- Describe and discuss the 4 primary tools in the promotional mix.
The 4 primary tools of the promotional mix are advertising, public relations, sales promotion and personal selling.
Advertising is any form of impersonal paid communication in which the sponsor or company is identified. Advertising consists of traditional media such as television, radio, newspapers, magazines, direct mail, billboards, transit advertising and pay-per-click online advertising. A good example of the use of traditional advertising is the insurance company All State. All state runs a coordinated campaign across all traditional media channels (television, radio, bill boards etc.) with a simple effective message “You are in good hands with All State”
Public relations are an aspect of marketing that functions to evaluate public attitudes, identifies areas about a company in which the public may be concerned, and implement methods to gain public understanding and acceptance. Marketers use public relations not only to maintain a positive image but also to educate the public about the company’s goals and objectives, introduce new products, press relations and crisis management. A good example of the use of Public Relations can be seen in the car industry. At times car companies detect issues with their cars and issue recalls to the public. The company identifies the issue, quickly contacts affected members and fixes the issue at no charge. A bad example of Public relations was the recent Equifax data breach. Equifax detected an issue that affected millions of customers and kept silent about the issue for months and executives even used the crisis to profit themselves by stock sales. Due to their inept handling of the crisis, customer loyalty and trust in the company may be irreparably harmed.
Personal selling is marketing promotion that involves face to face (also phone/internet) interaction between buyer and seller to complete a purchase. Personal selling involves tailored product promotion to a customer to persuade the customer to change his/her perspective about a product. Personal selling comes in two forms, traditional one-shot sales approach and relationship selling whereby involvement between buyer and seller continues overtime.
An example of personal selling is your local car dealership. The dealership not only attempts to sell you a vehicle but also maintenance for the life of the vehicle, trade-in for new purchases and even new/used vehicles for adolescent drivers.
Sales promotions are marketing activities other than advertising, public relations and personal selling. Sales promotions are short-run campaigns that are used to increase demand. Sales promotions include free samples, contests, trade shows, vacation giveaways, and coupons. An example of sale promotion is limited discount offers/end of the year inventory clearing sales to increase customer demand to buy a product that has not experienced much interest.
Compare and contrast these different tools.
Advertising is different from other tools in the promotional mix in that advertising is a one-sided communication. Other promotional tools such as sales promotions or personal selling involves interaction and feedback between the buyer and seller. Advertising is impersonal and provides general information about a product whereas personal selling provides messages specifically catered to the needs of an individual. Advertisements have an advantage over the other promotional tools in that advertisement can reach a large market of people relatively cheaply. Comparably personal selling and sales promotions are short lived and more expensive to reach the same size market as advertising. Advertising has a further advantage over other the other promotional mix tools in that it can be expressed through many more promotional channels such as the newspaper, magazines, television, internet and radio.
Although personal selling does not achieve the reach or frequency that advertisements achieve, personal selling is advantageous in its communication. Personal selling involves direct communication with consumers. Consumers provide feedback about the product and objections to purchasing. In addition to feedback, personal selling is advantageous over the other promotional tools in that it is flexible and adaptable. Advertisements, public relations and sales promotions are not tailored to the specific needs of individual customers.
Different from advertising and personal selling, sales promotion has its distinct advantages over the other promotional tools. Sales promotions have direct impact on the immediate sale, provide incentives to convert from a competing product/service and is very effective at generating attention and demand for the product/service. Finally, sales promotions operate synergistically with other promotional tools to make the other tools more effective.
Public relations are advantageous over the other promotional tools in that it can be used to generate goodwill. Public relations can gather public opinion information about not only about a product/service but also about a company in general. Public relations are also a good means to share information about company policies, events and social projects.