It is not enough for a business to have good products sold at attractive prices. To generate sales and profits, the benefits of products have to be to customers. In marketing, this is commonly known as "". A business' total marketing communications programme is called the "". It consists of a blend of five main kinds of promotional tools:
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- marketing
- selling
- promotion
- Publicity
Advertising is intended to and to inform. The two basic aspects of advertising are the (what you want your communication to say) and the (how you get your message across).
Direct marketing creates a direct relationship between the customer and the business on an individual basis.
Personal selling refers to communication with potential buyers of a product with the intention of making a sale. The personal selling may focus initially on developing a relationship with the potential buyer, but will always ultimately end with an attempt to "close the sale".
Sales promotion concerns the provision of to customers or to the distribution channel to stimulate demand for a product. For example, these might involve money-off , competitions etc.
Publicity is about the communication of a product, brand or business by placing information about it in the media without paying for the time or media space directly. An important component of publicity is that generated by "public relations" - often simply shortened to
There are two main types of promotional strategy:
A "" selling strategy makes use of a company's salesforce and trade promotion activities to create consumer demand for a product. The producer promotes the product to wholesalers, the wholesalers promote it to retailers, and the retailers promote it to consumers.
A "" selling strategy is one that requires high spending on advertising and consumer promotion to build up consumer demand for a product.