Communicating the offer

In the marketing mix, communicating the offer is variously known as promotion, the promotional mix, communication, the communication mix, customer communication or marketing communication. The public simply thinks of it – wrongly – as advertising and selling. As we made it clear in Chapter 1, there is much more to marketing than advertising and selling; it is also true that marketing communication encompasses more than advertising and selling. By now, you should be aware of the importance of each of the other elements of the marketing mix, and that effective marketing is dependent on marketing research, segmenting markets, understanding customers, designing hospitality products at the right price for appropriate target markets, fi nding the most suitable location(s) and using the distribution network to reach target markets.