The Marketing Mix
• Product
• Price
• Place
• Promotion

Promotion
 Communicating the benefit of your product or service to the market
 Overall goal is to stimulate the consumer to make a purchasing decision
 Involves activities such as:
 Sales Promotions (Buy 1 get 1 Free)
 Contests (Roll up the Rim)
 Advertising
 Public Relations

Promotion
• No TEST!
• Next week we will be doing an “ad campaign assignment”
• You will need to chose a school event to advertise for
– Examples: Mustang Day, Baseball games, Rugby games, Soccer Games, Coffee House, etc.
• You will be able to chose your own groups of 4

Promotion
• The most obvious and in our face form of promotion is advertising
• Promotion also includes a variety of areas that are more subtle
– Coupons
– “Deals”
– Newspaper Articles
– Event Marketing

Publicity & Public Relations

Publicity & Public Relations
• Publicity is the media coverage for a business that is not paid for
• Negative publicity
– Hurts sales
– Example: Defective products, social issues (obesity for fast food restaurants)
• Positive Publicity
– Will help the image of your business
– Charity work, brining awareness to social issues, etc.

Publicity & Public Relations
• Firms will often hire public relations companies or individuals to manage the publicity surrounding the company
• The public relations company will:
– Coordinate media relations
– Lobby government
– Prepare Brochures and Annual Reports
– Manage Crises

Publicity & Public Relations

Publicity & Public Relations
• Media Relations
– Prepare press releases
• Print-ready stories about positive things their clients are doing
– May have a press conference
• Media representatives are allowed to ask the company questions
– Often create events that ensure press coverage

Publicity & Public Relations
• Lobbying
– May try and convince public officials to vote certain ways
– May try and encourage public support for issues

Publicity & Public Relations
• Brochures
– Sent to potential customers
• Advertise and emphasize the benefits of the product/service
– Can be very similar to junk mail – but often a much more concentrated effort to give to specific individuals
• Annual Reports
– Prepared using the financials from accounting
– Attempt to convince investors to give their money
– Give facts and figures of the business

Publicity & Public Relations
• Crisis Management
– When things go wrong with a business – the PR representatives will try to control the damage done to the business and brand name
– A couple years ago, we saw one of the biggest PR disasters with the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico

PR Spin
• Providing an interpretation of an event or campaign to persuade public opinion in favor or against a certain organization or public figure.
• Sometimes a company’s spin on a story can be blatantly dishonest, which contributes further to negative PR
• However, the business may just be telling their side of things and letting the public decide for themselves

PR SPIN ACTIVITY
• You are to form a group of 2 (or work by yourself)
• You will be given a PR disaster from 2012 and you must work as a public relations manager to put a positive “spin” on the story.
• How do you get the public to forgive your business?