RETAIL

COMMUNICATION
MIX
1. Identify the new media elements and list the steps involved in developing a communication program.
For any communication campaign to succeed, the retailer must deliver the right message to the right
audience through the right media at the right time, with the ultimate goal of profiting from long-term
customer relationships, as well as short-term sales. Reaching the right audience is becoming more
difficulty as the media environment grows more complicated. No single type of media is necessarily
better than another. The goal of retail communication strategy is to plan all of the elements to work
together so the sum exceeds the total of the individual media parts.
We now examine the individual elements of a retail communication strategy and the way each
contributes to a successful communication campaign. These elements are divided into new and
traditional media. The media elements include online (websites, e-mail, mobile) and social media
(YouTube, Facebook, blogs and Twitter). Traditional media elements include mass advertising, sales
promotions, in-store marketing/design elements, personal selling, and public relations. These media
elements vary on five dimensions: personalization, interactivity, message control, extent of information
provided, and the cost per exposure.
 NEW MEDIA ELEMENTS
Online Media:
1. Websites:
Retailers are increasing their emphasis on communicating with customers through their websites,
which are used to build their brand images; inform customers of store locations, special events, and the
availability of merchandise in local stores; and sell merchandise and services. Many retailers also
devote areas of their websites to community building. These sites offer an opportunity for customers
with similar interests to learn about products and services that support their hobbies and to share
information with others. Visitors can also post questions seeking information and/or comments about
issues, products, and services. For example, REI, an outdoor apparel and equipment retailer, offers
adventure travel planning resources for biking trips, bike tours, paddling, adventure cruises, and other
trips. By doing so, REI creates a community of customers who engage in activities using the
merchandise that REI sells. The community thus reinforces REI’s brand image.
Many retailers encourage customers to post reviews of products they have bought or used on their
websites. Research has shown that these online product reviews increase customer loyalty and provide a
competitive advantage for sites that offer them. In a further effort to appeal to consumers and encourage
them to interact with the retailer in various ways, some websites provide editorial content and fashion
advice, rather than being dedicated solely to selling products to users.
2. Email:
Email involves sending messages over the Internet to specific individuals. Retailers use e-mail to inform
customers of anew merchandise and special promotions, confirm the receipt of an order, and indicate when an
order has been shipped. The increased use of customer databases has enabled retailers to identify and track
consumers over time and across purchase situations. As a result, e-mail can be highly personal and the message
very controlled. However, when the same message is delivered electronically to all recipients, e-mails more
closely resemble the more impersonal medium, mass advertising. Because e-mail recipients can respond back
to the retailer, it is considered an interactive medium. Finally, the cost per exposure is low.
3. Mobile Marketing:
Mobile marketing, also called mobile comer, M-commerce or mobile retailing, is marketing through
wireless handheld devices such as cellular telephones. Smartphones have become far more than tools to place
calls; they offer a kind of mobile computer with the ability to obtain sports scores, weather, music, videos, and
text messages as well as purchase merchandise. Marketing success rests on integrating marketing
communications with fun, useful apps that are consistent with these consumer attitudes toward mobile devices.
In response, firms are steadily improving customers’ potential experience with their mobile interface.
Retailers use applications to communicate with mobile phone users and send them messages on the basis of
their location, as determined by GPS technology. With the GPS-based application, users also can recommend
nearby retailers to friends in the area. Furthermore, the app’s data analytic capabilities allow retailers to track
the impact of mobile marketing campaigns.
 Social Media:
Social media include various forms of electronic communication, which users can employ
to create online communities in which they share ideas, information, their interpersonal messages,
and other content (ex. videos). Three major online facilitators of social media are YouTube,
Facebook and Twitter. As another online vehicle that encourages word-of-mouth
communications, online forums enable consumers to review, communicate about, and aggregate
information about productions, prices and promotions. These forums also allow users to interact
among themselves (ex. form a community). Such online communities enable users to provide
other like-minded consumers and retailers with their thoughts about and evaluations of a retailer’s
products or services. Retailers use social media to engage their customers in proactive dialogue.
When a retailer provides content in a social media website, people often begin sharing and
commenting on it. The retailer then must monitor the feedback and respond if necessary –
especially if the commentary is negative.
 1. YouTube:
On this video-sharing social media platform, users upload, share, view, and comment on videos. This
medium gives retailers a chance to express themselves in a different way than they have before. A retailer
such as the television home shopping company can broadcast its own channel, that is, a YouTube site that
contains content relevant only to the company’s own products.
 2. Facebook:
This social media platform with more than 1.5 billion active users gives companies a forum to interact
with fans. Retailers have access to the same features that regular users do, including a “wall” where they can
post company updates, photos, and videos or participate in a discussion board. Facebook also provides an
appealing means to target local groups of consumers for smaller retailers.
 3. Blogs:
On a blog (weblog), an individual blogger or a group of users regularly post their opinions and various topical information on
a web page. The administrator of the blog can either be an independent person, a retailer, or another type of firm. A well-received
blog can communicate trends, announce special events, and create word of mouth, which is communication among people about an
entity such as a retailer or a product or service. Blogs connect customers by forming a community, allowing a retailer to respond
directly to customer’s comments, and facilitate longterm relationships between customers and the retailer. By their very nature,
blogs are supposed to be transparent and contain authors’ honest observations, which can help customers determine their trust and
loyalty levels. If, however, the blog is created or sponsored by a retailer, the information may be positively biased. Also, retailers
have limited control over the content posted on blog; thus the information posted can be negative or incorrect. Many retailer use
blogs as part of their communication strategy.
 4. Twitter:
Twitter is a microblog – a short version of a blog – in which users are limited to 140-
character messages. The use of 140-character messages forces retailers to post short, timely and
relevant posts. The 140-characters no longer include @names and images, thus stretching the
potential length of the tweet. Twitter is actively use by both small and large retailers. Smaller
retailers with limited marketing budgets love the response they can induce by sending a
promotional message immediately.
 TRADITIONAL MEDIA ELEMENTS
Retailers use various traditional media elements: mass media advertising, promotions, in-
store marketing, personal selling and public relations.
1. Mass Media Advertising:
• A. Advertising
this form of mass media entails the placement of announcements and persuasive messages
purchased by retailers and other organizations that seek to inform and/or persuade members of a
particular target market or audience about their products, services, organizations, or ideas.
Mass advertising is typically used to generate awareness in the need recognition stage of
the buying process because of its low cost per exposure and the control retailers have over content
and the timing of the communication. But it is not as effective for helping consumers search for
information because the amount of information that can be transmitted is limited. By its very
nature, it is impossible to personalize messages or interact directly with customers. But it is a
cost-effective method for announcing sales or new store openings. Traditionally, mass advertising
has been limited to newspapers, magazines, direct mail, TV, radio and billboards.
• B. Newspapers:
Retailing and newspaper advertising grew up together over the past century. But the
growth in newspaper advertising by retailers has slowed recently as retailers have begun using
other media. In addition to displaying ads with their editorial content, newspapers distribute
freestanding inserts. A freestanding insert (FSI) also called a preprint, is an advertisement printed
at the retailer’s expense and distributed as an insert in the newspaper. Although popular with
advertisers, there are so many FSIs in some newspapers that readers can become overwhelmed.
As a result, some retailers have reduced the number of FSIs they use because of the clutter and
because younger readers, who may be their primary target market, don’t regularly read
newspapers.
Newspaper readers can go through an advertisement at their own pace and refer to the part
of the advertisement when they want. But newspaper ads aren’t effective for showing
merchandise, particularly when it is important to illustrate colors, because of the relatively poor
reproduction quality. Finally, the cost of developing newspaper ads is relatively low. However,
the cost of delivering the message may be high if the newspaper’s circulation is much broader
than the retailer’s target market, requiring the retailer to pay for exposure that won’t generate
sales.
• C. Magazines:
Advertising in national magazines is mostly done by national retailers. With the growth of
local magazines, regional editions of national magazines and specialized magazines, local
retailers can’t take advantage of this medium. Many magazines either offer both a print and an
online version, or have transitioned to online only. This change in the business model for some
magazines from print to online (or both) enables retailers to reach potential customers at a lower
cost per exposure. Retailers tend to use it for image advertising because the reproduction quality
is high.
• D. Direct Mail:
Direct mail includes brochure, catalog, advertisement, or other printed marketing material
delivered directly to the consumer through the mail or a private delivery company. Retailers have
communicated with their customers through the mail for as long as the mail has existed. The vast
majority of direct mail goes to customers or the current resident of the household on a
nonpersonalized basis.
• E. Television:
Television commercials can be placed on a national network or local station. Retailers typically use TV for image
advertising, to take advantage of the high production quality and the opportunity to communicate through both visual
images and sound. Television ads can also demonstrate product usage. For example, TV is an excellent medium for
car, furniture and consumer electronics dealers. TV is also used extensively to promote sales, particularly at a local
level. In addition to its high production costs, broadcast time for national TV advertising is expensive.
• F. Radio:
Many retailers use radio advertising because messages can be easily targeted to a specific segment of the market.
Some radio stations audiences are highly loyal to their announcers, especially in a “talk radio” format. When these
announcers promote a retailer, listeners are impressed. The cost of developing and broadcasting radio commercials is
relatively low. One disadvantage of radio advertising, however, is that listeners generally treat the radio broadcast as
background, which limits the attention they give the message. Consumers must get the information from a radio
commercial when it is broadcast; they cannot refer back to the advertisement for information they didn’t hear or don’t
remember.
• G. Billboards:
Billboards are outdoor advertisements that are generally large and appear adjacent to and above roads or highways.
Retailers typically use billboards to attract customers to a specific store location. Since everyone who drives or walks
by sees them, exposure is high. A potential disadvantage, however, is that everyone is exposed but potentially few are
in a retailer’s target market.
2. Sales Promotions
Sales promotions are special incentives or excitement-building programs that encourage
consumers to purchase a particular product or service. Some sales promotions have become
integral components of retailers’ long-term customer relationship management programs, which
they use to build customer loyalty. The ability to personalize messages and interact directly with
customers depends on the type of sales promotion retailers use.
• A. Coupons:
Coupons offer a discount on the price of specific items when they are purchased.
Coupons are issued by manufacturers and retailers in newspapers, on products, on the shelf, at the
cash register, over the Internet, on mobile devices, and through the mail. Retailers use coupons
because they are thought to induce customers to try products for the first time, convert first-time
buyers into regular users, encourage large purchases, increase usage, and protect market share
against competition. Some retailers have linked coupon directly to their loyalty programs.
• B. Rebates:
Rebates provide another form of discounts for consumers. In this case, however, the
manufacturer, instead of the retailer, issues the refund as a portion of the purchase price returned
to the buyer in the form of cash. Retailers generally welcome rebates from vendors because they
generate sales in the same way that coupons do, but the retailers incur no handling costs. Vendors
can offer generous rebates because the likelihood that consumers will actually apply for the rebate
is lose because of the hassle involved in doing so. But some retailers offer “instant rebates” that
can be redeemed at the point-of-purchase.
• c. Premiums:
A premium offers an item for free or at a bargain price to reward some type of behaviour,
such as buying, sampling, or testing. Such rewards build goodwill among consumers, who often
perceive high value in them. Premiums can be distributed in a variety of ways. They can be
included by the manufacturer in the product packaging, such as the toys inside cereal boxes;
placed visibly on the package, such as a coupon for free milk on a box of Cheerios; handed out in
the store; or delivered in the mail; such as the free perfume offers that Victoria’s Secret mails to
customers.
3. In-Store Marketing
 a. Point-of-Purchase Displays:
POP displays are merchandise display at the point of purchase, such as the checkout counter in a
supermarket. Customers see products like a magazine or a candy bar while they are waiting to pay for their
items and impulsively purchase them.
 b. Samples:
Samples offer potential customers the opportunity to try a product or service before they make a buying
decisions. Distributing samples is one of the most costly sales promotion tools, but it is also one of the most
effective. Retailers of cosmetics and fragrances, as well as grocery stores, frequently enjoy sampling. In the
case of cosmetics and fragrances, sampling can be highly personal because the sales associate can easily switch
to a sample a customer might want or need; but this is generally not the case for food stores because everyone
typically receives the same sample.
 c. Special Events:
A special event is a sales promotion program comprising a number of sales promotion techniques built
around a seasonal, cultural, sporting, musical or some other type of activity. Special events can generate
excitement and traffic to the store. Apparel and department stores do trunk shows, made-to-measure events, and
fashion shows. Sporting goods stores offer demonstrations of equipment, while grocery stores might have
cooking classes. Bookstores hold readings and book signings. Car dealerships can have rallies or shows of new
or vintage models.
4. Personal Selling
Personal selling is a communication process in which sales associates help customers
satisfy their needs through face-to-face exchanges of information. Salespeople can personalize
every message to fit the customers’ needs and provide as much information as needed. It is
highly interactive, and to the extent that the salespeople are well trained, the message can be
controlled.

5. Public Relations
Public relations involves managing communications and relationships to achieve various
objectives, such as building and maintaining a positive image of the retailer, handling of heading
off unfavorable stories or events, and maintaining positive relationships with the media.
THANK YOU!

GROUP VIII:

CONIE CONCEPTION
ANTONIO CASING JR.
ABEL BITOME
CHRISTIAN DAVE CASTRO
JOHN MARK BERMEJO