Introduction
It is normal today to recognize the uncertainty posed by the context in which we live and which, obviously, is the same context in which we carry out our professional, business or any other type of activities.
It is also known that it is this uncertainty that complicates our business context when making decisions. How can we then do to reduce uncertainty? One of the possibilities that can arise when it comes to meeting that challenge is to stay informed. From this it arises, then, that the tool to which we must approach is information. Through it and its correct selection, interpretation and use, we will be able to place ourselves in a position that allows us to develop our activities on a more reliable basis.
But this is not all; the search for information can become a box of surprises, whatever the destination for which it is used. Numerous are the interpretations that we can find depending on the subject in question. It is very important to face the process with absolute criteria; taking information that is likely to be "accommodated" in some "space" in which we can find it and contextualize it when necessary. It is also necessary to pay due attention to the process of searching and using it, since we can discover some interpretations that, although in some cases they can be funny, in others they can be very dangerous…
Let's talk marketing
Regarding the interpretation of information and the concepts included in it, for example, when talking about marketing, it is possible to observe that, time and again, its concept is the victim of constant bastardization and is used interchangeably to refer to a diversity of topics… at times it seems that anything has to do with marketing… and even when this is quite possible, the topic does not receive the best treatment. How many times have we come across a notice of those published by companies with the intention of incorporating new personnel to their ranks, the text of which read: «Important Company incorporates for its Marketing department, Graduates in Advertising, Marketing or RR. PP. »? The question is: Is it all the same?
We do not intend to solve all the mistakes that are committed in regard to so many concepts that are mistreated; However, confusion of this type is what seriously threatens the success of any undertaking, it is for this reason that we believe it is essential to shed a little light in the face of such gloom, at least as far as Marketing is concerned.
This paper will expose Advertising and the Sales Force as components of Impulse, will explain the importance of Public Relations in the company, will analyze the effect of Channel Promotions on the distribution strategy and will briefly end with the presentation of how The concept of Advertising evolves with the approach of «integrated communications».
The concepts
As a starting point, it is necessary to make it clear that concepts such as Marketing, Advertising and Sales, although they are in permanent interrelation, are usually not interpreted as they really deserve. To this end, through a simple table (completely static that will not show the dynamic interrelation that occurs between its different concepts) we will try to expose them according to what could be called a "hierarchical" order.
- Marketing
- Strategic marketing
- PortfolioPositioning
- Differentiation Segmentation
- Product Distribution Logistics Drive
- AdvertisingPromotionSales ForcePublic RelationsPress and BroadcastDirect MarketingMerchandising
- PortfolioPositioning
- Strategic marketing
In order not to extend ourselves too much in this work and considering that it is not the object of this present to explain theoretically each and every one of the drive components, we will concentrate our analysis on the concepts highlighted in bold.
The first concept that we must clarify, which we could call the most affected by all the confusion and misinterpretations, is the concept of Marketing. For this we will use a not very recent, but current publication of the Argentine Marketing Association that, among other things, reads the following: «Marketing works to increase the quality of life of people, interpreting and discovering their wishes and needs for companies to satisfy them. «… through products and services it establishes a permanent link that allows finding solutions to consumer concerns». Another definition of the concept of marketing could be of the type: «Marketing is the interaction of all the operational factors of the company and of all its functional activities,oriented towards optimizing the satisfaction of the consumers of products, ideas or services, with the aim of achieving the maximization of the Economic Value of the company ”(adapted from“ Creatividad & Marketing ”, by Roberto Dualibi and Harry Simonsen Jr.).
Regarding consumer concerns, Alvin Toffler, in his book "The Third Wave," spoke of demassing. In it, Toffler outlined how and why the mass society created by the industrial revolution was becoming more and more fragmented to become a "demassed society." Toffler said: "The mass market has been divided into a series of mini-markets that continue to multiply and evolve, and which require a continuous expansion of the range of options, models, types, sizes, colors and personal adaptations."
The discussion
Returning to the publication of the Argentine Marketing Association, we found an appreciation that was interesting enough to begin to work with the confusion that accuses that Marketing is advertising and sales: «… Sales is one of the main tools that make up all the action of marketing,… »; to which we add as well as Advertising, Promotion, Direct Marketing, etc. We also add a wake-up call, none of the impulsion tools guarantees success in an absolute way, they must be used with extreme care and criteria, since their effectiveness depends on the product in question, which market we are targeting. we lead and what is the best way to reach the minds of its members.
Positioning
When we talk about "reaching their minds" we are talking about one of the pillar decisions that determine and condition the marketing actions to be followed, we are talking about POSITIONING. When we say "positioning", we are talking about the "place", the "position" that our company / brand / product will occupy in the mind of each of the market members, in the mind of the consumer, in the mind of the non-consumer, in the mind of our neighbor and in the mind of the purchasing manager of a supermarket that is part of a large chain (to paraphrase Alberto Levy). The challenge is to find a powerful, credible, sustainable and appropriate positioning.
Advertising
Having clarified the concept of marketing, we must continue advancing, let's make a small foray into the concept of advertising and then continue with the conceptualization of the other tools of the impulse.
We turned to Philip Kotler to find out about the concept of advertising and found: "We define advertising as any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services by an identified sponsor." At the same time, Kotler also says that advertising is one of the main tools that companies use to direct communications to buyers and target audiences.
In the same work, "Marketing Management", Kotler makes a comment regarding the different possibilities of advertising in terms of its purposes. These can be: creation of a lasting corporate image of the company (institutional advertising); long-term creation of a particular brand (brand advertising); dissemination of information about a sale, service or event (classified advertising); announcement of a special sale (sale or promotional advertisement); support for a specific cause (support advertising).
The first step in developing an advertising program is to set your advertising goals. These objectives must derive from previous decisions about the target market, positioning and the marketing mix. The positioning strategy and the marketing mix define the role that advertising should play in the total marketing program.
We consider it pertinent to dedicate a paragraph to what is known as cooperative advertising, paid between the retailer and the manufacturer, since this is usually another inexpensive and effective way of doing retail advertising.
It is worth remembering that advertising is not the only or the most effective driving tool, once a problem or an opportunity has been found for a brand or product in its communication with consumers, it should not be solved exclusively with an increase in expenses. in advertising, but most of the time you have to adjust messages and go to one or more of the other impulse tools.
Next, we will take a quick tour through some of the other tools of the impulse, which, acting together with advertising and forming part of the marketing mix, contribute to the communications of the company with the target market.
Direct marketing
To refer to direct marketing, we must say that it is one of the forms of communication available to the company and that it is directed more specifically to action. Its distinctive feature is that it reaches very specifically to small segments, its response is measurable and contributes to the construction of databases.
Direct marketing tries to encourage the consumer to respond immediately, seeking to achieve consumer confidence in our brand, product or company, providing all the necessary information, facilitating the shipment of orders, involving the consumer in the purchase process, and creating a sense of urgency.
Promotion
Regarding sales promotions, we can say that they are ideal to stimulate sales in short periods, to increase the volume of products or achieve an increase in the presence of our brand in specific markets. Among the most recurrent forms of promotion we can find discount coupons, samplings (samples), reduced prices ("offers"), promotional packs and prizes.
On the other hand, the promotion at the point of sale or merchandising contributes to the consolidation of the image of the company in business, while generating immediate sales. Its scope is directly linked to the amount of public traffic observed in each store, local, gondola or point of sale in general.
As we have said before, the messages emitted through any of the push tools seen so far (and others omitted), which aim to keep the brand image alive, contribute to improving the relative positioning of the brand (and of the whole company) against the competition, particularly if we talk about remembrance and presence in the mind of the consumer (awareness).
Sales force
Another important driving tool is the so-called sales force. In Kotler's words: “Sales people serve as the company's personal liaison with customers. The sales representative IS the company to many of its customers and in return brings much of the required intelligence about the customer to the company. Accordingly, the company must pay due attention to everything inherent to the design of the sales force, to the development of its objectives, strategy, structure, size and compensation.
Public relations
Although it is known that relationships with customers begin by selling them a product or service that satisfies them, we must consider that these are not the only relationships to which attention should be paid; Public relations as an impulse tool have been gaining importance in the communication strategy of companies due, among other circumstances, to the saturation of the market with regard to the more traditional impulse tools.
Included in the communication mix, public relations allow increasing the credibility of the company, especially on occasions when it is also possible to obtain diffusion in the press. This is very easy to observe: if we go to any of the newspapers with the highest circulation, for example, we will sometimes find complete supplements dedicated to a particular company. The tactics also include the publication of news, editorial mentions, events and sponsorships, contests and participation in actions of public good.
In this regard, Philip Kotler adds that PR "can place articles in the media to attract attention to a product, service, person, organization or idea", as well as "help create enthusiasm in the sales force and dealers".
Drive and distribution
With regard to distributors, in some markets their importance as members of the channel is of decisive importance in relation to the results of our company.
Depending on the conditions, the decision about whether to use a push or pull strategy can be critical to the performance of the business.
A "pull" strategy is characterized by an intense communication by the company towards the target market, with the objective that consumers are the ones who demand from the retailer, for example, the presence of this or that product in their gondolas or shelves.
On the contrary, with the use of a «push» strategy through different types of promotions to the distribution channel (discounts, loyalty prizes, special prices depending on the exposure of our products in their displays, etc.), which The aim is to increase the presence of our product or brand, putting our products within the reach of consumers.
Integrated communications
Finally, we consider it essential to expose a different approach with regard to company communications as opposed to those approaches that made the importance of advertising prevail over the rest of the tools of the impulse.
This new approach is known as 'integrated communications'. A document from the American Association of Advertising Agencies defines them as “a marketing concept that attempts to add value through a plan that adds the strategic roles of a variety of communications, for example, mass advertising, direct response, promotions and public relations, and it combines these disciplines to obtain clarity, consistency and maximum communicative impact ”.
The discipline and philosophy of integrated communications try to ensure that all tools convey a coherent message and mutually feed back on their scope and impact. The most certain sign of success in this field is the increase in effectiveness and the relative low cost with which the objectives are achieved.
Regarding this issue of integrated communications, Stan Rapp and Thomas L. Collins contribute from their book «The new maximarketing», the following concepts: «There is a way to maximize the value of your marketing strategies without spending a penny of your budget. The secret is in the extra benefit that can be obtained if a single advertising effort can serve two, three or more different purposes.
To which they add: “Single-purpose advertising and promotions could be outdated because running just one activity at a time is the most expensive way to spend a portion of your advertising budget today. The most profitable strategy requires going beyond simply spreading a brand image, presenting a sales pitch, or announcing a discount promotion. At best, it means combining two, three or more functions in a single advertising or promotional effort to achieve several objectives at once.
"E-Marketing"
Likewise, with the appearance of the Internet and after the boom where it seemed that "everyone" should be on the Web even without knowing very well for what purpose, new forms of impulse have been developed that use this medium to reach users. different targets. Today it is possible to hear about e-Mail Marketing, Pop-up, Pop-under, Advertorials, Banners, co-Branded pages, Viral Marketing, Permission Marketing, Spamming, Opt-in e-mail, Search engines, i-advertising… They are all new ways of contributing to the impulse mix, resulting from applying traditional concepts to this disruptive medium, and one of the particular characteristics of these is that, from the beginning and when well intentioned, they seem to respond to those concepts of communication. multipurpose.
Optimizing communication
What we mean is that a push strategy should no longer be carried out through the use of tools in isolation, giving a star role to advertising as an exclusive driving force, but rather, carefully analyzing what is or what are the tools. that can optimize the communication of the company with the target market, acting together in such a way that the message that is transmitted is sufficiently homogeneous and easy to interpret, leaving no room for different interpretations or even contrary to those intended by the business. All this while considering that not all products or brands are capable of being promoted in the same way and with the same tools, but that each product or brand requires a particular impulse tool and form of communication.
With all these clarifications and conceptualizations, we consider that they will no longer be able to easily confuse us… The generalized confusion about Marketing understood as Advertising and Sales, should no longer threaten our way of understanding business. We should be in a position to discern whether the interlocutor on duty is talking to us about Marketing, Advertising, Promotion or Positioning, and banish once and for all this myth that does nothing more than mix well-differentiated concepts. We should be in a position to say that marketing is not just advertising and sales.
Two phrases to think about
1- The search for information can become a box of surprises. We must pay due attention to the search process since we can discover some interpretations that, although in some cases they can be funny, in others they can be very dangerous…
2- The messages emitted through any of the impulse tools that aim to keep the image of the brand alive, contribute to improving the relative positioning of the brand (and the entire company), particularly if we talk about remembrance and presence in the consumer mind (awareness).
The important thing
1- Marketing is the interaction of all the operational factors of the company and of all its functional activities, oriented towards optimizing the satisfaction of consumers of products, ideas or services, with the aim of achieving the maximization of Economic Value of the company.
2- Not all products or brands are capable of being promoted in the same way and with the same tools, each product or brand requires a particular impulse tool and form of communication.
3- Advertising is not the only or the most effective driving tool. Once an opportunity has been found for a brand or product in its communication with consumers, it should not be solved exclusively with advertising, but rather, in most of the times it is necessary to adjust messages and go to one or more of the other impulse tools..
Recommended bibliography
1- Marketing Management Philip Kotler
2- Strategic Marketing Jean-Jacques Lambin
3- Mayonnaise Alberto Levy
4- Maximarketing / The New Maximarketing Stan Rapp Thomas Collins
5- Alvin Toffler The Third Wave
