Discuss the steps in developing effective marketing Communication

 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.