Marketing Communications Strategies

1. Marketing Communications Strategies Objective:Introducing and discussing the importance of different communication strategies. In the end of this week, students will understand when and how to use pull and push strategies and different communication tools through the product life cycle of a product.

2. Marketing Communication Strategies • Marketers can choose from two basic marketing communications strategies; • push promotion; a push strategy involves “pushing” the product through distribution channels to final consumers. Here, the producer directs its promotional activities (primarily personal selling and trade promotion) toward channel members to induce them to carry the product and to promote it t final consumers.

3. pull promotion; the producer directs its promotional activities (advertising and consumer promotion) toward final consumers to induce them to buy the product. Ifthe pull strategy is effective, consumers then will demand the product from channel members. • Companies generally use both of them in combination. • Companies consider the following factors when developing their promotion mix strategies; • type of product/market • the buyer-readiness stage • the product life-cycle stage

4. Type of Product/Market • The importance of different promotion tools varies between consumer and business markets. • Consumer goods companies; • pull more • spend more on advertising, then sales promotion, personal selling, and public relations • Industrial goods companies; • push more • spend more on personal selling, then sales promotion, advertising, public relations

5. Generally, personal selling is used more heavily with expensive and risky goods and in markets with fewer and larger sellers.

6. Buyer-Readiness Stage • The effects of the promotional tools vary for the different buyer-readiness stages. • In the awareness and knowledge stages; advertising and public relations play the major role rather than personal selling. • In the customer liking, preference and conviction stages; personal selling makes more sense. • In the purchase stage (closing the sale stage); sales calls and sales promotions are most effective.

7. Product Life-Cycle Stage The effects of different promotion tools also vary with stages of the product life cycle. • In the introduction stage; advertising and public relations are good for producing high awareness and sales promotion is useful in promoting early trial. Personal selling must be used to get the trade to carry the product. • In the growth stage; advertising and public relations are still powerful but sales promotions can be reduced.

8. In the mature stage; sales promotion again becomes important relative to advertising. Advertising is only needed to remind the consumers of the product. • In the decline stage; advertising is kept to remind, public relations may drop, salespeople give up, sales promotions may still be used.

9. Resources • McCabe, S. (2009). Marketing Communications in Tourism and Hospitality: Concepts, Strategies and Cases. Butterworth-Heinemann: Oxford. • Kotler, P.; Bowen, J. and Makens, J. (2010). Marketing for Hospitality and Tourism (5th. ed.). Prentice Hall: New Jersey. • Kotler, P. and Armstrong, G. (2010) Principles of Marketing (13th ed.). Prentice Hall: New Jersey.