Communication Is the Key to Business Success - Essay Example

Table of Contents Chapter Introduction Chapter 2: Marketing Communication: An Integrated Approach Chapter 3: Integrated Marketing Communications- A Case Study References Introduction Communication is the key to business success. It is the life of any marketing effort taken up by the company to promote its products and services. On a very basic level, the main objective of marketing is to generate sales. But there are higher aims for any company, which include building a long-term relationship with the customers, attaining impressive market shares, staying ahead of competition and innovation. For this, just one or two tools like advertising or sales promotion are not sufficient. The company has to use several marketing communication tools at a time in order to generate results. The aim of this paper is to explain the importance of integrated marketing communications, its structure and how to develop an integrated marketing communication plan within an enterprise. It would build an integrated marketing communication system for a fictitious catering firm. The objective is to take all the aspects into consideration, like the company's SWOT analysis, SOSTAC (situation, objectives, strategy, tactics, action and control) for the IMC system, and develop an analytical approach to make the case as realistic as possible. Marketing Communications- An Integrated Approach Marketing communications are as important to a firm as personal relationships are important to an individual. They determine the identity of the firm in the market both absolutely, as well as relative to its competitors. Marketing communications are the heart of a company's strategy today. They determine the entire survival of the firm. With increasing competition and homogeneity of products, companies have to differentiate themselves from the other firms, for which they have to use communication effectively. Today's consumers are very knowledgeable and would expect the company to be in touch with them constantly, from advertising to after-sales service. The key approaches to effective marketing communications are: Know your audience customized communications for different markets and mediums, personal level of communications multi-step and multi-media programs speed is a main determinant knowledge sharing- use information as much as possible make the process more interactive Integration marketing communications can be simply defined as "the process of developing and implementing various forms of persuasive communication programs with customers and prospects over time" (Schultz professor at Northwestern University, 1993). Moreover, "the goal of IMC is to influence or directly affect the behavior of the selected communication audience. IMC considers all sources of brand or company contacts which a company or prospect has with the product or service as potential delivery channels for the future messages. IMC, makes use of all forms of communication which are relevant to the customer and prospects, and to which they might be receptive." The American Association of Advertising Agencies defines IMC as: the concept of marketing communication planning that recognizes the added value of a comprehensive plan that evaluates the strategic roles of a variety of communication disciplines (general advertising, direct response, sales promotion, and public relations) and combines these disciplines to provide clarity, consistency, and maximum communication impact." IMC can be pictorially represented as: Integrated marketing communications has an "outside-in" approach as opposed to the traditional "inside-out" approach. This means that companies have to look inside first, and then towards the customers. Customer relationship building starts from developing effective systems within the enterprise itself. To develop and adopt an effective IMC system, the company has to: identify the key audiences: present as well as potential customers determine the objectives design the communications content select the communication methods define the media, priorities and budget mix measure the effectiveness of the system regularly and take steps to cover any gaps For this, the company needs to gather, analyze and work on a lot of information. The key determinants for developing an effective IMC system are: Nature of the market (size, scope, type of customers and others) Nature of the product (complexity, service requirements) Stage of the product in the product life-cycle (introduction, growth, maturity or decline) Price of the product Budget (determined by various approaches like: percentage-of-sales method, fixed-sum-per-unit method, meeting competition method, task-objective method) Evaluation process: either direct sales or other indirect measures For a company to undertake an integrated communications system, it also has to understand its own SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats). It also has to consider the industry features as a whole, like number of players, the economy, ownership, government regulations, technology, and several other factors. Integrated Marketing Communications - A Case Study For understanding the practical implementation of an integrated marketing communications system in a particular company, we can take the help of a fictitious company-XXX. For the purpose of this case study, we have taken a catering division of a National Hospitals Services (NHS) hospital. Market Summary The National Health Service (NHS) is a publicly funded health care system in the UK. The NHS offers a wide range of free healthcare services to a majority of the UK population, everything from general medicine to emergency and accident care. With a budget of more than 80 billion for 2005-2006, NHS meets its expenses from taxes. NHS employs over 1 million people, one of the highest in the world. The NHS is responsible to the Department of Health, under the Secretary of State for Health in the British Cabinet. The NHS is responsible for providing several medical and non-medical services, the latter including catering and food services. Political XXX company is a part of the National Health Service hospital scheme. It is funded by the hospital. Economy There have been many studies to improve the image of NHS catering companies, both by the government as well as by hospitals. There is an increasing demand for better services in hospitals. The government is also concentrating on improving the budget allocations for NHS hospitals. Social The patients come from a wide range of background- economically, socially and regionally. They have various kinds of needs and requirements. The UK population is aging, and the amount of disabilities and illnesses have increased. Many of them reach the hospitals with chronic conditions. Demand for quality has undoubtedly increased. Technology NHS hospitals now have access to some of the best technologies in patient care. Information and communications technology is also being harnessed effectively. There is greater emphasis on workforce education and training. Here is a SOSTAC analysis of XXX, a catering company for a National Health Service Hospital: Situation XXX is a catering division in a NHS hospital. It has a staff strength of around 55. These include chefs, porters, the shop, front of house and the office staff. It has a well equipped kitchen and a large pantry, well stocked with all the required materials. Four stoves, ovens, dishwashers and a couple of microwave ovens make up the equipment. Objectives To improve the patient satisfaction with respect to both food as well as service To gain recognition for quality and service To reduce operating costs by cutting down food wastage To maintain positive growth every month Strategies and Tactics The first aim is product development. This is to be achieved by providing clean, fresh and hot nutritious foods as per patients' requirements. For this, the catering staff has to involve themselves more with the doctors, nurses and most importantly, the patients to understand the nutritional needs. The company should provide more choice of food that includes: fresh fruits and vegetables, different types of bread, milk and so on. The catering staff needs to get trained on the basics of nutrition. Importance of serving fresh and nutritional food to patients, and the methods of cooking such food within the budget is the main objective of this training. The staff has to be trained on aspects of controlling food wastage. Training is to be provided by nutritional experts who would involve with the patients directly. This would also act as a direct promotional tool for improving communications between the patients and the catering staff Encourage visitors to bring food for patients, this would foster even better communications Visitors can align with the catering staff to dole out food for the patient. Catering staff need to align with the patients directly, or with the help ward staff, to serve the meals. This gives the patients a chance to tell what they need. Public health nutritionists and specialists can get in touch with the patients to explain about the catering staff's initiatives about providing quality food. This would instill a sense of trust among patients Messages need to be put up both in the wards as well as in the kitchens about nutrition and quality (direct advertising) Customer surveys can be conducted on a regular basis to determine patients' unique requirements (like hot food, soft-to-chew food, vegetarian/vegan food). This would help to minimize waste and also reduce work for the kitchen staff. It would also help the staff to build a better rapport with patients Contact centers can also be set up where the patients themselves, or their visitors can talk about the patient's requirements Another most import aspect is image and brand building. A good catering service would even help to build up the reputation of the whole hospital. This can be achieved both by direct advertising (posters, banners) or by good and efficient customer service. Advertising can also be taken up to show that the meat in XXX's kitchens very healthy, as it is obtained from farm assured schemes like Quality meat Scotland or the RSPCA Freedom Food Scheme. Or it can advertise that the company follows high quality standards in waste disposal. Actions Set up a "nutrition wing" consisting of the chef, two-three nurses, a doctor and a nutritionist Make innovations in food presentation like garnishing with fresh vegetables Add small treats which the patient is allowed to eat Set up a center of freezers and cupboards which contain storage spaces for each patient's unique foods. This makes caegorisation and serving easier Set up a visitor contact point where visitors can place the foods they bought for the patients Concentrate on neatness and hygiene while packaging the foods Control Conduct regular patient satisfaction surveys, identify areas for improvement Conduct surveys among patient visitors Check the level of food wastage from time to time To implement these strategies effectively, it is important to conduct a SWOT analysis of XXX: Strengths Staff that concentrates on innovation and improvement Good service delivery Weaknesses NHS meals have a poor reputation and an even poor nutrition level. It is reported that more than 17 million hospital meals are leaf untouched by patients every day. Especially patients with unique nutritional needs are the hardest hit due to non-availability of more choices. XXX also faces this challenge of providing fresh and nutritious meals to patients. Catering staff are not equipped to prepare more choice of meals. They are not trained on basic nutritional values that should go into hospital food The food is served by the already over-worked nurses and midwives. Threats/ Challenges Hospital meals cost around 2.50 pounds per day, per patient. The biggest challenge for NHS catering companies is increasing costs of food materials. Another major problem is food wastage, which is estimated to cost around 18 million pounds an year for the hospitals. Other challenges are preparing different kinds of meals for various kinds of patients that include vegetarians, vegans, people who cant chew food, the elderly, children, fruitarians, and people with a wide range of allergies and intolerances. The time taken for the cooked food to reach the patients has to be reduced. Opportunities Technologically competent to prepare the meals on-site Improved budgets Availability of frozen foods which just have to be heated before serving IMC Strategy XXX is a service-oriented company. Its main products are hospital foods, prepared as per some standards and requirements. The company can use direct communication to know the needs of the patients and prepare products which they require. This would eliminate wastage and would also help the company to build an image of trust and understanding. Customer contact is best form of communication for XXX. Regular contacts with the patients can be enabled by setting up contact points (direct/phone), and encouraging patients to voice out their requirements Direct advertising can be used, but only to a certain extent. This can be in the form of posters and banners. Small menu cards can also be developed and given to the patients for selecting their meal. These can have limited choices but it would really improve the company's image. Visitors should also be allowed to voice their concerns about food. They should be encouraged to discuss nutritional needs of the patients with the canteen staff. This can also be done through the contact centers. Visitors can also be encouraged to feed the patients directly. The canteen staff can visit the patients in their beds periodically, especially after a surgery or some other ordeal. They can also take the help of a nutritionist to encourage the patient to eat the hospital food. Conclusion Today's businesses, whether profit-oriented or non-profit oriented, are driven by quality, productivity, and speed. This can be made possible by effective marketing strategies that help to build company image and brand value. Integrated marketing communications makes this possible. The company has to find the right blend and balance between the various marketing communication tools. However, budgets and customer expectations are the constraints, and the company should take care not to overdo IMC. References www.news.ft.com Owen Wyn, John, 2003, The National Health Service and the New Health Economy, Available at: http://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/ecomm/files/30603nhsandecon.pdf http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/healthcare/chefs/charter.html Davenport, Philippa, 2005, "Better grub is what the doctor ordered"; available at: http://news.ft.com/cms/s/09a1ad36-054f-11da-97da-00000e2511c8.html Deeming C., 2002, "Hospital Catering. 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