Promotion, The 4th P Of The Marketing Mix

Author: Osman Habbal

As part of the Marketing Mix, Promotion is as equally important as the other three components, Product, Price, and Place. In the 4Cs approach, the term replacing Promotion is known as Communication. Some state that Promotion is rather a manipulative term because it comes from the seller. They prefer using Communication as it involves a certain level of interaction between the seller and the buyer.

I have to disagree with that understanding. In order to communicate or interact, you have two parties involved. One of those parties starts the communication, which leads to interaction if the other party is interested.  By promoting their product, the sellers are actually starting the first step of the interaction process. Although Promotion in the Marketing Mix does not detail the communication process, it never meant that Interaction was to be prevented.

On another hand, many companies that adopted the Communication approach did that for manipulative reasons. During the focus on the customer era, many companies joined the train of what is known as the customer oriented approach. Although initiated a communication process, it turned to be a one sided conversation when it came to what really matters. It is not as some try to portray it, a simple willingness by the business community to communicate with their potential customers, it is rather a well thought of plan to collect sales leads, collect data for market research, etc… In other words, since some companies were doing promotions and not receiving the feedback they wanted they decided to trick us, the customers, into giving them this feedback, by initiating the interaction via communication. Now tell me that is not manipulative! Surely, and thankfully, this is not the case for the majority of the companies

Some also claim that communication does not promote sales. Then what is the aim of communicating your product or your company? Even if it was a political stand, you actually want people to buy into it.  The whole point is that whether you want to use the 4Ps or the 4Cs, you still have to use them as guidelines or reference points. What you have to know about the 4th component of the Marketing Mix, is that you have to put it out there for people to know about.

Successful promotions never occur when you use the wrong media to reach your target customers. I have seen many promotions fail, some were my own, others were my competitors\'. Imagine an illiterate public response to a short messages ad campaign. Sending a message to educate the public in one small village about AIDS was a complete failure. Although 25of these village inhabitants owned mobile phones, they were 100unable to read and write. You would assume they could by the mere fact that they used mobile phones. Come to find out that they knew numbers, and knew how to dial and receive calls, but knew nothing more when it came to read letters, let alone typing them. Can you imagine any success for a TV advertising campaign in a country where electric power reaches a mere 20of the population for about 2 hours a day? In such countries, even when your target market is the niche that owns a generator, you will find out that this same niche uses satellite services and will never see your ad on the local channel.

Choosing your media may depend on your financial resources and not only on your target market. You won\'t be able to launch a successful TV campaign if your budget allows you to print a dozen of flyers only. Be genuine in your ideas. What you may use as a means of promotion had probably been used by others but it doesn\'t mean you won\'t be successful doing the same.

When I was in college, student activities were banned for several years due to political tension in the country, which affected the campus too. In my senior year, the administration allowed us to organize the first student activity. In that time everything was looked at from a political or religious angle in a country (Lebanon) where 'civil' war lasted 17 years.

We were independent students, who could not afford a big budget for advertisement (The College only provided the hall) and politically attached students had every intention to make our activity fail, in order to show their later activities as a success. We had budgeted to distribute flyers around the campus but due to the importance of the event we had to make sure that we do our best. After all, it was the first student event in years after the ban.

Our budget showed that we could afford 500 flyers. It meant that every flyer should guarantee the presence of 1 person to fill the auditorium. What I did is to reduce the size of the flyer. I only stated the time and place of the event. This gave us 5000 tiny papers rather than 500 flyers. We distributed them via student mail boxes, on the benches, and any other place that was fit.

I was looking for the number of flyers to ensure the spread but I also took into consideration not to cause any political sensitivity that can be triggered by misunderstanding the name or aim of our event. On the day of our event the organizers, including myself, were finalizing the preparation of the auditorium. The Doors were open 10 minutes before the start, the auditorium was full and people kept coming during the 2 hours event. It was definitely a success and I was especially proud when I heard comments from friends and 'foes' that the small flyers were the essential cause in bringing this crowd.

By concluding this article about promotion, I am not be concluding the presentation of the 4Ps as I see it. I believe that a thorough understanding of the 4Ps encompasses all the modifications (4Cs) and additions (7Ps), they complete rather than compete with each other. Marketing theoreticians may be competing for recognition and position of their theories. They provide us with guidelines, but at the end, it is us the consumers who decide what we will buy into. To summarize the marketing Mix as I see it:

1. You have a Product. It can be an idea, an item, anything that you want people to buy or buy into. Answer the question: What? What are you offering? In other words. Know your product.
2. Set the Price. It can be a simple opinion that you want to give out for free, or some expensive commodity. Look at your costs and the costs that others are willing to incur to buy or buy into it. Answer the question: Why? Why are you doing this? Are you aiming to sell it? If the answer is yes then you have to determine a price. If your answer is no, then you probably want to give it out for free.
3. Decide on a Place. You can offer your product from your house maybe, or be a reseller for a company. You can operate from a shop or via the internet. Answer the question: Where? Where can your potential customer find your product? Make sure you have enough exposure for your product.
4. Promote your product. Put your product out for the grabs. The means you will use to advertise and the attractive presentation of your product will help in your success. Answer the question: How? How will people know about your product? If your potential customers don\'t know that you have something to sell, they won\'t contact you to purchase it.

All of this explanation does not have a value if it does not target people. If we did not exist who will be marketing to whom? Who among us can claim understanding all our needs, let alone all our wants? In my next article I will attempt to discuss the importance of the main P, People, in all this mix.

Comments and questions are always welcome.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-tips-articles/promotion-the-4th-p-of-the-marketing-mix-3742503.html

About the Author

Osman Habbal is a well traveled Business expert. With over 20 years experience in Business covering Marketing, Sales, Customer Care, and Management, Osman has been exposed to many markets and cultures. His skills in Arabic, French, Russian, and English, widened his communication experience. Osman was born in Beirut, the capital city of Lebanon, in a Muslim family. He is strongly opinionated when it comes to Politics due to his early childhood exposure to war. Osman is Married and a proud parent. His personal website is http://www.dadaway.com