Tag: Promotional Mix

Marketing is not just promotion

I recently saw a group of recruitment advertisements for marketing consultants. On reading the content of these job notices, my heart sank.  It seems a lot of businesses, especially small businesses are using bad, incorrect and out of date definitions as to the role of marketing in their organisation.

You see some advertisements which are just silly. These tend to fall into three groups:

  1.  Businesses putting all their marketing ‘eggs’ in one basket. Many of these businesses think social media is a magic bullet to all their marketing problems.  They see social media as a cheap marketing option. It isn’t and by focusing solely on social media these firms may be missing traditional marketing channels which give better value for money and better returns on investment.
  2. Businesses who underestimate the marketing task.  I saw one advertisement recently for a business asking for someone to ‘sort’ their marketing on a contract of eight hours a week.  I believe that firm would be better off by spending money on a consultant rather than employing an individual on such a restricted contract. That consultant could design a marketing plan and existing members of staff could work to that plan.  This matches current marketing theory that every employee of an organisation has a role to play in marketing that organisation
  3. Businesses who want a miracle worker but who don’t want to pay for that miracle worker.  I see plenty of advertisements for marketing staff that want a jack of all trades. They want one person who is an analyst, a researcher, a planner, a strategist, a web designer, a photographer, a graphic designer, a copy writer and a videographer.  They then say the salary for such a person is the equivalent of a shop floor labourer.  I’m not joking.  One such example I saw recently was for a graduate, with three years experience, to carry out the above wide range of activities, for a salary of £18,000 per annum. Casting my eye over the job description, I estimated that the value of the task required would reasonably demand a salary of £35,000 per annum. Worse, it is rare to find an individual who has an analytical brain; who is good at collating and analysing facts and figures; but who is also creative. The human brain doesn’t work that way, some people are good at creative arts but then tend to be awful at figures. Other people are excellent at analysing data but can’t draw for toffee.

However, I think the biggest mistake made by many organisations is to view marketing as solely a promotional activity. Marketing is seen as a substitute term for advertising or sales promotion. Marketing is not advertising.  Marketing is not PR.  Marketing is not door to door visits by sales reps. Yes, all those activities are related to marketing but they are subordinate to marketing.

Marketing is the development of customer-focused business strategies.  It is the conversion of corporate mission and goals into practical strategies and tactics.  Your marketing plan will determine how you approach promotion as part of the wider marketing mix.

Remember, your strategic marketing plan will lead to corporate policies, plans and investments which affect all parts of your business. Each area of the 7 P extended mix will itself have it’s own mix of tactics and methodology.

  • Product: You will have a product mix.  Different product/service options designed to meet the needs and desires of different target audience segments.  Marketing strategists will work closely with product developers and your production managers to provide best fit product options for target segments.  In each of these segments you might have a product range. Marketers will be closely involved in new product development and management of products through their life span.
  • Price: You will have a mix of prices designed to meet the wallets of different target segments. Marketers will help manage prices to maximise returns and to help extend product life span.
  • Place: Marketers will help decide how your goods are brought to market, how they are distributed and where they are sold.  This might mean physical stores, home delivery, electronic supply. Increasingly the use of 3D printers is raised. Do you want to sell through retailers or third-party agents. Do you want to sell directly? If you are operating internationally, do you need a partner firm already within your selected market?
  • People: Who are the right people for your organisation. How should they look at behave? Do you want to mirror your customer base?  For example, if you are selling high street fashion to the 18 to 25 demographic, do you want 60 year old sales staff?  And it could be that you want different people within your organisation for different customer groups.  Take as an example a landscaping firm which does both domestic and commercial work. Domestic customers may be happy to see a workman in a boiler suit or a fleece jacket but a big building firm would most likely want to see a representative in smart business attire.
  • Process:  Process needs to match customer expectations.  If you are making ‘bespoke’ garden furniture, it is likely that your process will reflect artisan craftmanship. If you are mass producing widgets for the automotive sector, your customers would likely expect a clean automated factory with short lead times, kaizen, and just in time supply.
  • Physical evidence: The documentation and other physical evidence used by your business should also match your target customers expectations. Different customer groups will have different expectations. So an insurance firm selling car insurance might get away with documents covered in puppet meerkats but that same insurance firm selling building insurance won’t use those documents to sell commercial building insurance (in fact that firm will likely use a completely different brand entity to do so).
  • Promotion: You will have a promotional mix. A wide range of promotional tactics and channels to maximise your exposure to your target audience. This mix should not only meet the expectations of your customers, it should maximise your share of voice.  It should be a mix of push tactics, like traditional advertising which ‘push’ your products into the minds of your target audience and ‘pull’ tactics which get consumers to demand your products from retailers and suppliers. Promotion should also help build brand equity and customer retention. Social media content tends to be ‘pull’ promotion. It builds desire and moves customers from prospects to regular customers. It is however a poor channel for push marketing and getting your products fresh into the minds of consumers. Social media’s main benefit is the building of a customer community. It has so far proven to be a poor sales channel.

There are several models of how promotional messages work in the minds of consumers.

The traditional model was that consumers minds carry out a structured process when deciding to buy. Promotional activities must therefore match that structured process. This process is described by the mnemonic AIDA:

  1. Awareness: First your customers must become aware of your offer.
  2. Interest: Then they become interested in your offer
  3. Desire: That interest should develop into a need to obtain your offer.
  4. Action: The consumer then should be prompted to take action to obtain your offer.

Promotional activities should therefore work to develop and match these procedural stages.

The hierarchy of effect model of promotion is similar:

  1. Consumers become aware of your offer
  2. They demand and build knowledge of your offer
  3. They develop a liking for your offer
  4. They develop a preference for your offer
  5. They develop a conviction to obtain your offer
  6.  They purchase your offer

More recently, the information processing model of promotion has been developed;

  1. First target consumers are presented with your offer
  2. You get their attention
  3. You develop comprehension of your offer in the minds of target consumers
  4. They retain that knowledge and comprehension
  5. That knowledge and comprehension affects the target consumers behaviour and they purchase your offer.

As you can see each of these models requires promotional activities to carry out a range of tasks.  There is another mnemonic (marketers love a mnemonic; and a matrix), DRIP:

  • Differentiation: Marketing is about leveraging difference. Your promotional activities should create an identity which distinguishes your offer from that of your competitors.
  • Remind/Refresh: Your promotional activities should reinforce the knowledge of your offer in the minds of consumers. It should remind previous purchasers that your offer still exists.
  • Inform: Your offer should inform your target audience of the content of your offer.
  • Persuade: Your promotion should persuade target customers to purchase your offer.

Each of these tasks will take prominence depending on the place in which the target customers mind sits in the purchasing process. For new prospects, informing them of your presence in the market will take prominence. For existing customers, your promotion needs to remind and refresh. For switching customers, you want to differentiate so they move to your offer from that of competitors. For undecided customers, your promotion needs to prioritise persuasion.

So promotion is not as simple as sticking a post on Facebook, or a video on YouTube. It needs careful though and a mix of promotional routes which maximise exposure to the market. Most of all promotion is part of a far wider marketing process.

So stop getting marketing wrong. think beyond the stereotype and apply marketing theory to all aspects of your business.

The Communications Element of the Marketing Mix

Before you decide to spend money on advertising; or any other kind of external communications; or indeed, how much to spend; you need to know if your choice of communications are the best way to meet your marketing objectives.  It is often the case that advertising budgets can become a solution looking for a problem.

You also need to ask, are communications the priority?  Do other aspects of your marketing mix needing fixed first?

There is no point in spending thousands advertising a new feature of your product if consumers are complaining about how terrible your after sales service is.

Sort those issues which are a priority, then think about your communications mix.

Your communications strategy must reflect your organisational goals and the critical success factors you set.

When choosing your mix of communications tools (PR, TV advertising, print, social media, etc) you need the appropriate mix of push and pull media.  Push media is pushing your product into the minds of consumers e.g. traditional advertising. Pull media is getting consumers to demand your products from retailers and other suppliers (this could be media like social media and PR).

A strategy that is all push and no pull; or vice versa; is unlikely to succeed in modern markets.

And you cannot rely on past methodology.  The world of communications is constantly mutating.  In the 1950s most communications were broadcast monologues.  Today, the aim of communications is often to create two and three way communication.  Communications is about conversations; between companies and their customers; between existing customers; and between customers and prospective customers.

The level of advertising and communications spend do not automatically lead to results and simply trying to match the share of voice of a market leader may be a process in wasting scarce resources.

Definitely do not choose communications channels out of habit.

The best way to decide on your communications mix is:

  1. Match communications tools based on their strengths and ability to match the purpose of the communications.  For example social media is a step towards creating electronic word of mouth and a brand community (although other communications tools will be needed to meet those objectives). Social media is not a proven sales channel.  Remember the mnemonic DRIP (Differentiate, Reinforce, Inform, Persuade).  Depernding on the purpose of your message different communications tools will be appropriate.  For example, advertising may be the priority if you are aiming to differentiate your offer from that of your competitors; print media and PR may be the best way to inform your customers of product attributes; Social media may be a good way of reminding existing customers of your products; Sales Representatives may be the best way to persuade your target customers to buy.
  2. Match your communications profile to the expectations of your target audience.  So if you aim to sell fashion to the under thirties, social media and digital communications may be the priority in your mix.  If you are selling stairlifts to pensioners, direct mail and television advertising may be the priority.  it is not by accident that daytime TV is filled with adverts for over-50’s pension plans and disability aids.  Tesco will show families with children in their communications; BMW will show male professionals and executives.  Look for archetypes, not stereotypes.
  3. Integrated communications campaigns work better.  Promotion and other communications should be part of a wider customer journey.  It is a mistake to put all your communications in one channel.  I see small business after small business heavily investing in social media as their sole communications channel thinking they have found a silver bullet to solve their communications ills; they haven’t, they simply could be wasting their finite communications budget.  It is best to integrate communications channel that work well together and which compliment each other.  Choose channels that are synergistic and may create a greater whole than individual channels.

You need to map that customer journey from their first awareness of your brand through to them being repeat purchasers and then habitual purchasers.

Commercial communications are increasingly two way interactions.  You should reflect this in your communications strategy. Do not shout a monologue into the void. Focus on conversation, duologue and dialogue.  Increasingly getting target customers to talk to each other is a top-level aim of commercial communications.

We live in an over-communicated society.  Consumers are bombarded with commercial messages every day.  It isn’t a case of being the one who shouts loudest, be the one who shouts differently.  Stand apart from the communications churn.

To do all this you need a communications and advertising plan which:

  • Sets a budget
  • Determines your target audience
  • Determines the content of communications
  • Decides your media mix
  • Decides on advertising frequency
  • Defines how communications will be classed as successful

Your advertising objectives should be to:

  • Convey information
  • Alter perceptions and attitudes
  • Create desires
  • Establish connections
  • Direct actions
  • Provide reassurance
  • Remind
  • Give reasons for purchase
  • Demonstrate product/service features
  • Generate enquires and footfall

Those objectives should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Bound)

And remember the Six I’s of Digital Communication:

  1.  Integrate across media channels. It is not by accident that Amazon, Uber, Just Eat, Trivago and other internet-based retailers and service providers all use traditional advertising channels.
  2. Create Independence of location: think remote marketing and remote delivery.
  3. Think Industry restructuring: Digital is often about disrupting existing market models.
  4. Think Individualisation: We live in a world where new technology and just in time supply chains mean mass customisation and micro-targeting of communications
  5.  Think Interactivity: Conversation not monologue

Increasingly, communications are as much about creating a brand community as pushing products onto consumers. The communications models of even twenty years ago are no longer appropriate.  Look to the future of communication, not the past.

 

Shaping the Promotional Mix

As I have said before in this blog, I continually see businesses advertising for marketing staff and when you examine the job description, the new staff member is solely focused on digital marketing, particularly social media management.

Such recruitment advertising worries me.  It’s not that digital marketing isn’t important.  it’s that these businesses seem to be putting all their marketing eggs in one basket.  They also seem to be treating digital as a form of marketing promotion instead of its proper definition as a communication channel.

Digital is only one part a businesses promotional armoury.  It isn’t a magic pill which will solve all your marketing issues.  Digital marketing isn’t cheaper than traditional marketing channels and in some ways it is a riskier enterprise.

Your use of digital marketing needs to be strategic and it must fit with your target audience.  Foe example, if you are selling teenage fashion, it is likely that social media and digital platforms will be prominent in your marketing activity.  However, if you are selling stairlifts and disability aids to pensioners, traditional promotional techniques such as television advertising, direct mail and newspaper advertising would dominate your promotional mix.

Remember, Digital is a promotional channel not a promotional technique.

When you are developing a marketing strategy, it is important to create the proper balance of channels and tools.  Your use of these must meet the expectations of your target audience.

Consider that businesses operating in the same market may have distinctly different promotional mixes.  Max Factor use television advertising, magazine advertising and the internet to promote their cosmetics however Avon rely on direct marketing and sales representatives to promote their products.

Today, most businesses try to create an integrated marketing communications strategy which promotes you products but which also creates a unified brand image.

To define a promotional mix you must first examine the nature of different promotional tools.

  1. Advertising:  Advertising can reach a mass audience which is geographically dispersed.  It can be a form of promotion which has a low-cost per consumer exposure.  It can allow a message to be repeated several times to intended recipients.  Digital media can be used to advertise e.g. Facebook or YouTube.  Consumers view advertising as a legitimate form of promotion and it can be used to create a brand image over the longer-term.  However, advertising lacks the personal touch and is a one way form of communication.  Some forms of advertising can be expensive and a large budget may be required if it is to be effective.
  2. Personal Selling:  Personal Selling is good for building buyer preferences, convictions and actions.  It involves personal interaction between two or more people.  It can be used to build personal relationships by sales representatives solving customers problems.  However, personal selling is the most expensive form of promotion: up to three times the cost of advertising.
  3. Sales Promotion:  This is techniques such as offering coupons, discounts or premiums for purchases or repeat purchases.  Sales promotion uses a wide range of such tools and is good at attracting the attention of target consumers.  It provides strong incentives to purchase and it can dramatize product offerings to boost sagging sales.  Sales promotion invites a rapid response from consumers.  The message isn’t ‘buy my product’, it’s ‘buy it now!’.  However, the effects of sales promotions are short-lived and over the medium to long-term sales promotion will have less impact than advertising or sales promotion.  Sales promotion does not create long-term relationships with customers.
  4. Public Relations:  Public relations is a very believable form of promotion.  PR is the presentation of commercial messages in the form of news stories, features and sponsored content.  PR can reach people who are adverse to advertising and who avoid sales representatives.  It can add drama to a campaign.  traditionally PR has been underused by marketers but as the environment becomes more crowded with commercial messages, its use is increasing. PR is most effective when it is used in conjunction with other promotional mix elements.  Heinz have successfully used PR to promote their Salad Cream.  In fact they have had three bites at the Salad Cream PR cherry.  A few years ago, they issued press releases saying that they were ending production due to falling sales.  The response was a huge increase in sales of Salad cream.  A few months ago, they announced that they were changing the name to Sandwich Cream, again they got headlines.  Last week they announced that they had changed their mind and were retaining the name.  Yet more column inches about the product.  However, over use of PR creates cynicism in the minds of consumers.
  5. Direct Marketing:  This is the use of brochures, catalogues flyers and online advertising.  it is a less public form of promotion but you can target your message to particular groups.  Direct marketing can be interactive, a dialogue as opposed to a monologue.  It allows tailored messages to be delivered quickly.

Once you have decided on the tools within your promotional mix, you must define your strategy.

There are two forms of promotional strategy: Push strategy, where a firm pushed its goods through the sales channels by promoting them to channel members such as suppliers and retailers; and Pull strategy; where business promote their goods to end consumers, who in turn pressure retailers to stock the firm’s products.

Some business to business industrial companies only use a push strategy but for most businesses the promotional mix is a carefully balanced combination of push and pull strategies.  B2B firm’s tend to use more push strategies, B2C firms tend to use more pull strategies.

To create a successful promotional mix, you need to have a smooth integration between mix elements.  The promotional mix needs to be guided by an company-wide communications strategy.  Mix elements need to combine to create a unified brand message your messages must be consistent and conform to your brand image.  Your messages must appear where they can be seen by your target customers.  All parts of your business and all your internal stakeholders must be involved in the promotional effort.  Your promotion must engage all your sales channel stakeholders e.g. wholesalers and retailers, not just end consumers.

A confused communications strategy can dilute the impact of your promotional messages and lead to a confused market position. A confused strategy will not maximise you marketing efforts.