Communication Strategies for the Asia Pacific Asia-Pacific Marketing Federation Certified Professional Marketer Copyright Marketing Institute of Singapore

Outline  Developing an effective Marcom program  Targeting the audience  Designing the message  Push and pull strategies  Major advertising decisions  Measuring communication effectiveness

Introduction A fter you have selected the product positioning, you need to communicate it in order to secure a place in the minds of the consumers. This is when you need to decide on the communication strategies

Steps in developing an Effective Marcom Program 1. Define the product and the target market segment 2. Decide on the communication objectives 3. Decide on the promotion mix 4. Decide on the strategy for each component of the promotion mix 5. Decide on the promotion budget

What information is needed for purchase decisions? Consumer-adoption process model Awareness=>Interest=> Evaluation=> Evaluation=> Trial=> Trial=> Adoption Adoption

Marcom Objectives  Move the target audience to higher state of readiness to buy e.g. using Response Hierarchy Models  Ultimate objective is to get customers to buy and to provide post-purchase satisfaction  Increase sales to new users, former users, users of other brands, switchers and current users  Increase repeat purchase

Promotion Mix  Advertising; Sales promotion; Personal selling; Public relations; Personal selling; Direct Marketing  The promotion mix is dependent on:  The information needs of potential buyer  The nature of the product and the market  The resources available

Targeting the Audience  Target audience = current and potential buyers of our products  Measure the product image by  Familiarity surveys (awareness)  Favorability scale (disposition)  e.g. Coke and Pepsi used the Indian winner of Ms Universe and Ms World respectively in their advertisement in India to win consumer preference

Designing the Message 1. Message content  Say what to whom, and for what response  Demonstrate clearly the Unique Selling Proposition  Demonstrate clearly the Unique Selling Proposition (USP)   How?   With rational appeals (claimed benefits)   Emotional appeals (fear, guilt, shame, humor, love, pride etc) and   Moral appeals (supporting social causes)

Designing the Message (cont’d) 2. Message Structure  Use one-sided argument if audience is predisposed to your position or  Use two-sided arguments if they are not  Present the strongest argument first or last

Designing the Message (cont’d) 3. Message Format  Choose headline, copy, illustration, and color suitable for the local audience e.g.  In China, red represents prosperity  In ASPAC countries, any graphics that resemble the religious symbols must not be used  Refrain from “Sexy” advertising

Selecting the Communication Channel  Personal communication channels  Either directly or indirectly e.g.  Opinion leaders: if the top echelon of government drives a certain make and model of car, it says a lot about that particular model

Selecting the Communication Channel (cont’d)  Non-personal communication channels  Print media; electronic media; display media  The servicescape—the environment in which the product is sold or the service is being delivered—conveys a powerful message  Events such as news conferences, grand openings, and sport or race sponsorship is popular in ASPAC in recent years e.g. Emirates Airlines sponsored the Derby (Horse Racing) in Singapore regularly

Promotion Budgeting The budget to be allocated depends on:  The geographic dispersion  The stage of the PLC  The communication activities, and  The marginal costs of communication effectiveness

Promotion-Expenditure Strategy  Percentage-of-sales approach  Affordable approach  Return-on-investment approach  Competitive-parity approach  Objective-and-task approach

Push Strategy  Push through a distribution channel in a sequential manner  Emphasis is on personal selling to wholesalers and retailers with trade promotion  When is it especially appropriate?  When the product is an impulse item  When there is low brand loyalty in a product category  When brand choice is made in the store, and  When the product benefit is well understood

Pull Strategy  Creates initial interest in potential buyers  How? By heavy end-user advertising  e.g. free samples; coupons  When is it appropriate?  When primary demand is favorable  When the product has hidden benefits  When the product can be differentiated  When there are strong emotional buying motives such as health, beauty and safety

Major Advertising Decisions  Advertising objective decisions e.g. create salient attribute  Budget decisions  Message decisions  Media decisions  Advertising evaluation

The Advertising Objective Funnel Exposure Awareness Attitude change Sales Profit

The Advertising Objectives As we move down the funnel, the objective becomes  More relevant to decision making, but  More difficult to measure The issue is whether the objectives at each level are linked to the purchase decision

Measuring Advertising Effectiveness  To develop more effective advertisements and to determine the optimal level of expenditures  Commonly used measurements:  Number of inquiries received, increase product knowledge, and attitude change towards the product. Sales are the best criteria

Measuring Advertising Effectiveness  Tracking  Qualitative research in the form of before-and-after brand image maps e.g. “Of all the advertising you’ve seen, what, if anything, do you particularly remember from it?”  Carrying out experiments with test markets

Advertising Wear-out  Over time, a decline in advertising effectiveness occurs due to repetition and wearout  How to reduce wearout?  Change the advertisement structure  Change the advertisement copy and  Change the media regularly

Sales Promotion Strategy  Promotion to consumer targets  Promotion to industrial targets  Promotion to middle men  Promotion to sales force

Evaluation and Control  Continuously monitor the execution of the communication plan or strategy to ensure objectives are met  Evaluate the outcome against the planned budget and adjust as necessary