ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the major principles of the marketing communications mix. Sometimes termed the promotions mix or promotional mix, it combines a number of elements and tools to convey messages from an organisation to its audiences. The chapter contextualises marketing communications by locating them within the broader marketing mix, assesses the differences between personal and mass communications, ascertain appropriate ways to plan a communications strategy, and analyses how and why communications should be integrated rather than acting in isolation. Marketers contact, engage, and communicate with members of their intended audiences by using the tools of the integrated marketing communications mix. Almost all organisations use more than one such tool, often simultaneously but perhaps varying the intensity with which they use each. Mass and personal communications have different characteristics and may have different immediate objectives, but they should complement each other and work toward the same overall marketing objectives.
