The Promotional Mix

• Advertising: Any paid form of non-personal communication about an organization,  product, service, or idea by an identified sponsor. (cited from Ralph S. Alexander, ed.  Marketing Definitions. Chicago: American Marketing Association, 1965. p.9)

• Direct Marketing: communications by organizations directly with target customers to generate a response and/or a transaction. 

• Sales Promotion: Marketing activities that provide extra value or incentives to the sales force, distributors, or the ultimate consumer and can stimulate immediate sales. Sales promotion is generally broken into 2 major categories: consumer-oriented & trade-oriented activities.

•  Publicity: non-personal communication regarding an organization, product, service, or idea that is not directly paid for or run under identified sponsorship.

• Public Relation: the management function which evaluates public attitudes, identifies the policies and procedures of an individual or organization with the public interest, and executes a program of action to earn public understanding and acceptance. (cited from H. Frazier Moore & Bertrand R. Canfield. Public Relations: Principles, Case, and Problems. 7^th ed. Burr Ridge, Illinois: Richard D. Irwin, 1977. p.5).

•  Personal Selling: a form of person-to-person communication in which a seller attempts to assist and/or persuade prospective buyers to purchase the company’s product or service or to act on an idea.

Source: Belch, George E. and Belch, Michael A. Introduction to Advertising & Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communication Perspective. 3^rd ed. Chicago: Richard D. Irwin, 1995. p. 11-16.