that determines client needs and wants and responds through planned, personalized communication that influences
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 purchase decisions and enhances future business opportunities
Starts with determining client needs and wants
 Helps salespeople to provide the goods and services that will best satisfy customers
 Helps salespeople to gain repeat business
Is personalized communication
 Involves interaction between client or customer and the salesperson
 Interaction could be face-to-face or by telephone
Can take place between individuals or between an individual and a group
 Example of personal selling between individuals: salesperson giving advice to a customer on how to shop for a suit
 Example of personal selling on a group basis: an insurance agent trying to sell a company’s employees disability insurance coverage
Designed to influence purchase decisions – to make a sale
Should not be a strong-arm tactic or simply an attempt by the salesperson to
“make a buck”
On a per contact basis, is the most expensive form of promotion
Has advantages over advertising which usually makes it worth the cost
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 The immediate feedback received by watching the reactions of a client to a sales presentation allows the salesperson to learn what the individual likes or dislikes about a good, service, or idea
 Flexibility allows the salesperson to tailor the presentation to appeal to the particular audience
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Publicity
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Defined as any nonpersonal presentation of ideas, goods, or services that is not
 paid for by the company or individual which benefits from or is harmed by it
 Like advertising, publicity is nonpersonal; there is no interaction between the consumer and the company or individual when the promotional message is received
 Unlike advertising, publicity is free; the company or individual does not have to pay to have its message delivered to consumers
Many consumers pay close attention to publicity
 Feel that publicity has more credibility because it is not a commercial message
 View publicity as news

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Examples of publicity:
 Favorable news releases about a new product
 The appearance of an author or movie star on a television talk show to promote a new book or movie
 Mention of a company’s charitable activities in print or broadcast media
 A feature article in a newspaper or magazine
 Press conference
Ways in which the Internet can be used as a source of publicity for a business:
 Once a company web site is established, it can be used to obtain and display positive feedback about company products
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Example: Billy Blanks’ Tae-Bo Internet site has message boards filled with testimonials from numerous people who have used Tae-Bo exercise
 videos to lose weight and tone muscles
This unpaid promotion can be very effective since people often decide whether a product will work for them based on how well it worked for others in similar circumstances
 A business’s goods, services, or web site might be mentioned in an Internet newsgroup
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Example: a newsgroup member might post an electronic message recommending the web site, Autobytel.com, to other members who are interested in online car shopping
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Example: a newsgroup member might post an electronic message describing the excellent deal received when booking an airline flight through Expedia.com
 A company might agree to provide a link to another business’s web site in exchange for the same consideration
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Is a “IF you scratch my back, I’ll scratch your” form of publicity
Allows for double the exposure minus the cost
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Sales promotion
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Defined as promotional activities other than advertising, personal selling, and publicity which stimulate customer purchases
Over $90 billion a year are spent on sales promotion activities, including:
 Visual merchandising or displays
 Coupons
 Product demonstrations
 Instant rebates
 Free samples
 Fashion shows
 Contests
 Novelty items
 Trade shows
 Exhibits
Is designed to provide short-term incentives to buyers in exchange for immediate purchases
Businesses must be careful when using this tactic because they don’t want customers to maintain a “no bonus, no buy” attitude
The Importance
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Promotional mix plays a key role in obtaining and keeping customers
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Promotional mix enables businesses to communicate effectively with consumers
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Promotional mix informs potential consumers about the existence of goods,

services, images, or ideas and persuades them to buy or to have certain opinions
The Ideal Blend
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Marketers try to create the ideal blend of promotional activities for their business
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Must decide which methods will do the best job of reaching potential consumers and which will be best at actually communicating the desired message
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Difficult decisions because it is hard to determine the effectiveness of the different promotional methods
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No magic formula that marketers can use to help design promotional mix
No Element is the Best
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No one promotional element should be considered the best
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A variety of factors affect the selection and use of appropriate promotional mix elements
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Good, service, image, or idea
Product’s target market
Distribution channels
Product’s company
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Factors must be carefully analyzed before marketers decide when and where to invest money in promoting the sale of their goods, services, or ideas
Promotional Mix Selection
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Good, service, image, or idea
 Type of product
 Convenience goods are items, such as bread, toothpaste, and light bulbs, that are purchased frequently and with a minimum of effort
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Personal selling need not be used
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Advertising could be effectively used to promote convenience goods
 Shopping goods are purchased after a customer has made comparisons of competing goods
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Consumer checks prices, styles, colors, and quality of items
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Consumer is actually shopping around for the best buy
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Examples of shopping goods are automobiles
Personal selling and national television advertising are often used to promote them
 Specialty goods are products that have unique characteristics
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Consumers prize those characteristics and make special efforts to obtain them
In the area of consumer sales, customers who purchase very expensive
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 antiques or jewelry spend a great deal of time making their selections
In the area of industrial sales, company decisions to purchase complicated equipment or large computers are not made quickly
A great deal of study is done before the purchase of a specialty good
The image associated with specialty goods determines the type of promotional mix used by businesses
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Example: the producers of prestigious products such as the Rolls
Royce or Lennox china usually don’t use sales promotions. Instead, they rely on personal selling, distinctive advertising, special catalogs, notices, attractive visual displays, and publicity to sell their products

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Product nature
 Products which are highly technical, require demonstration, are expensive, or require installation should be promoted through personal selling
 Inexpensive and self-service products can rely on advertising and sales promotion
Stage of life cycle
 Goods and services develop and mature as do people
 Products go through stages, known as life cycles, of being introduced to the market, growing, maturing, and declining
 Stages of product life cycle
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Introductory
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Introduction of a new product on the market
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Promotional efforts inform consumers about the existence of a new product
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Growth
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Competing products appear on the market
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Promotional activities focus on pointing out differences between competing products
Advertising is expensive
Maturity
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Product is well established on the market
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Promotion is used to remind customers of the benefits of products
Declining
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Newer products are entering the market, taking the place of existing ones
Companies may slow or stop production of existing products
 As a good or service moves through its life cycle, its promotional mix needs vary
 It’s important to use promotional methods that are appropriate for the current life cycle stage of the product or service
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Product’s target market
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This is the particular group of customers a business seeks to attract
Variety of factors related to the product’s target market affects the selection of promotional mix
 Type of consumer
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If a product is used primarily by a personal consumer market, the promotional mix could emphasize advertising, sales promotion, and
 publicity
If the product is used primarily by industrial consumers, personal selling must be emphasized
 Number of consumers
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If a product has few consumers, it can be effectively promoted through the use of personal selling
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If there are many consumers for a product, advertising and sales promotion can be used to communicate with those consumers
 Geographical location
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If the consumers are located close together, a product can be promoted through personal selling
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If consumers are spread over a wide area, advertising and sales promotion would probably be emphasized
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Distribution channel
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All products move from their producers to consumers through paths, or

 channels
Promotional mix selection is affected by the path that a product takes
 If there are many intermediaries, or middlemen, between the manufacturer and the consumer, more personal selling is used
 When the distribution channel is direct from the manufacturer to the consumer, personal selling and advertising can be used effectively together
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Product’s company
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Historical perspective
 Often rely on previous use of promotional methods
 Marketers sometimes feel that what has been successful for them in the past will continue to work
 May be true; however, there may be other more successful promotional mixes which the companies should consider or try
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Available funds
 Key factor in the selection of promotional mix
 Businesses which allocate small amounts of money for promotion tend to rely on personal selling
 Businesses which allocate large sums of money for promotion can effectively use advertising
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Example: Wal-Mart, one of the largest department stores in the U.S., started as one small store in Arkansas. In Wal-Mart’s early years, local newspaper advertising and personal selling were all that the small company could afford. Today, the Wal-Mart corporation has increased its promotional mix to include television, radio, newspapers, special sales bulletins, and a Wal-Mart web site in order to promote its national network
Competition
 Results in similar promotional mixes
 Will have the same or similar effects on businesses within the same industry
 Competing businesses also tend to follow the leader
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Examples:
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When one automobile tire company has a tent sale of low-priced tires, you can expect competitors to have similar promotions
If one restaurant promotion offers free meals for small children, other restaurants will probably adopt the same policy in order to avoid losing patrons to the competition