Developing Effective Marketing Communications

Designing and Managing Integrated Marketing Communications

 

 

 

 

1-What are the major steps in developing effective marketing communications?

2-What steps are involved in developing an advertising program?

3-What explains the growing use of sales promotion and how are sale promotion decisions made?

4- How can companies exploit the marketing potential of public relations and publicity ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 – Modern Marketing deals nowadays not only with developing a good product , pricing it and making it accessible . This is where communication enters .

The marketing communication mix consists in advertising sales promotion , public relations and publicity , personal selling and direct marketing . Keeping in mind that the key is to know “what to say “ , “to whom” , and “how often” .

There is then an interactive dialogue between the company and its consumers that is proceeded during the preselling ,selling , consuming and post consuming stages .

With the help of newer technologies such as the Internet , more firms move from mass communication to more targeted communication.

The eight major steps in developing effective marketing communication are :

 

–          Identify the target audience :

Potential buyers of the company’s products , current users , deciders or influencers

Such as individuals , groups , particulars , publics or general public.

Once the audience is targeted, the company would create an image of the product around that same audience .

 

–          Determine the communication objectives :

Now that we know the target audience and its perceptions, the marketing communicator can decide on the desired audience response , seeking a cognitive, affective or behavioural response. The marketer would put something into the consumer’s mind , change his attitude or get the consumer to act .

 

–          Design a message:

The purpose of the message is to gain attention , hold interest , arouse desire and elicit action .

 

–          Select communication channels :

Use of publicity in journals, samplings , telemarketing etc.

In general firms can use two types of communication channels : personal and non personal .

Personal communication channels involve two or more persons communicating through e-mail , audience or the telephone .

 

Non personal communication channels include media, events such as news papers, broadcast media etc .

 

–          Establish the Marketing communication budget :

Basically it is how much industries and companies spend on promotion .

There is There is the affordable method, percentage of sales method , competitive parity method , objective and task method .

 

–          Develop and manage the marketing communication mix :

Now that the communication budget is established , companies must decide how to disperse it evenly over the five promotional tools that are advertising , sales promotion , public relations , and publicity , personal selling , direct marketing.