Advertising, Personal Selling and PR in the Marketing Mix

ByMunyaradzi Mafaro

The marketing mix is how a company decides to sell a product or service. It has four parts that all work together. These four parts are:

  1. Product – What you are selling
  2. Price – How much it costs
  3. Place – Where you sell it
  4. Promotion – How you tell people about it

Companies carefully consider these four Ps when they develop a new product. They want to get the mix just right so that many people buy what they sell.

The Promotion P of the Marketing Mix

Promotion is all about communication. It’s how companies let customers know they have something good to sell. They want to get the word out in a way that excites people to buy.

There are three main types of promotion:

  1. Advertising
  2. Personal Selling
  3. Public Relations (PR)

Let’s look at each of these promotion tools and how they work.

Advertising: Paying to Spread the Word

Advertising means paying to put your message where many people will see it. It could be:

  • A commercial on TV or radio
  • An ad in a newspaper or magazine
  • A billboard next to a busy road
  • An online ad on websites or social media

The key is to pay to place your ad in these places. The price depends on the size of the audience. Super Bowl ads cost a fortune because millions of people are watching, but an advertisement in the local paper costs much less.

Companies create ads that attract attention and make the product look great. They hire creative people to create interesting words and pictures. The goal is to make you think, “Wow, I want to buy that!”

Personal Selling: Meeting Customers Face-to-Face

Personal selling is a very different kind of promotion. Instead of putting an ad out there for everyone to see, you talk to customers one-on-one. This could happen:

  • In a store, where a salesperson helps you find what you need
  • At your home, if a company sends a rep to knock on your door
  • On the phone, if you call to order something from a catalog

The advantage of personal selling is that it’s very direct. The salesperson can answer your questions, show you how something works, and convince you to buy. They can also build a relationship with you over time.

However, personal selling takes a lot of time and effort. You can only talk to one customer at a time. And hiring and training good salespeople can be expensive for the company.

Public Relations: Getting Good Press

Public relations, or PR, is a little different. The goal is still to spread the word about the company and its products. But instead of paying for an ad, you try to get other people to talk about you for free. This could mean:

  • Sending a press release to newspapers, hoping they’ll write a story
  • Inviting reporters to a special event, like a new store opening
  • Doing something newsworthy, like donating money to a local charity

If a newspaper writes a story about your company, people who read it may be interested in what you sell. It feels more natural than an ad because it’s coming from a trusted source.

PR can also help if your company faces a crisis, like a product recall. You want to get your story out there and show you’re handling the problem well.

Putting It All Together

So which kind of promotion is best? The truth is, most companies use all three:

  • They run ads to reach a wide audience and get people interested.
  • They use personal selling to close the deal with serious customers.
  • And they do PR to build a good reputation over time.

The right mix depends on what and to whom you’re selling it. A car company needs a strategy different from that of a candy maker.

However, all companies need to think carefully about promotion. It’s how you connect with customers and convince them to buy your products. And that’s what the marketing mix is all about – finding the right formula to get people excited about your products.

Promotion in the Digital Age

These days, a lot of promotions happen online. Instead of just running a TV ad, companies might:

  • Make a funny video that goes viral on YouTube
  • Pay an Instagram influencer to post about their product
  • Run a contest on Facebook where people can win prizes
  • Send emails with coupons and special offers

The internet has made it easier to target specific groups of people with your message. If you sell running shoes, you can put your ad on websites for runners. You can contact bloggers who write about plant-based diets if you make vegan snacks.

But the basics of promotion still apply. Whether it’s an ad, a salesperson, or a PR stunt, the goal is to grab people’s attention and make them want what you’re selling.

The Promotion Puzzle

In the end, promotion is just one piece of the marketing mix puzzle. You also need a great product, a fair price, and a convenient place to sell it.

But without promotion, nobody will know about your amazing new widget or life-changing service. That’s why companies spend so much time and money trying to spread the word.

The next time you see an ad or talk to a salesperson, think about all the work that went into that moment. FPromotion keeps the wheels of commerce turning from the first brainstorming session to the final sale. It’s pretty impressive for something that often happens in the background.

Munyaradzi Mafaro is a music enthusiast and he also likes to tackle topics of business, productivity, and the possibilities for growth in the digital world.