Promotions

Marketing Mix Lesson 5: Promotions
SUBMITTED BY: Leya Matthew
SUBJECT(S): Marketing
GRADE LEVEL(S): 9, 10, 11, 12
☰ OVERVIEW:
Marketing is often confused with some of its more visible elements like advertising or selling. In
this lesson, we look at one such high-visibility element —Promotions. In this lesson students are
given an overview of promotional strategies, and introduced to the various elements of the
promotional mix — both above the line and below the line. Students will analyze the promotional
strategies of products, compare it with brand promotional strategies, and finally design a
promotional strategy for a product of their choice.
☰ NBEA STANDARD(S):
Marketing, I. Foundations of Marketing
Marketing, IV. The Marketing Mix
☰ RELATED ARTICLES:
“Zara’s ‘Fast Fashion’ Business Model”
“Retail Visionary: Warby Parker’s Online Eyeglass Strategy Focuses on the Consumer”
“Crowdfunding, Creativity and Kickflips Inside a Church in Spain”
Common Core Standard(s):
1. CCR Standard for Reading: Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and
to make logical inferences from it.
© The Wharton School, The University of Pennsylvania | Wharton Global Youth Program | Resources for Educators: Lesson Plans 1/4
2. CCR Standards for Listening: Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of
conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on each other’s ideas
and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. Evaluate a speaker’s point of view,
reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric.
3. CCR Standards for Speaking: Present information, findings and supporting evidence
such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning, and the organization, development
and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
Objectives/Purposes:
Other Resources/Materials: Internet access
Activity:
1. Group Activity and introduction to concepts (10 mins)
Teacher begins the lesson by asking the class for a few products they are familiar with—these
can be products they like, or dislike. Students may come up with brands but have to specify a
particular product.
As students contribute examples, teacher asks further probing questions like:
When did you first hear about this product?

How did you hear about this product?
How has your interest/awareness in this product been sustained?
Teacher now introduces the concept of Promotion as the methods of communicating about the
product to the customer. You may design a brilliant product for your target customer, but how is
the customer going to know about your product? This communication that you initiate with your
customer is called “Promotions”, and it is an integral part of the Marketing Mix. Let’s imagine that
you have decided to open a restaurant for college students. How can you reach out and make
them aware of your restaurant?
Student answers are listed on the blackboard. Expected answers include flyers, coupons etc.
Teacher now introduces the concept of above the line promotions and below the line promotions.
Above the line promotions are any promotional strategies, which the customer can easily identify
as a promotional strategy. For example advertisements, including television commercials,
newspaper advertisements, or flyers are above the line promotions. According to some marketing
scholars, below the line promotions are even more effective. With advertisements, customers
know that they are being solicited, so their defenses are up. However, with below the line
promotions, customers often do not realize that they are being solicited; therefore there are no
defensive mechanisms at play. For example, when a customer reads a newspaper article about
the opening of a restaurant— that has actually been planed and executed by the Public Relations
officer of the restaurant, the customer does not think that he or she is being advertised to. Such a
promotional strategy is called below the line promotion. This can include sponsorships—of
events, teams, awards, parks etc; sales promotions like coupons, discounts, deals etc and the
like.
2. Work with the Wharton Global Youth Program article (8-10 mins)
Teacher now gives handouts of the article “Retail Visionary: Warby Parker’s Online Eyeglass
Strategy Focuses on the Consumer” and asks students to analyze the promotional strategies
used by Warby Parker. Teacher also pulls up the website of the company to look at promotional
strategies and web advertising. This example gives the additional dimension of the use of
internet, customer service as promotion, and the possibilities of reduced expenditure on
advertising by using other innovative promotional strategies.
3. Create a promotional strategy. (10 mins)
Teacher now asks students to work on their products (which they designed as part of Lesson 1 in
this module) and design a promotional strategy for their product. They are asked to keep in mind
costs of promotional strategies, target customer profile, possible profit margins, and their
marketing budget.
4. Presentation, Feedback, Wrap-up. (10 mins)
Students present their ideas to the class. Others are encouraged to provide constructive
feedback so that the ideas are rigorously examined and whetted out.
Particularly, tying in the idea from the article that the owners put themselves in the shoes of their
customers, students are encouraged to respond to the ideas presented as if they were the
customers.
Teacher wraps up.
Tying It all together: Promotions is an inherently interesting aspect of marketing because of its
high visibility. Since this is an introductory lesson, basic concepts associated with promotion as a
marketing tool tied to the other Ps are explored. The students, most probably, know much about
promotion already; it is a matter of critically analyzing experiences to illuminate concepts as
marketing concepts.
Practice Outside of the Classroom: Identify a few below the line promotional strategies that
target you.
What Worked and What I Would Do Differently: Depending on the promotional strategies that
are culturally relevant, the emphasis of the lesson can be tweaked. Since the lesson builds off
student experience and interest, it will be easy to identify such patterns. However, the teacher
can also provide inputs that lead the students to consider promotional strategies they may not
have thought about. For e.g. Bollywood films use extensive promotional strategies. A discussion
surrounding the latest “hit” film and its promotional strategy can make for a very engaging lesson
in several parts of India.

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Marketing Mix Lesson 5: Promotions

SUBMITTED BY: Leya Matthew

GRADE LEVEL(S): 9, 10, 11, 12

Common Core Standard(s):

Other Resources/Materials: Internet access

1. Group Activity and introduction to concepts (10 mins)

As students contribute examples, teacher asks further probing questions like:

When did you first hear about this product?

3. Create a promotional strategy. (10 mins)

4. Presentation, Feedback, Wrap-up. (10 mins)

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