A linguistic decision model for promotion mix management solved with genetic algorithms

Promotion activities are those marketing tools that have a fast and direct impact in the target market. Due to this fact, the selection of such activities is an important decision. This contribution attempts to devise a decision process for this problem in conditions of uncertainty, supplying a linguistic decision model for evaluating the satisfaction of the objectives by the potential solutions. The process uses a genetic algorithm to find a good solution in promotion selection, such that it will both accomplish the communication objectives of the company and minimise the invested amount.