Marketing Communication Essentials

Posted on May 1, 2025 in Marketing

The Promotional Mix: 5 Considerations

Key factors influencing the promotional mix include:

Resources Availability and Cost of Promotional Tools: The budget available for promotional efforts.
Market Size and Concentration: The size and density of the target market.
Customer Information and Product Characteristics: Including product price, complexity, and stage in the product life cycle.
Push vs. Pull Strategies: The chosen approach to move products through channels or attract customers directly.

Stages in Integrated Communication Campaigns

Define Marketing Objectives and Strategy: Determine overall strategy.
Identify the Target Audience: Pinpoint who to reach.
Decide on Communication Tools and Tactics: Choose methods to reach the audience.
Implement the Strategy: Put the plan into action.
Evaluate Effectiveness: Measure results of the campaign.

Developing Advertising Strategy Stages

Set Clear Advertising Objectives: Objectives should be measurable.
Determine the Advertising Budget: Decide how much can be spent.
Make Message Decisions: Decide what will be communicated.
Determine Media Channels: Choose the best ways to reach the audience.
Create and Launch Campaign: Execute the campaign across chosen media.
Measure Effectiveness: Evaluate the campaign’s performance.

Defining Advertising Objectives

Create Awareness: Introduce a new product/service or increase awareness of an existing one.
Stimulate Trial: Encourage potential customers to try the product/service.
Position Products: Create a unique and differentiated image in the target audience’s minds.
Remind Customers: Maintain top-of-mind awareness among existing customers.
Provide Support: Offer information, customer service, or after-sales support.

Advertising Message Decisions

Common approaches include:

Lifestyle: Portraying the brand as part of a desirable lifestyle.
Humor: Using humor to grab attention.
Shock: Using shocking or controversial images/messages for attention.
Sexual: Using sexual imagery or messaging for attention.
Comparative: Comparing the brand to competitors, highlighting unique features/benefits.

Evaluating Advertising Effectiveness

Methods include:

Pretest Evaluation: Takes place before the campaign (e.g., focus groups).
After/Post Evaluation: Assesses effectiveness after the campaign has run.

Metrics can include image/attitude change, actual sales, and other financial measures like cash flow, shareholder value, and return on investment.

Sales Promotion Popularity

Key reasons for the popularity of sales promotion:

Encourages impulsive purchases by offering discounts, free samples, or other incentives.
More cost-effective than advertising for reaching customers.
Helps companies generate sales quickly by offering short-term incentives that encourage immediate purchases.
Helps companies respond to competitor activities by offering similar or better incentives to customers.
Often more measurable than other forms of promotion.

Growth in Public Relations

Three major reasons for the growth in public relations:

Recognition of the power and value of public relations efficiency.
Increased advertising costs leading to exploration of more cost-effective communication routes.
Greater understanding of the role of public relations.

Types of Sponsorship

Sports Sponsorship: Sponsoring events, teams, or athletes to reach a sports-interested market. This can include sponsoring professional sports teams or individual athletes.
Arts Sponsorship: Sponsoring events or organizations to help companies build a positive image and enhance their brand reputation.
Tournament Sponsorship: Helping companies reach a targeted audience that is interested in a specific sport or game.
Fair Sponsorship: Helping companies reach a broad audience and showcase their products and services in a highly visible setting.
Show Sponsorship: Helping companies reach a targeted audience that is interested in a specific type of entertainment.

Objectives of Sponsorship

Sponsorship aims to:

Gain exposure and publicity through association with high-profile events, teams, or individuals.
Provide opportunities to create unique and engaging entertainment experiences.
Foster favorable brand and company associations.
Improve community relations with local communities.
Provide opportunities to create targeted promotional campaigns that leverage the association with events, teams, or individuals.

Exhibitions

Exhibitions are unique in bringing buyers, sellers, and competitors together in a commercial setting, allowing for direct relationships with customers.

Exhibition Objectives

Objectives include:

Determining customer needs.
Building relationships with potential and existing customers, as well as industry peers and partners.
Demonstrating the firm’s product.
Making sales.
Gathering competitive intelligence.
Fostering the image of the company.
Identifying prospects.

Product Placement Growth

Product placement has grown significantly due to the following reasons:

Media Fragmentation: Reaching audiences is harder through traditional channels.
Positive Association: Product placement allows brands to associate themselves with popular TV shows and movies that already have a positive association with viewers.
Greater Authenticity: Placement can feel more natural than traditional ads.
Repetition: Repeated exposure across multiple viewings of a show/movie.

Ambient Advertising

Advertising carried on outdoor media that doesn’t fall into the established outdoor categories such as billboards and bus signs. This type of advertising is designed to reach consumers in their everyday environment, such as on the street, in public transportation, or in a park.

Guerilla Marketing

Advertising messages through unexpected means and in ways that would almost “ambush” the consumer to gain attention. This type of marketing is designed to create buzz and generate interest through creativity and surprise.