What Is the Role of Promotion in the Marketing Mix?

The concept of the marketing mix is a common approach to the overall marketing strategy used by many companies and other types of organizations. Sometimes referred to as the Four P's, the mix addresses issues of product, place, price, and promotion. The role of promotion in the marketing mix is of special attention for anyone who wants to make sure the right consumers are reached, using the forms of media advertising that are most likely to connect with buyers and ultimately generate a high volume of sales.

Promotion tends to focus on how to go about attracting the attention of consumers and providing enough information to hold their interest long enough to motivate a purchase. In order to accomplish this, marketers will look closely at the many ways of advertising the product line and decide which methods are most likely to reach the desired consumer demographic. Often, this means taking into consideration factors such as age, gender, location, and economic class. Using that data, the marketer can decide whether investing time and resources in television and print advertising is likely to be effective, or if methods such as banner ads and other online advertising may be a better way to reach the right customers.

Since promotion is about telling consumers what they need to know in order to understand how buying the products will benefit them, creating the copy for the advertising often requires making use of the other components in the mix in order to create ads that will motivate consumers. For example, the ads will often make use of information that focuses on what the product can do, as well as making consumers aware of where they can go to buy the products. In addition, promotion in the marketing mix will often include at least some general information about the price, especially if that standard pricing is competitive with similar goods and services in the marketplace that may currently control a larger share of the market.

As is true with each of the Four P's, promotion does not stand alone in its contribution to the overall marketing process. It draws on the collective data related to product, place, and price and incorporates that information into the advertising in a manner that is likely to entice customers to make a purchase. The actual scope of data used will vary, depending on what marketers perceive as being the key points most likely to appeal to certain customer demographics and increase the chances of the copy triggering a sale.