The Communication Mix
Incorporate these for effective coverage. First off, I’m going to list the thirteen factors of the communications mix. Then, I will provide a brief explanation and example of each factor.
The communication mix is comprised of the following thirteen factors:
- Selling (Personal Selling)
- Advertising
- Sales promotion
- Direct marketing
- Publicity and public relations
- Sponsorship
- Exhibitions
- Packaging
- Point-of-sale merchandising
- Word of mouth
- Internet/Social Media Marketing
- Corporate Identity/Image
- The Communications Mix Explained and Examples
Selling
Selling refers to the process of making the sale of your product or service. This would include your employees who are sales people and the sales tactics they would use to present your product or service. In a larger organization, this might include your sales manager and sales people who may go out into the field and knock on doors, or visit businesses, or even on the sales floor of your business as in an auto dealership. In a small sized or family business, selling may be undertaken by a cashier, for example in the case of a small retail store or family owned restaurant. The cashier may double as the sales person, making menu suggestions in the case of the restaurant.
You do not have to be a large company to organize and plane an effective sales strategy. You can be a small retail store with one shop and have a sales strategy that every employee is a participant, helping generate sales for the business.
Advertising
Advertising is defined as the action of calling something to the attention of the public especially by paid announcements. Advertisement can be considered an umbrella factor of the communications mix that covers various other factors, such as PR, word-of-mouth, and sponsorship, just to name a few. However, for discussion purposes, I will define advertising as any of those announcements that are paid and available through print media, broadcast media, or online banner advertising that presents an offer or helps position a product or service.
While large organizations can spend millions of dollars on advertising in national magazines, newspapers, and television, small businesses can also employ advertising tactics on the local level without spending a fortune. For example, if you are a local property management company with a specific geographic location of service, you would not want to spend your time worrying about national advertising, it would not only be out of your budget but ineffective. Instead, focus your efforts on local and regional publications. You can also run commercials on your local cable company at affordable rates, targeting your local area.
Sales Promotion
Examples of sales promotion includes coupons, buy one, get one free offers, product samples, contests and prizes to name a few. Yes, sales promotion is part of the 7Ps of marketing, but can also be part of the communication mix because it is a specific “promotion” type. While under the marketing mix, the sales promotion is mainly directed at the consumer, however, it can be used toward employees of a specific organization or business. For example, offering your employees a bonus or prize in a sales contest, rewarding them form signing up customers to their service or bringing in new customers to buy their products.
The small business can employ the sales promotion just as the big boys do. One example I recently came across was for a local hair cutting salon. They are located in a local shopping center and offer 50% haircuts to patrons who bring in their coupon. The catch is, the coupons are located in other business establishments within the same shopping center. Each business promotes other businesses in the center and offers a coupons to entice consumers to purchase products or services.
Direct Marketing
Is any form of communication directed toward the individual regardless of medium. There are three characteristics that distinguish direct marketing from any form of communication delivery method:
Direct marketing has to be directed toward an individual within the target audience regardless of delivery method. This can be done so through direct mail post cards or mailers, e-mail, or through fax numbers.
Direct marketing has to have a specific call to action, meaning that it is instruction it’s recipient to take some action, such as call a phone number, mail in a response card, or fill out an online form for further information or to make a purchase.
Direct marketing requires data that can be tracked and measured from its target audience or customers so that adjustments can be made in future contacts.
There’s a lot that goes into a direct mail campaign along with testing your message, too much to cover in this posting. However, direct marketing can be used with great success for both large and small companies. When it comes to smaller businesses, they can leverage a direct marketing campaign quite easily and one that won’t break the bank.
For example, a local bicycle shop can implement a direct marketing campaign by collecting email addresses from local residents who purchase something from the shop. The incentive to give their e-mail address to the bicycle shop would be a 10% or more discount on future purchases or to receive future e-mail promotions and the monthly newsletter the bike shop e-mails. So what we have here is a combination of direct marketing, internet marketing (introduced later) and sales promotion, combined.
Publicity/Public Relations
Publicity or public relations refers to the ability to generate interest about your business, service, or product thorough media outlets at very little to no cost. There is a saying that bad publicity is better than no publicity, that may very well be logical, but I would rather strive for positive publicity. Generating publicity is typically done through well crafted press releases and sent to various publications that may have an interest in your product or service.
Small businesses can take advantage of generating publicity through local magazines or newspapers since the local paper or publication is more readily available to the local business, more so than larger publications. Types of news worthy of a press release by a local business may be an announcement for a local veterinary hospital offering free vaccination to pet owners, or a restaurant sponsoring a free entertainment night.
Sponsorship
Refers to supporting an event, person, or activity financially or through some other means, such as products. Larger companies will often sponsor sporting venue, like the Staples Center in Los Angeles, or sports teams like that in auto racing where you see each racing team will have one major sponsor and many smaller sponsors. These companies like to align themselves with winning teams and in return the winning, and not so winning, teams receive large sums of cash to support their teams for equipment and travel.
Sponsorship is not limited to the big boys. Small companies can participate in this form of advertising. Local sports teams like little league baseball teams often seek out sponsors, or a local clubs like a woman’s club often seek out local business to sponsor an event. You may also want to check with your local city activities coordinator to see if you can participate in a sponsorship for upcoming city activities.
Exhibitions
You have undoubtedly heard of trade shows. Every industry has an annual or bi-annual trade show convention where the organization rents out space to vendors in the industry who in turn showcase their latest products or services and take the opportunity to meet current and potential customers. These conventions or trade shows can get very expensive and elaborate. However, there are smaller shows that offer affordable solution for small businesses.Typically the local Chamber of Commerce holds an annual exhibition or two where local businesses can attend. There may be other, local, professional organizations which hold exhibitions annually in your community.
Packaging
Packaging refers to the enclosing and containment of goods within a box, or other material for display and sale. However, packaging can also refer to presentation folders in the case of a service oriented business.
For example, if you are a local medical facility, your packaging may include a presentation folder and additional flyers and brochures enclosed within the presentation folder. Your packaging or folder design is critical in how your customers view your brand identity and company. Keeping things professional help promote a more positive and favorable view of your business.
In working with a local taco shop restaurant, they began making home made salsa. When I met with the owners, they where placing their salsa in regular jars, with just a label that listed the mildness or spiciness of the salsa.
Point-of-Sale Merchandising
Point-of-Sale Merchandise is exactly that, merchandise that sits where the sale is taking place. For most stores, you see quite a bit of merchandise sitting next to the register where customers are checking out and paying for their goods. The idea here is that you will pick up the item at the last minute in an impulse and purchase the item. You see this a lot with magazines, candy and gum products, and various other small sized items.
Word of mouth
Word of mouth marketing is perhaps the least expensive form of advertising a business can engage in, that’s because it’s Free! It can also be the most challenging form of advertising and that’s because you are not in control of who says what to whom about your business. However, there are some factors that you can employ that can help generate a favorable word of mouth campaign:
Get your customers to try your product or service. If they don’t know what you are offering or selling, then they can not talk about your business.
Have impeccable customer service and treat your customers with respect. You want to make your customers feel welcomed in your place of business. I have often told each of my clients that the company in their industry who wins at the customer service game is the company who will be the most successful and that’s because their customers will tell others, who will tell others, and so on.
Allow your customers to be involved in the decision making process of your company. This can be done through surveys, either in store or online.
Stay in touch with your customers. Provide them with news about your company or special offers on a regular basis. This can be done through traditional direct mailings or via e-mail newsletters.
Internet/Social Media Marketing
Ever since the explosion of the internet in the late 1990?s, many businesses have turned toward marketing their products and services online. With 78% of the North American population on the internet (Source: World Internet Usage Statistics) it would be in your best interest to have at minimum a web presence.
Internet marketing encompass Pay-Per-Clip (PPC) advertising, banner advertising, e-mail marketing and newsletters, as well as social media, including having a presence on Facebook.com and Twitter.com, to mane a few social media sites. While many businesses do have a presence online, I always advocate a strong, traditional print marketing campaign to compliment your online marketing campaign and that’s because not everyone online accesses their internet on a daily basis. Plus, using traditional print media can help drive traffic to your website.
Corporate Identity/Image
Corporate identity or corporate image refers to your companies visual appeal. From the company logo to the colors used in the logo and marketing collateral, all communicate the company identity. Businesses who have a consistent look throughout their marketing collateral tend to be viewed more favorably. Customers tend to see these businesses with a consistent image to be more serious and organized over their counterparts who tend to be eclectic in their marketing collateral design.
Wrapping it up
There is a lot of information presented in this post. And each communication mix factor can take even more pages to fully explain and implement. However, the gist of the article was to provide the small business owner.marketer with some insight to the communication mix and provide them with the tools they need to generate some ideas when it comes to implementing a successful marketing communications campaign.
Source : http://www.marketingcommunicationsblog.com/