Promotion
– Elements of the promotion mix – advertising, personal selling and relationship marketing, sales promotions, publicity and public relations
Advertising: Paid, non-personal message communicated through a mass medium such as TV, radio, online, print etc. Advertising often aims to build brand image is a more long-term process than sale promotions.
Personal selling and relationship marketing: Sales representative persuades customer directly through depth of knowledge and personal characteristics. The message can be tailored to suit the customer.
Sales promotions: Short term attempt to get customers to buy more of a product e.g. price reduction, cash back, gifts.
Publicity and public relations: Plan to establish goodwill and present the business or productive in a positive light.–made most credible by an outside source e.g. magazine. publicity is any free news story about a business or their product. Public relations involves activities aimed at creating and maintaining a favourable relationship between a business and its customers.
– The communication process – opinion leaders, word of mouth
Opinion leaders: Individuals, who are held in high esteem, are quite influential to the public, as they are seen as trustworthy. For example, sportspeople, experts, celebrity spokesperson.
Word of mouth: people influencing each other through recommendations and in conversation. People tend to trust someone they know more than advertisements.