Promotion

Promotion is a term used frequently in marketing and is

one of the elements of marketing mix. It refers to raising customer
awareness of a product or brand, generating sales and creating
brand loyalty. It involves an entire set of activities that communicate
about the product, brand Promotion is a term used frequently in
marketing and is one of the or service to the user.

The basic idea behind promotion is to make people aware, attract

and induce to buy the product, in preference over other similar
products available in the market. The promotion tool of marketing
mix comprises communication tactics used by the marketers to
educate consumers, increase demand and differentiate brands.
Promotion aims at keeping the product in the minds of the
customers and helps stimulate demand for the product.

Promotion is the process of marketing communication involving

information, persuasion and influence. Promotion has been defined
as “Coordinated Self-initiated efforts to establish channels of
information and persuasion to facilitate or foster the sale of goods or
services or the acceptance of ideas or points of view.” Thus
promotion is persuasive communication to inform potential
customers of the existence of products, to persuade them that those
products have want satisfying capabilities.
Objectives of promotion
1. To create product and brand awareness
Several sales promotion techniques are highly effective in
exposing customers to products and brands for the first
time and can serve as key promotional components in the
early stages of new product and brand introduction. This
awareness is the basis for all other future promotional
activities. Promotional activities motivate the customers
to try new products and brand and the dealers also to
push the new products and brands.

2. To create interest
Sales promotions are very effective in creating interest in
a product. In fact, creating interest is often
considered the most important use of sales promotion. In
the retail industry an appealing sales promotion can
significantly create customer interest.

3. To provide information
Promotional activities provide substantial
information about the product to the customers.
This goes a long way in converting interest into
actual sales.
4. To stimulate demand
Effective promotional activities can
stimulate demand for the product by
convincing the customers to buy the
products.

5. To reinforce the Brand

Promotion can be used to reinforce or
strengthen the brand in the minds of
the customers. This will ensure repeat
sales of the product in the long run .

6. To attract new customers

Sales promotion measures also play an
important role in attracting new
customers for an organization. Usually,
new customers are those persons that are
loyal to other brands. Samples, gifts,
prizes, etc. are used to encourage
consumers to try a new brand or shift
their patronage to new dealers.
Importance of Promotion
Interaction:
Promotion secures better communication between agencies
and creates a stronger bond between them and the client
company. By providing a more open flow of information it
empowers the participants in the communication program
to concentrate on the key areas of strategic development,

rather than pursue individual and separate agendas .

Consistency of Message Delivery:

The planning process in a holistic manner if

approached, companies can empower that all
components of the communications program deliver
the same message to the target audience.

Significantly, this demands the adoption of an overall

strategy for the brand, rather than developing
individual strategies for the separate tools of
marketing communications. The avoidance of
potential confusion in the minds of consumers is a
paramount consideration in the development of
effective communications programs.
Client Relationships:

For the agency, it issues the opportunity to play a

significantly more important role in the development
of the communications program and to become a
more effective partner in the relationship.

By participating in the totality of the communications

requirements, rather than having responsibility for
one or more components, the agency can embrace a
more strategic stance. This, in turn, provides
significant power and provides important advantages
over competitors

Corporate Cohesion:
Promotion can be used as a strategic tool in
communicating a company’s corporate image and its
product/service benefits. This has important
consequences both on an internal and an external
level.

As consumers increasingly gravitate towards

companies with whom they feel comfortable, it
becomes important to secure that the overall image
projected by the organisation is favourably received.
 Promotion Mix
The Promotion Mix refers to the blend of several
promotional tools used by the business to create,
maintain and increase the demand for goods and
services.

The fourth element of the 4 P’s of Marketing Mix is

the promotion; that focuses on creating the
awareness and persuading the customers to
initiate the purchase. The several tools that
facilitate the promotion objective of a firm are
collectively known as the Promotion Mix.

The Promotion Mix is the integration of

Advertising, Personal Selling, Sales Promotion,
Public Relations and Direct Marketing

Elements of Promotion Mix

1. Advertising: The advertising is any paid form of
non-personal presentation and promotion of goods
and services by the identified sponsor in the
exchange of a fee. Through advertising, the
marketer tries to build a pull strategy; wherein the
customer is instigated to try the product at least
 once.The complete information along with the
attractive graphics of the product or service can be
shown to the customers that grab their attention
and influences the purchase decision.
2. Personal Selling: This is one of the traditional
forms of promotional tool wherein the salesman
interacts with the customer directly by visiting
them. It is a face to face interaction between the
company representative and the customer with the
objective to influence the customer to purchase
the product or services.
3. Sales Promotion: The sales promotion is the
short term incentives given to the customers to
have an increased sale for a given
period.Generally, the sales promotion schemes
are floated in the market at the time of festivals or
the end of the season. Discounts, Coupons,
Payback offers, Freebies, etc. are some of the
sales promotion schemes.With the sales
promotion, the company focuses on the increased
short-term profits, by attracting both the existing
and the new customers.
4. Public Relations: The marketers try to build a
favourable image in the market by creating
relations with the general public. The companies
carry out several public relations campaigns with
the objective to have a support of all the people
associated with it either directly or indirectly.The
 public comprises of the customers, employees,
suppliers, distributors, shareholders, government
and the society as a whole. The publicity is one of
the form of public relations that the company may
use with the intention to bring newsworthy
information to the public.
E.g. Large Corporates such as Dabur, L&T, Tata
Consultancy, Bharti Enterprises, Services, Unitech
and PSU’s such as Indian Oil, GAIL, and NTPC
have joined hands with Government to clean up
their surroundings, build toilets and support the
swachh Bharat Mission.

5. Direct Marketing: With the intent of technology,

companies reach customers directly without any
intermediaries or any paid medium.The e-mails,
text messages, Fax, are some of the tools of direct
marketing. The companies can send emails and
messages to the customers if they need to be
informed about the new offerings or the sales
promotion schemes.
E.g. The Shopperstop send SMS to its members
informing about the season end sales and extra
benefits to the golden card holders.
 Advertising
Advertising is the action of calling public
attention to an offering through paid
announcements by an identified sponsor.

According to Kotler –
Advertising is any paid form of non-
personal presentation & promotion of
ideas, goods, or services by an identified
sponsor.

An advertisement, otherwise known as an

advert or ad, is generally considered a
public communication that promotes a
product, service, brand or event. To some
the definition can be even broader than
that, extending to any paid communication
designed to inform or influence.
Characteristics Of Advertising
 Paid Form: Advertising requires the
advertiser (also called sponsor) to pay
to create an advertising message, buy
advertising media slot, and monitor
advertising efforts.
 Tool For Promotion: Advertising is an
element of the promotion mix of an
organization.
 One Way Communication: Advertising
is a one-way communication where
brands communicate to the customers
through different mediums.
 Personal Or Non-Personal: Advertising
can be non-personal as in the case of
TV, radio, or newspaper
advertisements, or highly personal as
in the case of social media and other
cookie-based advertisements.
Types Of Advertising
Advertising activities can be categorised
into above-the-line, below-the-line, and through-
the-line advertising according to their penetration
level.
 Above-the-line advertising includes activities
that are largely non-targeted and have a wide
reach. Examples of above-the-line advertising
are TV, radio, & newspaper advertisements.
 Below-the-line advertising includes
conversion-focused activities which are
directed toward a specific target group.
Examples of below-the-line advertising are
billboards, sponsorships, in-store advertising,
etc.
 Through-the-line advertising includes
activities which involve the use of both ATL &
BTL strategies simultaneously. These are
directed towards brand building and
conversions and make use of targeted
(personalised) advertisement strategies.
Examples of through-the-line advertising are
cookie-based advertising, digital marketing
strategies, etc.
 Advertising activities can also be
categorised into 5 types based on the
advertising medium used. These types
of advertisements are:
 Print advertising: Print ads see ink
printed on paper. Newspapers, magazines,
brochures, posters, flyers and direct mail
are all examples of print advertising.
 Broadcast advertising: In years gone by
the term „broadcast advertising‟ covered
radio and TV, though these days the line
between these formerly analogue channels
and digital streaming services is blurrier
than ever.
 Outdoor advertising: Bus stops,
billboards, blimps, banner planes, other
things that don‟t start with „B‟ – outdoor
advertising treats the whole world as an
advertising stage.
 Product integration: Perhaps the most
subtle form of advertising, product
integration sees products and brands
 included (and implicitly promoted) in film,
TV, Instagram, YouTube and other forms
of media.
 Digital advertising Over the last couple
of decades digital advertising has
overtaken all the other forms listed above.
In fact, it really deserves its own section
 Importance Of Advertising
 Brand awareness: Advertising can make
your target audience aware of your
existence, helping them take the first step
into the sales funnel.
 Brand reputation: Carefully crafted
messages can tell an audience what your
brand stands for and how you work. By
sharing your mission, philosophy, values
and track record, you can use advertising
to build an enviable reputation.
 Corrections and apologies: Advertising
can grant you the opportunity to apologise
for a slip-up or correct the record if you
feel as though something has been
misrepresented.
 Sales: Last but not least, the overwhelming
majority of ads are designed to increase
sales, whether by directly promoting a
specific product, service or deal or by any
of the less direct methods listed above.
Disadvantages Of Advertising
 Increases The Costs: Advertising is an
expense to the business and is added to
the cost of the product. This cost is
eventually borne by the end consumer.
 Confuses The Buyer: Too many
advertisements with similar claims often
confuse the buyer about what to buy and
whether they should buy the product or
not.
 Is Sometimes Misleading: Some
advertisements use smart strategies to
mislead the customers.
 Only For Big Businesses: Advertising is
costly, and only big businesses can afford
it. This puts small businesses out of
competition with big businesses that get
to enjoy a monopoly in the market.
 Encourages The Sale Of Inferior
Products: Effective advertisements even
lead to the sale of inferior products which
aren’t good for the consumers.
Objectives of Advertising

1) Introduce a product

The most common reason Advertising is

used is to introduce a new product in the
market. This can be done by existing
brands as well as new brands. Have a
look at the latest IPhone in the market or a
Samsung smartphone and you will find a
lot of advertisement for these new
products. The objective of advertising
here is to tell customers – “Here is the
new product we have launched”

2) Introduce a brand

There are many startups in the market

today and many of them are services.
Services are generally marketed as a
brand rather than marketing their
individual service product. Thus, Uber will
market its own brand and introduce that
Uber has started servicing customers in a
new market. Same goes for Oracle or
Accenture – Companies which market
their brand and their presence in the
market rather than marketing an individual
product.

3) Awareness creation

The most important job of advertising is to

get attention which is nothing but
Awareness creation. Advertising needs to
capture the attention of people and make
them aware of the products or their
features in the market.

Example – Most of the Bank ads that you

see are awareness campaigns. The ads
that advertise the benefits of savings /
mutual funds or benefits on credit and
debit cards are all awareness creation
ads.
4) Acquiring customers or Brand
switching

One of the major objectives of advertising

and the first objective of many advertising
campaigns is to acquire more customers.
This is also known as making the
customers switch brands. This can
happen by passing on a strong
message so that the potential customer
leaves the brand which he is tied up with
and comes to your brand.

Example – Most telecom companies

launch plans and strategies just to acquire
customers and then advertise these
strategies in the market so that the
customer switches brands. There is hardly
any differentiation in the telecom market –
thus advertising is a major way to acquire
customers. The Vodafone Zoozoo
campaign was just that – Influence the
customers and create passion in such a
way that they do brand switching,
5) Differentiation and value creation

A most important aspect of Advertising is

to differentiate the product or the service
from those of the competitor. A customer
can only differentiate between services
based on the value the firms provides
over that of competitors.

If a competitor is just advertising the

features, whereas your firm advertises the
promises and commitments that it will
keep, naturally more customers will “trust”
your brand over others. This is the reason
that advertising is used commonly to
create value and to differentiate one brand
from another.

Coca cola, Toyota, Amazon are some of

the most trusted brands in the market. It is
no doubt that these brands are also
amongst the top advertisers in their
respective segments. These brands target
value creation as well as differentiation via
their advertising campaigns.

6) Brand building

When a brand regularly advertises and

delivers quality products and fulfills the
promises it makes, automatically the value
of the brand is built. However, there are
many other aspects of brand building.
One of the first ones is to advertise via
ATL and BTL campaigns etc.

Brands have different objectives of

Advertising. Brands like P&G and HUL
regularly invest funds in building a good
brand value for the parent brand. By doing
so, even if one brand is affected, the
parent brand is untouchable.

Recently we observed the problems of

Maggi in India where Maggi was banned
completely due to high lead content.
However, this did not affect the parent
brand Nestle much and neither affected its
other brands like Nescafe which had done
their own brand building and were
independent of the parent brand. This
brand was built by good products and
constant advertising towards building
brand equity and making a connect with
the audience.
Personal Selling
Personal selling is an act of convincing the
prospects to buy a given product or service.
It is the most effective and costly
promotional method. It is effective because
there is face to face conversation between
the buyer and seller and seller can change its
promotional techniques according to the
needs of situation. It is basically the science
and art of understanding human desires and
showing the ways through which these
desires could be fulfilled.

According to American Marketing

Association, “Personal selling is the oral
presentation in a conversation with one or
more prospective purchasers for the purpose
of making sale; it is the ability to persuade
the people to buy goods and services at a
profit to the seller and benefit to the buyer”.
In the word of Professor William J. Stanton,
“Personal selling consists in individual;
personal communication, in contrast to mass
relatively impersonal communication of
advertising; sales promotion and other
promotional tools”.

Personal selling is a different form of

promotion, involving two way face-to-face
communications between the salesmen and
the prospect. The result of such interaction
depends upon how deep each has gone into
one another and reached the height of the
common understanding. Basically the
essence of personal selling is the
interpretation of products and services
benefits and features to the buyer and
persuading the buyer to buy these products
and services.
Personal Selling Process
The process of personal selling includes
prospecting and evaluating, preparing,
approach and presentation, overcoming
objections, closing the sale and a follow up
service.

1. Prospecting and evaluating:

The effort to develop a list of potential

customers is known as prospecting. Sales
people can find potential buyers, names in
company records, customer information
requests from advertisements, telephone and
trade association directories, current and
previous customers, friends, and
newspapers. Prospective buyers
predetermined, by evaluating (1) their
potential interest in the sales person‟s
products and (2) their purchase power.

2. Preparing:
Before approaching the potential buyer, the
sales person should know as much as
possible about the person or company.

3. Approach and presentation:

During the approach, which constitutes the

actual beginning of the communication
process, the sales person explains to the
potential customer the reason for the sales,
possibly mentions how the potential buyer‟s
name was obtained, and gives a preliminary
explanation of what he or she is offering.
The sales presentation is a detailed effort to
bring the buyer‟s needs together with the
product or service the sales person
represents.

4. Overcoming objections:

The primary value of personal selling lies in

the sales person‟s ability to receive and deal
with potential customers‟ objections to
purchasing the product. In a sales
presentation many objections can be dealt
with immediately. These may take more
time, but still may be overcome.

5. Closing the sale:

Many sales people lose sales simply because

they never asked the buyer to buy. At
several times in a presentation the sales
person may to gauge how near the buyer is
to closing.

6. Follow up:

To maintain customer satisfaction, the sales

person should follow up after a sale to be
certain that the product is delivered properly
and the customer is satisfied with the result.
Importance of Personal Selling
The following points explain the importance
of personal selling:
1. Two-Way Communication:
This is the best tool for personal selling.
Salesmen can provide necessary information
to customers about the company's offer, and
also can collect feedback from customers. He
can ask if there are any queries about the
product to the salesman present for personal
selling.
2. Personal Attention:
Advertising and publicity are among mass
communication tools, and thus personal
selling is concentrated and is focused on one
individual, this will result in ineffective
results.
3. Detail Demonstration:
Television demonstrations are limited; thus,
salesmen can provide a detailed demonstration
and can supervise the customer through
personal selling.
4. Complementary to other Promotional
Tools:
Personal selling supports advertising, sales
promotion, and publicity. Personal Selling
even removes the drawbacks of advertising
and its sales promotion.
5. Immediate Feedback:
This is the only market promotion technique
that provides immediate feedback from the
customers.

Advantages of Personal Selling

The Advantages of Personal Selling are as
follows -
 This is a two-way communication where
the selling agent gets instant feedback
from the prospective buyer about their
intention to buy.
 This is an interactive form of selling,
which helps in building trust with the
customer. While selling high-value
products like cars, the customer must trust
 the product and thus personal selling is
needed.
 Personal Selling is a persuasive form of
selling as in this type of sale the customers
come face to face with the salesperson
where it is not easy to dismiss them, there
is an effort of the customer to listen to
them.
 Direct selling helps in reaching the
audience.


Limitations of Personal Selling

 It is an expensive method of selling that
requires high capital costs.
 Also, this method involves many labours
as it is a labour-intensive method as a large
sales force is needed to carry out personal
selling successfully.
 The training of the salesperson for
personal selling is also a very time-
consuming and costly process.
 The method can only reach a limited
number of people, it does not provide mass
advertisements like TV or Radio ads.
Sales promotion
A sales promotion is a marketing
strategy where a business will use
short-term campaigns to spark interest
and create demand for a product,
service or other offers.
Sales promotions are used to motivate
buying behavior or trigger an uptick in
purchases in the short term, in order to
reach a benchmark or goal
Sales promotions are a powerful tool to
rapidly inject sales, attention and
demand into your business. To ensure
they remain effective, they should be
used strategically and with a specific
goal in mind.
Types of sales
promotions

Regardless of the type of business or

industry you’re in, there are a variety of
sales promotion examples and
techniques at your disposal that you
can align with your sales needs:

1. Competitions and giveaways

Customer competitions can be about

getting the most engagement on a
social media post your brand is tagged
in, or a social media challenge that
enters them in a giveaway. This is a
fun way to both create buzz around
your business and reward customers
for being avid supporters and
promoters of your brand.

2. Flash sale or limited-time price

reduction

A flash sale is a sales promotion that

offers a discount, promotion or rebate
that’s only valid for a short period of
time, ranging from just a few hours to a
few days. Flash sales work well to
create a sense of urgency, which can
help nudge consumers to make a
purchase decision.

Even though the buying window is

short, marketers can build interest
ahead of time by sharing exactly when
the flash sale will occur.

3. Bundling of products or services

If you have a product set that has the

potential to create more value as
bundled offerings rather than
standalone items, selling them as a
package for a discounted rate can help
to increase overall sales.

This can be highly incentivizing for

customers that were struggling to
choose between several of your
products or services and a
competitor’s and can now get both (or
many) at a discounted price.
4. Free trial or demo

Free trials are a great way to get a

lead to try out your product or service
with no risk to or commitment from
them. In practice, retailers can offer
free samples at the point of purchase,
and B2B or B2C services might offer a
free trial or demo of their products or
services so that their leads and
potential customers can take the
product for a spin.

To support conversion, consider

pairing the free trial or demo with a
limited-time discount.
5. Limited-time free shipping or
transfer between platforms or
services

Sales promotions that use free

shipping and free returns can help
eliminate one of the obstacles that
cause people to abandon their cart. If
you are a B2B, the final hurdle for
purchase might be your customer’s
resistance to deal with the challenge of
switching providers.

6. Limited-time freebies

If you can’t be flexible on price, you

can still generate a sense of urgency
by creating a limited-time offer for a
free product added to an order.

For example, you could offer an

existing product or service alongside a
free bonus feature or add-on. This
adds perceived value without hurting
your bottom line or constraining your
resources.

7. First purchase coupon

If someone becames connected to

your business in a way other than
making a purchase, such as a free
trial, it might take time for them to
warm up to becoming a paying
customer.
To speed up the process, offer a
discount on their first purchase. In fact,
some brands even offer discounts on
first purchases in their welcome email
as a way to thank their new customer
or lead for joining their community. For
best results, limit the offer to a couple
of days. Even if they don’t use the
coupon, they may browse your
products or services and learn more
about your business.

8. Buy one, get one free

“Buy one, get one free” (also called

BOGOF), or “Buy two and get the third
free” are commonly-used sales
promotion tactics. These campaigns
are useful when you want or need to
sell several products at once.

This type of promotion can also work

to build brand awareness, as your
customer may share the extra items
with a friend or family member.

9. Coupon or voucher code

Coupons are versatile because they

can be delivered in a variety of ways,
such as via your website, social media,
or print materials like on your receipts
or product packaging. Coupons are a
great way to thank current customers
or incentivize first-time customers to
return.
Objectives of Sales
Promotion
The main objective of sales
promotion is to bring about a change
in the demand pattern of products
and services.

a. To introduce new products or

services:
Sales promotion is often used to
motivate prospective consumers to try
new products and services. Dealers are
also induced to introduce new products
and services in the market. Usually, free
samples are provided through dealers
during such introduction. Similarly,
discounts in cash or goods may also be
offered to dealers to stock new products
or deal with new services. Free
samples, trade discounts, cash
discounts are basically sales promotion
measures.
b. To attract new customers:
Sales promotion measures also play an
important role in attracting new
customers for an organisation. Usually,
new customers are those persons that
are won away from other firms.
Samples, gifts, prizes, etc. are used to
encourage consumers to try a new
brand or shift their patronage to new
dealers.
c. To induce existing customers to
buy more:
Sales promotion devices are most often
used to induce the existing customers of
a firm to buy more. Product
development, offering three products at
the cost of two, discount coupons, are
some of the sales promotion devices
used by firms to motivate the existing
buyers to buy more of a specific product.
d. Helps the firm to remain
competitive:
Most of the companies undertake sales
promotion activities in order to remain in
the competitive market. Therefore, in the
modern competitive world no firm can
escape the responsibility of undertaking
sales promotion activities.
e. To increase sales in off-seasons:
Many products like air-coolers, fans,
refrigerators, air-conditioners, cold
drinks, room heaters, etc. have seasonal
demand. Manufacturers and dealers
dealing with such type of goods make
every effort to maintain a stable demand
throughout the year.
In other words, firms try to encourage
the purchase of such goods in off-
seasons also. That is the main reason
behind discounts and off-season price
reductions of such items in the market
during slack seasons.
f. To add to the stock of the dealers:
Dealers like wholesalers and retailers
usually deal with a variety of goods.
Their selling activity becomes easier
when the manufacturer supplements
their efforts by sales promotion
measures. When a product or service is
well supported by sales promotion,
dealers are automatically induced to
have more of such items.