Promotion is defined as the coordination of all seller-initiated efforts to
set up channels of information and persuasion to sell goods and services or promote an idea. It
should be noted that promotion is best viewed as the communication function of marketing. The
discussion of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) should point to how other marketing
elements such as brand name, package design, price or the physical retail space
implicitly/explicitly communicates with consumers. However, most of an organization’s
communications with the marketplace takes place through a carefully planned and controlled
promotional program which utilizes elements of the promotional mix. The promotional mix is
defined as the basic tools or elements that help the firm to sell more product; these efforts create
the top line of an income statement (revenue or sales). Because marketers create top line growth;
they usually make more money than other positions within the firm, ceteris paribus.
The IMC Promotional Mix includes these venues/mediums:
1. Advertising
2. Direct Marketing
3. Interactive/Internet
4. Sales Promotion
5. Publicity/Public Relations
6. Personal Selling
7. Social Media
(NOTE: The distinction should be made between publicity and public relations noting that public
relations generally has a broader objective than publicity, as its purpose is to establish and
maintain a positive image of the company among its various publics. Publicity is an important
communications technique used in public relations; however other tools may also be used.
introduction of bulk carriers and container ships, the implementation of this transport presents reduced cost and an amplified volume of trade which is lucrative for both governments and many investors through trade. Globalisation has clear links going back to the silk road initiative, as quoted by McBride, “More than two thousand years ago, China’s Han Dynasty launched the Silk Road, a sprawling network of commerce that linked South and Central Asia with the Middle East and Europe.”(2015, S.5) This trade system has been imperative towards countries all over the world through central Asia being the epicentre of one of the first waves of globalization, this connecting eastern and western markets, stimulating wealth.
The advances in which technology has produced over current years through globalisation has played a substantial role within the global narcotics trade, the creation of what is known as the deep web has thrived through globalisation. With the advancement of technological resources and information, the ideology of deep web is new-found ability to trade illicit drugs around the world through the click of a button on the internet right to the consumers front door, like day to day online shopping. The EU Drug Markets report published in 2016 identifies and comprehensively discuses, ‘The Expanding Influence of The Internet’. The report emphasis the internet as being an important contributor to globalisation impacted on the drug market in a number of ways. The advancement of technological communications has promoted the marketisation and trade of both legal and illegal substance misuse on an unprecedented scale within our society, enabling the manufacture and consumption of illicit drug pharmaceutical substances alongside new predominant psychoactive substances. The deep web stipulates innovative ways to access suppliers and customers. It is not so easy to access, unlike websites including Amazon, or your local online store, as the internet integrates what is well-known as the surface web, such as a typical web search. The deep web contains distinctive content such as web pages, private web pages and blocked web pages. With supply and demand throughout the global infrastructure continuously being more prevalent, the formation of the deep web allows fast trade and profit for these online criminals. In recent years, high levels of attention have been identified in online marke