Promotion is one of the elements of 4P’s (product, price, promotion and place) of marketing mix. Whenever, a new product is launched in the market or there is a relaunch of an existing product, promotion plays an important role. Every organization aims at marketing and finally selling its products to the buyers. Their main aim is to reach the buyer and inform them about their presence in the market. Image of an organization also plays an important role in the success of its product selling.

Good reputation of an organization in the minds of its consumers helps in increasing the sales of its products Therefore, organizations include promotions in their marketing strategy to build corporate image and hence brand image of the product. Promotion is a marketing tool which helps in achieving this organizational objective.So, promotion can be described as the communication link between the seller and the buyer.

The basic purpose of promotion is –

• To inform the consumers about the product or services offered about the organization.
• To create an awareness amongst their target consumers, in terms of its product features as well as in terms of its unique selling preposition(USP)
• To increase the demand of the product or service offered by an organization by influencing, informing and persuading the purchasing decision of the  target consumers
• To differentiate its product or service from its competitors as well as other existing brands.
• To inform the consumers about the various promotional schemes like discounts, offers and other sales promotion techniques.
• To build brand image and product image. This in turn helps in building image of the organization.

Basically, there are two types of promotion, above the line promotion and below the line promotion. Above the line promotion, is the one where the main objective is promotion of the product or service in mass media. So, organizations use television, radio, newspaper, Internet, mobile phones etc to reach its mass consumers. While, below the line promotion is the one where an awareness in created amongst its consumers through sales promotions, personal selling, direct mails, trade shows, public relations, sponsorship, etc.

Thus, there are number of promotional methods used by organizations to promote its product or service. Few major ones used by organizations to increase its sales are –advertising, sales promotions, public relation, personal selling, direct marketing,exhibitions,viral marketing, etc. An organization either includes one of the promotion method or more than one promotional method in its promotion mix. This decision is governed by factors like –

Promotion budget of the organization. Every organization has their financial limitations. They have to plan and market their product under these limitations.So, depending upon their budget, organization choose either one or more than one means of promotion to reach its target customers.

While planning and choosing for the promotion mix, it’s very important for organizations to take into consideration product life cycle stage. This is because, every product stage has different objective and so depending upon those objective, organizations must choose the correct promotion mix.

Every promotional tool has its own set of advantages and disadvantages for different product or services.Therefore, organizations must take into consideration the nature of the product before planning the promotion mix.

All products and services offered by an organization have their own potential consumers. That is, every organization target a certain set of consumers for their product or service. So, organization must define its promotion mix keeping in mind its target consumers and their most preferred promotional tool.

A market consists of many similar players. That is, it has a number of competitors. Beside this the market situations are unpredictable and unstable.Therefore, organizations must take into account the market situations while selecting its promotion mix.

Advertising is a very common and effective way of   presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor. Advertisement can be done through radio, television, billboard, banners, news paper, magazines, brochures, signs, motion pictures etc. It has number of benefits and hence is considered to be one of the most preferred promotion tools.

It not only helps in promoting the product or services offered by the organization, but it also helps in reminding the consumers about the product because of its repetitive behavior. This in turn, influences the potential consumer’s buying decision and persuades him / her to go for the purchasing of the product. Advertisements also helps the product to compete in the market and reach the mass customers. Besides this,

Advertising plays various other vital roles in –

• Creating awareness about the product
• Image building of the product
• Helps in  generating sales lead
• Helps in building reassurance in the minds of its consumers about the product or the service.

Personal selling is another way of persuading potential consumers to purchase a good or service offered by the organization through oral presentation. This is one to one basis and hence, either the organization opts for direct (face to face) oral presentation of the product or through telephones. Few examples of personal selling techniques are sales presentations, sales meetings, telemarketing etc.

One of the biggest advantage of personal selling is that there is direct interaction with the potential consumers. Hence the probability of converting those potential consumers into buyers is quite high. Beside this, one can know the customer’s response then and there itself. It thus saves time.

Sales promotion is one of the ways of stimulating the market demand for a product or service. Here the organizations, offer certain schemes, discounts, rebates, gifts or vouchers etc to increase the consumers demand and hence its sales.However, this promotion is for limited period

Public relations are a way of building organization image in the minds of consumers. It’s very important for organization that their potential consumers hold a good and positive image about them. It helps in building good will of the company and thus helps to develop trust in their relationship. It includes press releases, videos, websites, annual reports in newspaper and magazines, articles, TVs and radio presentations, seminars etc.

Publicity is a powerful promotional tool used in building brand name of the organization and its product. It helps to build positive image of the organization and thus builds confidence amongst its consumers. This in return not only helps in selling its products but it also helps to attracts potential consumers. Publicity aims to create positive image about its product and organization by publishing favorable stories through media, newspaper, magazines, television, radio etc.

Viral marketing is one of the promotional mixes where consumers give references or recommend your product or services, organization or websites to their friends, colleagues or other family members. This is done through emails, word of mouth, telephones bulletin boards etc.

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