THE PROMOTION MIX

Promotion mix (marketing communications mix) is the specific blend of advertising, sales promotion, public relations, personal selling, and direct-marketing tools that the company uses to persuasively communicate customer value and build customer relationships.

Definitions of the five major promotion tools follow:

Advertising

Any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor.

Sales promotion

Short-term incentives to encourage the purchase or sale of a product or service.

Public relations

Building good relations with the company's various publics by obtaining favorable publicity, building up a good "corporate image", and handling or heading off unfavorable rumors, stories, and events.

Personal selling

Personal presentation by the firm's sales force for the purpose of making sales and building customer relationships.

Direct marketing

Direct connections with carefully targeted individual consumers to both obtain an immediate response and cultivate lasting customer relationships.