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Assignment No 02
Describe the role of marketing communication mix whilst highlighting the role and characteristics of each of the primary tool of communication mix. Discuss the criteria that should be used for selecting right communication mix and investigate the changes happening in media and communication landscape.

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Table of Contents

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Introduction: ........................................................................................................................................... 3 Marketing communication Mix: ............................................................................................................... 3 Role of marketing communication Mix: ................................................................................................... 4 1. Advertising as Non personal communication tool:............................................................................ 5 ROLE & Characteristics of Advertising: ................................................................................................. 7 Demerits of advertising: ....................................................................................................................... 8 2: Sales promotions as Non Personal Communication tool: ...................................................................... 8 Roles and Characteristics and objectives of sales promotions ............................................................... 9 Demerits of sales promotion .............................................................................................................. 10 Advertising versus sales promotions: ................................................................................................. 10 3: Direct Marketing: ............................................................................................................................... 11 Characteristics of direct Marketing: ................................................................................................... 11 Demerits of Direct Marketing:............................................................................................................ 12 4: Personal selling: ................................................................................................................................. 12 Roles and Characteristics of personal selling: ..................................................................................... 12 Demerits of personal selling: .............................................................................................................. 13 5: Personal Relations : ........................................................................................................................... 13 Characteristics of PR: ......................................................................................................................... 14 Selecting the right communication mix: ................................................................................................. 15 1. Nature of product:.................................................................................................................. 16

2. What are the objectives/the hierarchy of effects and determining the consumers when they show purchase intention? .............................................................................................................. 16 3. 4. 5. Push versus Pull promotion strategy:...................................................................................... 18 Buyer readiness stage:............................................................................................................ 19 Product life cycle: ................................................................................................................... 20

Changes happening in media and communication landscape: ................................................................ 22 Conclusions: .......................................................................................................................................... 24 List of References: ................................................................................................................................. 25

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Introduction:

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Out of the thousands of brands on store shelves today, what is the chance that a consumer will see any one particular item, much less buy it? In today s society, consumers are rushed for time. They do not have any time to leisurely walk up and down every aisle, perusing all of the wares. A brand may be of high quality or fairly valued, but nonetheless it will fail to achieve sales and profit objectives if potential customers are unaware of it or do not perceive it favourably. Effective advertising and other forms of marketing communications are absolutely crucial to creating brand awareness, establishing positive brand identities and moving products from distributors, warehouses and off store shelves. regardless of the nature of the product s category or the type of the business, marketing communications are key to a company s overall marketing mission and represent a major determinant of its success; indeed, it has been claimed that marketing and marketing communications are inseparable. : [M]arketing ........is communication and communication is marketing. (Don.E., Schultz., et.al, 1993).

Marketing communication Mix:

The marketing mix is the set of controllable tacticle marketing tools that the firm blends to produce the response it wants in the target market (Melewar. T.C., & Saunders.J, 2000) Marketing communications are the means by which firms attempt to inform, persuade, and remind consumers directly or indirectly about the products and brands that they sell. A company s total marketing communication mix also called promotion mix (Kotler, 2005) consists of specific blending of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations, and direct marketing tools that are used by company to pursue its advertising and marketing objectives. The following figure No 01 shows the marketing communication activities which contribute to the marketing of any new or existing product: by creating awareness of the brand; linking the right associations to the product s image in the consumer s memory, facilitating stronger consumer-product connection etc.

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Advertising Print and broadcast ads Packaging-outer Motion pictures Brochures and booklets posters and leaflets Directories Reprinting of ads Billboards Display signs Audio-visual materials Symbols and logos Videotapes Facebook, twitter Sales promotions Contests, games Premiums and gifts Sampling Fair and tradeshows Exhibitions Demonstrations Coupons Rebates Entertainment Tie-ins facebook, twitter

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Events/experience Public Relations Sports entertainment festivals arts factory tours Company museums street activities speeches press- kits Seminars Annual reports Charitable donations Publications Community relations Lobbying Identity media company magazine Personal selling sales presentations sales meetings face to face meetings incentive programs samples fairs and trade shows Direct marketing catalogs mailings telemarketing electronic shopping TV shopping Fax mail e-mail voice mail

Figure 01: Common Communication Platforms Adapted from: Lane.K & Kotler. P., .,(2006). 12ed.Marketing management 12e, Pearson Prentice Hall: new Jersey

Role of marketing communication Mix:

The traditional role of marketing communications was largely concerned with providing the mechanism by which the features and benefits of the product or the service could be promoted as inexpensively as possible by using the promotion mix as in personal selling, advertising, sales promotion and personal relations, with the ultimate purpose of persuading customers to buy specific products. However, the marketing communication mix is becoming more important within the marketing mix, as they include the need to communicate with a more diverse range of stakeholders and it builds higher levels of customer service through interactive or relationship marketing. (Doole. I & Lowe. R, 2003) Moreover, y In a way marketing communications represent the voice of the brand and are a means by which it can establish a dialogue and build relationships with consumers. y Marketing communications allow companies to link their brands to other people, places events, brands, experiences, feelings, and things. y Marketing communications perform various functions for the consumers; Customers can be told or shown what a product is about, What kind of person use this product, and consumer can be given reward for usage or trial.

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y y

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Marketing communications can contribute to brand equity by establishing the brand in memory and crafting a brand image. Promotion describes the communications activities of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion and publicity/public relations

1. Advertising as Non personal communication tool:

Advertising is a form of communication intended to persuade an audience (viewers, readers or listeners) to take some action. It includes the name of a product or service and how that product or service could benefit the consumer, to persuade potential customers to purchase or to consume that particular brand. (Oxford journals.org) The institute of practitioners in advertising defined advertising as Advertising presents the most persuasive possible selling message to the right prospects for the product or service at the lowest possible cost. (Yadien. D & Jefkins. F., 2000) Advertising objective is a specific communication task to be accomplished by with a target audience within specific time-whether the aim is to perform inform, persuade or remind. Table No 02 lists the examples of the advertising objectives. Possible Advertising Objectives are: To inform (informative advertising) Telling the market about a new product Suggesting new uses for a product Informing the market of a price change Explaining how the product works To persuade (persuasive advertising) Building brand preference Encouraging switching to your brand Changing buyer perceptions of product attributes To remind (Reminder advertising) Reminding buyers that the product may be needed in the future Reminding buyers where to buy the product

Describing available sources correcting false impressions Reducing buyer's fears building a company image Persuading buyers to purchase now persuading buyers to receive a sales call

keeping the product in buyer's mind during off seasons Maintaining top-of-mind product awareness

Table 02: Possible advertising objectives . Adapted from kotler.P., (2005)

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Following are the tools/mediums of the advertising:

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Newspaper s

Direct mail

Radio Advertising Mediums Outdoor & Transport advertising

Magazines

Professional & technical magazines

cinema

Television

Figure 03: Adapted from: Kotler. Philip, et. al (2005). Principles of Marketing , Pearson Education Limited: England. y Newspapers: Faster and more efficient circulation is possible. Many international newspapers e.g.; International herald Tribune, financial Times, Asahi Shim bun, Wall Street Asian, Jung, are printed simultaneously in many countries. y Magazines: Many journals and magazines carry ads that target regional, international or global customers. Examples are Fortune, The economist. Many women s magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Elle, Vogue, and Harper s Bazaar are printed in many countries in many languages. y Television & Radio: There is almost no country where advertising through TV is not carried out. CNN, BBC World wide, NBC, CNBC, WWE, etc are well recognized international media channels. y Outdoor & Transport advertising: Examples are Metro bus, park benches, trucks, Taxis, bus stop shelters. y Direct mail: Postal services vary from country to country. This advertising technique is good for local market. Adding to this media, internet is growing fastly and direct mail is shifted to emails and is more personalized now.(That is direct marketing).

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Advertisers use a vast array of techniques to present their brands in the most favourable light and persuade customers to contemplate purchasing these brands. Frequently employed techniques are: Informational ads (such as automobile ads in the classified pages of the newspaper) Humorous executions (e.g; Little Caesar Pizza ads) Sex appeals (e.g. Calvin Klein ads) Celebrity endorsements ( e.g.; using ex-athletes such as Michael Jordan or some entertainer like bill Cosey) Various emotional appeals (nostalgia, romance, excitement etc) Effective advertising is usually creative. Advertising which is the same as most of the other advertising is unable to get customer s attention and is unable to break through the competitive clusters. ( Jewler. J.A , 1985) some of the examples of creative and effective advertising are:  The long pink bunny campaign for Energizer batteries  Absolut vodka s continuing campaign that focuses on this brands hip image.  The milk-mustache campaign that associates drinking milk with a wide variety of interesting and respected celebrities.

ROLE & Characteristics of Advertising:

1. Pervasiveness: Seller can repeat a message many times. Buyers when receive message they can compare that product with messages of many other competitors. Example is Nike ad while watching a cricket match. 2. Amplified expressiveness: Advertising provides opportunities for dramatising the company and its product through artful use of print, sound, and colour. 3. Impersonality: audience does not feel obligated to pay attention or respond to advertising. it is a monologue in front of, not a dialogue with, the audience. 4. Advertising adds value to brands by influencing consumer s perception. it causes brands to be viewed as more elegant, more stylish, more prestigious. When advertising is done effectively, brands are perceived as higher quality or of better value, which results in increased market share and greater profitability. It is little wonder that Proctor & Gamble, leading consumersgood firm fully appreciates advertising value-adding role. Vice President of P & G , hence, characterized strong advertising as deposit in the brand equity bank . (Sanisi. J., 1992) 5. On the one hand, advertising can be used to build up a long- term image for a product (such as Mercedes-Benz ads). On the other hand, advertising can trigger quick sales (as when department stores like Debenhams and Selfridges advertise a weekend sale. (Kirmani. A., 1990) 6. Advertising can be considered as an economic investment. Some American companies invest over $1 billion a year on domestic advertising. in the year 1997, for example, proctor & gamble spent $2.6 billion; General Motors spent $2.4 billion, Time Warner spent $1.4 billion. (Advertising Age, September 29, 1997, p 04)

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Demerits of advertising:

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1. Although it reaches many people quickly, advertising is impersonal and cannot be as persuasive as company salespeople. 2. Advertising is only able to carry on a one-way communication with the audience, and the audience does not feel that it has to pay attention or respond. 3. In addition, advertising can be very costly. Although, some advertising forms such as newspapers and radio advertising can be done on smaller budgets, other forms, such as network TV advertising, requires very large budgets. 4. In most of the cases, managers and the advertisers have to rely heavily on large doses of judgement along with more quantitative analysis when they are setting advertising budgets. This intuition based advertising budget may not be always right. (Ehrenberg. A., et.al .,1997) 5. Some critics claim that large consumer companies use lots of image advertising extensively without really knowing its effects and they overspend as a form of insurance against not spending enough.

2: Sales promotions as Non Personal Communication tool:

Kotler., et.al (2005), defined this as Short term incentives which are used to encourage purchase or sales of a product or a service. sales promotions are the tools of marketing, which are added benefits offered by the companies to encourage the purchase or sales of a product or a service. Advertising in contrast with sales promotions offers the reasons to buy the product where as sales promotions offers the reasons to buy now. Sales promotions includes the wide variety of promotion tools designed to stimulate earlier or stronger market response. It includes: Consumer promotion samples, coupons, rebates, prices offs, premiums, contests, and others. Trade promotion-- buying allowances, free goods, merchandise allowances, cooperative advertising, push money, dealer sales contests etc. Sales force promotions bonuses, contests, sales rallies etc.

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Figure 00: shows the common Sales promotion tools:

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samples Lotterie s and games coupon s

Competiti ons, sweep stakes

cash

refund
Sales promotion Tools
offers

Point of purchase

price

packs

Advertis ing
specialities

premiu ms

Figure 04: Adapted from: Kotler. et.al (2005). Principles of Marketing . 4th edition. pearson education limited: England: Harlow.

Roles and Characteristics and objectives of sales promotions:

1. Facilitating the Introduction of New products to Trade: Many retailers refuse to carry new products unless they receive extra compensation in the form of trade allowances, display allowances and other forms of allowances. 2. Reinforcing advertising: a final can do capability of sales promotion is to reinforce advertising. An advertising campaign can be strengthen by well-coordinated sales promotion. 3. Obtaining purchases from Trial consumers: Marketers depend on free samples, coupons, and other sales promotions to encourage trial purchases of new products. Many consumers would never try a new product without these promotions. 4. Increasing on and off shelf Merchandising space: trade oriented sales promotions enable a manufacturer to obtain extra shelf space for a temporary period. this space may be in the form of extra facing (i.e., rows of shelf space) or off- shelf space in a gondola or an aisle-display. 5. Neutralizing competitive advertising and sales promotions: sales promotions can be used to offset competitors advertising and sales promotions efforts. For example, one company s 50 cents-off coupon loses much of its appeal when a competitor simultaneously comes out with a $1 coupon.

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(Schultz.D & Robinson. W., 1986) 6. Moreover, sales promotions can build customer relationships. examples include all the frequency marketing programs , loyalty card schemes and clubs that have mushroomed in recent years.

Demerits of sales promotion:

1. Usually, when a brand is price promoted more often, the consumer begins to devalue it and buy it mainly when it goes on sales. 2. There is also an evidence that price promotions do not build permanent total category volume. One study of more than 1000 promotions concluded that only 16% paid off. (Magid. M . Abraham & Lodish. M. L., 1990, reviewed in 2004) 3. Sales promotions cannot give the trade or consumers any compelling long-term reason to continue purchasing a brand. 4. Moreover, sales promotions cannot permanently stop an established brand s declining sales trend, or change the basic non acceptance of an undesired brand.

Advertising versus sales promotions:

A decade ago the advertising to sales promotions was about 60:40. Today- in many consumers-packaged goods companies, sales promotions accounts for 75% of the combined budget. (Strang. R.,) With the increasing numbers of brands, , companies use promotions more frequently, to attract customers as Consumers now are more price oriented, many brands seem similar, advertising efficiency has declined because of rising costs, media clutter and legal restraints. There is a danger however, in letting advertising take too much of a back seat to promotions, because advertising increase or build up the brand loyalty. Sales promotions, whereas, can devalue the product offerings in buyer s mind as they offer coupons, deals, premiums etc. small share competitors find it advantageous to use sales promotions, because they cannot afford to match the market leader s large advertising budgets; nor can they obtain shelf space without offering trade allowances or stimulate consumer trial allowances without offering incentives. (Michael. F. Kent, 1985)

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3: Direct Marketing:

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Direct marketing is the use of consumer-direct channels to reach and deliver goods and services to customers without using marketing middlemen. Companies now a days are trying to increase the productivity by reducing the personal selling and are seeking to substitute it by mail-and phone by selling units to reduce the field expenses. Sales produced through traditional direct marketing tools have been growing rapidly. Whereas US retail sales grow around 3 percent annually, catalog and direct mail sales grow at double that rate. all types of marketers use direct mail as a strategically important advertising medium. Business week magazine claims, albeit with some hyperbole, that marketers of all types of consumer goods are turning from TV box to the Mail box. (Business week, 1991) Some of the tools of direct marketing are as follows: Direct mail Mobile devices Catalogs

Websites

Telemarketin g

kiosks

Interactive TV

Figure05: Adapted from: Czinkota. M. et.al (2000).

Characteristics of direct Marketing:

1. Customised: The message can be prepared to appeal to the addressed individual. 2. Up-to date: The message can be prepared very quickly 3. Interactive: The message can be changed depending on the customer s response.

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Demerits of Direct Marketing:

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1. Invasion of privacy: Every time consumers made an order for products on internet or by mail or telephone enter a sweep stakes, apply for a credit card, their names, addresses and purchasing behaviour are added to several company databases. 2. Unfairness: Some direct marketers take advantage of impulsive or less sophisticated buyers. TV shopping shows and infomercials may be the worst culprits with their smooth talking hosts and claims of drastic price reductions. 3. Irritation: Many people do not like the increasing number of hard-sell, direct marketing solicitations. especially bothersome are dinnertime or late night phone calls, poorly trained callers and computerized calls placed by auto-dial recorded message players.

4: Personal selling:
Czinkota. M. et.al (2000) defined personal selling as Direct oral communication designed to explain how an individual s or firm s good, services, or ideas fit the needs of one or more prospective Personal selling is one of the most important elements of the promotional mix and a critical activity of marketing management. It is also one of the most expensive form of promotion that a firm can undertake. The selling environment in concern with selling types is in following sheet: Selling Environments Over the counter

Selling Types

Order taker Order Getter Field Selling professional sales people national Account managers Missionary sales people support salespeople Telemarketing Outbound Inbound Figure 06: selling environments and types of selling in Czinkota. M. et.al (2000). Marketing best practices: The Dryden Press, Harcourt College Publishers: USA.

Roles and Characteristics of personal selling:

1. It involves direct communication between a sales representative and a prospective customer. , it is the only form of promotion that allows the firm to immediately respond to the customer prospects. 2. Personal selling allows for immediate customer feedback, so a firm has timely information regarding customer satisfaction with its offerings. 3. Personal interaction: It involves an immediate and interactive relationship between two or more persons. Each party can observe the other s reactions.

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4. Cultivation: Personal selling permits all kinds of relationships to spring up, ranging from a matter of fact selling relationships to a deep personal friendship.

Demerits of personal selling:

1. Due to the costs associated with the personal selling, this form of promotion is not used as often for consumer markets where there are many , geographically dispersed buyers whose individuals purchases do not support the average cost of a sales call 2. A sales person, if not trained, sometimes get humiliated and react to customers, which is sometimes bad PR for the company he working for. 3. Because selling is instrumental in generating revenue for an organization, sales management requires the skills of planning, directing, controlling and implementing the personal selling function, which could be too expensive at times and not too efficient.

5: Personal Relations :
Personal relations is building new relations with the company s various publics by obtaining favourable publicity, building up a good corporate image and handling or heading off unfavourable rumours, stories and events. (Kotler.P; Wong Veronica; Saunders. J;Armstrong Gary.,2005) Personal relations involves a variety of programs designed to promote or protect a company image or its individual products. PR is similar to advertising because both are forms of mass communication; the difference is that the publicity generated by PR receives free news space or air time in comparison to the paid-for-space and time in the case of advertising. Some tools of the Public relations are as follows:

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Speeches news special events

Sponsorship

Tools of PR

written materials

public service activities

audio-visual materials corporate identity materials

Figure07: Kotler. et.al (2005). Principles of Marketing . 4th edition. pearson education limited: England: Harlow.

Reactive PR or Bad Public relations:

Reactive Pr is the negative publicity. For example: y Audi of America experienced and irreversible loss in sales after news report were disseminated claiming that the Audi 5000-S sometimes lunged out of control when shifted into drives or gears. Sales plummeted from approx. 74000 units in 1985 to sales of approx.12000 in 1991. (Kiley.D., 1991) y Food Lion, a regional supermarket chain, suffered grave losses and was forced to close some stores after news reports charged that the stores are unsanitary and they sell out-of-date meat, fish and other poultry products. y Cans of Pepsi cola were rumoured to be contaminated with hypodermic needles, but skilfully conceived public relations quickly dispelled this hoax. (Magiera.M, 1993)

Characteristics of PR:
1. Press relations: Presenting news and information about the organization in the most positive light. 2. Product publicity: Sponsoring efforts to publicize specific products. for example different brands have their own ambassadors , which are popular celebrities , such as Christiano Ronaldo sponsored by CK. 3. Corporate communications: promoting understanding of the organization through internal and external communications.

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4. Counselling: Advising management about public issues and company positions and image during good times and bad. 5. Assisting in the launch of new products: The amazing commercial success of toys such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Beanie babies, 6. Assisting in repositioning a mature product: New York City had extremely bad press in the 1970 s until the I love new York campaign. 7. Influencing Specific target groups: McDonald s sponsors special neighbourhood events in Latino and African American communities to produce good will. 8. Defending Products that have encountered public problems: PR professionals must be adept at managing crisis, such as the Coca Cola incident in Belgium over allegedly contaminated soda, and Fire stones crisis with regard to the tire tread separation problem. 9. Building the corporate image in a way that reflects favourably on its product: Bill Gates speeches and books have helped to create an innovative image for Microsoft Corporation. 10. Dramatization: Public relations has the potential for dramatizing a company or a product.

Selecting the right communication mix:

Companies in the past often treated the marketing communications as virtually separate activities, whereas current marketing philosophy holds that integration of all elements is absolutely imperative for success. The emergence of integrated marketing communications (IMC) has become one of the most significant examples of development in the marketing discipline . (Kitchen, 2003) Smith et al. (1999) have defined IMC as y Management and control of all market communications, y The strategic analysis, choice, implementation and control of all elements of marketing communications which efficiently, y Ensuring that the brand positioning, personality and messages are delivered synergistically across every element of communication. IMC is a powerful tool in reaching target audiences with persuasive messages. One of the great strengths of IMC is its flexibility. A finely crafted IMC effort can influence those audiences which were otherwise unreachable. (Pitta.D. et. Al, 2006) Moreover, in determining an appropriate mix of marketing communications elements, the product or brand manager must weigh the variety of factors related to the category, brand and the market. A marketing manager should consider it first whether the entire budget goes towards the supporting of sales force or should some of it be allocated to the television advertising? Will coupons or bonus packs or gift vouchers help to move a product more? There is no right formula. The decision could be guided by addressing the following issues.

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Criteria involved in selecting right communication mix are:

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1. Nature of product: The importance of different communication and promotion tools varies between consumer and business markets. It may happen that advertising is a major promotion tool for one and for the other it have less importance. It all is dependent on the nature of the product. Consumer goods companies usually put more of their funds into advertising, followed by sales promotion, personal selling, and then public relations. In general, personal selling is used more heavily with the expensive and risky goods and in markets with fewer and larger sellers. Following are the graphs of relative importance of some of marketing communication mix as for consumer and industrial goods.

CONSUMER GOODS
Advertising

INDUSTRIAL GOODS
Personal selling

Sales promotion

Sales promotion

Personal selling Personal selling Public relations

Public relations Relative importance of promotional tool

Relative importance of Promotional tool

Figure 08: Relative importance of promotion tools in consumer versus industrial markets Adapted from: Armstrong.G.,(2005). 2. What are the objectives/the hierarchy of effects and determining the consumers when they show purchase intention? Figure 00: presents the framework, which is called as hierarchy of effects that provides a useful way of thinking about the objectives that marketing communication is designed to accomplish. Different stages in hierarchy are best understood by examining actual communications situation. Consider again the magazine advertisement that was presented in the opening vignette (Gardenburger s Equity-Enhancing Effort). In the case of Gardenburger efforts, they created consumer awareness by presenting a small story about Lucy the lion tamer wanting to eat a meaty burger but not wanting lions to smell meat on her breath. Moreover, consumer awareness is not only the single factor; advertising should persuade the consumers that in reality, Garden

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burger veggie patties taste like real meat. Other clever fictive devices are designed to influence consumer s beliefs/knowledge to encourage the formation of positive attitude and purchase intentions towards the product. The process is shown in the following figure No 09:

Purchase

Purchase Intention

Attitude

Beliefs/Knowledge

Awareness

Unawareness

Figure 09: Hierarchy of effects Examples of the consumer awareness as in Hierarchy effects: Following are the two different examples of two different products but with the same approaches: one of the ad is about a fizzy drink seltzer that is making the consumers aware about the thing that sugary beverages and soda can make them fat, they should go for either water, seltzer (which is zero sugar) or low fat milk instead. Moreover the word POUNDS is highlighted in other colour giving customers the knowledge that they could save the pounds as in money and as in body fats.

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Figure 00: Adapted from: http://boulderbite.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/NYC-anti-soda-ad1285x300.jpg & http://images.google.co.uk/images?um=1&hl=en&rlz=1I7AD BR_en&tb s=isch:1&q= gardenburger+ads&sa=N&start=100&ndsp=20 3. Push versus Pull promotion strategy: Both of the push and pull strategies utilize personal selling, advertising, sales promotion mostly. Some small industrial goods company s uses only push strategies; some direct marketing companies use only pull strategies. Most of the large companies use the combination of both. For example, RJR/Nabisco uses mass media advertising to pull its products, and a large sales force and trade promotions to push its products through the channels. It all depends on the nature of the market and the product for which strategies to use, be it push, pull or both and the product life cycle. (Armstrong.G & Kotler.P., 1994)

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PUSH STRATEGY
Producer marketing Activities (personal selling, Retailers and Wholesalers Trade promotions, etc)

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Producer

Reseller s activities (Personal selling, Consumers advertising etc)

PULL STRATEGY
Producer Demand Retailers & Wholesalers Demand Consumers

Producer marketing activities (Consumer advertising, sales promotions and other) Figure 10: Push versus Pull strategy Adapted from: (Kotler.P; Wong Veronica; Saunders. J;Armstrong Gary.,2005)

4. Buyer readiness stage: These are the stages that normally consumers pass through on their way to purchase, including awareness, knowledge, liking preference, conviction and purchase. This process can begin with simple messages that repeat the company or product name. For example, when Orange introduced its mobile phone network, it began with an extensive teaser advertising campaign to create name familiarity. Initial ads for Orange created curiosity and awareness by emphasizing brand name. The effects of the promotional tools vary for the different buyer readiness stages. (Armstrong. G, 1994)

Awareness

Knowledge

Liking

Preference Figure 11: shows Buyers readiness Stage:

Conviction

Purchase

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5. Product life cycle: For the product life cycle stage it should be noted that is the brand well established or is the new product in the introduction stage? Thi9s is the crucial point as if to understand the product life cycle, for where it lies in the cycle and then marketing tools are used as per need:

Figure 12: Product life cycle : Adapted from: http://www.davedolak.com/advtg.htm : Accessed on: March15, 2010.

Stages of product life cycle versus Marketing communication tools:

Introduction stage of product: Heavy use of advertising is used, public relations are generated for awareness of the product and to involve buyer s readiness stage, sales promotions could be used for trial too, to know where the product would lie. Growth stage of product: The marketing tools which should be used are more advertising, public relations, branding and brand marketing, and personal selling for distribution of the product or brand. Maturity stage of product: Not much advertising be done at this stage. Some reminder and persuasive techniques should be used the marketing tools to make the consumers and other customers realize that you do sell too. Decline stage of product: Advertising and public relations decreases at this point. Limited sales promotion can be used depending on the nature of product. Personal selling should be used as the tool for distribution of product. (Dolak.D., 2009)

Some of the examples of selecting Specific and right Communication Mix according to the situation and the product life cycle are:
y To reach target markets and build brand equity, holistic marketers are creatively employing multiple forms of communications. In Introducing the Mini cooper which originally was sold for only seven years and withdrawn in 1960 s due to stiff emission regulations and introduced in market again in March 2002, BMW did not even use TV advertising. Different poster ads for Mini

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Cooper proclaimed unusual texts as THE SUV BACKLASH OFFICIALLY STARTS NOW , GOLIATH LOST , XXL-XL-L-M-S-MINI , PONY-UP. WITH A SMALLER AMOUNT OF PONY etc. (Levin.K. & Kotler. P., 2006) Two of the poster ads examples are as follows:

Figure 13: Adapted from: http://images.google.co.uk/images?um=1&hl=en&rlz=1I7ADBR_en&tbs=isch:1&q=Mini+cooper+ads&sa =N&start=80&ndsp=20 , Accessed on: March 10, 2010. y To launch its new Kleenex soft pack product, Kimberly-Clark budgeted 75 percent of its overall advertising dollars to television, 23 percent to print, and 2 percent online to build awareness and drive trial. Online ads were found to help reach an audience that TV might have overlooked, and online and magazine ads were found to be the most effective mix for brand awareness. (Brand week, 2003) Supermarket chain Sainsbury s used seamlessly integrated offline and online communications to promote its Sainsbury s To You home delivery service. A consistent message was used to promote a consistent offer of 5 [7] off the customer s first online shop via online and offline advertising, the Sainsbury s website, email outs and in-store events. Although it seems obvious, according to John Baker, head of digital services at media agency Proximity London, it is not uncommon to find the online agency saying they will offer a discount of 5 to shop online, and the offline ad saying 10 off. (David Murphy., 2003)

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Changes happening in media and communication landscape:

Twenty years ago, 75 percent of marketing budgets went to advertising in the US. Today, 50 percent goes into trade promotions, 25 percent into consumer promotions and less than 25 percent into advertising (Kitchen, 2003). The allocation of communication budgets away from mass media and traditional advertising has obviously promoted IMC in recognition and importance for effective marketing. The emergence of IT has fundamentally changed the media landscape, contributed to an extensive deregulation of markets and individualized patterns of consumption and increased the segmentation of consumer tastes and preferences (Eagle and Kitchen, 2000; Kitchen, 2003). On a macro level, we can distinguish three factors which have fundamentally changed the conditions for IMC; deregulations of markets, globalization of economy and individualization of consumption. The emergence of IT is another underlying factor. Communication always built upon tree systems which are sound image and writing. All these systems depend on technological development. Previously these three systems were separate. IT revolution has made a total communicative integration possible, which in turn have changed business structures. These large business areas are now integrated: telephone, television and the computer industry (Liber & Malmo., 2002) as the total number of internet hosts expanded from 4852,000 in 1995 to 9472,000 in 1996- with estimates of total users at 30 million and higher and now they are not even the double in spite much much more than that. (Network Wizards) The fundamental consequence of this integration is that the traditional emphasis on heavy-weight mass communication campaigns (so-called above-the-line) has been replaced by more direct and highly targeted promotional activities using direct marketing and other tools aimed to reach the smallest of all target groups and the single individual. (Engel, Et.al, 1994) Suitability of modern marketing percentage superiority over traditional marketing to meet the objectives of marketing communication mix could be seen in the following table:

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Percentage superiority of .

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live communication

Traditional communication

Awareness phase Increase brand awareness 46 54 Familiarity phase Cultivate brand image 58.2 41.8 Foster trust in brand 87.8 12.2 Preference phase set brand apart from 75.2 24.8 competition demonstrate brand quality 83.8 16.2 deliver brand experience 68.3 31.7 Purchase phase directly increase sales 74.9 25.1 Loyalty phase Increased brand loyalty 81.3 18.7 Improve customer retention 84.7 15.3 Figure 14: Suitability of live communication to meet the objectives of marketing communication: Adapted from: Kirchgeorg. M et.al (2010). Objectives for successfully participating in trade shows : Journal of Business and industrial marketing. 25/1 (2010) pp 63-72. Emerald Publishing Limited. [ISSN0885-8624] Proforma, a franchise business that provides promotional products, is spending a couple of millions dollars to create a custom software system for its database marketing, as is said by Banning the concerned person at Proforma. In his view Twitter and LinkedIn are helping in making more of their annual sales. Marcy Shinder, VP-brand manager at American Express OPEN, expressed on the changes of landscape. In her view the marketers in old economy had time to rely on agencies and partners to package thinking and to present points of views on the latest trends. But the new economy is moving so rapidly, Marketers to keep pace with the fast moving trends, have to work hard on the research and on the advertising communication mix for which one to use, to make that brand more cost effective in less possible time. (Maddox.K, 2009) Another example is of Virgin America airlines, where people once only griped about their lost bags, crowded flights and cattle-call boarding. Virgin America flyers are now tweeting and telling anyone who will listen about in-flight Wi-Fi, spacious leather seats, mood lighting, and in seat food and beverage ordering through touch screens control panels. They began their new operations little over two years ago and are now enjoying the emails receiving s and other feedback from customers wishing that may their flights would have lasted longer. All this was made possible by relying heavily on the marketing mix as on PR, social media, word-of-mouth and partnerships with properties such as Google and HBO s entourage . (Bush.M, 2009) One other example of changing media is of viewers of recent episodes of Warner Bros. syndicated Ellen DeGeneres Show watched as Jeannie, one of the program s production assistants, drove across

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the country in a new 2010 Terrain from General Motors GMS. But fans that follow the show s twitter feed, @ The Ellen Show, also had the chance to participate in a gas-card giveaway from GMC. As of Nov. 06, 2009, Ms Degeneres has 3.6 million followers on Twitter, third only to Ashton Kutcher and Britney spears, Warner Bros said. (SteinBerg. B., 2009)

Conclusions:
Out of the thousands of brands on store shelves today, what is the chance that a consumer will see any one particular item, much less buy it? In today s society, consumers are rushed for time. They do not have any time to leisurely walk up and down every aisle, perusing all of the wares. A brand may be of high quality or fairly valued, but nonetheless it will fail to achieve sales and profit objectives if potential customers are unaware of it or do not perceive it favourably. Some of the promotion mix (Kotler, 2005) consists of specific blending of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations, and direct marketing tools that are used by company to pursue its advertising and marketing objectives and to reach the customers in this busy world. The traditional role of marketing communications was largely concerned with providing the mechanism by which the features and benefits of the product or the service could be promoted as inexpensively as possible. Today these, marketing communication play different roles, as in Advertising is a form of communication intended to persuade an audience (viewers, readers or listeners) to take some action. When advertising is done effectively, brands are perceived as higher quality or of better value, which results in increased market share and greater profitability. Some demerits of advertising are being impersonal, one-way communication, and more over advertisers have to rely heavily on large doses of judgement. Sales promotions are the tools of marketing, which are added benefits offered by the companies to encourage the purchase or sales of a product or a service. Advertising in contrast with sales promotions offers the reasons to buy the product where as sales promotions offers the reasons to buy now. Other marketing tools are direct marketing, personal relations, personal selling etc. Direct marketing is the use of consumer-direct channels to reach and deliver goods and services to customers without using marketing middlemen. Personal selling is one of the most important elements of the promotional mix and a critical activity of marketing management. Because personal selling is instrumental in generating revenue for an organization, sales management requires the skills of planning, directing, controlling and implementing the personal selling function, which could be too expensive at times and not too efficient. To be sure, the internet and other web tools promises exciting marketing communications potential. However, marketers trying to use the web alone to build brands face many challenges. One limitation is that the internet does not build mass brand awareness. The web simply cannot match the impact of World cups, Olympic games or six nation Rugby, where tens of millions of people see the same 30-second Nokia or Nike-ad at the same time. Instead, it is like millions of private conversations. Using the web only, it is hard to establish universal meanings such as Nokia connecting People or Just Do It that are at the heart of brand recognition and brand value. For using the web based tools or internet, the marketing communication should be integrated with other marketing communication mix to make the customers aware at the most possible level and to make them realize the attributes of the product so they could choose it. IMC produce better communication existency and greater sales impact. They lead to a total marketing communication strategy aimed at showing how the company and its products can help customers solve their problems.

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List of References:
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Assignment ~ 02

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