Marketing communication: principles and practice

Figure 15.3
The classification of buyer awareness levels
Build brand equity
Communication activities are used to reinforce
brand values and identity. This encourages
stronger band preference and can strengthen
trading relationships in a competitive situation
Provide information
Detail product uses, availability, incentives for
purchase, technical specification, and so on
Manage demand
Stimulate demand for new and innovative
products, boost sales of mature products, or
dampen demand for out-of-stock items
Differentiate and position
Emphasize significant factors of difference, and
position relative to competing offers
Influence attitudes and 
Promote favourable thinking about a product 
behaviour
and encourage some resulting action
Figure 15.4
Marketing communication goals

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•
behaviour
change: to urge adoption or abandonment of a routine way of
doing something
•
value
change: to convince of the value of certain actions or conditions in
the environment
Further, marketing communication systems should facilitate the keeping of
the promise(s) made to customers and other buyers/consumers. Especially
in service environments, front-line customer contact people are a vital source
of intelligence on preferences, likes and dislikes, competitor offerings, and
so on – direct from customers. 
COMMUNICATION STRATEGY
A marketing strategy is essentially a design for the use of the marketing mix
for selected markets: customers, consumers, and buyers. A marketing
communication strategy is that element of the marketing plan that provides
the communication systems to enable and facilitate the planning, imple-
mentation, and control of the marketing system. A communication strategy
is a design for enabling and facilitating appropriate forms of interaction,
relationship, and so on. 
There is much more to human communication than promotional messages.
Vickers (1984) distinguished seven overlapping and coexisting ascending levels
of trust and shared appreciation (see Figure 15.5 and the discussion in earlier
chapters). This is a taxonomy that can be applied to many marketing situations,
when the practices of one party dominate the other person.
We can, with some thought here, identify several levels at which the
marketing system must be effectively communicative. For example, apart
from outright violence and threat, an interaction between ‘marketers’ could
aim to reach a bargain (exchange), inform, persuade, argue, or dialogue.
Of course, both consumer/buyer and provider, each as marketer, will have
a communication objective and strategy (even if only implicit). A householder
receives a telephone call and answers some questions about various products.
They buy some products later in the week. There is a dialogue. Each purchase
is a message to the producer and supplier. The provider advertises, promotes,
distributes, and displays. The consumer answers back by buying or not buying
the various product options (prices, sizes, brands, etc.). The consumer or
buyer can communicate with the producer by answering questions in a survey
or by asking questions or making complaints. The provider then responds
by creating new products and modifying the others.