Benefits of E-Communications in Integrated Marketing Communications - Essay Example

The case study is about Amazon sellers’ who specialize in a wide range of goods including books, journals and technological equipments such as computers. For this study however; their book sale is the main focus. Amazon book sellers are part of a wide collection of book sellers linked to various publishing houses around the world that ensure they are in constant supply. Amazon uses the internet as the main advertising/ selling point for these books. E communication is the use of internet and other electronic media for purposes of communication. This has been integrated into today’s systems especially with the acceptance and rapid use of the internet which has simply brought a revolution on how things are done. (Pratten 2007) The marketing field has not been left behind in the use of e-communication. Integrated marketing on the other hand is a general term which seeks to describe an entire spectrum of marketing communication. It helps ensure that the messages communicated are both consistent and complementary. Integrated marketing utilizes both online marketing which is basically e-communication and offline methods in its roles. To shape this discussion coherently, it is important to first have the e communications methods discussed and in addition, the basic marketing milestones they help achieve. The final part will draw the benefits in each of the marketing communication fields. (Tony 1999). To start with, it is almost impossible to form a paper on marketing without looking at the basic foundations of marketing which are the four P’s. Every marketer aims at achieving these as far as strategic positioning of goods is concerned. This is known as the marketing mix in a marketing field. Marketing mix is defined as a set of controllable marketing tools harnessed together to help achieve the laid down objectives of the selling company. The four P’s are: Product This is the good or service that a company produces in a large scale with the aim of availing it in the market. Price This is the exchange value of the product or the amount paid by a customer in the exchange of a good. A price in most cases is subject to many factors either present in the company or externally determined. Factors determining the price of a good are mainly the market share of the particular company, competition levels, the total cost of producing these goods and finally the perceived value of the goods by the customers. Place This represents the place where these products or services are availed for the purpose of purchasing. Promotion- This refers to the sum total of all the communications a marketer undertakes for the purpose of ensuring that the word about availability of a product goes out to the potential buyers/customers. This last P is the subject of this study as we look at how it can be achieved through the various available means of communication especially in regards to electronic forms. In product communication or promotion, four things are looked at. They are subject to promotion campaigns; that is individual communication, the identity of the producing company, brand management and finally mass communication. (Tony 1999). This last which is mass communication is the single and main reason why e- communication has been sought after. E- Communication has the ability to reach a wide group of people at once and the ability to deliver the same message to these people ensuring two basic elements of communication coverage and consistency. The following diagram summaries the four marketing P’s and gives the content and specifications of each of the four P’s. Just as noted earlier, the focus of these P’s was to establish what constitutes the marketing mix and especially what makes up or necessitates the need for communication among the four P’s. This has been defined and isolated as the need for promotion of a product or service. Forms of E communication Among the points of discussion under this section will be the various forms of communications that fall under e-communication. These are search engine optimization, internet TV, pod cast, micro blogging, affiliate, email and pay per click. This list is not exhaustive as the level of technology continues to soar and more forms of e communication come along. (Rowlay 2009) At least, a look at these predominant forms will give a better understanding of e communication and how it works. It should be noted that the choice of these forms is mainly cantered only in those that are used in marketing communications. Search engine optimization Search engine optimization is mainly a web run program which seeks to improve the clarity of images and other postings contained in the websites. An important component of the search engine in as far as marketing is concerned is search engine marketing which particularly seeks to improve visibility of advertisement related postings in the internet. They make use of paid inclusion which makes sure that only those programs which have been paid for are enjoying the services of the marketing search engine. Other specifications include contextual advertising and paid placement which simply ensure that only those paid for placements are subject to screening by the marketing search engine. Internet TV These are internet based visual machines that allow a global view of those advertisements that have subscribed to the internet visuals. The advantage of Internet TV is that they have cheaper rates as compared to other visual based marketing tools. Besides the cost, the extent of coverage is also huge allowing a mass coverage. Micro blogging This makes the use of blogs which are privately owned or specifically designed by companies for the purpose of advertising. The blog can be made for a specific product or for an entire product line of a company. The idea behind a blog is founded on the same concept as websites but then the flexibility and access of blogs is much easier according to the flexibility in its use. (Rowlay 2009) E mail This is the most used with the main operators being Yahoo and Google. These are large sites which allow members to log in and get their own individual addresses. Besides individual addresses, the sites allow individuals to post advertisements accessible by all the site users. The funds for these subscriptions are collected by site operators. The advantage of using e mail mainly rests in its huge coverage as well as its reasonable cost. Pay per click This is a sought of pop up commercial placed in various sites privately or publicly owned. The concept behind them is to reduce the cost of unnecessary costs which are a result of uninterested parties viewing the commercials. (Rowlay 2009) Thus, what happens with these sites is that the designers ensure that the appearance is attractive and those viewers attracted by the same click have a view of the entire details. The company paying for the commercials is only charged the cost of those clicked reviews and not necessarily for those individuals who need more details than the scantly provided details. Affiliate marketing This is an internet based marketing which involves a reward system. It is a business whose products are subject to marketing rewards. Affiliate marketers who are themselves markets for visitors or potential customers come to buy the products courtesy of the affiliate companies. (Pickton et al 2005) The affiliate mode of marketing is founded around four main players; the customer, the network, the merchant and finally the publisher. Affiliate marketing is though dependent on other internet advertising methods as: the affiliates’ making use of internet generated methods of advertising. All these are forms of e communication and just as noted in the beginning, the extent of technology is wide and a comprehensive coverage of the entire forms of e communication used in marketing is practically impossible. Thus, only the most common are reviewed so as to foster understanding of the subject matter. Benefits Benefits derived from these communications can only be gotten by a comprehensive look at the various marketing practices which require the use of communications. These are wide and cover almost the entire scope of the marketing field. They are: sales promotion, sales, sponsorship, publicity, promotion, packaging, marketing, graphic design, direct marketing, branding and advertising. These are referred to as marketing communications and the benefits they derive from the use of e communication are the subject matter of this study. Sales promotion This is the campaign carried out by marketers with the aim of realizing more sales for a particular product or service. Major sales promotions are carried out through actual and physical interactions with the customers. This trend has however continued to be phased out as hiring of individuals becomes expensive and individuals find marketing a more technologically endowed activity. (Kitchen et al 2004) Besides, with most companies having websites now and the number of people accessing the internet growing, companies find it more efficient in terms of cost as well as coverage to use the available internet related resources. This is simply a movement from physical marketing activities for purposes of product promotion. Those companies which in the past used the personnel method of sales promotion have since adopted the use of e communication and have in turn registered an increase in profits. These increases have not necessarily been as a result of increased sales but a cut on the cost of operations as the total amount given to promotional personnel has been eliminated. Besides the cost issue, coverage has also increased. Initial promotion practices saw that the individuals reached were mainly concentrated in specific areas or localities. This meant a limited location which simply translated to a minimal effect. However, with the use of e communication, the coverage has been widened and the promotional activities have gone beyond the physical geography by the fact that internet is global. This has the overall effect of customers getting more information on a particular product which provides the advertising company an edge against competitors who may use other sales promotion activities. Besides, the chances of an increase in sales are equally high as products get accepted and known in new markets. Sales A sale is the actual exchange of goods and money or any exchange media accepted by people of a given region. Initially, sales were only possible when the customer and the buyer met on a one on one basis. This has since changed with the introduction and use of e communication which has enabled sales through the internet. The most common cases being the sale of books such as is the case with Amazon sellers. These make use of the internet to make sales. They have built a website in which they have posted photographs of books and brief overviews of the same. Besides these physical features, the cost of these books is placed beside them which allow the customer to have in mind the price of the book. (Kitchen et al 2004) This allows an online transaction in as far as sales are concerned. The use of the site besides facilitating sales also acts as a promotion avenue for the books available. This has the effect of increased sales and translates to an increase in company profits; something not possible without the use of e communication. Publicity Publicity is creating awareness about a product or service. Publicity like product promotion was in the past was done through individuals; however, with the surge of the internet and other electronic methods, this has changed and companies are now able to reach more individuals and knowledge of goods and services is now possible. (Tony 1999). The benefits of e communication in publicity are similar to those that a company derives from sales promotion. Packaging Packaging is also a part of the marketing strategy as an attractive package makes goods of a particular company unique. This helps them standout among other goods from competing companies. E communication has brought about benefits as companies are now able to recognize and borrow packaging tips from goods around the world. Besides imitation, these companies are able to compare the available techniques and methods of packaging which enable them to make not only unique and outstanding packages but packages that give a global outlook. (Kitchen et al 2004). This is only possible if individuals involved in the packaging design, have the ability to evaluate a broad collection of packages. This is enabled by e communication which simply presents global brands at the touch of a button. This has the effect of making goods produced by the particular company unique and outstanding. It attracts buyers even though the content of these goods may be similar to other goods produced by different companies. This may result to higher sales which translate to higher profits for the company in use of e communication. For Amazon sellers, a stylish delivery is enough to trigger better sales. Sometimes, they give their books an attractive packaging which gives more details on the rest of their collection. This automatically puts them above others. Marketing Marketing in this aspect refers not to the entire collection of related activities but to the particular action of selling the product to the consumers. This is by creating the marketing mix discussed at the beginning of this essay. A perfect marketing mix gives the selling company an edge over other companies that pose as competitors. This is done by completely exhausting the opportunities available in the market. A perfect way to ensure this is by making sure that the market personnel and the organization personnel remain in touch and that together, they create a brand that will sell in the market. This communication is enabled by e communication as it is faster and prompt. Besides this, e communication enables marketers to notice changes occurring in the market setup within a short period of time. This makes it possible to react to any changes in the market. This creates opportunities for informed market moves that help companies remain as market leaders within the market setup. The effect of this is the maintenance of a market and “shock absorbers” in case of apparent competitors. It ensures sustenance of company profits and in some cases, increment of the same. Branding Branding is the creation of names for products that have either not been released in the market or are already in the market but need a change of name either to make them more acceptable to a new market or give them a new identity for acceptance in a specific market.(Simmons 2007). E communication enables this by creating a wide field which brand masters can develop a name from. In case of success of the branding exercise, the company is able to introduce its products to the new market or meet its target on the specific market that had necessitated the change of name. This helps the country achieve its initial sales target resulting to the projected profits. This helps the company not only to cover its costs but helps in new ventures. Conclusion E communication has been the way to turn around the sales of companies and organizations in recent times. This is because it offers two marketing essentials; coverage and flexibility. Coverage ensures a large population is reached while flexibility ensures that the marketing activities adjust to market requirements due to consumers’ change in preference. References Baker, M.J. and Hart S (Eds) The Marketing Book (e-book), 6th edition, Butterworth-Heinemann. Kitchen P.J. and de Pelsmacker, P. (2004) Integrated Marketing Communications: A Primer, Routledge. Mulhern, F (2009) “Integrated marketing communications: from media channels to digital connectivity” Journal of Marketing Communications, Vol. 15. Pratten J D and Scoffield S (2007).The role of the Internet in the Marketing of Independent Public Houses in the UK”, Service Industries Journal, Vol. 27  Pickton D and Broderick A (2005) Integrated Marketing Communications, FT/Prentice-Hall. 2nd edition chapter 6 Rowley, J. (2009) “Understanding digital content marketing” Journal of Marketing Communications, Vol. 15. Simmons, G (2007) “i-branding: developing the internet as a branding tool”, Marketing Intelligence and Planning, Vol. 25. Tony Yeshin (1999). Integrated Marketing Communications (Cim Student Series), Butterworth-Heinemann http://www.amazon.com/ Retrieved November 16th November 2009. Read More