Element Of The Marketing Mix Essay Assignment Help
Promotion Mix
Marketing promotion is the last element of the marketing mix. It creates time utility because it informs
consumers where the product is available for purchase. Promotion also builds the image of the brand.
Marketing promotion involves all activities that communicate the �rm’s image and products to the
public. These goals are accomplished by using the following elements:
Advertising
Public relations
Sales promotion
Personal selling
Direct marketing
Interactive marketing
The �rst two components, advertising and public relations, are often grouped under the term mass
communication, because both use mass media to communicate to the organization’s target market.
Sales promotion increases the sales of the �rm’s products. The �rm accomplishes this by increasing
product’s exposure to the public and its desirability in the minds of the consumers. The four most
common sales promotion techniques are sales, contests, coupons, and cause marketing. These
techniques are integrated into a sales promotion strategy. Performance is measured by the increase in
sales resulting from the promotional efforts.
Other elements of the Promotional Mix include:
Personal selling : is used for infrequently purchased goods. Consumers are familiar with personal
selling from buying cars or real estate.
Direct marketing : is used as a strategy to reach a �rm’s target market directly through the mail or
telemarketing. Since this kind of marketing reaches consumers without any intermediary media, it’s
possible to reach and interact with individual consumers.
Interactive marketing : is the newest component of the promotion mix. It describes promotional
techniques that make use of the Internet to reach the target markets.
The key to interactive marketing is the use of Web sites to provide in-depth information on the brand,
its attributes, and the nearest retail outlets where the consumer will be able to purchase the products.
Imagine that you are the director of a chain of fast-food restaurants. Your company is planning to
launch a new sandwich in the market. While developing the communications mix to promote the new sandwich, you consider the six major questions of the communications mix one by one.
- To Whom to Say It? The �rst question you need to answer is, to whom should we say it? Here, you
need to identify the target market that uses your product or that you want should use your product. If
it is a health food type of sandwich, it could be geared toward women or active people. If it is a large
sandwich with extras such as cheese and bacon, it could be geared toward men, like Wendy’s did in its
Baconator hamburger sandwich promotion.
- Why to Say It? The second question you need to answer is, why should we say it? You need to
analyze prior users and nonusers. You need a marketing strategy to persuade prior users to use your product again, and you need to focus on new users to make them interested in your product. So you
must provide information that not only informs the potential consumers but also creates interest. You
need to explain to the target market why it would want to buy this sandwich. In this case, you could
communicate the taste and quality of the sandwich and even the price points in order to attract
interest.
- What to Say? The third question you need to consider is, what should we say? The process of selecting the methods of achieving your strategic objective is important because, in most cases, you
get one opportunity to create interest in your product or service. Re�ning your message that relates to
the consumer is the key. You need to formulate a message or campaign that would draw interest to the
sandwich promotion. One common technique is to offer the sandwich for a limited time in order to
draw immediate interest in purchasing the sandwich.
- How to Say It? The fourth question you need to consider is, how should we say it? Here, you need to
consider the advertising strategy by which you will make your product appealing to customers. You must develop methods that create a relationship between the product and the consumer’s lifestyle.
You need to decide the form of media you will use on the basis of your target market. If you are
marketing the new sandwich to a younger audience, you might use television or popular radio. If you
are targeting adults, you might display your message in print media. You need to understand what
forms of communication each target market uses in order to get your message across.
- How Often to Say It? The �fth question you need to consider is, how often should we say it? Here, you need to decide how often you would like your customers to view your advertising strategy so as to
build awareness among them about the product. This decision is both a consumer-driven and a budget-
driven decision. You should create interest and keep the product fresh in the consumers’ minds
without overexposing it and therefore having the consumers lose interest in it.
- Where to Say It? The sixth and last question to ask is, where should we say it? Here, you need to
select the media that would most likely reach the target market most effectively and ef�ciently. This is a challenge in marketing because there are many different media outlets. You must choose the forms
of media that best match your target market. To target young adults with your sandwich campaign, you
might try using Internet pop-up ads or text messaging, which are forms of media and communication
highly used by young adults.
Additional Materials
View a Pdf Transcript of Promotion Mix
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