1. Advertising
This is any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services by an identified sponsor through the media. Advertising offers a reason to buy. It includes print and electronic media.
Advertising is widely used in order to reach masses of geographically dispersed buyers at a low cost per exposure and it allows the marketer to repeat the message many times. Beyond the widespread coverage, advertising says something positive about the sellers’ size, popularity and success. Due to its public nature, consumers tend to view advertised products and services
2. Personal Selling
This is face-to-face or door-to-door selling of products/services. It is the personal presentation by the firm’s sales force for the purpose of making sales and building customer relationships. It includes sales presentations, demonstrations, trade shows, e.t.c.
This is the most effective tool at certain stages of the buying process, particularly in building up buyers’ preferences, convictions and actions. Personal selling involves personal interaction between two or more people, so each person can observe the other person’s needs and characteristics and make a quick adjustment. It allows all manner of relationships to spring up, ranging from a matter of selling to personal friendship. This enables the sales people to establish long-term relationships.
3. Sales Promotion
This consists of a diverse collection of incentive - tools, mostly short-term designed to stimulate quick and greater purchase of particular products/services. It offers an incentive to buy. It includes samples, coupons, prices-off, prizes, patronage reward, and point-of-purchase displays among others. This includes a wide assortment of tools, e.g. coupons, contests, cent-off deals, premiums and other incentives.
The incentives attract consumer attention, offer strong incentives to purchase and can be used to dramatize product offers and to boost sagging sales. Sales promotions invite and reward quick response - whereas advertising says “Buy our product” while sales promotion says “Buy it now.” Sales promotions are often short lived.
4. Publicity
This is a non-personal form of demand stimulation and is not paid for by the person or organization benefiting from it. It takes the form of favourable news presentation or some form of public address.
5. Public Relations
A public is a group that has an actual or potential interest in or impact on a company’s ability to achieve its objectives. Public relations (PR) include a variety of programs designed to protect a company’s image or its individual products. Main tools in Public Relation are publications, events, news, speeches, or service activities among others.
It involves building good relations with the company’s various publics by obtaining favourable publicity, building up a good corporate image and handling or heading off unfavourable rumours, stories and events
Public relation is very believable and includes tools like, news stories, features and events. PR can reach many prospects who may avoid sales people and advertisements. That is, the message gets to the people as news rather than as a sales-directed communication.
It is still not a popular method of creating awareness for many marketers since they use it only as an afterthought. Yet, a well-thought-out public relations campaign used with other promotion mix can be very effective and economical.
NOTE: All in all, public relations could be said to be a planned effort by an organization to influence some group’s attitude or opinion towards the organization. This may include publics like government agencies or people living near the promoting organization, e.t.c.
6. Direct Marketing
This is direct communication with carefully targeted individual consumers to obtain an immediate response and create a lasting - customer relationships. It includes telemarketing, catalogs, faxes, e.t.c
Forms of direct marketing include telemarketing, direct mail, electronic marketing and on-line marketing among others.
Titany answered the question on October 6, 2021 at 13:39