3:3:5 marketing action plan [external marketing]

Internal and channel marketing is about communication to foster collaboration within the organisation and throughout the marketing channel; the goal is to serve the customer more effectively and more efficiently; to attract the best staff, retain the best staff and enhance profit⁴ and relationships⁴. Similarly, the goal of external marketing is to attract the best customers, retain the best customers and enhance the profit⁴ and relationships⁴ between the organisation and the customer.

We have also stated that whilst attracting new customers is an important communication objective, retaining, and enhancing the relationship with customers are central to achieving long-term objectives.

In the past, some have presented communication as the transmission of information to external customers. Often you will hear non-marketing people argue that if you communicate product features and benefits with sufficient reach and frequency, consumer attitudes will be changed and consumers will be motivated to buy. We now know that this thinking is obsolete and a remnant from the selling concept era.

Personal communication is when two or more people communicate and have a discussion. Although people share the same needs as all other and the same needs as some other people in many regards our needs are personal. Whilst shared needs can be communicated by mass communication our personal needs and personal preferences are best conducted on a personal basis [personal service]. Whilst, mass communication can generate awareness and interest often personal communication is needed to make an exchange happen. Personal communication is critical when the product is co-produced by the customer. People tend to think of personal communication as face-to-face [e.g., selling], however, it can also be via a medium such as the phone [e.g., texting], the Internet [e.g., email], and even by post [e.g., letters, postcards]. Clearly, personal communication has undergone a transformation in recent years and this evolution shows no signs of slowing.

Personal communication is very powerful and carries greater influence than mass communication, particularly with products that have greater customer-product involvement, are expensive, have a greater degree of risk, and have a high service and/or high experience component. In addition, personal communication is particularly important in B2B exchanges where relationships are traditionally long-term. Personal communication spans all 3-time zones of the buyer decision process. When a consumer speaks with a sales person that is personal communication when a consumer is listening to a customer’s product experience that is personal communication. When someone is speaking with their partner about the new car they have just seen in a car showroom that is personal communication. When the car salesperson hands over the car to the couple then that is personal communication. Personal communication runs through the product components of services, ideas, experiences, and people.

Mass communication messages require a persuasive appeal. A persuasive appeal is communicating a reason to purchase the product – we often refer to this a product value proposition. Appeal decisions are generally made by an advertising agency and would generally be made after market research has taken place. Three persuasive appeals are generally employed – a rational, emotional, and moral appeal: Rational appeals: focus on the product features and customer benefits. Rational appeals focus on objective, technical product qualities that produce a positive outcome for the customer. Convenience and cost savings are common rational appeal strategies; Emotional appeals: try to produce an affect. The nature of the product and the degree of desirability will determine whether a positive or a negative affect will produce the most effective consumer motivation. There are a number of desired outcomes of an emotional appeal – fear, guilt, love, romance, joy, and pleasure. Another emotional appeal is the use of humour; this can be a particularly effective appeal for gaining awareness and interest. However, it can be offensive and can wear out quickly. Humour must be appropriate to the product and the target market;  Moral appeals: are also employed and these are generally used to communicate a sense of justice – what is right or wrong. Moral appeals are often employed in ‘cause-related marketing’ also ‘social and not for financial profit marketing’ [we discussed this in the module marketing of ideas]. Environmental consciousness is a common moral appeal strategy

Often the message appeal is more effective when communicated through a source or spokesperson.   Credible sources are more persuasive. Celebrity endorsers may not always be credible; however, they often increase, awareness/attention, and interest. Some organisations create a character or characters [e.g., M&M’s, & Ronald McDonald]. This may be a longer-term strategy and is often a less risky and more controllable than a celebrity [e.g., Michael Jackson, Tiger Woods]. 

Author’s comment: Often we hear people use the word ‘entertain’; for example, ‘it is an entertaining advert’. The etymology of the word entertain is to create a sense of enjoyment, however, it also means to gain attention and keep a person’s interest, to evoke a feeling, to motivate consideration.

Some product components happen in real time and require the presence of the customer. When this happens, it is important to realise that the communication process also happens in real time. This means that service providers must be given a clear description of the roles, the parameters, their responsibilities, and be given scripts to assist them in how they should act with the organisation’s customers. Furthermore, the roles and the scripts should include service recovery instructions for when things do go wrong. Sometimes when we talk about scripts readers think we are talking about canned presentations; that is not what is intended. Scripts and role-playing are essential parts of training directed at reducing variability in the product delivery process.

Word of mouth is a form of non-controllable communication. Word of mouth and word of mouse are very effective and this effectiveness increases when the person providing the product insight is perceived as an opinion leader in that field. Now an opinion leader when you are 5 years old may be your older brother or someone in the schoolyard it doesn’t have to be an expert – although it can be an expert. For many new mums, its advice from more experienced mums. Some companies [e.g., P&G] cultivate this natural need for community advice through online communication.

The AIDA framework [Awareness/Attention) > Interest > Desire> Action] is generally presented to provide guidance when developing an effective message strategy. The starting point in the AIDA framework is awareness; marketing practitioners will measure awareness in two ways aided recall and top of mind awareness: Aided recall: when consumers indicate that they are aware of a product or brands existence. Generally, a list of product names is presented to the consumer [e.g., Panasonic, Hisense, Philips, Samsung …]; Top of mind awareness: when consumers indicate a product or brand without the presence of a list. If consumers were asked a brand of television [e.g., Samsung was mentioned]. Top of mind is important as often it indicates a product or brand that would be on a consumer’s considered set of products. Some research indicates that top of mind awareness and market share are related. Therefore, creating top of mind awareness is a major communication objective

Most marketing practitioners will join an organisation that has an existing product portfolio and with brands that are formed from the customers’ past experience and attitudes. Consequently, many marketing practitioners see themselves as temporary brand custodians. Keep in mind that the application of textbook theory is dependent on the COMP factors. To successfully proceed through each stage of AIDA it is important to consider the message content, message structure, and message format.

Consider a couple [mid 50s] who are interested in buying a new leather sofa, they have a budget of $6500. When visiting a retailer, they noticed a sofa priced at $2999.00 at another retailer a sofa priced at $5999.00. They wish to avoid the risk of making a mistake. Therefore, it is likely that the couple will employ an extensive decision-making process However, assuming the more expensive sofa is of better quality the organisation should employ the central route of persuasion. This would involve communicating the value proposition of the $5999.00 sofa and why even though it is more expensive it is better value [e.g., build quality, Italian manufactured, Kangaroo leather]. If the organisation does not recognise the typical product decision-making process and adopt the appropriate route of persuasion, then it reduces the opportunity to communicate the unique product value proposition and advance the customer along the buying process.

Clearly, external communication would employ the central route of persuasion across all communication tactics. Furthermore it highlights the role of a sales consultant to establish value for money and assist the couple to achieve their needs.

When an organisation adopts an holistic and coordinated approach to communication activities then this is often referred to as integrated marketing communications. The objective is to send a consistent message and to generate synergy. The term ‘integrated’ is used to emphasise that this method employs a variety of communication tactics [personal selling, interactive events, educational, advertising, sales promotion, publicity, and corporate design] and mediums are employed to achieve the overall communication objectives. Other marketing practitioners describe this synergistic approach to marketing communication as a ‘unified’ approach, however, regardless of whether we describe this as an ‘integrated’ or a ‘unified’ the goal is to craft the most efficient and effective campaign to communicate the product value proposition to the selected target markets. The idea is to employ the right tools for the task [e.g., social media, print, television, billboards sponsorships, email, mobile, direct mail, website, search engine optimisation, point of purchase material [POP], brochures/posters, market influencers, and affiliates]. The choice will vary depending on the COMP factors – most will use a variety of analytics to measure effectiveness.

With the increasing adoption and sophistication of the internet and computer technology the task of selecting the most efficient and effective media is more complex than in the past, however, it is worth remembering that organisations can seldom rely on one medium. Although a consistent message is more efficient and effective – the creative strategy will vary depending on the media and how best to present a persuasive message to the target market[s].

A key part of marketing communication is to link the product/brand with the need (Percy & Rosenbaum-Elliott, 2013). Marketing practitioners often talk about generating brand awareness.  There are two types of brand awareness – brand recall and brand recognition. They are quite different so it is important to understand the difference: Brand recall: the ability of the consumer to link their need to a product/brand without obtaining further information. Brand recall may uncover products/brands that the consumer would consider in the future, unlikely to be considered or unacceptable for future consideration. Brand recognition: the ability of the consumer to recollect a product/brand after obtaining further information.

A marketing practitioner is often faced with the dilemma of how much to spend on the communication mix; too little and sales will eventually suffer, however, too much and the precious resources of money, time and effort are wasted.

• There are five recognised methods of setting a communication mix budget: Affordable method: spending what the organisation can afford. Percentage of sales method: spending a predetermined % of current and/or forecasted sales. Historical method: based on past spending and sales achievement. Competitive-parity method: spending a comparable amount to competitors. Objective and task method: establishing the costs of tactics necessary to achieve a specific objective, for example: [1] Launching a new product [gaining attention, interest, awareness] [2] Maintaining an existing product [retention, recover, remind].

In addition to how much to spend, a marketing practitioner needs to know where to spend the budget and what is the structure of the marketing mix. Many products will have a mix of personal communication and mass communication this mix will depend on the nature of the product [see product considerations]. For example, fast moving consumer goods [convenience products found in a supermarket] may have a high degree of personal communication in the marketing channel [B2B] and a low level of personal selling at a retail level [B2C].