Promotion mix is a detailed blend of advertising, personal selling, public relations, direct marketing and sales promotion. Dave Dolak (2008). Promotion mix is utilized by the marketer to meet his or her marketing objectives. When setting up a promotional mix it is important for the marketer to put into consideration both the strengths and the weaknesses of each and every component of the mix. To carry out promotion mix effectively, total budgetary allocation must be well defined in the Business or the marketing plan. This should only aim at maximizing profits on the investments. The various components of the mix must create an integrated approach to the marketing communications. Despite this, success can only be achieved if there are enough resources allocated for each component. This is according to Dave Dolak (2008).
Advertising is an essential component of promotional mix. Advertising is any form of non personal communication of ideas or products in the main media. Advertising is usually carried out using the television, newspapers, and radio and billboard posters. The major aim of advertising is to inform and at the same time influence the public. An advertisement has two aspects that are important; the message content or what the marketing manager want the communication to say. Secondly, is the medium or how one intends to get his message across to the public. (tutor2u, 2008). Advertising has various advantages.
It can reach a wide range of population that is in different locations very fast. The selling company is advantaged as the end consumers believe that advertised products are always more genuine than the others. Advertising further boosts the brand image; this in turn maximizes the short term sales, (Dave Dolak, 2008,). Marketing managers should again be cautious as advertising is impersonal and therefore cannot answer all the questions of the end consumer. It is also not good at influencing the customer’s ultimate purchasing choice.
Personal selling is a component or an element of the promotion mix. Personal selling is very effective when it comes to building on the consumer preferences, convictions and decisions. In personal marketing there is the one on one interaction with the consumer: This allows for a quick response from the consumer and therefore adjustments can be made. Marketing using this tool, the marketing group is able to build a positive relationship through communication with the consumer; thereby gaining the attention of the consumer. (Dave Dolak, 2008 ).
Personal selling is a perfect tool for passing complex message to the consumer which may include comprehensive features of a product or information. Personal selling is very costly. This is so because putting up a sales team has many concealed costs that come in form of increment on the wages. If the number of important customers is enormous this approach then becomes ineffective and non responsive.
Sales promotion is another element of the promotion mix. This tool targets the end consumer or sometimes the trade. Sales promotion employs use of a variety of designs when marketing. For instance, contests or competitions, coupons and premiums are used to market a product. As compared to personal selling the sales promotion seems to be more effective. There are various benefits associated with the sales promotion. First, it attracts attention and offers strong purchase incentives; when sales are on a downward trend the sales promotion can be effective as it can boost the sales. From sales promotion the marketing manager can get a quick response from the end consumer on the ground.
Although sales promotion is effective in the short term it is not effective in the long term. This is so because overdoing the sales promotion might lead to customers getting used to the product; in long term therefore, this might destroy the image of the brand.(tutor2u 2008 ). Public relation is very vital in marketing. It entails using the media to sell information on a product indirectly without paying for the space and time provided in the media. It is very effective and reliable as the information on the brand seems to be coming from a third party. In addition, it is also cheap if the right form of media is used.
To develop a good promotion strategy or campaign, marketing managers have to clearly define their target market. Secondly, they have to be conversant with the customers’ wants. They should also study the habits and way of life of their target consumers so as to find the most effective mode of communicating their products to their target consumers. Advertising strategy for instance is defined as a statement that gives information on Management Resources, the competitive structure, mode of communication to be used in the advertising campaign and target market for the specific brand or even a service. (ICMR Case Studies and Management Resources 2008).
To develop effective promotion strategies the marketing managers have to be very creative themselves. Creativity is very essential in advertising. Other creative strategies include information, argument, emotion, entertainment and image which are very useful in advertising. In a nutshell it can be said that advertisement is aimed boosting earnings of clients. On the other hand sales promotion is a short term strategy that is aimed at increasing the sales of the clients.
Reference.
Dave Dolak. 2008. The Marketing Communications (Promotion) Mix. Web.
tutor2u. 2008. Promotion – Introduction to the Promotional Mix. Web.
Strategic Marketing Management. 2007. Web.