The marketing communications mix

The marketing communications mix

Promotion describes the communications activities of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion and publicity/public relations.

Advertising is a non-personal form of mass communication, paid for by an identified sponsor. Personal selling involves a seller attempting to persuade a potential buyer to make a purchase. Sales promotion encompasses short-term activities such as giving coupons, free samples, etc. that encourage quick action by buyers. The company has control over these three variables, but has little control over the fourth variable, publicity/public relations. This is another non-personal communication method that reaches a large number of people, but it is not paid for by the company and is usually in the form of news or editorial comment regarding a company’s product or service. Companies can gain some control over the publicity it receives by the release of news items.

Put together, these promotional activities make up the promotional or communications mix with varying emphasis on each element according to the type of product or service, characteristics of consumers and company resources. Company size, competitive strengths and weaknesses and style of management all influence the promotional mix.

Other communications elements with which promotion must be coordinated are the product itself, price and distribution channels used. Product communication, including brand name, design of packaging and trade-marks are all product cues which convey a message about the total product offering. Price can communicate different things under varying circumstances, for instance conveying ‘prestige appeal’ for those buyers who perceive that a high price is equal to quality and prestige. The place in which the products are to be found also has notable communications value. Retail stores have ‘personalities’ that consumers associate with the products they sell. Products receive a ‘halo effect’ from the outlets in which they can be found and two stores selling similar products can project entirely different product images. For example, a perfume sold through an upmarket store will have a much higher quality image than one sold through supermarkets