Download The tasks of marketing communication

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Part 1 • Introduction to Marketing Communications
Scholars’ paper 1.1
Beware, Engaging confusion
Verhoef, P.C., Reinartz, W.J. and Krafft, M. (2010) Customer Engagement as a New
Perspective in Customer Management, Journal of Service Research, 13(3), 247–52.
As already mentioned in the text, the use of the term ‘engagement’ has become
increasingly widespread in the marketing literature. The term is used in different
ways to mean different things and this paper is a good example of the different inter­
pretations that are available. This paper considers engagement as a behavioural
manifestation toward the brand or firm, one that goes beyond transactions. The
authors propose a conceptual model of the antecedents, impediments, and firm
consequences of customer engagement. Readers might be interested to know that
this journal published a special edition on customer engagement.
The tasks of marketing
communication
Bowersox and Morash made a significant contribution in their 1989 paper when they demonstrated how marketing flows, including the information flow, can be represented as a network
that has the sole purpose of satisfying customer needs and wants. Communication is important
in these exchange networks as it can help achieve one of four key tasks:
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It can inform and make potential customers aware of an organisation’s offering.
Communication may attempt to persuade current and potential customers of the desirability
of entering into an exchange relationship.
Communications can also be used to reinforce experiences. This may take the form of
reminding people of a need they might have or reminding them of the benefits of past
transactions with a view to convincing them that they should enter into a similar exchange.
In addition, it is possible to provide reassurance or comfort either immediately prior to an
exchange or, more commonly, post-purchase. This is important, as it helps to retain current
customers and improve profitability, an approach to business that is much more costeffective than constantly striving to lure new customers.
Finally, marketing communications can act as a differentiator, particularly in markets where
there is little to separate competing products and brands. Mineral water products, such as
Perrier and Highland Spring, are largely similar: it is the communications surrounding the
products that have created various brand images, enabling consumers to make purchasing
decisions. In these cases it is the images created by marketing communications that enable
people to differentiate one brand from another and position them so that consumers’ purchas­
ing confidence and positive attitudes are developed. Therefore, communication can inform,
persuade, reinforce and build images to differentiate a product or service, or to put it another
way, DRIP (Fill, 2002) (see Table 1.1).
At a higher level, the communication process not only supports the transaction, by informing,
persuading, reinforcing or differentiating, but also offers a means of exchange itself, for example
communication for entertainment, for potential solutions and concepts for education and
self-esteem. Communications involve intangible benefits, such as the psychological satisfactions
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Chapter 1 • Introducing marketing communications
Table 1.1
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DRIP Elements of marketing communications
Task
Sub-task
Explanation
Differentiate
Position
To make a product or service stand out
in the category
Reinforce
Remind or reassure
To consolidate and strengthen previous
messages and experiences
Inform
Make aware, educate
To make known and advise of availability
and features
Persuade
Purchase or make
further enquiry
To encourage further positive
purchase-related behaviour
associated with, for example, the entertainment value of television advertisements or the
experiences within a sponsored part of a social network. Communications can also be seen
as a means of perpetuating and transferring values and culture to different parts of society
or networks. For example, it is argued that the way women are portrayed in the media and
stereotypical images of very thin or ‘size zero’ women are dysfunctional in that they set up
inappropriate role models. The form and characteristics of the communication process adopted
by some organisations (both the deliberate and the unintentional use of signs and symbols
used to convey meaning) help to provide stability and continuity.
Viewpoint 1.2
Holiday tasks
Two particular companies which operate in the holiday market serve to illustrate how important it is
to understand the tasks that marketing communications are required to undertake. These companies
are TUI, which owns the Thomson and First Choice brands, and Thomas Cook. The trading results show
two different situations, with TUI reporting a 25 per cent rise in pre-tax profits, to £360 million, and
Thomas Cook making a £398 million pre-tax loss.
At times some consumers confuse Thomson with Thomas Cook, if only because of the similarities of
the first four letters of the brands’ names. So, marketing communications are used to differentiate the
brands, as TUI did in 2011 when it released a national press ad with the line ‘Another holiday company
may be experiencing turbulence, but we’re in really great shape’. This sent a message that TUI Travel
results were on course, yet Thomas Cook and others in the market had experienced a fall of 14 per cent.
It also said TUI are different from Thomas Cook.
Branding in the holiday market usually takes second place to price-based promotional activities.
However, there are signs that TUI have been trying to communicate some of the brand values associated
with Thomson and First Choice. For example, Thomson invested £5 million communicating its ‘exclusive’
and ‘tailored’ offering using the strapline ‘Uniquely designed holidays’. £3 million was used to relaunch
and reposition First Choice, as ‘the home of all-inclusive’.
Thomas Cook has had to cope with an entirely different set of circumstances. Not only did it delay the
announcement of its full-year results, it was also forced to issue a third profits warning in a year. This
was followed by a £100 million emergency refinancing operation and changes in senior management.
These results and activities led to considerable negative publicity, all of which required their marketing
communications to take a very different approach.
The response from Thomas Cook to TUI’s advertising was a press ad designed to inform consumers
that its business had delivered ‘great value for 170 years’, and that 2012 would be no different.
Source: Based on Eleftheriou-Smith (2012).
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