- Introduction: The role of communication in marketing
Let’s assume that you are working on a product that you think will be interesting to most of your customers, but is probably not yet. What would be the best way to communicate this?
The answer may vary from one company to another. For example, if you are trying to convince potential customers that your product will be useful, it’s very important that you get the message across in a way that people don’t have time to think about or find boring. The best way to do this is through timely and visible communication. In fact, business communication has long been regarded as a kind of marketing: a form of advertising designed to help businesses reach their target audience.
A change in consumer behavior that affects the purchase of goods and services by individual consumers can be referred to as marketing. The term may also refer more broadly to any form of advertising aimed at influencing consumer behavior.
One well-known example of marketing communication is television commercials (commercials), which are typically 30–60 seconds long pre-recorded pieces used for both promoting products and making sales pitches for them. These commercials are broadcast around the world on different channels like radio airwaves and cable television channels, as well as TV networks like ABC, NBC, CBS, TNT, and others.
Another example involves direct mail mailings sent directly from companies or organizations to consumers. It is possible for companies to send out large amounts of mail each month with the aim of getting individuals interested in their products or services so they will buy them later or start using them now; some people send back such responses or order more merchandise after seeing an ad on television or in magazines; others have decided not to buy a particular product because they already own it; still others have chosen a different product because they heard about it through word-of-mouth (or another source) — all these various movements are known as market research or consumer research depending on which device was used by companies who conducted the research (see Direct Marketing).
These tools of communication work because people tend not just to react when exposed in front of something new but also when exposed repeatedly over time (as via repetition). What is especially interesting about this approach is how similar we can all become — even if we aren’t related — when exposed repeatedly over time: through brand image and reputation-building strategies like those employed by PR firms in media campaigns trying to increase distribution among certain target demographic groups and boosting sales among certain markets.
- What is buyer behavior?
Buying behavior is a complex topic, and as opposed to other areas of marketing (such as branding or distribution), buyer behavior is one that can be studied through various channels:
- In online purchases, the purchase journey (e.g., browsing, entering a store, walking through a checkout line)
- In online purchases, the buying process (e.g., making a selection from a vast array of options)
- In online sales, the sale itself (e.g., the moment when an item was purchased and properly transferred to the customer’s account)
- In offline purchases, the act of buying (i.e., how much is paid for an item)
Each step along the way has its own set of questions about what happens during it. What are customers doing? What actions do they take? How do we measure these things? Are they influenced by brand attributes? How can we communicate these things effectively? And so on.
So there is no single answer to this question — but we have some ideas and observations that have informed our work on integrated marketing communications (ICC). We define these in terms of three distinct technologies:
- Email Marketing • Web-based Customer Interaction Management Systems (CIMS) • Mobile App Interaction Management Systems (MANS)
One thing about combining all three is that there are many ways for you to choose which one works best for your particular company/brand/product/etc — and we are not even talking about just one technology here. So it’s more important than ever before to pay attention to which technology fits your needs best and how well it works within your company’s culture. In short: something that works well for Apple may not work very well for you. Something that works well with e-commerce sites may not work very well with retail stores or brick-and-mortar locations or mobile stores or whatever industry you’re in… if you don’t know which mix will be right for you then don’t try to use all three at once!
Why did I choose this topic in particular above others? Because I have found it really hard to nail down what actually motivates buyers when they make a purchase decision, especially within digital contexts where everybody wants people to buy products and everybody has access to whatever information they want any time they want it available to them in their push notifications or wherever.
- The relationship between buyer behavior and communication
In a context where there is no customer and no buy, there is only a market. As such, it follows that we measure the market by how many of us are buying and how many of us are buying what.
These two variables are often confused; they are not the same in practice. The first is how many people you can convert to your product, and the second is how many people you can actually sell to. So when we talk about “buyer behavior” as an indicator of success or failure, we mean whether or not you have achieved your goal of converting more buyers into buyers of your product than any other competitor (which may or may not be what you intended).
However, being able to sell to all those who want your product is not the same as being able to convert them into buyers of it. And the reason for this difference is that there are different dynamics at work when it comes to converting buyers into new users:
- Some buyers come in through channel effects (in which they will be influenced by their experience with a particular channel)
- Some come in looking for a specific feature/benefit (and thus believe they will be happier if they find it)
- Some look for existing features/benefits across multiple channels and packages (and thus tend to prefer existing features over new ones)
It does not follow that one must always choose one over another; rather, it should be based on the match between buyer behavior and the goals and needs of the brand. On this point, recent research from researchers at Harvard Business School suggests that there are four levels at which brands should aim:
- Level 1: For example, Apple does well because its brand name resonates with its users but does poorly because its products do not meet their needs.
- Level 2: A good example would be Google search results which tend to highlight topics relevant to Google’s search engine user base but do poorly because their products do not meet their needs.
- Level 3: A good example would be Amazon products which tend to highlight topics relevant to Amazon’s marketplace user base but do poorly because their products do not meet their needs.
- Level 4: A good example would be Facebook products which tend to highlight topics relevant to Facebook’s social network user base but do poorly because their products don’t meet their needs.
So we need separate levels for each type of buyer behavior; each level should have its own target audience and requirements.
- The elements of integrated marketing communications
The first step in the integration process is to understand not just the target market, but their buying behavior. The first step in understanding their buying behavior is to understand the marketer’s perspective. In this case, that means looking at a buyer’s needs and requirements.
You’ll also need to look at the buyer as an individual, not just as a consumer. You want to know what they want, what they need and whether or not they are willing to pay for it. In this case, you could look at:
- Their needs (what they need from you)
- Their needs (what they need from a competitor)
- Their goals (what they want from your product)
- Their goals (what they want from a competitor)
In general, if you can get them talking about what it is that you do, then you will have more information than if you had just asked them directly. This information is critical in determining both how well your product matches their needs and how much of an additional benefit your product offers over theirs.
If you can tie all of this together into one big picture of the consumer, it will help immensely with your marketing communications strategy. It will also be helpful if you can show them how different segments of their potential users have different needs: some are more tech-savvy than others; some are more business-minded than others; some are more social-conscious than others… etc.
It may be useful to show them data that represents each segment as well: demographics, income levels… etc. This way it becomes easier for them to see who or what is your target market and when or where it fits in their lives — which makes it all the easier for them to decide whether or not they’re interested in your product/service/app/whatever!
- The benefits of integrated marketing communications
Integrated marketing communications (IMC) is a new way of thinking about marketing, and in particular, the way it interacts with buyers. It’s a term that has been popping up in the press but there’s not much body of research on it. I feel like I have to write something here to set the record straight: IMC is dead, long live integrated marketing communications (IMC).
IMC has been around for a while but maybe not as widely as people think. In fact, it’s more of an academic idea than a fully-fledged industry practice. But there is so much value in IMC that it’s worth looking into and seeing if there are any practices you can use to improve your marketing.
The topic of integrated marketing communications has been around for decades now (fades from one medium to another over time), and this blog post from Eli Pariser makes an excellent case for why its time has come. In fact, I’m going to argue that we were far too late picking up on IMC: we wasted years trying to follow along with the best practices of other firms, chasing those who had proven themselves in practice — most notably Google — who had already integrated their relationships with customers into their day-to-day operations. We failed because we failed at picking up on their methods; they picked up on ours and we fell behind.
The key here is context: What did Google do? What did Facebook do? What did Twitter do? They didn’t just show up and start building social media tools; they built them using IMC principles. They used data analytics tools to understand what customers wanted, then built those tools so that they could communicate that information back to them more easily and thus communicate value more effectively. And they applied these human science principles as seamlessly as possible across all channels: search, email, social networks and messaging apps were all integrated parts of the overall strategy at Facebook and Twitter; Google was actually building a whole suite of products designed around integrating search results (not quite IMC yet) while still maintaining control over search results via AdWords or AdSense; etc…
So what does this mean for us? It means that we should stop chasing other firms who have already found success doing something similar or even better than us — which is what we have been doing so far — and instead look at ourselves through new eyes: how can we build different products for different channels? How can we
- The challenges of integrated marketing communications
Integrated marketing communications (sometimes called “integrated marketing”) refers to a group of disciplines that are combined in order to draw the right conclusions about buyer behavior. They are often referred to as an ‘integrated’ field because they can be combined with a number of other disciplines and then used to draw different conclusions about specific segments of the market.
In the context of marketing, communication refers to the art of passing a message from the firm to the market and back, from the market to the firm. This is not an easy goal at all, but it remains important for many companies in many industries — even though they may not specifically agree with each other on exactly what it involves. The challenge is that these disciplines are often kept separate (though there is a great deal more overlap between them than people realize), and firms must be able to work together in a coordinated way on projects involving them. Before we get into how this happens and why it works, let’s talk about why it can be so hard for marketers to integrate with other disciplines:
There are two schools of thought here: one school believes that companies should only integrate if they know exactly what they want from each discipline and how it will create value for their end users; one school believes that companies should integrate with any discipline if they can find something in common there.
All sides have their merits, but I am going to focus on the first school, because I think this approach falls apart under scrutiny: some people believe that companies should only collaborate with their most valuable partners (some call this “winning alliances”); others believe that companies should work together on projects regardless of whether or not they have any particular skills or expertise in these fields (this is called “matching talent”). Both schools tend towards governance over strategy within their respective areas of expertise – some people believe you should choose your friends wisely; others believe you need team building exercises at least once per year regardless of whether you like them or not.
For me personally, I have always been partial towards both approaches. The reason being that I don’t think either approach works well enough by itself – especially in different industries and different contexts — but also because I think both approaches fail when applied across diverse products/markets: there is no way around this; focusing too narrowly on one discipline could kill your ability to see cross-disciplinary opportunities wherever you look — which could kill your ability as well as your product.
- Conclusion: The importance of communication in marketing
Communication is one of the most important things a company can do to its business. The theory of marketing is simple: you want your customers to be as excited about what you are selling as you are. This means that, in order to achieve this goal, you need to talk about it with them. You have to make sure your message gets across, which means writing and talking about it.
In terms of marketing, communication refers to the art of passing a message from the firm to the market and back, from the market to the firm. In this post on Medium, I provide some quick tips for how you can move from a “me-too” approach (you do exactly as much as anyone else and hope it works) to an integrated marketing communications strategy (you take ownership of your message and execute it well).
The ability of companies to create value for their customers is at least partially dependent upon the ability of customers themselves to create value through their behavior. Typically, organizations try to balance these two goals by using processes such as operations (people), quality control (products), logistics (supply chain), sales and marketing functions (organization), and product promotion (marketing). Communication skills help organizations balance these competing goals by providing people with information they need while also helping them understand where they can improve. It is important that people within an organization work together in order for all parts of an organization’s business processes – including communication – be able to run smoothly and efficiently. There are many different ways that organizations communicate with their customers:
- Selling written information through websites
- Selling material through printed materials or pamphlets
- Selling through traditional media such as radio or television broadcasts
- Telemarketing calls or emails
If your organization does not have a strong communication function at its core, then it will probably have trouble delivering on its promise of providing value – especially if there are multiple channels from which customers can buy products and services from your organization. For example, if there isn’t a website that does everything an offline customer wants but doesn’t cost much more than other websites, then people won’t go there because they don’t think it will provide any advantages over online alternatives; similarly, if there aren’t any printed materials available at all but there is some sort of online presence where huge numbers of people read news articles every day about what companies are doing in this space then people won.
