Chapter 9
Communication Strategy
Prepared by
Bùi Ngọc Tuấn Anh (PhD)
Content
• The role of marketing communications
• The communication process
• Setting communication objectives
• Identifying the target audience and crafting the communication
message
• Selecting communication channels
• Developing the creative approach
• Measuring communication effectiveness
• The marketing communications mix
• Integrated marketing communications (IMC)
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The role of marketing communications
• Marketing communication is the means by which firms
attempt to inform, persuade, and remind consumers—
directly or indirectly—about the products and brands they
sell.
• It serves as the voice of the company and its brands and
is a way to build relationships with consumers.
The Communication process
• The macromodel articulates the interaction between the
sender (company) and the receiver (consumer) of the
communication message. It includes 9 key elements:
Response
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The Communication process
• Micromodel: This model focuses on how a recipient responds to
communication. It outlines the stages a consumer passes through
when making a purchasing decision.
Setting communication objectives
• Focus of communications
– objectives should focus on whether they aim to create
awareness, build preferences, or incite action.
• Budget
– Determining the communication budget involves considering
factors like reach, competitive communication, and available
resources.
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Setting communication objectives
• Benchmarks
– communication objectives must have clearly defined
quantitative and temporal benchmarks. For example:
– "Create awareness among 40 percent of Millennial consumers
before the movie premiere".
– "Increase the number of consumers who believe that
toothpaste Brand X has superior whitening power from 10
percent to 40 percent in one year".
Identifying the Target audience
• The communication process must start with a clear target
audience in mind, which can include potential buyers,
current users, deciders, and influencers.
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Crafting the Communication message
• Message strategy
– Developing an effective message strategy begins with
identifying customer benefits that can be used as content
appeals.
– Ideally, the message strategy will follow directly from the
company’s broader positioning and customer value-creation
strategies.
Selecting communication channels
• Types: channels can be personal or nonpersonal.
– Personal communication channels
• These allow two or more persons to communicate face-to-face, by
phone, mail, or email.
• They include direct marketing, personal selling, and word of mouth.
• They can be further distinguished as advocate, expert, and social
channels.
– Nonpersonal communication channels
• These include media, sales promotions, events and experiences, and
public relations.
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Selecting communication channels
• Channel integration
– Companies are using a range of touch points to communicate
including online clubs and consumer communities, trade
shows, event marketing, sponsorship, and factory visits.
• Media mix
– A company should develop an integrated marketing
communications campaign that spans different media to
communicate its value proposition effectively.
Developing the creative approach
• Creative execution
– The impact of a company’s communication depends not only
on what it says but how it says it.
• Message appeal
– The message should appeal to the target audience.
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Measuring communication effectiveness
• Supply side
– Measuring communication effectiveness aims to assess the
media coverage.
• Demand side
– Measures focus on the impact on the target audience, such as
if they recognize or recall the communication.
The marketing communications mix
• The specific blend of advertising, public relations, personal selling, and sales
promotion tools that the company uses to engage consumers, persuasively
communicate customer value, and build customer relationships.
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Tools
• Advertising: Any paid form of nonpersonal presentation
and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an
identified sponsor.
– Includes television, print, radio, online and place advertising.
• Sales promotion: short-term incentives to encourage the
purchase or sale of a product or service.
– Can include coupons, contests, discounts, and premiums.
Tools
• Personal selling
– Personal presentations by the firm’s sales force for the purpose
of making sales and building customer relationships.
– Can include sales presentations, trade shows, and incentive
programs.
• Public relations (PR)
– Activities designed to engage the company’s various publics
and build good relations with them.
– Includes press releases, sponsorships, and community events.
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Tools
• Direct marketing
– Using direct mail, email, telemarketing, and other methods to
communicate directly with customers.
• Online and social media marketing
– Utilizing websites, search ads, display ads, email, social media
platforms and mobile marketing.
• Mobile marketing
– Communicating with customers through text messages,
software apps, and mobile ads.
Tools
• Events and experiences
– Creating brand-building events and experiences to engage
customers.
• Word-of-mouth (WOM)
– Engaging customers to speak positively about products and
brands.
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Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC)
• IMC is defined as a planning process that ensures all
brand contacts received by a customer or prospect are
relevant and consistent over time.
• It involves carefully integrating and coordinating a
company's communication channels to deliver a unified
message about the organization and its offerings.
• IMC helps companies deliver a consistent message
across all channels and ensures that they reach the right
customers with the right message at the right time and in
the right place.
Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC)
• Levels of IMC: IMC can occur on four distinct levels:
horizontal, vertical, internal, and external.
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