1. MKTM028 Strategic Marketing
Marketing communications in a digital age
Week 12
Dr Stephen Castle
Dr Elizabeth Kim
Iain Bromley

2. Learning Objectives:
By the end of this session students will understand and appreciate:
the role of communications in achieving competitive advantage
how to communicate effectively
tools of communication
managing reputation with communications

3. A Simple Marketing System
Information
Goods, services
Company
Buyers
Money
Communication

4. Marketing Communications CAN:
Support/enhance a sound marketing mix:
Communicate product benefits
Improve sales of existing products
Establish awareness/favourable attitudes for new products
Help create brand preference
Gain intermediary support
Generate salesforce effort
Create a favourable corporate image

5. The role of marketing communications
Differentiate Remind Inform Persuade
Fill (2012)

6. Marketing Communications CANNOT:
Rescue a flawed marketing mix:
Create buyers for a product that serves no need
Persuade against experience
Persuade buyers to pay in excess of perceived value
Convince buyers to buy inconveniently

7. Marketing Communications Defined
“Marketing Communications is a management process through which an organisation enters into a dialogue with its target audience.
The objective is to (re)position the organisation (product) in the mind of members of the target audience as a solution to their current or future dilemmas.”
Fill (1997)
C1.4 1

8. Communications Plan
Fill (2012)

9. Exercise: Direct Mail !!
Promise the most important benefit in the headline/first paragraph Elaborate on the benefit The offer: how the benefit is delivered Proof/endorsements Break inertia: cost of not taking action Rephrase benefits in closing offer Encourage action now

10. Stakeholders
Stakeholders are any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of an organisation’s purpose Stakeholder analysis determines which organisations/stakeholders influence us, and what are their aims, objectives, motivations and relative power

11. Categories of stakeholders
EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS
CONNECTED STAKEHOLDERS
INTERNAL
STAKEHOLDERS
Govt
Media
Pressure groups
Professional
bodies
Local community
Distributors
Society
Employees
Managers
Financiers
Retailers
Suppliers
Customers
Shareholders

12. Stakeholder Mapping
Positions the organisation in its network, and identifies the forces acting on it:
those that drive it forward
those that restrain it……….
……..from which an estimate of the likelihood of success for a particular strategy can be made

13. Networks and stakeholders
An organisation does not exist in a vacuum It will over time develop a network of relationships within which it works This network of relationships provides the context within which exchange and marketing communications happens

14. Performance and support networks
Performance network:
stakeholders directly involved in the value-adding processes of production and distribution:
* employees
* suppliers
* the trade
* competitors
* customers
Support network: stakeholders that indirectly influence the value-adding process:
financial institutions
government
pressure groups
consultancies
shareholders
trades unions

15. Communications and stakeholders
The stakeholder map begins to show us the communications tasks for the organisation: who do we need to talk with? what do we need to tell them?
Mendelow

16. Communicating the Organisation
On occasions, it is necessary to communicate with all stakeholders to convey information about the organisation, rather than its products and services.

17. Corporate personality Corporate identity or brand Corporate image
Corporate identity and its relationship with corporate image and corporate reputation
Corporate personality
Corporate identity or brand
Corporate image
Corporate reputation
Roper & Fill, 2012

18. Corporate Personality: what the organisation is
Organisations have distinguishing behaviours, characteristics and features: Culture - core values, beliefs and traits that form behaviour Purpose - the raison d’etre and strategic purpose of the organisation. Mission statement?

19. Corporate Identity: the way we present ourselves
The formation of cues by which
stakeholders recognise and identify
the organisation:
* what it is
* what it does
* how it does it
Corporate identity cues:
* Symbols - logo, letterheads, workwear
* Behaviour - staff interactions, internally and externally; policies
* Communication styles - tone and presentation of communications

20. Corporate Image: what stakeholders perceive us to be
inevitable - stakeholders will form a view on the organisation
therefore subjective - interpretation of the cues presented
image can be changed:
change identity
mould new perceptions

21. Corporate Reputation what stakeholders know us to be
image, reinforced by transactional experience. spoken of - stakeholders talk about their transactional experiences with organisations. Word of mouth. credible, trustworthy, reliable, responsible, efficient, effective????

22. Criteria that influence corporate reputation

23. What makes a good corporate reputation?
Fombrun (1996)

24. Features of integrated corporate communication, adapted from Pickton (2004)

25. Corporate communications plan, integrated marketing communications (IMC) for identified stakeholder(s)
Context analysis – current stakeholder perceptions, identity/image gap, needs and concerns, media and tools used by stakeholders
Communication objectives – stakeholder group(?) targeted by the plan, problem/need to address, SMART tasks
Core theme and messages – what reputational platform?, purpose/desired stakeholder response, content/style of message
Communication media and tools – justify which will be used
Timetable – period over which communication is required, timescales for review and measurement
Resource allocation – estimated expenditure (or basis on which budget is set)
Monitoring and control – how will progress and results be monitored, reviewed and measured against objectives

26. Process of planning communications programmes and campaigns (Cornelissen, 2011)
VISION
REPUTATION
1. STRATEGIC INTENT
2. DEFINE COMMUNICATION OBJECTIVES
3. IDENTIFY AND PRIORITISE TARGET AUDIENCES
4. IDENTIFY THEMED MESSAGE(S)
5. DEVELOP MESSAGE STYLES
6. DEVELOPMENT MEDIA STRATEGY
7. PREPARE THE BUDGET

27. Tools: Specialism: Media: Advertising PR Sponsorship/Events
Media relations
Investor relations
Internal comms
Public affairs
Issue management
Crisis management
Media:
Broadcast
Prints
Digital
Outdoor
In-store
Other

28. Learning Objectives:
By the end of this session students will understand and appreciate:
the role of communications in achieving competitive advantage
how to communicate effectively
tools of communication
managing reputation with communications