Key Elements of Marketing


Promotion is one of the four elements of marketing mix (product, price, promotion, distribution). It is the communication link between sellers and buyers for the purpose of influencing, informing, or persuading a potential buyer's purchasing decision.

Promotions Branding

The following are two types of promotion:
  • 1. Above the line promotion.Promotion in mass media (e.g.TV,radio,newspaper,Internet,Cell Phones and, historically, illustrated songs) in which the advertiser pays an advertising agency to place the advertisement.
  • 2. Below the line promotions All other promotion. Much of this is intended to be subtle enough for the consumer to be unaware that promotion is taking place. E.g. promotional products, sponcerships, product placement, testimonials, sales promotion, merchadising, direct mail, personal selling, pulic relations, trade shows.
The specification of five elements creates a promotional mix or promotional plan. These elements are personal selling, advertising, sales promotion,direct marketing, and publicity. A promotional mix specifies how much attention to pay to each of the five subcategories, and how much money to budget for each. A promotional plan can have a wide range of objectives, including: sales increases, new product acceptance, creation of brand equity,positioning, competitive retaliations, or creation of a corpoate image. Fundamentally, however there are three basic objectives of promotion.
  • To present information to consumers as well as others
  • To increase demand
  • To differentiate a product.
There are different ways to promote a product in different areas of media. Promoters use internet advertisement, special events, endorsements, and newspapers to advertise their product. Many times with the purchase of a product there is an incentive like discounts, free items, or a contest. This is to increase the sales of a given product.
The term "promotion" is usually an "in" expression used internally by the marketing company, but not normally to the public or the market - phrases like "special offer" are more common. An example of a fully integrated, long-term, large-scale promotion are My Coke Rewards and Pepsi Stuff.
Elements of the marketing mix are often referred to as the "Four P's":

  • Product- It is a tangible object or an intangible service that is mass produced or manufactured on a large scale with a specific volume of units. Intangible products are service based like the tourism industry & the hotel industry or codes-based products like cellphone load and credits. Typical examples of a mass produced tangible object are the automobiles and the disposable razors. Packaging also needs to be taken into consideration. Every product is subject to a life-cycle including a growth phase followed by an eventual period of decline as the product approaches marketing saturation. To retain its competitiveness in the market,product differentiation is required and is one of the strategies to differentiate a product from its competitors.
  • Place-Place represents the location where a product can be purchased. It is often referred to as the distribution channel. It can include any physical store as well as virtual stores on the Internet.
  • Promotion- represents all of the communications that a marketeer may use in the marketplace. Promotion has four distinct elements : advertising,public relations,peronalselling and sales promotions. A certain amount of crossover occurs when promotion uses the four principal elements together, which is common in film promotion. Advertising covers any communication that is paid for, from cinema commercials, radio and Internet adverts through print media and billboards. Public relations are where the communication is not directly paid for and includes press releases, sponsorship deals, exhibitions, conferences, seminars or trade fairs and events. Word of mouth is any apparently informal communication about the product by ordinary individuals, satisfied customers or people specifically engaged to create word of mouth momentum. Sales staff often plays an important role in word of mouth and Public Relations.