The five elements of the promotional mix include:  advertising, personal selling, public relations, and sales promotion. Marketing strategies can include all of or a mix of these possible elements.

Advertising: Advertising is non-personal in nature and is designed to target a specific audience through various mediums.  These mediums include:  mass media, television, radio, billboards, Internet, movies, magazines, etc.

Personal selling: Personal selling is "personal" and is designed to include persuasive information to convince consumers to purchase the product/service.  

Public Relations: Public Relations focuses on promoting positive relationships internal and external to the company.

Sales Promotion:  Sales Promotions create a sense of urgency and call the consumer to action through offers of additional product incentives.  Examples of additional product incentives include: buy-one/get-one, contests, free samples, exclusive offers, etc.

Direct Selling:  Person-to-person transaction/sale that is conducted by an independent sales representative not employed directly with the company (Avon, Pampered Chef, Mary Kay).

The four elements of the marketing mix include:  product, place, price, and promotion.  The purpose of the marketing mix is to satisfy the needs of a particular market and gain and sustain a competitive advantage.  Ideally, if all goes well, a company will have the right product, at the right place, for the right price.

Product:  The product must satisfy a need (or want), be of value (quality), and meet expectations.

Place:  Product Placement not only includes the final destination for sale of the product, but also the logistics involved with the distribution of the product.

Price:  The Price of a product is determined by the perceived value consumers attribute to the product. There are a number of factors that can impact the price of a product.  Examples of factors that can impact the pricing of a product include:  supply, demand, promotion, competition, etc.

Promotion:  Products need to be promoted (Promotional Mix).  Promotion refers to the methods by which a company communicates information about product/service to consumers.

Please read the following articles.  Keep the above information in mind and take notes.  Once you have read the articles, please respond to the discussion question below.

Role of a Promotional Mix (Links to an external site.)

What is the difference between a marketing mix and a promotional mix? (Links to an external site.)

Discussion Question(s):  Based on your understanding of the promotional mix and the marketing mix, how are the promotional mix and marketing mix related?  Does the marketing mix influence the promotional mix or does the promotional mix influence the marketing mix?

Your main post must be two to three substantive paragraphs (250+ words) and include at least two references/citations. .