Promotion Mix in Marketing: Meaning, Components

What is Promotion Mix?

Promotion mix refers to marketing communications that may comprise elements such as advertising, public relations, direct marketing, sales promotion, exhibition, and sponsorship. The promotion mix decision pertains to the selection of the most appropriate mix of the aforementioned tools of promotion.

Promotion Mix
What is Promotion Mix?

By these means, the target audience is made aware of the existence of the product and the benefits that it confers to customers. The type of promotional tool used has to gel with other elements of the marketing mix. An expensive product with a limited number of customers should be promoted through personal contact between buyers and salespersons.

Advertising in the mass media would be wasteful as the numbers of customers are far too small and it would be ineffective as the customer will not make a decision to buy an expensive product based on little information provided in an advertisement.

Promotion shapes the expectations of customers about the product, when used in the right manner it can certainly raise the expectations of customers and drive sales. However, the company should avoid making false promises in the name of promotion.

Read Also: What is Marketing Mix?

A marketing Mix is a particular combination of the product, its price, the methods to promote it, and the ways to make the product available to the customer. Based upon its understanding of customers, a company develops its marketing mix of product, place, price, and promotion.

Components of Promotion Mix in Marketing

Promotion refers to the process of informing and persuading consumers to buy a certain product. By using this process, marketers convey persuasive messages and information to their potential customers. The main objective of promotion is to seek buyers’ attention towards the product with a view to:

  • Arouse his interest in the product.
  • Inform him about its availability.
  • Inform him of how is it different from others.

Following are the components of promotion mix in marketing:

  1. Advertising
  2. Publicity
  3. Personal Selling
  4. Sales Promotion
Components of Promotion Mix in Marketing
Components of Promotion Mix in Marketing

Advertising

Advertising is the most commonly used tool for informing the present and prospective consumers about the product, its quality, features, availability, etc. It is a paid form of non-personal communication through different media about a product, idea, service, or organization by an identified sponsor.

Advertising can be done through print media like newspapers, magazines, billboards, electronic media like radio, television, etc. It is a very flexible and comparatively low-cost tool for promotion.

Publicity

Publicity: This is a non-paid process of generating a wide range of communication to contribute a favorable attitude towards the product and the organization. You may have seen articles in newspapers about an organization, its products, and its policies.

The other tools of publicity are press conferences, publications,s and news in the electronic media, etc. It is published or broadcast without charging any money from the firm. Marketers often spend a lot of time and effort in getting news items placed in the media to create of a favorable image of the company and its products.

Personal Selling

Personal Selling: You must have come across representatives of different companies knocking at your door and persuading you to buy their product. It is a direct presentation of the product to the consumers or prospective buyers.

Read Also  Strategic Planning Process

Personal selling refers to the use of salespersons to persuade buyers to act favorably and buy the product. It is the most effective promotional tool in the case of industrial goods.

Sales Promotion

Sales promotion refers to short-term and temporary incentives to purchase or induce trials of new goods. The tool includes contests, games, gifts, trade shows, discounts, etc. Sales promotional activities are often carried out at retail levels.


FAQ Related to Promotion Mix in Marketing

What are the components of promotion mix?

Following are the components of promotion mix in marketing:
1. Advertising
2. Publicity
3. Personal Selling
4. Sales Promotion.

What do you mean by promotion mix in marketing?

Marketers need to communicate with consumers. Promotion is the means by which marketers “talk to” existing customers and potential buyers. Promotion may convey a message about the organization, a product, or some other element of the marketing mix, such as the new low price being offered during a sale period. Simply put, promotion is a marketing communication.