A scooter maker’s product is talked about in four ways. In three of them, the maker bears the cost of the communication. Which one is the odd one out?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → A TV news report on the results of a mileage test of the scooter.
Option (1) A full-page newspaper advertisement for the scooter, carrying the maker’s name. — The maker bears the cost. This is advertising, a paid form of communication. The sponsor bears the cost, and the maker’s name shows who the sponsor is.
Option (2) A lucky draw coupon given to every buyer who books the scooter this month. — The maker bears the cost. A lucky draw coupon is a sales promotion tool. It is a short-term incentive that the firm pays for, to make buyers book the scooter now.
Option (3) Sales staff of the maker who explain the scooter’s features to buyers at their homes. — The maker bears the cost. This is personal selling. The firm appoints and pays its own salespersons to meet buyers and explain the product.
Option (4) A TV news report on the results of a mileage test of the scooter. — The maker does not bear the cost. A news report on a mileage test is publicity. The media present it as a news item, and the maker spends nothing directly on it.
Advertising and publicity both reach people through the mass media. The firm pays for advertising, but publicity costs it nothing.
NCERT (2026-27 Edition): “Advertising … Advertising is perhaps the most commonly used tool of promotion. It is an impersonal form of communication, which is paid for by the marketers (sponsors) to promote some goods or service. The most common modes of advertising are ‘newspapers’, ‘magazines’, ‘television’, and ‘radio’. The important distinguishing features of advertising are as follows: “1. Publicity: Publicity is similar to advertising, in the sense that it is a non-personal form of communication. However, as against advertising it is a non-paid form of communication. Publicity generally takes place when favourable news is presented in the mass media about a product or service. For example, if a manufacturer achieves a breakthrough by developing a car engine, which runs on water instead of petrol, and this news is covered by television or radio or newspapers in the form of a news item. It would be termed as publicity because the engine manufacturer would benefit from such dissemination of information about its achievement by the media but would not bear any cost for the same. Thus, the two important features of publicity are that: |