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The promotional mix refers to the types of  promotional techniques a business can use   to target their intended audience.  It is about using the best methods   of communication to increase sales and  awareness of the business and its products. There are 5 key techniques businesses  can use as part of their promotional mix.   But what are they and how  are they used by McDonald’s? The first promotional technique used is  advertising. This is where companies pay to   advertise their products to audiences they think  may have an interest in purchasing from them.   This can be done using traditional methods  of advertising such as; TV, newspaper,   radio & billboards or through new outlets such  as social media, YouTube and Google search.   Companies are paying to make customers  aware of their goods or service. This is something that McDonalds uses  in their promotional mix very obviously,   there is no doubt that you will have seen  one of these methods used by McDonalds   as they spent over 600 million dollars on  advertising in 2020 utilising campaigns on TV,   Newspaper, Radio and billboards just to name a  few. They also have a strong social media presence   and make the most of highly targeted paid ads on  platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. The second promotional method used is sales  promotion. Sales promotions are short-term   incentives designed to encourage people to  buy a product or service. Techniques used   in sales promotion come in the form of special  offers such as buy one get one frees, discounts   and coupons. These offers are often short term  promotions that come with a limited time offer   designed to make the customer act quickly before  they miss out on this limited time deal. Games and   contests are often used as sales promotions  too as it makes a purchase more exciting. Games are something McDonalds has done  particularly well through their monopoly   giveaway. The McDonald’s monopoly promotion is  where customers receive stickers with their meal   which gives them the chance of winning  free food, discounts at certain retailers   or even cash prizes. Such a limited time  promotion has increased sales at McDonalds   as people by more often and larger meals  to increase their chances of winning.   It has been a very successful  sales promotion for McDonald’s. The next strategy is a more  personal approach to promotion,   and it’s called direct marketing. This method is  about targeting customers on an individual basis   through the post, phone calls, text  and most commonly today - email. Email   marketing is one of the most modern and  widely used forms of direct marketing,   due to its effectiveness and also because it  enables you to measure the success of your   campaign via open rates and link clicks. Effective  direct marketing can be tailored to an individual   customer based on their preferences and previous  purchases, increasing the chance of success. For this reason McDonalds is not  exception and uses direct marketing   through email by targeting their customers  with special offers and seasonal menus items   designed to encourage customers to visit one  of their stores in turn increasing sales. Public relation or PR is the communication and  relationship a business has with the public.   This image is often built through media outlets  talking about the business and what the business   stands for. This is often communicated through  press releases and conferences that get picked   up by the media and discussed. This method  is mainly free promotion for the business,   however the media narrative may not  always be positive about the business. McDonalds has famously struggled with its PR  especially because of its food being linked to   rising obesity rates and health issues. This was  famously highlighted in the documentary supersize   me and various lawsuits brought against McDonald’s  for its effects on customer health. Despite this   McDonalds tries to manage its PR by  putting out press releases displaying   the good work they doing in communities  through the Ronald McDonald foundation,   how they are improving the quality of their  food and also by sponsoring high profile   sporting events. This PR is designed to show  McDonalds in a positive light to the public   and associate them with positive  causes and not negative headlines. The final promotional technique is personal  selling. Personal selling is where an employee   has a face to face interaction with a customer  with the objective of influencing them to purchase   a product or services. This may traditionally be  associated with car sales or door to door sales   where a sales representative  speaks directly with customers   trying to get them to purchase a new car  or switch their gas and electric supplier. This technique is less obvious  to see at McDonald’s, however   they do still use this on a small scale  at the till when you make your order.   They often ask if you would like an  item you requested as a meal or if you   would like to go large with your purchase.  This is McDonalds way of personal selling.   McDonald’s has taken this upselling to new  levels with their self service kiosks. And   although this is not technically personal selling,  the kiosks upsell to customers by prompting them   to go large on meals or by recommending extra  items for customers to add to their order,   just like an employee would at the till. In fact  it’s so effective that research suggest that   customers spend on average 20% more at these self  service kiosks than when ordering face to face,   which in turn increases profits for McDonald’s  making it a great promotional technique. All 5 of the key techniques discussed can  form part of a business’s promotional mix,   some businesses may choose to use all five, while  others will pick and choose what works for them.   One thing is for sure McDonalds  promotional mix hasn’t done them any harm. Thanks for watching the video to the end,   please don’t forget to give the video a thumbs  up and subscribe for more weekly business videos.