THE ROLE OF MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS SAMUEL T. RAMOS, JR., MCM. FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION & MEDIA STUDIES

Marketing communication is a strategic part of the marketing process and not merely a single part thereof. Communication is the message that is relayed to the customer rather than the nuts bolts of the technology that delivers it. Communicating with the customers enables one to deliver the message to them so that they will react to it. Consumers are affected by the communication a brand has with them. This communication as well as the experience they have advertisements to the brand’s value in the mind of the consumer and builds on their cognitive and emotional ties to a brand.

Marketing communication is how one gets the messages out to their stakeholders; this includes all internal and external audiences. The foundation of marketing communications is built on an understanding of what the different stakeholders want to know; for example, one might communicate the benefits of a product to the customers and the sales figures to the shareholders.

Understanding the shareholder’s needs and therefore the key messages comes from the marketing communication plan; but how is one going to reach them? The best chance of successfully getting the audience to take the desired action, for example, getting the customer to make a purchase, is to consider the DRIP analogy. DRIP stands for differentiate, remind, inform and persuade and should be a blend of messages delivered through a number of channels, over a period of time; this helps keep the key messages memorable.

Marketing communications: overview of the role Marketing communications involves the creation and delivery of messages through selected media to communicate with one or more markets. Marketing communications play an increasing number of roles with the expansion of communication options in areas such as social media.

Targeting Marketing communications target one or more markets. Which markets to target will depend on the role of the communication? For example, if one wants to reach a new market in a different geographical area that will allow to grow total market share, the marketing communications will need to be designed to influence and educate customers in that new location.

Education Marketing communication educates a market about a company’s products or services, including how they are different from the competition. Educational example is promoting the value of a company’s internal culture so that employees can be retained longer.

Persuasion A primary role for marketing communications is persuasion. For effective communications, one must first decide on the objective. Decide if one is focused on building brand identity or on selling the company’s products or services. Also determine the audience. Communications may center on persuading potential employees to join or they may be intended to attract new customers; in either case, the persuasion tactics will be different. Decide on call to action and what specifically one wants their audience to do.

New Media Relations If one wants the news media to report positively on the company and provide opportunities for one to get media exposure, marketing communications should be targeted to that audience. In this role, media kits can be distributed to educate news media about the company and encourage them to distribute press releases and special interest stories. If a public company, the value of the stock can be influenced by how the company is perceived by news media.

Marketing Communication: Significance It is possible to deduce that marketing communications are about the promotion of both the organization and its offerings. Marketing communications recognize the increasing role that the organization plays in the marketing process, and the impact that organizational factors can have on the minds of audiences. As the structure, composition and sheer number of offerings in some markets proliferate, so differences between products diminish, to the extent that it has become much more differentiate between products.

One way to resolve this problem is to use the parent organization as an umbrella, to provide greater support and leadership in the promotion of any offerings, hence the reference to the emerging strength of corporate marketing.

A view that is becoming increasingly popular is that corporate strategy should be supported by the organization’s key stakeholders if the strategy is to be successful. Strategy must be communicated in such a way that the messages are consistent through time, and are targeted accurately at appropriate stakeholder audiences.

Marketing Communications and Process of Exchange Define Information Process Explain information processing and attention

Information Processing Over the last decade consumer information seeking and processing has emerged as an important field of inquiry. It has illustrated that a cognitive approach provides a very promising mode of explaining consumer behavior. Some methods (e.g. information display board, recording of eye fixation) have been developed in order to capture the process of information acquisition in brand choice. Numerous empirical studies have used these process tracing methods to describe and explain consumer information processing.

Despite the theoretical and empirical interest in this area methodological contributions are still rather limited. This applies both to methods of process data collections as well as to the analysis of such data once collected.

Basic Assumptions Key to effective communication understands how consumers process the vast amount of information that comes their way each and every day. To cope, select only that information that one perceives to be important and ignore the rest. Thus, limit the span of perception as a way of coping. If the marketing message is to be selected and process, it must: -consist of sensory and life experiences that can easily be identified and transformed into a unified concept. -have mental relationships to other categorized ideas. -fit into the categories and mental linkages that people have already created for themselves.

Models of Information Processing 1. The replacement model assumes that it is possible for the marketer to “replace” previously stored information chunks with new ideas. What is said does not matter as much as how often and how loud the message has been transmitted. With enough exposure, the new will replace the old. 2. The accumulation model of information processing assumes that message consistency is critical since the consumer accepts, processes, and stores information about the product or service relative to what has already been mentally accepted. The judgment system (perceptual consistency) prevents consumers from having multiple concepts or categories for the same message. Information that does not fit is rejected and not filed. That being the case, the need for integrated marketing communication is not only needed, but critical to marketing process.

Information processing and attention Information processing is how the incoming stimuli are converted, or not, into useful knowledge. The stages of information processing are exposure, attention, comprehension, acceptance and retention. Exposure refers to ensuring that the target audience comes into contact with the message. This is obvious necessary and is an important part of communication strategy in terms of media selection, coverage and repeatitions.

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Marketing Communication: Principles and Practice