Marketing Communications: Key Concepts for Brand Strategy

Posted on Nov 5, 2026 in Marketing

Anthropomorphism in Brand Communication

Anthropomorphism expands and develops special relationships between consumers and brands by injecting intentions, behaviour, and emotions into specific brands. (Xinyi Jin/Min Quan)

Marketing strategies incorporate anthropomorphic elements into brands and make them or their products perceived in the minds of consumers as living beings.

Levels of Anthropomorphism

  • External Level 1: How it looks (age/gender)
  • Internal Level 2: What it is like (personality)
  • Social Level: How it relates

Types of Communication

Societal communication: communication in the public sphere.

Strategic communication: the purposeful use of communication by an entity to engage in conversations of strategic significance to its goals (Zerfass, Vercic).


Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC)

IMC (Integrated Marketing Communications): integrating a company’s channels to deliver a clear, consistent, and complete message about the organization (Kotler).

  • Purpose: deliver a convincing message, generate an identity, and achieve profitability
  • Recognize each point of contact

Communication 360: the evolution of integrated marketing communications, which combines corporate image, internal communications, and traditional advertising oriented toward the same objective.

The RACE Model

An endless cycle (Wilcox): Research, Action plan, Communication, Evaluation.

Strategy vs. Tactics

  • Strategy: the “what” and “why”
  • Tactics: the “how”


Types of Positioning

  1. Product attributes/benefits: associating the brand with certain characteristics or beneficial value
  2. Product price: associating the brand with competitive pricing
  3. Product quality: associating the brand with high quality
  4. Competitors: making consumers think the brand is better than its competitors

Stakeholders and Power Influence

Stakeholders: an individual, group, or organization impacted by the outcomes of a business and by the achievement of an organization’s objectives (Freeman).

Power Influence Matrix

  1. Keep satisfied: high power/low influence
  2. Monitor: low power/low influence
  3. Keep informed: low power/high influence
  4. Manage closely: high power/high influence

Audiences

Audiences are individuals who identify the same problems and act similarly to address them. They are the recipients and receivers of messages (Grunig/Hunt).

Stakeholder Management Steps

  1. Who are they?
  2. Analyze and prioritize
  3. Consider their needs
  4. Set objectives
  5. Plan and communicate the approach
  6. Evaluate and measure


Market Segmentation

Segmentation Steps

  1. Data collection
  2. Data analysis: identify patterns
  3. Segmentation: divide by traits
  4. Targeting: personalizing the marketing strategy
  5. Implementation
  6. Evaluate, assess, and adjust segmentation strategies

Segmentation Challenges

  • Data quality
  • Over-segmentation (too many segments)
  • Changing preferences (evolving with preferences)
  • Privacy concerns

Types of Segmentation

Demographic (generational), geographical, psychographic, media, behavioural, benefit, and seasonal.

From Data to Insight

Create a connection map, explain it with “because,” and observe repetitions.

External Communications

  1. Earned media: shared content (high reach, low control)
  2. Owned media: content the brand creates and manages (low reach, high control)
  3. Paid media: paying to feature content on third-party channels (middle of both)


Personal Selling, Public Relations, and CSR

Phases of personal selling: prospecting, consultative selling, follow-up, and loyalty.

Public Relations (PR): a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and its publics through earned media.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): a commitment to integrating social aspects and concerns into the functioning of a business, helping the company be socially accountable to itself, its stakeholders, and the public. Consider pink, purple, and green washing.


Competitors

Direct competitors: same product, same target, same goal

Indirect competitors: same customer needs but different products and services

Positioning: the place of a brand in the consumer’s mind in relation to competitors (Pilar Bringas).