Promotional mix and promotional campaigns

The marketing mix is most commonly executed through the 4 P's of marketing:

•  Price,
•  Product, 
• Promotion,
• Place.

In marketing, the promotional mix describes a blend of promotional variables chosen by marketers to help a firm reach its goals.

 It has been identified as a subset of the marketing mix.

 It is believed that there is an optimal way of allocating budgets for the different elements within the promotional mix to achieve best marketing results, and the challenge for marketers is to find the right mix of them.

 Activities identified as elements of the promotional mix vary, but typically include the following:

• Advertising is the paid presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor in a mass medium. Examples include print ads, radio, television, billboard, direct mail, brochures and catalogs, signs, in-store displays, posters, mobile apps, motion pictures, web pages, banner ads, emails.
• 
  
• Personal selling is the process of helping and persuading one or more prospects to purchase a good or service or to act on any idea through the use of an oral presentation, often in a face-to-face manner or by telephone. Examples include sales presentations, sales meetings, sales training and incentive programs for intermediary salespeople, samples, and telemarketing.
• 
  
• Sales Promotion is media and non-media marketing communication used for a pre-determined limited time to increase consumer demand, stimulate market demand or improve product availability. Examples include coupons, sweepstakes, contests, product samples, rebates, tie-ins, self-liquidating premiums, trade shows, trade-ins, and exhibitions.
• 
  
• Public relations or publicity is information about a firm's products and services carried by a third party in an indirect way. This includes free publicity as well as paid efforts to stimulate discussion and interest. It can be accomplished by planting a significant news story indirectly in the media, or presenting it favorably through press releases or corporate anniversary parties. Examples include newspaper and magazine articles, TVs and radio presentations, charitable contributions, speeches, issue advertising, seminars.
• 
  
• Direct Marketing is a channel-agnostic form of advertising that allows businesses and nonprofits to communicate directly to the customer, with methods such as mobile messaging, email, interactive consumer websites, online display ads, fliers, catalog distribution, promotional letters, and outdoor advertising.
• 
  
• Corporate image campaigns have been considered as part of the promotional mix.
• 
  
• Sponsorship of an event or contest or race is a way to generate further positive publicity
• 
  
• Guerrilla marketing tactics are unconventional ways to bring attention to an idea or product or service, such as by using graffiti, sticker bombing, posting flyers, using flash mobs, doing viral marketing campaigns, or other methods using the Internet in unexpected ways.
• 
  
• Product placement is paying a movie studio or television show to include a product or service prominently in the show.

3.1 design a promotional campaign to establish a new brand

Here are seven steps that will get your campaign off to the right start.

1. Assess Marketing Communication Opportunities. ...
2. What Communication Channels Will You Use? ...
3. Determine Your Objectives. ...
4. Determine Your Promotion Mix. ...
5. Develop Your Promotional Message. ...
6. Develop the Promotion Budget. ...
7. Determine Campaign Effectiveness.

A promotional plan is an important marketing tool when it comes to launching a new service or product or expanding your market reach into new verticals or demographics. When planning a promotional campaign, keep in mind that a successful campaign achieves all of the following desired outcomes and goals:

1. Your promotional message reaches your intended and targeted audience.
2. Your message is understood by your audience.

1. Your message stimulates the recipients, and they take action.

The question is how do you achieve these outcomes with your campaign? The process is easy, but it takes "planning" time. Here are seven steps that will get your campaign off to the right start.

Assess Marketing Communication Opportunities

It's important in this first step to examine and understand the needs of your target market. Who is your message going out to? Current users, influencers among individuals, decision-makers, groups, or the general public?

What Communication Channels Will You Use?

In the first step of planning, you should have defined the markets, products, and environments. This information will assist you in deciding which communication channels will be most beneficial. Will you use personal communication channels such as face to face meeting, telephone contact, or perhaps a personal sales presentation? Or will the nonpersonal communication such as newspapers, magazines, or direct mail work better?

Determine Your Objectives

Keep in mind that your objectives in a promotional campaign are slightly different from your marketing campaign. Promotional objectives should be stated in terms of long or short-term behaviors by people who have been exposed to your promotional communication. These objectives must be clearly stated, measurable, and appropriate to the phase of market development.

Determine Your Promotion Mix

This is where you will need to allocate resources to sales promotion, advertising, publicity, and, of course, personal selling. Don't skimp on either of these areas. You must create awareness among your buyers for your promotional campaign to succeed. A well-rounded promotion will use all these methods in some capacity.

Develop Your Promotional Message

It is the time that you will need to sit down with your team and focus on the content, appeal, structure, format, and source of the message. Keep in mind in promotional campaigns appeal and execution always work together.

Develop the Promotion Budget

It is the exciting part. You must now determine the total promotion budget. It involves determining cost breakdowns per territory and promotional mix elements. Take some time to break down allocations and determine the affordability, percent of sales, and competitive parity. By breaking down these costs, you will get a better idea on gauging the success potential of your campaign.

Determine Campaign Effectiveness

After marketing communications are assigned, the promotional plan must be formally defined in a written document. In this document, you should include situation analysis, copy platform, timetables for effective integration of promotional elements with elements in your marketing mix.

You will also need to determine how you will measure the effectiveness once it is implemented. How did the actual performance measure up to planned objectives? You'll need to gather this information by asking your target market whether they recognized or recall specific advertising messages, what they remember about the message, how they felt about the message, and if their attitudes toward the company were affected by the message.

What Is a Marketing Campaign?

A marketing campaign is a variety of content assets centralized around one message. They often use many different marketing channels to get this idea across. The timing of these campaigns are also very clearly defined.

3.2 design a promotional campaign for a new product or service which utilises an existing brand.

see below successful branding campaigns for existing brands

Virgin – Seize the Holiday

Live video has quickly become a trend in the digital world, and this ad from Virgin Holidays jumped on that trend with great effect.

The video is brilliantly choreographed with amazing activities from several global destinations shown in quick succession.

The live aspect isn’t a gimmick either; it demonstrates that there is a whole world out there, just waiting for you to “Seize the Holiday”. It also quickly shows off all the possibilities in the destinations serviced by Virgin Holidays.

Pret A Manger – Little Veggie Shop

This ad might not seem as exciting and flashy as some of the others listed here, but I’ve chosen it for a very sound reason. Pret asked their customers for insight and acted on the answer.

The campaign started with an online poll asking if customers would support vegan stores. The results encouraged them to turn a central London store into a Little Veggie Pop-up.

“A lot of brands say vote for a change, when they’ve already made up their mind. It is just lazy. If customers are good enough to give you their time, you need to listen.

“Marketers find it hard to listen, they usually have their minds already made up. That is a mistake because if customers want to be part of you brand, you need to take them seriously.”

MARK PALMER, MARKETING DIRECTOR, PRET A MANGER

The store ended up increasing profits and delivering on an idea that their customers wanted. In fact, it was so popular it went from a temporary to a permanent store, with popular recipes making their way into other Pret stores.

Image: Pret a Manger

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Under Armour – Rule Yourself

This ad focuses on its star rather than the brand. That’s easily done when you have Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time.

It’s beautifully shot, with only occasional flashes of the Under Armour logo as Phelps trains. It highlights the hard work and determination needed to be successful, with the implication being that if Under Armour is good enough for someone that puts this much effort into their training, it’s probably good enough for little old you.

Airbnb/Art Institute of Chicago

Another visually stunning ad, this time a collaboration between Airbnb and The Art Institute of Chicago. They recreated Van Gogh’s famous bedroom to highlight an exhibition of all three versions of the painting.

It’s an innovative collaboration that saw great publicity for both the art gallery and the homestay network.

OK Go & Morton Salt – One Moment

You may be familiar with Chicago-based indie-rock band OK Go. Their music videos are invariably brilliant concepts, designed for the digital, sharing age.

With 2016’s One Moment, the band released a 4.2-second music video, presented by Morton Salt. The seasoning sellers have decided to embrace cause marketing under the Walk Her Walk banner.

Once the video is replayed in super-slow-mo, the video lasts the entire length of the song and reflects the message that Morton wanted to portray.

“We want to show that a single moment can contain so much wonder, so much beauty, and so much change,” said OK Go vocalist Damian Kulash.

Nike – Margot vs. Lily

In January, Nike released a series of ‘branded content’. Margot vs. Lily was an original series from Nike following the stories of competitive sisters Margot and Lily.

The long form ads were aimed at the millennial audience, and while it was a risk for the clothing giant to take, the data suggests the series was a big success.

H&M – Come Together

In a crowded space, my favorite holiday ad was directed by Wes Anderson, echoing the style of his film The Darjeeling Limited.

It also features one of the stars of that movie, Adrian Brody. If you are familiar with Wes Anderson’s work you can instantly tell he is the director on this.

Product placement is also completely lacking, instead focusing on the beautiful visuals and heartwarming Christmas story.

Hotels.com – Skippable Ads

The best marketing campaigns often play with the format, and this effort from Hotels.com has an amusing take on the ‘Skip Ad’ button found on YouTube videos.

When you hit the button on this ad, the same video is played, but every character in the video is now skipping. It’s in keeping with the tone of previous ads featuring Captain Obvious – we featured one in our Best Facebook Marketing Campaigns post which played with the silent video format.

The video below demonstrates the concept by flicking between the two versions of the ad.

Spotify – Thanks 2016, It’s been weird.

One of the best marketing campaigns of 2016 was saved until the end. Spotify used the mountains of data they hold to produce a series of lighthearted ads that also played on the annus horribilis that was 2016.

The campaign, which will be rolled out across 14 markets, features localized messages that merge listener data and pop-culture references. It’s a lighthearted way to highlight the way Spotify has been able to harness data to deliver a better experience.

Image: Spotify

Google – Year In Search 2016

How do you sum up a year like 2016? This video takes an emotional look at the year just gone, covering a wide range of events. Google’s end of year review is a fitting way to wrap up our review of the best marketing campaigns of the year.

Tugs on the heart strings that one. I’m a fan of the design too, with the simple search bar seeming to say that Google is now our window to the world.

3.3 create a plan for implementing and reviewing a promotional campaign.

What are the steps in developing a promotional plan?

• Step 1: Begin with a snapshot of your company's current situation, called a “situation analysis.”
• Step 2: Describe your target audience. 
• Step 3: List your marketing goals. 
• Step 4: Develop the marketing communications strategies and tactics you'll use. ...
• Step 5: Set your marketing budget.

How to review the campaign by using analytic tools

see below

What is Social Media Analytics?

Instead of thinking about social media analytics as a noun, think of it as a verb. Specifically, it’s gathering data from social platforms to help guide your marketing strategy.

This process begins by prioritizing business goals. For example, your focus may be to double the number of new visitors to your website.

The second step is determining key performance indicators (KPIs). In this case, your chief social media KPI would likely be based on engagement stats. These can be broken down into:

• likes and shares your posts receive
• replies and comments
• (most importantly) clicks your links and content earn

By collecting this data, you can figure out how social media factors into meeting your business goal. From there, you can keep going in the direction you’re headed or adjust your approach.

Now that the definition is clear, here’s our list of the top social media analytics tools:

1. Keyhole

Use Keyhole to measure, in precise detail, a brand or trend’s impact on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Giving you access to an intuitive and shareable dashboard, it tracks hashtag, keyword and campaign metrics in real-time. These include reach, impressions, periods of high activity and more.

You can also leverage its data to lead your influencer outreach efforts. Clicking the dashboard’s Influencers tab will reveal information surrounding accounts that have the highest reach and interaction numbers. To boost your engagement, identify important accounts in your niche and re-share their most popular content.

Give it a shot:

Price: $89 – $3,000+ USD per month

2. AgoraPulse

This image was taken from the AgoraPulse homepage.

Operating in multiple languages, you can use AgoraPulse to track enhanced engagement analytics across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Along with standard metrics, the platform ranks users who frequently share your content and notifies you when your pages and profiles have been mentioned. This information, combined with community management stats such as message response rate, will help guide your social outreach efforts. Plus, you can export analytics graphs onto a PowerPoint file.

Price: $29 – $199 USD per month

3. Brandwatch

Offering a suite of tools that work across major social media platforms, Brandwatch is perhaps best used as a research suite. It provides information about the markets you own and want to enter, such as demographic data about gender and occupation. You can even monitor your brand’s reputation in real-time, seeing if users are posting positive or negative messages about you. Best of all, the data is accurate – Brandwatch filters spam and duplicate mentions.

Price: Contact Brandwatch to discuss a unique plan

4. Buffer

As a comprehensive social media scheduling tool, you can log in to Buffer to see the engagement numbers for your Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn posts. Based on these metrics, it also identifies your top post of the day. But keep in mind, Buffer only tracks the posts you make through its platform.

Price: Free – $2,550 USD per year

5. BuzzSumo

You can depend on BuzzSumo to track the top social content in your niche. Simply plug in a URL, phrase or keyword into the search bar to see who’s sharing relevant content on each major social platform. You can then use the tool to promote your material, as it identifies the most influential sharers to reach out to.

Price: $99 – $999 USD per month

6. Crowdbooster

For a quick and simple Twitter and Facebook analytics tool, many marketers choose Crowdbooster. Through an intuitive and customizable dashboard, you have access to real-time engagement data that exports to Excel. The tool also makes recommendations about when to post, who to engage and how to improve your interaction efforts in a weekly performance summary.

Price: $9 – $119 USD per month

7. Edgar

Edgar automates social scheduling, storing content you collect in a library based on categories such as tips and blog posts. As you make a schedule based on these categories, Edgar creates a never-ending queue that automatically cycles through your library week after week.

But the tool also tracks your engagement metrics, helping you optimize your schedule based which types of content generate the most interaction and when they should be shared.

Price: $49 – $99 USD per month

8. Google Analytics

What’s there to say about Google Analytics that hasn’t already been said? As the clear top choice for analyzing website traffic, it’s also ideal for evaluating certain social media metrics. You can use it to measure the value of traffic coming from social sites, determining how visitors behave and if they convert.

Price: Free – $150,000 USD per month

9. Hootsuite

Similar to Buffer, Hootsuite is a social media management dashboard. On top of scheduling posts and aggregating content, you can use its analytics tools. The platform not only tracks standard engagement numbers, but measures your team’s performance. For example, it records resolution times for customer service issues.

Price: Free; advanced plans vary

10. Klout

Test out Klout to quantify your influence on each major social platform. Giving you a mark out of 100, it grades you based on your ability to engage and drive action. You can see on which platforms you’re most influential, giving you an idea about how to successfully interact with your audience.

Price: Contact Klout to discuss a unique plan

11. Little Bird

For an intricate influencer analytics tool, use Little Bird. Its goal is to eliminate the need for influencer research and instead let you focus on outreach. The tool tracks metrics detailing the most prominent people who interact in your space and with your brand. It discovers the most engaging topics and content for you to share or base ideas on, too. And the influencer list feature helps target qualified individuals throughout your social campaigns.

Price: Contact Little Bird to discuss a unique plan

12. NetBase

Specifically targeting enterprise-scale brands and agencies, NetBaseadvertises that it processes posts nine-times faster and 50 to 70% more accurately than other comprehensive social media analytics platforms. Community managers can use it to quickly make decisions on large accounts they manage. NetBase can read millions of social posts in 42 languages and determines user sentiment regarding trends.

Price: Contact NetBase to discuss a unique plan

13. Oktopost

Historically, digital marketers have struggled to measure the financial impact of social media. Oktopost addresses that painpoint. The tool tracks conversions, identifying channels and messages that drive financial actions on your website. For example, it allows you to confidently say “this new customer came from our latest Facebook post.”

Price: Starts at $65 USD per month; advanced plans vary

14. quintly

This image was taken from the quintly homepage.

Use quintly to measure your profiles against competitors. Visualizing stats on standard engagement metrics through graphs, it tracks and compares your performance on the major social platforms. This makes it a go-to tool for competitive goal setting.

Price: Starts at $129 USD per month; advanced plans vary

15. Rival IQ

Another analytics tool to monitor competitors, use Rival IQ to track how opposing brands perform on major social media platforms. Prioritizing growth, the tool records how audiences develop or shrink on a weekly, monthly, quarterly or annual basis. By giving you access to historical data, you can compare growth rates to major events and business cycles to determine when rivals are expanding their fan bases.

Price: $199 – $439 USD per month

16. Salesforce Marketing Cloud

There isn’t much you can’t use the Marketing Cloud for – it has tools for email, mobile and content marketing, as well as an intuitive social media analytics suite. Through a clean dashboard, you can see metrics on which types of content are yielding the most engagement, where the most influential conversations are happening and what the general user sentiment is about your brand. You have the option of paying for the full cloud or picking the suites you want.

Price: Starts at $400 USD per month; combination packs vary

17. Simply Measured

Give Simply Measured a shot if you’re after a comprehensive social media reporting platform. By connecting to Google Analytics, you can see information about how visitors from social sites are acting and converting on your website. It also has features to analyze competitors and compare accounts across major channels. Plus, you can schedule Simply Measured to automatically send reports with all of this information and more.

Price: Starts at $500 USD per month; agency plans vary

18. Socialbakers

Capturing data across all major social platforms, use the Socialbakersanalytics suite to leverage its comprehensive dataset. The features include custom benchmarking and competitive analysis, allowing you to create groups to track yourself against. For companies with locations across the globe, Socialbakers can segment data by individual brand and country. This lets you see where your efforts are most successful and where there’s room to grow.

Price: $120 – $480 USD per month

19. Social Mention

Use this tool as a social search engine with a complementary analytics suite. Just by typing in a keyword, you’ll have access to a long results page of user-generated content from more than 100 platforms. Based on that content, Social Mention tracks traditional metrics along with unique ones, including user sentiment.

Price: Free

20. SumAll

Use SumAll to guide your long-term social media strategy. Along with e-commerce data, you can track information from your major social channels in a single interactive chart. As well as standard metrics, it includes features such as goal tracking and performance graphs. You can also set SumAll to send emails summarizing this data.

Price: Free – $99 USD per month

Platform-Specific Tools

21. Followerwonk (Twitter)

This image was taken from the Follwerwonk homepage.

Moz’s Twitter tool provides a detailed look at Twitter analytics, giving you insights about your activity and audience. You can see statistics about when your followers log in, and generate demographic data such as their locations. Use it to identify and connect with influencers – Followerwonk measures social authority to track which accounts have the biggest impact on their followers.

Price: Free – $79 per month

22. Iconosquare (Instagram)

Although it’s a platform-management tool, Iconosquare comes equipped with a thorough Instagram analytics suite. The dashboard has everything from engagement stats to optimization suggestions, such as the best times to post and which filters to use. You can also choose to receive emails that summarize your main metrics.

Price: Free; advanced plans vary

23. SocialBro (Twitter)

Offering price tiers depending on how many followers you have, try SocialBro as an all-in-one Twitter business platform. It tracks a bevy of content and audience metrics, offering tools to improve engagement and build segmented lists for campaigns. You can also use SocialBro to better understand your ads, as it tracks ROI for paid and earned media.

Price: Contact SocialBro to discuss a unique plan

24. Tailwind (Pinterest)

This platform-exclusive tool is designed to optimize your Pinterest strategy. Use it to track engagement metrics, as well as how your posts perform based on boards, keywords, hashtags and categories. Using these stats, Tailwind will find and recommend content for you to share. There’s even Google Analytics integration, so you can analyze website traffic and revenue from Pinterest.

Price: Starts at $9.99 USD per month; advanced plans vary

25. TweetReach (Twitter)

A search engine-like platform, just type in a keyword, hashtag or username to get a look at the analytics behind your term. Useful for checking trends, it illustrates engagement data such as reach and impressions. TweetReach also gives you a long timeline of tweets to inspect.