Advertising is an audio or visual form of non-personal and paid marketing communication about an organisation or its products directed towards target audience through mass medium. It is also sometimes referred to as “ad”.

The communication is through non-personal, paid media. The audience clearly know the source of the message – which organisation or company the message is from.

From the above definition we see that it encompasses the following aspects-

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The channel of communication is considered as a medium to carry a message from the source to the receiver. In advertising the channels of communication are newspapers, magazines, television, radio, etc. It is a medium or a vehicle utilized by advertisers to convey their message to a large audience.
Advertising media refers to the device, channel, or vehicle through which an organisation communicates its promotion content to mass audience.

A decade ago, marketers needed to know only a few of the advertising tools or media. But today, they need to be aware of various advertising options available to survive in the market. This is because of advances in communication technology. We will look at important channels of advertising, their advantages and disadvantages.

1) Newspapers – there are millions of people who are accustomed to reading the newspaper in the morning to keep themselves updated about the happenings around the world. Newspapers remain as the most reliable message career as it is a mode that not only educates, but also entertains.

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Organisation allocate millions and even billions of dollars for advertising. It is important that the marketers effectively use the advertising resources to make the marketing effort successful.The steps involved vary from company to company but there are five major steps that organisations can take in developing an advertising program.

1) Mission/ Objective
2) Budget
3) Message
4) Media plan
5) Evaluation

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Sales promotion forms all the promotion activities other than personal selling, advertising, direct selling, and public relations. It covers non-personal and non-media activities like free samples, coupons, rebates, discounts, etc. Sales promotions are used to stimulate purchasing and sales by way of giving incentives or offers, and the objectives are to increase sales by informing potential customers about new products. The potential buyers know the source of the message as the organisation which arranges the activity.

Definition –
In a specific sense, Sales Promotion includes those sales activities that supplement both Personal Selling and Advertising and co-ordinates them and helps to make them effective, such as, displays, shows and expositions, demonstrations and other non-recurrent selling efforts not in the ordinary routine – The American Marketing Association.

Most of the organisations adopt sales promotions as it is less costly as compared to the increasing Television advertising and personal selling costs. Sales promotion is widely used for creating brand awareness and liking among consumers.

Consumers are lured by the incentives of buying through sales promotion activities like discounts, rebates, contests, coupons, product samples, price promotion signs, coupons, exhibitions, setting kiosks in malls, displays, free samples, gifts, etc. The customer who buys a product sees an extra value in the purchase like a discount, etc.

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The Sales Promotion tools are directed towards Consumers (Consumer promotion tools), Dealers or middlemen (Trade promotion tools), and Sales force. These tools are unique in their way and directed differently to these three groups. So basically, these are different tools with purpose of encouraging consumers, dealers as well as the company’s sales force.

Sales promotion tools for consumers (Consumer promotion tools) –
The marketers need to choose the right sales promotion tool to reach its audience. Below are the major promotion tools directed towards consumers –

1) Free samples – The manufacturer offers free samples to consumers in various ways doing door-to-door visits, at retail stores, malls, attached to another product, etc. For example, attaching a sample of a shampoo sachet with a bottle of a beauty lotion. The purpose is to gain new customers or enter into a new market.

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Sales Promotion decisions follow the framework set for the steps decided on promotion activities as part of market planning. (Kindly see chapter – Promotion Mix – Marketing Communications;Discuss the steps involved in Promotion Decisions?).

All the Sales Promotion activities are guided by the marketing plan like any other Promotion activity. The market plan decides on the target market and objectives. A decision is taken on which of these objectives are achievable through sales promotion activities.

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