PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS

ART 425 - ADVERTISING DESIGN

PROMOTION vs. ADVERTISING

From Diffen - http://www.diffen.com/difference/Advertising_vs_Promotion

Advertising  vs. Promotion

Definition: 

Advertising is a one-way communication whose purpose is to inform potential customers about products and services and how to obtain them.

A Promotion usually involves an immediate incentive for a buyer (intermediate distributor or end consumer). It can also involve disseminating information about a product, product line, brand, or company.

Purpose: Increase sales, brand building. Increase sales.

Time: Advertising is Long term while Promotions are usually short term (often time specific)

Price: Advertising tends to be more expensive while Promotions are usually not very expensive in most cases.

Suitable for: Advertising is used by medium to large companies while Promotions are better suited for small to medium companies

Sales: With Advertising there is an assumption that it will lead to sales while Promotions are often directly related to sales.

Example: Giving an advertisement in the newspaper about the major products of a company Giving free products, coupons etc.

Example: ABS company may start a promotion of giving free drinks at a mall for a day during the festive season, while the same company may advertise much before about their drink at the start of the festive season and extend it during and beyond the season. Advertising is aimed towards the long term building of the brand while Promotion is aimed at the short term tactical goal of moving ahead in sales.

Example Online Promotions:

Online promotions will include many of the promotions mix elements which we considered above. For example advertising exists online with pay per click advertising which is marketed by Google. You can sponsor are website for example. Online businesses regularly send out newsletters which are targeted using e-mail and mailing lists, which is a form of direct marketing. Indeed websites are premium vehicle in the public relations industry to communicate particular points of view to relevant publics.

The online promotions field is indeed emerging. The field will soon spread into Geo targeting of adverts to people in specific locations via smart phones. Another example would be how social media targets adverts to you whilst you socialising online. Take a look at Marketing Teacher's Blog for more up-to-date examples of the emerging online promotions space.

Promotion is generally divided in two parts:
• Above the line promotion: Promotion in the media.
• Below the line promotion: All other promotion. Much of this is intended to be subtle enough that the consumer is unaware that promotion is taking place. E.g. sponsorship, product placement, endorsements, sales promotion, merchandising, direct mail, personal selling, public relations, trade shows.

Sales - Typically promotions are directly linked with sales while advertising is an assumption that it may lead to sales. For example: Giving 20% discount on products may attract a customer and induce instant sale while giving a general brand creation advertisement in the newspaper may not induce immediate sale

Price - Promotions are directly linked to sales and hence for small companies it may be easier to use promotional methods. Advertising may be more expensive for small companies and it may not be feasible for them while in advertising it is being assumed that adverts will lead to sales.
For example: A store may give 20% discount on its products which may increase sales while the same shop may find it difficult to advertise this in various medias.