Planning for marketing communications

Strategy and planning Strategy concerns the direction, approach and implementation of marketing communication Planning the formalisation of strategy into a manageable sequence of linked activities

Marketing communications planning process Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5 Stage 6 Stage 7 Stage 8 Information gathering and analysis Marketing communications objectives Marketing communications strategy Marketing communications mix Budget Schedule Implementation/project management Review Form basis of brief

Information gathering and analysis External environment economic trends changes in the natural environment technological trends demographic trends social and cultural trends political and legislative changes competitor analysis Continued…

Internal environment corporate objectives and strategy resources marketing objectives and strategy the product or service brand values distribution

Corporate objectives/strategy and marketing communications Mission statement Corporate objectives and strategy Marketing objectives and strategy Distribution objectives and strategy Pricing objectives and strategy Marketing communications objectives and strategy Product objectives and strategy

Marketing communications objectives facilitate communication between those working on the strategy – all parties know exactly what they are working towards form the basis of a more objective approach to evaluating the work of those involved in process objective not subjective evaluation allow post-campaign evaluation

Types of objectives Sales/marketing-oriented objectives –set targets in terms of quantifiable results as measured against sales, market share, distribution achievements and customer contacts Communications objectives –set targets in terms of creating a good impression and to move the target audience further up the hierarchy of effects model difficult to measure success can take longer to reap the rewards

Marketing communications strategy segmentation targeting positioning e.g. the cheapest, safest objectives tools integration

Marketing communications mix What? How? Most appropriate marketing communications mix € Marketing communications objectives Marketing communications strategy How? Budget

Setting budgets Top-down approach –affordability technique –% of sales technique –arbitrary technique –competitive parity technique Build-up approach

% of sales technique Company 1 previous year's actual sales€1,000,000 percentage used to calculate budget5% marketing communications budget€50,000 Company 2 projected sales€2,000,000 percentage used to calculate budget5% marketing communications budget€100,000

Schedule € JFMAMJJASOND Advertising  TV  press  outdoor (teaser campaign)  Public relations  press release  publicity  Sponsorship  Sales promotion  trade incentives  coupons  in-store tastings  Direct marketing  Adapted from Smith (1998)

Review Sales, market share, number of contacts Qualitative research in-depth research that gives the marketer an insight into the respondent's mind. Quantitative research the collection and analysis of large amounts of statistical data