Throughout the chapter we explore the various promotional methods: advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations, direct marketing, and internet and digital marketing. The communication process has multiple steps: sender, receivers, message, medium, encoding, decoding, feedback, and noise.

To reach the target audience and build value for an organization, the marketer typically sends a consistent message through multiple promotional methods; this is called integrated marketing communications (IMC) After the marketer has facilitated all the other marketing mix variables, they are ready to communicate with their intended target audience.

integrated marketing communications — development and execution of multiple promotional methods that include a coordinated message. sales promotion — promotion that creates an incentive to purchase; provides for a fairly immediate increase in sales in the short term. medium — various methods of communicating with a target audience; may include broadcast, print, outdoor, and other forms. direct marketing — method of promotion that directly connects with the customer and generally requires a response or transaction.