Advertising in the promotion mix

As a marketer, we are interested in the right mix or combination of advertising, publicity, personal selling and sales promotion. An appropriate mix of these four elements helps us to achieve our overall marketing objectives. The activities of the sales force, the advertising and publicity programmer and all the other promotional efforts should be properly co-ordinate for the marketing success of the product. While advertising is a non-personal communication through the mass media of ideas, goods and services, personal selling is a personal presentation; it is a face-to-face sale. Sales promotions are those promotional activities which are different from advertising activities. Personal selling and publicity stimulate consumer purchase and earlier effectiveness, such as displays, shows and exhibitions, demonstrations and various other non-recurrent selling affairs which are not a part of the ordinary routine of advertising. Here, we are concerned with the nature of the promotion mix and the relative importance of advertising in this mix.