Theory Q 5 - Summary Strategic Marketing (Marketing Pathway) PDF

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My Marketing Experience - Theory

Q5 Promotion Today, use of the word promotion belies the nature and extent of this element of the marketing mix. Promotion, or communication, is an extensive subject area within the marketing discipline. There are many communication tools, techniques, media and implementation strategies to consider. With widespread uptake of the internet as a communication channel, there are even more opportunities to develop communication messages and greater opportunities to use non-conventional ways to interact with target markets. The idea of integrating marketing communications in order to deliver a consistent and coherent message has also become popular. The drivers for adopting a more integrated approach include a more coherent and joined-up communication strategy, which can deliver organisational benefits such as reduced costs, synergy and better results. Planning and implementing a promotional campaign can involve many different activities and agencies. The objectives for such a campaign should originate from a company’s marketing plan. This will then enable marketing managers to set communications objectives for specific promotional campaigns. Examples of communications objectives are:    

to raise awareness to remind to reinforce to stimulate action.

Once the objectives are decided, consideration should be given to the creative agency, which will produce the marketing messages, the media selection and the deliverables (in terms of the creative messages and executions). Once a creative agency (or group of agencies) is identified, the next action is to consider the mix of promotional tools. The tools a business chooses to deliver its marketing messages will be determined by a number of factors: the demographics of the target audience and its geographical distribution, the nature of the message and the objectives of the communication as some tools are better suited to delivering certain types of messages. For example, print media are often used for information-based appeals, whereas broadcast media tend to carry emotional appeals.

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Communication tools and media selection There are many different communication tools that come under the promotional mix umbrella. For example:   

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Advertising is used when building awareness, reaching a widespread audience, but is often relatively expensive and impersonal. Personal selling is highly interactive, adaptive and informative but is costly and has limited scope for reaching a highly dispersed target market. Direct marketing is used when targeting individuals as communication messages can be personalised, can be effective in the short term and also used to build relationships. But response rates to direct marketing campaigns can be low. Digital promotions are relatively low cost, can have global reach, be interactive, personalised and highly targeted. But there can be high costs at the early development stage, especially if a website is required, and this form of communication is easily ignored by the recipient. Sales promotions are generally based on incentives which are specifically used to stimulate action and encourage sales. But over-use of sales promotions can damage brand image. Public relations can deliver highly credible messages through third parties and can stimulate high levels of engagement, but there is a loss of control over the message and as a result messages can become distorted.

Each tool is different and offers different opportunities to communicate. But the choice of tool is not the only consideration the marketing team has to make: they will also need to consider the advertising or media channels. Media channel choice is equally important as it will affect the opportunity people in the target market have to see the message. Media channels include:        

television radio print cinema outdoor internet mobile social media.

Deciding on the communication objective, promotional tools, media and the message should enable the marketing team to devise a campaign that has the capacity to meet its objectives. But it is important to consider the implementation of the campaign, the scheduling of messages, and to determine how the success of the campaign will be measured.

My Marketing Experience - Theory

Social media communications The spread of the internet and the widespread uptake of mobile communication devices have significantly changed how, when and where individuals and companies communicate. Social media is a revolutionary area where communications messages are spread between individuals rather than emanating from companies. In this area of communications, the emphasis is on dialogues, which engage and follow the target market, rather than monologues sent from a company to a specific target market. The internet and social media enable interaction with certain target groups and demographic profiles, but companies must be aware that their interactions might be viewed as intrusions. Certain target markets and profiles do not engage with the digital world, whether through lack of interest or inability to gain access. Planning communication campaigns is a highly complex and challenging activity. Wrong decisions can mean costly mistakes, in terms of both the cost of the campaign and the potential missed revenue....