Promotion
ATL, BTL, TTL, social media marketing, and promotional objectives.
- Define promotion and distinguish it from advertising
- Identify the objectives of promotion (AIDA model)
- Distinguish between above the line (ATL), below the line (BTL), and through the line (TTL)
- Evaluate the advantages and challenges of social media marketing
What is Promotion?
Promotion refers to the methods of communicating marketing messages to existing and potential customers, usually with the intention of selling a firm's products.
Important: Promotion is not synonymous with advertising. Advertising is just one promotional tool. Promotion includes the full range of methods a business uses to communicate with its market.
Promotional Objectives
Businesses use promotion to:
- Inform — make customers aware of a product, feature, or change
- Persuade — convince customers that this product is better than alternatives
- Remind — keep an established product in customers' minds
- Develop — build long-term brand image and loyalty
- Attract — bring new customers to the brand or product
These link to the AIDA model: Attention → Interest → Desire → Action — promotion aims to move customers through this sequence.
Above, Below, and Through the Line
| Above the Line (ATL) | Below the Line (BTL) | Through the Line (TTL) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Mass media promotion aimed at large, broad audiences | Highly targeted, direct marketing focused on response or conversion | Integrated campaigns combining both ATL and BTL approaches |
| Examples | TV ads, radio, billboards, cinema, national print campaigns | Email campaigns, in-store promotions, direct mail, sponsorship activations, personal selling, packaging, trade shows | A campaign using TV for awareness and digital/email/retail to convert |
| Characteristics | Broad reach; harder to attribute to specific sales; long-term brand building | Specific audiences; measurable results; short-term sales focus | Coordinated messaging across mass and targeted channels |
| Best for | Brand awareness, product launches, repositioning | Generating immediate response, loyalty programmes, direct relationships | Most modern campaigns — especially when different objectives are needed at different funnel stages |
Note: The line between ATL and BTL is blurring — digital advertising can be both mass-reach and highly targeted depending on how it's used. "Through the line" reflects this reality.
Social Media Marketing
Social media has changed how businesses promote themselves. Key advantages over traditional advertising:
- Precision targeting — ads can be targeted by age, location, interests, behaviour, and recent search activity
- Cost-effectiveness — even small budgets can reach a defined audience
- Two-way communication — customers can engage, comment, and share; businesses get immediate feedback
- Measurable — click-through rates, conversions, and engagement are all trackable in real time
- Viral potential — content can spread organically far beyond the paid audience
- Content formats — video, stories, reels, influencer partnerships, user-generated content all available
The marketing funnel question: Traditional marketing used a funnel (Awareness → Interest → Desire → Action). On social media, this process can be compressed or non-linear — a customer might see a product, click, and buy in seconds.
Key Terms
- Promotion = all methods of marketing communication; advertising is just one part
- Promotional objectives: inform, persuade, remind, develop, attract (AIDA model)
- ATL = mass media; BTL = targeted/direct; TTL = integrated combination
- Social media marketing: precise targeting, measurable, cost-effective, two-way, viral potential
- Always connect promotional choices to the business context and objectives
Context: BobaRush is a new bubble tea brand launching in Ho Chi Minh City targeting students aged 15–22. It is a small start-up with a limited marketing budget and almost no public awareness. Planned promotion includes digital billboards near universities, TikTok and Instagram ads, free samples at university events, and a loyalty stamp card.
Question: Identify and explain the advantages and disadvantages of above-the-line marketing for BobaRush.
Model answer:
Above-the-line marketing could help BobaRush quickly build awareness because the business is new and currently unknown. For example, digital billboards and TikTok ads can reach a large number of students — in BobaRush's target market — in a short time, helping the brand become recognised before competitors establish themselves. This broad reach is particularly valuable at the introduction stage of the product life cycle, where the primary objective is to inform potential customers that the product exists.
However, ATL promotion can be expensive relative to BobaRush's limited start-up budget. Unlike below-the-line methods such as the loyalty stamp card, ATL campaigns are harder to attribute to specific sales — making it difficult to know whether the spending is generating a return. For a small business with limited cash flow in its first year of operation, committing significant funds to mass media promotion carries financial risk if sales do not follow.
Question: Explain one way BobaRush is using promotion to increase short-term sales and one way it is building long-term loyalty.
Model answer:
In the short term, BobaRush uses free samples and opening-week deals to persuade students to try the product and generate immediate sales. Free samples at university events lower the barrier to trial — a student who tastes the product without cost is more likely to make a subsequent purchase, converting awareness into action (following the AIDA model). This generates early revenue that is critical for a start-up's survival in its first year.
In the long term, the loyalty stamp card builds brand loyalty by incentivising repeat purchases. Customers who collect stamps are more likely to return to BobaRush specifically rather than trying competitor bubble tea brands — increasing customer lifetime value and reducing the cost of retaining existing customers compared to acquiring new ones through expensive advertising.
When writing about promotion, always connect to the business context and objectives. "ATL promotion builds brand awareness" is a weak answer. "ATL promotion builds brand awareness for BobaRush, which is critical because it currently has almost no public recognition in a competitive market" is much stronger — it applies the theory to the specific situation.
For as many promotion types as possible, find a real-world example. For each, note: the type, the business, the country, and a brief description.
Above the line: TV advertising | Radio advertising | Cinema | Newspaper | Magazines | Outdoor/billboards
Below the line: Direct marketing | Personal selling | Sales promotions | Point-of-sale | Publicity/PR | Trade shows | Sponsorships | Word of mouth | Guerrilla marketing | Packaging
Social media: Influencer partnership | Paid social ads | Organic content | User-generated content
Translate each of the following into more precise business language, using terms from your marketing vocabulary:
- "Because this market is much bigger, the company could sell a lot more products if the price is low enough."
- "People who commute to work probably care more about the price than professional users do."
- "If they sell too cheaply, it might affect how customers see the brand in the long run."
- "They might end up stealing sales from their own existing product if customers switch to the new one."
- "Making more products could eventually make each one cheaper to produce."
- "The decision really depends on what the company is trying to achieve overall."
CrunchTime produces packaged granola bars that were once very popular with teenagers and young adults. Sales have recently started to fall as customers switch to newer snack brands and healthier alternatives. The product is moving from maturity towards decline. CrunchTime is considering: (a) temporary supermarket price discounts; (b) a social media campaign repositioning the bars as fitness-friendly study snacks; (c) QR codes linking packaging to fitness influencer content.
- With reference to CrunchTime, explain how promotion can be used as an extension strategy for a product moving from maturity towards decline. [4 marks]
- Explain one advantage and one disadvantage of using price promotions to revive sales. [4 marks]
- Why are informing and reminding customers both useful promotional objectives for CrunchTime at this stage? [4 marks]