Marketing Ch11: Marketing communication

Elements of communication

1. Sender :originator of the message

2. Encoding: the conversion if the senders ideas and thoughts into a message

3. Message Transmission: transmission of a message requires a channel

4. Noise: anything that interferes with, distorts or slows down the transmission of information

5. Decoding: the interpretation of the language and symbols sent by the source through a channel

6. Feedback: receivers response to a message

The purpose and task of marketing communication

• To inform — the convert an existing need into a want or to stimulate interest in a new product

• To persuade -- To convince customers that they need a product and to stimulate a purchase or action

• To Remind — keeping the product/brand name in the public’s mind

AIDA and the hierarchy of effects

A -- Attention

I — Intererst

D — Desire

A -- action

6 steps in the purchase-decison process

1. Awareness -- a firm cannot sell something if the marketing doesn't know the product/brand exists. Therefore the advertiser must ensure awareness to the target market

2. Knowledge — inform the target market about the products characteristics and how they would succeed in satisfying consumer needs

3. Liking — after the target market learns about the product, the advertiser must now generate a favourable attitude towards the product/brand

4. Preference — advertisers must create brand preference by promoting the products differential advantage over the competition

5. Conviction — a firm/advertisers must provide additional information that demonstrates the products superiority in order to create the intention of purchasing in consumers

6. Purchase — some customers are now may now be convicted but are not yet ready to make the purchase, samples often persuades customers to try the new product

Consumers responses to marketing messages in sequence

1. Cognitive (thinking

2. Affective (feelings, emotions)

3. Conative (action)

Elements of the marketing communication mix

Marketing communication mix is a combination of

• Advertising

• Public relations and publicity

• Personal selling

• Sales promotion

That managment believes willmeets the needs of the target market and realize the firms overall objectives

1. Advertising

2 types of advertising

1. Institutional advertising

• Corporate advertising — advertises the firm as a whole rather than a individual prodcut/brand and is designed to change or maintain the firms image

• Advocacy advertising — used as a safeguard against negative consumer attitudes and to enhance the firms credibility among consumers

2. Product Advertsing

• Pioneering — is intended to stimulate demand for a new product/product category by offering consumers in-depth information about the products benefits (heavily used in the introductory stage of the product life cycle)

• Competitive— instezd of building demand for a product the purpose of this advertising is to influence the demand for a specific ific brand, often consumers emotions. (Used in growth stage)

• Comparative -- directly/indirect,y compares 2 or more competing brands on 1 or more specific attributes

2. Public relations and publicity

Concerned of how they’re perceived by consumers, many firms spend large amounts of money to build a positive public image by means of PR.

PR — the marketing communication function that:

• Evaluates public attitudes

• Identifies areas within the firm that the public may be interested in

• And executes a programme of action to earn public understanding and acceptance

Publicity — public information about a firm, its goods/services appearing in the mass media as a new item

3. Personal selling

A situation in which 2 people communicate in an attempt to influence each other in a purchase situation, the 2 parties (buyer and seller) have contrasting objectives they would like to achieve

4. Sales promotion

• A short term tool used to stimulate immediate increases in demand

Sales promotion can be aimed at:

1. Final consumers

2. Trade customers

3. Employees

Sales promotion works best at affecting behaviours, not attitudes.

Promotion tools include: coupons, premiums, loyalty programmes, competitions, samples

Steps in developing the marketing communication plan

1. Analyze the market

2. Identify the target audience

3. Set marketing communication objectives

4. Develop a marketing communication budget

5. Choose a marketing communication mix

1. Analyses the market

The firm must identify their audiences needs and wants THEN conduct research to find out what those needs and wants are. Research identifies the firms target market and determines the plans marketing communication objectives

2. Identify the target audience

The target audience should be those who are most likely to buy th product within a defined period and they should be explicitly defined geographically, demographically, psychologically or behaviorally

3. Set marketing communication objectives

The objectives should be:

• Measurable

• Based on research that identifies a well-defined target audience

• Realistic

• And reinforces the overall marketing plan

4. Develop a marketing communication budget

After the previous steps are completed, the marketing manager can finalize a budget. There are techniques for setting a budget.

1. Arbitrary allocation and all-you-can-afford

A firm sets a marketing budget based on what management decides they can afford, which is the easiest method to implement but it lacks logical foundation or connection to actual communication objectives

2. Competitive parity method

A frim allocates enough money to match their competitors marketing communication objectives, ignoring their own unique situation, creativity and media effectiveness

3. Percent-of-sales method

A firm sets its budget as a percentage of past or forecasted sales to calculate the desired marketing communication expenditures

4. Market share method

This approach depends on how much marketing communication is needed to maintain or win market share. If the firm is happy with its market share, they may decide to continue spending the same amount of money it spent in the past. If they want to increase market share, they must increase their budget to meet their market share objectives

5. Objective-and-task method

Management sets objectives that defines the marketing communication activities and tools required to realize those objectives. The budget is then built by adding the costs of those planned activities

5. Choose a marketing communication mix

Choose one of the marketing communication elements: advertising, Public relations and publicity, sales promotion, personal selling