We have all witnessed how communication dynamics have accelerated in recent years. The runaway progress in the development of technological tools, added to the colonization of new spaces such as digital ones, have led us to reassess the role that communication has in companies.
An immediate, poorly reflective and above all quantifiable market are now the pillars on which new companies are articulating their communication departments.
It is within this convulsion of interactions between companies and consumers that several have set about modifying the theoretical bases of business communication, popularizing terms and concepts in both corporate and academic settings.
In the effort to survive, the natural response of companies has been to bet on new professionals capable of making use of communication for their short-term goal: subsistence through sales volume. Thus, we see that titles such as specialists in strategic, sectorial, political, cultural marketing, etc., have begun to abound in the professional offer available; And I mean the globalized world where you can work from home or be hired by a company on the other side of the planet.
The generation of quantifiable indicators, the speed of tactical action and the adrenaline to sell more through justifiable tricks, have made marketing adapt quite comfortably to modern times. The great conceptual change, then, has been that communication as a tool is no longer being used to communicate, but rather to sell. Or so a recent graduate who has that focus in mind would see it.
However, for many of us who have studied communication sciences as professionals and academics, communication is still a great toolbox full of tactical disciplines that can be used in different contexts depending on the objectives set; be it marketing, public relations, advertising, etc.
When we talk about communication campaigns, we refer to the reflective act within which a current scenario is determined, a desired scenario is identified, and a series of tactical actions are formulated through which it is intended to meet a series of objectives formulated in a way climbing on different concrete and measurable goals.
In other words, it is a process by which a series of actions are planned that anticipate reaching a certain future state that is unknown to us, but dependent to some degree on our actions.
In this sense, a communication campaign becomes a synonym for business strategy, through which it is sought that one of its results, although not the only one, is the generation of sales of a specific product or service.
Understanding this as the basis of the reflection we are addressing, tactical actions would be the best tools, approaches or approaches through which we want to coordinate efforts to achieve this future state.
On paper this approach sounds quite pertinent. However, it seems that it went unnoticed by the number of young companies in the world that only seek to achieve a mass sale.
From the perspective of new entrepreneurs, who have also been living with the rhythm of immediacy and practical results, it makes sense. Quantifiable results are easy to recognize and compare when it comes to accountability.
However, a company that has its vision in the medium and long term will know how to understand that these numbers are only part of the possible results.
We can do a comparative analysis exercise to show the differences between the approach proposed by a communications strategy and one based on marketing.
Easily recognizable and available in most global markets, a world famous soft drink brand sells a product. The communications team seeks to describe the product in such a way that it can communicate to its potential customers the needs it satisfies, how it differs from the competition and how said product represents them as a company.
Once the key words have been identified, it generates a corporate discourse, using the product as a courier agent, to convey a concept. This concept (philosophy, social responsibility, environmental commitment) is communicated to consumers who will have the decision to accept or not the concept that they are offering through the purchase of the product.
If they choose to buy the product, not only will they be buying a good, but they will also become an indirect part of a business philosophy that will satisfy their needs and make them agents of their concept.
Although the example would have reached a common goal with the marketing campaigns, which is the sale of the product, the results obtained and previously planned go far beyond that. This company has created a consumer and begins to generate loyalty and identification ties so that the sale is not unique, but can be repeated in the medium or long term, depending on the intangible value of the product above its commercial role.
On the other hand, within a marketing plan, the actions will be based on the analysis of the product, competition, scenario and available tools to ensure the highest possible number of sales.
To do this, they will segment the target markets through a sociocultural and economic approach to the study of consumption habits and will define the most appropriate tools in terms of semiotics and chromotology.
Subsequently, there will be a field investigation to study the media, influencers, moments or spaces where more favorable sales conditions can be generated. It will proceed with the execution of the plan and the collection of numerical indicators based on the amount of sales to determine the success of the campaign.
Under this prism, the use of marketing campaigns is opportune if the main objective is to achieve sales. But, however, in my opinion and experience, it usually fails to achieve anything more than that.
The reactive effect imposed on us by the current scenario makes us act quickly and boldly, considering that these types of results are better because they happen faster. And it is that for a presentation of results, it is easier to explain sales rates than appropriation rates.
But if we leave that comfort zone where we feel safe to be backed by numerical data, we can see an endless number of companies that base their communication efforts not on the sale of products but on the communication of concepts.
Computers, perfumes, experiences, trips or in any segment that we look for in the market we will find an example of this situation. It should be noted which of the companies have become more consolidated over time than the others, and which have opted for one approach or another.
Having roughly outlined between the communication campaigns and the marketing campaigns, their conceptualization as a strategy and as a tactic and the different objectives they seek, we come to one last fork: to whom we say all this.
Any element during the campaign formulation process can be replaced - which ends up affecting the final results but not preventing them - but the only one that cannot be missed is the ones we are targeting.
Based on the arguments presented throughout this article, we can identify two questions that guide each approach. In the case of communication, the "what" we say. The one about marketing, the "how" I tell you.
Although they are two aspects that are fully complementary when reaching the so-called segmentation, which is the filter we make to optimize our communication resources in terms of receptivity, we find again that the objectives lead to articulate their methodologies in a different way.
In the case of communication, since it seeks to communicate or transmit a concept, communication resources are more focused on the context of the product than on the product itself. This is an advantage as long as the product is self-explanatory - that is, its use or need to be satisfied is clear.
Through the communication of concepts, the communication campaign can take resources from different own sources, be they the elaboration processes, environmental commitment, quality test or promise of value, by giving some examples to articulate messages that propose a relationship with the consumers.
What is highly striking about this approach is that, despite the fact that the campaign is aimed at the public, it does not seek to segment it in advance, but it is the public itself that segments itself depending on whether it agrees with the concept communicated or not..
We could communicate that within the context of our product we seek to transmit "happiness" as a concept. Since each person, influenced by their traditions, dynamics or culture, will decode a different meaning from what they consider the term “happiness” represents, they will be free to accept or reject that approach that the campaign is transmitting to them.
In this way, some will disagree and end the interactions with the product, while those who agree will establish ties with the product, the brand and, ideally, with the company itself.
On the other hand, in the case of marketing, according to the manual, it will make strong use of data analysis - the famous Big Data that is booming - to be able to subdivide different groups in the most homogeneous way possible so that the campaign has a fertile ground to be effective.
Depending on the guidelines, a sociodemographic segmentation will normally be carried out, where the economic component will be a factor of vital importance - since the end of the campaign will be the sale - and it will be able to use cultural components to be more effective at the time of capturing buyer's attention.
They will seek to find the best way to tell the right person why they should purchase the product that is being offered to them in a market with different substitutes available. The expected result, that they buy my product in greater quantity compared to the other options.
Thus, the role of communication in companies, especially in terms of campaigns, constantly seeks to adapt to that market, which is made up of increasingly immediate and reactive audiences when establishing relationships with companies.
Whether with one approach or another - or mixed in the ideal case - will depend a lot on the business vision in the short, medium and long term. All roads lead to Rome is said in popular culture, and there is no doubt about it.
However, adapting to markets should not mean letting yourself be influenced by them, such as thinking that the success of a campaign depends more on the tool to be used than on the planned concept.
Learning to interpret the market not as an economic system but as a living system, in evolution and its own logic beyond the financial one, can make communication actions more durable over time, being aware that the results are very likely not to be overwhelming in the short term.
To close, and trying to demonstrate that these approaches are not antagonistic, but if they can follow a hierarchical order, I would like to return to the example of the refreshment that I mentioned earlier.
The brand, which sells a carbonated drink that is intended to accompany meals, makes a great effort to link its product with happiness; since this is consumed at special times such as meetings, birthdays, appointments, etc. We see that it does not promise that the product gives happiness after its acquisition, but that it accompanies the moments that people can consider happy.
In the background and more locally, the same brand conducts marketing studies so that in each place where the drink is sold, the location of the product inside a store, the colors used, the typography and the message achieve high persuasive to attract the attention of potential buyers.
In other words, the communications campaign would be global thinking and the marketing campaign would be local acting, as if it were a funnel.
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Author:
Julian Torres Roa
- University: EAE Business School Subject: Communication campaigns (not linked to advertising and / or announcements). Contact:
