Marketing strategies - promotion (elements of the promotional mix - advertising, personal selling and relationship marketing, sales promotions, publicity and public relations); place/distribution (channel choice including intermediaries, intensity, physical distribution); people, processes and physical evidence; e-marketing; global marketing

What this dot point is asking

NESA wants you to know the elements of the promotional mix (advertising, personal selling, sales promotions, publicity), the strategic choice of distribution channels and intensity, the additional service-marketing elements (people, processes, physical evidence) that complete the 7Ps, e-marketing, and global marketing. Section II questions tend to test the promotional mix or distribution intensity; Section III often asks you to recommend channel and promotion strategies for a hypothetical business.

The answer

Promotion: the four-element mix

Promotion is how the business communicates with the target market. The promotional mix has four elements; each is mixed with the others to fit the business and the moment.

Advertising

Paid, non-personal communication through mass media (TV, radio, print, outdoor, online display, search, social). Advertising builds awareness fast across a large audience but is high-cost and one-way.

Australian examples:

• Bunnings's "Lowest Prices" TV creative has run with variations for two decades, building one of Australia's strongest brand-recognition campaigns.
• Atlassian, despite being a B2B SaaS business, runs significant out-of-home advertising in San Francisco, Sydney and London airports targeting CIOs and developers.

Personal selling

One-to-one communication between a salesperson and a prospective customer. Personal selling is high-cost per contact but high-conversion in complex or large-ticket sales.

Australian examples:

• ANZ's commercial banking division relationship managers (each managing roughly 30-50 mid-market business customers).
• Telstra Enterprise's named-account managers servicing large customers (BHP, Westpac, government).

Sales promotions

Short-term incentives to encourage purchase - discounts, coupons, free samples, loyalty programs, competitions.

Australian examples:

• Coles Flybuys and Woolworths Everyday Rewards loyalty programs (both with over 8 million active members).
• McDonald's Monopoly Australia - a multi-year promotion driving incremental footfall every September-October.
• "$10 off your next$50 spend" coupon promotions across most supermarket and pharmacy chains.

Publicity and public relations

Unpaid media coverage and the management of the business's reputation through PR, sponsorships and stakeholder engagement.

Australian examples:

• Qantas Wallabies and Matildas sponsorships generate media exposure tied to Australian sporting identity.
• Atlassian Pledge 1 percent CSR program (1 percent equity, 1 percent staff time, 1 percent product to charity) attracts continuous unpaid coverage.
• Crisis PR matters here too - Optus's 2022 data breach response (and 2023 outage response) shows PR failure can amplify the underlying operational damage.

Place (distribution): channel and intensity

Channel choice. Distribution channel is the route the product takes from producer to consumer. The two main alternatives:

• Direct channel. Producer to consumer with no intermediary. Cochlear sells direct to hospitals. Aesop sells direct through its own stores and website.
• Indirect channel. Producer to wholesaler/retailer to consumer. Most FMCG operates through intermediaries (Cadbury via supermarkets).

Distribution intensity. How widely the product is placed across available outlets.

• Intensive distribution. As many outlets as possible. Coca-Cola, Mars bars, milk.
• Selective distribution. Limited outlets matching brand image. Apple iPhones in Telstra, Optus, JB Hi-Fi, Apple stores.
• Exclusive distribution. Single or very few outlets, often with territorial rights. Luxury cars, premium watches.

Physical distribution. The logistics of getting the product to the channel - warehousing, transport, inventory at the channel level. Supply chain management (Topic 1) and place (Topic 2) are tightly linked.

People, processes and physical evidence (the service 7Ps)

For service businesses the basic 4Ps (product, price, promotion, place) are extended by three more.

People

The staff who deliver the service. Customer experience is largely shaped by the people the customer meets - bank tellers, baristas, flight attendants. Investment in recruitment, training and culture pays through service quality.

Processes

The workflows by which the service is delivered. A great service business has clear, repeatable processes (Starbucks's beverage-build sequence, McDonald's order-to-window time targets).

Physical evidence

The tangible cues that signal service quality - the bank branch fit-out, the dental waiting room, the aircraft cabin. Customers cannot test the service in advance, so they read these cues to predict it.

E-marketing

Digital marketing across channels:

• Website and e-commerce - the core digital storefront. Coles and Woolworths both run multi-billion-dollar online grocery operations alongside stores.
• Search engine optimisation (SEO) and paid search (SEM) - capturing customers at the moment of intent.
• Social media marketing - Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, X. Native creative formats matter (a TikTok ad fails if it looks like a TV ad).
• Email and SMS marketing - high-ROI direct channels for existing customers.
• Programmatic and display advertising - automated buying of online ad space.
• Customer data platforms and personalisation - using first-party data to tailor offers (Woolworths Everyday Rewards drives personalised promotional offers via the app).

E-marketing has lowered the cost of customer acquisition for small businesses (a Sydney cafe can run a $50 Instagram campaign to a local audience) while also raising the bar for large incumbents to maintain.

Global marketing

Marketing to customers outside Australia. Key strategic decisions:

• Standardisation v customisation. A standardised brand and product (Coca-Cola, McDonald's core menu) v locally customised (McDonald's adds Tim Tam McFlurries in Australia, samurai pork burgers in Japan).
• Global branding. Cochlear, Atlassian and BHP run truly global brands. Aesop is now a global luxury skincare brand owned by L'Oreal.
• Mode of entry. Export, licensing, franchising, joint venture, foreign direct investment. Atlassian initially exported via online subscriptions, then built physical offices in San Francisco, Amsterdam, Bengaluru and Manila.