Marketing communication

Contents

2 Communication strategies
2.1 Linear Model of Communication
2.2 DAGMAR-Model

3 Value of Segmentation and Targeting, and Positioning
3.1 Segmentation and Targeting
3.2 Positioning

4 Promotional Methods
4.1 Advertising
4.2 Personal Selling
4.3 Sales promotion
4.4 Public Relation
4.5 Sponsorship
4.6 Trade Fairs and Exhibitions
4.7 Direct Marketing

5 References
5.1 Books
5.2 Biographies

2 Communication strategies

2.1 Linear Model of Communication

(Fill 2002a) The linear model of communication can be seen as the basic model of mass communication. It consists of seven different components. For a successful communication, the quality of the linkage of theses elements is important, and not the elements it selves.

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(Source, Fill 2002)

The seven elements are the Source or the person, which is sending the message. Encoding is the process of transferring the message into a symbolic style, which can be transmitted. Signal is the media, which is used to transmit the message. Decoding is the process of understanding interpretation of the message by the Receiver or individual. The receiver communicates back to the source, its understanding of the message which is called Feedback. Noise is everything that can destroy the process of communication and makes it so difficult.

The linear model of communication can be used for both personal as well as for non-personal communication. The biggest advantage of this model is, that it shows the parts, where the management can act, which are source, encoding and the signal. And the parts, where he can’t interfere like decoding, receiver and feedback, also against noise, can be done nearly nothing; they can just try to keep him as low as possible. The main goal of this model is to create credibility in the mind of the receiver.

It helps the management to ask the right question in order to find the right source, massage and signal for their communication strategy. It sees the source as apart of the communication process, because if the receiver believes the message depends strongly on the credibility of the source. The message itself must be understandable by the target group. It helps to create a message, which is decoded accurately by the receiver, which guarantees effective advertising. Companies spent a lot of money to find out if the target group understand their message correctly. And finally a signal must be found, to reach the target group as effective as possible.

The biggest disadvantage of this model is, is the role of the receiver. It says, that the receiver acts just in a passive role, which means, he can just receive messages. But in fact this doesn’t happen. Also some receiver acts as a source for other ones in the role of opinion leader or opinion former.

The model also doesn’t consider on personal experiences of the receiver as well as competitors, which also play an important role in marketing communication. But this model can be seen as a guideline in planning a successful communication strategy, but not a formula of success.

(Tullis 2000) How important the role of accurate decoding is, can be seen by the VW company. For the Golf IV, they made an advertisement campaign, showing Jesus at the last supper recommending the car to his disciples. They wanted to create an ironic and up to date advertisement campaign, which was misinterpreted by its receiver who found it vulgar. So the company has to remove its campaign.

2.2 DAGMAR-Model

“Advertising succeeds or fails depending on how well it communicates the desired information and attitudes to the right people at the right time and tat the right cost.”

(Fill 2002)

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(Adapted from Fill 2002)

(Fill 2002) The DAGMAR –Model is a model for setting objectives and measures the results. It is a hierarchical model of communication process, and consists of awareness – comprehension – conviction – action. Before purchasing a product awareness of the product or brand must be build up or developed. Getting attention is a prime objective to create awareness. But to stimulate purchase awareness alone is not enough. Knowledge about the product is important. The audience has to be educated about the benefits of usage of the product, by the key attributes of the brand. Now the customers must be convinced to try the product once. And finally the customer must be engaged in purchasing activities.

This statement consists out of four elements. At first the communication tasks must be specified, then the audience must be defined, and the required degree of change must be stated, and at least, the time period in which the activity should occur must be established. These four elements make the statement measurable, which can be seen as the biggest advantage of the model. Attention has moved from the sales effect to the communication effect, which has lead to a better understanding of advertising and promotional goals, and has improved planning processes.

But there are also some disadvantages. The major criticism is the logical movement of the consumer through the stages (learn – feel – do), which can’t be seen as a general buying behaviour. To measure and analyse communication objectives is very difficult and time consuming, therefore some critics think sales is the only effective measurement of communication activities, because their main duty is to generate sales. Also creativity can suffer under focusing on measures of recall.

The Austrian shoes retailer Humanic has used the important role of awareness in their marketing strategy for more than 30 years very successfully. They used the common Austrian first name “Franz” and made senseless TV and radio spots, in which they just promoted their brand name, but they never said anything about their business, or certain offers. They divided the Austrian population with their spots into “Humanic advertisement hater” and “Humanic advertisement fancier”. The effect was, that everybody in Austria knows the brand name Humanic, and discussed about their advertisement, when a new spot was running.

3 Value of Segmentation and Targeting, and Positioning

3.1 Segmentation and Targeting

(Kotler 2001 a) Normally companies can’t appeal to all buyers in a market. They are too numerous, too widespread and too varied in their needs and buying practices. Therefore each company has to identify the parts of the markets that it can satisfy best. To concentrate on a certain segment of the market helps the company, to develop a particular product for this segment, to adjust the prices, and the marketing strategy, to target the market efficiency.

The market can be segmented by different criteria like geographical, demographical (age, gender…), psycho-graphical (social class, life style…), or behavioural (knowledge, attitudes…). To find the right target group all of them can be used, they can be combined in any ways. Which one are used, depends on the product, and the marketing strategy of the organization and will often lead in a lot of different segments, with different advantages and disadvantages.

Targeting means now to decide which segment should be targeted by the organization. To find out which segment is attractive for a company a lot of different factors must be considered, like the segment size, the growing rate, structural factors, current and potential competitors, power of buyers and suppliers.

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