Marketing Communication Landscape

• Consumers are now more informed, leading to a shift away from mass marketing. Advances in technology have also changed communication in marketing.

New Marketing Communication (MKT COM) Landscape

• Content marketing is now integral
• Paid media involves channels businesses pay for, like TV, radio, print, online search, social media, and email
• Owned media are channels controlled by businesses, such as websites, blogs, fan pages, brand communities, and events
• Earned media is unpaid mentions by users or press, including articles, blogs, videos, and reviews
• Shared media involves content shared by users on social networks, blogs, and via word-of-mouth

Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC)

• IMC integrates and coordinates communication channels to deliver a clear and consistent brand message
• Consumers are overwhelmed with information from many sources, and conflicting messages can blur the brand image
• Requires identifying all customer touchpoints with the company and brand
• Aims to build a total marketing communications strategy and foster lasting customer relationships
• Different media types play specific roles in attracting, informing, and persuading customers
• Close coordination of communication channels ensures an effective marketing communications plan

Communication Process

• The communication process includes sender, encoding, message, media, decoding, receiver, response, feedback, and noise
• Senders must identify their target audience and desired responses
• Senders must encode messages appropriately to ensure accurate decoding by the target audience
• Messages must be transmitted through effective media to reach the target audience
• Feedback channels are necessary to assess customer response and adjust messages

Effective Marketing Communication Development

• Steps include Identify the target audience
• Determine the communication objectives, such as raising awareness or driving sales
• Design the message to be compelling and relevant to the target audience
• Select the appropriate media channels to deliver the message
• Choose a credible message source (e.g., spokesperson, brand, key opinion leaders)

Promotion Mix

• The promotion mix consists of advertising, public relations, personal selling, sales promotion, and direct marketing

Advertising

• Advertising is paid, non-personal promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor
• The advertising objective is a specific communication task to be achieved with a specific target audience during a specific period
• Advertising objectives are classified based on their primary goal of to inform, persuade, or remind
• It must be based on previous decisions about the target market, positioning, and marketing mix
• Informative advertising is used when introducing a new product category to build primary demand
• Persuasive advertising becomes important as competition increases to build selective demand
• Comparative advertising directly or indirectly compares the brand with competitors
• Reminder advertising is for mature products to maintain customer relationships and keep the product in mind
• Key metrics in advertising include reach (the percentage of target market exposed to an ad), frequency (the average number of times a person is exposed), and impact (the qualitative value of message exposure)

Public Relations (PR)

• PR builds good relations with the company’s publics through favorable publicity and a good corporate image
• Manages or heads off unfavorable rumors, stories, and events
• PR functions include press relations/agency (creating newsworthy content to attract attention)
• Other functions include product publicity (promoting specific products)
• Public affairs (building and maintaining community relationships)
• Lobbying (engaging with legislators and government officials)
• Investor relations (maintaining relationships with shareholders and the financial community)
• Development (collaborating with donors and non-profits)

Personal Selling

• Personal selling is direct interaction between salespeople and customers to make sales and build relationships
• Allows for observation of customer needs and characteristics, enabling quick adjustments
• It is a longer-term commitment and the most expensive promotion tool

Sales Promotion

• Sales promotion involves short-term incentives to encourage purchase or sales:
• Advertising provides a reason to buy, while sales promotion provides an incentive to buy now
• Common for discounts, promotions, gifts, or limited-time offers
• Pressure on product managers, intense competition, low brand differentiation, and declining advertising efficiency are factors driving sales promotion growth
• Consumers are deal-oriented

Sales Promotion Types

• Consumer Promotion: targets customers to stimulate short-term sales and enhance long-term engagement
  • Includes samples, coupons, cash refunds, price packs, premiums, patronage rewards, demonstrations, contests, sweepstakes, games.
• Trade Promotion: targets retailers and distributors to encourage product display and promotion
  • Includes discounts, allowances, free goods, specialty advertising items.
• Business Promotion: targets business customers to generate leads, increase sales, and motivate sales staff
  • Includes sales contests, conventions, trade shows.
• Sales promotions can help find new customers, promote products, boost sales, and educate customers

Direct Marketing

• Direct marketing connects directly with targeted consumers, often in a one-to-one, interactive manner.
• Direct marketing is less public, with messages sent directly to specific individuals
• Direct marketing is immediate and customized, with content prepared quickly to personalize each customer
• Direct marketing is interactive, allowing dialogue between the company and customers
• Online marketing is the fastest-growing form of direct marketing, promoting products/services and building relationships via the Internet

Online Marketing Business Types

• Click-only companies operate exclusively online
• Click-and-mortar companies are traditional businesses that have expanded online

Online Marketing Models

• B2C (Business to Consumer): online sales to final consumers
• B2B (Business to Business): providing products, services, and information to businesses online
• C2C (Consumer to Consumer): transactions between consumers via online platforms
• C2B (Consumer to Business): consumers providing feedback and suggestions to businesses via websites

Promotion Mix Strategies for Business to Consumer (B2C)

• Focus on a pull strategy (creating customer demand) over a push strategy
• Advertising > Sales promotions > Personal selling > PR

Promotion Mix Strategies for Business to Business (B2B)

• Focus on a push strategy (persuading distributors and partners) over a pull strategy.
• Personal selling > Sales promotion > Advertising > PR