Marketing Communication: Objective of Marketing Communication

The Marketing Communication refers to the means adopted by the companies to convey
messages about the products and the brands they sell, either directly or indirectly to the
customers with the intention to persuade them to purchase.

In other words, the different medium that company adopts to exchange the information about
their goods and services to the customers is termed as Marketing Communication.

The marketer uses the tools of marketing communication to create the brand awareness among
the potential customers, which means some image of the brand gets created in their minds that
help them to make the purchase decision.

Marketing communication offer solutions to the following questions:

 Why shall the product be used?

 How can the product be used?
 Who can use the product?
 Where can the product be used? And
 When can the product be used?

Marketing communication includes Advertising, Sales Promotion, Events and Experiences

(sponsorship), Public Relations and Publicity, Direct Marketing, Interactive Marketing, Word-of-
Mouth Marketing, Personal Selling. These tools of communication are collectively called as
Marketing Communication Mix.

Objective of Marketing Communication

Marketing communication objectives are long-term goals where marketing campaigns are
intended to drive up the value of your brand over time. In contrast to sales promotions, which are
short-term inducements to buy, communication goals succeed when you persuade customers
through consistent reinforcement that your brand has benefits they want or need.

(i) To Increase Awareness

Increased brand awareness is not only one of the most common marketing communication
objectives; it is also typically the first for a new company. When you initially enter the market,
you have to let people know your company and products or services exist.

This might include broadcast commercials or print ads that depict the image of your company
and constant repetition of your brand name, slogans and jingles. The whole objective is to
become known and memorable.

Established companies often use a closely related goal of building or maintaining top- of-mind
awareness, which means customers think of you first when considering your product category.
(ii) To Change Attitudes

Changing company or brand perceptions is another common communication objective.

Sometimes, misconceptions develop in the market about your company, products or services.

Advertising is a way to address them directly. In other cases, negative publicity results because
your company is involved in a business scandal or unsettling activities.

BP invested millions of rupees in advertising to explain the company’s clean up efforts to the
public following its infamous Gulf of Mexico oil in mid-2010. Local businesses normally don’t
have that kind of budget but local radio or print ads can do the trick.

(iii) To Influence Purchase Intent

A key communication objective is to motivate customers to buy. This is normally done through
persuasive advertising, which involves emphasis of your superior benefits to the user, usually
relative to competitors. It is critical to strike a chord with the underlying need or want that
triggers a customer to act.

Sports drink commercials showing athletes competing, getting hot and sweaty and then taking a
drink afterward are a common approach to drive purchase intent. The ads normally include
benefits of the drink related to taste or nutrients.

(iv) To stimulate Trial Purchase

Two separate but closely related communication objectives are to stimulate trial use and drive
repeat purchases. Free trials or product samples are common techniques to persuade customers to
try your product for the first time. The goal is to take away the risk and get the customer to
experience your brand.

Once you get them on the first purchase, you have to figure out how to convert that into a follow-
up purchase. Discounts on the next purchase or frequency programs are ways to turn one-time
users into repeat buyers and, ultimately, loyal customers.

(v) To Drive Brand Switching

Another objective closely tied to stimulating trial use is driving brand switching. This is a
specific objective of getting customers who buy competing products to switch to your brand.
Tide detergent is normally pitted against “other leading brands” in comparative ads intended to
motivate brand switching.

The advantage with this goal is that customers already buy within your product category. This
means need is established. You just need to persuade them that your product or service is
superior and induce them to try it out.
Developing Effective Communication
All marketing communications or advertising for your small business, whether delivered in
person, through promotions, or via traditional media, direct mail, or e-mail, need to accomplish
the same tasks:

 Impart information the prospect wants to know.

 Grab attention.
 Present offers that are sensitive to how and when the prospect wants to take action.
 Affirm why the prospect would want to take action.
 Offer a reason to take action.
 Launch a relationship, which increasingly means fostering interaction and two-way
communication between you and your customer.

1) Identifying the Target Audience:

Even for the same product, the target audience may be different in different countries. For
example, certain consumer durables, which are used even by the low-income groups in the
advanced countries, may be used only by high-income groups in the developing countries. In
several cases the need satisfaction by the product varies between markets.

 Who marketers target will dictate?

 What is to say or convey?
 How it should be say?
 When it should be say?
 And where it should be say?

2) Determining Communication Objectives:

The communication objectives may also be different in some cases. For example, when the
product is in the introduction stages in a market, the emphasis of communication could be on
consumer education and creation of primary demand. In a market where the product is at other
stages of the life cycle, the communication objectives would be different.

3) Determining the Message:

The decisions regarding the message content, message structure, message format and message
source are influenced by certain environmental factors like cultural factors and legal factors. The
differences in the environmental factors among the countries may, therefore, call for different
messages so as to be appropriate for each market. In this stage companies need to focus on:

 Message Content
 Message Structure and
 Message Format
4) Budget Decisions:

The size of the total promotional expenditure and the apportioning of this amount to the different
elements of the promotion mix are very important but difficult decisions.

5) Communication Tools / Mix Decisions:

The promotion decisions faced by export marketing management can be reduced to the
following:

i) What messages?

ii) What communications media?

iii) How much effort or money to spend?

6) Feedback of communication Strategy

After all, above steps and implementing the communication strategy then companies need to get
feedback and response from targeted audience. Monitoring and feedback provide a continuous
improvement process. So marketers should regularly measure and monitor the effectiveness of
marketing communication strategy and make changes as needed.

Channel Strategy and design

Marketing channels are set of mutually dependent organizations involved in the process of
making product or service available for utilization. It is established in academic studies that
Marketing channels are the means by which goods and services are made available for use by the
customers. All goods go through channels of distribution, and marketing will depend on the way
goods are distributed. The direction that the product takes on its way from production to the
consumer is imperative because a marketer must choose which channel is best for his particular
product. It can be said that channel is the link between manufactures and purchasers. Decisions
about the marketing channel system are decisive for management.

The marketing channels chosen by marketers influence all other marketing decisions. The firm’s
sales force and advertising decisions depend on how much training and inspiration dealers need.
Further, channel decisions involve comparatively long-term commitments to other firms. Holistic
marketers guarantee that marketing decisions in all these different areas are made to jointly
maximize value.
Channel of distribution (Marketing channel)

In current competitive climate, big companies are using hybrid channels in any one area. The
firm must choose how much effort is needed to assign to push versus pull marketing. A push
strategy uses the manufacturer’s sales force and trade promotion to encourage intermediaries to
carry, promote, and sell the product to customers. This is suitable where there is low brand
loyalty in a category, brand choice is made in the store, the product is desired item, and product
benefits are well understood. In a pull strategy, the manufacturer uses advertising and promotion
to influence customers to ask intermediaries for the product, thus inducing the intermediaries to
order it. This is suitable when there is high brand loyalty and high involvement in the category,
people perceive differences between brands, and people choose the brand before they shop. A
marketing channel executes the work of moving products from producers to consumers, beat the
time, place, and possession gaps that separate goods and services from those who need or want
them.

Channel level: The producer and the final customer are part of every channel. There are
numerous channels by which goods and services are distributed. It is divided into direct and
indirect channel. In direct channel also known as zero-level channel, manufacturer and customer
deal directly with each other. There is no middleman in this channel. It consists of a producer
selling directly to final customers through door-to-door sales, Internet selling, mail order,
telemarketing, home parties, TV selling, manufacturer-owned stores, and other methods.

In indirect channel, companies manufacture products in huge scale and sell these products to
middle man for example whole seller and retailers. This channel can be very expensive.

Manufacturer to Customer: Manufacturer produces the goods and sells them to the customer
directly with no mediator, such as a wholesaler, agent or retailer. Goods come from the
manufacturer to the user without an intermediary.

Manufacturer to Retailer to Consumer: Purchases are made by the seller from the manufacturer
and then the retailer sells the products to the consumer. This channel is used by manufacturers
that specialize in producing shopping goods.
Manufacturer to Wholesaler to Customer: Consumers can buy directly from the wholesaler. The
wholesaler breaks down bulk packages for resale to the consumer. The wholesaler reduces some
of the cost to the consumer such as service cost or sales force cost, which makes the purchase
price cheaper for the consumer.

Manufacturer to Agent to Wholesaler to Retailer to Customer: This type of distribution involves

more than one intermediary involves an agent called in to be the middleman and help with the
sale of the goods. An agent receives a commission from the producer. Agents are useful when
products or services need to move rapidly into the market soon after the order is placed.

Market channels by which goods and services are distributed

Characteristics of Marketing Channels

Link between Producer and Consumer.

Flow of Goods

Remuneration.

Classification-Direct and Indirect.

Activities- Financing, Credit Facility

It is important to consider some factors when choosing appropriate marketing channel such as
product, market, company. It is observed that middle man plays vital role in distribution of
product in market channel. The core responsibility of intermediaries is to deliver products to
customers in their desired location. To accomplish this objective, they purchase goods and store
these and then ship to customers.

Marketing channel function performed by middleman.

Designing a Marketing Channel System

Designing a marketing channel system entails factors such as analysing customer needs,
establishing channel objectives, identifying major channel alternatives, and evaluating major
channel alternatives.

Analysing Customers’ Desired Service Output Levels: The marketer must recognize the service
output levels which its target customers want. Channels produce five service outputs:

1. Lot size: The number of units the channel allows a particular customer to buy at one time.
 2. Waiting and delivery time: The average time consumers of that channel wait for receipt
of the goods. Customers generally prefer fast delivery channels.
3. Spatial convenience: The extent to which the marketing channel facilitate for customers
to obtain the product.
4. Product variety: The variety provided by the channel. Usually, consumers prefer a greater
collection, which enhances the chance of finding what they need.
5. Service backup: The add-on services such as credit, delivery, installation, repairs
provided by the channel.

Providing greater service outputs denotes increased channel costs and higher prices for
consumers. The triumph of discount resellers (online and offline) designates that many
consumers will accept lower outputs if they can save money.

Establishing Objectives and Constraints

Another factor in designing a marketing channel system is that marketers must declare their
channel objectives in terms of targeted service output levels. In competitive conditions, channel
institutions should coordinate their functional tasks to reduce total channel costs and still offer
desired levels of service outputs. Generally, planners can recognize several market segments that
want different service levels. Successful planning needs to determine which market segments to
serve and the best channels for each. Channel objectives differ with product characteristics.
Channel design is also affected by numerous environmental factors as competitors’ channels,
monetary conditions, and legal regulations and limitations.