Principles of Marketing

1
Marketing Communications

Marketing Communications (MarCom)

Marketing communication (MarCom) is a fundamental and complex part of a

company’s marketing efforts. Loosely defined, MarCom can be described as
all the messages and media you deploy to communicate with the market.
Marketing communication includes advertising, direct marketing, branding,
packaging, your online presence, printed materials, PR activities, sales
presentations, sponsorships, trade show appearances and more.

Objectives:
1. Understand the importance of Marketing Communications.
2. Create and sustain demand and preference for the product.
3. Recognize how to shorten the sales cycle.

Marketing Communications

Marketing Program

A marketing program implements tactics. It is an activity with well-defined

responsibilities, deadlines and measurable results.

A marketing program generally has budget expenses tied to it and a concrete

and measurable outcome in sales units and value.
Marketing programs do not have to be media related. For example, conducting
customer needs assessment training for sales executives is a program.)

Course Module
Key factors influencing direction and promotional mix

The mix of promotional activities that you use is determined by seven central
factors.

Your market analysis will suggest the best mix of marketing communications
tools to reach the target market. Your budget will determine the total amount
you can or should spend on marketing communications.

Components of Promotional Mix

 Advertising
 Sales Force (Personal Selling)
 Sales Promotion (Internal & External)
 Public Relations
 Direct Marketing
 Trade Shows and Exhibitions
Trade shows, Conferences and Exhibitions are considered part of Sales
Promotion by some marketers and educators, are often broken out into a
separate category because they are a primary tool in B-to-B marketing.

Campaign

A promotional program is integrated through a campaign. It is a unified,

organized group of programs and promotional messages that have one
theme or central idea. You integrate the use of the various promotional
methods within this program.

Advertising

Advertising is the creation and placement of paid messages to inform

potential customers and solicit sales of your product. It can be a more long-
term approach to increasing sales than direct marketing, sales promotion, or
personal selling. It can be a One-way communication vs. two-way of personal
selling and be effective for wide target markets or narrow niches.

The medium(s) you choose depends on creativity, budget, target market,

message, cost and response desired.

Sales Force (personal selling)

Sales is still the primary method of generating leads, closing sales and
servicing accounts. Face-to-face selling is being supplemented and/or being
replaced by Telemarketing.

The key issues of sales force include:

 Sales force training
 Sales force automation
 Provision of selling aids and materials
 Sales force incentives and compensation
 Principles of Marketing
3
Marketing Communications

Sales Promotion

Sales promotion supplements advertising, public relations and personal

selling. It includes sales contests, premiums, coupons, trading stamps,
videotape presentations, POP displays, sampling, etc.
The objective externally is to motivate customers to buy now. Internally, it
motivates sales force to sell.

Elements of Sales Promotion

Public Relations

Public relations (PR) is what you get others to say about you. It involves
planting commercially significant news in the media. It is a non-direct
message about your company, product, project or event .It has great
credibility because others write it.

The goal of PR is to influence the marketplace about your company and

products. This may be sponsoring trade events, speeches, white papers,
newsletters or press releases.

Direct Marketing

Course Module
 Direct Marketing uses direct mail or email media to generate immediate,
measurable and trackable results. It uses marketing databases to track
responses and results at a customer level.

By using the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes, it

allows the placement of messages with highly targeted market segments.

Trade Shows, Events and Conferences

By definition, it is a subset of sales promotion. It is still a significantly large

part of marketing budgets and an effective way to reach your target
audience.
Some of the reasons for participation are to connect with key media players
and editors, evaluate competition, talk with customers and prospects and sell
products.

Sales Collateral

A written material represents and explains your product to potential

customers. It includes any printed material that helps close a sale i.e. data
sheets brochures, pamphlets, return cards, form letters, etc.

The issue with sales collateral is consistency. All materials should be

integrated to have the same look and feel.

Advertising and Media

Advertising Decision Process

1. Set specific advertising goals
2. Determine target audience
3. Establish budget
4. Develop message
5. Select the media type
6. Select the specific media vehicles
7. Determine media calendar
8. Evaluate performance
Elements to focus on when selecting media
 Advertising objectives
 Media circulation
 Media costs and budget
 Type of message that you will be conveying
 Timing
Types of Advertising
 Broadcast: Radio, TV
 Print: Newspapers, Magazines
 Electronic: E-mail, Banner Ads, SMS Text, etc.
 Supplements, Free Standing Inserts
 Direct Mail
 Principles of Marketing
5
Marketing Communications

 Coupon Packs, Card Decks

 Directories
 Telemarketing
 Outdoor: Billboards, Kiosks, Transit
These are the media mix components. They need to be selected based on
whom you are trying to reach, what you are trying to accomplish and how
much you have to do it with.)

The media plan should be designed to expose your product to the largest
possible segment of your target market in the most effective, efficient way.

Answer these questions when creating your media plan:

 Who do you want to reach (Right target, Missed anyone)?
 When do you want to reach them?
 Where do you want to reach them?
 How many of them do you want to reach?
 How frequently do you want to reach them?
 What media is best for reaching them?
 At what cost do you want to reach them?
 Are you spending enough in total and for each medium to be effective?
Media Strategies
 Select media with high specific market penetration.
 Schedule adequate frequency of advertisements to impact target
market.
 Position advertising in or near articles on industry, product reviews,
appropriate editorials, high visibility areas such as front cover, center
spread, above the fold, top of the email messages, etc.
 Make use of special high-interest issues, programs, websites, etc.
 Maximize ad life with frequent repetition…monthly, weekly, daily, in
selected media.
Marketing Budget

Marketing budget is an estimated projection of costs required to promote a

business' products or services. A marketing budget will typically include all
promotional costs, including marketing communications like website
development, advertising and public relations, as well as the costs of
employing marketing staff and utilizing office space.

The Four-Step Process of Building a Budget

1. Calculating transaction values and transactions
 Revenues by product or product category
 Most complicated

Course Module
  Requires rolling up a product mix and then customer mix
calculation
 Revenues by customer
 Good starting point for developing overall budget especially if
programs and offers are not defined.
2. Calculating lead requirements
 Straight forward mathematical calculation
 Start with revenue objectives - work backwards
 Based on inquiry to lead conversion rates
 General B-to-B formula
 Leads, Prospects, Hot Prospects, Closes
3. Determine lead generation tactics
 Where are the leads going to come from?
 Trade shows, outbound telemarketing, Sales force, Business
partners, direct response, etc.?
 Existing customers, new customers?
 This is the most important step in the process and the basis on
which you allocate your promotional budget.
4. Determine programs
 What, how, where and when?
 Expenses associated.
 Revenues associated.

Glossary
A budget is a quantitative expression of a financial plan for a defined period.
It may include planned sales volumes and revenues, resource quantities,
costs and expenses, assets, liabilities and cash flows. It expresses strategic
plans of business units, organizations, activities or events in measurable
terms
The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) is the
standard used by Federal statistical agencies in classifying business
establishments for the purpose of collecting, analyzing, and publishing
statistical data related to the U.S. business economy.
References
Online Supplementary Reading Materials:
1. The Marketing Process;
http://vulms.vu.edu.pk/Courses/MGT301/Lessons/Lesson_8/hando
ut%2008.pdf ; April 8, 2017
2. Marketing Budget;
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/marketing-
budget.html; April 9, 2017
3. Marketing Budget; http://www.marketingteacher.com/marketing-
budget/; April 9, 2017
Online Instructional Videos:
1. Introduction to Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC);
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQNRWF1BaTc; September 9,
2017
 Principles of Marketing
7
Marketing Communications

2. How To Allocate Your Marketing Budget;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7u0Uq3brSc; September 9,
2017
3. Marketing Communications; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U-
FDO4nCAA; September 9, 2017
Books and Journals:
1. Cynthia Zarate. (2012); Principles of Marketing; Philippines; C & E
Publishing Inc.
2. Philip Kotler, Gary Armstrong (1998); Principles of Marketing;
Australia; Pearson

Course Module