Principles of Marketing - Part 12:

Promotion Decisions
Those unfamiliar with marketing often assume it is the same thing as advertising.
Certainly our coverage so far in this Principles of Marketing tutorial has suggested
this is not the case. Marketing encompasses many tasks and decisions, of which
advertising may only be a small portion.

Additionally, when non-marketers hear someone talk about “promotion” they

frequently believe the person is talking about advertising. While advertising is the
most visible and best understood method of promotion, it is only one of several
approaches a marketer can choose to promote their products and services.

In Part 12 our highly detailed Principles of Marketing tutorial we begin our discussion of
the third major area of the marketing mix – promotion. Many view promotional activities
as the most glamorous part of marketing. This may have to do with the fact that
promotion is often associated with creative activity undertaken to help distinguish a
company’s products from competitors’ offerings. While creativity is an important
element in promotion decisions, marketers must also have a deep understanding of how
the marketing communication process works and how promotion helps the organization
achieve its objectives.

This tutorial includes the following topics:

1. Promotion Decisions
2. What is promotion?
3. Targets of Marketing Promotions
4. Objectives of Marketing Promotions
5. Types of Promotion Objectives
6. The Communication Process
7. Communication Participants
8. Communication Delivery
9. Obstacles to Effective Communication
10. Keys to Effective Communication
11. Characteristics of Promotions
12. Intended Audience
13. Payment Model and Interaction Type
14. Message Flow and Demand Creation
15. Message Control and Credibility
16. Cost Effectiveness
17. Types of Promotion – Promotion Mix
18. Promotion Summary Table
19. Promotion Choice: Company Issues
20. Promotion Choice: Marketing Issues

What is promotion?
Promotion is a form of corporate communication that uses various methods to reach a
targeted audience with a certain message in order to achieve specific organizational
objectives. Nearly all organizations, whether for-profit or not-for-profit, in all types of
industries, must engage in some form of promotion. Such efforts may range from
multinational firms spending large sums on securing high-profile celebrities to serve as
corporate spokespersons to the owner of a one-person enterprise passing out business
cards at a local businessperson’s meeting.

Like most marketing decisions, an effective promotional strategy requires the marketer
understand how promotion fits with other pieces of the marketing puzzle (e.g., product,
distribution, pricing, target markets). Consequently, promotion decisions should be made
with an appreciation for how it affects other areas of the company. For instance, running
a major advertising campaign for a new product without first assuring there will be
enough inventory to meet potential demand generated by the advertising would certainly
not go over well with the company’s production department (not to mention other key
company executives). Thus, marketers should not work in a vacuum when making
promotion decisions. Rather, the overall success of a promotional strategy requires input
from others in impacted functional areas.

In addition to coordinating general promotion decisions with other business areas,

individual promotions must also work together. Under the concept of Integrated
Marketing Communication marketers attempt to develop a unified promotional strategy
involving the coordination of many different types of promotional techniques. The key
idea for the marketer who employs several promotional options (we’ll discuss potential
options later in this tutorial) to reach objectives for the product is to employ a consistent
message across all options. For instance, salespeople will discuss the same benefits of a
product as mentioned in television advertisements. In this way no matter how customers
are exposed to a marketer’s promotional efforts they all receive the same information.

Targets of Marketing Promotions

The audience for an organization’s marketing communication efforts is not limited to just
the marketer’s target market. While the bulk of a marketer’s promotional budget may be
directed at the target market, there are many other groups that could also serve as useful
target of a marketing message.

Targets of a marketing message generally fall into one of the following categories:

• Members of the Organization’s Target Market – This category would include

current customers, previous customers and potential customers, and as noted, may
receive the most promotional attention.
• Influencers of the Organization’s Target Market – There exists a large group of
people and organizations that can affect how a company’s target market is
exposed to and perceives a company’s products. These influencing groups have
their own communication mechanisms that reach the target market and the
marketer may be able utilize these influencers to its benefit. Influencers include
the news media (e.g., offer company stories), special interest groups, opinion
leaders (e.g., doctors directing patients), and industry trade associations.
• Participants in the Distribution Process – The distribution channel provides
services to help gain access to final customers and are also target markets since
they must recognize a product’s benefits and agree to handle the product in the
same way as final customers who must agree to purchase products. Aiming
promotions at distribution partners (e.g., retailers, wholesalers, distributors) and
other channel members is extremely important and, in some industries, represents
a higher portion of a marketer’s promotional budget than promotional spending
directed at the final customer.
• Other Companies – The most likely scenario in which a company will
communicate with another company occurs when the marketer is probing to see if
the company would have an interest in a joint venture, such as a co-marketing
arrangement where two firms share marketing costs. Reaching out to other
companies, including companies who may be competitors for other products,
could help create interest in discussing such a relationship.
• Other Organizational Stakeholders – Marketers may also be involved with
communication activities directed at other stakeholders. This group consists of
those who provide services, support or, in other ways, impact the company. For
example, an industry group that sets industry standards can affect company
products through the issuance of recommended compliance standards for product
development or other marketing activities. Communicating with this group is
important to insure the marketer’s views of any changes in standards are known.

Objectives of Marketing Promotions

The most obvious objective marketers have for promotional activities is to convince
customers to make a decision that benefits the marketer (of course the marketer believes
the decision will also benefit the customer). For most for-profit marketers this means
getting customers to buy an organization’s product and, in most cases, to remain a loyal
long-term customer. For other marketers, such as not-for-profits, it means getting
customers to increase donations, utilize more services, change attitudes, or change
behavior (e.g., stop smoking campaigns).

However, marketers must understand that getting customers to commit to a decision, such
as a purchase decision, is only achievable when a customer is ready to make the
decision. As we saw in our discussion of consumer and business buying behavior in
Parts 3 and 4, customers often move through several stages before a purchase decision is
made. Additionally before turning into a repeat customer, purchasers analyze their initial
purchase to see whether they received a good value, and then often repeat the purchase
process again before deciding to make the same choice.

The type of customer the marketer is attempting to attract and which stage of the
purchase process a customer is in will affect the objectives of a particular marketing
communication effort. And since a marketer often has multiple simultaneous
promotional campaigns, the objective of each could be different.

Types of Promotion Objectives

The possible objectives for marketing promotions may include the following:

• Build Awareness – New products and new companies are often unknown to a
market, which means initial promotional efforts must focus on establishing an
identity. In this situation the marketer must focus promotion to: 1) effectively
reach customers, and 2) tell the market who they are and what they have to offer.
• Create Interest – Moving a customer from awareness of a product to making a
purchase can present a significant challenge. As we saw with our discussion of
consumer and business buying behavior, customers must first recognize they have
a need before they actively start to consider a purchase. The focus on creating
messages that convince customers that a need exists has been the hallmark of
marketing for a long time with promotional appeals targeted at basic human
characteristics such as emotions, fears, sex, and humor.
• Provide Information – Some promotion is designed to assist customers in the
search stage of the purchasing process. In some cases, such as when a product is
so novel it creates a new category of product and has few competitors, the
information is simply intended to explain what the product is and may not
mention any competitors. In other situations, where the product competes in an
existing market, informational promotion may be used to help with a product
positioning strategy. As we discuss in Part 5: Target Markets, marketers may use
promotional means, including direct comparisons with competitor’s products, in
an effort to get customers to mentally distinguish the marketer’s product from
those of competitors.
• Stimulate Demand – The right promotion can drive customers to make a
purchase. In the case of products that a customer has not previously purchased or
has not purchased in a long time, the promotional efforts may be directed at
getting the customer to try the product. This is often seen on the Internet where
software companies allow for free demonstrations or even free downloadable
trials of their products. For products with an established customer-base,
promotion can encourage customers to increase their purchasing by providing a
reason to purchase products sooner or purchase in greater quantities than they
normally do. For example, a pre-holiday newspaper advertisement may remind
customers to stock up for the holiday by purchasing more than they typically
purchase during non-holiday periods.
• Reinforce the Brand – Once a purchase is made, a marketer can use promotion to
help build a strong relationship that can lead to the purchaser becoming a loyal
customer. For instance, many retail stores now ask for a customer’s email address
so that follow-up emails containing additional product information or even an
incentive to purchase other products from the retailer can be sent in order to
strengthen the customer-marketer relationship.

The Communication Process

The act of communicating has been evaluated extensively for many, many years. One of
the classic analyses of communication took place in the 1940s and 1950s when
researchers, including Claude Shannon, Warren Weaver, Wilbur Schramm and others,
offered models describing how communication takes place. In general, communication is
how people exchange meaningful information. Models that reflect how communication
occurs often include the elements shown below:
On the next few pages we further discuss the elements of the communication process.

Communication Participants:

For communication to occur there must be at least two participants:

• Message Source – The source of communication is the party intending to convey

information to another party. The message source can be an individual (e.g.,
salesperson) or an organization (e.g., through advertising). In order to convey a
message, the source must engage in message encoding, which involves mental
and physical processes necessary to construct a message in order to reach a
desired goal (i.e., convey meaningful information). This undertaking consists of
using sensory stimuli, such as visuals (e.g., words, symbols, images), sounds (e.g.,
spoken word), and scents (e.g., perform sprayed magazine inserts) to convey a
message.
• Message Receiver – The receiver of communication is the intended target of a
message source’s efforts. For a message to be understood the receiver must
decode the message by undertaking mental and physical processes necessary to
give meaning to the message. Clearly, a message can only be decoded if the
receiver is actually exposed to the message.

Communication Delivery:

Communication takes place in the form of a message that is exchanged between a source
and receiver. A message can be shaped using one or a combination of sensory stimuli
that work together to convey meaning that meets the objectives of the sender. The sender
uses a transmission medium to send the message. In marketing the medium may include
the use of different media outlets (e.g., Internet, television, radio, print), promotion-only
outlets (e.g., postal mail, billboards), and person-to-person contact (e.g., salespeople).
Additionally, communication can be improved if there is a two-way flow of information
in the form of a feedback channel. This occurs if the message receiver is able to respond,
often quickly, to the message source. In this way, the original message receiver now
becomes the message source and the communication process begins again.

Obstacles to Effective Communication

While a message source may be able to deliver a message through a transmission
medium, there are many potential obstacles to the message successfully reaching the
receiver the way the sender intends. The potential obstacles that may affect good
communication include:

• Poor Encoding – This occurs when the message source fails to create the right
sensory stimuli to meet the objectives of the message. For instance, in person-to-
person communication, verbally phrasing words poorly so the intended
communication is not what is actually said, is the result of poor encoding. Poor
encoding is also seen in advertisements that are difficult for the intended audience
to understand, such as words or symbols that lack meaning or, worse, have totally
different meanings within a certain cultural groups. This often occurs when
marketers use the same advertising message across many different countries.
Differences due to translation or cultural understanding can result in the message
receiver having a different frame of reference for how to interpret words,
symbols, sounds, etc. This may lead the message receiver to decode the meaning
of the message in a different way than was intended by the message sender.
• Poor Decoding – This refers to a message receiver’s error in processing the
message so that the meaning given to the received message is not what the source
intended. This differs from poor encoding when it is clear, through comparative
analysis with other receivers, that a particular receiver perceived a message
differently from others and from what the message source intended. Clearly, as
we noted above, if the receiver’s frame of reference is different (e.g., meaning of
words are different) then decoding problems can occur. More likely, when it
comes to marketing promotions, decoding errors occur due to personal or
psychological factors, such as not paying attention to a full television
advertisement, driving too quickly past a billboard, or allowing one’s mind to
wonder while talking to a salesperson.
• Medium Failure – Sometimes communication channels break down and end up
sending out weak or faltering signals. Other times the wrong medium is used to
communicate the message. For instance, trying to educate doctors about a new
treatment for heart disease using television commercials that quickly flash highly
detailed information is not going to be as effective as presenting this information
in a print ad where doctors can take their time evaluating the information.
• Communication Noise – Noise in communication occurs when an outside force in
someway affects delivery of the message. The most obvious example is when
loud sounds block the receiver’s ability to hear a message. Nearly any distraction
to the sender or the receiver can lead to communication noise. In advertising,
many customers are overwhelmed (i.e., distracted) by the large number of
advertisements they encountered each day. Such advertising clutter (i.e., noise)
makes it difficult for advertisers to get their message through to desired
customers.

Keys to Effective Communication

For marketers understanding how communication works can improve the delivery of
their message. From the information just discussed, marketers should focus on the
following to improve communication with their targeted audience:

• Carefully Encode – Marketers should make sure the message they send is crafted
in a way that will be interpreted by message receivers as intended. This means
having a good understanding of how their audience interprets words, symbols,
sounds and other stimuli used by marketers.
• Allow Feedback – Encouraging the message receiver to provide feedback can
greatly improve communication and help determine if a marketer’s message was
decoded and interpreted properly. Feedback can be improved by providing easy-
to-use options for responding, such as phone numbers, Internet chat, and email.
• Reduce Noise – In many promotional situations the marketer has little control
over interference with their message. However, there are a few instances where
the marketer can proactively lower the noise level. For instance, salespeople can
be trained to reduce noise by employing techniques that limit customer
distractions, such as scheduling meetings during non-busy times or by inviting
potential customers to an environment that offers fewer distractions, such as a
conference facility. Additionally, advertising can be developed in ways that
separates the marketer’s ad from others, including the use of whitespace in
magazine ads.
• Choose Right Audience – Targeting the right message receiver will go a long way
to improving a marketer’s ability to promote their products. Messages are much
more likely to be received and appropriately decoded by those who have an
interest in the content of the message.

Characteristics of Different Promotions

Before we discuss the different types of promotion options available to a marketer, it is
useful to gain an understanding of the features that set different options apart. For our
discussion we isolate seven characteristics on which each promotional option can be
judged. While these characteristics are widely understood as being important in
evaluating the effectiveness of each type of promotion, they are by no means the only
criteria used for evaluation. In fact, as new promotional methods emerge the criteria for
evaluating promotional methods will likely change.

For our discussion we will look at the following characteristics of a promotional method:
1. Intended Audience: Mass vs. Targeted
2. Payment Model: Paid vs. Non-Paid
3. Interaction Type: Personal vs. Non-Personal
4. Message Flow: One-Way vs. Two-Way
5. Demand Creation: Quick vs. Lagging
6. Message Control
7. Message Credibility
8. Effective Cost of Promotion

1. Intended Audience: Mass Promotion vs. Targeted Promotion

Promotions can be categorized based on the intended coverage of a single promotional

message. For instance, a single television advertisement for a major sporting event, such
as the Super Bowl, World Cup or Olympics, could be seen by millions of viewers at the
same time. Such mass promotion, intended to reach as many people as possible, has been
a mainstay of marketers’ promotional efforts for a long time.

Unfortunately, while mass promotions are delivered to a large number of people, the
actual number that fall within the marketer’s target market may be small. Because of
this, many who use mass promotion techniques find it to be an inefficient way to reach
desired customers. Instead, today’s marketers are turning to newer techniques designed
to focus promotional delivery to only those with a high probability of being in the
marketer’s target market. For example, Google, Yahoo and other Internet search engines
employ methods for delivering highly targeted ads to customers as they enter search
terms. The assumption made by advertisers is that customers who enter search terms are
interested in the information they have entered, especially if they are searching by
entering detailed search strings (e.g., phrases rather than a single word). Following this
logic, advertisers are much more likely to have their ads displayed to customers within
their target market and, thus, receive a higher return on their promotional investment.
The movement to highly targeted promotions has gained tremendous traction in recent
years and, as new and improved targeting methods are introduced, its importance will
continue to grow.
2. Payment Model: Paid Promotion vs. Non-Paid Promotion

Most efforts to promote products require marketers to make direct payment to the
medium that delivers the message. For instance, a company must pay a magazine
publisher to advertise in the magazine. However, there are several forms of promotion
that do not involve direct payment in order to distribute a promotional message. While
not necessarily “free” since there may be indirect costs involved, the ability to have a
product promoted without making direct payment to the medium can be a viable
alternative to expensive promotion options.

3. Interaction Type: Personal vs. Non-Personal

Promotions involving real people communicating with other people is considered

personal promotion. While salespeople are a common and well understood type of
personal promotion, another type of promotion, called controlled word-of-mouth
promotion (a.k.a., buzz marketing), is emerging as a form of personal promotion. Unlike
salespeople who attempt to obtain an order from customers, controlled word-of-mouth
promotion uses real people to help spread information about a product but is not designed
to directly elicit orders.

One key advantage personal promotions have is the ability for the message sender to
adjust the message as they gain feedback from message receivers (i.e., two-way
communication). So if a customer does not understand something in the initial message
(e.g., doesn’t fully understand how the product works) the person delivering the message
can adjust the promotion to address questions or concerns. Many non-personal forms of
promotion, such as a radio advertisement, are inflexible, at least in the short-term, and
cannot be easily adjusted to address questions that arise by the audience experiencing the
ad.

4. Message Flow: One-Way vs. Two-Way Communication

Promotions can be classified based on whether the message source enables the message
receiver to respond with immediate feedback. Such feedback can then be followed with
further information exchange between both parties. Most efforts at mass promotion, such
as television advertising, offer only a one-way information flow that does not allow for
easy response by the message receiver. However, many targeted promotions, such as
using a sales force to promote products, allow message recipients to respond immediately
to information from the message sender.

5. Demand Creation: Quick vs. Lagging

As we discussed earlier, the success of promotional activity may not always be measured
by comparing spending to an increase in product sales since marketers may use
promotion to achieve other objectives. However, when a marketer is looking to increase
demand, certain promotional activities offer advantages in turning exposure to promotion
into a quick increase in demand. In general, these activities are most effective when
customers are offered an incentive to make the purchase either in a monetary way (e.g.,
save money) or in psychological way (e.g., improves customer’s perceived group role or
status level).

6. Message Control

Most promotions are controlled by the marketer who encodes the message (or hires
specialists such as advertising agencies to create the promotion) and then pays to have the
message delivered. However, no marketer can totally control how the news media,
customers or others talk about a company or its products. Reporters for magazines,
newspaper and websites, as well as posters to Internet forums may discuss a company’s
products in ways that can benefit or hinder a company’s marketing efforts. This is
particularly true with non-paid promotions where a marketer is looking to obtain a free
“mention” by an influential message medium (e.g., newspaper article).

7. Message Credibility

The perceived control of the message can influence the target market’s perception of
message credibility. For example, many customers viewing a comparative advertisement
in which a product is shown to be superior to a competitor’s product may be skeptical
about the claims since the company with the superior product is paying for the
advertisement. Yet, if the same comparison is mentioned in a newspaper article it may be
more favorably viewed since readers may perceive the author of the story has possessing
an unbiased point-of-view.

8. Cost Effectiveness
Promotional cost is measured in several different ways though the most useful are
measured in terms of cost-per-impression (CPI), cost-per-targeted impression (CPTI),
and cost-per-action (CPA). The CPI metric relates to how many people are exposed to a
promotion in relation to the cost of the promotion. A national or international television
advertisement, while expensive to create and broadcast, actually produces a very low CPI
given how many people are exposed to the ad. Yet, a low CPI can be misleading if a
large percentage of the promotion’s audience is not within the marketer’s target market,
in which case the CPTI may be a better metric for gauging promotion effectiveness. The
CPTI approach looks at what percentage of an audience is within the marketer’s customer
group and, thus, legitimate targets for the promotion. Clearly, CPTI is higher than CPI,
but it offers a better indication of how much promotion is reaching targeted customers.

An even more effective way to evaluate promotional costs is through the cost-per-action
metric. With CPA the marketer evaluates how many people actually respond to a
promotion. Response may be measured by examining purchase activity, number of
phone inquiries, website traffic, clicks on advertisements, and other means within a short
time after the promotional message was delivered. Unfortunately, measuring CPA is not
always easy and tying it directly to a specific promotion can also be difficult. For
example, a customer who purchases a snack product may have first learned about the
snack product several weeks before from a television advertisement. The fact that it took
the customer several weeks to make the purchase does not mean the advertisement was
not effective in generating sales, though if the CPA was measured within a day or two
after the ad was broadcast this person’s action would not have been counted..

With the growing trend to more targeted promotions, especially those delivered through
the Internet, combined with the development of sophisticated customer tracking
techniques, the ability to compare promotion to actual customer activity is bound to one
day be the dominant method for measuring promotional effectiveness.

Types of Promotion – Promotion Mix

Marketers have at their disposal four major methods of promotion. Taken together these
comprise the promotion mix. In this section a basic definition of each method is offered
while in the next section a comparison of each method based on the characteristics of
promotion is presented.
• Advertising – Involves non-personal, mostly paid promotions often using mass
media outlets to deliver the marketer’s message. While historically advertising
has involved one-way communication with little feedback opportunity for the
customer experiencing the advertisement, the advent of computer technology and,
in particular, the Internet has increased the options that allow customers to
provide quick feedback.
• Sales Promotion – Involves the use of special short-term techniques, often in the
form of incentives, to encourage customers to respond or undertake some
activity. For instance, the use of retail coupons with expiration dates requires
customers to act while the incentive is still valid.
• Public Relations – Also referred to as publicity, this type of promotion uses third-
party sources, and particularly the news media, to offer a favorable mention of the
marketer’s company or product without direct payment to the publisher of the
information.
• Personal Selling – As the name implies, this form of promotion involves personal
contact between company representatives and those who have a role in purchase
decisions (e.g., make the decision, such as consumers, or have an influence on a
decision, such as members of a company buying center). Often this occurs face-
to-face or via telephone, though newer technologies allow this to occur online via
video conferencing or text chat.

Promotion Summary Table

The table below compares each of the promotion mix options on the eight key
promotional characteristics. The summary should be viewed only as a general guide
since promotion techniques are continually evolving and how each technique is compared
on a characteristics is subject to change.

Characteristics Advertising Sales Public Personal

Promotion Relations Selling
Directed Coverage mass & mass & targeted mass targeted
targeted
Message Flow one & two-way one & two-way one-way two-way
Payment Model paid paid non-paid paid
limited non-paid
Interaction Type non-personal personal & non-personal personal
non-personal
Demand lagging quick lagging quick
Stimulation
Message Control good good poor very good
Message Credibility low-medium low-medium high medium-high
Cost of Promotion CPI - Low CPI - Mediium CPI - None CPI - High
CPTI - Varies CPTI - Varies CPTI - None CPTI - High
CPA - Varies CPA - Varies CPA - None CPA - High

Factors Affecting Promotions Choice

With four promotional methods to choose from how does the marketer determine which
ones to use? The selection can be complicated by company and marketing decision
issues.

Company Issues:

• Promotional Objective – As we discussed, there are several different objectives a

marketer may pursue with their promotional strategy. Each type of promotion
offers different advantages in terms of helping the marketer reach their
objectives. For instance, if the objective of a software manufacturer is to get
customers to try a product, the use of sales promotion, such as offering the
software in a free downloadable form, may yield better results than promoting
through Internet advertising.
• Availability of Resources – The amount of money and other resources that can be
directed to promotion affects the marketer’s choice of promotional methods.
Marketers with large promotional budgets may be able to spread spending among
all promotion options while marketers with limited funds must be more selective
on the promotion techniques they use.
• Company Philosophy – Some companies follow a philosophy that dictates where
most promotional spending occurs. For instance, some companies follow the
approach that all promotion should be done through salespeople while other
companies prefer to focus attention on product development and hope word-of-
mouth communication by satisfied customers helps to create interest in their
product.

Marketing Decision Issues:

• Target Market – As one might expect, customer characteristics dictate how

promotion is determined. Characteristics such as size, location and type of target
markets affect how the marketer communicates with customers. For instance, for
a small marketer serving business markets with customers widely dispersed, it
may be very expensive to utilize a sales force versus using advertising.
• Product – Different products require different promotional approaches. For the
consumer market, products falling into the convenience and shopping goods
categories are likely to use mass market promotional approaches while higher-end
specialty goods are likely to use personalized selling. Thus, products that are
complex and take customers extended time to make a purchase decision may
require personal selling rather than advertising. This is often the case with
products targeted to the business market. Additionally, as we briefly discussed in
Part 7: Managing Products and will later see when we discuss marketing strategy,
products pass through different stages in the Product Life Cycle. As a product
moves through these stages the product itself may evolve and also promotional
objectives will change. This leads to different promotional mix decisions from
one stage to the next.
• Distribution –Marketing organizations selling through channel partners can reach
the final customer either directly using a pull promotion strategy or indirectly
using a push promotional strategy. The pull strategy is so named since it creates
demand for a product by promoting directly to the final customer in the hopes that
their interest in the product will help “pull” more product through the distribution
channel. This approach can be used when channel partners are hesitant about
stocking a product unless they are assured of sufficient customer interest. The
push strategy uses promotion to encourage channel partners to stock and promote
the product to their customers. The idea is that by offering incentives to channel
members the marketer is encouraging their partners (e.g., wholesalers, retailers) to
“push” the product down the channel and into customer’s hands. Most large
consumer products companies will use both approaches while smaller firm may
find one approach works better.
• Price – The higher the price of a product the more likely a marketer will need to
engage in personalized promotion compared to lower priced products that can be
marketed using mass promotion.