TABLE OF CONTENTS Each component of the promotional mix of advertising, public relations, sales incentives, personal selling, and direct marketing has a unique purpose. For example, the objective of advertising is to generate awareness of the product by communicating a general message on its features and benefits via various print and broadcast media. The objective of public relations is to maintain a positive image of the company and brand by communicating through the media. Sales incentives also have a specific purpose: to move the consumer from an awareness of the product to actual purchase.
Sales incentives can be defined as the use of any of a number of different tools to motivate purchase by offering a reduced price or an opportunity to win a prize or receive a free gift. While sales incentive tools are very effective in motivating purchase, they cannot function alone. Instead, sales incentives must be integrated with other components of the promotional mix. For example, if sales incentives are to be effective, advertising must first inform consumers of the product's features and benefits. However, once advertising has created awareness of the product, sales incentives are effective in moving the consumer from interest to purchase.
Marketers are increasingly offering sales incentives because of the growing number of competing products and, therefore, the increasing number of competing promotional messages. Because this increase in competition is also true for marketing cities, tourism marketers attempting to attract visitors via advertising alone may find their promotional message getting lost among the messages...
