analyzing the impact of promotion mix on consumer`s purchase

Advanced Social Humanities and Management 2(1) 2015:72-81
www.ashm-journal.com
ANALYZING THE IMPACT OF PROMOTION MIX ON
CONSUMER’S PURCHASE DECISION
Mahsa Familmaleki
Department of Management , College of Humanities , Hamedan Science and Research Branch,Hamedan,Iran
[email protected]
Alireza Aghighi
Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and Management, Payame Noor University,Hamedan,Iran
[email protected]
Kambiz Hamidi
Faculty Member of Management ,Islamic Azad University Hamedan Branch , Hamedan,Iran
[email protected]
ABSTRACT:
Today‟s marketing is not based on producing facilities but rather on providing
appropriate information channels for the consumers. In other words Modern
marketing is more than just producing good products, suitable pricing and easy
access to them. In today‟s world, the companies have introduced various
strategies such as „promotional mixed‟ which are Advertising, sales promotion,
direct marketing, personal selling and public relation/publicity in accordance to
changes in the consumers‟ socio-economy, technology, and competition
aspects. Nevertheless, the success of these strategies is vague. Considering the
high completion between the companies and rapid growth of markets and also
rapid changes in consumers behaviors, choosing a good promotional mix and
prioritization of its tools help the promotion of marketing goals. The study
explained the impact of promotional activities on consumers purchasing
decisions. The data required for this study has been gained from these sources:
from books, studies and previous research. The study was conducted in order to
comprehend the role of the elements of promotion mix in influencing consumers.
Key words: Promotional mix; Consumer purchasing decision; Advertising; sales promotion; direct marketing; personal selling; public
relation
INTRODUCTION:
In modern marketing there must be something more than developing a good product, good pricing and making
it available to target consumers. Companies must communicate with their present and potential customers, as
well as internally, and therefore makes it very important in the marketing process. A modern company manages
a complex marketing communication system; it communicates with its customers, distributors, suppliers,
consumers and various publics. However, for most companies the issue is not whether to communicate, but
rather what to say, where, to whom, and when (Koekemoer & Bird ,2004).
Consumers are exposed to thousands of marketing communication every day. Organizations compete heavily
for the attention and custom of the consumer through their advertising. Marketing communication attempts to
provide information to the consumer about the organization‟s products and service offering. The various
methods of communicating with the consumer need to be in agreement to deliver a holistic and effective
message that will satisfy both organizational and consumer needs.
The object of the message is to persuade the audience to purchase the product or service. Therefore the
consumer needs to be receptive to the message and to be able to interpret it in such a way the intent to purchase
is established (Koekemoer,2004). For this to be effective, marketers have to be able to develop messages that
will reach and convince the designated target market. Various promotional tools are at the disposal of the
marketers to reach the target consumer.
Chris Fill (1995) states that “the primary role of marketing communications is to engage audiences” and
promoting both the organization and its offerings through different communication tools. It recognizes the
increasing role the organization plays in the marketing process and the impact that organizational factors can
72
Advanced Social Humanities and Management 2(1) 2015:72-81
www.ashm-journal.com
have on the minds of consumers. It is a management process through which an organization develops, presents
and evaluates a series of messages to identified audiences (Fill, 1995),. In order to understand marketing
communications it is fundamental to understand the marketing communications process. When communicating
with the target audience. A set of tools, also called the marketing communications mix, are used. There are five
principal marketing communication tools: advertising, sales promotions, public relations, direct marketing and
personal selling. These will be discussed more in the following.
Nowadays, the many promotional tactics used by business organization to survey in the modern business
market. Promotion mix is a blend of communications tools used by a firm to carry out the promotion process
and to communicate direct by with target markets. The purpose of promotion is to reach the targeted consumers
and persuade them to buy. Marketers are continuously searching for new ways to communicate better with their
public and to understand Consumers‟ purchasing behavior, they tried to define and explain the consumer‟s
purchase process by using different models .Successful companies must identify proper ways of persuading
customers in order to preserve their situation in market share and competitiveness. The determination of the
most appropriate, effective, and influential promotional mix elements on the consumers‟ purchasing decision
making, which achieve the producers‟ objectives may have a strong, important, and useful indications for both
decision makers, and marketing planners in companies (Mahmud I.,2014). Producer of a commodity or service
should combine carefully the communication tools in access to achieve a regular combination of promotional
elements, a combination that is influensive in achieving communicative and marketing goals. Determining the
best combination of promotional tools is a difficult problem. Considering all the items discussed about the
importance of promotional mix and as the customer‟s behavior and consumers are obviously influenced by
promotional action ions and as considering the shortage of financial resources in the companies and increasing
completion between them ,promotion and ranking of the related tools are necessary in the organization.
Literature Review:
Various literature and research suggest a multitude of definitions of the concept of promotional mix. Promotion
mix is a term used to describe the set of tools that a business can use to communicate effectively the benefits of
its products or services to its customers .In order to ensure that a company‟s promotional strategies is accepted
and well received by people, the companies must first have a strong way of communication because good
communication skills and effective promotion is a weapon for every company to lead in the industry ( Nor
Amira et al,2013), “Communication has been defined as a process by which individuals share meaning, it offers
the means of creating and implementing behavioral changes both within and without an organization. In general
the simplest definition of communication is social interaction through messages”. (Kalla, 2005). Furthermore
Oliver (1997) define communication as “an interchange of ideas, facts and emotions, by two or more persons,
with the use of words, letters and symbols based on the technical problem of how accurately the symbols can be
transmitted, the semantic problem of how, precisely, the symbols convey the desired meaning, and the
effectiveness of how the received meaning affects conduct in the desired way”. (Kalla 2005, 303). Every
message sending from the marketer faces the basic model of communication (figure 1) where major participants
are the sender and the receiver (Belch & Belch 2004, 139-142) and is illustrated below. For example, a new TV
advertisement is made for a toothpaste manufacturer (company X). The company X (sender) pays for the
message to be broadcasted. The advertisement based on sender‟s field of experience brings certain product
information directed to specific target viewers (encoding). The message delivery is submitted through a chosen
promotional tool from a TV medium (channel/message). The message is subsequently decoded by a TV set
(decoding) what allows the target clients know about it based on receiver‟s field of experience (receiver). The
future customer reaction (response) can be realized through a visit to shop or a price check by the Internet. By
expressing an interest or non-interest towards the product, the consumer might buy the toothpaste or not, giving
an opinion to the source (feedback).
However to exchange the ideas a concrete communication process is needed. A simple communicat ion model
is shown in below (figure 1).
73
Advanced Social Humanities and Management 2(1) 2015:72-81
www.ashm-journal.com
Fig. 1. Basic model of Communication (Adopted from Belch and Belch 2004, 139)
Marketers are continuously searching for new ways to communicate better with their public and to understand
consumers‟ purchasing behavior. They tried to define and explain the consumer‟s purchase process by using
different models and applying various strategies for improving brand communication. Different models can
explain the buying process. It is best understood in the context of a total flow of marketing communications.
There are several applicable models of the steps a consumer goes through and they are sometimes called
message models or response hierarchy models. In these models there are different steps or levels a customer
goes through to get to the purchase or decides on courses to apply to. This study describes the consumer‟s
purchase process by interpreting the AIDA Model(Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action). Since its
introduction by Lewis (1900) and generally attributed in the marketing and advertising literature by Strong
(1925), the concept of AIDA‟s hierarchy of effects model has been used by many researchers, both
academicians and practitioners(Bambang,2011. AIDA is an abbreviation for Attention, Interest, Desire, and
Action. It is a linear theory and it begins with gaining attention that is to create awareness so that the brand is
revealed. Then the advertisement should create interest and a positive attitude with the communication towards
the product. Desire is developed by the advertiser‟s ability to motivate the customer to feel something positive
about the product or some problem-solution execution. The last stage is action, which means that there ought to
be some stimuli so that the customer buys the product. This model is introduced to explain the stages how
consumers change their behavior and take action to purchase the product. This model describes the stages how
customers change their attitudes and take action to purchase the products. According to this model, consumers
upon receiving an advertising message go through the stages of attention, interest, desire, and action. According
to Strong (1925), this model was originally developed to help sales people to do their job (Jobber, 1998) .
In advertising theories, the AIDA model became one of the major theories to address the consumer`s decisionmaking process. Furthermore, the creation of hierarchy model is influenced by the cognitive, affective, and
cognitive psychology model. This psychology model described the behavioral dimensions of decision-making,
suggesting individuals first think, then feel, and finally act when influenced by stimuli. (Mabry, 2010).
In advertising theories, the AIDA model became one of the major theories to address the consumer`s decisionmaking process. Furthermore, the creation of hierarchy model is influenced by the cognitive, affective, and
cognitive psychology model. This psychology model described the behavioral dimensions of decision-making,
suggesting individuals first think, then feel, and finally act when influenced by stimuli. (Mabry, 2010) Lewis
theorized that sales people, in order to successful, had to attract attention (cognitive), maintain interest and
create desire (affect) and get action (conation). Figure 2 presents the different stages of the AIDA model.
74
Advanced Social Humanities and Management 2(1) 2015:72-81
www.ashm-journal.com
Fig. 2. Principles and practice of marketing (Strong ,1925)
Attention means the act or state of attending the application of the mind to any object of sense, representation,
or thought; notice; exclusive or special including the faculty or power or mental concentration; stating
differently. Attention is categorized into five types: however base on my participant behavior I have discussed
two types i.e. Focused attention and Sustained attention.
Focused attention is the ability to responds discretely to specific visual, auditory or tactile stimuli. Sustained
attention is the ability in which the target audience maintains a consistent behavioral response during
continuous and repetitive activity. The second stage of the AIDA model interest means making the target
audience interested in the product. In addition, interest means awakening interest, to exciting emotion or
passion towards the product by creating awareness. Desire is the ability of the advertisers to motivate the target
audience to feel something positive about the product. Action means that there ought to be some stimuli to
make the customers buy the product.
when the companies have made their promotional strategies they must focus on their target market and use the
right channel in order to ensure their target market is aware of the promotion for their products and will accept
as well as buy their products. good promotion strategies will get good response and all promotional activities
organized by the company were done to increase sales and indirectly to get more profit for the company. In
addition, these promotional strategies also measure how strong it influences the buying decision among
consumers and to find out whether the promotional strategies implemented (advertising, internet marketing,
public relation and personal selling) are well accepted ( Nor Amira et al,2013).
the promotion mix includes the tools like Advertising, Public Relations ,Sales Promotion, Direct marketing and
Personal Selling(Chunnawala and Sethia,1994). According to Belch et al. (2004, 166) there are five major
promotional forms in marketing communications mix which are illustrated below (Figure 3).
Fig 3. Integrated marketing communications (Adopted from Belch et al. 2004, 166)
75
Advanced Social Humanities and Management 2(1) 2015:72-81
www.ashm-journal.com
Promotion is one of the key factors in the marketing mix and has a key role in market success. Promotion is
used to ensure that consumers are aware of the products that the organization is offering.(Ansari,Shahriar.2011).
As one of the marketing mix elements, promotion includes all the activities directed to the targeted consumers,
that lead to facilitate the process of contacting with them for the purpose of formatting a sense of the
importance of the commodity in achieving a high degree of consumers satisfaction of their wishes and needs
comparing with the competitors commodities.( Mahmud I. Nour et al.2014).
Promotion has been defined as the coordination of all seller-initiated efforts to set up channels of information
and persuasion to sell goods and services or promote an idea (Belch and Belch, 2004). promotion is having
direct or indirect relationship with people, groups or organizations for attention and convincing them to
purchase organization products. As we already know, promotion is crucial in new product launch because it
helps to attract the customer‟s attention towards the new product in a market cluttered with similar products and
indirectly it will influence the consumer in the purchase decision. (Mittal, 1989) defines purchase decision as
“the extent of interest and concern that a consumer brings to bear on a purchase decision task”.
Direct Marketing
Direct mail has been an important part of the communications mix in B-2-B markets for some time. It can
support personal selling by building awareness, improve the image, establish reliability and taking orders, as
well as providing levels of customer management (Fill, 2009).
`Direct´ means using direct media such as mailings, catalogues, telephone, Internet, press and posters, and not
through intermediaries such as dealers, retailers or sales staff. No media channel dominates their work. It is a
tool that is used to create and sustain a personal communication with customers, potential customers and other
important stakeholders (Fill, 2006).
Direct marketing has a basic philosophy and that is to consider each customer as an investment. By identifying
each customer means that one can target the most appropriate communication in an interactive way. Customers
are personally addressed and are able to respond, resulting in that the company may adapt an offer to the needs
of the customer based on the data that have been stored in a database from the transactions (De Pelsmacker et
al. 2001). In general, direct marketing have three main objectives and target groups. The first one is that direct
marketing communications can be used as a direct sales channel by selling products without any face-to-face
contact, meaning that for Example direct mail is used and orders are taken by phone or mail. The second one is
sales or distribution support. It can be used to support the sales team, dealers or retailers since direct marketing
tries to prepare and stimulate sales. Not to forget, it can also be used to follow up sales. The third and last one is
customer retention and loyalty. Direct marketing is a suitable tool for improving customer relationships and
increase the satisfaction and loyalty among them. Customer loyalty is important in many ways; loyal customers
stand for a large amount of sales figures and they become profitable the longer they stay in terms of the return
per customer will increase and positive word-of-mouth leads to new customers (De Pelsmacker et al. 2001.)
Belch (2004) defines the direct marketing as a “total set of activities by which the seller at-tempts to elicit a
direct action response”. Direct Marketing is an interactive marketing system which uses one or more advertising
media to provide a measurable reaction or trade in every level (Kutler, 2006).
The deal focuses on a direct contact between the seller and the consumer, in the sense of absence of any
distributors or retailers. A considerable number of techniques to reach the target customer are involved in this
type of promotion. Direct marketing can be realized through direct mailing campaigns and catalogues, mass
media tools (television, infomercials, teleshopping and radio), printing order forms and telemarketing. The
Internet has also enhanced the opportunities for direct marketing therefore electronic teleshopping has
automatically been added to the list of tools.
Advertising
Advertising plays an important role in marketing communications since it can reach large audiences with
simple messages that presents opportunities for the receivers and allowing them to understand what a product is
and what primary function it has, and how it relates to other similar products. Therefore, the main function of
advertising is to communicate with specific audiences, which may be
76
Advanced Social Humanities and Management 2(1) 2015:72-81
www.ashm-journal.com
consumer or business audiences. The prime objective is however to build or maintain awareness of a product or
organization. It is important to know that advertising does not have a single role since it can be used to get
several outcomes. Apart from its ability to reach large audiences, the key strengths of advertising have been to
develop brand awareness, values and associations (Fill, 2006).
Advertising is a non-personal form of mass communication and offers great level of control for those who are
responsible for designing and delivering advertising messages (Fill 2006, 16). The message can be transmitted
in a particular manner and style that have been agreed upon at times that matches the management‟s
requirements. The regular use of advertising can be important for creating and
maintaining brand personality when it is in cooperation with other elements of the marketing communications
mix. Advertising plays a significant role in the development of competitive advantage. In consumer markets
advertising is the dominant form of communication for many organizations (Wright 2004, 383). It is a good
marketing communication tool to inform and persuade people whatever product, service or idea is being
promoted. It can be used to strengthen the corporate image and its products and so reinforce buyer loyalty.
Advertising in the business-to-business market is more about to inform and remind and to provide relevant facts
upon which decisions can be made. Regardless of the target audience, all advertising requires a message and a
carrier to deliver the message to the receiver (De Pelsmacker ,2001).
Advertising is a paid, non-personal form of marketing communication that encourages audience through various
channels to act in a specific manner beneficial to advertiser, i.e. to buy a product or service. Advertising has
been designed to direct views also make change in behavior easy and may present the most convincing sale
messages with most accurate perspective of products or services without much cost (Celeb, 2007. advertisement
is one of the primary communication link with consumers, hence consumers' desired image and language along
with culture, economy and commercial changes should be kept in mind (Wang, 2009) Advertising helps to
build brand awareness and image by repetitive exposure to intended message.
With respect to the variety of advertising media, three public ones are studied which are most applied:
television, radio and magazine. With the emergence and relatively fast pace of internet penetration, some
advertising activities, such as search engine results, social network ads, blogs, e-mail messages are becoming
more widely used by companies of any type and size. It is notable to mention that online advertisement is the
fastest-growing type nowadays (Levinson, 2009).
Personal Selling
According to De Pelsmacker et al (2001) this communication tool can be defined as two-way, face-to-face
communications used to inform, give demonstrations to, maintain or establish a long-term relationship with
members of particular audiences (De Pelsmacker et al ,2001). It is the most important tool of the marketing
communications mix in B-2-B markets and representing the company is largely the role of personal selling and
the salesperson is an important factor in image-building. There is a possibility of feedback and evaluation of
messages that have been transmitted so that these personal messages can be modified and made more personal
than any of the other communication tools. In business-to-business markets, sales personnel operate at the
border at the organization and provide the link between the organizational needs and the needs of their
customers. Without personal selling, communication with other organizations would occur through electronic or
print media (Fill, 2006). The major advantage of personal selling is the impact it has, meaning that a
salesperson is more likely to break through, get people‟s attention and even be remembered afterwards. The
salesperson has the possibility of adapting the message to the type of customer he or she is dealing with. Since
the communication is two-way there is less risk of misunderstandings and as stated earlier the salesperson gets
immediate feedback (Fill 2006, 279-280). There is however also disadvantages with personal selling, such as
high costs. As a consequence of this, the company cannot afford to send a salesperson to customers too often,
therefore reach and frequency will remain limited. Also, the company does not have full control over its sales
force, as it has over the other communications tools. There may be differences in how salespersons represent
the company. Sometimes the salesperson is the only contact a customer has with the company and therefore it is
important that the salesperson act in a proper manner since inconsistent behavior or messages might create
confusion as to what the company stands for. (De Pelsmacker, 2001: 392-5).
77
Advanced Social Humanities and Management 2(1) 2015:72-81
www.ashm-journal.com
Personal selling refers to a process of face-to-face, personal correspondence or telephone communication to
potential buyer of a product or service with the aim of selling it later. Sales promotion is a short term strategy to
derive demand and also and especial marketing offer which provides more profit than what consumers receive
from the sale position of a product and also has sharper influence on sales (Banerjee, 2009). Trust between the
seller and the buyer is important which has been vastly discussed in marketing literature and researches show
that more trust results in more effective performance (Dawes, 2006).
However, it appears to be one of the most expensive and labor intensive types and it should only be used when
such high costs can be justified. and in order to be successful in sales process, having information on marketing,
financial issues and activities are essential (Storbacka, 2009).
Sales Promotion
If advertising is used for creating brand values then sales promotion delivers a call to action. Advertising and
sales promotions complement each other as advertising seeks to work over the long term to create awareness,
while sales promotion works in the shorter term to create sales (Fill ,2006). Like advertising, sales promotion is
a non-personal form of communication but it has a greater capability to be targeted at smaller audiences (Fill
,2006). A sales promotion consists of techniques that are aimed at increasing sales in the short run, meaning
that they are mostly used for a short period of time. It offers control, and the costs can be much lower than of
advertising. The main characteristics of sales promotions are that they offer better value for money and they try
to cause responses immediately (De Pelsmacker ,2001). Sales promotion has a strong ability to add value and to
bring forward future sales. For sales personnel promotional tools are used primarily for motivating staff or
supporting them in their selling roles. In order for sales staff to carry out their various tasks they may draw
heavily from information that is provided by the organization, such as brochures, catalogues, and selling aids
such as presentation kits. Sales promotion is also a vital tool for organizations that rely on intermediaries in
order to reach customers. Financial mechanisms (incentives and promotional pricing) are typically used as part
of a company´s push strategy (meaning that they are trying to ´push´ sales through distribution channels) and
might be used to gain acceptance of new products by middlemen or to create short-term sales (Brennan et al.
2007).
Sales promotion is a marketing activity undertaken by firms to boost short-term sales or en-courage customers
to try a product or service. This tool has the ability to attract and keep loyal customers and is an excellent what
to persuade them build viable link with the organization and involves all motifs applied by the producer to
persuade trade with members of a channel (Ndubisi, 2006).
Sales promotions are highly affective in exposing consumers to products for the first time and can serve as key
promotional components in the early stages of new product presentation.(Ansari,2011). Shultz, et al. (1998)
says that sales promotion generally works on a direct behavioral basis rather than affecting awareness or
attitude.
Public Relations
According to Fill (2006), “public relations is concerned with the management of relationships between
organizations and their stakeholders” (Fill ,2006). It is an effort to establish and maintain good relationships,
shared understanding and goodwill with secondary target groups (also called publics, they influence opinions
about the company, but they are not the direct target group for selling products to), audiences or stakeholders. It
is used to closing the gap between how its key public sees the organization and how the organization would like
to be seen by its key public (De Pelsmacker et al. 2001). Public relations are a two-way form of communication,
meaning that the company learns from its publics and passes on information to them. It differs from marketing
communications in several ways. Marketing communications tend to be commercial and short term, while PR
executives are more concerned about the long-term goodwill towards and reputation of the company as a whole.
Marketers always have to keep PR people focused on marketing objectives, while the role of
PR people is to remind about the importance of non-marketing audiences for the well-being of the company in
the long run. An important role of PR is to guide the company through crises without too much damage to its
reputation. PR offers more flexibility since advertising and sales promotion are often very strictly regulated by
governments (De Pelsmacker et al. 2001). It is relatively cost-effective because it generates free media coverage
78
Advanced Social Humanities and Management 2(1) 2015:72-81
www.ashm-journal.com
and it enables the company to reach a large number of people compared to what it would cost to create an
advertising campaign. The major weakness of PR is that there is little control over the media content. Media can
publish stories that may be quite different from the information coming from the PR department. The context
and style of the original message may be changed or lost, unlike in advertising where the company has full
control over the content of what is being communicated (De Pelsmacker et al .2001).
It is non-personal persuasion of demand for a product, service or business unit by planting significant and
positive commercial news without giving any money by the related company (haghparast, 1989).
Public relation (PR) part of promotion mix is a practice of building and maintaining companies‟ image and
goodwill through non-paid communication media. The ultimate goal of public relations activities is to persuade
various stakeholders about a certain positive point of view about the company and helps in building mutually
beneficial relationships.
Promotional mix and the AIDA Model
In the hierarchy-of-effects model, the AIDA model is one of the earliest developed models. The AIDA model
distinguishes that customers pass through four phases. The first phase customers pass through is awareness
(Attention). When customers confronted with promotion of the product, they know about the product existence.
In the second stage of the model customers know about the product and some of them become interested. The
following figure shows the comparison of the promotion categories and Hierarchy-of-Effects Model. (Heymer,
2008).
Advertising
Awareness
Public
Relations
Interest
Sales
Promotion
Desire
Personal
Selling
Action
Fig. 4. Comparison between promotion categories and the AIDA model (Pickton & Broderick ,2005)
The promotional tools are predominantly adopted to build awareness and motivate consumers to the second
stage through generation interest. However, knowing about the product and generating interest does not
automatically result into action or purchase. Therefore, customers should show desire to act and purchase. To
arouse desire and obtain action, promotional mix tools attributed to the categories and personal selling are the
prevailing means of creating desire and actions. (Heymer ,2008).
CONCLUSION:
Promotion can be a powerful derives to persuade consumers and lead into increase of sales and profits and
make most of those who don't have the experience of the product try it at least once.
79
Advanced Social Humanities and Management 2(1) 2015:72-81
www.ashm-journal.com
One of the main aims of implementing the promotional plans is to increase sales and profits, so by prioritizing
the promotional tools from the most effective one to the least effective one, a proper procedure for good
utilization of each one of these tools was highlighted.Compared to other research works conducted in this
regard, the present research resulted in different findings.
According to Mahmud I et al.(2014,148) ,Their research identified the degree of promotional mix elements
practice in Jordanian shareholding Ceramic and glass production companies. Their results indicate that the
degree of Promotional activities practicing in Jordanian shareholding Ceramic and glass production companies,
which has ranked according to their importance are as followed: Advertising, personal selling, sales promotion,
followed by publicity, and finally, public relations.
Furthermore, according to Nor Amira(2013,163), From their research, they found that the four independent
variables that have been used (advertising, internet marketing, public relation, personal selling) have
contributed to only 31.5 percent of the purchased decision by the target audience. It reveals that there are other
variable (68.5 per cent) that may contribute to the buying decision of the target audience. Thus, the automotive
industry in Malaysia should enhance other promotion strategies such as sales promotion, road shows and
sponsorship event to enhance the customers‟ attention, arouse the customers‟ interest and desire and finally lead
the customer‟s action to buy the car. In a nutshell, the automotive companies in Malaysia have used the
common promotional strategies to attract the customers to buy their cars but there are still other means or ways
that need to be improved by the companies to ensure that the promotional strategies are well received and
would influence the buying decision of consumers.
In addition , according to DR.Sukhmani et al.( 2012,36),to study the role of elements of promotion mix which
help the companies in increasing their sales, the respondents were asked to rate the elements in ethnical issues
involved with the product ,distribution channel ,PCL stage, Government Regulations, market size and location
and strategies for competitors.
The factors chosen by the rural consumers which they consider accountable for deciding the optimal promotion
mix confirm the level of awareness among the rural respondents about the elements of promotion mix.
Each of the elements of promotion mix has its own impact on the rural masses. They understand the
significance of various elements of promotion mix in increasing the sales of the company wherein public
relations have been considered as the most important element, followed by Sales Promotion, Direct Marketing,
Advertising and Personal Selling. Observations clearly depict the role of various elements of promotion mix in
raising the sales of the companies.
According to Sardar Mohammadi et al.(2012,1671) , choosing the right, consistent and effective
communication model to direct consumers and customers to achieve short-term and long-term goals of
marketing is a complex and important topic. In their research, to evaluate promotional mix in production sector
of sport industry, AIDA model as the best scientific models was used. They said that choosing a good and
dynamic promotional mix to promote communicative goals of the organization and promotion of organization
products are one of the main challenges of marketing managers.
They found that advertisement was significant in comparison with public relations, personal sale and face-to –
face selling. “The importance of most of the advertisements in comparison with other promotional tools is due
to the effective role of advertisement to inform the market about the good and new services, explanation of the
commodity or service performance, correcting wrong perceptions, convincing the customer to make a purchase,
changing the customers attitudes about the characteristics of commodity or service, reminding the consumer
about his need to the commodity or service in near future and reminding the purchase place to the customer . “
Different studies know increasing the information of customers about the services and products in the market to
price, various products and their performance direct and modify perception indices of customers, creating a
good image of the company and stating its presence and alarming rivals, modification and removing the
negative effects, reduction of anxiety of consumers and creating a good mental image.
Considering the prioritization of promotional mix tools, it is recommended that managers of companies pay
attention to the tools with high final weight during arranging promotional programs. We should be said that the
important thing in the promotion of different products is using a good promotional mix. So we recommended to
marketing authorizes of companies to use good promotional mix based on final weight of each choices and
prioritization of these tools and internal conditions of the company and the budget.
REFERENCES:
Ansari,Shahriar.(2011)”The affect of sales promotion on consumer interest to purchase in IKCO automotive company”
,journal of knowledge management ,economics and information technology.
80
Advanced Social Humanities and Management 2(1) 2015:72-81
www.ashm-journal.com
Bambang Sukma Wijaya.(2011),” The Development of Hierarchy of Effects Model in Advertising”,international research
journal of business studies,VOL.5,NO.1,pp.73-85.
Banerjee, Subhojit (2009), “Effect of product category on promotional choice: comparative study of discounts and
freebies”, Management Research News, Vol. 32 No. 2, pp. 120-131.
Brennan, Ross – Canning, Louise – McDowell, Raymond 2007. Business-toBusiness Marketing. Sage Publications Ltd.
Belch George Eugene, Belch Michael A. (2004). Advertising and promotion: an integrated marketing communication
perspective. McGraw-Hill.
Celebi, Serra Inci (2007), “The credibility of advertising vs publicity for new FMCGs in Turkey, Corporate
Communications”: An International Journal, Vol. 12 No. 2, pp. 161-176.
Chunnawala,S.A. and Sethia,K.C. (1994)”Foundation of Advertising Theory and Practice”,Himalaya Publishing
House,Mumbai,pp.17.
Dawes, Philip L. and Massey, Graham R. (2006), “A study of relationship effectiveness between marketing and sales
managers in business markets”, Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol.21, No.6, pp· 346–360.
Dr.Sukhmani, and Dr.Shaveta,Gupta. And S.Neha,Karla.(2012),” Role of promotion mix in mounting the sales of various
FMCG companies in rural markets”,International journal of marketing,financial services & management
research,VOL.1,NO.3,pp.31-37.
Fill, Chris 2006. Simply Marketing Communications. Pearson Education Limited.
Jobber, D.(1998). Principles and Practice of Marketing. 2ed Ed. McGraw-Hill Publishing Company,UK..
Heymer, F.( 2008). Successful Promotion of Consumer Goods in Vietnam: An Explatory Investigation of Vietnamese
Consumers and Culture. GRIN Verlag, Germany.
Kalla, H.K.(2005).”Integrated internal communications: a multidisciplinary perspective. Corporate Communications”: An
International Journal. Vol 10. Iss 4. 302-314.
Koekemoer, Ludi – Bird, Steve 2004. Marketing Communications. Juta and
Company Limited.
Kutler, Philip. (2006), Marketing Management, (translated by Bahman Forouzandeh), Esfehan: Amoukhteh publication.
Levinson Jay Conrad, Lautenslager Al.( 2009). Guerilla Marketing in 30 Days, Second Edition. Entrepreneur press.
Mabry, E. F.(2010). Engaging audiences: an analysis of social media usage in advertising. B.S. Louisiana state university.
1-66.
Mahmud I. Nour, Mohammad Salamh Almahirah, Sultan "Mohammed Said," Sultan Freihat (2014). “The Impact of
Promotional Mix Elements on Consumers Purchasing Decisions.International” Business and Management, 8(2), 143-151.
Mittal, B. (1989), “Measuring purchase decision involvement”, Psychology and Marketing, Vol. 6 No. 2, pp.
147-62.
Mohammadi,sardar. And Esmaeily,Narges. And Salehi,Nasim.(2012),”prioritization of promotion tools on AIDA model by
analytic hierarchy process in production sector of sport industry”,archives of applied science research ,4(4),pp.1670-1675.
MR Haghparast,( 1989) , “The investigation and selection of a good promotional mix for related marketing research
companies by AHP method”, MA thesis, Tarbiat Modares University.
Ndubisi, Nelson Oly and Moi, Chew Tung (2006), “Awareness and usage of promotional tools by Malaysian consumers:
the case of low involvement products”, Management Research News, Vol. 29 No. 1/2, pp. 28-40.
Nor Amira, Mohd Ali. And Muhammad Hanif, Abdul Gafar. And Jamaludin ,Akbar.(2013).” Enhancing Promotional
Strategies within Automotive Companies in Malaysia”, Procedia Economics and Finance 7 , pp. 158 – 163.
De Pelsmacker, Patrick – Geuens, Maggie – Van den Bergh, Joeri 2001.
Marketing Communications. Pearson Education Limited.
Picton D, Broderick A (2005). Integrated marketing communication (2ed) Prentice Hall, p. 576.
Schultz, D.E. and Robinson, W.A. ( 1998), Sales Promotion Management, Chicago: Crain Books.
Storbacka, Kaj; Ryals, Lynette ; Davies,Iain A. and Nenonen, Suvi (2009), “The changing role of sales: viewing sales as a
strategic”, cross-functional process, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 43 No. 7/8, pp. 890-906.
Venus.D, Rusta.A, Ebrahimi.A, (2008), Marketing management, First edition, Tehran, SAMT publication.'
Wang, Ying, Sun, Shaojing, Lei, Weizhen and Toncar, Mark (2009),” Examining beliefs and attitudes toward online
advertising among Chinese consumers”, Direct Marketing: An International Journal, Vol. 3 No. 1, pp. 52-66.
81