Communication

Strategy

Session 8
 Marketing Communications
Marketing Communications Mix
o The specific mix of advertising, personal selling, sales
promotion, public relations and other tools a company
uses to pursue its marketing objectives.

Integrated Marketing Communications

o The concept under which a company carefully
integrates and coordinates its many communications
channels to deliver a clear, consistent, and compelling
message about the organization and its products.
o IMC implementation often requires the hiring of a
MarCom manager.
Developing Effective Communication
o Step 1: Identifying the Target Audience
Affects decisions related to what, how, when, and where
message will be said, as well as who will say it

o Step 2: Determining Communication Objectives

Six buyer readiness stages
Noise Noise
Awareness
Message
Knowledge Channel
Liking
Sender Communication Receiver
Preference Process
Conviction Channel
Purchase Feedback Response

Noise Noise
Nois Noise
 Developing Effective Communication (contd.)

oStep 3: Designing a Message

AIDA framework guides message design
(get Attention, hold Interest, arouse Desire, and then obtain Action)

Message content: Contains appeals or themes designed to

produce desired results
Rational appeals
Emotional appeals (Love, pride, joy, humor, fear, guilt, shame)
Moral appeals

Message Structure: Key decisions are required with

respect to three message structure issues:
Whether or not to draw a conclusion
One-sided vs. two-sided argument

Message Format: Design, layout, copy, color, shape,

movement, words, sounds, voice, body language, dress, etc.
Developing Effective Communication (contd.)

o Step 4: Choosing Media

Personal communication channels
Includes face-to-face, phone, mail, Internet chat communications
Word-of-mouth influence is often critical
Buzz marketing cultivates opinion leaders
Non-personal communication channels
Includes media (paper, electronic), atmosphere, and events

o Step 5: Selecting the Message Source

Highly credible sources are more persuasive
A poor spokesperson can tarnish a brand
o Step 6: Collecting Feedback
Recognition, recall, and behavioral measures are assessed
May suggest changes in product/promotion
 Setting the Promotional Budget
o Affordability Method
Budget is set at a level that a company can afford

o Percentage-of-Sales Method
Past or forecasted sales may be used

o Competitive-Parity Method
Budget matches competitors outlays

o Objective-and-Task Method
Specific objectives are defined
Tasks required to achieve objectives are determined
Costs of performing tasks are estimated, then summed to
create the promotional budget
 Setting the Promotional Mix
Determined by the nature of each promotion tool and
the selected promotion mix strategy
o Reaches large, geographically
Promotion Tools dispersed audiences, often with
high frequency

o Advertising o Low cost per exposure, though

overall costs are high
o Personal Selling
o Consumers perceive advertised
o Sales Promotion goods as more legitimate
o Public Relations o Dramatizes company/brand
o Direct Marketing
o Builds brand image; may stimulate
short-term sales
o Impersonal; one-way
communication
 Bank Advertising
A. Institutional Advertising
Long-term build-up of a banks name, in two ways
o Promotion of the banking image as a whole
o Promotion of the products offered emphasizing
on the banks name

Practiced By
o Establishing a modern logo, signature, symbol
o Establishing a spokesman, human or otherwise
o Using a catch-phrase or motto that is believable,
yet not clich-ridden
 Bank Advertising
B. Brand Advertising
o Advertising of banks services
o Similar to Umbrella approach
C. Advertising Channels
Channel choice depends mostly on budget.
o Above-the-line Channels
Radio, tv, newspapers
Useful for new sales, repeat sales & cross-sales
o Below-the-line Channels
Making Leaflets, pamphlets available at the point of sales
to inform & remind
Useful for cross-sales
Setting the Promotional Mix
o Most effective tool for building
buyers preferences, convictions,
and actions

o Effective for both banked and

Promotion Tools unbanked services

o Personal interaction allows for

o Advertising feedback and adjustments
o Personal Selling
o Relationship-oriented
o Sales Promotion
o Buyers are more attentive
o Public Relations
o Direct Marketing o Requires effective IM

o Most expensive of the promotional

tools
 Internal Marketing (IM)
Internal Marketing is
o viewing branch-staff as internal customers

o branch-jobs are internal products

o making effort to offer improved product-

mix that satisfy these internal customers
while achieving branch marketing
objectives
 Why Internal Marketing
Banking industry being a service industry
o performances are sold that are provided by these
people
o customers buy these performances
o one banks products can be differentiated from other
mostly by the quality of these performances
o the option to attain that quality level lies with people
who provide the performance
o thus only a satisfies employee can deliver
performance that may satisfy a customer (external)
 How to practice IM
Central theme of marketing for both the external &
internal customers are the same:
o Attraction & retention of patronage though
satisfaction of their needs & wants
o Tools of marketing research are
personal interviews
staff meeting departmental/group meetings
group discussions
o Segmentation of branch-staff should be done on the
basis of each staffs own
needs, wants, requirements, expectations, beliefs, attitudes,
ambitions, competence, capabilities and approach to his job
 How to practice IM (contd.)
o Customer education helps
both staff-education (training) & customer education
customer education helps in positioning the bank and its
products/services into the mind of the customer

o Customer complaints are negatively viewed by most

employees
empathy should be the idea in handing customers (use
your head while dealing with yourself, but use your heart
when handing customers!)

o Managers and seniors should set examples in

leadership,
guidance and
counseling
Setting the Promotional Mix
o May be targeted at the trade or
ultimate consumer
o Makes use of a variety of formats:
premiums, coupons, contests, etc.
Promotion Tools o Attracts attention, offers strong
purchase incentives, dramatizes
o Advertising offers, boosts sagging sales

o Personal Selling o Stimulates quick response

o Sales Promotion
o More effective when used in
o Public Relations conjunction with advertising
o Direct Marketing o Short-lived
o Not effective at building long-term
brand preferences
 Setting the Promotional Mix
o The activity of securing editorial
space than paid space in all
media
o Unpaid form of promotion
Promotion Tools o Highly credible
o Many forms: news stories, news
o Advertising features, events, sponsorships
o Personal Selling
o Reaches many prospects missed
o Sales Promotion via other forms of promotion
o Public Relations
o Dramatizes company or benefits
o Direct Marketing
o Less controllable element
o Often the most underused
element in the promotional mix
 Bank Public Relations
Most used for is sponsorship of sports, cultural
events, educational programs, competitions.
By sponsoring Banks want to achieve three things:

1. An opportunity to advertise its own name

2. Free publicity
3. An impression of social Responsibility

Some Practices:
Dutch-bangla Scholarship, ..

Setting the Promotional Mix

o Many forms: Telephone marketing,

direct mail, online marketing, etc.
Promotion Tools
o Needs customer database
including customer profile,
o Advertising purchase history, and other
detailed information
o Personal Selling requires substantial investment
o Sales Promotion in hardware, software,
personnel
o Public Relations
o Direct Marketing o Well-suited to highly targeted
marketing efforts

o May result in ineffective

 Forms of Direct Marketing
o Telephone Marketing
New legislation and technological advances threaten the future of
telemarketing

o Direct-Mail Marketing
New trends include fax mail, e-mail, and voice mail

o Catalog Marketing
Many cataloguers have migrated to the web

o Direct-Response Television Marketing

Direct-response advertising
Infomercials
Home shopping channels

o Kiosk Marketing (placing information & ordering machine together)

 Contribution of Bank Marketing
1. Keeps a banks name in the foreground
2. Can create an image for the bank
3. Reinforces the point of purchase
communications and personal selling
4. Motivates staff and boosts morale
5. And many more.
 Promotion Mix Strategies
Push strategy: trade promotions and personal
selling efforts push the product through the
distribution channels.
Make product readily available to buyers
Heavy sales promotions

Producer marketing Retailer marketing

activities (personal selling, activities (personal selling,
trade promotion, etc.) Ad, sales promotion, etc.)

Wholesalers
Producer & Retailers Consumers

Figure: Push Strategy

 Promotion Mix Strategies
Pull strategy: producers use advertising and consumer sales
promotions to generate strong consumer demand for products.
Promotional effort by a seller to stimulate demand among final users,
Who will then exert pressure on distribution channel to carry products
Pulling it though the marketing channel

Demand Demand
Wholesalers
Producer Consumers
& Retailers

Producer marketing activities (consumer ad, sales promotion, etc.)

Figure: Pull Strategy