Chapter 10: Marketing Communications Programs

Role of Marketing Communications more to marketing communications than advertising; its role is to inform, persuade and remind the customer closely related to perception and image: everything we do communicates one of the principal objectives is to create awareness and to communicate information the communications process is essential for a firm to get its messages across to target segments of the market

Marketing Communications Issues we communicate with customers and the public in many different ways; how do we ensure that all of those messages are coordinated? some of the communications messages sent are unintentional or informal think also about the informal ways that we communicate and the messages that these send to customers and others

Marketing Communications Methods the marketing communications program may consist of five approaches: personal selling: in person or via technology advertising: paid for and in the media sales promotion: short-term demand stimulation public relations: contribute to positive attitudes publicity: stimulating news stories all must be coordinated so that consistent messages are sent concerning the company

Integrated Marketing Communications IMC refers to the process of coordinated communications with customers and others in a cluttered communications environment, all messages should be coordinated goal is to produce a consistent and continuous flow of information tailored to the needs of the target audience achieves a “common look and feel”

The Communications Process communications requires a channel, with a sender and a receiver, to handle the message a message is first encoded by the sender the communications channel is then used to deliver the message to the sender the sender decodes the message, based on his or her frame of reference and experience may be a need for a response and feedback the process can be interrupted by noise

Figure 10-1 The Communication Process in Marketing Communications

Determining the Mix what combination of advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, publicity, and public relations will work best? factors considered in setting the marketing communications mix include: characteristics of the target market nature of the product or service life cycle stage of the product or service budget available to spend

Push or Pull Strategy a push strategy directs promotional efforts at channel members; a pull strategy directs promotion at the end consumer many products, such as business products, are promoted with a push strategy, involving personal selling and use of trade promotions most consumer products would rely more heavily on a pull strategy where promotion is directed at the consumer to stimulate demand

Figure 10-2 Push and Pull Strategies of Marketing Communications

Setting the Communications Budget it is difficult for many firms to set budgets because results are difficult to measure consider the pros and cons of these approaches to setting promotional budgets: spend a fixed percentage of sales spend what we feel we can afford spend what the competition spends spend what it takes to achieve objectives

Regulating Marketing Communications advertising and promotional efforts are closely regulated in Canada at many levels, including industry voluntary self-regulation the federal Competition Act regulates: false and misleading advertising “sale price” advertising contests and games of chance promotional allowances “bait and switch” advertising