The 4 Ps of marketing are product, price, place and promotion. All four of these elements combine to make a successful marketing strategy. Promotion looks to communicate the companys message across to the consumer. Thefour main tools of promotion are advertising, sales promotion, public relation and direct marketing.

AdvertisingAdvertising is defined as any form of paid communication or promotion for product, service and idea. Advertisement is not only used by companies but in many cases by museum, government and charitable organizations. However, the treatment meted out to advertisement defers from an organization to an organization.Advertising development involves a decision across five Ms Mission,Money, Message, Media and Measurement.Mission looks at setting objectives for advertising. The objectives could be to inform, persuade, remind or reinforce. Objective has to follow the marketing strategy set by the company.Money orbudgetdecision for advertising should look at stage of product life cycle, market share and consumer base, competition, advertising frequency and product substitutability.Messages development further is divided into four steps, message generation, message evaluation and selection, message execution, and social responsibility review.Once the message is decided the next step is finalizing the media for delivering the message. The choice of depends on reach of media, frequency of transmission and potential impact on customer. Based on this choice of media types are made from newspaper,television, directmail, radio, magazine and theinternet. After which timing of broadcast of the message is essential as to grab attention of the target audience.Checking on the effectiveness of communication is essential to companys strategy. There are two types ofresearchcommunication effect research and sales effect research.Sales PromotionPromotion is an incentive tool used to drive up short term sales. Promotion can be launched directed at consumer or trade. The focus of advertising to create reason for purchase the focus of promotion is to create an incentive to buy. Consumer incentives could be samples, coupons, free trial and demonstration. Trade incentive could be price off, free goods and allowances. Sales force incentive could be convention, trade shows, competition among sales people.Sales promotion activity can have many objectives, for example, to grab attention of new customer, reward the existing customer, increase consumption of occasional users. Sales promotion is usually targeted at the fence sitters and brand switchers.Sales promotional activity for the product is selected looking at the overall marketing objective of the company. The final selection of the consumer promotional tools needs to consider target audience, budget, competitive response and each tools purpose.Sales promotion activity should under-go pretest before implementation. Once the activity is launched it should be controlled as to remain within the budget. Evaluation program is a must after implementation of the promotional scheme.Public RelationsCompanies cannot survive in isolation they need to have a constant interaction with customers, employees and different stakeholders. This servicing of relation is done by the public relation office. The major function of the public relation office is to handle press releases, support product publicity, create and maintain the corporate image, handle matters with lawmakers, guide management with respect to public issues.Companies are looking at ways to converge with functions of marketing and public relation in marketing public relation. The direct responsibility of marketing public relation (MPR) is to support corporate and product branding activities.MPR is an efficient tool in building awareness by generating stories in media. Once the story is in circulation MPR can establish credibility and create a sense of enigma among sales people as well as dealers to boost enthusiasm. MPR is muchmorecost effective tool than other promotional activities.Direct MarketingThe communication establishes through a direct channel without using any intermediaries is referred to as direct marketing. Direct marketing can be used to deliver message or service. Direct marketing has shown tremendous growth in recent years. The internet has played major part in this growth story. Direct marketing saves time, makes an experience personal and pleasant. Direct marketing reduces cost for companies. Face to face selling, direct mail, catalog marketing, telemarketing, TV and kiosks are media for direct marketing.Advertisement, Promotional activity, Public relation and direct marketing play an essential role in helping companies reaches their marketing goals.

Promotional contents

Advertising Underwriting spot Direct marketing Personal sales Product placement Propaganda Publicity Sales promotion Loyalty marketing Mobile marketing Premiums Prizes Corporate anniversary On-hold messaging

Promotional media

Printing Publication Broadcasting Out-of-home advertising Internet Point of sale Merchandise In-game advertising Product demonstration Word-of-mouth Brand ambassador Drip marketing Visual merchandising

Promotionis a term used frequently inmarketingand is one of themarket mixelements.Promotion refers to raising customer awareness of a product or brand, generating sales, and creating brand loyalty. It is one of the four basic elements of themarket mix, which includes the four P's: price, product, promotion, and place.[1]Promotion is also defined as one of five pieces in thepromotional mixor promotional plan. These arepersonal selling,advertising,sales promotion,direct marketing, andpublicity.[2]A promotional mix specifies how much attention to pay to each of the five factors, and how much money to budget for each.

Product Life Cycle Stages ExplainedThe product life cycle has 4 very clearly defined stages, each with its own characteristics that mean different things forbusinessthat are trying to manage the life cycle of their particular products.Introduction Stage This stage of the cycle could be the most expensive for a company launching a new product. The size of the market for the product is small, which means sales are low, although they will be increasing. On the other hand, the cost of things likeresearchand development, consumer testing, and themarketingneeded to launch the product can be very high, especially if its a competitive sector.Growth Stage The growth stage is typically characterized by a strong growth in sales and profits, and because the company can start to benefit from economies of scale in production, the profit margins, as well as the overall amount of profit, will increase. This makes it possible for businesses to invest more money in the promotional activity to maximize the potential of this growth stage.Maturity Stage During the maturity stage, the product is established and the aim for the manufacturer is now to maintain the market share they have built up. This is probably the most competitive time for most products and businesses need to invest wisely in any marketing they undertake. They also need to consider any product modifications or improvements to the production process which might give them a competitive advantage.Decline Stage Eventually, the market for a product will start to shrink, and this is whats known as the decline stage. This shrinkage could be due to the market becoming saturated (i.e. all the customers who will buy the product have already purchased it), or because the consumers are switching to a different type of product. While this decline may be inevitable, it may still be possible for companies to make some profit by switching to less-expensive production methods and cheaper markets.