Promotion

• Marketing Mix: Communication


  • Advertising
  • Sales promotion
  • Public relations and events
  • Direct marketing
  • Budget & communication mix
• Communication


  Reaching a selected audience to achieve specific objectives
• How communication works


  1. Coding

  2. Channel

  3. Decoding

  4. Receiver

  5. Feedback

  6. Noise
• Types of communication


  • Marketing communication
  • Corporate communication
  • Financial communication
  • Internal communication
• Marketing communication


  • Communication to sell
  • Communication about the brand
• Corporate communication


  • Make the company known, legitimate its actions, defend its interests, make the company attractive for job seekers
• Financial communication


  • Communication for legal purposes
  • Inform & influence investors
• Internal communication


  • Develop a sense of belonging among employees
  • Make people adhere in the company strategy and choices
• Communication techniques


  • PUSH communication
  • Communication through intermediaries (relayed)
  • PULL communication
  • C to C communication (word of mouth)
• PUSH communication


  The company sends unsolicited messages to a target
• Communication through intermediaries (relayed)


  The company uses intermediaries (influencers, opinion leaders) to promote its message
• PULL communication


  Consumers look for information (they initiate the search)
• C to C communication

  Word of mouth (brands can use viral marketing to generate WOM)
• What communication actions depend on

  • Communication targets
  • What is communicated about
  • Communication objective
  • Communication environment
• Communication targets


  • Current consumers
  • Potential consumers
  • Prescribers/ opinion leaders
  • Business partners
  • Staff members
  • Shareholders
  • Legal authorities
• Communication target


  Who is the target and what are their characteristics
• Communication object


  What is communicated about: product/ company/ concept
• Communication objective


  Cognitive, Affective, Conative/Behavioural
• Communication environment


  Socially & culturally, Competitors, Regulatory constraints
• Steps of the communication strategy

  1. Defining the message

  2. Choosing the media

  3. Defining the budget
• Advertising


  Business practice where a company pays to place its messaging or branding in a particular location
• Advertising actors


  • Advertisers
  • Advertising agencies
  • Media agencies
  • Regulating authorities
• Copy strategy

  1. What is the target?

  2. What is the promise / consumer benefit?

  3. What is the reason why (proof)?

  4. What is the tone?
• Search


  Commercial or sponsored links that appear as a result of a query in a search engine, marketplace or comparator. It is pull communication.
• Display


  Paid advertising online (push communication). It can be: videos, banners, animated pictures, etc. When the user clicks, he is redirected on the brand's website.
• Display advertising


  • 20% of the online advertising budget
  • Click-through rate (average) = 0.04% - 0.08%
  • Effects: Effects on brand's image and brand awareness, Implicit memorisation (unconscious), Display effects on intention to visit the website and intention to gather information about the brand may last up to 2 or 3 weeks
• Social Ads


  Paid advertising displayed on social media (push communication). These messages can be: videos, photos, stories, etc.
• Sales promotion


  A promotion is an action-focused marketing event, for a specific period of time, whose purpose is to have a direct impact on the behavior of the firm's customers
• Sales promotion


  • Can be on-pack or off-pack
  • 4S rule: Simple, Strategic, Singular, Spectacular
• Sales promotions targeting current consumers

  • Boost sales (Jumbo packs, BOGOF, shelf talkers)
  • Boost loyalty (Loyalty rewards, collections)
  • Enhance goodwill (Feel good charity OPs or game)
• Sales promotions targeting potential consumers

  • Induce trial (Price cuts, money back guarantee, Samples, tastings & animations, Greater in-store visibility: end-cap)
• Assessing sales promotion performance

  • Additional sales (Increased penetration, brand switching, Higher consumer loyalty, Inventory build up)
  • Cannibalisation
  • Pros: Enhances sales providing incentives to consumers

  Cons: Short-lived impact because opportunistic buyer behaviour, No impact on LT brand preference
• Public Relations


  Not selling directly, but creating good relations with a specific audience (The press, Shareholders, Lawmakers, The general public)
• Public Relations


  • Pros: More credibility than ads

  Cons: Low control on event, Impact may be < expectations, Brand may be cannibalised by event
• Direct Marketing


  All forms of communication sent to someone identified by its personal data, its location or a given context. Requires immediate response from recipient.
• Direct Marketing


  • Different possible objectives: Selling, Collecting information, Generating goodwill, Scheduling appointments

  Requires accurate data base to narrowly target message to population likely to answer

  Legal constraints, Privacy issues, Deadline to back off
• Direct Marketing Tools


  • Direct mail
  • Telemarketing
  • Catalogues
  • E-mail
  • SMS
  • Social media
• Pros and Cons of Direct Marketing

  • Pros for buyers: Convenient, Accessible, Interactive -> adapted precisely to own needs

  Cons for buyers: Annoying

  Pros for sellers: Cost efficient if carefully targeted, Building customer relationship

  Cons for sellers: Effective only if very good targeting
• To decide the promotional budget, the company can choose:


  • Whatever it can afford (promo as last budget line)
  • As a % of sales
  • Match competitors
  • Analyze situation and set objectives
• Promotion plays a crucial role in the marketing mix because of its different possible roles: Informing current/ potential customers about the product, Altering/ enhancing the product or brand image/ perception, Stimulating demand, Building a long-term relationship with customers, Fixing crises