Promotion is a common marketing term, one that attempts to draw attention to product or business in order to gain new customers or to keep existing ones interested. Promotion, however, can be applied in many different forms, the most common distinction beingabove-the-line andbelow-the-line promotion.
Above-the-line promotion is advertising through independent media, TV and magazines, for example. This allows a business to reach a wide audience with ease. Advertising can then be broken down into a further three categories, being:informative advertising, designed to increase awareness of product;persuasive advertising, which tries to persuade customers to purchase a product, usually by highlighting how its superior to other products, andreassuring advertising which is aimed at existing customers.
Below-the-line promotion, on the other hand, is any promotion that is not advertised, instead businesses aim their message to consumers that are already known, or have been chosen in advanced and are interested; business exhibitions, for example. Although not receiving nearly the same sized consumer based numbers as advertising, it is still an expensive process and the outcome can often be difficult to predict. As these events are often ‘one-offs’, they can only have an impact for a limited time. Customers don’t often like many below-the-line promotion techniques, direct selling being a prime example.