The concept of marketing communications is little knowna wide range of managers. Although marketing communications have been developing for more than sixty years. The main task of applying this approach is the need to systematize the management of marketing functions in commercial organizations.
Marketing communications is a process of managementpromotion of goods and services throughout the process, before sale, directly during purchase, during consumption and after it. Systems of such communications are developed individually for a certain market segment. These systems contain mechanisms for the transfer of information to customers, as well as the possibility of feedback from the buyer to the seller. Analysis of marketing communications carried out with the help of such feedback allows you to evaluate the effectiveness of marketing investments and the campaign as a whole.
Schematic diagram on which to depictMarketing communications can be drawn from seven main stages. And with the fallout, some of them will negatively affect the quality and effectiveness of the information campaign.
Let's consider each of the stages separately.
The first stage is the definition of the target audience and its analysis.
Wrong choice and definition of targetaudience leads to one of the most expensive mistakes in marketing. Since the audience is always represented by a wide variety of groups of different in directions and preferences, the mistake in choosing leads to a reference to the group of consumers of which your product is simply not interesting. For example, when advertising expensive cosmetics publication even in the central newspaper of such ads will not bring much success, than if you focus on advertising this group of goods in expensive boutiques and beauty salons.
Here you can also include analysis of the target audience. It is usually carried out in advance. This approach allows you to identify those groups that are most suitable for your product or service.
The next stage, without which marketing communications will not have a complete system, are the goals of such communication.
After the marketer has determined the appropriatethe segment of the market and its characteristics should further form an understanding of what ultimately needs to be achieved from the audience. Among the most common goals in marketing are: winning sympathy among visitors, gaining recognition of your brand, informing the audience about goods and services, which will subsequently create a demand for them, achieve such a position in the market when customers give preference to your product, and not similar to those produced by your competitors, etc.
The next step is to determine the budget of marketing communications.
This is one of the most important tasks.The most common methods for determining the budget are the methods of fixing the sales volumes in percent, the evaluation of opportunities, the method of goals and objectives, as well as the method of matching competitors.
Then, at the next stage of marketing communications, the time comes for making a decision on the means of promoting the goods.
Under such means understand the way, with the help ofwhich is delivered to customers (consumers) directly to the target audience. It can be a different kind of advertising, or various PR-technologies.
After this comes the stage of sales promotion.
This stage includesvarious actions, lotteries, offers of sales and discounts of various types. Such approaches noticeably revive consumers, which leads to a significant increase in demand for a product or service in the short term.
The next stage of marketing communications is direct marketing and personal sales.
This stage provides for direct and personalcommunication of the seller with the buyer. It is not only in the form of live communication, as well as to such communication, it is possible to include correspondence with potential buyers, communication via communication lines (Internet, TV, telephone). However, often at this stage, there may be consumer rejection of goods. Since when receiving various letters and notifications that the buyer is imposed, they do not often cause irritation in the buyers, which is why recently such actions are related to spam and an active struggle has been launched with them.
Well, the last stage is the creation of information messages.
This stage is the crown of the previous ones.After all, from the informativeness and availability of such messages, the consumer will either buy your product or on the contrary avoid it. To do this, there are entire scientific institutes that deal with the impact of information on the consumer for commercial purposes.
Thus, marketing communications is a whole complex of measures and methods that are aimed at the speedy promotion of goods through information technology.
