The 4 Basic Components of Retailers’ Promotion Mix

The four basic components of a retailer’s promotion mix are advertising, sales
promotion, publicity, and personal selling. In essence, these are the way in which
retailers promote their products to achieve their business objectives.
Take for example Nike’s advertising campaigns that have been executed to
attain various business goals such as promoting brand image. Nike attained this by
focusing not on promoting their products, but on their target segments. Shown in their
Find Your Greatness advertisement, they conveyed their support to athletes and other
people whose lifestyles and interests relate to “simply trying something and staying
consistent to what you want to do,” so to speak, while giving uplifting and motivational
messages. This shows that Nike is more than a brand that sells sports apparels, but an
entity that’s part of people’s journey in achieving their goals. This gives Nike a
competitive advantage which influences their short and long term goals.
In the case of Sales Promotion in the Philippines, one prominent brand that
successfully executes this is Shopee. They do this by offering discounted product prices
on the platform, resulting in traffic and high revenue generation.
Publicity, on the other hand, is a non-paid means in promoting the product. Take
for example gadget reviews on Youtube. Not all of such Youtubers associate with
gadget brands such as Samsung and Apple, but nevertheless, the brands and their
products get promoted.
Lastly is personal selling which essentially is a face-to-face interaction with the
consumer with the intention of selling a product.

Short-Term V.S Long-Term Objective

Analyzing the two examples aforementioned, Nike’s objective to promote brand

image can be regarded as a long-term objective, simply because it gives them a
competitive advantage in the long run. Shopee’s advertising strategy on the other
hand, merely promotes that it has a season of discounted price products, thus it does
not necessarily lead to brand loyalty.

Developing a Retailer’s Advertising Campaign

Generally, there are six steps retailers can take to develop an advertising
campaign, namely: selecting advertising objectives, budgeting for the
campaign, designing the message, selecting the media to use, scheduling
media channel, scheduling the advertisements, and evaluating the results.