Promotion is advertising a product or brand, generating sales, and creating brand loyalty. It is one of the four basic elements of the market mix, which includes the four P's: price, product, promotion, and place.
Promotion is also defined as one of five pieces in the promotional mix or promotional plan. These are personal selling, advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing, and publicity A promotional mix specifies how much attention to pay to each of the five factors, and how much money to budget.
Promotion covers the methods of communication that a marketer uses to provide information about it's product. Information can be both verbal and visual.
There are three objectives of promotion.
To present information to consumers and others.
To increase demand.
To differentiate a product.
The purpose of a promotion and thus its promotional plan can have a wide range, including: sales increases, new product acceptance, creation of brand equity, positioning, competitive retaliations, or creation of a corporate image.[