It normally does not demand an immediate response, but aims to influence customers' attitudes so that they choose your brand when they reach the point of sale - the shop. Sales promotion is normally designed to get action at the point of sale. Often it uses the same methods as Direct Marketing. It can also generate lists. But rarely is there an attempt to build a lasting relationship with respondents by exploiting the full possibilities of a database.
Public relations employs media controlled by others to create a favourable climate of opinion.
It, too, can create a database - e.g. replies to editorials, which are usually of very good quality. Packaging protects and draws attention to the product. It can also strengthen people's belief in your product, reassure them, make offers - and collect names cheaply for the database. Investors are people who evaluate businesses after careful study and purchase shares only if they're convinced the market has priced those enterprises irrationally. Those who trade stocks based on hunches about whether share prices will rise or fall, and when they will do so, are speculators.