Task Two December 2010 – Marketing and Consumer Behaviour
Importance of Marketing Communications: Briefing Paper
To: Cross-functional team leaders
From: Marketing Manager
Date: November 2010
1. Introduction
Company X has a significant investment in electronic published resources and these are surfaced through AAA website for use internally by R&D staff.
This briefing paper provides an overview of the importance of marketing communications to enable cross-functional team leaders to increase their knowledge of the activities of AAA marketing group.
2. Purpose of marketing communications
Marketing communications provides a mechanism by which customers and potential customers of AAA become aware of its products and services. Once customers are Aware, further communications can be used to generate Interest or Desire for the products resulting in Action (AIDA). Specific communications are dependent on where the product is in the “product life cycle”: pre-launch; introduction; growth; maturity; decline (Brassington and Pettitt, 2006). Marketing communications also encourages two- and three-way communications between the targeted audience, opinion leaders/formers and AAA (Gay et al, 2007; Fill, 2006).
As outlined by Fill (2006), the purpose of marketing communications is to:
Differentiate – AAA differentiates itself from its key competitors (free resources on the web) by emphasising its “online value proposition” (OVP) (Chaffey et al, 2009) in its communications: AAA provides cost-effective, 24-7, online access to relevant, reliable content, services and support
Remind/Reassure - ABC is a library product in the growth stage of the product life cycle. Communications for ABC focus on reminding the target user group of the benefits of ABC as compared with free online alternatives ( eg Google Scholar)
Inform – BBB is a library product in the decline stage of the product life cycle and is being replaced by an alternative. Communications inform users of the decommissioning of one system and transfer to another
Persuade - AAA uses marketing communications to persuade customers of the benefits of attending training
3. Importance of communications plan
A plan is essential for implementing a communications strategy and ensures the communications themselves relate directly to marketing and organisational objectives. A plan also enables scheduling, resourcing and selection of the most appropriate communications channel, provides a basis from which to measure the impact of the communications and an opportunity to modify the approach as needed.
A useful framework from which to build a communications plan is the Marketing Communications Planning Framework (Fill, 2006):
Context analysis – 4 main components:
o Customer context eg opportunity to increase number of users from non-R&D
o Business context eg changes in organisational priorities
o Internal context eg budget constraints
o External context eg free resources available on the web
Promotional objectives – SMART objectives based on context analysis, business and marketing priorities eg increase non-R&D users of AAA by 10% in the next 3 months
Promotional strategy – 3 main components (3P’s):
o Push (channel intermediaries) eg establish relationship with non-R&D website owners and request links to be added to AAA from their websites
o Pull (target customers) eg target communications to non-R&D staff
o Profile (all relevant stakeholders) eg build reputation with non-R&D budget holders
Coordinated communications mix – 5 main components:
o Advertising eg sponsorship by AAA of internal exhibition
o Public relations eg online public relations article outlining library services provided
o Direct marketing eg emails to target audience to highlight specific library products
o Sales promotion eg free trial access to new information source for limited period
o Personal selling eg 1:1 discussion with departmental head focusing on AAA
Implementation – Schedule; resourcing; communications channel
Control and evaluation
o Quantitative eg usage metrics
o Qualitative eg online survey to gather and respond to feedback
4. Communication techniques
The Marketing Communications Plan (section 3), highlighted an opportunity to increase non-R&D users of AAA. Based on SMASH criteria (Sizeable; Measurable; Accessible; Sustainable; Homogenous), Manufacturing selected as the target user group from the non-R&D market segment.
Marketing communications for AAA targeted at Manufacturing will be dependent on a number of factors including the product lifecycle and where the customer is in the “buyer decision making process” (problem recognition; information search; alternative evaluation; purchase decision; post-purchase evaluation) (Gay et al, 2007).
Marketing communications tools and techniques should be linked with buyer behaviour at each stage of the buying process:
Problem recognition – Awareness eg sponsor Manufacturing internal event to advertise, inform and raise awareness of the products and services offered by AAA
Information Search – Interest eg once awareness established, generate interest by writing online public relations article for Manufacturing website outlining library services
Alternative evaluations – Evaluation eg use personal selling by meeting with Manufacturing departmental heads to initiate interactive discussion and differentiate library offerings from alternatives
Purchase decision – Trial eg use sales promotion to provide trial access to relevant resources on AAA for a limited period to persuade Manufacturing of the benefits
Post-purchase evaluation – Adoption eg use direct marketing to reassure and reinforce the benefits identified when the purchase decision made
5. Evaluation of electronic marketing tools
AAA uses two main electronic marketing tools: AAA website and email.
AAA is the second most used website in R&D with prominent link from the R&D Home page. There is an opportunity to increase the number of links to AAA from departmental and non-R&D business unit websites to raise awareness of AAA with non-R&D groups.
Although email is not considered the most effective tool for acquiring new users (Chaffey, 2010), it is embedded into the workflow of all Company X staff and a very effective communication mechanism when used for targeted communications to specific groups. It is less effective when used for broad, non-specific communications.
There is a significant opportunity to take advantage of recently introduced social networking tools such as Yammer.com (https://www.yammer.com) for marketing communications.
Company Z, a company of similar size and in the same industry as Company X already makes extensive use of social media (Revell, 2009; Mullin, 2007). A recent pilot to advertise training for one of AAA’s products on Yammer.com provided immediate results with significant uptake within 1-2 days and comments posted from “opinion leaders”. Based on this success, AAA will start to use social media as an interactive communication mechanism.
END OF SPECIMEN ASSIGNMENT