Effectiveness of Marketing Communication Strategies and Technologies - Term Paper Example

? Effectiveness of Marketing Communication Strategies and Technologies Effectiveness of Marketing Communication Strategies and Technologies Marketing communication denotes the planned activity of disseminating certain information to a target audience in order to create a favorable and receptive scenario for certain a product, service or idea. With the advent of competitive corporate culture, the relevance and urgency of marketing communication has become even more conspicuous. Kotler and Armstrong (2009) state that a well-designed and thoroughly crafted marketing communication strategy can provide a definite competitive advantage to an organization. If we look at the prevailing corporate scenario, we can conclude very amicably that there are numerous instances where a certain product failed because it was introduced in the market through an ineffective marketing strategy. The Russian automobile products are the classic examples in this regard. They fail in the market just because of their weak marketing communication strategies. It is very essential to understand the dynamics of a market in which the proposed marketing strategy is going to be launched. According to Joshi and Hanssens (612-654? 2010), marketing communication does not only contribute towards the maximization of organization’s profit but it also creates awareness among the masses regarding the choice of available products. So an effective market communication strategy can benefit the manufacturers as well as the consumers. Every marketing strategy should involve the meticulous comprehension and research regarding the internal and external environment. According to Jackie and Sudhir (2010), the internal environment denotes the price, product, promotion and place (marketing mix). The external environment refers towards the evaluation of multifarious factors like market and competitor analysis. Some other factors like social, technological and economic conditions also fall in the domain of external environment study. Any successful marketing strategy should incorporate these aspects to achieve the optimum success. For an effective marketing campaign, correlation between the organization’s mission statement and its marketing communication strategy is also very significant. It is very interesting to see how a unidirectional approach of all the departments of an organization yields the maximum advantage to a certain organization. Service characteristics introduced by Lovelock and Wirtz (236-252, 2004): inseparability, intangibility, and heterogeneity are especially relevant when it comes to speaking about product positioning in terms of high-tech environment. Various conversation technologies: chat rooms, instant messages, that have become an indivisible part of a well-established service business owning a web-site are building communities among visitors thus contributing to establishment of inter-personal relationship and professional product positioning making customers come back to use this service over and over again. (Muhammad, 45-46, 1999) Incorporating technological solutions may deliver mechanisms that delight a customer. (Lovelock & Wirtz, 236-252, 2004). A service business must be maximizing its virtual ‘touch-point’ appeal, and must develop its virtual management tools (and metrics) set. Positioning concept is relatively new, it dates back only to the 70th, however, it has been significantly changed with the impact of technology. PR efforts have always been an effective communication tool mainly due to the lack of control over what is printed. (Marken, 423-441, 1997) The new high tech era involves implementation of various technologies: pretty much everything from computer-telephony integration (CTI) to data warehousing and internet in order to stimulate the flow of information within and out of the organization. (Rosello, 96, 1997) The high-tech environment has taken place of uncontrolled press releases as means for successful PR programs, as internet is still far less controlled then the press. A careful study of the available marketing communication tools and customer needs and preferences also shape the marketing communication strategies. Gelb et al (2006) also suggest that every company should identify the customer needs before the launch and execution of its marketing strategies. There are certain other factors like efficacy of a certain marketing tool, the cultural norms of the target market, quality of the product and distribution channels which influence the marketing strategy of a company. Therefore, it is imperative to evaluate the determinants of marketing strategies before the implementation of any marketing strategy. The first and foremost essential for an organization is to select the most suitable and viable source of advertising to achieve the maximum level of reachability and acceptance. The budgetary restrictions can also be a hindrance in the choice of the medium to communicate. Keller and Kevin Lane (211-224? 2001) state very conspicuously that it is an uphill task for the organizations to select an appropriate channel of communication in this era of multifarious availabilities. In the present scenario, it has become almost impossible to rely on a single source of communication. Every organization tends to follow a suitable combination of communication options. The various communication tools and programs should be blended with an expertise for the promotion and enhancement of a certain product or the service. They emphasize the significance of marketing communication in the success or failure of a brand. The proper designing and implementation of the marketing strategy is a vital and potent force behind the image of a company or brand. The necessity of integrated market communication has been stressed in this document at an elaborate level. Lee and Wook (pp. 103-117, 2007) try to explore some new and novel dimensions of the marketing communication. They state that the long term relationship of customers with the organization is another aspect of company’s strengthened reputation. Although this concept has been recognized by the customer relationship practitioners long ago yet in this study it has been proposed that the combination of integrated marketing communication and CRM based activities can really create a wonderful fusion to succeed in the market. This study has not only discussed the prevalent trends of marketing communication but also added some new dimensions to the concept. Apart from alluring new customers, the company’s central data base should be used to communicate with the existing customers. Additionally, the instruments and mechanisms which have been developed in this study can go a long way for the organizations and managers to measure their success and fruit ability of their marketing communication strategies more accurately. This study has contributed immensely towards the subject of integrated marketing communication because there is still a state of confusion as far as the definition and impact of the IMC is concerned. Kang and Sung-Un (pp. 52-62, 2010) refer towards the image perception of the companies and their country of origin phenomenon. In their study, it has been proposed that the companies can capitalize upon the corporate reputation of their respective countries while framing and launching their marketing communication strategies. In the recent marketing communication trends, some multinational organizations tend to conceal their country of origin because it can hinder their penetration into a certain market. It has been empirically proved in this study that the consumers are usually influenced by the corporate reputation of the country rather than by some political leanings and preferences. This study includes the examples of japan, Korea and America to prove the effect. The most vital aspect of this study is to maintain the corporate reputation for global marketing communication strategies. The appearance of the new Internet culture resulted in formation of the new channel of service delivery, new customer expectations and behavior. Customers demand immediate fulfillment when using the majority of services online, this resulted in the innovation of a specially designed term – transactional customer. (Rotella, 79, 2001) This results in new business opportunities when servicing a transactional customer. One of examples of the recently established markets that serve the needs of a transactional customer is the music market online. The ongoing revolution in services of education has to be mentioned. Even though the topic is not that burning, this can be attributed to its not being that wide spread and thoroughly analyzed. The future of education or, rather, the form in which educational services will be provided is more than questionable. Internet based learning centers and search engines are designed specifically to optimize content delivery to the consumer and the traditional libraries can hardly compete with them. (Hall, 130-135, 2004) On the other side of the fence, there is distant learning that is more preferable for customers in terms of adjustment opportunities and convenience this form of service delivery provides. This service is perfect for working adults who need flexible schedule in the first place. The eventual result will be that the adult population will tend to be more educated as compared to the current situation and the form of distant learning is likely to substitute the current ones. (Hall, 130-135, 2004) When we talk about the market communication tools, then it becomes utmost urgent to select the most persuasive, penetrative and socially acceptable medium to communicate with the market. Oscar and Marek L, (2009) delineate the effectiveness of the television when it comes to advertising or the marketing communication tools. No marketing campaign can squeeze out the best potential of a market if it does not select the effective and influential media tool. Although the advent of the electronic era has completely revolutionized the concept of advertising yet television is still a very effective tool for any marketing communication strategy. This article tends to refute the very common notion that the emergence of so many digital channels has minimized the supremacy of television advertising. Although, the effectiveness of a particular advertising tool varies from market to market yet the various audits presented in this paper clearly depicts that television is still a very powerful medium of advertising. It is very difficult to talk about the effects that new technologies have on service organizations and consumers, as it is very difficult to distinguish one single field in order to examine the differences that occur. The era of technology implies not only the change on a marketing or managerial level; this is a global trend, which changes the very tastes of consumers in essence. The spheres of influence include not simply preference of consumers to one side or the other, but a change in technology results in a different choice of a color by a common customer: the interdependence should be emphasized when making some analysis or conclusions. Another presupposition that should be kept in mind, when making estimates about the future is the relativity of the presuppositions made. The reason is that we have witnessed dramatic changes that have global impact on all spheres of human life that could hardly be predicted and had happened within a very short period of time. Thus, in reality, it is very difficult to state any types of predictions about the future of technology, as things will hardly happen the way it was predicted. The only presupposition that is worthy of being made is that the society is ready to accept innovations more than ever, society perceives benefits associated with technological innovations positively, in such way, this confirms that the process of technological development will only speed up changing surrounding environment more and more. (Lee et al., 240-256, 2003) Although television is a very powerful medium to communicate yet the nature and demand of the product determines the choice of communication medium. Moreover, a single medium is also not recommendable in this current era of diverse cultures and regions. It is highly recommended for a company to devise different plans of marketing for different regions and cultures. Nielsen et al (pp. 11-38, 2010) try to establish that since selective attention is crucial as far as the effective advertising is concerned. This article contributes tremendously towards the establishment of the theory of effective and successful semantic onset. The semantic onset has been defined as a concrete emotional response towards a provocation. This article expresses the efficacy of semantic onset against the immediate visual onset. Van den Putte and Bas (pp. 669-679, 2009) in their research paper explain the significance of effective message content, media mixture and previous behavior. There is no single message content recommended for every advertising campaign and market. The content of the message depends upon the campaign goal and market scenario. It was commonly believed before this theory that advertisement with physical properties such as colors and contrasts can only enthrall the target people more rapidly and suddenly. But this article demonstrates the convincing force of the semantic onsets that can really revolutionize the concept of modern advertising. It has been proved very assertively that the properly used words can play a very effective role in the process of communication as compared to the conventional or earlier substitutes. References Hall, O. P. (2004). Search Engine Technology Impetus for the Knowledge Revolution in Business Education. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 15(2), 130-135 Joshi, Amit; Hanssens, Dominique M (2010). The Direct and Indirect Effects of Advertising Spending on Firm Value. Journal of Marketing pp. 612-654 Kang, Minjeong; Yang, Sung-Un. (2010). Corporate Reputation Review. Comparing Effects of Country Reputation and the Overall Corporate Reputations of a Country on International Consumers' Product Attitudes and Purchase Intentions; Palgrave Macmillan, Corporate Reputation Review, Volume 13 pp. 52-62(11) Keller, Kevin Lane. (2001). Mastering the Marketing Communication Mix: Micro and Macro Perspectives on Integrated Marketing Communication Programs. Journal of Marketing Management 211-224 Kotler, Philip and Armstrong, Gary (2009). Principles of Marketing; 13th Edition. Prentice Hall. Lee, Dong Hwan; Park, Chan Wook (2007). Conceptualization and Measurement of Multidimensionality of Integrated Marketing Communications; Journal of Advertising Research; 103-117 Lee, E., Lee, J., & Eastwood, D. (2003). A Two-Step Estimation of Consumer Adoption of Technology-Based Service Innovations. Journal of Consumer Affairs, 37(2), 240-256. Lovelock, C., & Wirtz, J. (2004). Services Marketing: People, Technology, Strategy (5th ed). Pearson Education International. 22, 236-252. Marken, G. (1997). Market Positioning Needs New Look, New Emphasis. Public Relations Quarterly, 423-441. Muhammad, T. K. (1999, December). Technology That Will Change Marketing on the Web. Black Enterprise, Techwatch; 30, 45-46. Nielsen, Jesper H; Shapiro, Stewart A; Mason, Charlotte H. (2010). Emotionality and Semantic Onsets: Exploring Orienting Attention Responses in Advertising Journal of Marketing Research (JMR). Vol. 47 Issue 6, p11-38 Rosello, B. (1997). Customer Service Superstars: A Look at How Nonbank Companies Use Technology to Leverage Customer Information. ABA Banking Journal, 89(10), 96 Rotella, M. (2001). The Transactional Customer: Financial Institutions Leverage Advanced Integration Technology to Service New Breed of Customer, Reduce O&T Costs. ABA Banking Journal, 93(12), 79 Van den Putte, Bas (2009). What matters most in advertising campaigns? The relative effect of media expenditure and message content strategy; International Journal of Advertising; Vol. 28, No. 4, 2009, pp. 669-679 Read More