Marketing communication: principles and practice

C O M M U N I C A T I O N S T R A T E G I E S A N D O B J E C T I V E S
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Communication about
provider’s capability
and offer
Communication about
customer needs and resources
Provider
Customer
Figure 15.1
The role of communication in marketing
BOX 15.1
COMMENT: ON NEED CREATION
Some people claim that marketers strive to create needs by developing and promoting
products that are not really needed – that a consumer culture has been created that
commends consumption and defines identities by the things we consume.
If you adopt the model of motivation we have described in chapter three, it is people
who recognize needs and seek satisfiers, not marketers who create needs. Marketers
attempt to influence the choice of goals, but goals do not motivate product purchase
unless a person believes that this will satisfy his/her need. 
Need creation is perhaps best thought of as a cooperative process.

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Wilson 
et al
. (1992) provide us with a straightforward, yet comprehensive,
framework for appreciating how we arrive at a coherent, relevant, rigorously
thought-through plan (Figure 15.2).
Note that strategy comes before tactics in this planning process. Although
much practice seems to begin with tactics and then selects objectives to pull
things together, the more professional and effective and efficient managerial
approach is to match intentions with situation and capability.
MARKETING COMMUNICATION OBJECTIVES
The basic aspects of the marketing communication strategy are, as insightfully
observed by Schultz 
et al
. (1993):
• start and end generative, productive, and representative (i.e. marketing
system) intentions, decision-making, and choice-making with the con-
sumer or buyer – they need a buying incentive and responsive and
responsible points of contact
• work to establish a relationship – loyal customers are cooperative
antagonists who themselves will bargain, inform, persuade, argue, and
dialogue – this is to be encouraged and facilitated
• differentiate the brand (i.e. the product–provider offer) by establishing
rapport, empathy, and dialogue