The Marketing Communication Mix and a Significant Influence Towards Its Audience - Statistics Project Example

1. Introduction According to the father of marketing, Kotler (2008), marketing is a phenomenon that has risen from a point where it was considered to be an added cost to the organization to the point where it is now assumed the driving force for the organizational revenues; this turnaround has hardly taken a decade, and today, the respect for marketing activities and marketers is present across the globe. Fundamentally, in accordance with Pelsmacker (2007) marketing is about conveying a message; when referred to a message, the basic inter-linked questions that come to mind include, what, how, why, when, where. Furthermore, in accordance with Pelsmacker (2007), referring to a marketing ‘message’: What may have a huge degree of variation; some businesses may prefer talking about specifications in that message or pricing or the existing clientele and so on. Why reflects the need of this message; businesses may have varying needs to be satisfied by means of marketing but the two broad categories include creating and spreading awareness. How the message will be communicated essentially implies the modes of communication. When to communicate the message depends on the significance on the impact that is to be created; more often than not, ‘when’ is the timeliness that the strategic think tank comes up with. Where is another strategic think point, whereby, the business chooses the channels by the business to reach its targeted audience. The process from the creation to the illustration of the marketing message, in basic terms, is known as marketing communication. This report aims at analyzing the context of marketing communication applied to consumer and the wider aspect of business, mainly relating to the charity or funded organizations for similar purposes as to study how the marketing communication process differs amongst the two. 2. Marketing Communication – the constituents According to Quester (2006), in crude terms, marketing communication is a process whereby marketers communicate their organizational message to the customers, which is effectively aimed at either generating sales or enhancing the same; the factors such as corporate social responsibility and other messages of communication are purely aimed at enhancing the business sales as customers get inspired by the organizational responsiveness to the society. So ultimately, each message that the business moves through its marketing channels has one underlying reason – enhance or generate sales and why not, after all, businesses are meant to generate profits. Keeping the same purpose in mind, marketing communication becomes a critical aspect of discussion today, where business are in a cut throat competition, particularly with reference to the recent global financial and economic crisis, the competition has drastically enhanced as consumers have very limited budgets and each of the business wants to gain the maximum of it. Essentially, according to Stone (2001), marketing communication is a derivation of the ‘promotion’ side of a marketing mix – others being pricing, product and placement. Marketing communication is also assumed as a mixture of some functions of marketing and sales. There are various components constituting this mixture and the quantities of these components various depending on the design and requirements of a campaign. Furthermore, according to Stone (2001), the integral constituents of the marketing communication mix include, but are not restricted to, the following: Sales Promotions Advertising (ATL and BTL) Public Relations and Publicity Direct Marketing Personal Selling Trade Fairs and Exhibitions Sponsorships Merchandising (POS) E-marketing Brands While involving itself into marketing communication, a firm may adopt a single or multiple constituents as mentioned above as an integrated communication plan for reaching the desired customer base. The following section of this report sheds light on the consumer aspect and the ‘wider context’. 3. Consumer Vs Wider Context Within the course of this report, the consumer context implies the general consumer mainly of an FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Good), and the ‘wider context’ implies the stakeholders of the charitable or funded organizations such as the WWF. Referring to the consumer side marketing communication, according to Lovelock (2007), tons of researches have been made on how marketing communication can effectively convey the message to the consumers of products and services. Firstly, their target audience is very well defined, for example, in terms of demographic values such as income groups, age groups, genders, etc. Once the target audience is defined in an appropriate manner, it becomes easier to identify the common habits or common values shared amongst these target audiences; this leads to ease of targeting, as mentioned, it is critical for a marketing communicator to know who to target as an audience and when. Once the ‘who’ and ‘when’ are known, marketers have developed expert systems that can identify ‘how’ to target these including the mode and medium of communication. Consider a crude example in which a business identifies its products to be sold to customers and a varied mix of marketing communication constituents is picked like test marketing, advertisements, and print media. For test marketing, the business may select outlets of super stores where the competing products are being sold in volumes, as those would be the places where the business itself can sell more since the buyers are found in abundance. Similarly, for advertisement, the business may select the prime time television slots, and a major print ad on holidays, and regular second or third page minor ads with varying frequency in a week. This was a very basic structure of the marketing communication mix to explain the phenomenon in a live example. When it comes to the wider customer base, marketing communication becomes a huge challenge for various reasons, as stated by Lovelock (2007), and thus, developing a mix becomes an uphill task. Moving from the basics of defining a target audience is a challenge in itself. Charity marketing is for everyone who can afford to give even a single penny towards the under consideration noble cause, and since the definition of target audience becomes difficult, the whole chain reaction of reaching towards an appropriate marketing communication mix, therefore, becomes difficult. However, marketers do well in such a challenging situation to the extent that charitable organizations are running and moving towards their objectives through the charity obtained. The following scenarios are extracted from Lovelock (2007) and Belch (2008). Firstly, in the said scenario, the target audience is the mass public. Therefore, marketers look for a point to which everyone can be made to think. This factor is highly visible from the various campaigns. More often than not, the strategy used herewith is more commonly known as ‘stepping in the shoes’ for the viewer or target audience. In this strategy, as the name suggests, the marketer aims at creating a situation through texts and visual effects, whereby the viewer feels the pain of the suffering individuals, in essence pulling them towards donating any value that they wish to. Essentially, each of these advertisements closely depicts the fact that even a penny is not useless for such a noble cause. Such ads require very effective writing skills since the message is very critical in nature, and the visuals needed to be embedded often reflect a very painful background; to the advantage of these marketers, such and similar campaigns get huge discounted pricing from the various media and publications. Generally, the marketing communication mix of these activities includes the following modes, as stated by Kumar (2001): Television or Radio advertisements Newspaper advertisements Billboards Sponsorships Donation Collection at Malls The following section presents a critical evaluation of the differences between the two forms of marketing communication. 4. Critical Evaluation of the Differences For evaluation of the differences, it is vital to set up the differentiating factors. In this section, each of the variables shall be taken separately, explained in the context of the two forms and then an evaluation or the impact of this variable shall be discussed as discussed by Kumar (2001). Target Audience: Critically, target audience describes ‘whom to sell?’ As mentioned in the previous section, for consumers it is a well defined market and for charity organization, it is the general masses. Subsequently, the concept of segmentation can be applied in the former, making it easier for the marketer to describe and define a campaign, and this benefit is not present in the later, assuring an uphill task on the development of a campaign since one campaign has to be for all the viewers and audiences. The Marketing Part: For consumers, it is easier to convince about the features and benefits of the offered product or service, however, when it comes to the other context, it is difficult to get money out of pockets of individuals who get nothing in return except the intangibles – satisfaction and payback to God by means of charity. This is a critical difference and the major challenge for marketers. The Marketing Objective: Marketing objective is a major point of concern while devising a marketing communication plan; this variable seems similar in both the contexts. Amongst the consumers, the objective is to enhance and generate sales volumes, directly or indirectly, while in the ‘wider context’, it is to gain donations. Both the contexts aim at developing a long term relationship i.e. for regular purchases and word of mouth for consumers, and regular donations and recommendations in case of ‘wider context’. However, the triggering impact is different; for consumers, triggering impact is the identification of ‘need’ while for the charity and donation purposes, the triggering impact is the creation of a sense of responsibility towards the under-privileged, and those in need. This sense is very difficult to create and trigger amongst the masses, and this eventually describes the underlying marketing objective of a business. Ethical Perspective: Ethical aspect is critical when it comes to marketing communication mix; during consumer marketing plans, often ethical aspect is over look, and comparison with competitors is presented based on price, features, and other variables of a product mix. At the same time, when referred to the charity and donation side of the business, there is no room for such unethical aspects. The emphasis is precisely towards the focused area i.e. where the donation and charity would be utilized. Consumer Audit: Consumer audit implies the fact of accountability of the usage of funds. This is not present in case of consumer marketing communication, however, when referred to the charity and donations, such a variable adds to the authenticity of the receiver; this implies the fact that donors are invited to see where the donation or charity is being spent, and reports of all expenditures are available to all stakeholders especially the donors. Illustrating this aspect is a critical indication to the viewer, adding authenticity to the marketing communication mix. Creativity and Usage of Visuals: There is maximum creativity in the formation of the marketing communication mix and visuals of various sorts are utilized for the same purpose. When referring to the same phenomenon applied for charity and donations marketing communication plan, there is minimal creativity involved, and the visuals used are very depressing in nature, but without these visuals, it is difficult to attract the masses, who, when see these visuals, realize how bad the situation is and how badly their funding is needed. The following section is about how the message is communicated to the mass audiences in case of the ‘wider aspect’ 5. How to the ‘wider aspect’ communication their messages? The hands and feet, in case of this scenario, of the marketers are relatively tied up. There is limited room for creativity as mentioned in the previous sections of this report; generally, the most commonly used sources for communication are media and sponsorship of entertainment events. Kumar (2001) states that the marketing communication mix has to be quite flexi under these circumstances because the quantification of the mix-elements need to be adjusted according to the given circumstances. For example, in case of an earth quake, there is no time to organize and event for charity collection; rather a direct approach can be utilized or the media can be used as the right medium for communicating quickly with the masses. Using a variety of approaches i.e. a mix of marketing communication can create a significant influence towards its audience, attracting them at the right place, getting huge amounts of donations and charity. Utilization of a mix definitely implies reaching people through various modes and thus, enhancing the reach of the campaign. A downside of this campaign would be dragging the donors to think that too much has been spent over marketing activities and thus money is not moving towards the cause for which it was asked for. There is a simple solution for this, as mentioned previously. An audit report of all expenses should be made possible and available for all the stakeholders specially the donors. With the development of a marketing communication mix, this actually develops into an opportunity for not just reaching the masses but also developing contacts at the organizational level, thereby, ensuring and assuring regular charities and donations for the firm to gain more and more donations for the welfare and well-being of those in need. Other than organizations, there can be individuals who are willing to contribute on regular basis. Along the similar lines the welfare firm can develop memberships, whereby members get updated about the moves that the firm is making or updated about expenditure, regular calls for donation pick up, etc. 6. Conclusion The gurus of marketing call it a magic; the various constituent of this magic lead towards the wellbeing of the business in the long run. When it comes to charitable, non-profit, and for-welfare organizations, the marketing communication mix becomes difficult to formulate for a marketer, and even once developed, this mix can be effective as well as otherwise, depending on how it is deployed and how it is perceived by the target audience, primarily for the fact that marketing communication mix is an expensive deal in itself. However, the right application can enhance the monetary value associated with the firm, getting other to trust them by doing the right thing at the right place, and the right time. Subsequently, the higher levels of donations and charity would lead to greater welfare and wellbeing of those in need times. 7. References Chris Fill (2005) Marketing communications: engagements, strategies and practice. FT Prentice Hall Christopher Lovelock (2007) Services Marketing People, Technology, Strategy. Pearson Education George Belch (2008) Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communication Perspective. McGraw-Hill Australia N. Et Al. Kumar (2001) Marketing Management. Anmol Publications PVT. LTD. Pascale Quester, Robyn McGuiggan (2006) Marketing: creating and delivering value. McGraw-Hill Patrick de Pelsmacker, Maggie Geuens, Joeri van den Bergh (2007) Marketing communications: a European perspective. Prentice Hall/Financial Times Paul Russell Smith, Jonathan Taylor (2004) Marketing communications: an integrated approach. Kogan Page Publishers Philip Kotler, Kevin Keller (2008) Framework for Marketing Management. Prentice Hall Phil Stone (2001) Make marketing work for you: boost your profits with proven marketing techniques. How to books Richard J. Varey (2002) Marketing communication: principles and practice. Routledge Read More