1. PROMOTIONS
Samir K Mahajan

2. PROMOTION
Promotion is one of the market mix elements or features, and a term used frequently in marketing. The marketing mix includes the four P's: price, product, promotion, and place. Promotion refers to raising customer awareness of a product or brand, generating sales, and creating brand loyalty.
Promotion is a tool used by business (both large and small) to inform, persuade and remind customers about the products and services they have to offer. Several techniques are used for the purpose of promotion like advertising, personal selling, publicity etc.
Samir K Mahajan

3. PROMOTION MIX
If the customer don’t know what products and services a marketer provides, then the business will not survive in today’s competitive marketplace. Effective communication with the customer is vital to ensure that the business generate sales and profit, and for this effective promotion mix is required.
The combination of different method that can be used to promote a product or service is called promotion mix. It is set of promotional tools that a business can use to promote its product its or service.
Samir K Mahajan

4. PROMOTION MIX contd.
Elements of Promotion Mix
There are six main elements in a promotional mix. They are:
Advertising
Personal selling
Sales promotion
Publicity
Public Relation
Direct Marketing
These promotional efforts are of two general types involving:
Direct face to face communication
Indirect communication through some mass medium, such as television, newspapers, radio, etc. Sometimes a mixture of personal or non-personal and direct or indirect promotion is used as we use in the sales promotion.  Industrial buyer will not decide to purchase equipments on the basis of advertisements or direct mail.  Personal selling is preferred in this case.  On the other hand, a customer buying toothpaste or hair oil  will have less contact with the  company sales person and will be influenced more by advertisements.
Samir K Mahajan

5. PROMOTION MIX contd.
Advertising: Any paid form of non-personal communication through mass media about a service or product or an idea by a sponsor is called advertising. It is done through non-personal channels or media like print advertisements, advertisements in Television, Radio, Billboard, Brouchers and Catalogues, banner ads, web pages, posters are some of the examples of advertising. All paid promotion and presentation of goods, services, ideas by a sponsor comes under the advertisement.
Personal selling: Personal selling is a process by which person persuades the buyer to accept a product or a point of view or convinces the buyer to take specific course of action through face to face contact.  It is an act of persuading through the use of oral presentation of products or services. It involves direct and personal contact of the seller or his representative with the buyer.     Examples: Sales Meetings, sales presentations, sales training and incentive programs for intermediary sales people, samples and telemarketing etc.  It can be of face-to-face or through telephone contact.
Sales promotion: Sales promotion is any activity that offers an incentive for a limited period to obtain a desired response from the target audience or intermediaries which includes wholesalers and retailers. It stimulate consumer demand, market demand and improve product availability.  Examples: Contests, product samples, Coupons, sweepstakes, rebates, tie-ins, self-liquidating premiums, trade shows, trade-ins, and exhibitions.
Samir K Mahajan

6. PROMOTION MIX contd
Publicity: Publicity is non-paid and a non-personal communication to attract public attention a to product or service or business by the use of mass media. It may take the form of commercially significant news published in media or favourable presentation on radio, television or stage.  Unlike advertising, this form of promotion is not paid for by the sponsor.  Thus, publicity is news carried in the mass media about an organization, its products, policies, actions, personnel etc. at no charge.  Examples: Magazine and Newspaper articles/reports,  radio and television presentations, charitable contributions, speeches, issue advertising, and seminars.  Publicity can be favourable (positive) or unfavourable (Negative).  The message is in the hands of media and not controlled by the organization/firm. 
Public Relations: Public relations are the planned efforts of a company to influence the attitudes and opinions of existing and potential customers. The focus of public relations is to ‘build a good public image’ or to head off negative rumours or events. It is important to create a good image in the sight of general public as the image of an organization is a crucial point in marketing. If the reputation of a company is bad, consumers are less willing to buy a product from this company as they would have been, if the company had a good image.
Direct Marketing : Direct Marketing is reaching the customer without using the traditional channels of advertising such as radio, newspaper, television etc. Direct marketing is technique of making direct communication with target customers. The aim of direct marketing is to create one to one relationships with the target customers. Direct marketing can come in the form of post, , telephone calls and mail order.
Samir K Mahajan

7. PROMOTION MIX contd.
Proper integration of all the elements of promotion is necessary to meet the information requirements of all target customers. This simply means that the promotion mix is not designed to satisfy only the prospective buyer or only the regular buyer. Some elements of the mix may be aimed at the target customer who is unaware of the product, while others may be aimed at potential customers who are fully aware of the product and are likely to purchase it.
To get better response from the target customers, you have to adopt all the different components of the promotion mix. The different elements of the promotion mix must be coordinated and integrated so that they reinforce and complement each other to create a blend that helps in achieving the promotional objectives of the organization.
Samir K Mahajan

8. OBJECTIVES OF PROMOTION
A promotional plan can have a wide range of objectives, including: sales increases, new product acceptance, creation of brand equity, positioning, competitive retaliations, or creation of a corporate image. The possible objectives for marketing promotions may include the following:
Build Awareness: New products and new companies are often unknown to a market, which means initial promotional efforts must focus on establishing an identity. In this situation the marketer must focus promotion to:
effectively reach customers
tell the market who they are and what they have to offer.
Create Interest: Moving a customer from awareness of a product to making a purchase can present a significant challenge. Customers must first recognize they have a need before they actively start to consider a purchase. This is done through creating interest about the product.
Provide Information: Some promotion is designed to assist customers in the search stage of the purchasing process. In some cases, such as when a product is so novel it creates a new category of product and has few competitors, the information is simply intended to explain what the product is and may not mention any competitors. In other situations, where the product competes in an existing market, informational promotion may be used to help with a product positioning strategy. Marketers may use promotional means, including direct comparisons with competitor’s products, in an effort to get customers to mentally distinguish the marketer’s product from those of competitors.
Samir K Mahajan

9. OBJECTIVES OF PROMOTION contd.
Stimulate Demand : The right promotion can drive customers to make a purchase. In the case of products that a customer has not previously purchased or has not purchased in a long time, the promotional efforts may be directed at getting the customer to try the product. This is often seen on the Internet where software companies allow for free demonstrations or even free downloadable trials of their products. For products with an established customer-base, promotion can encourage customers to increase their purchasing by providing a reason to purchase products sooner or purchase in greater quantities than they normally do. For example, a pre-holiday newspaper advertisement may remind customers to stock up for the holiday by purchasing more than they typically purchase during non-holiday periods.
Differentiate a Product: This is especially important if there are multiple competitors in the same market. For example, Apple was able to differentiate itself in the computer industry. For many years it was the preferred computer for those who had advanced computing skills. Then Apple did an advertising campaign to show general users how easy it is to use. This took advantage of the complaints the market had over Windows operating software which came standard with most PCs.
Reinforce the Brand: Once a purchase is made, a marketer can use promotion to help build a strong relationship that can lead to the purchaser becoming a loyal customer. For instance, many retail stores now ask for a customer’s address so that follow-up s containing additional product information or even an incentive to purchase other products from the retailer can be sent in order to strengthen the customer-marketer relationship.
Samir K Mahajan

10. Ref: Philip Kotler and internet