Question

What are the factors to be considered in a Marketing Communications Mix?

Answer 1

Factors to be considered in a Marketing Communications Mix

• Mass communications – Advertising, Sales Promotions, Events and Experiences, Public Relations

• Digital Communications – Online, Social Media, Mobile

• Personal Communications - Direct marketing, Database, Personal Selling

Advertising - Advertising are paid placement of non-personal messages by an identified sponsor that is intended to inform and persuade the members of a particular target market about a brand, idea, product or service (Texiera 2012).

Sales Promotion – These are short-term incentives in order to encourage trial or purchase; a tool for acceleration to speed up buying process. Consumer Promotion Tools may include Samples, Coupons, Prizes, Free trials, Product warranties, Tie-in promotions, Point—of-Purchase (P-O-P) displays and demonstrations (Kotler and Keller 2015).

Sponsoring events and experiences - It involves an exchange whereby one party permits another an opportunity to exploit an association with an activity for commercial advantage, in return for funds, services or resources. Types of sponsorship includes Ambush marketing, Sports, Arts, Media-related, Product placement, Event-related (Kotler and Keller 2015).

Public relations - A strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics; goodwill management (Coupley 2015). Five functions include Press relations, Product publicity, Corporate communications, Lobbying, Counselling.

Online marketing - These are online activities and programs to engage customers or prospects for directly or indirectly raising awareness and improving image or eliciting sales (Kotler and Keller 2015). It can be Paid media as well as Earned media.

Social Media marketing - Consumers sharing text, images, audio and video information with each other and with companies and vice versa (Kotler and Keller 2015). These are Online communities and forums, Blogs, Social networks.

Mobile Marketing – These include Use of mobile apps, Mobile loyalty programs and/or Mobile coupons (Kotler and Keller 2015; Johansson and Karlson 2015).

Direct marketing – These may include Direct mail marketing (offers or announcements, reminders via fliers, foldouts, letters); Catalog marketing – full-line merchandise catalogs, specialty, consumer and business catalogs; Telemarketing - using call centers, inbound and outbound telemarketing.

Customer Databases and Database Marketing - “Database marketing is much more than ‘list building’ as it focuses on customers, capturing detailed data on them, not products ... It is an interactive approach to marketing.” (Coupley 2015).

Personal Selling - Face-to-face interaction with prospective purchasers for the purpose of making presentations, answering questions and producing orders (Kotler and Keller 2015).