Communication Campaign in Software Company - Assignment Example

COMMUNICATION CAMPAIGN IN SOFTWARE COMPANY A software company develops software for use in computerized organizations and also for personal use by individuals. It employs many programmers, graphic artists and developers to produce software. Software companies are of two types. One category of software companies develop software according to recommendations and guidelines given by customers. Software used in banking sectors is an example of such software. The client approaches the software company and provides guidelines and requirements of the organization that he/she is representing and in turn the software company develops the software. In the other category, the software company develops software according to the tastes of the general public and releases it to the public. Operating systems like Windows or Linux are examples of such software. Based on how the general public responds to it new versions are developed and released by the company periodically. In the former category of companies, communication campaigns generally project the company rather than the software. This is because the software is custom made and the company needs to attract clients to make profits. In the second category, communication campaigns are directed more towards the actual software than the company that produces them. Today communication campaigns play a very important role in the profits of a company. A communication campaign is a form of reaching out to the general public so that the public becomes aware of the company and the services that the company offers. Coffman (2002) defines a communication campaign as— 1 Public communication campaigns use the media, messaging, and an organized set of communication activities to generate specific outcomes in a large number of individuals and in a specified period of time. They are an attempt to shape behavior toward desirable social outcomes. To maximize their chances of success, campaigns usually coordinate media efforts with a mix of other interpersonal and community-based communication channels. This way the public buys the services offered by the company and thus the company makes profits. Communication campaigns are implemented by means of mass communication like websites, televisions, magazines and newspapers. Communication campaigns are an integral part of the portfolio of many companies. It is so, because today a heavy competition exists between companies that offer similar services. In order to make profits and maintain a competitive edge over potential rivals most companies invest a lot of resources in advertisements. There are some companies that specialize in advertising. About the emergence of advertising companies Robbs (2003) quotes— Advertising is most frequently done on television, radio, and billboards; in newspapers, magazines, and catalogs; and through direct mail to the consumers. In recent years, numerous advertising agencies have joined forces to become giant agencies, making it possible for them to offer their clients a comprehensive range of worldwide promotion services. Most of the larger companies are taking the help of these advertising companies and are outsourcing their communication campaign departments to these companies. The article “Advertising industry” quotes— Many of the major public relations companies are subsidiaries of advertising companies. Most advertising is designed to be highly visible in identifying the sponsor of the product they are attempting to sell to potential consumers. While paid advertising is often one small component of a public relations campaign, the most powerful public relations influence is where the connection between the sponsor and the messenger is invisible. The various modes of campaign in use can be broadly classified into two categories namely electronic and paper print. Websites and televisions come under electronic while magazines and newspapers are paper print based. Software companies generally prefer websites. In fact each and every software company has websites. There are separate websites dedicated to every version of the product. The websites usually contain information about the software product, its installation and usage tips. Any updates or patches are also made available to the customer through the website. Some websites also contain user reviews. User reviews are written by users and give the customer an understanding of the efficiency and utility of the software product. One of the major advantages of opening websites is the online sale of software. Regarding the benefits of a website the article “Why does my company need a website?” quotes— The Internet can be viewed as more detailed Yellow Pages with a search function. It can be much cheaper to have a website than advertising in Yellow Pages…over 1-2 years, a website of 5-10 pages can be cheaper than a Yellow Pages listing. Print, television and radio adverts have space and time limits. By including web address in advertising campaign, customers can view the website in their own time to find out more about the business. Much software is released as shareware that function for a limited period of time. When the trial period has expired, the user has to activate it by paying the company through credit card or other similar method. Some other software can be downloaded only after payment of charges. Thus websites offer a convenient way of reaching out to the customer. Scisco (2003) is of the opinion that— They [the visitors] can visit the World Wide Web sites of multiple vendors 24 hours a day and seven days a week to compare prices and make purchases, without having to leave their homes or offices. In some cases, consumers can immediately obtain a product or service, such as an electronic book, a music file, or computer software, by downloading it over the Internet. Another form of communication campaign involves the electronic newsletter. By means of the newsletter individuals are made aware of new updates and products. The advantage of electronic newsletters is that they are very cheap unlike postal mail. It is very fast and the email is received instantly by the individual. Software companies usually take the help of affiliate companies in this regard. Affiliate companies are subsidiary companies that advertise on behalf of other companies. The advertisement is usually in the form of links and banners on their sites or newsletters. When the user clicks on these links on their site or newsletter, he/she is redirected to the main site. Affiliate companies are usually paid on the basis of number of clicks or the number of times the banner is displayed. Another form of communication campaign involves advertising through commercials in the television. This form of mass communication is not being resorted in most regions. It is very much rare to find commercials related to software in television. This is because it is very much costlier when compared with the internet. It finds importance in developing countries because the cost of internet is very much higher in these countries. Even if internet is accessible, the bandwidth offered is very low which makes it inconvenient to download the software. Regarding the utility of television Robbs (2003) quotes— Because television commercials combine sight, sound, and motion, they are more dramatic than any other form of advertising and lend excitement and appeal to ordinary products. Advertisers consider television an excellent medium to build a product's brand image or to create excitement around a particular event such as a year-end auto sale. In these countries, a large section of the computer users do not have an internet connection. Computer related magazines play an important role in the communication campaigns of software companies. The main reason behind this is that these magazines are mainly related to software and also to some extent to hardware like computer peripherals. A large number of potential customers buy computer related magazines and hence it is an effective method to make these potential customers aware about the software company and the services it is offering. In these magazines the main features, the price and user reviews are included and give the user a better understanding regarding the functionality and utility of the software. Most of the computer related magazines come with CDs that contain free software and also demo versions. By including a demo version or beta version of the software in the CDs, more number of customers can be given a better understanding of the usefulness of the software. Advertising through computer related magazines is very much costlier when compared with the internet. It also covers a very narrow section of the customer base, yet the main advantage is that these are a means of reaching out particularly to the potential customer. News papers are also used to some extent if not on a major scale. Newspapers have a much larger covering on the customer base and they are much cheaper than computer related magazines. Of all the means of communication campaign, advertising through the internet is the most advantageous. This becomes evident from the widespread popularity that the internet has been enjoying ever since its inception. This is reflected by the fact that it is almost free of cost and can be accessed by any person in any remote corner of the world. For the software company to make profits it is very much necessary to invest more on internet advertising. BIBLIOGRAPHY Coffman, J. (2002) PUBLIC COMMUNICATION CAMPAIGN EVALUATION [online] Harvard Family Research Project. Available from [Accessed 2 December 2005] Centre for media democracy. (2005) Advertising industry. [online] Available from [Accessed 2 December 2005] Skuby web design. (2005) why does my business need a website? [online] Available from [Accessed 2 December 2005] Robbs, B. (2003) “Advertising” Microsoft Encarta Reference Library. CD-ROM. Seattle: Microsoft, 2003. Scisco, P. (2003) “Electronic commerce” Microsoft Encarta Reference Library. CD-ROM. Seattle: Microsoft, 2003. Read More