Download Promotional mix can be described as the basic tools

Promotional mix can be described as the basic tools used to accomplish an organization’s
communication objectives. The four elements of the promotional mix are advertising, sales promotion,
publicity/public relations, and personal selling. Each element has its own advantages and is viewed as an
IMC (Integrated Marketing Communication). In order to understand how the four elements are a part of
IMC and how they intertwine with each other, you must first understand the elements individually.
Advertising can be defined as “any paid form of non-personal communication about an organization,
product, service, or idea by an identified sponsor”. When one define the word paid, monetary
involvement is thought of, but in this case it is referring to the actual space or time used for the
advertising to become possible. The non-personal component means that is being advertised via mass
media (ex: television, radio, magazines, etc.) there is no specific person that they are advertising but
instead a group of people at the same time. By expanding their advertising piece they have the
opportunity to appeal to a larger audience and gain their trust and even become loyal to a company or
product (e.g. customer, guest, etc.). It also gives them the opportunity to make a name for themselves
by creating a brand images and make symbolic appeals. There are different types of markets and they
advertise different to appeal to their audience, for instance marketers advertise to the consumer market
and the business/professional market use professional and trade advertisement.
The next element to be discussed is sales promotion. Sales promotion can be described as “marketing
activities that provide extra value or incentive to the sales force, the distributors, or the ultimate
consumer and can stimulate immediate sales”. Usually, sales promotion can be broken into two parts;
consumer-oriented sales promotion and trade-oriented sales promotion. Consumer-oriented sales
promotion is focused around the major consumer of that product and focus on keeping the m loyal
(such as coupon, sampling, rebates, contest, etc.). Trade-oriented sales promotion on the other hand
main focus is the intermediate market such as wholesalers, distributors, and retailers; to promote their
products they use price deals, sales contest, trade shows, or promotional and merchandising
allowances. Many consumer packages-goods used between 60 to 70% of promotion through sales
promotions. Recently companies have shifted their type of promotional strategy from advertisement to
sales promotion. The main reason for the switch is the consumers; consumers are no longer concerned
with loyalty but with promotional deals.
The next element can be divided into two categories publicity and public relations. Publicity can be
defined as “non-personal communications regarding an organization, product, service, or idea not
directly paid for or run under identified sponsoring”. Usual it is in the form of a news story, editorial, or
announcements about the company or product. Just like advertisement it is non-personal and uses mass
media to get attention from a large audience however the difference is with publicity is not a directly
paid form of advertisement. It is also has more credibility most consumers will believe what is being
told when it is being publicized; for instance the reviews from a move or to see your icon wearing
certain type of clothing. Sometimes, publicity can be negative; for instance the involvement with BP and
the oil spill. The second part of this element is public relations; it can be defined as “the management
functions which evaluates public attitudes, identifies the police and procedure of an individual or
organization with the public interest, and executes a program of actions to earn public understanding
and acceptance”. Its concept is more established then publicity, its purpose is to establish and maintain
a credible positive image of the company among the public. To appeal to the public they use publicity
among other tools such as special publications, participation in community activities, fund-raising,
sponsorships, and various public affair activities.
Personal selling can be defined as “a form of person- to- person communication in which a seller
attempts to assist and/or persuade prospective buyers to purchase the company’s product or service or
to act on an idea”. Unlike advertising this element is personal and involves direct contact between the
buyer and seller; either by face-to face or a form of telecommunication. The benefits of personal selling
are to actually hear or see the reaction of the potential buyer and be able to modify the message to
keep them interested. It also gives the salesperson the opportunity to modify the presentation to fit to
its potential buyers based of their reaction, rather negative or positive; personal selling has more
immediate and precise feedback for the seller.
When trying to pick a website to use for my assignment, it was at first a little difficult because I could not
find a website that appealed to me visually, but draftfcb.com did. I like the concept because it is simple
and easy to get around. When it comes to the type of advertisement they did, I chose to view the
advertisement that had an attractive title. I was most interested in their printed advertisement than
their commercials. It had more meaning and understanding when it came to a specific audience and
graphically it made me more interested in the message. I even found their ads for the internet media
interesting; for instance for one of their ads “Lieken Urkorn Bread” they used flour to make different
pictures this concept held my attention and had a phrase that connected the flour, bread, art into one.
In 2010 this company won four gold and six silver awards such as Best In Show Awards, World Vision 40
Hour Famine, Top Gear Valentines Voucher, just to name a few.