Download Slideshow 1‐3: Promotion versus Marketing

Slideshow1‐3:PromotionversusMarketing
As I noted earlier, marketing and promotion are often confused for one another. In future lessons,
we will come to a better understanding of both concepts. Right now, I want to consider the
importance of marketing in sport. We will consider different definitions of marketing, but we
will also identify the differences that exist between marketing and promotion.
So what is marketing?
This is one definition of marketing. This definition notes the importance of marketing in
satisfying what people from various demographic groups (i.e., their target markets) want and/or
need. The effectiveness comes in producing better products, better service, or in better perception.
Marketing attempts to use this information to help consumers make a decision to purchase a
product.
The American Marketing Association (AMA) uses this definition of marketing. I prefer this
definition because it talks about the process of planning and executing various activities that help
consumers make decisions. To really understand this process, we need to understand the
marketing mix.
Reference:
American Marketing Association (AMA). Dictionary of marketing terms. Retrieved from
www.marketingpower.com/mg-dictionary.php?SearchFor=marketing&Searched=1
The marketing mix (also known as the 4 Ps) refers to the four important areas of marketing.
• Product: What is the product that you are selling? What is special about your product,
and how can that help you convince customers that they want/need it?
• Place: Where will your product be distributed? Will you sell it in a brick-and-mortar
store or will you sell it online?
• Price: What is the cost of your product? Is the cost something you want to hide or to
display to consumers?
• Promotion: How can you boost the image of your product? What activities can be done
to improve awareness of your product?
For this later P, we also need to consider the “promotion mix.” There is more than one promotion
mix, but we will focus on the most basic mix first.
As I noted earlier, promotion is one part of marketing. Let’s look at what promotions consists of
so that we can understand better how it is different from marketing.
Promotions focus on how to promote or build interest in a product or service. There are four
main methods of promoting:
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Advertising, which involves paying money to have specially crafted and controlled
messages that help consumers make purchasing decisions.
Publicity is when you do not have to pay for a message promoted and distributed to
others. Examples of publicity include press releases or media articles that are related to
your product or service. Publicity is often thought of as “free” promotions.
A sales promotion is offering some type of special promotion in regards to sales. In sport,
sales promotion often is done using, for example a half-price ticket night. But it also can
be on another product, for example free tacos when a team scores a certain number of
points. A sales promotion is used to try to convince individuals to purchase or sample a
product and service in sport.
Personal selling involves making contact (whether it be face-to-face or warm or cold
calls) with individuals for the purpose of trying to convince them to purchase a product or
service.