Question

When we talk about promotional mix what exactly do we mean and how does this help us in our marketing process? After reviewing this week’s resources and your research, in your own words how would you explain promotional mix and how it helps in the marketing process? Share one of the elements and apply it to a product you personally use. How would use the element to promote the product for a new market segment and why?

Answer 1

Meaning of Promotional Mix: The Promotional Mix refers to the blend of several promotional tools used by the business to create, maintain and increase the demand for goods and services. The Promotion Mix is the integration of Advertising, Personal Selling, Sales Promotion, Public Relations and Direct Marketing. It can also be defined as a specific combination of promotional methods used for one product or a family of products. Elements of a promotion mix may include print or broadcast advertising, direct marketing, personal selling, point of sale displays, and/or merchandising.

How Promotional Mix helps in Marketing?

The aim of promotion is to increase awareness, create interest, generate sales or create brand loyalty. It is one of the basic elements of the market mix, which includes the four Ps, i.e., product, price, place, and promotion.As part of the marketing mix, promotion includes all activities that involve communicating with the customer about the product and its benefits and features. Once a company has worked on the product and price elements, it is time to start a conversation with the consumer about the product. This includes raising awareness through different mediums to increase sales, as well as to create and foster brand loyalty.

Elements of Promotional Mix

A promotional mix is an allocation of resources among five primary elements:

• Advertising.
• Public relations or publicity.
• Sales promotion.
• Direct marketing.
• Personal selling.

Advertising: Advertising is defined as any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, and services by an identified sponsor. It is a way of mass communication. It is the most popular and widely practiced tool of market promotion. Major part of promotional budget is consumed for advertising alone. Various advertising media – television, radio, newspapers, magazines, outdoor means and so forth – are used for advertising the product.

Application of Advertising:

In one sense, advertising is old-fashioned. It has a long, storied history as a device to sell products. But the way we write and deliver ads today barely resembles the classic print, radio and TV pitches of the past.

Advertising is any paid form of non-personal communication about a company, product, service or idea by an identified sponsor. That means you must buy space or time for an advertised message, although in rare cases you can use public service announcements for which the media covers the cost.

Advertising involves mass media, from TV and radio to the Internet, magazines, newspapers and billboards. Its impersonal nature usually leaves little room for gathering instant feedback from receivers. That's why you must study how your target audience will respond to your message before you send it.