Marketing communication: principles and practice

I N T R O D U C T I O N
3
Religion
Art
Politics
Economy
Literature
Scholarship
Technology
Science
Cognitive (descriptive)
orientation
Normative (prescriptive)
orientation
Expressive
orientation
Instrumental
orientation
Figure 1.2
The place of marketing in societal culture: the cultural value system
Source
: Rosengren, 1999, Figure 3.1

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Thus, while management and the management of marketing have an
instrumental character, they cannot be properly understood as standing
divorced from other ways of living.
MARKETING, CONSUMPTION, AND
COMMUNICATION
Consumerism is the production, distribution, desiring, obtaining, owning,
and using of 
symbolic
products. Consumption does not only satisfy material
longing for food and wealth. Symbols are manipulated for a host of reasons.
For the person, consuming constructs identity, the self, and relationships
with others (see Box 1.1). For society, consumption sustains the continuing
existence of institutions, groups, and other such structures.
Certain conditions are necessary for an exchange to take place. Each party
must:
• have something valued by the other
• be capable of communicating about the offering
• be capable of making the offering available
• believe that it is appropriate or desirable to trade with the other party
• value the offered benefits sufficiently to offset the efforts and risks involved
in the exchange.
Marketing communication is like a coin – it has two sides:
1
The offer
(expression): One part of marketing communication is
concerned with effectively and efficiently providing information about
the business and the products to chosen customer groups. But in isolation,
what to say and to whom can be nothing more than a risky second-guessing
about the interests and allegiances of other people. The answer, to
paraphrase Stephen Covey (1989), is first to seek to understand before
seeking to be understood.
2
The inquiry
(impression): This part of the marketing communication
task is concerned with learning from others about their interests and values,
and relating this to the interests of the people working in the business. This
action should logically precede the promotion of a point of view on product
desirability and related consumer satisfaction.