Marketing communication: principles and practice

8
Third-party 
What other people outside the organization say about the 
messages
company and/or its products – word of mouth, opinion formers
9
People as message 
All the verbal and non-verbal signals from employees (manner, 
sources
dress, language) – intended or not
10
Passive message 
Those which were never intended to send messages to 
sources
customers, but nonetheless do so!
Figure 16.1
The 10 Ps of marketing communication planning
Source
: Based on Hart, 1995

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• Examine marketing relationships from your co-communicator’s point of
view – what does he/she need and expect? If you cannot answer these
questions, ask them!
• Appreciate how customers position your product – features, benefits, value,
etc. – if you are not sure, ask them!
• Appreciate the influence of competitors – if unsure, ask your customers
and colleagues, trade sources, etc.
• Establish communication objectives.
• Identify your resources.
• Design a balanced portfolio of appropriate marketing communication
activities (interactions).
• Monitor the performance of all subsystems.
A quick word about the traditional notion of market research is warranted
in our contemporary (communication theory) view of the marketing system
as a chain of generative, productive, and representative value-making/value-
providing processes. Market research has been viewed as the link between
the marketer and the wider public, of which consumers, some of whom
become customers, are part. Here we should extend the view: marketing
research is the preferred term for the organized activities that draw data into
the appreciative system that we call marketing. Thus, just as we saw that an
IT-supported knowledge system is needed for customer relationship
management, this system ideally also captures data about all interactions with
stakeholders, especially customers (and is not limited to only purchase acts),
and captures decisions and performance data for continuous evaluation of
the performance and the communication and marketing systems. This is an
extension of the idea of a marketing information system.