Define Promotion.
After developing and pricing the product the next important task of the marketing manager is to formulate a suitable promotional strategy so as to inform the potential customers about the product and persuade them to buy the product. In common practice selling and promotion are used as synonyms but in real sense they differ a lot.
While the selling is concerned with the transfer of title of goods from seller to purchaser, promotion, on the other hand includes all those activities which stimulate the demand of the customers such as advertising, personal selling, publicity and sales promotion.
Promotion can serve to the organization directly as well as indirectly. It directly facilitates exchange by communicating information about the organization’s goods, ideas and services to its target market. While indirectly it facilitates exchanges by communicating information about the various activities of the company to current and potential customers and society in general. The overall aim of promotional strategy is to communicate a range of messages to the customers or distributors, so that the product can be sold.
According to Philip Kotler, “Promotion encompasses all the tools in the marketing mix whose major role is persuasive communication.”
According to Edward and Kelly, “Promotion is the co-ordination of all sellers initiated efforts to set up channels of information and persuasion to facilitate the sale of a goods or service or accept an idea”.
Promotion can thus be defined as means of communicating a range of information to the customer so as to attract them and to motivate them to buy the product. It directly and indirectly facilitate the exchange of goods through different tools like advertising, sales promotion, personal selling and publicity.
