Marketing communications
In general, communication is the interdisciplinary task of building the processes of dissemination and circulation of information in a certain environment for which it is intended. Marketing communications refers to the management of the promotion of goods and services at all stages: before selling, at the time of purchase, during and after the consumption process. The marketing communications system is naturally developed for the current market situation, especially for the target market segment and contains information transfer tools for the target audience and, of course, the buyer's feedback - the seller, the manufacturer - with an intermediary for the distribution of goods and services. Feedback analysis is important for understanding the effectiveness of efforts to win the buyer, investment in marketing.
The development of a marketing communications design scheme can be presented in the following "step-by-step":
1. Setting goals for communication
If it was required to convey information to the buyer, most likely there was a reason. There can be two reasons: a new product; new market. If both are “old”, then we can talk about repositioning, rebranding, and other ways of correcting the situation, which has a different logic that differs from that described below and is subject to detailed elaboration in another note by the marketer.
2. Definition of the target audience
Depending on the product, marketing objectives, estimated marketing costs, target audiences can be represented as very broadly. For example: "All solvent men at the age of ..." and, as accurately and specifically, I group buyers not only by gender and characteristics, but also by their verbal-non-verbal components of communication, their usual ways and habits, etc. . etc.
Attempts to convey information about products and services to the largest possible audience lead to the need to compile a universal message that does not take into account the characteristics of certain groups of consumers and, thus, can significantly simplify the marketer’s life, reducing his efforts to one or two ways of communication. Such an assumption and simplification significantly saves the marketing budget, but the communication constructed in this way may not be ineffective. The foregoing, in the first place, refers to complex target groups, and (or) to specific goods and services (not all goods), designed for a narrow circle of connoisseurs or professionals.
For example, advertising of cosmetics in a mass newspaper is acceptable if there is not a lot of money, not enough time to build a truly worthwhile communication, or communication to a product has an indirect relationship. And it is built through an event, event, event or occasion in which the cosmetics brand participates. At the same time, when promoting products of daily consumption, the functional sphere it is advisable to attract just mass communication tools, considering the target audience to be truly mass.
3. Analysis of the target audience
Analysis of the target audience - identifying its features and stereotypes about the methods of communication, ways of presenting communication information. It is quite obvious that communications aimed at people of mature age will differ considerably in communications taken in the youth environment. I'm talking about the existing stereotypes of "information consumption". Stereotypes - tenacious. People who rotate in a certain environment, most likely have similar views on how to obtain information, have a definite and ingrained opinion about what is possible, decent, acceptable, high-quality, reasonable. Thus, the final task of marketing for building communications designed for a specific target audience is the achievement of stereotyped consumption of its product. If the rollers are a commodity (conditionally) for a wide age group of both sexes, the consumption of BMX class bikes is the lot and stereotype of the male youth environment. You deserve stereo consumption - you will get adherents of consumption and, further, lower costs due to the commitment of consumers.
4. Definition of communication objectives
The most common tasks of marketing communications in the commercial sphere include:
generate knowledge of the brand;
win the sympathy of consumers in relation to the brand;
to ensure that target consumers prefer your products and services to similar products and services of competitors;
remove the barrier to the purchase of products or services (new product, complex product, expensive product, unfamiliar brand, etc.);
And logically it is clear that:
Each of the above tasks corresponds to one of the stages of the process of building marketing communications with consumers.
Campaign objectives determine the mode, delivery of communication, channels of informational messages, as well as the expected feedback from the target audience.
5 Deciding on communication tools
By means of advancement is meantI am a way to deliver an informational message to the target audience. To transmit the finished message to the audience, it is necessary to choose the most effective communication channel. Usually there are two fundamentally different types of channels: personal and non-personal. Personal communication channels include exhibitions, seminars, presentations, press conferences, as well as the transfer of the product for testing to groups of experts from relevant areas. The use of personal communication channels is usually aimed at obtaining favorable expert reviews, as well as the emergence of good rumors about the product in specialized circles, which often becomes the first step in successfully entering the target market. Non-personal communication channels convey the appeal without personal participation and include the media, interiors and special events. The media includes newspapers, magazines, television and radio broadcasting, publications on the Internet, direct mailings, etc. By interiors refers to elements of the environment that encourage the consumer to purchase a product or service. For example, an expensive office environment at a consulting company or an expensive executive suit may indicate prosperity and stability. Special events are actions aimed at the transmission of certain appeals to the audience, indicating a social or other importance of the company's activities. For example, such actions include charitable activities, the organization of thematic conferences and forums for specialists, etc. The choice of a communication channel usually depends on the characteristics of the target audience, the format of the message and financial possibilities. For example, advertising on television and in mass media is the most effective channel for promoting everyday products intended for a wide audience.6 Creating the concept of an information appeal to an audience Developing an effective information appeal to an audience is one of the main tasks of any marketing communications system. The choice of communication channel leaves its mark on the concept of building communication. Simplifying in some way (however, this is not so far from reality), I’ll reduce the concept of an information appeal to the marketing communications slogan. A slogan is the key idea of marketing communication, a description and placement of all possible associations with a client or his product. It is believed that the main advantage of the slogan is its memorability and associative method of influence. However, many slogans, due to a number of inaccuracies, overcome a lot of obstacles and barriers for the perceiving audience. The reason for this is not even a literary or design flaw, but a lack of marketing communication. Those. not a mistake or inaccuracy, but a global marketing reason. In my opinion, the best logans of Russia: Find everything (Yandex); Call parents (social advertising); Pay taxes and sleep well (Tax police). The best of these communications are not due to large budgets spent on memorizing them, but according to the logic of the correctness of building marketing communications. Marketers should strive to create an appeal, a theme, an idea or a unique commercial proposal, i.e. highlight the advantages, motives or reasons based on which the audience will evaluate the proposed product. The marketing classic Philip Kotler identifies three types of appeals: based on rational arguments, emotions and morals. Rational appeal is designed for the interests of the audience and shows that the product will provide the stated benefits: appeals demonstrating the quality of the product, its economy, value or effectiveness.7 Marketing Communications Budgeting The percentage ratio of the promotion budget to the sales plan primarily depends on the industry: perfume manufacturers usually have a marketing budget accounts for from 30 to 50% of sales, and for manufacturers of industrial equipment from 10 to 20%. The most common methods for determining a promotion budget include methods for assessing opportunities, fixing as a percentage to sales volumes, as well as the method of matching competitors and the method of goals and objectives. 8. Creating informational messages. The effectiveness of circulation depends not only on its content, but also on its structure. The most effective are appeals that create the illusion of the audience completely independently made decisions about the attitude to the object of the marketing campaign. Development of an effective information appeal to the audience is one of the most important tasks of any marketing communications system. An informational message can be an article in a newspaper, a video on TV, a billboard, etc. The process of creating a message involves answering the following questions: what to say (message content), how to logically organize a message (message structure), how to convey it with symbols (registration of the message) and from whom it will come.9 Analysis of resultsThe reverse market reaction is expressed in the dynamics of sales. And inthat's the point! All of the following are just tools for understanding intermediate results in a long-term marketing campaign — whether we are going there and how the target audience responds to your message. Among these mandatory for control, but intermediate results are: an increase in the brand citation index; the growth of hits, hosts on the corporate website; a modern approach to managing marketing communications implies a mandatory survey of a randomly selected audience. Something instead of the result In today's conditions of a saturated market, the success of marketing communications is one of the main guarantees of business prosperity. The management of a marketing communications system must be approached systematically, just like financial or logistics management. The widespread policy of targeted marketing activities, as a rule, does not allow achieving results that would largely satisfy the needs of medium and large businesses.