The marketing mix elements for a good/service
Advertising media
Advertising media are the channels a business uses to carry its promotional message to customers. They are grouped into two types: non-digital media, also called traditional media, and digital media.
The two types of media
| Type of media | Examples | What it is good at |
|---|---|---|
| Non-digital (traditional) media | Leaflets, newspapers, magazines, radio, posters and billboards, cinema | Reaching people in a local area, or a group who all read the same paper or magazine. Posters and billboards are seen by people passing, and leaflets land in someone's hand. |
| Digital media | Social media (used for video, feedback and social networks), websites, online banners and pop-ups, SMS text messages, podcasts, vlogs and blogs | Reaching a chosen audience quickly; many let customers reply, comment or click straight through; and the message can be changed without reprinting anything. |
What makes a medium digital is how the message travels – over the internet or as an electronic message – not whether it has sound or moving pictures. Radio, cinema and magazines are non-digital media: a radio advert is broadcast, a cinema advert is shown at the cinema, and a magazine advert is printed, rather than being delivered online.
A worked example
A skateboard and scooter shop in a town centre wants more customers. It prints leaflets to push through doors in nearby streets and puts a poster up at the local skate park, because both are cheap ways to reach people who live close enough to visit. It also posts short vlogs of new boards on social media and buys an online banner on a scooter club's website, so riders from further away can see the products and click through to the shop's own site to check stock. Mixing both types means the shop reaches people who rarely shop online as well as people who spend their evenings on their phones.
Practise this
Cambridge National Enterprise & Marketing · 4.1 The marketing mix elements for a good/service