Promotion is one of the four key aspects of the marketing mix. The other three elements are product management, pricing, and distribution. Promotion involves disseminating information about a product, product line, brand, or company.
The specification of these four variables creates a promotional mix or promotional plan. A promotional mix specifies how much attention to pay to each of the four subcategories, and how much money to budget for each. A promotional plan can have a wide range of objectives, including: sales increases, new product acceptance, creation of brand equity, positioning, competitive retaliations, or creation of a corporate image.
An example of a fully integrated, long-term, large-scale promotion are My Coke Rewards and Pepsi Stuff.