Imaging having a toolbox of all promotional methods at your disposal. In fact, the combination of all forms of promotion that can be used by a business organization for promoting any product is known as Promotion Mix.
Definition of Promotion Mix
Chartered Institute of Marketing in the UK defines Promotion Mix as ‘the set of tools that a business can use to communicate effectively the benefits of its products or services to its customers’.
In short, Promotion Mix is comprised of the range of Above-the-Line Promotion (ATL) methods and Below-the-Line Promotion (BTL) methods used to market a product as part of the larger Marketing Mix.
Elements in Promotion Mix
There are several marketing tools that can be used to communicate with consumers. Promotion Mix refers to the specific combination of ingredients that make up a firm’s marketing communications strategy.
The four main elements of every Promotion Mix are:
- Advertising.
- Personal selling.
- Public Relations (PR).
- Sales promotion.
The concept of Promotion Mix exists because it is most unlikely that just one single method of promotion will be sufficient to achieve all promotional objectives. These different promotional methods must be integrated in a cohesive, consistent and logical way.
TIP: Promotion is not the same as advertising. Advertising is one of the methods of promotion, being actually the most expensive element of Promotion Mix.
In general, different promotional methods are used to deliver a slightly different message about the product. Let’s take a look at the following example.
Example 1: Promotional Mix for promoting a movie When promoting a new movie, for example, the promotional mix might include the use of: Television. To show trailers of the movie. Radio. To raise awareness and excitement and to inform people about release dates. Outdoor advertising. Using large outdoor posters or billboards to promote the movie. Newspapers. To support the above methods and to show screening times at local cinemas. Website. To provide detailed information about the movie, the cast, director and producer. Cinema. Using point of sale such as trailers of the new movie are shown at the cinema.
What factors impact Promotion Mix?
For most products, a combination of Above-the-Line Promotion (ATL) methods and Below-the-Line Promotion (BTL) methods is used as part of the firm’s Promotion Mix. It is because using a single promotional technique in isolation is unlikely to be effective at all.
When deciding on Promotion Mix, marketers set specific criteria to judge the success of a promotional campaign. The composition of Promotion Mix depends on many factors which marketers need to consider.
When deciding which type of promotion will be most suitable to use for the particular Promotion Mix of a product, the following points need to be considered:
- Marketing budget. How much money can the business afford to spend on promotion? Promotional budgets need to be appropriately allocated between the competing methods of promotion available. Businesses often consider the Cost per Head when selecting the most appropriate methods of promotion. Cost per Head is the total cost of promotion divided by the potential audience size. While TV advertising has the highest potential to reach mass market, it is also the most expensive on. On another hand, promoting on the Internet is a fairly cheap option.
- Marketing strategy. How is the business trying to reach its promotional objectives? Other elements of Marketing Mix need to be taken into consideration when devising Promotion Mix to be aligned with the marketing strategy.
- Target market. What are the most appropriate promotion methods to reach the target market? Which forms of advertising should be included in Promotion Mix to communicate with target customers in the most effective and efficient way.
- Nature of the product. Certain products will be promoted in a particular way because they are better suited to a particular type of promotion. For example, services such as insurance services and wealth management services will have personal selling dominating their Promotion Mix. The choices will mainly depend on what type of information customers require before they buy the product.
- Stage in Product Life Cycle (PLC). Promotion Mix used is dependent on the product’s stage in its life cycle. While advertising and Public Relations (PR) will be used extensively during the launch stage, different types of sales promotion will be employed at the decline stage.
- Legislation. Rules and regulations in different countries can prevent certain products such as tobacco, alcohol, gambling or sports betting from being advertised on television or radio. This means that some forms of promotion such as advertising may not be included in Promotion Mix, while other forms of promotion will be required instead.
- Competition. What are competitors doing when it comes to their Promotional Mix? What promotional methods are traditionally effective in the market where the business is operating?
Possible reasons for unsuccessful Promotional Mix might include poorly targeted advertisements, weak or unappealing message, wrong media or wrong timing. In summary, Promotion Mix is the combination of various promotional techniques that a firm uses to communicate the benefits of its products to customers in the hopes of selling the product.
In fact, Promotion Mix is comprised of Above-the-Line Promotion (ATL) methods and Below-the-Line Promotion (BTL) methods to market a product as part of the larger Marketing Mix.
