Marketing Communication Mix

Marketing Communication Mix

• It is a company's specific combination of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, and public relations utilized to achieve advertising and marketing goals.

Advertising

• It is a paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor.

Personal Selling

• It is a personal presentation by a firm's sales force with the intention of making sales and building customer relationships.

Sales Promotion

• Sales promotions are short-term incentives designed to encourage product or service purchases.

Public Relations

• Public relations involves building positive relationships with the company's public.
• This is done by obtaining favorable publicity, building a strong corporate image, and managing unfavorable rumors or events.

Direct Marketing

• Direct marketing consists of direct communications with targeted customers.
• It aims to elicit an immediate response through media such as mail, telephone, fax, and email.

Importance of a Marketing Communication Mix

• Consumers encounter marketing communications from various sources about the company.
• Advertising messages from different media can merge into a single impression in the consumer's view.
• Diverse promotional approaches combine to communicate a unified message about the company.

Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC)

• It involves carefully integrating and coordinating communication channels.
• This aims to deliver a clear, consistent, and compelling message about the company and its products.
• IMC builds brand identity in the marketplace by unifying images and messages.
• IMC coordinates corporate messages, positioning, images, and identity across all marketing communication venues.

Sales Promotion Definition

• Sales promotion includes marketing activities that provide extra value or incentives to sales teams, distributors, or consumers.
• These activities stimulate immediate sales.
• Sales promotion offers some form of inducement that provides an extra incentive to buy.

Sales Promotion Categories

• Sales promotions are generally divided into consumer-oriented and trade-oriented activities.
• Consumer-oriented promotions encourage immediate consumer purchases to stimulate short-term sales - They includes coupons, samples, premiums, rebates, contests, sweepstakes, and point-of-purchase materials.
• Trade-oriented promotions target marketing intermediaries such as wholesalers, distributors, and retailers.
• These promotions involve promotional and merchandising allowances, price deals, sales contests, and trade shows to encourage stocking and promotion of a company's products.

Values of Sales Promotion

• Sales promotion provides an additional incentive to buy, which is central to a promotion program.
• Sales promotion can incentivize marketing intermediaries like wholesalers and retailers.
• Sales promotion is an acceleration tool to speed up selling and maximize sales volume.
• Companies use sales promotion to accelerate the purchase process.

Concerns about Sales Promotion

• Advertising proponents argue that marketers should maintain strong franchises to differentiate brands and justify premium prices.
• Some critics argue that increased sales promotion can compromise brand equity and devalue the brand.
• Brand equity is an intangible asset of added value or goodwill derived from a favorable consumer image, differentiation, or brand attachment.
• Other concerns include increased promotional sensitivity, brand proliferation, fragmentation of the consumer market, short-term focus, increased accountability, competition, and clutter.

Consumer-Oriented Sales Promotion Techniques

• Sampling provides consumers with a free quantity of a product to encourage trial.
• Couponing is the oldest, most widely used, and most effective sales promotion tool.
• Premiums offer an item of merchandise or a service, either free or at a low price, as an extra incentive for purchasers.
• Contests involve competition, while sweepstakes are based purely on chance; both can involve cooperative advertising.
• Refunds and rebates involve manufacturers returning a portion of the purchase price after the consumer provides proof of purchase.
• Bonus packs give consumers extra product at the regular price through larger containers or units.
• Price-off deals reduce the price of the brand.
• Frequency programs (continuity or loyalty programs) are increasingly popular.

Trade-Oriented Sales Promotion

• Manufacturers may develop contests and incentives to motivate resellers, management, or sales personnel.
• Trade allowances include buying, promotional, and slotting allowances.
• Displays and Point-of-Purchase Materials as well as Sales Training Programs are important elements
• Trade shows provide a venue for manufacturers to showcase products to current and prospective buyers.

Direct Marketing Definition

• Direct marketing is a system where organizations communicate directly with target customers.
• The aim is to generate a response or transaction, such as an inquiry, purchase, or vote.
• It encompasses marketing research, segmentation, and evaluation.
• It utilizes direct-response media like direct mail, telemarketing, interactive TV, print, the Internet, and other media.

Steps in Database Marketing

• Developing Direct-Marketing Objectives, Developing a Database and Determining the Effectiveness of the Database.

Direct Marketing Strategies and Media

• Direct mail is often referred to as unsolicited mail.
• Broadcast media direct marketing includes direct-response advertising and support advertising.
• An infomercial is a commercial ranging from 30 to 60 minutes.
• TV Advertorials and Teleshopping
• Print media, Telemarketing.

Advantages of Direct Marketing

• Direct marketing reaches a large, selective audience while minimizing waste coverage.
• Marketers can easily use geographic, occupational, and demographic segmentation.
• Frequency levels of ads can be adjusted depending on the medium.
• It allows for creative flexibility and more timely advertising.
• Direct marketing offers personalization and measures effectiveness.

Disadvantages of Direct Marketing

• Unsolicited mail can be seen as promoting junk products.
• Generating a reliable database is challenging due to job and location changes. Rising Costs.

Personal Selling

• Personal selling is a person-to-person communication process.
• It often dominates in industrial firms, while its role is minimized in firms producing low-priced consumer goods.
• Personal selling is a partner with other promotional elements in an integrated marketing communications program.

Determining the Role of Personal Selling

• Management should consider the specific information to be exchanged with potential customers.
• Management should consider alternative ways to carry out communications objectives.
• Management should consider the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of each alternative.

Nature of Personal Selling Stages

• Selling as a provider involves simply accepting orders and conveying the supplier's offering.
• Selling as a persuader involves attempting to convince market members to buy the supplier's offerings.
• Selling as a prospector includes seeking out buyers who need the offering, have the resources, and the authority to buy.
• Selling as a problem-solver involves engaging buyers to identify their problems and presenting corresponding solutions.
• Selling as a procreator defines the buyer's needs through collaboration, creating a tailored market offering.

Personal Selling Responsibilities

• It involves locating prospective customers through prospecting and qualifying them.
• Salespeople gather prospect information to determine customer needs and how to approach them.
• Salespeople recommend solutions to satisfy customer needs.
• Salespeople demonstrate the firm's capabilities and products.
• Salespeople close the sale by securing the prospect's commitment.

Advantages of Personal Selling

• It allows two-way interaction and tailoring of the message.
• Unlike other forms of advertising, the likelihood of distractions are minimized.
• It fosters involvement in the decision process through consultative selling
• It acts as a source of research information through sales force feedback.

Disadvantages of Personal Selling

• It may result in inconsistent messages designed by the marketing staff.
• It can involve sales force/management conflict and high costs.
• It has poor reach and potential ethical problems.

Definition of Public Relations

• Public relations evaluates public attitudes, identifies policies aligned with public interest, and communicates to gain public understanding and acceptance.
• An effective public relations program continues over months or years.
• It involves evaluating public attitudes, identifying public-interest-aligned policies, and executing communication programs.

Public Relations as a Marketing Function

• It aims to build marketplace excitement before advertising campaigns.
• It creates advertising news when there is no product news.
• It introduces products with minimal advertising.
• Provides value-added customer service, builds brand-to-customer bonds, defends at-risk products.

Values of Public Relations

• Credibility, Cost effectiveness, Avoidance of clutter, Lead generation and Ability to reach specific groups.

Publicity Defined

• Publicity is the generation of news about a person, product, or service in broadcast or print media.
• Publicity is short-term; public relations is a long-term concerted program.
• Publicity can be positive or negative and originates from sources outside the firm.
• Publicity is controlled and disseminated by the public relations department.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Publicity

• Publicity offers credibility and news value, generates word-of-mouth communications, and provides the perception of media endorsement, but timing is not always controlled.
• A major tool for publicity is the press release, but information can be altered in translation.

Purpose of Corporate Advertising

• Corporate advertising extends public relations by promoting the firm's overall image rather than specific products.
• Corporate advertising is controversial because consumers may not be interested, it is a costly form of self-indulgence, and some believe it is a waste of money if ads aren't specifically promoting something..

Types of Corporate Advertising

• Image advertising is a General image or positioning ads, Sponsorships, Recruiting, Generating financial support
• Event sponsorships take on various forms, such as charities.
• Advocacy advertising promotes ideas on controversial social issues.
• Cause-related marketing links companies with charities or nonprofit organizations.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Corporate Advertising

• Corporate advertising is an excellent vehicle for positioning the firm takes advantage of the benefits derived from public perception
• It reaches a select target market. , but its effectiveness is questionable.
• The disadvantages are the lack of strong evidence to suppor, concerns onconstitutionality and ethics.

Sponsorship Defined

• Sponsorship involves financial or in-kind support to achieve specific business goals.
• Sponsorship is a qualitative medium that promotes a company by associating it with the sponsee, unlike advertising, which is a quantitative medium

Sponsorship & Event Marketing

• Many events depend on sponsorship to enhance programs and reduce costs.
• Sponsorship allows for targeted market reach and positively influences customer relations.

Benefits of Sponsorship

• High level of public approval, ability to involve customers, provides face-to-face access, enhances the company's affiliations, boost employee morale, converts fan loyalty into sales and is cost efficient.

Drawbacks of Sponsorship

• It can be expensive, leading to clutter and message difficulty.
• Too many sponsors can hinder effective communication, and evaluating its effectiveness can be difficult.

Types of Sponsorship

• Sports Marketing is a popular and common type
• High profile examples olympics, world cup etc, as well as entertainment and festivals

Methods of Sponsorship

• Companies can participate in existing events such as the Olympics or create their own events

Measuring Effectiveness of Sponsorships

• Measure changes in awareness using pre and post-sponsorship surveys.
• Also measure changes in sales volume using tracking methods, set goals against benchmarks and ensure marketing communication is consistent when sponsorship is active.