How Do Marketing Communications Build and Maintain Strong Brands - Term Paper Example

How does marketing communications build and maintain strong brands Word count (from Introduction to Recommendations 2650 Contents of the Report Introduction Marketing Communications Building a Strong Brand Integrated Marketing Communications Role of Marketing Communications Contrasts of Components Recommendations References Introduction Brand image has turned out to be the crucial factor to distinguish the major players in the global economy. In this technology driven world, companies striving to be the leaders of the market are always under constant pressure to implement excellent marketing strategies. These days it is very important to have good marketing strategies along with excellent features embedded in the products in order to increase the cash inflows and retain the top most position in the global economy. Marketing communications has undergone many phases resulting in diverse forms of advertising media being implemented to build a strong brand. The most crucial issues related to the decision making methodologies involves the concept of integrated marketing communications to be the best weapon for the marketing managers to come up with good marketing plans to build strong brands. These strong brands form the best solution to overcome any form of competition from the rivals in the global economy. Marketing Communications Marketing communications define the set of diverse communication strategies implemented to market the products and services of a company. The communication strategies play a vital role in making or breaking the value of the product in the market. The directors of the company push the marketing managers to extremes in order to obtain the estimated results. These estimated results definitely relate to the position of the company in the global market. Marketing communications comprises of Advertising media, branding of a product, building customer relationships, promotion of a brand, sales promotion so on (Frost & Sullivan, n.d.). All these factors specified play a major role in the construction of good brands by the marketing managers for the products under production. Now-a-days consumers are always looking for various services provided by the producers. Production of a particular product has become a dependent factor based on consumer demand (Kate Maddox, 2006). Major concentration of the marketing strategies deals with the methodologies involved over communicating the apt information concerning a product to the consumer. These communications form the backbone of the brand image formed for a product based on the idea developed in the consumers mind regarding the various features associated with the product. A consumer is always driven by a brand that ensures the quality of the product and also provides easy methods of gaining the appropriate information without any hurdles. The consumer prefers to gather all the necessary information within no time; this can be the best opportunity for the producers to provide all the information with apt details and also present a demonstration of the product functionality to gain the customers loyalty. This sort of communication helps the company to build a huge set of loyal customers who prioritize the brand options and always get back to the brand that they are confident about. Building a Strong Brand Brand is considered as a promise made to the consumer by the producer over the quality of the products and services that they offer to the customer. This is basically the major factor that defines the quality associated with the products the company manufactures (Tom Blackett, 2004). Brand image has become a matter of prestige and pride to the consumers of this new era. Brands provide the authentication over the quality of the product to the consumer in order to make the purchases confidently out of the wide variety of choices. As they say there is no free meal in this world, the consumers prefer to invest their hard earned money into products that perform up to their expectations. Consumer satisfaction has taken the center stage in forming a strong brand and also helps in building good customer-relationships (Christopher Hosford, 2007). In recent times consumers are always looking for diverse media types for gaining information pertaining to various fields. The marketing of a product must be strategically carried out in a format that reaches out to the maximum number of users with minimal expenditures. This task is accomplished by implementing the right marketing communications at the right time. A strong brand can be built by communicating the detailed information to the consumers based on their priorities over the products. The communication process involves the various branding techniques such as personally mailing the consumers to intimate them of the new products, public demos, requesting the consumers to use a particular product and present a feed back, advertisements, T.V. ads, and yellow pages so on. The marketing communication adapted should convey the right information to the consumers that provides the entire details such as the features embedded in the product, estimated cost, purchase outlets, demonstration of the products so on. Integrated Marketing Communications The survey conducted by the Association of National Advertisers had analyzed that Integrated Marketing has taken the top most position in the list of issues that concern the marketing decisions in the year 2006 (Gizmag.com, 2007). Integrated marketing as the name suggests the integration of the various marketing communications to be integrated so as to achieve a desired result in building strong brand. This particular format helps the managers to build a strategy over marketing communications so as to attain a strong position in the market economy. This form of marketing helps the marketing managers to design a methodology that acts as crucial decision support systems. It involves all the information stored in the consumer database, and all the communications carried out between the customers and the producers in understanding their requirements and building a strong marketing plan (Raul Danny Vargas, n.d.). Such marketing strategies are considered to be more important because the trend of implementing a good strategy without any drawbacks is considered to be the top priority. The knowledge of the consumer requirements is considered along with the feedback over the new product specifications. It is also dependent on the marketing mix (Smith & Taylor, 2004). Integrated marketing also involves various consumers in testing their new products and the feedback of suggestions that would help build them a strong brand. Building a strong brand defines the market range for a company and also helps in constructing a strategy that deals with the company extension and estimated cash inflows. This acts as a major reason for a companies accomplishment over the tasks desired as well as its success growth rates. Role of Marketing Communications In today's scenario marketing communications have become the issues of high priority for various business environments. These communications have a different effect on the business environments that have different buyers such as direct consumers or other business teams. Marketing communications always deal with three basic platforms, based on which the buyer makes a purchase of the products (Kevin Randall, nd). Functional platform: This factor defines the various functionalities that have been embedded into the product. These functional features are of highest priority whether a single consumer is planning to make a purchase or a team of companies. The functional features of a particular product must be branded according to a perfect methodology to grab the attention of the consumers with much ease. Economic platform: The cost price of any product is considered to be the next important factor that a consumer considers before purchasing the product. It is very important because any buyer would purchase a product expecting it to bring in huge profits. Some of the consumers would compromise the functionality features if the cost is too high. If the product is branded well then it can also claim a premium cost to be put up. Emotional platform: Most of the consumers do not bother much about the cost or the functionality as they are emotionally affected by the brand. It might be related to their favorite celebrities who have appeared in one of the marketing communications. When brands become a matter of prestige the functionality and the cost of the product does not make much difference. Based on the above mentioned factors if good marketing communications are utilized to build a strong brand, then the seller teams do not face any problem in future also. It is all about following these fundamental factors and designing a market strategy that would create a strong brand to increase the return rates. Contrasts of Components The various components involved in marketing communications involved in building a strong brand differ based on the business environments. The business environments can be classified into two major categories. They are the business to consumer environments and business to business environments. These components vary based on the environments. Let us consider them individually for better analysis. Business to Consumer Environments These environments involve in delivering various end products from the business producers to the consumers. Consumers play a major role in building the strong market value of the producer in the global economy. The marketing strategies involve all the issues related with building a brand according to the consumer's mindset. Marketing managers concentrate over the requirements of the consumers, customer satisfaction and the feedback to improvise their products so as to build a brand that helps in gaining an edge over other companies. Loyalty of the consumers is very crucial for any company to retain the top position in the global economy (John Scheibel, 2006). The consumer will be loyal if and only if he is satisfied with the products performance based on its quality. Under such circumstances consumers are considered to be the best ways of marketing medium. It is a well known fact that the consumers spread the word to all their friends over a particular product that they have purchased recently. Paul Gillin (2007) states that, "In a globalized, outsourced and frictionless world, customer service may be the last real differentiator that businesses have left, at least in the U.S.". This brings in a lot of profits if the consumer is satisfied, as their will be new consumers waiting to purchase the product, on the other hand if the feedback of the consumer is bad it might never add on new consumers as well as affect the loyalty of consumers. Most of the business environments are consumer oriented and there are certain factors that when concentrated upon can result in the best methodology to create a positive impact in the economy (Mobium.com, n.d.). Consumer satisfaction or purchases are usually associated with the emotional quotient. Consumers of all ages are driven by the glitz and the glamour of the luxury world. Whether it is a child or a grand father, everyone prefers to be like their favorite icons in the glamour world. Almost all the products are being endorsed by the celebrities, driving their fanfare to implement the similar fashions. Consumers watching the ads on the web or the television are driven to possess the products that have been features along with their favorite celebrity to feel one among them. Amy Syracuse (2007) mentions the survey results conducted by Vertis Communications to analyze the consumer behavior over the purchase of the product. "Interestingly, those who speak Spanish both inside and outside the home were even more likely to respond to direct mail advertising, coming in at an impressive 74%".Such marketing communications are also affecting the masses by attacking the mindset of the consumers. Business to Business Environments These other set of environments deal with the end products being supplied to other business environments. The products are supplied between different business environments. Some companies deal with the supply chain management of raw materials to other business environments. This is only a basic deal that takes place amongst the business environments. Some companies provide the basic parts for other companies to utilize in the manufacturing process of various other products. Such deals are usually the research and analysis of the factors that are involved in delivering excellent products and services (Hallin, Johansson & Larsson, 2006). Any business environment always considers the effect of striking a deal with other companies. There are no emotions attached when considering such deals. It is purely the matter of income rates and the business expansion offers that come along. These business environments are always bound with many constraints such as delivery of the products on time, production of good products and provision of excellent services. All these factors play an important role in both the buyer and seller teams in the business environments. Carol Krol (2006) specifies the business environment opted by business by quoting their opinions such as: "Bryan Brickley, director of business development at Searchfeed.com, said pay-per-click's effectiveness has motivated advertisers to invest in search". The effective branding communication when implemented strikes good amount of deals between the diverse business teams. This environment requires different set of branding communications when compared to the consumer teams. It's a necessity for the seller companies to analyze the requirements of the buyer companies. This will enable the seller companies to come up with a marketing strategy that would easily convince the buyers to strike a deal. It the analysis is carried out with respect to time it definitely is on a constant inclination on the profit rate. The requirements are to be analyzed before the company puts up an ad for the requirement. This is different from the consumers buying products after it is being implemented successfully. Recommendations Marketing communications definitely have a great impact in building strong brands. All the factors that are related in designing a strong brand must be considered before carrying out the branding activities. Some suggested steps that might be followed are as follows: Analyze the market: The economy of the market should be studied well before the branding activities are carried out. Analyses of such sort usually present a good overview of what sort of products and services are required in the market. This indeed helps the company to build a strong brand by overcoming all the short comings present in other brands (Carol Krol, 2006). Evaluate the consumer requirements: The best way to impress a consumer is to know his requirements and present the right product within no time. An excellent way to execute such tasks is to do your homework i.e. by gaining knowledge over the various requirements of a consumer. This is the first step towards adding on a huge number of loyal consumers onto the list (Ruth Lukaweski, 2005). Determine the expenditures on marketing: before we list out the marketing communications to be implemented for the creation of a strong brand it is important to set budget for expenditures. As it is important, not to have high expenditures on a low return rate. This will not create a strong brand but bring in losses to the company (Sales-Leads-Experts.com, n.d). List out the effective marketing communications: Based on the budget for the expenditures a seller needs to list out the marketing communications that would create a strong brand. It is very important to evaluate the list to carry out the branding activity successfully according to the marketing strategy (Gord Hotchkiss, 2007). Confirm the strategy before implementing: It is always better to confirm the strategy to be implemented by evaluating before putting into action. This avoids any form of obstacles that might surface during the branding activity. Such precautions usually save time and money, which might be utilized in the execution of other tasks. Implement the strategies at the right time: According to the market trends we need to estimate the right time for the branding activity pertaining to a product. As it is said we need to strike it when the iron is hot. The best solution to make a great impact on the market is to release the product when it is on demand. All the above mentioned recommendations enable the sellers to analyze the consumer mindsets. This is an asset to determine a strategy to implement a good marketing communications to develop a strong brand for various products. The strong brand developed would also act as the best solution to establish the company into the leading position at the global economy. References 1) Frost & Sullivan (n.d.), Research solutions on "Advertising and Marketing Communications". Found at: http://www.frost.com/prod/servlet/ce-ad-communications.pag 2) Kate Maddox (2006), Article on: "Clients devise models to track return on agency investment". BtoB Magazine: Marketing news and Strategies. 3) Tom Blackett (2004), "What is a Brand" A chapter from Brands and Branding. An Economist book. InterBrand. 4) Christopher Hosford (2007), Article on: "Marketing Metrics". B2B Magazine: Marketing news and Strategies. 5) Raul Danny Vargas (n.d.), Article on: "Integrated Marketing Communications- AN Effective comprehensive approach". Business Ventures quarterly newsletter. FairFax County, Economic Development Authority. 6) Gizmag.com (2007), "Integrated Marketing Communications and Consumer Control become major marketing issues". Found at: http://www.gizmag.com/go/7049/ 7) Paul Russell Smith & Jonathan Taylor (2004), "Marketing Communications -An Integrated Approach". 4rth edition. 8) Kevin Randall (n.d.), Article on: "It's a Fact: Strong Brands drive B2B Markets". Found at: http://www.brandchannel.com/papers_review.aspsp_id=1235 9) John Scheibel (2006), Article on: "What's Next - Strong Brands Can Raise Your "Good" Cholesterol Levels" Found at: http://insidebtobmarketing.blogspot.com/2006/11/whats-next-strong-brands-can-raise-your.html 10) Paul Gillin (2007), Article on: "Poor customer service creates new opportunity". BtoB Magazine: Marketing communications and strategies. 11) Mobium.com (n.d.), Article on: "Branding strategy approaches" for Integrated Corporate branding and marketing communications. Found at: http://www.mobium.com/strategy.htm 12) Amy Syracuse (2007), Article on: "Hispanic consumers share opinions on Direct Mail". BtoB Magazine: Marketing communications and Strategies. 13) Hallin Ida, Johansson Maria & Larsson Camilla (2006). "Marketing Communications in a B2B market- a case study of the internal industry". Jonkoping International Business School. 14) Carol Krol (2006), Article on: "Demand grows for Analytics". B2B Magazine: Marketing news and Strategies. 15) Ruth Lukaweski (2005), Article on: "B2B Marketing communications getting sophisticated". Found at: http://arc.typepad.com/customercrossroads/2005/02/planning_resear.html 16) Sales-Leads-Experts.com (n.d.), Article on: "Generate more qualified B2B sales leads, increase sales and profits, and improve ROI from your marketing communications." Found at: http://www.sales-lead-experts.com/consulting/marketing.cfm 17) Gord Hotchkiss (2007), Article on: "Search expert Hotchkiss talks about trends". BtoB Magazine: Marketing news and strategies for BtoB. Read More