Corporate communications

Marketing communication, especially advertising is meant for a group of users of products called the target audience. After identifying the target audience, we must determine the response desires. The ultimate response desired is of curse the buying of the product or service. We must know the decision-making process that leads the target audience from its present position to a higher state of readiness –to-buy. There are papers on corporate communications in American Universities and there are departments of corporate communication in different companies. In the 90’s, business seeks to communicate positively in terms of clarity of identity to a wide range of people-financiers, those in authority, the general public, among others. Corporate communications is not limited to mere PR. It includes crisis communication, e.g., corporate identity programmers, re-imaging, media relations, corporate advertising, and sponsorship for image building, and communicating during take over. Corporate communications is not restricted to image management but considers corporate philanthropy, media dealing and crisis management.

Advertising and personal selling

Advertising is communication with many consumers of products and services. To communicate with a large group, we put the advertising message through mass media like the press, magazine and T.V. Advertising is thus one form of mass communication. Advertising communication is non-personal. W e communicates with the buyers through the media. There is no face-to-face conversation. Personal selling is personal communication where a salesman talks person to person with a prospect. Advertising aims at a group, i.e., mass while personal selling aims at individuals. Personal selling is not mass communication but individual communications. These days’ products are mass produced for mass consumption. It is not possible to contact each customer individually. Therefore, advertising a mass communication tool is a must for modern marketer. But industrial products and complex pieces of machinery can be sold better by personal selling where the salesman is tin a position to explain the characteristics of the product to the buyer. Salespersons are in a position to tailor their messages according to unique characteristics of the product to the buyer.

Advertising and sales promotion

Advertising predisposes a person favorably for a product/service/idea moving him towards its purchase. Sales promotion takes over at this point. It makes the consumer take a favorable purchase decision by providing one or other kind of direct inducement, e.g., discount, price off,, gift, coupon etc., Mostly advertising is indirectly concerned with sales. It either informs or persuades or reminds about a product or service. Most of the times, it is indirect in its approach and has a long term perspective, e.g., building up a company image or brand image. Sales promotion is a short-term approach, a direct approach and expects an immediate response in terms of sales. Sales promotion is an important adjunct to selling. Advertising is more frequent and repetitive than Sales promotion. Sales promotion is non-recurrent selling efforts. They supplement the advertising and personal selling. Displays are effective method of sales promotion. Contests are also another effective method of sales promotion.

Advertising Message Structure

Advertising communication effectiveness not only depends on the message content, though it is doubt an important component, but on its structure as well. The important aspects of message structure are: Drawing conclusions, repetition, one-verses-two-sided arguments, and the order of presentation.
Drawing conclusion: The question often raised is whether definite conclusions should be drawn for the audience in the ad for quick understanding or should they be left to them. In many instances, it is best to let the receivers of the promotion message draw their own conclusion. Such consumers feel that the message which draws a conclusion is over-aggressive and an attempt at forcefully influencing their choice. Moreover, since conclusion drawing at best assists in an easy comprehension of facts and not in the process of attitudinal change, it ill not affect very much the persuasive quality of ads which aim at a change in attitude. When the issue involved is simple and the audience is intelligent, to draw a conclusion will be merely to attempt to explain that which is obvious.

Advertising is as a Tool of Communication

Advertising is as old as man. There is a semblance of advertising in many activities of a human being, especially those activities which influence others, either favorably or otherwise. A baby crying for its feed, a girl wooing the prince charming, a doting wife desirous of having a new sari are all aspects of advertising. They want to communicate, to persuade, to influence and to lead to some action. All this has been a part of human life almost from the time it took shape. We shall go a step further and state that the persuasive form of communication that is advertising per-existed human life. Take, for instance, the dancing daffodils or sweet smelling roses which silently invited butterflies to achieve the objective of pollination. There were fruits, flora and fauna all informally is interwoven with nature and the evolution of the world.

An analysis of each element of this American definition follows

Any form:
Advertising may be in any form of presentation. It may be assign, a symbol, an illustration, an ad message in a magazine or newspaper, a commercial on the radio or on television, a circular a sketch or a message on a billboard or a poster. Any form of presentation, which an advertiser imagines will fulfill the requirements of an ad, can be employed.
Non-person: This phrase excludes any form of personal selling, which is usually done on a person-to-person basis or on a people-to-people basis. If it is a person-to-person presentation, it is not advertising.
Goods, Services, Ideas for action:
It is well known that advertisements are employed to communicate information about products and services. Most definitions neglect the use of advertising to promote ideas. The Posts and Telegraph Department advertising to promote the use of the PIN Code for faster delivery of letters is an example of selling an idea for action. The Income-Tax Department advertising to persuade the income-tax payers to pay their taxes before the due date to avoid default is another case of the application of advertising to ideas involving action.

Advertising as a Tool of Communication

The simplest definition of an advertisement is that it is a ‘public announcement’. In earlier times, to advertise meant merely to announce or to inform. Some advertisements today still do just that: provide information about ‘birth’, ‘death’, ‘engagements,’ with little or no intention to persuade. The majority of classified advertisements provide useful information about jobs, accommodation, sales of second-hand vehicles and furniture, etc. Matrimonial advertisements, recruitment advertisements, and tenders, notices and similar types of public announcements also provide the public with valuable information, which would otherwise be difficult to obtain easily. The earliest advertisements in the first English newspapers published in India. In the eighteenth century were little more than ‘public announcements’ about the arrival of ships and merchandise from abroad. Basically, then an advertisement is an announcement to the public of a product, service or idea through a medium to which the public has access. The medium may be print (such as newspapers, posters, banners and hoardings), electronic (radio, television, video, cable, phone) or any other. An advertisement is a form of persuasive communication with the public. The communication is usually one-sided, in one direction from the advertiser and to the public. The members of the public are free to respond to it in their own way; the response is at an individual or family level. There is little or no dialogue with the public; advertising forces itself upon the public. At the same time, especially in a democracy with a market economy, such communication is required so that intelligent choices are made.

Advertising

Advertising has become a great influence on our society helping it choose from a wide and impressive array of products and services which have flooded the market. Advertising and industry are supportive to each other and enjoy a symbiotic relationship. As a result, the advertising profession has received much importance and recognition as a career. Even students being absorbed by other functional areas of business like production, finance, personnel do need grounding in advertising and how it works for the overall benefit of the business and society. Though advertising is mostly pursued as a post-graduate course, the welcome feature is to study it at the graduate level. Though a few books are available for studying advertising at the post-graduate level, there was hardly any book in Indian market to cater to the needs of graduation students. Since these students are not exposed to marketing, marketing research and psychology, the book should summarize the concepts from these fields which have a bearing on advertising practice.

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Marketing Communications

Modern marketing is the management of the four P’s-product, price, promotion and place or distribution channel. Ina sense the entire marketing process has a large content of communication. For instance, the product communicates a distinctive image such as youthfulness, glamor or prestige. The brand name communicates physical and psychological attributes of the product. The package communicates to the consumer what the manufacturer thinks of his conveniences and sense of beauty. The price communicates the quality of the product. There are communicates between buyers and sellers, i.e., the distribution channel .Thus each element of the marketing mix either helps or hinders communication and ultimately the sales effort. Marketing communication is thus a broader term than promotional strategy. However, the most important element of marketing communication is the planned promotional strategy. However, the most important element of marketing communication is the planned promotional communication.