Promotion & Place
Promotion and place are the third and fourth Ps of the marketing mix. Promotion is how a business tells customers about the product; place is how it actually gets the product to them. Even a brilliantly designed product at the right price will fail if nobody knows it exists, or if customers cannot buy it conveniently. This lesson covers both.
What Promotion Is For
Promotion has four jobs: inform, persuade, remind and build brand image. A Cadbury Christmas television advert reminds viewers that Dairy Milk exists, builds warm family associations, and persuades them to pick the purple bar off the shelf in Tesco. A Gymshark Instagram post does the same jobs for a different audience. Different methods suit different products and different customers.
Point of Sale
Point of sale covers any promotion at the place the customer is about to pay. End-of-aisle displays at Tesco, the chocolate bars by the till at WHSmith, the scent of fresh bread near the door of a supermarket, and on-pack stickers that say ‘New’ or ‘50% extra free’ all count. Point-of-sale works because it reaches the customer at the exact moment they are deciding what to buy — it can lift impulse purchases noticeably.
Advertising Across Media
Advertising is paid communication and the OCR spec names five channels.
Television reaches mass audiences with strong images and sound. Premier League football, I’m a Celebrity and the X Factor are used by big UK advertisers like Sky, Aldi and Lidl because millions watch at once. The downside is expense — a single peak-time slot can cost tens of thousands of pounds.
Radio is cheaper and reaches drivers, workers and listeners at breakfast and drive-time. Local stations are useful for local businesses — an independent car garage can advertise on BBC Radio Lancashire at a fraction of the cost of television.
Print media covers newspapers, magazines and leaflets. It targets specific readerships — a luxury watch advert in the Financial Times, a food promotion in Good Housekeeping. Print is declining but still reaches older and niche audiences.
Websites (a business’s own site and paid adverts on sites like Google or the BBC) are highly measurable — every click is tracked. Paid search means a Manchester driving school can appear top of Google when someone types ‘driving lessons Manchester’.
Social media covers Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and X. Gymshark built a billion-pound brand almost entirely through fitness influencers on Instagram and TikTok, at a tiny fraction of what traditional television would have cost. It allows two-way conversation with customers and precise targeting by age, location and interest.
Other Promotional Methods
Under point of sale, the specification names price reductions (percentage-off sales, clearance), loss leaders, competitions and free samples. Costa hands out free tasting cups of a new flavour; Lucozade runs Instagram competitions; Next runs a twice-yearly sale; Tesco sells milk at a loss to pull customers in. Each method targets short-term sales without building long-term brand loyalty on its own — so most businesses mix several methods together.
Promotional methods on the specification are point of sale, advertising (TV, radio, print, websites, social media), price reductions, loss leaders, competitions and free samples. Each reaches customers in a different way.
Place — Getting the Product to the Customer
Place is the fourth P. It is every route a product takes from maker to buyer. OCR names two types of route: physical and digital distribution.
Physical Distribution
Physical distribution uses shops. Primark, Greggs, Boots and JD Sports run hundreds of high-street stores across the UK. Customers walk in, see the stock, buy and leave. Physical distribution works best where customers want to see or try before buying (clothes, shoes), for impulse purchases (chocolate, coffee) or where speed matters (a sandwich at lunchtime). The downsides are rent, rates and staff costs.
Digital Distribution
Digital distribution uses websites and apps. ASOS is the UK pioneer — 100% online fashion, no physical shops, reaching customers in over 200 countries. Spotify streams music to phones and speakers; Netflix streams films to the TV. Digital distribution cuts property costs, opens up international markets and runs 24/7. The downsides are delivery costs, high returns rates (fashion returns can reach 40%) and cyber-security. Many businesses now run both: Tesco has supermarkets AND tesco.com; Next has stores AND next.co.uk. This is called a multi-channel approach.
The choice depends on the target customer. ASOS goes pure digital because its teen-to-thirties shoppers live on their phones. Primark refuses to sell online at all — its low prices would be wiped out by delivery costs, and impulse-buying in store is central to its model. Greggs is almost entirely physical because a sausage roll needs to be eaten hot. Netflix is pure digital because streaming is the only sensible way to deliver a film. Most UK retailers now run both channels because customers expect the choice — John Lewis customers research online and buy in store, or buy online and return in store. Matching the channel to the customer matters more than running every channel at once.
OCR names two types of distribution: physical (shops, supermarkets, market stalls) and digital (websites, apps, downloads). The choice depends on the target customer, the product and the business’s costs.