Marketing Made Simple

4  Advertising, promotion and public relations

4.1 Introduction

Advertising, sales promotion and public relations form three elements of the ‘marketing communications mix’. The fourth is ‘selling’ which is sufficiently important to warrant a separate Chapter 5. Sales promotion also includes the area of ‘direct marketing’. This is a contemporary area of marketing that has increased in popularity because of the development of effective databases and improved information technology. This area, too, is sufficiently important to warrant a separate Chapter 6. Communications can be broadly defined as:

The process of establishing a commonality or oneness of thought between a sender and a receiver.

Two ideas are highlighted:

  Communication is a process ...