Explain the factors that affect promotion mix or marketing communication mix.

Creating a proper blend of promotion mix tools is one of the most critical decision for marketing managers. One organisation can rely on television advertising and the other can remain dependent on the efforts of its sales team.

The marketing managers are forced to select certain promotion mix tools (advertising, sales promotion, publicity, personal selling, and direct marketing)depending on large number of factors. We will look at these factors in brief–

1) Promotion Budget allocation, objectives and policies– Depending on the market research done for making a product of consumer’s choice, budget is allocated for various promotion activities. The organisations do alter the budget basis their marketing strategies. For many organisations, the budget allocated is the final deciding factor in selecting the promotion tools. The company has to decide on the reach (number of target customers to reach) and frequency (how often to spread the message to the target customers). For example, a low budget may not let an organisation promote its product on TV shows that have maximum viewership. In such cases they opt for newspaper ads, fliers or promotion activities like free samples at crowded locations in the target market.
The objective of the Promotion also determines the selection of appropriate promotion tool – Whether the objective is sharing information or persuading the customers to buy the product,
– Creating an image about the product in the minds of customers (positioning),
– How frequently the message is to be disseminated in the target market.

2) Product and its stage in the life cycle – Consumer products are promoted differently as compared to industrial products. Similarly, FMCG products are products that are promoted heavily through television advertisements and supported by sales promotion activities. Complex products like technical products need personal selling as educating the customer and answering questions form an integral part for convincing customers to buy such items.

The stage of the product in the life cycle also directly affects the choice of promotion tools and their intensity. At the introductory stage, a product is heavily promoted to create awareness in the market. At the latter stages, the promotion activities take on the task of reminding and reassuring the customers about the product – quality, better features than competitors, etc. This task doesn’t requires the promotion intensity of introductory stage.

3) Buyer characteristics – Marketers try to answer this question – How the byers in the target market become aware of the new products? Young people in the market spend most of their time on the internet. Senior citizens like reading newspapers and watching television. The marketer should have the complete data for analysis from the target market for selecting appropriate promotion tools. The right tool will create awareness with the target customers. For example, in India, majority of the population consists of youngsters who go to college or are in the early stage of their career. This generation from the urban areas likes to buy latest and trendy smartphones. Motorola entered the Indian market by launching its Moto G model of its handset only through the ecommerce giant “flipkart”. The launch was supported by newspaper ads and online promotions. The launch was such a hit that the company ran out of its stock of 16 GB model within 20 minutes of its launch.

4) Target market – The size of the target market and the reach of media in different parts of the target market affect the promotion mix strategy. There are different kinds of buyers in each market. Depending on the buying characteristics like early adopters, early majority, late majority, etc., a right promotion tool needs to be adopted that appeals to that group. For example, a college student in India from an urban area is likely to buy a motorbike that is recently launched and has trendy features and looks. The same kind of college student from a rural area would prefer a motorbike that is already a success (late majority). A college student in America would buy a pre-owned car.

5) Competition and environmental factors – The market share of the competitor and its strategies also force an organisation to adopt promotion tools to win customers. Sales promotion activities like free sampling, price cut displays, events at crowded places, etc. are used to counter competition supported by advertising campaigns.

The economic environment also has an impact on the choice of promotion tools. To influence customers, organisations go for sales promotion like coupons, discounts on high quantity purchases, free samples, etc. Instead of advertising and waiting for the customer to ask for the product, conditions are created to drive customers into the stores via free gifts, samples, etc.

6) Distribution channel – The organisations depend heavily on the distribution network for its products success. In case of intermediaries, the organisation also depends on their expertise of creating awareness about the product. The organisations adopt push or pull strategy. In Push strategy the efforts of the organisation are promoting the product to intermediaries who then promote the product to their customers. Manufacturers sometimes display products in retail stores where the retailer then promotes the products. In pull strategy, a manufacturer heavily promotes the product to the end consumers. This creates a demand in the market and consumers inquire about the product from the intermediaries. Because of the high demand, the intermediaries are forced to buy the products from the manufacturers and make them available to end consumers.