Marketing Communication Mix

Marketing Communication Tools

Being a marketing communications major and having a passion for the field, I'm deciding to write on the marketing communication mix because I love learning about each of these tools and how the 5 different tools are used in different businesses and products.  

 Marketing is a very broad business function that includes product research and development, merchandising and distribution processes and pricing, as well as communication or promotion. The communication mix refers to specific methods used to promote the company or its products to targeted customers. 

In order to communicate effectively in the marketing industry, we use tools that help us advertise and promote a business or product.  

Which tools are most effective when it comes a specific company or product?

The 5 major communication tools:

• Advertising
• Sales Promotion
• Personal Selling
• Public Relations
• Direct Marketing

Each of these tools is used in a creative way for marketing purposes and for a company to achieve their objectives.  

Advertising

Advertising is a form of marketing communication that is used to persuade or encourage an audience to take action.  It is often the most prominent element of the communication mix.  Advertising includes messages a business pays to deliver through a medium to reach a target audience.     

• Reaches large number of audience
• Builds brand image 
• One-way communication 
• Expensive 

Sales Promotion 

Sales promotions are short-term incentives to encourage the purchase or sale of a product/service.  They are very similar to advertising, but sales promotions involve offering a discounted price to a buyer such as a coupon, percent off deals or rebates.  This involves outdoor signs.  The reason for this is to increase revenue and attract new customers or clearing out inventory. 

• Targeted at the trade or ultimate consumer 
• Premiums, coupons, contests
• Attracts attention
• Offers strong purchase incentives

I have a personal experience with this tool at my internship through a golf course.  I was working the beverage cart and in 2014, we switched from Coke product to Pepsi products, so we created sales promotion and had percent off all Coke products to get rid of the inventory we had. 

Personal Selling

Personal Selling is a presentation by a company's sales team for the purpose of making sales and building strong customer relationships.  Personal selling is often times used more by companies that sell higher end products or services because it requires more assertive efforts to persuade customers to buy and take action.  

• Most expensive of the tools
• Most effective for building buyers preferences and actions
• Personal interaction 
• Relationship oriented 

Public Relations

Public Relations (PR) is the concept of building up a good "corporate image" by obtaining favorable publicity and handing off unfavorable rumors, stories and various events.  PR is somewhat similar to advertising; however, the major difference is that you don't pay for PR like you do for advertising.  There is also a downside of Public Relations.. you don't always get to control the messages, you can influence them but media often times can put a negative spin on the story; where as in advertising, you pay for a space and you get to choose what the ad says.  

• Very credible and believable 
• Various forms: news stories, news features, events & sponsorships
• Dramatizes company or product
• Usually inexpensive  

Direct Marketing

Direct Marketing is communication that targets individual consumers to obtain a response and create long lasting customer relationships.  Direct marketing also includes parts of sales promotion and personal selling.  E-mail and direct mail are common formats of messages that target a consumer.  Some examples of direct marketing include online or print surveys, infomercials, and mail-order clubs.  

• Direct mail, telephone marketing, online marketing 
• Immediate, interactive, customized 
• Suited to high-targeted marketing 
• Non-public 

Cyber Marketing

Cyber Marketing

Cyber marketing is a technique of attracting potential customers by advertising products or services through such means as websites, emails, and banners.  Cyber marketing is a combination of internet technology and also the principles of direct marketing that's endorsed by business owners to find customers to interact with their business.  Many activities that are involved in marketing online are call center direct marketing, mobile phone marketing, and also fax direct marketing.  Lots of benefits come from cyber marketing; such as minimizing business costs and communicating with customers, whether that being with local, national, or international.  

Example right from my Facebook page

The common most example of cyber marketing that sticks out to me is the banners that are posted on specific websites, such as Facebook.  The online stores I shop at will post advertisements on the side of Facebook that I am interested in.  I will shop online at Vineyard vines, and on Facebook, there will be an ad for the store, promoting new products.  In ones opinion, this can be a good or bad way to market a company.  It get's the attention of the consumer, but also can bother them because ads that pop up on every website that someone visits gets a bit annoying.

Another example is e-mail, I receive tons of emails that are just junk, most of the time they're from stores that I shop at, sending out coupons for their store, or promoting their newest product. The company is trying to market their products over email, GREAT!  Except I hate getting junk email, don't we all?!  

A very significant asset of cyber marketing is that it empowers you to win a profitable amount of customers, increases customer loyalty, low market costs, high profit margin and also 24/7 services.  This is significant because it's the most effective way to target a consumer.  Customer loyalty is very important; it shows that you have integrity toward someone and that you care about him or her.  Customers are always first!  For example, I work at a golf course; our website is very user friendly, has great resources, and access 24/7.  Each year we do an article on the golf course, what's happening around the course for the season and send it out to people, along with updates weekly about the golf course too.  This form of marketing helps us keep in contact with the customers and also hopes to bring business to the facility.  

The marketing world is big for competing to get consumers, and it all comes down to whom your target audience is.  Cyber marketing is a great way to target those customers because our world is so digital now, and it is the most cost efficient and affective way there is.  

Advertising (Shaping or Mirroring)

Does Advertising Shape or Simply Mirror Society?  

Advertising generally communicates with consumers to be persuaded to purchase a product.  Studies have shown that the average American sees up to 3,500 ads on average per day.  With that being said, one could agree that advertising shapes society due to the fact of how much we see of it every day!  On another end, advertising is mirroring our society and reflecting the opinions that a consumer already has.  

Shaping Society

In general, advertising generates sales for a company and creates brand equity.  Big time companies spend millions of dollars on advertising each year and it only creates wealth and increases market share.  Advertising can also increase the current number of people who buy their product or services. It is often up to the consumer to decide whether the ad for the company is good or bad.  It can also be indicated that advertising tends to affect us in a significant way because our mines are immune to the message that the is being displayed.
 I think advertisements influence the way we think, the way we act, and how we view the world because of the consistent recurrence to lose weight, be sexy or drink in order to fit the hegemonic standards of masculine and feminism.  

This dove ad really puts things into perspective about how the models in the magazine really look, not air brushed or edited.  It ends with a quote that couldn't be truer.  "No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U

Examples

I have been a golfer since I was in the 7th grade and my family and I have always been a huge fan of Tiger Woods.  He's an outstanding golfer, has had a great family, and inspirers millions.  After the scandal, I realized he isn't that great of a person and doesn't really interact with fans; he just plays golf and plays to win.  Granted, I will always be a Tiger fan, however, I read a lot of PGA magazines and Phil does a lot of "giving back" and donating to charities.  (If you're into golf or the PGA, you know that most Tiger fans are not Phil fans.)  He would shape a typical person because of the clothes he particularly wears or the clubs he hits, hallways.  One thing that really inspires me about athletes is not only how good they are at their profession, but who they are as a person.  Phil comes off as a great person who is always smiling, supports all kinds of charities and also is a big family person.  It really changes my perspective on how I feel and whom I really admire as a golfer on the PGA tour.

Mirroring Society 

It has been argued lately that advertisements mirrors and adapts societal trends.  Take technology and social media for example.  Technology services and social media is a huge trend in today’s society and only increase everyday.  Facebook was created back in 2004, but has time proceeded, new things have come out, and there will always be a next best thing.  A study showed that of the 1.8 billion people in the world who access the Internet daily, about 400 million have an operating Facebook account and over 50% of them use it daily.  This leads to digital advertising and how companies quickly found a new way to connect and market with different people.  Things such as digital tools are big necessities for communication in lives today whether its for personal use or business/professional use, that being said, advertisers around the world have to alter and mirror society in order to stay suitable to the consumer.

Examples

A couple things come to mind when thinking of advertisements how they mirror myself.  Being as active as I am and going to the gym regularly, advertisements for businesses like snap and anytime fitness mirror me because I am motivated to workout.  If someone who doesn't workout and is lazy, an advertisement or commercial for an athletic club that has a limited time coupon or offer might persuade them in that direction.

Smoking advertisements can also be very powerful in ones opinion.  With being a person who is anti-smoking, advertisements for cigarettes mirror me in the way that I am against them and it reflects my opinion that I have on cigarettes.  A quick side face that I found very interesting:  according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2011, tobacco companies spent $8.4 billion on advertising and promoting the product and tobacco use causes more than 5 million deaths each year.

This anti smoking ad I find very powerful!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfAxUpeVhCg

Advertising is such a great and effective way to promote a product or company, but in the end it all depends on if it meets the expectations and needs of the consumer.  Different consumers have different experiences and beliefs about products and can change over time.  If advertisers adapted to different societies, then most definitely ads are mirroring our society rather than shaping.