Download free eBooks at bookboon.comMarketing Communications
Fundamentals Of Communication In Marketing
1 Fundamentals Of
Communication In Marketing
MARKETING COMMUNICATION has been defined as the sharing of information, concepts, and
meanings about products, services and the organization that sell them, by the source and receiver.
A more elaborate definition is: Marketing Communication is targeted interaction with customers and
prospects using one or more media, such as direct mail, newspapers and magazines, television, radio,
billboards, telemarketing, and the Internet.
Marketing communications is essentially a part of the marketing mix. The marketing mix defines the 4Ps
of marketing, price, place, product and promotion, and Promotion is what marketing communications
is all about.
Subsisting within the marketing mix is another, the promotion mix which simply refers to the blend of
advertising, selling, public relations and sales promotion. A commonality shared by all elements of the
promotional mix is that their function is to communicate.
Before a product is positioned in the mind of a buyer, awareness must first be created through the
promotion mix to such extent that the buyer develops positive attitudes about the product or service
and the selling firm that may result in a sale being made.
From the marketing point of view, communication or the promotion mix can achieve the following
functions:
• INFORMATION: especially during the product’s introductory stage, when it is newly
introduced into the market, and the company is trying to establish primary demand.
• PERSUASION: once primary demand has been established, commercial communication
can emphasize persuasion in the struggle for brand supremacy. Selective demand for the
branded product of a seller may be built through brand names, emotional appeals, repetition,
package identification and similar devices. This is done usually at the growth stage in a
product life cycle.
• COMBINED PROMOTIONAL INFORMATION AND PERSUASION: sellers combine
information and persuasion in their promotion message, attempting to expand both primary
and selective demands at the same time. This, usually occurs when the product is in the
maturity or declining stages of their life cycle.
(Stanley, 1977; Belch and Belch, 1986)