DISCUSSION FORUM 6 

: COMMUNICATIONS
A major problem facing marketing managers is how to allocate their marketing
communication budgets, for both traditional and digital media, in order to improve consumer
attitudes, market shares, sales, and profits. In addition, managers are subject to organizational
realities which include political and historical influences. With this in mind, respond to the
following in the Discussion:

 What factors would you consider when making marketing communication and budget
allocation decisions?
 How do these factors relate to the relative allocations between advertising and sales
promotion?

Allocating marketing budget stands as a very important decision to make by marketing

managers since there is a large array of tools to chose for the purpose. Sometimes the
expected goals are not reached. “I know that half of my advertising is wasted, but I don’t
know which half.” - John Wanamaker (the Department Store Magnate) This can be seen in
the passage below : «  A marketing manager from one company might decide to focus on
social media, whereas a marketing manager from another company might decide to focus her
company’s efforts on television commercials. » The communication mix provides an
approach designed to deliver one consistent message to buyers through an organization’s
promotions that may span all different types of media such as TV, radio, magazines, the
Internet, mobile phones, professional selling, and social media. With that in mind then the
budget can be prepared accordingly. The promotion mix takes into account the following
factors :
The budget available as it impacts the scope and frequency of the advertising, the stage in the
product life cycle since it also affects the type and amount of promotion used. Type of product
and type of purchase decision. Different types of products will have types of promotion
differing from one to another. Target market characteristics and consumers’ readiness to
purchase. In order to select the best methods to reach different target markets, organizations
need to know what types of media different targets use, how often they make purchases,
where they make purchases, and what their readiness to purchase is as well as characteristics
such as age, gender, and lifestyle. Consumers’ preferences for various media as different
types of consumers will prefer different types of media. Regulations, competitors, and
environmental factors. Regulations can affect the type of promotion used. For example, laws
in the United States prohibit tobacco products from being advertised on television. After all
these, there is the availability of media. Organizations must also plan their promotions based
on availability of media. Regarding the allocation of budget, there are four common methods
used by companies to decide on the communications budget. These are the affordable method,
the percentage-of-sales method, the competitive parity method, and the objective-and-task
method.
These factors relate to the relative allocations between advertising and sales promotion in the
sense that they both contribute to boost the sales of the products advertised or in promotion. If
there is neither advertising nor promotion the produc twill simply die.
References :
Principles of marketing. (2015). University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing. 
Mihir Dash*, Krishna K. Havaldar**, Jacob Alexander. Volume 3, Issue 3 & 4, 2014.
Establishing and Allocating the Marketing Communications Budget in Indian Organisations. t
http://www.publishingindia.com