Marketing communication: principles and practice

Changes in our society
As consumers become less deferential and more proactive and discerning,
as well as more aware of alternative offerings and the ‘real’ cost of products,
marketing systems have to be both responsive and responsible. There is a
continuing move away from blanket mass media advertising to more
segmented and targeted effort, ultimately leading to one-to-one marketing
enabled by direct addressing through electronic media. Marketing has
become more professional as more managers formalize their knowledge.
Integration is becoming more recognized for its benefits and there is growing
evidence that systems and programmes organized in this fashion are
sufficiently beneficial to warrant the investment required. Consumers and
buyers are now seen as active users of communication media rather than
passive subjects. More of us are concerned with the impact of the products
we consume on the natural environment.
Changes in our economy
Rising costs of broadcast media and increased pressure on budgets require
both cost savings and increased performance. Economies of scale in media
use remains a constraint (some would argue a positive force for improvement)
on marketing communication systems. Consumers and buyers no longer
see a necessary trade-off between quality and price – reliable, high-
performance products can be obtained at low cost. Low price and high quality
are no longer differentiators on their own.
Changes in the available technology
The media for communication are proliferating and diversifying and are
usually not replacing but supplementing established media. Networks are
increasingly at least international, if not global in their reach (e.g. satellite
TV). The World WideWeb and Internet are huge webs of connected personal
computers. Software applications are themselves being integrated to provide
online data capture, data warehousing, and data mining, all of which help to
manage knowledge as the underpinning of a relationship-management
strategy.