Managing Markering Communication - Essay Example

Managing Marketing Communication Executive Summary The present era is commonly referred to as the Information Age. All small, average sized or large businesses need to make use of effectual business communication practices in order to keep meeting customer expectations and achieve a competitive advantage over their rivals. Contrary to the past, adequate capital, corporate resources, experience and talent are no longer enough to ensure that a business remains relevant in the current global economic climate. A good marketing communication system is the principal factor that is necessary for a business’s international as well as regional integration. With the economies of most nations in both the developing and developed worlds becoming more knowledge intensive and sophisticated, there is a greater necessity for the existence of a well-organised network that will allow decision makers to access accurate business information that will, in turn, facilitate transaction sealing and efficiency. Managing Marketing Communication Introduction Integrated Marketing Communications, or IMC, basically refers to the process of combining all the tools used in advertising so that they can function together. Promotion, one of the marketing mix’s 4 Ps, has its own combination of communication elements. All of these elements operate better if they are combined together than when they are used in isolation. Their functions are improved when integration incorporates more than the essential communication tools. There are other kinds of integration like vertical and horizontal integration. Horizontal Integration can happen across business functions as well as the marketing mix. For example, communications production, distribution, and finance should operate simultaneously when the telecom service providers seek to channel messages to their consumers. Different divisions like direct mail, sales, and advertising can operate concurrently via data integration (Cameron, 2005). This calls for a marketing information structure which gathers and shares the pertinent information across different corporate divisions. Vertical Integration basically denotes that communications and marketing purposes have to be formed in such a way that they support the higher level commercial goals and objectives. Internal Integration, on the other hand, calls for all the staff to be kept informed and inspired about new advancements. In a telecom service provider, these could mean new corporate identities, new advertisements, new strategic partners or even new service standards (Schultz and Schultz, 2003). External integration calls for external allies like PR agencies and advertising to work collaboratively in order to avail an integrated and cohesive message. The main principles of integrated marketing communications comprise: Consistency: A major topic in integrated marketing is consistency. It basically speaks to delivering an identical message about a brand or service across all elements of the media. This is a function that can assist a telecom service provider to create a brand identity that is both effective as well as impressive. For example, a corporation with a high-quality brand has to ensure that its message to different media outlets maintain the same timbre of message that conveys the promise of superb quality (Pelsmacker, Geuens and Bergh, 2004). If the business invests in an effective TV advertisement but cuts costs in its advertisements in print media, the clients will get a mixed message about the service. Distribution Considerations: Integrated marketing is also about the supply-chain outcomes of a service provider. This basically entails working with contractors that have good reputations that will raise the profile of the telecom service provider. It also means utilising information gathered during marketing to enhance services that meet customer expectations while also improving the general experience of the consumer. Interactive: Interactive marketing encourages and supports a two-way communication process with consumers. This means that consumers are provided with ways in which they can provide feedback for the service provider. A mail piece with a unique bar code, for example, gives the corporation the chance to track the extent of redemption on particular offers. Email marketing operations also supply avenues for feedback from consumers (Percy, 2011). Customer-Centric: A key part of integrated marketing is being customer-centric. This basically means that all facets of the marketing procedure are designed to discover what consumers wish for and then let the consumers know how they can access it. This is different from old ways of marketing where the stress was on messages that influenced consumers to make purchases whether they were interested in them or not (Young, 2010). By gathering information via direct marketing or loyalty programs, marketers usually spend more time on evaluations than on the resourceful improvement of marketing communications. The current stress on the audience, multiplicity, and conversation requires an agility and nimbleness in marketing that is usually not distinctive of traditional practices and theories on marketing communication (Kitchen, Ilchul and Schultz, 2009). To stay relevant, marketing has to acclimatise to the present by first identifying how interactivity and engagement alters everything. Most companies cannot produce services and have customers come to them due to the uniqueness of the service itself. Most telecom service providers have services that appear to be like other services. Therefore, they need a good competitive strategy as well as consumer research to succeed. Additionally, the commonness of "engagement" as a normal life function raises the importance of communication to human existence in all perspectives including the marketplace (Kolb 1984). Basing business decisions on demographic information is not enough to draw many customers in the present competitive business environment. The marketplace requires interpretive as well as rhetorical practices that deliver resonant insights and lead to the realisation of strong common interests between telecom providers and their consumers. Consumer engagement and good service orientation in the current marketplace call for stronger connections in all aspects of corporate communication (Andrew and Petkov, 2003). Specifically, it needs an integrated association between marketing communication and marketing so as to institute communicative cohesiveness externally as well as internally. The current existence of engagement and interactivity constitutes a visionary reaction to the competitive marketplace; licensing the customer to be the aim for all marketing strategies, planning, and execution. This outside-in technique supports marketing communication and marketing in navigating through transformations and uncertainty in order to form strong communication campaigns. While the combination of external and internal corporate communication operations has not yet come to full recognition in practice or theory, this commitment is currently being eagerly pursued by marketers as well as scholars. Positivism usually looks for facts conceived in particular associations and correlations among variables. Post positivism is actually a relatively recent development of positivism (Anarory and Theethayi, 2010). Post positivism is similar to positivism in its assumption that an objective world subsists. However, it presumes that the world might not be easy to apprehend with ideas and that variable facts and relations might not be deterministic but only probabilistic. Critical realism looks to expose types of injustice and inequality and to challenge these in ways that change the society to be a more democratic institution. Critical scholarship therefore looks to rise above ‘taken for granted’ social structures and values by making these issues visible, thus encouraging criticism (Block, Schultz and BIGresearch, 2009). Neo tribalism basically entails the dividing of communities into smaller factions. It is supported by the desire to discover people that have shared interests, passions, and sensibilities so as to market to them as a group. Arrangements of new “tribes” are today easy to discover because of the development of social media. While consumer demographics are still an effectual implement, it is rapidly being overtaken by psychographic marketing which plays a vital role in forming more detailed, micro-niche consumer groups to reach principle customers. The well known industries like those that specialise in lifestyle and travel have led the way (Iacobucci and Calder, 2003). For example, while fitness would be considered as a big niche according to conventional approaches of marketing, fitness for tennis players is a modern example of a micro niche. The main niche markets at present include Gen Y, the ‘tweens’ (children between 9 and 13years,) hyper-luxury goods and men’s wellness. Digital Technology Means That Content Creation Is No Longer Exclusive To Media Firms and Marketers As the world moves into the digital age, marketers are faced with ever-increasing challenges. These include comprehending the economic as well as operational ramifications of drifting from the customary media and creative approaches into the digital market place (Berra, 2003). This challenge is usually the source of a lot of inefficiency, friction, and waste in relations between agencies and clients. This is because traditional players may use traditional ways of marketing without an appreciating the different economics in play or recognising digital norms. Without some fundamental knowledge regarding the changes that the market is experiencing, it is not hard for the telecom service provider as well as its clients to become locked in the same habitual and painful discussions (MMC Learning, 2010). Digital tribes have developed and they greatly affect different discernments of media value. They share, produce, manipulate, and experience opinions about the services that are offered without having immediate recourse to current media outlets. Convergence as Glue Convergence can facilitate mass customisation or improved retailing for service providers. The recreational social networks have comprehended what most proficient advertising and media corporations have not grasped. This is the fact that generating value is not just the capacity to solve digital rights, content, monetisation, or distribution concern. Generating value is about appreciating and serving a new different type of audience (De Pelsmacker, Geuens and Van den Bergh, 2004). A firm that understood this concept long before it was trendy is the MTV broadcasting producer. MTV does not actually support creative development, trade music directly to customers, or dispense the network signal. In spite of this, MTV grew to be a giant global music industry because it was proficient in creating music video content that suited its global audience (Kliatchko, 2008). By appreciating the desires of its viewers, MTV was soon able to dictate new trends among the youth. Search engines like or Yahoo! and Google or even Amazon have formed outsized businesses by using activity statistics as well as customer demographics as their primary capital stock. They process these ‘raw materials’ into genuine assets by means of digital conversations with consumers in the form of reviews, searches, loyalty programs, and transactions. These kinds of interaction are digital in terms of expertise, but retail in terms of philosophy. The thrust of service innovation is based on capitalising on how consumers find what they wish for, in the format they prefer, and at a price they will pay. Like the mythical Greek god, Janus, the above mentioned globally recognised corporations are facing two directions concurrently (Duncan, 2008). The front end builds up psychographic and demographic information to combine with activity statistics to place the most applicable suggestion. Thus they assist the consumer to navigate through numerous choices. The other face seeks to coordinate several supplies of services to offer on prospects of an on-demand customer experience. To deliver on that brand promise, these firms have created powerful infrastructures of databases, applications, processes, and networks (Kaiser, Lindberg and Craig, 2007). However, their business is concerned with exploiting their infrastructure's institutional memory to consistently provide a good offer, when the consumer is most amenable. Advertising and media firms ought to adopt a retailer's mentality. Content formation and distribution are regarded as sub-sets that can allow access to new activities like cross promotion, product placement, bundling with tools, dynamic pricing, identifying and engaging communities, individualised service, running specials, and rewarding loyalty. These are all retail practices that advertisers and media players have to customise to their industries. Due to the presence of digital media, telecom service firms can now transmit information to the public on a faster basis. Instead of publishing inserts and waiting to publicise their sales, firms now inform the world about exciting promotions via email, their websites, social networking, or Internet ads. Digital media allows businesses to reach more consumers than ever before. A straightforward promotion depicting a freebie or giveaway can earn thousands of Face book fans and text message or email subscribers (Pieterse, 2009). A business can send a message to its potential clients just through the touch of a button. Nevertheless, digital media also means that customers have the ability to reach back. Through negative observations to social networking sites like Twitter or Face book, clients can make use of the digital media to express their anger to the makers of a product or service. In the past, this would have been impossible because customers in far flung areas were separated from the makers of products or services (Pickton and Broderick, 2005). Instead of deciding between a radio commercial or television advertisement, marketers now have the opportunity to reach consumers through a combination of visual, audio, interactive and text media. Larger audiences with assorted preferences can now be reached by this mixed media enterprise. However, it is also more expensive to keep up with the constantly-changing technical knowledge. Marketers may be compelled to acquire strategists who can think and produce services or products digitally. The Digital Media To keep with the trend, major marketers have begun to change their budgets to include new media groups. For example, Procter & Gamble in 2006 invested $3.5 billion in what they referred to as measured advertising. This consisted of television advertisements, print advertisements, and other varieties of traditional media methods (Jenkins, 2008). However, Procter & Gamble also invested $1.4 billion on “unmeasured” media operations such as contests and events. Marketers today speak of forming “experiences” for their consumers in an attempt to distinguish their services from those of their competitors. It is hard to accomplish this with the traditional forms of media which are usually one-way communication systems where the seller is the one doing the communicating. Marketers are searching for more ways to allow their customers to interact with them. Until the mid 90s, the conventional theory of the communications “mix” comprised of advertising (Print, TV, outdoor, radio), direct marketing, promotion, personal selling, and public relations. The hymn of advertisers was ‘Integrated Marketing Communications’ (IMC) where all of the styles of communication with consumers used a similar positioning and thus were reciprocally supportive in order to engender not only good effects on the sales of every type of media but communication effects also (Agyapong, 2011). The characteristic decisions that were made include: The purpose of communications through the media The targeted market, The media strategy to be used The financial plan How to determine if the objectives were being realised With the change to what is being referred to as a “hypermedia” environment, the character of the communications model has been transformed. The central themes in the present world revolve around digital consumers and interactivity. There are numerous media outlets that have tried to take advantage of this new situation and supply services for the new consumer demographic. The large increase in the number of media alternatives available today has complicated the job of marketing managers everywhere. This is because all brands are no longer under the control of marketing managers. In addition, that the difficulties in harmonising the delivery of messages across numerous media outlets media have been intensified. Most firms today use new media alternatives to create targeted campaigns that are aimed at particular consumer sections and engage their consumers in discussions on a regular basis. For example, the luxury perfume brand ‘Chanel’ has used the digital media in efforts to reach even more consumers (McGrath, 2010). The firm’s new media strategy has: Advertisements on Web sites like nymag.com and nytimes.com Search-engine marketing plans in Yahoo! as well as Google An unusual Web site known as ‘mademoiselle-forever.com’ where consumers can take a virtual expedition through the Paris apartment building of the famed creator of the brand, Coco Chanel Frequent communications with renowned blog writers like blogdorfgoodman.blogspot.com. and beautyaddict.blogspot.com (McGrath, 2010). E-mail messages that are usually conveyed to V.I.P. customers as well as bloggers. There are also sites where consumers with passwords can view the celebrated actress, Kiera Knightley frolicking through Paris. Major Issues Facing Marketers The main issues facing marketing executives include: The uncertainty on what metrics to use in assessing the efficiency of the new digital media system It is problematic for managers seeking to determine the appropriate metrics to use in evaluating the efficiency of social networking sites as tools of marketing communication, for example. The issue of site visits When potential consumers visit the site of a service or product, marketers are unsure of how engaged the customer becomes with the brand even after speaking to other users on its site about it. Brand engagement It is obvious that conventional factors of communication such as television cannot operate in this new environment. Marketers, in order to prevent the occurrence of losses, have to find ways of determining the effects of continuing to invest in these somewhat outdated modes of media. While the marketing mix has long dominated the marketing dynamics, the effect of social networking sites has not been examined alongside the benefits of the traditional forms of media in communicating with consumers. In addition, it is not obvious that the way that the profit or sales effects of capital invested in television advertising would be the model for how the new media alternatives should be assessed. It is evident that the number of methods of communicating with consumers has increased. However, this may cause a situation where the quality of communication is negatively affected or compromised with the event of different modes of communicating with consumers. References Agyapong, G.K. (2011) ‘The effect of service quality on customer satisfaction in the utility industry - a case of Vodafone (Ghana)’, International Journal of Business and Management, vol. 6, no. 5 Anarory, J. & Theethayi, N. (2010) Broadband Power Line Communication Systems, WIT Press, Southampton. 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