Marketing communication tactics - Essay Example

Introduction Different sectors of the economy employ comprehensive marketing communication tools. These tools are set to meet the sales maximization objective of the respective company. Marketing communication tools aim at creating awareness of the existence of a particular product to the consumers. Product promotion has to be comprehensive enough to capture the interest of potential consumers. The market is flooded with many product awareness tools, as companies try to outdo each other; through healthy competition.

The mostly used marketing communication tools are; advertising, public relations, sales promotion, direct marketing, and personal selling. In the modern economy, these marketing communication tools have evolved to offer a comprehensive set of the desired responses, and an overall product market base (Percy, L. 2008). Advertising is a marketing communication tool that relays information to persuade potential consumers of a certain commodity. In the United Kingdom, advertising has been regulated by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

It has evolved from TV and radio commercials to product placement. Advertisements are strategic in order to reach the largest and most relevant audience. Advertisements differ from commercial businesses to non-profit organizations. Commercial businesses adopt advertising to enhance the consumption of their product, while non-profit organizations employ advertising to create awareness (Belch, & Belch 2012). Advertising models may take the form of AIDA and DRIP models. AIDA is an acronym for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action.

It is a handy technique for ensuring that the advertisement captures the intended audience and achieves the desired goals. The DRIP (Differentiate, Reinforce, Inform, and Persuade) model is useful when formulating broad communication goals. It is employed when repositioning an existing company or launching a new product (Jeannet, & Hennessey, 2000). The above advertisement takes the form of a billboard. Billboards are placed in strategic locations; where they are capable of maximizing the efficiency of the intended purpose.

The above advertisement is about a real estate company. This advertisement creates a visual impression of a house. Interested parties may be induced to contact the company for more details. The advertisement achieves its intended purpose through the use of a billboard. Public relations attempt to create and maintain goodwill between the organization and the public (Flippo, 1961). It manages the spread of information between an organization and the public. This discipline is very important in the organization.

Public relations portrays a positive image and creates a strong relationship between an organization and the public; through the media. PR can be qualitative or quantitative depending on the strategy desired by the company. Public relations are achieved through techniques such as; newsletters, news releases, and organization and participation at events and conventions. Public relations are intended to give the audience a better insight into the organization’s commodities as well as increase publicity (Paley, 2005).

The ‘Ma’amite’ label was redesigned to create a good insight of the company. The colour scheme on the label is based upon the Union Flag. This label has been used in line with the product’s publicity campaigns. The label portrays a positive image for the company, and creates a strong relationship between the company and the public (Bradley, 2007). Sales promotion is a critical aspect of the promotional mix. It refers to the comprehensive set of marketing activities carried out to boost the sales of a product or service.

It takes the form of trade sales promotion and consumer sales promotion. Trade sales promotion triggers a business to have buffer stocks. This ensures that cases of stock-outs are reduced. Consumer sales promotion enhances a pull for the product to attract the attention of potential consumers. Sales promotion employs push strategies (Solomon, 2003). This is where the product is placed in front of the customer. The company ensures that the customer is made aware of the existence of the product.

Sales promotion enhances value creation by increasing the level of sales for the period that the goods are floated. A company is able to gain a significant share of the market, while consumers achieve a higher value for money. Sales promotions employ techniques such as; free samples, bonus offer, exchange schemes, price-off offer, coupons, fairs and exhibitions, and money back offer (Hundekar, 2010). The above picture depicts the use of the sales promotion technique. By the fact that the bus is mobile, it means that the featured brand is visible to a significant number of people.

The product is placed in front of the consumers to create awareness of the existence of ‘coca-cola’; a soft drink. This method of marketing communication tools ensures that the company is able to maximize its sales. Direct marketing involves the physical marketing of a product or service. Physical marketing materials are made available to potential consumers to communicate information about a product or service. In this form of promotional mix, there is no intermediary. It takes the form of catalogues and flyers.

It is commonly used by companies with insufficient funds for advertising. These companies do not have the brand recognition of corporate firms (Pickton, 2001). This strategy is designed to stimulate the marketers in the organization to be proactive to the customers’ queries which can impact positively on the marketing initiatives of the company. This strategy is meant to create a situation where the marketers can directly interact with the customers in order to get their feedback with regards to their perceptions about the services and products offered.

This is very significant since it helps the marketers to obtain a customer response that can help them to improve their operations. This direct marketing campaign was used to raise awareness about a laundry service that makes excellent use of quite a number of interesting things in the UK. According to information obtained from , “the consumers were sent a box containing a squishy toy tomato that could be thrown at the printed shirt on the inside of the box. The tomato completely flattens out and sticks to the box, only to gather itself up (cleaning the shirt) and become a full round tomato again.

” This is a very good example of direct marketing in the UK. Personal selling is a technique where the prospective buyer interacts with the seller. There is direct communication between the two. It involves matching the appropriate products with the consumer needs (Strydom, 2004). Basically, this marketing strategy is used to build customer preferences and actions. Personal selling can also be effectively used to influence customer preferences and choices since the sellers of the brand will be in a position to interact directly with the customers.

It ensures that the sellers convince the customers to buy the brand; since they can explain its benefits to them directly. This strategy is designed to stimulate attention, interest, desire and attention of the buyers. This helps to reinforce the message about a certain product among people in different areas. According to the AIDA model, the seller is able to attract the attention of the buyer, influences his interest, preference and choices, convince him to buy the product, and conduct the physical transaction.

Personal selling is often found in department stores that sell cosmetics and other beauty products such as perfume. This strategy involves face to face selling where the seller tries to convince the customer to try the product and ultimately buy it. There are high chances of mutual understanding given that the seller will be in a position to convince the customer when they are interacting directly. References Belch, G. E., & Belch, M. A. 2012. Advertising and promotion: an integrated marketing communications perspective 9th ed.. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Bradley, N. 2007. Marketing research: tools & techniques. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Design Shack - Web Design Gallery, Articles & Community. n.d.. 12 Brilliant Direct Marketing Pieces You Have to See. Retrieved May 13, 2014, from http://designshack.net/articles/business-articles/12-brilliant-direct-marketing-pieces-you-have-to-see Hundekar, S. G. 2010. Principles of marketing Rev. ed.. Mumbai: Himalaya Pub. House. Jeannet, J., & Hennessey, H. D. 2000. Global marketing strategies 3rd ed.. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Paley, N. 2005. The managers guide to competitive marketing strategies 3rd ed.. London: Thorogood. Percy, L. 2008. Strategic integrated marketing communications. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Pickton, D. 2001. Integrated marketing communications. Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall. Sage brief guide to marketing ethics. 2012. Los Angeles: SAGE. Solomon, M. R. 2003. Conquering consumerspace marketing strategies for a branded world. New York: AMACOM. Strydom, J. 2004. Introduction to marketing 3rd ed.. Cape Town, South Africa: Juta.