• "Hmmmm🤔 We might have the greatest product in the world, but if nobody knows about it, or isn't informed about what it can do for them, then we're not going to persuade them to but it!"

• PROMOTION is about communicating with actual or potential customers. in order INCREASE AWARENESS OF THE PRODUCTS.

• Promotion in terms of the marketing mix refers to the strategies and communication methods used to inform, persuade, and influence potential customers to purchase a product or service. 

• It includes advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, public relations, and direct marketing. Promotion helps create brand awareness, generate interest, and drive sales by effectively reaching the target audience.

• • • Informative advertising – these are advertisements that give information to potential purchasers of a product, rather than just trying to create a brand image. This information could include price, technical specifications or main features and places where the product can be purchased. This style of advertising could be particularly effective when promoting a new product that consumers are unlikely to be aware of or when communicating a substantial change in price, design or specification.

    • Persuasive advertising – this involves trying to create a distinct image or brand identity for the product. It may not contain any details at all about materials or ingredients used, prices or places to buy it. This form of advertising is very common, especially in those markets where there might be little actual difference between products and where advertisers are trying to create a perceived difference in the minds of consumers.

In reality, there is little difference between these two styles of advertising: ‘The more informative your advertising, the more persuasive it will be’ (David Ogilvy, Confessions of an Advertising Man, New York: Ballantine Books, 1971). Above-the-line advertising methods are used when a business wants to reach a wide audience and create awareness of a brand in a mass market. This is most likely to be the case when the product is new or has recently undergone a considerable update. The cost associated with this form of promotion means that it is unlikely to be used unless the business has a sizeable marketing budget. Above-the-line advertising helps to strengthen a brand image and give a memorable impression of the brand’s central message.

For certain markets and products, above-the-line promotion is often the most effective way of communicating with potential consumers. For example, products that have a mass appeal are often advertised using above-the-line methods because the communication reaches a wide-ranging audience, helping to achieve awareness amongst potential consumers and creating brand recall.

However, it is also possible that mass advertising will fail to pinpoint the appropriate target market, and more focused methods of promotion will be needed in these cases.

What is promotion trying to achieve?

Promotional objectives should aim to:

• increase sales by raising consumer awareness of a new product

• remind consumers of an existing product and its distinctive qualities

• encourage increased purchases by existing consumers or attract new consumers

• demonstrate the superior specification or qualities of a product compared to those of competitors – often used when the product has been updated or adapted in some way 

• create or reinforce the brand image or ‘personality’ of the product

• correct misleading reports about the product or the business and reassure consumers after a ‘scare’ or an accident involving the product

• develop or adapt the public image of the business – rather than the product

• encourage retailers to stock and actively promote products to the final consumer.

• It is important to differentiate between the following aspects of promotion.