Five Important Factors of Marketing Communications
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If you where to examine effective marketing communications, you would find that there are five important factors which contribute to a successful marketing communication strategy. Please take note that I mentioned, “effective”, as non-effective marketing communications strategies may overlook any one of the below five factors. The importance of learning and implementing the factors is to insure that your marketing communication tools that will help you succeed in your business.
Five Important Marketing Communication Factors:
Persuasion
Persuasion is considered the main factor in marketing communications. It’s the main reason companies engage in marketing: to persuade their target audience to do something such as buy their product or services, make a phone call, or donate money. When Coca-Cola airs it’s television commercials, or run its print ads, it has one goal in mind and that is to persuade its target audience that coke is the refreshing cola and that it brings the world together, so drink Coke!
Goal Directed
All marketing communication is goal oriented. Basically, you need an objective when you set out to create your marketing communication strategy. Typically, your objective is to sell your product, deliver information, or build brand awareness. One question you should ask yourself before you begin your strategy is, “What is the outcome I expect from my marketing communication?”. By asking this question, you can fundamentally establish your objective or goal.
Contact Points
Every successful marketing communications plan requires the management of the marketing message at every contact point. Contact points are any marketing messages that are received by the target audience. They can be either planned or unplanned points. Planned contact points include such things as advertisement, brochures, business cards, or packaging. Unplanned contact points can include your stores layout, the cleanliness of your store, and employees attitudes. In order to effectively persuade your target audience to buy your product or service, you must successfully manage all of your contact points to ensure that they are inline with your planned brand message.
Stakeholders
Stakeholders in marketing communications are those individuals or groups that can influence the purchase of products and services as well as the success of a company. Stakeholders can include employees, government regulators, distributors, and the media. Most companies find the group topping the stakeholders list are their own employees; the reason is that if you take care of your employees, then they will yield better customer service and a better in-store experience for the target audience. While stakeholders are not necessarily part of your planned message, they are significant enough as an unplanned conveyor of your marketing message and should be considered in your MarComm planning.
Message
The marketing communications message is either planned or unplanned. Messages are the basics of your marketing communications strategy and a variety of tools are used in order to deliver your marketing message. Some planned marketing message tools include:
- Advertising
- Collateral
- Websites
- Sales Promotions
- Public relations
- Direct marketing
- Personal selling
- P.O.P. (Point of purchase) displays
- Packaging
- Specialty items
- Sponsorships
- Customer Service
Samples of unplanned messages would include all other communications: store cleanliness, distributors, employee attitudes and even the exterior surroundings of your business.
In conclusion, marketing communications covers five important factors that must be followed if you are to be successful in your marketing efforts. The MarCom message not only includes planned messages such as advertising or direct mail campaigns, but also unplanned messages which can include employees or the physical appearance of your businesses exterior; Any potential message whether planned or unplanned, directly affects your business and should be carefully planned to insure success.
