1. The communication process in marketing.
Communication is one of the variables of the marketing mix consisting of a set of mass communication tools: advertising, sales promotion, public relations; or personal communication: sales. In all of them, the role is to communicate to individuals or groups or organizations, through information or persuasion, an offer that directly or indirectly satisfies the exchange relationship between bidders and applicants. For all this, it is clear that communication influences the achievement of marketing objectives.
Communication is a process that consists of a set of elements:
Issuer: this is the communication source.
Coding: definition of the symbols to be used when transmitting a message.
Channels: media.
Noise: distortions that occur in the communication process. Decoding: interpretation by the receiver of the symbols used by the sender.
Answer: it can be the one sought by the issuer or not. It could be: cognitive, affective and behavioral. Feedback: evaluation of the recipient's response through market research.
The different tools of commercial communication make up what is called the communication mix. Within the mix the following stand out:
A) Advertising: paid and non-personal way of presenting and promoting ideas, goods, and services on behalf of someone identified.
B) "Publicity": dissemination or unpaid presentation by the advertiser of information in the media related to a product or service.
C) Sales promotion: Short-term incentives aimed at buyers, sellers, distributors and prescribers to stimulate purchasing.
D) Sales: personal communication with one or more potential clients in order to get the purchase.
E) Public relations: actions aimed at improving, maintaining or protecting the image of a product or company.
F) Sponsorship: delivery of money or other goods to an activity or event that allows commercial exploitation of them at different levels.
G) Fairs and exhibitions: presentation, sometimes sales, periodic and short-term, of the products of a sector to intermediaries and prescribers.
2. Advertising.
Before an advertising campaign, an analysis of the following aspects is necessary:
- Internal analysis: product characteristics, strengths and weaknesses and analysis of marketing mix variables Competitive analysis: determination of competitive advantages, advertising investments of other brands and the like. Consumer analysis: knowledge and brand image, attitudes and profile of consumers, media audience habits and information from market studies. Analysis of the environment: advertising legislation, social trends and others.
Advertising objectives.
a) Introduce a new brand.
b) Increase brand awareness.
c) Communicate the characteristics of the brand.
d) Evoking memories, fantasy or imagination.
e) Create or strengthen the image and positioning.
f) Change or reinforce attitudes.
g) Generate behavior.
h) Generic or corporate.
Advertising Message.
The advertising message includes the set of texts, images, sounds and symbols that convey an idea. Its purpose is to capture the attention of the recipient, effectively communicate that idea that meets the advertising objective and remember it associated with a brand. Based on the advertising objective, a certain type of advertising message will be adopted:
a) Informational message:
- Generic: it does not differentiate one brand from the rest. Appropriator: association of product characteristics to the brand. Unique selling proposition: category or exclusive benefit of a brand. Pre-eminent: A brand is presented as superior. Innovation: communicates a new category or product innovation. Comparative: explicit reference to competition.
b) Persuasive message:
- Sensual Emotional Of esteem and self-realization
Advertising diffusion.
Advertising dissemination involves choosing the media and planning the most appropriate advertising media to get the message to the recipient or target audience at the lowest possible cost.
The decision criteria for both media and supports can be qualitative or quantitative. The former include format, penetration, credibility and qualitative characteristics of the media, among others. Quantitative factors refer to audience and cost.
Budget.
The budget decision can be approached from various practical methods:
1. Arbitrary: Management sets the amount to be allocated to the campaign based on their experience or intuition.
2. Percentage on sales.
3. Competitive parity: the budget is determined by comparison or based on that allocated by the competitors.
4. What you can.
5. According to the previous budget.
6. Depending on the objectives and tasks: in this case an approach totally contrary to the previous ones is used. It considers the objectives of a campaign and then determines the budget as the sum of the costs of the actions necessary to achieve those objectives.
1. Sales promotion.
Sales promotion is used in situations where it is convenient to carry out very short-term actions and for very specific objectives. It is usually used with more intensity in the following cases:
- When there is little brand loyalty When the products are not differentiated When the purchases are made with little planning or on impulse When the product is in its introduction or maturity stage When the sales show a high seasonality When the product has a low market share When the competitors put it into practice when recommended by sellers
Sales promotion is done in a non-permanent and often local way and is used to reinforce the effects of advertising.
It is put into operation to reinforce the purchase of a certain product.
Sales promotions can pose certain risks in the event that they are not integrated into the marketing strategy and are not coordinated with the rest of the communication:
- Distortions in brand image and positioning The product may become of interest to the buyer only through promotion. Conflicts may arise in distribution channels.
Steps to follow to develop a sales promotion campaign:
i. Objectives: they can be established according to their recipients: sales force, distributors, consumers, consumers and prescribers.
ii. Promotional means: animation at points of sale, free demonstrations and samples, contests, games, raffles, etc. The choice between one technique and another will depend on: the objectives, the life cycle of the product and the available budget.
iii. Control: it can be done in two moments of time, before the final launch of the promotion and after its development. In the first case it is a promotional or a priori pretest, and in the second it is a promotional or a posteriori posttest.
2. The personal sale.
The sales force is made up of a set of vendors, staff or external of a company. Sales force objectives can be grouped into three types:
- Search for new customers Sales Information generation
These objectives will have their concrete expression in a certain period of time.
The sales force must be clearly organized, and its structure must be one of the following three:
I. By zones
II. By products
III. By clients
The personal sale process is usually structured in the following phases:
a) Prospecting: its purpose is to search for new clients, using references from current clients and suppliers, company directories, fairs, etc.
b) Preparation: all available information, both commercial and personal, must be collected from the client.
c) Presentation: it consists of two elements, the opening and the presentation of the product and its benefits.
d) Treatment of objections: it usually happens that during the presentation of the product the client objects to the conditions of the product, its quality, its price, etc. The seller must refute them by listening to the customer's complaint and with strong and compelling arguments.
e) Closing and monitoring: the purpose of the closing is for the buyer to place an order. The customer, the order and the after-sales services that generate satisfaction and confidence for the purchase must also be monitored.
3. Other forms of communication.
Public relations: they focus on achieving and improving trust, understanding and adherence, relationships with various groups and corporate communication. Its recipients are external.
Its tools are extensive and include, among others: internal and external publications, exhibitions, press releases, conferences, scholarships, charitable aid…
"Publicity": it has the same characteristics as advertising except for the fact that the issuer does not pay the channel owner to transmit messages about a brand or company.
Sponsorship
Download the original file
