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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.
Marketing Communication
Strategies
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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.
pull promotion; the producer directs its
promotional activities (advertising and consumer
promotion) toward final consumers to induce
them to buy the product. If the 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
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Type of Product/Market
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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
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Generally, personal selling is used more heavily with
expensive and risky goods and in markets with fewer
and larger sellers.
Buyer-Readiness Stage
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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.
Product Life-Cycle Stage
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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.
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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.
Resources
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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.