Marketing communication: principles and practice

chapter 
seven
THE MARKETING MIX
AS SOCIAL
COMMUNICATOR
LEARNING POINTS
Careful study of this chapter will help you to:
• consider some important aspects of managing marketing communication
• learn about the various facets of a product offering that are attended to by
managers, and by buyers and consumers
• re-examine the marketing mix in a more holistic manner that identifies
marketing’s social functions
• encourage a shift in thinking of marketing communication as mass
communication to a more relationship-oriented style

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possible actions, and judgements on the objectives, interactions, and restric-
tions of a range of available tools for accomplishing marketing and business
goals. Instead of limiting our thinking about marketing communication to a
set of promotional activities, as is usually the case, we can think of the entire
marketing mix as communicative in pursuing exchanges of value that match
needs with capabilities to provide.
Marketing communication is an invention for the purpose of bringing about
exchanges of value that are beneficial to people. The framework provides a
range of logically connected activities for the generation and expression of
knowledge in a variety of forms. Marketing communication is ultimately
about the purposeful trading of ideas.
The aim is to bring two of what Vickers would explain as appreciative
systems (see chapter three) together to interact in striving to accomplish the
satisfaction of their respective needs. Thus two parties will apprehend aspects
of their environment, interpret the data into information that has meaning
for them, make a judgement, and decide how to act. The – what is usually
termed – ‘market research’ is, to some degree, a systematic effort to learn
about a situation in terms of needs as motivators, alternative ways of satisfying
those needs, and relationships as the context for need-satisfying action.
Persuasion then is intended to influence beneficially the consumption and
purchase activity.
We recognize that marketing communication can be observed from two
perspectives. From the provider’s point-of-view, they can deploy various 
tools in an effort to intervene in the consumption and purchase behaviour of
those with whom an exchange relationship is, or various reasons, desirable.
From the consumer/purchaser’s perspective, marketing communication 
is a way of expressing their motivation to fulfil their needs, as well as one 
of a number of sources of data to be selectively interpreted, judged, and 
acted upon.
Each party takes into account his/her own needs and the likely motives and
actions of the other, to some degree, in