The concept of marketing communications is little known to a wide circle of managers. Although marketing communications have been developing for over sixty years. The main objective of applying this approach is the need to systematize the management of marketing functions in commercial organizations.
Marketing communications is the process of managing the promotion of goods and services throughout the process, before the sale, directly during the purchase, during consumption and after it. Systems of such communications are developed individually for a specific market segment. These systems contain mechanisms for transmitting information to buyers, as well as the possibility of feedback from buyer to seller. The analysis of marketing communications carried out with the help of such feedback allows us to evaluate the combined effectiveness of marketing investments and the campaign as a whole.
The basic scheme on which marketing communications can be depicted can be drawn from seven main stages. And if one of them falls out, it will negatively affect the quality and effectiveness of the information campaign.
We consider each of the steps separately.
The first stage is the determination of the target audience and its analysis.
Wrong choice and determination of the target audience leads to one of the most expensive mistakes in marketing. Since the audience is always represented by a wide variety of groups of different directions and preferences, an error in the choice will lead to an appeal to a group of consumers whose product is simply not interesting. For example, when advertising expensive cosmetics, publishing even in the central newspaper of such ads will not bring much success than if you focus on advertising this group of products in expensive boutiques and beauty salons.
This also includes the analysis of the target audience. It is usually carried out in advance. This approach allows you to identify those groups that are most suitable for your product or service.
The next stage, without which marketing communications will not have a holistic system, is the purpose of such communication.
After the marketer has determined a suitable market segment and its characteristics, an understanding of what should ultimately be gained from the audience should be formed. Among the most common goals in marketing are the following: gaining sympathy among visitors, gaining brand awareness, informing the audience about goods and services, which will subsequently create demand for them, achieve such a market position when customers give preference to your product, rather than similar to those produced by your competitors, etc.
The next step is to determine the budget for marketing communications.
This is one of the most important tasks. The most common methods for determining the budget are methods for fixing sales volumes in percent, assessing opportunities, the method of goals and objectives, as well as the method of matching competitors.
Next, at the next stage of marketing communications, it is time to decide on the means of promoting the product.
By such means is understood the way by which information is delivered directly to the target audience to buyers (consumers). This may be a different kind of advertising, or various PR-technologies.
After this comes the stage of sales promotion.
This stage includes holding various promotions, lotteries, offering sales and discounts of various types. Such approaches noticeably enliven consumers, which leads to a noticeable increase in demand for a product or service in the short term.
The next stage of marketing communications is direct marketing and personal sales.
This stage provides for direct and personal communication of the seller with the buyer. It happens not only in the form of live communication, but also to such communication, it can also include correspondence with potential buyers, communication using communication lines of communication (Internet, TV, phone). However, often at this stage, consumer rejection of goods may occur. Since upon receipt of various letters and notifications that are imposed on the buyer, they often cause irritation among buyers, which is why recently such actions have been related to spam and an active fight has begun with them.
Well, the last step is the creation of information messages.
This stage is the crown of the previous. Indeed, from the information content and availability of such messages, the consumer will either buy your product or, on the contrary, avoid it. For this, there are entire scientific institutions that deal with the impact of information on consumers for commercial purposes.
Thus, marketing communications is a whole range of measures and methods that are aimed at the speedy promotion of goods through information technology.