Final answer:
The difference between promotion and selling is that promotion indirectly communicates a product's value, typically through various marketing activities aimed at a broad audience, while selling entails direct interaction between the seller and the customer to encourage a purchase.
Step-by-step explanation:
The correct answer to the student's question is A) Promotion indirectly communicates the value of a product, and selling is directly communicating with customers. Promotion encompasses various marketing activities that showcase a product's value and differentiate it from competitors, aiming either to make a firm's perceived demand curve more inelastic by steepening it, or to increase demand by shifting the demand curve to the right. This broader approach can include advertising, public relations, and sales promotions, which are designed to inform potential customers and persuade them to choose one product over another.
On the other hand, selling involves a direct interaction between the seller and the customer, with a focus on persuading the customer to make a purchase. This could be through personal selling or engaging with customers at the point of sale. The key difference is that while promotion includes all the steps taken to communicate a product’s benefits to the market at large, selling is the final step where a firm engages directly with the consumer to facilitate the exchange.