ABSTRACT
This unit covers our fourth so-called ‘P’ element of the marketing mix, and encompasses the
tools available to the marketer to communicate with customers and others about products and
services.
Although essentially about communication, this particular tool of the marketing mix is
normally referred to as promotion. This is a very wide area of marketing encompassing, as it
does, decisions about advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, publicity/public relations
and direct mail. Because this is such a wide-ranging area of marketing, including factors as
diverse as media selection for advertising through to recruitment and selection of the sales
force, etc., we cannot hope to cover all the areas in promotion. Instead, a more realistic
objective is to make sure that you understand the process of communication, the key elements
of the promotional mix and how to plan these, and how to manage the individual tools of
promotion.
