Promotion is a way of getting the message of a product to the target market. It is used to get new customers and to maintain existing ones. The objectives of promotion can tie in with a business’ overall objectives, for example, to become well known within a certain area, to gain a good reputation in a certain area, to make a lot of sales, or to make repeat sales. These are only a few examples. The ‘certain area’ could be as small as a few streets, or as large as a country, or even a worldwide market, although promotion for a global product would differ in each country.
There are two main categories of promotion; above the line and below the line. Above the line is the traditional kind of advertising such as posters, radio ads, TV ads, newspaper ads, etc. Below the line advertising inludes things such as special offers and exhibitions. Below the line is sometimes much cheaper than doing huge television campaigns, but different types of expenses are involved. Re-branding a whole line of products, for example, is very costly.