Promotion mix

Let us look at the individual components of the promotions mix in more detail. Remember all of the elements are 'integrated' to form a specific communications campaign.

• Personal Selling.
• Sales Promotion.
• Public Relations.
• Direct Mail.
• Trade Fairs and Exhibitions.
• Advertising.
• Sponsorship.

The elements of the promotions mix are integrated to form a coherent campaign. As with all forms of communication. The message from the marketer follows the 'communications process' as illustrated above. For example, a radio advert is made for a car manufacturer. The car manufacturer (sender) pays for a specific advert with contains a message specific to a target audience (encoding). It is transmitted during a set of commercials from a radio station (Message / media).

The message is decoded by a car radio (decoding) and the target consumer interprets the message (receiver). He or she might visit a dealership or seek further information from a web site (Response). The consumer might buy a car or express an interest or dislike (feedback). This information will inform future elements of an integrated promotional campaign. Perhaps a direct mail campaign would push the consumer to the point of purchase. Noise represent the thousand of marketing communications that a consumer is exposed to everyday, all competing for attention.

The Product Life Cycle (PLC)

The Product Life Cycle (PLC) is based upon the biological life cycle. For example, a seed is planted (introduction); it begins to sprout (growth); it shoots out leaves and puts down roots as it becomes an adult (maturity); after a long period as an adult the plant begins to shrink and die out (decline).



In theory it's the same for a product. After a period of development it is introduced or launched into the market; it gains more and more customers as it grows; eventually the market stabilises and the product becomes mature; then after a period of time the product is overtaken by development and the introduction of superior competitors, it goes into decline and is eventually withdrawn.



However, most products fail in the introduction phase. Others have very cyclical maturity phases where declines see the product promoted to regain customers.









Strategies for the differing stages of the Product Life Cycle

Introduction
The need for immediate profit is not a pressure. The product is promoted to create awareness. If the product has no or few competitors, a skimming price strategy is employed. Limited numbers of product are available in few channels of distribution.

Growth
Competitors are attracted into the market with very similar offerings. Products become more profitable and companies form alliances, joint ventures and take each other over. Advertising spend is high and focuses upon building brand. Market share tends to stabilise.

Maturity
Those products that survive the earlier stages tend to spend longest in this phase. Sales grow at a decreasing rate and then stabilise. Producers attempt to differentiate products and brands are key to this. Price wars and intense competition occur. At this point the market reaches saturation. Producers begin to leave the market due to poor margins. Promotion becomes more widespread and use a greater variety of media.

Decline
At this point there is a downturn in the market. For example more innovative products are introduced or consumer tastes have changed. There is intense price-cutting and many more products are withdrawn from the market. Profits can be improved by reducing marketing spend and cost cutting.

Problems with Product Life Cycle
In reality very few products follow such a prescriptive cycle. The length of each stage varies enormously. The decisions of marketers can change the stage, for example from maturity to decline by price-cutting. Not all products go through each stage. Some go from introduction to decline. It is not easy to tell which stage the product is in. Remember that PLC is like all other tools. Use it to inform your gut feeling.

Marketing Mix

What is the marketing mix?
The marketing mix is probably the most famous marketing term. Its elements are the basic, tactical components of a marketing plan. Also known as the Four P's, the marketing mix elements are price, place, product and promotion.

The concept is simple. Think about another common mix - a cake mix. All cakes contain eggs, milk, flour, and sugar. However, you can alter the final cake by altering the amounts of mix elements contained in it. So for a sweet cake add more sugar!

It is the same with the marketing mix. The offer you make to you customer can be altered by varying the mix elements. So for a high profile brand, increase the focus on promotion and desensitize the weight given to price. Another way to think about the marketing mix is to use the image of an artist's palette. The marketer mixes the prime colours (mix elements) in different quantities to deliver a particular final colour. Every hand painted picture is original in some way, as is every marketing mix.

Five P's and Seven P's

Some commentators will increase the marketing mix to the Five P's, to include people. Others will increase the mix to Seven P's, to include physical evidence (such as uniforms, facilities, or livery) and process (i.e. the whole customer experience e.g. a visit the Disney World). The term was coined by Neil H. Borden in his article The Concept of the Marketing Mix in 1965.

Price
There are many ways to price a product. Let's have a look at some of them and try to understand the best policy/strategy in various situations.

Place
Another element of Neil H.Borden's Marketing Mix is Place. Place is also known as channel, distribution, or intermediary. It is the mechanism through which goods and/or services are moved from the manufacturer/ service provider to the user or consumer.

Product

The Product Life Cycle (PLC) is based upon the biological life cycle. For example, a seed is planted (introduction); it begins to sprout (growth); it shoots out leaves and puts down roots as it becomes an adult (maturity); after a long period as an adult the plant begins to shrink and die out (decline).

Promotion
Another one of the 4P's is promotion. This includes all of the tools available to the marketer for 'marketing communication'. As with Neil H.Borden's marketing mix, marketing communications has its own 'promotions mix.' Think of it like a cake mix, the basic ingredients are always the same. However if you vary the amounts of one of the ingredients, the final outcome is different.

Physical Evidence
Physical Evidence is the material part of a service. Strictly speaking there are no physical attributes to a service, so a consumer tends to rely on material cues.

People
People are the most important element of any service or experience. Services tend to be produced and consumed at the same moment, and aspects of the customer experience are altered to meet the 'individual needs' of the person consuming it.

Process
Process is another element of the extended marketing mix, or 7P's.There are a number of perceptions of the concept of process within the business and marketing literature. Some see processes as a means to achieve an outcome, for example - to achieve a 30% market share a company implements a marketing planning process.

Ad copywriting tip: Tell an interesting story

"since we had discussed about the wide variety of copywrite ad in the lesson, I started finding some articles that teach us how to write a good copywrite ad and I found the following article is quite useful and clear."


Some of the best advertisements are built around a story.
This is an advanced copywriting technique and takes a deft hand to pull off, so I don’t recommend it to novice copywriters. But when you can do it convincingly, it’s a thing of beauty.
Here’s an ad I ran across while rifling through some folders this morning. This is probably too small to read, but you can click on it to download a PDF image of the entire ad.





Let’s take a look at a few things that make this ad work.

First, the headline is newsy and intriguing. It introduces the idea of losing a lot of weight, but it teases you with the promise of an interesting story. A headline is supposed to draw you in and make you read the body copy, so this sort of headline does its job well.
Notice the specificity of the headline. It’s not just a housewife, but an Atlanta housewife. She didn’t merely lose weight; she lost 73 pounds.

Second, note the simple layout of the text. It’s intended to look like an article in the magazine where the ad appeared. While most ads should stand out, this sort of ad is intended to blend in. Why? Because it’s aimed at people who are reading the magazine and looking for interesting stories.
This type of ad is usually called an “advertorial.” It calls for a newsy tone, long copy, and minimal design.

Third, (assuming you’ve read the entire ad above) note how the explanation about why the Atlanta housewife was almost arrested is only revealed after you read about two-thirds of the text. The writer didn’t want to satisfy curiosity about this too soon. This helps to keep readers reading.

Fourth, the call to action is saved for the end. This is no surprise to those experienced at story ads, but it’s something many copywriters would screw up. The trend today is to spit out the call to action immediately, and that works in many circumstances. However, it would kill a story ad like this. You have to hook the reader, tell the story, and only then ask for the order. It takes faith in the format.

Fifth, the copy is written in the first person. Normally, you avoid this in typical copywriting since you want to put the focus on the reader. In a story ad, though, the copy is personal and works like a testimonial. It’s like a friend talking to you.

Story ads are not appropriate for every product or publication. But if you have the chance to write one, keep these ideas in mind. This type of ad can be fun and highly satisfying.

Stylistic Features of the Advertising Slogan

A slogan is a form of verbal logo. In a print ad, it usually appears just beneath or beside the brand name or logo. A slogan sums up what one stand for, one’s specialty, the benefit, and one’s marketing position, and one’s commitment. It is especially useful to reinforce one’s identity. A slogan can prove to be more powerful than a logo. People can remember and recite your slogan while they are unlikely to doodle your logo. It is more important for your slogan to clearly state what you are about than to be clever, but if you can accomplish both, all the better. Slogans have two basic purposes: to provide continuity to a series of ads in a campaign and to reduce an advertising message strategy to a brief, repeatable, and memorable positioning.

The slogan should be used everywhere. Think of it as being attached to one’s name like a shadow; put it on business cards, printed ads, personal brochures, signs, letters, in the yellow pages -everywhere one can put it.

1. At the graphetic level

1.1 Consistent use of initial capitalization.
For example,
Heinz: Beanz Meanz Heinz.
Toyota: I Love What You Do For Me.

1.2 Sometimes full use of capitalization.
For example,
NewsWeek: THE WORLD’S NEWSMAGAZINE.
Oracle: SOFTWARE POWERS THE INTERNET.

2. At the phonological level

2.1 Rhymes with brand name
Haig Scotch: Don't be vague. Ask for Haig.
Quavers: The flavour of a Quaver is never known to waver.

2.2 Rhymes - brand name mention
Viakal: It's the Viakal fizz that does the bizz!
Jaguar : Grace, space, pace.

2.3 Use of alliteration.
Allied Irish Bank: Britain's best business bank.
Greyhound: Greyhound going great.
Fila: Functional... Fashionable... Formidable...

3. At the lexical level
3.1 Common uses of second person addressee “you”, “we”,”us”.
For example,
HYUNDAI: Always there for you.
Nestle Milo: Bring out the champion in you.
Avis Rent A Car: We try harder.
Fed ex: We live to deliver.

3.2 Use of unqualified comparison.
For example,
Coleman footgear: Better choice, better joys.

3.3 Use of “every” “always”, etc.
For example,
Always Coca-Cola.
Mitsubishi: Technically, everything is possible.

3.4 Use of “no”, “none”, etc.
For example,
Mercedes Benz: The pursuit for perfection has no finish line.
M&Ms melt in your mouth, not in your hand.

3.5 Use of coined words.
Louis Vuitton: Epileather.
Burton Menswear: Everywear.
Gordon's & Tonic: Innervigoration.

4. At the syntactic level.

4.1 Use of short simple sentences.
For example,
Sumsung Digitall-Everyone is invited.
GE: We bring good things to life.

4.2 Use of everyday sentences.
For example,
Nike: Just do it
Nestle: It’s the taste!

4.3 Use of phrases.
For example,
Apple computer: think different
Malaysia Airlines: Beyond expectation.
Maxwell House: Good to the last drop.

4.4 Use of questions.
For example,
Ford: Have you driven a Ford lately?
Volkswagen Polo: R u Polo?

4.5 Use of imperative sentences.
For example,
Express card: Don’t leave home without it.
United Airlines: Life is a journey, travel it well.

4.6 Use of tense.
For example,
DeBeers: A diamond is forever.
Rossini: Time always follows me

4.7 Creative use of idioms or proverbs
For example,
Financial Times: No FT, no comment.
IBM: I think, therefore IBM.

5. At the semantic level.

5.1 Semantic ambiguity
For example,
Philips: let’s make things better.

5.2 Use of puns
Moss Security: Alarmed? You should be.
Pioneer: Everything you hear is true.
Range Rover: It's how the smooth take the rough.
Kenco Really Rich Coffee: Get Rich quick.
Finish Detergent: Brilliant cleaning starts with Finish.

5.3 Here the brand goes to work, as inextricably part of the pun.
Citibank: Because the Citi never sleeps.
Quavers Snacks: Do me a Quaver.

All the above-mentioned stylistic features of ad slogans are necessary to make them neat, simple, original, strategic, memorable and campainable.

print ad with good copywriting

Thailand Post: William
Dearest Margaret, resembling my love, the red roses. Right at your front door is where my heart lies. There, I have been yearning for your love. Please don't make me wait till I wither like those red roses. With much love, William.

"Good memories you won't get from e-mail."

it's a smart move for a post service's print ads to use a letter with a good copywriting to deliver it's message. as letter can show the writer's sincereness and character that e-mail can't show. we can actually feel the love from the writer to the receiver. it's the biggest reason that tells us why we need a post service.

the printing specification

book name: WITTY DESIGN OBJECTS

auther: Della Chuang

publisher: Garden City Publishers

book:

book sixe: 210mm x 170mm

paper: 115 pages of uncoated art paper (4c+4c)

4 pages of black matt card (0c+0c)

binding: perfect binding

cover:

cover size: 505mm x 210mm (bookside: 15mm x 210mm)

paper: black matt card (1c+0c)

printing effect: hot-stamping (gold)

debossing

my interim presentation's motion graphic

actually, the whole idea of this motion graphic is based on the kids' point of view. it is about their imaginations, what they might see. so, i use the "fill in the blank" to deliver this idea, they can fill in whatever they think it is.

everything turns out quite childish at the end, but i don't think it is a bad thing coz i'm selling a toy. i mean to make it childish actually. it's fun! and i think it's meaningful enough to help me to present my children-oriented concept too.