Marketing mix: Promotion and Place

Promotion involves communication and inducing people to buy a product. It consists of public relations, advertising, sales promotion and personal selling.

Place in the marketing mix refers to the channel, or the route, through which goods move from the source to the final user. Place could be the intermediaries, distributors, wholesalers and retailers.

Promotion

Objectives of promotion:

• To increase customer awareness
• Attract new customers
• Motivate new/existing customers to buy
• Increase sales
• To increase image of product

Promotional tools:

• Advertising
  E.g The press, Radio< TV, Billboards, sample
• Personal selling
  Face to face meeting with customers to sell products.
• Sales promotion
  E.g. Reduction in price, Free samples, gifts
• Publicity and public relation
  E.g. Publicity, sponsorship, donations
• Word of mouth

Place (distribution)

Factors affecting channel choice:

• Nature of the product
  Perishable goods will require shorter channel of distribution.
• Size of market
  If the market is small, the manufacturer can deal directly with the customer.
• Costs
  To reduce selling price, manufacturer can use shorter channels so as to cut cost of distribution
• Time
  Some products require rapid service, thus quick distribution.
• Internet
  Manufacturers can sell directly on the internet and gain more profits.