The marketing communicators must (1) identify the target audience (2) Determine the communication objectives (3) Design the message and (4) manage and coordinate the total marketing communication process.
Identify the Target Audience : A marketing Communicator
must start with a clear target audience in mind. The audience may be potential
buyers of the company’s products, current users, deciders, or influence. The
audience may be individuals, groups, particular publics or the general public.
The target audience will critically influence the communicator’s decision on
what is to be said. How it is to be said, when it is to be said, where is to be
said and who is to say it.
Determining the
communication Objectives : Once the target audience and its
characteristics are identified, the marketing communication must determine what
response is sought. The ultimate response of course, is purchase. But behavior
is the end result of a long process of consumer decision marking. The marketing
communicator needs to know how to move the target audience from where it now
stands to a higher state of readiness to buy. We will work with the “hierarchy
– of – effects “models and described the six buyer – readiness states
Awareness, Knowledge, liking, Preference, Conviction, and Possible, depending
upon the degree of consumer involvement and the degree of brand differences.
Designing the
Message : Having defined
the desired audience response, the communicators move to developing an
effective message. Ideally the message should get attention, hold interest,
arouse desire and obtain action. In practice, few messages take the consumer
all the way from awareness through purchase, but the frame work suggest the
desirable qualities.
Managing and
Coordinating the Marketing Communication Process : The wide range
of communication tools and messages available for reaching the target audience
makes it imperative that they be coordinated. Other wise the messages might be
ill timed in terms of the availability of goods: they may lack consistency: or
they might not be cost effective. Left alone, each manager of a communication
resource will fight for more budget irrespective of the relative merits of each
tools.