mm unit 4point3

Communication Mix in Marketing:

Course: MBA

Subject: MM II

Unit: 4

Designing and Managing Integrated Marketing Communication

• Integrated Marketing Communication is the combination and integration of different modes of communication by the company and its associates in order to give a complete communication portfolio to all its audiences at regular intervals. These modes of communication are advertising, sales promotion, public relations and publicity, personal selling and direct marketing.

Designing and Managing Integrated Marketing Communication…

Communication is an interactive dialogue between the company and its customers that takes place during the pre-selling, selling, consuming, and post-consuming stages. The communication exercise goes beyond the modes listed in the previous slide. The product’s styling and price, the shape and color of the package, the salesperson’s manner and dress, the place’s ambience, the company’s stationery-all communicate something to the buyers/customers/end-users


• IMC supports a common idea of communication across all the communication vehicles. Ideally, it allows each communication element to do what it does best rather than translating a TV ad.

• The emphasis today is on total communication planning, and not just media planning. Agencies play a significant role in this direction. The communication can be lead at times by Direct Marketing and at other times by Public Relations.

• The crux of the matter is that the whole communication needs to be integrated which does not lead to any confusion.


• Companies are not always comfortable in doing

this integration. In case, it fails, then

responsibility of failure should be identified and

remedial measures taken. Ultimately, it is the

Marketing Manager’s job to control the whole

communication package.


• The entire Marketing Process has a large content of communication. The product communicates a distinctive image such as youthfulness, glamour and prestige. The brand name communicates the physical and psychological attributes of a product e g., Sugar free sweetener. The package communicates to the consumer what the manufacturer thinks of his convenience and sense of beauty. The price communicates the quality of the product.


• There are communication between buyers and sellers i.e., distribution channel., Thus, each element of the marketing mix either helps or hinders communication and ultimately the sales effort. Marketing Communication is thus a broader term than promotional strategy.

• However, the most important element of marketing communication is the planned promotional communication.


Sender Encoding Media/channel Decoding Receiver

NoiseDistortions

ResponseFeedback


The end result of the communication process is the

understanding of the communication message. As

given in the diagram earlier, each and every stage

of the communication process has a role to play.


The sender is the source of the message. It puts

the message in symbolic form say a letter or

advertising copy. It is called ‘encoding’. The

message is carried by the media viz., the postal

department or TV or newspapers. The message is

received by the receiver who shows a particular

response which is communicated back to the

sender. The message must accomplish three tasks

in order to be effective. These tasks are as follows:

1. It must gain the attention of the receiver.


2. It must be understood.

3. It must stimulate the needs of the receiver and

suggest appropriate method to satisfy these

needs.

Senders must be aware of the receivers or

audiences they want to reach and the responsesthey want. They must be skilful in encoding the message, taking into

account how the receiver or the audience is going to decode the message.

Since the sender wants the receiver to understand the message, the

sender must know as much as possible about the receiver

before the message is designed.


The sender puts the message through efficient

media that reach the audience. The response of the

audience is known by developing the feedback

channels. In this process, noise may distort the

effectiveness of communication. Noise includes

poor message planning, busy audience members or

careless feedback or response.


• The Integrated Marketing Communication Mix consists of four major tools:1. Advertising: Any paid form of non-personal presentation of

ideas, products and services by an identified sponsor. (A)2. Sales Promotion: Short-term direct inducements to

encourage sales of products and services. (SP)3. Publicity: Non-personal stimulation of demand for a

product/ service or business organization as a whole by putting commercially significant news in media to create a favorable image. It is not paid for by the sponsor. (P)


4. Personal Selling: For making sales, a salesman

interacts orally with the buyer or buyers in the

form of a sales presentation. (PS)

5. Public Relations: Marketers engage in public

relations to develop a favorable image of their

organizations in the eyes of public-public at

large, customers, suppliers, government, media,

competitors, shareholders, employees and the

society. (PR)


6. Events and Experiences: Activities and programs sponsored by company designed to create daily or special brand related interactions. (EE)

7. Direct marketing: Here mail, telephone, fax, e-mail or internet is used to communicate directly with or solicit response or dialogue from specific customers or prospects. (DM)

IMC to build brand equity

Mktg Commn Program

Brand Equity

SP

EE

A

PR & P

PS

DM

Brand awarenesss

Brand Image

Brand responses

Brand relationships


The starting point in planning marketing communications is an audit of all the potential interactions that customers in the target market may have with the brand and the company. Someone interested in purchasing a new computer might talk to others, see television ads, read articles, look for information on the internet, and look at computers in a store. Marketers need to assess the influences of each of these experiences and impressions in the consumer decision making

Managing Mass Communications: Advertising, Sales Promotion, Events & Experiences , and Public Relations

Advertising is any paid form of non-personal presentation

of ideas, goods or services by an identified sponsor. After

identifying the target market and buyer motives, five major

decisions are taken in developing advertising campaign

Known as five Ms, these areMission: it details the objectives of advertising

Money: It tells the expenditure to be incurred on the campaign

Message: It tells the message to be sent to audiences targeted Media: It outlines the media vehicles to be used for the campaign

Measurement: It tells as to how the results of the campaign are to be

evaluated

Managing Mass Communications: Advertising, Sales Promotion, Events & Experiences , and Public

Relations..Mission: Setting of objectives is done here. These can be informative,

persuasive, reminder or reinforcement advertising

Money: It calls upon deciding upon the advertising budget. It involves

various factors like stage in the Product Life Cycle, Market share and

consumer base, Competition and clutter, frequency of advertising and

substitutability of the product.

Message: It involves developing the advertising campaign, It being the

main element, requires the utmost precaution. It involves message

generation and evaluation. Thereafter it considers creative inputs to go

into the message and its execution also. This phase also has to

consider social responsibility of the company including legal aspects.


Relations..Media: This involves the decision regarding media vehicle/s to be used

for carrying the message to its audiences. Media is to be considered

on the basis of the reach®, frequency (F) and impact ((I) of the

exposures.

Total number of exposures= RXF( Also called as Gross Rating points

(GRP))

Weighted number of exposures=RXFXI

On the basis of this calculations, the media options have to be chosen.

The following variable also need to be considered

a. Target audience media habits

b. Product characteristics c. Message characteristics d Cost


Relations..Media…

Alternative advertising options may be Place advertising i.e., bill-

boards and public spaces. It also includes Product Placement in films

and TV Shows, Point of purchase communication and evaluating

alternative media

While selecting specific vehicles of media, one has to look into

circulation, audience, effective audience and effective ad-exposed

audience.

Media timing and allocation also needs to be decided. I t involves

choosing among continuity, concentration, flighting and pulsing.


Relations..Measurement: It is important to measure the communication effect

of an ad on the awareness, knowledge or preference of the product

with the audience. It is done in two types of research.

a. Communication-effect research; Also called as copy testing, it seeks to determine whether an ad is communicating effectively or not. This can be done by taking consumer feedback from a sample of consumers asking a series of questions to them. Portfolio tests can also be administered where consumers are asked to listen or view a portfolio of advertisements. Thereafter, they are asked to recall all the ads and their content ,aided or un-aided by the interviewer. Laboratory tests can also be used on a sample of consumers. It includes equipment to measure physiological reactions-heart best, blood pressure, perspiration etc.


Relations..Measurement..

b. Sales–effect Research: The effect of advertising on sales is difficult to measure, however advertising and research in this direction continue to get answer to this question as best as possible. Researchers try to measure the sales impact through analyzing historical and experimental data. The historical approach involves correlating past sales to past advertising expenditures using advanced statistical techniques.


Relations..Sales Promotion: It can be in any form but it should have objectives

and tools clearly identified. Objectives for consumers may be

encouraging purchase of larger sized units, generating trials among

non-users and attracting switchers from competitors brands. Objectives

for retailers may be persuading them to carry new items and higher

levels of inventory, encouraging off-season buying, encouraging

stocking of related items, offsetting competitive promotions, building

brand loyalty, and gaining entry into new retail outlets. Objectives for

sales force may be encouraging support of a new product or model,

encouraging more prospecting and stimulating off-season sales.


Relations..Sales Promotion…

Tools for consumer promotion may be samples, coupons, cash refund

offers, price packs, gifts, purchase frequency programs, warranties,

Point-of-purchase displays and demonstrations.

Tools for Trade promotions may be price-off, allowance for advertising

or displaying to retailers or free goods of merchandise to

intermediaries who buy a certain quantity or a certain flavor or size.

Tools for Business and sales Promotion may be trade shows and

conventions, sales contests and specialty advertising through pens,

calendars, key chains, writing pads etc to identified business

audiences


Relations..

Events and Experiences: Sponsoring Events provide companies with

opportunities to obtain wider exposure for their brands, and in influencing attitudes towards brands. Objectives of events can beidentifying with a particular target market or lifestyle, increasingawareness of company or product name, creating or reinforcingperceptions of key brand image associations, enhancing corporateimage, creating experiences and evoking feelings, expressingcommitments to the community on social issues, entertaining keyclients or rewarding key employees and permitting merchandising orpromotional activities. Major sponsorship decisions are choosingevents, designing sponsorship programs and measuring sponsorshipactivities.


Relations..Public Relations: A Public is any group that has an actual or potentialinterest in or impact on a company’s ability to achieve its objectives.Public Relations (PR) involves a variety of programs designed to promote or protect a company’s image or its individual products. Thebest PR departments of professional organizations spend timecounseling top management to adopt positive programs and to eliminate questionable practices so that negative publicity does notarise in the first place. Mainly, they perform following functionsa. Relations with the press b. Publicizing product/s through sponsorship/sc. Corporate communications internally as well externally d. lobbying with legislators and government officials to promote or defeat legislation and regulation e. Counseling Management about public issues and company positions, image during good and bad times.

Managing Personal Communications: Direct and Interactive Marketing, Word of Mouth, and

Personal SellingDirect Marketing (DM): It is the use of consumer-direct

(CD) channels to reach and deliver goods and services to

customers without using marketing middlemen. Direct

marketers can use a number of channels to reach

individual prospects and customers: direct mail, catalog

marketing, telemarketing, interactive TV, kiosks, Web sites,

and mobile services. It helps in de-massifying market,

focussed targeting and reaching prospects at right time.

However, DM is criticized on grounds of its capacity to

irritate people, being unfair to them, deceptive as well as

intruding into their privacy


Personal Selling…Interactive Marketing: Marketing through internet provides

marketers and consumers with opportunities for much

greater interaction and individualization. Advantages are

customization of ad messages, instantaneous gauging of

response as well buying ad space on sites related to

Marketers offerings. However, it has disadvantages due to

consumers power to screen out communications perceived

undesirable by them.


Personal Selling…Word of Mouth: When consumers talk about products and

services through internet, it is word of mouth. Companies

use this powerful tool to their advantage by making such

talk go in their favor ultimately. Social networking sites add

lot of activity around this fast emerging marketing tool. It

gets manifested in the form of buzz, opinion leaders being

used and blogging for and on behalf of companies.

However, it requires to be in control of this tool as this word

of mouth can also become negative. In such a case,

companies have to counter this negative effect and

minimize damage due to it as fast as possible.


Personal Selling…Designing the Sales Force: The term sales representativecovers a broad range of positions. There sequencing fromthe least to the most creative is as follows:1.Deliverer is the one who mainly delivers the product/s to assigned destination2.Order taker can be inside the company taking the order on the

counter or outside the company negotiating with a distributor or shopping mall manager for order/s

3. Missionary is the one who spreads positive word of mouth about the company and does not takes any order

4. Technician who is highly sound technically and uses this knowledge to get orders and also consults clients


Personal Selling…Designing the Sales Force…

5. Demand creator is the one who uses creative inputs to sell products to clients

6. Solution vendor is the sales person who solves the client’s problem with his/her company’s products or services.

Sales Force objectives and Strategy: Objectives of Sales Force are

many and these depend upon the situations in which a sales person is

with respect to different orders. These can be prospecting, targeting,

communicating, selling, Servicing, collecting useful information

from market and allocating resources.


Personal Selling…Designing the Sales Force…

Sales Force Structure

Strategy will guide the structure. A company that

sells one product line to one end-using industry

with customers in many locations would use a

territorial structure. A Company that sells many

products to many types of customers might need a

product or market structure.


Personal Selling…Designing the Sales Force…Sales Force Size It can be determined on the basis of workload approach.1. Customers are grouped into size classes according to annual sales

volume.2. Desirable call frequencies (number of calls on an account per year) are

established for each class.3. This call frequency is multiplied with its corresponding number of

accounts generating the total number of sales calls in the whole year for the country.

4. The average number of sales call a representative can make in a year is determined separately.

5. Output of 3 is divide by output of 4 to get the number of sales representatives for the market in the whole year.


Personal Selling…Designing the Sales Force… Sales Force Compensation: On the one hand, sales repswant income regularity, extra reward for above averageperformance and fair payment for experience andlongevity.On the other hand, management wants control, economyand simplicity. We do find conflicts at times and at times, itappears very smooth sailing. Compensation to salespeople should involve a fixed amount (salary), a variableamount (commissions, bonus, profit sharing etc), expense allowances( expenses involved in traveling andentertaining) and benefits( paid vacations, sickness oraccident benefits,pensions, and life insurance etc)


Personal Selling…Managing the Sales ForceRecruiting and Selecting RepresentativesIt requires to assess the requirement of sales reps in numbers as well as qualities required etc. It also callsupon the company to develop its selection criteria.In recruitment, the human resources wing of the companyseeks applicants by soliciting names from current sales reps, using employment (placement) agencies, advertisingin media and contacting college students.


Personal Selling…Managing the Sales Force…Training and Supervising Sales RepresentativesIn order to have deep product knowledge, helping customer’s use products more effectively besides beingefficient and reliable, new sales reps need to be trainedand supervised. Depending upon the products to be handled, markets to be covered and the complexity ofselling task, this training is imparted.Sales Rep productivity can be increased by creatingnorms about calls for prospects, using sales time mostefficiently when time also gets spent in many non-salesrelated work.


Personal Selling…Managing the Sales Force…Motivating Sales RepresentativesSales reps usually work alone, have irregular work hours, besides being away from home most of the time. They aremost of the times at receiving ends of their buyers and theyalso do not posses the necessary authority to win order/s. Also, it happens at times that inspite of hardwork, they donot get the order. All this makes them highly de-motivated from time to time. Management needs to have them continuously motivatedto ward off such de-motivation regularly.


Personal Selling…Managing the Sales Force…Motivating Sales Representatives….To keep motivation at a high level, marketers re-inforce intrinsic and extrinsic rewards of all types. The differentrewards are pay hike, promotion, performance basedincentives, personal growth and sense of accomplishment.However, other rewards also include liking and respect,security and recognition. Company has to see that what motivates whom aseverything will not motivate everyone. This differentialmotivational plan is difficult to administer but than nothing iseasy as motivation is concerned.


Personal Selling…Managing the Sales Force…Evaluating Sales RepresentativesSales reps are evaluated on the basis of the informationavailable on their performance. The major source of information are sales reports.Additional info comes through personal information,salesperson self reports, customer letters andcomplaints, customer surveys and conversations withother sales reps. A Formal evaluation is also done on the various figures related to a particular salesperson


Personal Selling…Principles of Personal Selling

Selling one’s product through personal interaction is

personal selling. Companies spend millions of dollars each

year to train sales people in the art of selling. Through

these training, salesperson gets transformed from a

passive order taker into an active order getter who engages

in customer problem solving.


Personal Selling…Principles of Personal Selling….Steps in Personal Selling1. Prospecting and qualifying : It requires to identify and qualify

prospects. Many Companies get it done so that sales people concentrate on real selling.

2. Pre-approach: It goes into preparing for association with the prospect company through finding it various details, setting call objectives, info gathering, best contact method/s.

3. Presentation and Demonstration: It involves story telling about the co product and relating it to features, advantages, benefits and values to the prospect.


Personal Selling…Principles of Personal Selling….4. Overcoming objections: Customers usually have two types of

objections viz., Psychological and logical. 5. Closing: Now the salesperson attempts to close the sale by

using several techniques. Asking for the order, reworking the points of agreement, indicating that the buyer may lose something if order is not given now etc.

6. Follow-up and maintenance. With the order taken and delivery committed, salesperson should establish necessary details like delivery time, purchase terms, and other matters that are important to the customer. Salesperson should continue follow up and maintenance requirements regularly.


Personal Selling…Principles of Personal Selling….Negotiation In negotiated exchange, price and other terms are set via bargaining behavior. Here two or more parties negotiatelong-term binding agreements. Price is the mostfrequently negotiated issue, but other issues which getnegotiated are contract completion time, quality of goods and services offered, purchase volume,responsibility for financing, risk taking, promotion, titleownership and product safety.


Personal Selling…Principles of Personal Selling….Relationship MarketingIn many cases, the company is not seeking an immediate sale, but rather to build a long term supplier-customerrelationship. Here the company demonstrates that it hasthe capabilities to serve the account’s needs in a superiorway. However, relationship marketing has emerged as avery strong tool for long term business and professionalrelationships, it is not effective in all situations.The company has to judge as to which segments andwhich specific customers will respond positively torelationship marketing.

Sources:-

• Koshy and kotler,Marketing Management.