Marketing communications is one of the four major elements of the company's marketing mix. Marketers must know how to use advertising, sales promotion,direct marketing, public relations, and personal selling to communicate the product's existence and value to the target customers.
The communication process itself consists of nine elements:
- sender,
- receiver,
- encoding,
- decoding,
- message,
- media,
- response,
- feedback,
- and noise.
Developing the promotion program involves eight steps:
1. Identify the target audience and its characteristics2. Define the communication objective
3. Design a message containing an effective content, structure, format, and
source.
4. Select both personal and non personal communication channels
5. Establish the total promotion budget
6. Divide the promotion budget among the main promotional tools
7. Monitor to see how much of the market becomes aware of the product, tries it, and is satisfied in the process. Finally,
8. Manage and coordinate all communications for consistency, good timing, and cost effectiveness.
There are several methods to developing a communication budget, to include:
- revenue/sales goals
- percent of sales
- competitive parity
Sadly, often small firms cut back on communication budgets when sales slide, which is exactly the opposite of what should happen. When entering new geographic markets, companies must allocate enough to make their presence known, or else possibly fail. EuroDisney had a difficult time during its early years, until it repositioned itself and understood the European consumer better.
How does a company decide between expenditures in advertising or in public relations?
The company must be cognizant of: (1) its goals, and (2) its opportunities for publicity and PR. In a multinational or global situation, it must also be conscious of the social norms. In the US, there is now an expectation that large companies give back to the communities, to the country, and engage in opportunities for the betterment of the societies in which they are doing business. In the US, advertising has lower credibility than publicity.
When operating outside the US, research must be conducted to understand the expectations of the consumer, of the various governments, of the norms, as well as understanding what the competition is doing, and whether it is best to take a different path, or to achieve parity by following the actions of those competitors.
Also, goals in terms of awareness, interest, evaluation, trial, and adoption need to be articulated and evaluated. The most effective and efficient route to goal achievement should be selected.
