Introduction
Marketing communication promotional mix refers to a particular methods that a company uses to promote its products to a targeted group of customers , it the use of direct marketing, advertising, sales promotion, personal selling and public relation and this in the long run will help the company to achieve its marketing and advertising objective (Koetler 2014, p.18)
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Advertising
Advertising refers to a paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or service by an identified company (Harper 1975, p.78). It is the most common element of communication element which is persuasive in nature, non-personal, it is distributed through mass media and finally paid for by a specific sponsor. It includes all the messages a company pays to distribute through a media with the objective that it would reach a target audience. According to Tim (2014), advertising is viewed to be a much cheaper way of reaching a wider target audience and for it being non personal its effects can be measured in terms of creation or increase in awareness and changing attitudes and opinion on a specific product. The most popular brands in the world like Unilever, Coca cola and Pepsi have frequently been advertising on billboards, TV, magazine , radio and other medias all over the world hence the massive awareness of their products worldwide.
Public relation
Harper (1975) defined public relation as a purposeful communication between a company and the public which identifies, establishes and maintain mutual beneficial relationship between the company and the public .The success and the failure of the company depends on it. Unlike advertising which is one way and focuses mostly on retail traders and consumer public relation has a wider scope including vendors, employees , suppliers, the community ,consumers and other stakeholders. According to Koetler (2014) todays society is “over communicated” and hence people tend to avoid communication through advertisement and either they are likely to tune off the commercial advertisements. As advertisements has lost its grip public relation comes in as marketers would turn into news coverage, events, articles writing and community programs to help distribute their company and product messages. The message disseminated through public relation is more objective and therefore more likely to be believed in comparison to advertisement (Varey 2002, p.47). A good example is in 1990 when CBS newsmagazine reported that red wine could prevent heart attack as it lowers the amount of cholesterol in the body, the sales of red wine that year increased by 50%.
Direct marketing
This is the direct communication with the target audience through either telephone, email, electronic means or one on one visit (Varey 2002, p.32). It allows a company to target a specific section of customers with a sales message customized for that specific segment which focuses on their specific needs and preferences this is according to Charles (n.d). The research shows clearly that brands with more cohesive equity are more successful when it comes to direct marketing as compared to little known brands it works hand in hand with other elements such as advertisement and public relation as it supports the efforts of direct marketing
Sales promotion
This refers to the incentive that company gives to the target to the consumer to enhance the products movement from the manufacturers to the consumer. Sales promotions are always short term strategy with the main purpose of boosting or increasing the sales volume (Koetler 2014, p.72). This tool is very effective mostly when it comes to brands that appear to be equals, they give more instant results as compared to advertisements
Reference
Harper, M. 1975. “Advertising In A Developing Country: Opportunity And Responsibility”, . 9 No. 3, 1975, pp. 215–223.
Koetler, P, 2014. principles of marketing. 5th ed. Boston : Upper Saddle, N.J : Pearson.
Charles, M. n.d. Marketing Communication – strategy, organization, levels, system, company, disadvantages, business, system. 2015. Marketing Communication – strategy, organization, levels, system, company, disadvantages, business, system. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Log-Mar/Marketing-Communication.html. [Accessed 20 March 2015].
Tim, F. 2014. Public Relations (PR) – Marketing Teacher. 2015. Public Relations (PR) – Marketing Teacher. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.marketingteacher.com/public-relations-pr/. [Accessed 20 March 2015].
Varey, Richard J, 2002. Marketing Communication: principles and practice. 1st ed. London: New York : Routledge, 2002.
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