PM INTRODUCTION

Promotion mix: It refers to all the decisions related to promotion of sales of products and services. The important decisions of promotion mix are selecting advertising media, selecting promotional techniques, using publicity measures and public relations etc. There are various tools and elements available for promotion. These are adopted by firms to carry on its promotional activities. The marketer generally chooses a combination of these promotional tools. Following are the tools or elements of promotion. They are also called elements of promotion mix: 1. Advertising 2. Sales promotion 3. Personal selling 4. Public relation 1. Advertising: Advertisement can be defined as the “paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of idea, goods or services by an identified sponsor”. It is an impersonal presentation where a standard or common message regarding the merits, price and availability of product or service is given by the producer or marketer. The advertisement builds pull effect as advertising tries to pull the product by directly appealing to customer to buy it. From the above definition we can find that the three distinct features of advertising are: 1. Paid Form: The sponsor has to pay for advertising he has to bear a cost to communicate with customers. 2. Impersonality: There is no face to face contact between customers and advertiser. It creates a monologue and not a dialogue. 3. Identified Sponsor: Advertisement is given by an identified company or firm or individual.