r less equally on all of the various communications activities, or the marketing communications mix may emphasize one or more of the four activities to the diminution or exclusion of the other marketing communication activities. The factors that largely determine what a firm's marketing communication mix will be are as follows:
1. Type of product. The essential differentiation with respect to product type is between consumer products and industrial products (Kotler, 1992, p. 525). Marketing communication for consumer products typically rely most heavily on advertising, while the marketing communication for industrial products may be expected to provide the greatest emphasis on personal selling (Kotler, 1992, p. 526). Sales promotion and publicity generally are used to a more or less equal extent in the communicating of marketing information for both consumer and industrial products, with sales promotion typically relied on to a greater extent that publicity (Kotler, 1992, p. 526).
2. Communications task. The different activities available for the conduct of marketing communications have different cost effectiveness characteristics, depending upon the marketing communications objectives (Kotler, 1992, p. 528). Advertising, as an example, tend to be more efficient in the development of an awareness by a prospective purchaser of a product or a firm. Sales promotion is the next most cost effective activity with respect to prospective purchaser awareness, followed by publicity and personal selling in that order. Advertising is also the most cost effective activity to develop message comprehension within prospective purchasers, with personal selling being the second most cost effective activity for this task, followed sales promotion and publicity in that order (Kotler, 1992, p. 525). The development of conviction on the part of prospective purchasers about a product or firm is attained in the most cost effective manner throu...