The Scope of Marketing Communications - Assignment Example

THE SCOPE OF MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS Affiliation This paper provides relevant information about marketing communication, its scope, ways, and importance for business organisations. The process of advertising and promotion along with their regulatory bodies has also been discussed in this paper. Moreover, current trends in advertising and promotion along with the impact of Information and Communication technology in marketing communication and its importance has also been discussed in this paper. Finally it explains creative ways that organisations use to connect with their customers and examines how advertising agencies work. Introduction Effective communication plays a vital role in advertising and promotion because it provides ways to convey message to the target audience. Communication is a process between two or more parties, one provides information and other receives information. The aim of marketing communication is to provide relevant information to the buyers and influence their buying behaviour. In advertising and promotional campaigns marketing communication process works dynamically and by using effective advertising and promotional strategies organisations strengthen their businesses and products. 1. The Scope of Marketing Communication Communication is considered as lifeblood of the organisation, which means without communication no organisation can survive. The communication process that is used by business organisations to market their products and services is known as marketing communication, organisations adopt effective communication strategies to endorse a product, service or organisation whit the objective to increase sale. In advertising and promotion organisations communicate message to relevant audience through various channels such as television, internet, radio, print (publications), and word of mouth. Marketing Communication in Today’s World In today’s world marketing communication has significant impact on people’s life because it influences day to day life of people in different manner. The media of marketing communication use different ways to interact with people and influence their life through effective communication. The success of marketing communication depends on its ability to influence people buying behaviour through promotion and advertising. Organisations use marketing communication techniques to compete with competitors and reached to potential customers to sell their products and services (Madhavaram, Badrinarayanan, & McDonald, 2005). American Marketing Association define marketing as an organisational function, consists on different activities for creating, communicating, and delivering value to potential customers and for creating and managing good relationships with them to benefit organisation as well as stakeholders. (Phelps, et. al. 2004) It is a public oriented process of identifying and creating the needs and wants of customers, and offer products and services to them in order to satisfy their needs. 1.1 The communication process that applies to advertising and promotion Objective of Communication Process The objective of communication process is to transfer information from sender to receiver in an effective manner. Success of communication process depends how well the receiver understands the message of sender. In business world, the effectiveness of company’s internal and external communication plays a vital role in it success. According to marketing expert Phillip Kotler, “marketing is a process consists on set of activities by which organisations creatively, profitably, and productively communicate to the marketplace”. It is an art of identifying and creating customer needs and then satisfying those needs via different products and services. Furthermore, the aim of marketing is to provide right goods and services to the right people at right time, and in order to fulfil that aim organisations use advertising and promotion strategies. Moreover, advertising and promotion are as necessary as any other business activity. Advertising and promotional activities structured and makes the consumer experience through dimensions of marketing, communication, and society (Ayanwale, Alimi, & Ayanbimipe, 2005. Promotional activities add more value to product by providing different experience to customers. The objective of advertising is to communicate with viewers and to persuade them to buy products or services (Kotler, & Gertner, 2004). This process is based on the contents of marketing communication. The first step to create any advertisement is to identify potential audience to which company wants to communicate, after identifying the audience create advertise according to them. Same methodology is applied in promotion strategy. If a company wants to promote its products then it first has to identify potential audience. 1.2. The organisation of the advertising and promotion industry Every organisation has some parts or group, so the organisation of advertising and promotion also consisted on some groups, which highly contribute in its success. They are general advertising group, specialized advertising group, interactive advertising group, and in-house advertising group (Belch, & Belch, M. 2003). These groups take various actions for promoting products services, or whole organisation. The actions like publicity via mass marketing, advertising, sponsorships, face-to-face meetings, and interviewing with customers help organisations in promotion. The motto of organisations of advertising and promotion strategy is not only based to communicate effectively but also to create value for an organisation (Griffith, Chandra, & Ryans, 2003). It creates advertising standards and arranges awards and recognitions for advertising firms. Moreover, it maintains cooperation between different advertising bodies and professional standards. Every group of advertising and promotion performs specialized tasks like; generalizing advertising group performs normal tasks like logo design or brand marketing, whereas specialized advertising group works on specific tasks like entertainment, and advertises creation for specific businesses. 1.3. Assess how promotion is regulated Risk and impact of promotional activities are main concern for the organisation of advertisement and promotion, and the regulation of promotional activities depends on them. Advertising and promotion plays very significant role in brand building because it develops a unique image of brand in the minds of consumers. Advertisements and other promotional activities should be free from all types of stereotype biasness because people accuses many advertisements for encouraging materialism, using of sex to sell, manipulating human behaviour, hitting on competitor image, and taking advantage of children (Griffith, Chandra, & Ryans, 2003). Hence the regulatory bodies are formed to monitor and control the activities of advertising agencies. The advertisement regulating body establish and define laws and rules to advertise products and services in a particular region. The rules vary from country to country because of change of consumers’ perspective. In 1962 Advertising Standards Authority was established in UK by UK’s advertising industry. This regulatory body is responsible for regulating promotions, content of advertisements, and direct marketing in the region. UK’s advertising standard authority has established two advertising codes, and two committees The Committee of Advertising Practise (CAP) and Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practices (BCAP) create, monitor, and revise the advertising codes. Along with formal regulatory body, advertising agencies follow self-regulation system, to protect their image and to avoid any negative criticism (Ramos, & Franco, (2005). Promotion is conducted and monitored as per the following: 1. Pre-development stage: In this stage, the final product has been developed and the Marketing department now needs to devise strategies of how to market the product and create awareness amongst the consumers. 2. Product Starting: Once the product is in the market, the consumer response needs to be triggered and the product/service should be hyped in a way that the consumer becomes interested in trying out the product. 3. Offers oriented promotions: Consumer oriented promotions can be designed as well as trade oriented promotions can be designed to boost the sales and profits for the firm. In consumer oriented promotions, price discounts, coupons, free gifts and all such strategies are used. In trade oriented promotions, the retailers are given incentives to place the product in their stores (Belch and Belch, 2003). Current trends in advertising and promotion Trends are basically directions, in which something moves in a particular time, Currents trends represent direction of particular function in a present time. Since many years, organisations use advertising and promotion as a strategic tool to increase product awareness, to strengthen the product or service, and to build a brand preference. The current trends in advertising and promotion are websites, banner ads, smart phones, email promotions, sponsored links, TV, games, print media, and above all social media. Because of new trends, advertising is becoming more complex and requires unique features. Now advertisers not only think about creativity but also evaluate profitable ways to communicate with customers (Kotler, & Gertner, 2004). Along with the content and presentation of advertisements the channel to communication with audience also plays significant role. Due to heavy usage of internet by people it becomes easy for advertisers to communicate with customers by using different internet advertising techniques (Ayanwale, Alimi, & Ayanbimipe, 2005). Role of ICT The Information and Communication Technology plays a vital role in current advertising strategies because it has become an important part of business. Before the advancement of technology billboards, brochures, or posters were used for advertisements but now ICT’s media which is consisted on television, internet, and mobile phones is widely being used (Koslow, Sasser, & Riordan, 2003). The ICT has made world-shattering changes in marketing trends. It has creates new ways to approach audience and to influence their buying behaviours. Internet has demolished boundaries and now businesses can promote their products and services world-wide. Conclusion The scope of marketing communication depends how effectively organisations promote their products and services, and how effectively they influence consumers’ buying decision. Promotion and advertising are necessary in today’s competitive world because they play a very important role to create sustainability of the organisation. Therefore the aim of marketing communication is to support organisation in brand creation. Reference List Ayanwale, A. B., Alimi, T., & Ayanbimipe, M. A. (2005). The influence of advertising on consumer brand preference. Journal of Social Science, 10(1), 9-16. Belch, G. E., & Belch, M. A. (2003). Advertising and promotion: An integrated marketing communications perspective. The McGraw− Hill. Griffith, D. A., Chandra, A., & Ryans Jr, J. K. (2003). Examining the intricacies of promotion standardization: factors influencing advertising message and packaging. Journal of International Marketing, 11(3), 30-47. Kotler, P., & Gertner, D. (2004). Country as brand, product and beyond: a place marketing and brand management perspective. Destination branding: Creating the unique destination proposition, 2, 40-56. Kotler, P. (2000). Marketing management: The millennium edition (pp. 87-103). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Koslow, S., Sasser, S. L., & Riordan, E. A. (2003). What is creative to whom and why? Perceptions in advertising agencies. Journal of Advertising Research, 43(01), 96-110. Madhavaram, S., Badrinarayanan, V., & McDonald, R. E. (2005). Integrated marketing communication (IMC) and brand identity as critical components of brand equity strategy: A conceptual framework and research propositions.Journal of Advertising, 34(4), 69-80. Phelps, J. E., Lewis, R., Mobilio, L., Perry, D., & Raman, N. (2004). Viral marketing or electronic word-of-mouth advertising: Examining consumer responses and motivations to pass along email. Journal of advertising research, 44(04), 333-348. Villarejo-Ramos, A. F., & Sánchez-Franco, M. J. (2005). The impact of marketing communication and price promotion on brand equity. The Journal of Brand Management, 12(6), 431-444. Read More