The Marketing and Communications Industry

When looking at the four Ps of marketing, some can correlate to other parts of the business. For instance, “Product” may relate to engineering, production, design and others alike. “Price” may relate to accounting, and finance. “Place” can also relate to production and so on. “Promotion” is unique in that it is the only pillar of the four that is 100% governed by marketing.

“Promotion” is also known as “Marketing Communications”. It can be further broken down into sub-categories that explain the execution of marketing. These categories are often referred to as the marketing communications “mix “or “industry sectors and structures”.

The following describes some of the most common industry sectors and structures within the marketing communications industry:

Traditional Advertising

Traditional advertising is commonly executed by agencies. It includes all the traditional mediums such as TV, radio, newspapers, billboards, etc.

Sales Promotion

This is the most common sector of marketing communications. It includes personal one-on-one selling or wholesale. A sales promotion is a marketing strategy in which a business uses a temporary campaign or offer to increase interest or demand for its product or service.²

Personal Selling

Personal selling is a technique that is done in a face-to-face environment. A salesperson will aim at persuading a prospective client or customer in purchasing a product or service. This is an efficient way of increasing sales. However, it may be limiting when trying to reach a large audience due to a lack of resources or opportunities for a one-one interaction.

Public Relations

This industry sector looks at communication with various communities, including neighbours, government, and media. It is classically related to the press in a way that is not advertising and how it can be leveraged for free and positive exposure.

Direct Marketing

Direct marketing is a form of advertising that specifically targets a person or company to generate new business, raise the profile of an organisation or product, or make a sale. Popular methods for direct marketing include:

• direct mail
• telemarketing
• email marketing.

Direct marketing allows the opportunity to communicate directly with a customer to build a personal relationship. It helps in reaching target audiences with direct messages, without using traditional, costly advertising methods such as TV, newspapers and radio advertising.³

Below the Line Marketing

This industry sector is traditionally executed by what is known as BTL agencies, this sector refers to non-traditional methods of marketing communications, e.g., events, point of purchase promotion, etc.

Have look at the following video that explains how Mcdonald’s successfully implements their promotional mix.

For a marketing plan to exist, there needs to be a business plan first. A business plan normally covers the whole business, including strategy, finance, marketing, sales products and services, operations, accounting and how they all interrelate, whereas the marketing plan focuses solely on marketing components, like markets, the communication mix, media. Let’s learn more about how they differ and what are some of the common components that can be found in each.

The business plan

Executive Summary

This is an outline of the purpose, goals, objectives, marketing, viability, potential growth and finance requirements. This is a one page only that will explain high-level everything and should invite for further reading if required. Think of eve as an elevator pitch, going straight to the most important.

Overview and Objectives

To define an organisation overview, you will need to first explain how the products are services are provided to customers, is it online? via stores? Second, you also need to define what you need to run the business, here you confirm all your resources required, e.g., technology, sales, etc. Third, you will explain how customers are serviced, is it via account managers or a ticketing system? Finally, you will outline who your customers are at a high level.

Products and Services

This is the full description of the product or service, how it works, the journey of customers, if you have patents, brands, benefits, and unique selling points. Other elements to cover will be pricing, product extensions and brand extensions. Here you need to be as thorough as possible.

Market Opportunities

Some market research will be the backbone of this section. First, you will need to measure how large is the market, not only in terms of customers but also money. Other questions to answer is the projections of the market, then segmentation, and what particular demographics and psychographics need to be targeted.

Marketing

As a marketing plan is being drafted, this section needs to cover enough to understand the marketing plan without being the full plan. Marketing will cover all types of communications, from traditional media to digital media, public relations, and sales. This section will define the marketing budget, marketing objectives, the target audience for communications which may be different to the overall definition of clients. If pricing is highly relevant, here will be explained how it is communicated, if offers, etc.

Competitive Analysis

This section should define direct and indirect competitors, also who may potentially join the industry, think parallel organisations offering complementary products or services to the value chain. You will go beyond identification into analysing the strengths and weaknesses of each competitor. This analysis can be very specific when it comes to comparing prices, per market, and per product.

Operations

This part of the plan plays a higher role when manufacturing or creating products. The operations component of the plan will oversee the tactics to manage, staffing, production, inventory, and day to day operations. This part of the plan will outline equipment, facilities, offices, organisational structure, business processes, vendors, etc.

Management Team

Additional to the organisation structure, here are listed the first two levels of management, from a CEO or MD to all VPs or key managers. The list will include photos, names, titles, bios and links to the position description of each member. The bio will detail experiences and performance.

Financial Analysis

The main goal of this document is to define if the business is viable, a financial analysis as part of the business plan will provide detail of costs, projected revenue, and the business model explained in numbers. Data will be available month to month and will consider all the potential issues in the business that may affect cash flow. The costing is detailed, including all accounted direct and indirect costs.⁴

The marketing plan

Market Research

Whether desktop research or full-fledged commissioned research, marketing plans are normally supported by some market research of qualitative and quantitative character that supports many of the plan goals and objectives, one key question research usually answer is market size.

Target Market

Following the research, the thorough definition of the target marketing will help understand the total of this population, purchasing habits, behaviours and both demographic and psychographic values. The market is also valued not only in terms of size but also in value related to the products and services provided by the organisation.

Positioning

This is a concept about the place that your organisation, products, and services occupy in the mind of your target market. What is their perception? Strategically the definition of the positioning will help with many of the tactics the plan includes if that positioning wants to be reached.

Competitive Analysis

This section of the plan can be as detailed as required, as understanding key variances within competitors can make a huge difference in the execution. Understanding the whole landscape of not only organisational but also products and services will help determine gaps and opportunities. Dimensions to include in this analysis include price, target markets, and positioning.

Market Strategy

Also known as the go-to market strategy, this part of the plan explains how clients will be attracted. This is where marketing communications are laid out, here all the tactics will be listed, including traditional and digital marketing, e.g., events, billboards, radio ads, YouTube ads, search engine marketing, LinkedIn InMails, etc.

Budget

Budgets are broken down normally by month and will cover 12 months of a calendar year or a financial year, they will be specific to every tactic taking place, it also measures ROI per tactic and a total budget linked to the potential result.

Metrics

Whether traditional or digital, all activities need to be measured and tracked along the way. Attribution of every marketing source per every lead or customer is the ultimate goal. Metrics are important for the optimisation of activities, to learn about future plans and measure ROI.⁵

There are five main concepts in marketing. Each concept is a strategy that can be implemented to maximise profits, meet customer needs, and outperform the competition.

The five concepts of Marketing

The following provides an overview of the five concepts of marketing:

1. Production Concept
   Focused on operations, the production concept assumes that customers are attracted to products that are readily available and competitively priced. Manufacturing efficiency is important, as is scalability to create maximum profits.
2. Product Concept
   In opposition to the production concept, the product concept works on the assumption that availability and price are not major factors involved in purchase decision-making. This model encourages customers not to compromise to save money and that waiting for an eagerly anticipated launch is worth it.
3. The Selling Concept
   Centred on the belief that you need to convince a customer to purchase your product, the selling concept is focused on getting to the transaction rather than customer satisfaction and repeat business. This can result in aggressive marketing and sales tactics.
4. The Marketing Concept
   Often known as the customer-first approach, the marketing concept is based around the company’s ability to market and how it offers more value than competitors. The goal is to be the preferred option in a potentially busy marketplace, so having targeted marketing will give you a competitive edge.
5. The Societal Concept
   A more recent addition to marketing concepts, the societal concept emphasises the welfare of society and is based on the idea that businesses have a moral responsibility to promote what is good for people as opposed to what they may want.⁶

Click on the following common societal roles that describe how they fit into marketing.

There are many types of marketing that can be used to present a particular narrative of the product, service or the overall business. Below is a description of some of these.

Green Marketing

Green marketing is the promotion of products or services based on their environmental benefits. The products may be produced in an environmentally friendly way, be inherently environmentally friendly themselves, or encourage reuse or repair over discarding after a single use. Green marketing can be very valuable when done correctly and congruently— that is, backed up by real environmental benefits to using the product over competitors. However, companies can invite damage to their brand when engaging in green washing, the concept of presenting a product as environmentally friendly when it is not.⁷

Services Marketing

Services marketing is a category of marketing strategies, focused on selling a service rather than a physical product. Think of businesses that offer medical care, spa treatments, car rentals, holidays, yoga lessons or concerts. These are all examples of services, and services marketing is the communication of a service’s appeal and its benefit to potential customers.

There are two broad categories within services marketing. Organisations that provide services to customers and individuals execute business-to-customer or B2 marketing. Organisations that provide services to other businesses or organisations execute business-to-business or B2B marketing.

Non-Profit Organisation Marketing

When marketing for a non-profit organisation (NFP), the fundamentals remain the same. You still need to determine who you want to reach, what to say to them, what resources you have available and what media is best used to reach your audience. However, in an NFP, you may have some additional goals. This includes determining:

• Who you want to help
• How they will find out about your product or service
• Whether or not you need to fundraise, and how you will reach potential donors
• Whether or not you need volunteers, and how you will find appropriate volunteer candidates.

NFP organisations may be reluctant to invest in marketing, and it is important to be clear on the goal of your marketing campaign, so investors understand if you are building awareness or raising additional funds for your end cause. NFP marketing will focus on reaching either those who benefit from the organisation or on fundraising that can deliver a clear return on the investment put into communications.

Social Marketing

Social marketing is a type of communication used to create social change, rather than to benefit a brand or organisation. While it uses similar marketing techniques, it sells a behaviour or lifestyle that benefits the community or society and creates the desired social change. Some examples of social marketing include:

• Health and Safety—anti-smoking, anti-drugs, safe driving
• Environmental causes—Anti-deforestation, raising awareness of endangered species, anti-littering
• Social activism—Anti-bullying, highlighting inequality or gender stereotypes.
• Social marketing is usually initiated by NFP or government organisations, but occasionally will be backed by a commercial business to raise awareness for campaigns they are passionate about.

Peer to Peer Marketing

Peer to Peer (P2P) marketing occurs when customers engage with other customers through recommendations. You might compare it to the evolution of word-of-mouth recommendations, which through the use of social media, are becoming a powerful marketing tool. While famous celebrities engage in P2P promotions and marketing, it is becoming more common for unknown individuals with smaller social media followings (and therefore, smaller fees) to give their stamp of approval on products and brands to grow awareness.

The success of P2P marketing relies on trust. People generally trust other people they can relate to and who they believe are like themselves. So, if they have made a connection with someone through their social media image, they are more likely to believe their recommendations and feel like they are not being sold to by pushy marketing campaigns.

Viral Marketing

Marketing is regarded as viral when the message is shared by the public rapidly and beyond the initially intended target audience. If and when a marketing message or brand content is “buzz-worthy”, it will be shared by customers and followers.

Viral marketing is an attempted strategy, however, not every marketer is successful.

When implementing viral marketing, the message is communicated quickly between customers and followers instead of advertisers, thus making it beneficial to a business when the advertising is reaching large audiences for a lower cost. Viral campaigns spread organically, to go viral content needs to be done at the right time, in the right place, and most of all, it needs to be bold. No marketing campaign is going to go viral based on boring, non-differentiated content. Other requirements include ensuring the content can be easily shared. This will take into consideration having the right size, the amount of content and making sure it is relatable.⁸

Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing is a methodology in which prospective clients are attracted and engaged at different stages of their journey by providing meaningful content. The main goal is to nurture a potential client so that ease of purchase can occur. Inbound marketing also focuses on turning the target audience into long-term clients which provides sustainable results over short-term wins.

To get started with inbound marketing, the content must be the centre focus of the methodology. Organisations must create compelling stories while meeting relevant and overarching listings of products that communicate with their target audience. This can be identified by creating a content plan that aids in the planning, development and management of the content to be created.

Created content can be delivered in multiple forms, including blogs, videos, infographics, games, etc. Search engines are the most relevant vehicles used in promoting any created content. This means that optimised websites are required to attract prospective clients. (Optimizing content and a website will help make it easier for the target audiences to find).

Once a client has been attracted, the next step would be to engage the client using methods such as inbound calls and email.

Outbound Marketing

As opposed to inbound marketing, outbound is about organisations reaching out to prospective clients using the traditional mediums, such as TV, radio, newspapers, events, or cold calling; and digital mediums such as social ads or banner ads.

Normally the content of outbound marketing is targeting large audiences and there is no opportunity for personalisation. Outbound marketing is great for the top of the funnel activities in which awareness needs to be raised, and where possible results need to be measured, however, is not easy for many of the traditional mediums used. Outbound marketing comes at a large cost as the reach is high, however, fewer are targeted. This is due to audiences often resorting to a variety of methods to disengage from them. For example, “skip ad” on YouTube and other web-based content,  filtering out the “junk” from their email that they do not wish to read or throwing out direct email that is unopened.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is similar to inbound marketing as they each use “content” as their main ingredient. Content marketing refers to the identification, creation, and syndication of relevant content, e.g., blogs, newsletters, whitepapers, videos, podcasts, etc. to prospective clients along their journey to purchase.

The content is not normally promotion-based but valuable content that builds trust between prospective clients and brands. Not only applicable to Business-to-Consumer (B2C) but also Business-to-Business (B2B) content possibilities are endless. Yet they work best when strategically approached to ensure it caters for multiple target audiences and multiple products and the combination of these two. The normal stages considered for the sharing of content are awareness, consideration and closing (the sale).⁹

Re-Marketing

Also known as retargeting, this type of marketing refers to a common digital marketing tactic, in which ads are served to already engaged audiences. For instance, people that have visited a website can be re-marketed on other websites via banner ads.

This tactic is not only limited to search engine marketing but is also common in social media marketing. It typically relies on either adding a script to the page to detect visitors or uploading client lists to a search engine or social media advertising accounts.

Technically the difference between retargeting and re-marketing relates to using email as the way to identify the prospective clients and using cookies in websites to identify users respectively.

Remarketing can be cleverly used to tell a story to the same audience, one that builds over time. Also, in remarketing when databases are large, it can help with further personalisation as the data can be segmented based on other variables available in the data.

Email Marketing

This is the most cost-effective marketing tactic, a widely used methodology to reach new and existing clients.

As a direct marketing activity, email marketing caters to a variety and multitude of audiences at a low cost. Whereby many other strategies may be limited to the technology and the size of the audience.

Emails are an old digital medium and persist to be one of the favourite mediums used. Although instant messaging is also proving to be quite effective.

These days there are more legal frameworks to adhere to when using email marketing, including anti-spamming and privacy protection.

Because it is widely used, the ability to create engaging email is highly relevant and very necessary. Email content is not only required to be succinct and valuable but depending on the circumstance, it will at very least need to be graphically perfect mobile-friendly and have a catchy subject heading.

Convergent marketing is when an organisation presents an integrated, clear and consistent marketing message across its range of media by integrating its marketing, IT systems, and platforms and design. This helps ensure the customer, who is at the centre of all marketing efforts, see a consistent brand message and consistency in communications and customer journey.

Often convergent marketing strategies focus on the digital and online components of a marketing strategy. However, it may also cross into offline marketing channels such as print, advertisements, radio and television. Therefore, a good convergent marketing strategy may include social media, viral ad campaigns, blogs, user-generated content, websites and apps. These communications, being digital, are more accessible than traditional approaches.

Well-executed convergent marketing can improve customer loyalty by offering a single and familiar message for your brand. This can enhance the brand awareness and ensure that a consistent message is portrayed at every touch point.

A good example of convergent marketing is Bunnings Warehouse. Their very distinctive green branding coupled with their red-and-white logo is visible on the inside and outside of their physical stores, and this is continued in all of their marketing endeavours, online and offline. The consistent use of the musical build-up singing ‘Bunnings Warehouse’ at the end of their online, YouTube, television and radio ads enables audiences to have a sense of familiarity with the branding. Similarly, the catchphrase Lowest prices are just the beginning is repeated in all forms of visibility, re-emphasising the messaging that Bunnings Warehouse is where you will find the lowest price.

Watch the following video for further explanation on media convergence.

Tools for Convergent Marketing

The benefit of convergent marketing is using many mediums and channels of digital marketing to reach your target audience. Below are three examples of digital technology that can help bring together your message in a uniformed manner:

• Social media—Advantages of social media include consistent and improved interaction between the organisation and customer, as well as the relatively easy promotion of products and services. Social media also gives you the opportunity to encourage and utilise user-generated content to grow brand awareness, and reach new potential customers through P2P marketing
• Electronic direct mail—Traditionally sent in letter format, today direct mail occurs through email marketing campaigns that can be intricately targeted to your specific audience and potential customers. Email campaigns are easy to analyse to measure their effectiveness.
• Apps—Some businesses will benefit greatly from using purpose-built apps to interact with customers. Advantages include the ability to store customer information on one platform and offering the ability to interact easily with the customer so they can shop, track information, and search all in one place.

A creative strategy is often referred to as a creative brief. This is a document used to outline the strategy of a creative project in advertising. For a successful project, it is necessary to have a good creative strategy first.

Developing a creative strategy will provide a roadmap for creatives to perform their work. It ensures the purpose of the project is communicated properly and in accordance to the business goals and intentions.

At the very least, this document must contain a description of the product and/or service and also include the following:

• an objective of communication: what are the business goals and intentions for the communication deliverables?
• a definition of the target audience: a description of the audiences the communication deliverables are trying to reach.
• an offer to highlight: an explanation of which offer should be primarily highlighted- this information can sometimes be found in workplace policies and procedures or sometimes can be retrieved through consulting with stakeholders.
• execution guidelines: the plan in how to deliver the communications to the target audience that aligns with achieving the objectives of the communication.

The creative strategy is a standard procedure used for marketing, advertising, or to be used by creative team members that are collaborating on the deliverables. Drafting a creative strategy requires attention to detail and word crafting in order to draft a perfect brief. This document should always exist before any creative work is applied and ensure all those involved are on the same page.

A well written creative strategy will help reduce any misunderstanding or conflict as it establishes the parameters and framework for all stakeholders involved in the creative process, including the client. If it is not written in the creative strategy, different additions to the communication deliverables cannot be implemented in the last minute.

The following are some of the common components found in a creative strategy that a business may use as the basis before implementing any communication deliverables, this may vary between organisations:

This normally explains what the promoted product and/or service will be.

This component of a creative strategy will be defined by its values, including name, features, price, and what makes the product or service different. It should be written clearly as it is essential for any stakeholder that uses this document to interpret it correctly.

Please note: this section is not information about the company, unless the intended communication is about simply branding the organisation.

When defining this component of a creative strategy, extensive research may take place to ensure full understanding of the product or service.

Objective of communication

This is one of the key items of the creative strategy, as it defines what is the objective of the company, from a communication perspective. It will encompass the creative work that needs to be done. A common misunderstanding to the objectives is that the communication deliverables are solely there to generate sales. This is incorrect as this is typically a business objective, and not the objective for the specific deliverable.

A good tip when writing up this component of a creative strategy is to always starts with a verb that describes what action is the expected from the target audience when interacting with the deliverables.

Target Audience

This component defines who will be targeted with the deliverables.

Please note: this may not necessarily the group that will use the product or service. It may also include other businesses that may have others use the product or service.

The way the target audience is defined in a creative strategy starts with demographic values, e.g., location, age, gender, education, ethnicity, job, etc followed by psychographic values, such as interests, behaviours, thoughts, etc.

Offer to highlight

In this very competitive environment for marketers, it is necessary for communication deliverables to stand out by highlighting a key benefit among the key selling points (KSPs). This is typically in the form of an offer to assist the target audience with a strong reason that may result in a lead or a sale. Examples of this include a special introductory price, an extended warranty, etc.

Execution guidelines

This is the area where a client or account manager can limit the execution by ensuring special requirements are covered. Some examples include:

• ensuring the logo is always used on the top left corner
• call to actions need to include a particular word
• the media should be limited to digital, etc.
• a male model should be used, etc.

Essentially, it is anything that will help frame the communication will be in this paragraph.

Technological changes and advances have impacted the way we communicate in our day-to-day lives, whether that be personal conversations and communications, business communications, or advertising and marketing. With the advent of the internet and web-based communications, new tools and platforms have arisen and allowed faster communication that is both targeted and responsive to audiences and individual consumers.

Disruptive Technology in Communications

The term disruptive technology simply describes new innovations that eventually displace the established technology and methods of doing things. Every industry has been affected by disruptive technology over time, and these developments have an impact on consumers, customers, and businesses alike. Examples of current technology that is disruptive and creating change include:

• Chatbots and Smart Assistants—Chatbots create automated replies to a range of general or tailored queries from customers. They can also let them know when you will get back to them in more detail or other resources that are available. By being responsive 24/7 and giving answers promptly, chatbots can be a great asset for your customer service.
• 5G enhanced connectivity—5G (fifth generation) mobile networks promise to provide incredibly fast download speeds coupled with increased bandwidth. This is anticipated to change the way we interact with technology and may make fibre-based cable networks redundant.
• Data Storytelling—Data storytelling is the process by which your data is turned into language. That is, the data is communicated in plain English language, so it can be understood by everyone in an organisation or project. By building a narrative around a set of data, this help to convey the meaning of that data in a way that can be well understood.

How organisations use technology to gather information can raise many ethical and legal questions. The rapid spread of the internet and digital technologies means that regulation has not always kept pace, particularly regarding privacy, fraud prevention and intellectual property.

Privacy

One of the most significant privacy issues in communication involves the personal information that companies collect from website visitors. Privacy concerns include:

• Companies collecting personal information from website users
• Hackers stealing information stored by companies
• Malware targeting mobile devices.¹⁰

Many of these breaches can occur at banks, universities and other businesses that contain sensitive consumer information, which requires organisations to implement increased security measures to prevent database theft. Facebook, Google, and other social networking sites have also come under fire for privacy issues, leading to mandatory privacy audits.

The amended Australian Privacy Act (Cwth), which came into force in March 2014, contains strict privacy principles which begin to address some of these issues.

In 2018, the European Union introduced the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which is one set of rules for all companies operating in the EU, regardless of where they are based. Since most websites are visible and accessible from within the EU, this has meant many organisations need to adhere to these regulations.

Online Fraud

Online fraud includes any attempt to conduct fraudulent activities online, for example, by deceiving consumers into releasing personal information. Cybercriminals are increasingly using online social networking sites and other digital media to commit fraud, either to damage a company’s reputation or to gather private information from consumers.

Some cyber-criminals create typo squatting sites based on common misspellings of search engines or social networks to then trick visitors into releasing their information. Criminals may seek out ways to damage a company’s reputation or to extract money from customers.

There have also been instances of criminals using networking sites to pose as charities in the wake of disasters to siphon off donations. Organisations and social networking sites are always seeking to develop more sophisticated methods to combat fraudulent online activity. Consumers must always be careful what information they give online and to only give out credit card numbers on trusted and secure sites.

Social Responsibility

The concern an organisation has for the welfare of society is known as corporate social responsibility, with ethics and social responsibility being closely aligned. In today’s world, businesses need to ask themselves whether they are acting in a socially responsible manner when they promote their products. There are four corporate social responsibilities:

• To pursue financial goals (Economic responsibility)
• To obey the law (Legal responsibility)
• To do what is right, just, and fair (Ethical responsibility)
• To be a good corporate citizen (Philanthropic responsibility).