UNIT 1
Communication
Organizations engage with a variety of audiences in order to finally pursue their marketing and
business objectives.
Objectives of Marketing:
• Creating awareness
• Getting people to try products
• Providing information
• Retaining loyal customers
• Increasing the use of products
• Identifying potential customers
Mediums of Communication in Marketing:
• Impersonal (mass media)
• Interpersonal (with salesperson or a friend)
• Interactive (direct feedback possibility exists)
Barriers to Communication:
• Barriers at Source
• Barriers in Encoding
• Barriers in Transmission
• Barriers in Decoding
Factors that affect the Communication Process:
• Characteristics of the source: source can be direct or indirect
• Message characteristics
• Characteristics of the receiver
• Characteristics of the medium
Message Source Characteristics:
• Credibility
• Attractiveness
• Power
UNIT 2
Promotional Budget
A promotional budget refers to money earmarked for the marketing, advertisement, or sales of
a product or brand. The amount to budget to promote a new or existing product will depend on
business analytics, market research, and anticipated return on investment.
Requirements for a Promotional Budget:
• Understanding of Co’s Growth
• Product Cycle
• Objectives and Risk
• Cost of buying and operations
Metrics for Planning and Budgeting:
• Traffic Generation
➢ Source
➢ Flow
➢ Type of traffic
➢ Frequency and density of traffic
➢ Profitability
• Conversion
➢ Source/ tool
➢ Cost of conversion
➢ Rate of conversion
• Revenue
➢ Which Method return higher revenue (understand the term revenue in your context)
➢ Which model can generate higher sales (Tools of promotions)
➢ Which media can help in this?
Methods for setting Promotional Budget:
• Percentage of last year’s sales
• Affordable method
• Competitive parity
• Objective and task method
UNIT 3
Creativity
Creativity is the use of imagination or original ideas to create something; inventiveness. It can
be defined as the tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may
be useful in solving problems, communicating with others, and entertaining ourselves and
others. Creativity in marketing requires working with customers right from the start to weave
their experiences with your efforts to expand your company's reach.
Creative Marketing: It is the generation and execution of communicating unique messages in
an inventive way. This allows a message to be remembered, leading to higher brand recognition
and consequently, increased sales.
Approaches to Creative Marketing:
• Branding
• Customer Experience
• Advertising and promotion
• Services and products
Importance of Creative Marketing:
• Creative marketing can cut through the noise.
• Effectively implementing creativity into your marketing efforts and campaigns means the
messaging you’ve deemed important will be remembered.
• When it comes to the advertising space, for instance, creative marketing can be crucial for
making your digital assets stand out from the competition.
• Creativity equals originality. Without originality you’re unlikely to shine, evoke emotion
and truly establish your brand’s identity.
• Not only can creative marketing help a brand stand out, but it can also be highly cost-
effective.
❖ Convergent thinking means finding a single solution to a problem, whereas divergent
thinking results in multiple creative solutions.
Elements of Creativity:
• Fluency
• Flexibility
• Originality
• Elaboration
• Sensitivity
Creative Challenges:
• Translation of idea into message.
• Catching the right approach.
• Clarity.
• Power idea
• Able to create brand personality.
• Arresting and engaging.
• Taking Creative Risk
Creative Process:
• Preparation - Inspiration phase
• Incubation - Absorbing and Processing
• Illumination - Deep insight or the “Eureka” Moment
• Verification - Putting your idea through from Pen to Paper
Creative Strategy: It is an intentional and strategic approach a company takes in developing
and implementing steps that will ensure and support your long-term business growth.
Creative Brief:
• Describe your company
• Explain the Project
• Outline objectives and success metrics
• Define your target audience
• Explain style, voice and tone
• List all deliverables
• Timeline and stakeholders
• Budget
Marketing Campaigns
Marketing campaigns are sets of strategic activities that promote a business's goal or objective.
A marketing campaign could be used to promote a product, a service, or the brand as a whole.
Types of Marketing Campaigns:
• Acquisition Marketing Campaign
• Product Marketing Campaign
• Social Media Campaign
• Paid Advertising Campaign
• Content Marketing Campaign
• Email Marketing Campaign
• User-Generated Content Campaign
• Brand Awareness Campaign
• Affiliate Marketing Campaign
UNIT 4
Media Planning
Media planning is the process of determining how, when, and to what audience a branding or
advertising message will be delivered. A media planner analyses how a message is intended to
support a marketing or advertising strategy and then develops tactics to share that message in
the right places with the right people.
Planning should concentrate on:
• Whom to reach
• When and where to reach
• The total target group
• The frequency of exposure
• The affordable cost involvement
Components of Media Planning:
• Audience
• Marketing budget
• Conversion goals
• Definition of success
• Message frequency
• Message reach
Importance of Media-Planning:
• Optimum Utilisation of Resources
• Helps in Achieving Advertising Objectives
• Selection of Appropriate Media
• Selection of Optimum Media Mix
• Helps in Allocating Advertising Budget
• Ensures Appropriate Timing of Advertising
• Helps in Controlling
Challenges in Media-Planning:
• Scattered audience
• Changing dynamics and preferences
• Compliance with laws and regulations
• Concerns of data privacy
• Patents / copyrights / licensing issue
Components of a Media Plan:
• Objectives
• Strategies
• Media Choices
• Media Tactics
Factors affecting media planning:
• Nature of Product
• Nature of Customers
• Distribution of Product
• Media Used by Competitors
• Media Availability
• Media Reach and Coverage
• Advertising Objectives
• Nature of Message
• Size of Ad-Budget
• Media Frequency
• Media Image
• Media Discount
Media Planning Strategies:
• Selecting Relevant Media Channel(s)
• Determining the Relevant Timeline
• Coordinating the Channel Mix
• Leveraging Audience Targeting
• Setting Reach and Frequency Goals
• Choosing a Voice
Media Mix:
• Market
• Medium
• Methodology
• Measurement
• Money
UNIT 5
Tools for Promotion
• Advertising
• Sales Promotion
• Public Relations
• Direct Marketing
• Personal Selling
Direct Marketing
Direct marketing, also known as Direct Response Marketing, is a system of marketing by which
organizations communicate directly with target customers to generate a response or transaction.
This response may take the form of an inquiry, a purchase, or even a vote. The business of
selling products or services directly to the public, e.g., by mail order or telephone selling, rather
than through retailers.
Benefits of Direct Marketing:
• Targeting
• Personalisation
• Affordable
• Measurable
• Informative
• Timing
Challenges of Direct Marketing:
• Intrusive
• Environment
• Low response rates
• Competition
• Cost
• Legal issues
Database Marketing: The use of specific information about individual customers and/or
prospects to implement more effective and efficient marketing communications. It is a
systematic approach to the gathering, consolidation and processing of consumer data. Database
marketing is also a form of direct marketing.
UNIT 6
Sales Promotion
Sales promotion has been defined as “a direct inducement that offers an extra value or incentive
for the product to the sales force, distributors, or the ultimate consumer with the primary
objective of creating an immediate sale.
Features of Sales Promotion:
• First, sales promotion involves some type of inducement that provides an extra incentive
to buy. This incentive is usually the key element in a promotional program; it may be a
coupon or price reduction, the opportunity to enter a contest or sweepstakes, a money-back
refund or rebate, or an extra amount of a product
• A second point is that sales promotion is essentially an acceleration tool, designed to speed
up the selling process and maximize sales volume.
• Companies also use limited-time offers such as price-off deals to retailers or a coupon with
an expiration date to accelerate the purchase process. Sales promotion attempts to maximize
sales volume by motivating customers who have not responded to advertising.
Consumer Oriented Promotions:
• Samples
• Coupons
• Premiums
• Refunds/Rebates
• Bonus Packs
• Price-offs
• Event Marketing
• Frequency Programs
Trade Oriented Promotions:
• Dealer incentives
• Trade allowances
• Trade shows
• Training Programs
• Cooperative advertising
ATL vs BTL:
ATL stands for Above the line marketing, which entails mass media methods so as to target a
wider audience. BTL expands to Below the line marketing, which is used when the company
wants to target a small but specific group. Uses conventional marketing mediums such as TV,
Radio, Print media, Internet, etc
UNIT 7
Personal selling
Personal selling involves selling through a person-to-person communications process. This
direct and interpersonal communication lets the sender immediately receive and evaluate
feedback from the receiver. This communications process, known as dyadic communication
(between two people or groups), allows for more specific tailoring of the message and more
personal communications than do many of the other media discussed.
Stages of Personal Selling:
• Provider
• Persuader
• Prospector
• Problem Solving
• Procreator
Role of Personal Selling:
• Surveying - Educating themselves more about their customers’ businesses and regularly
assessing these businesses and their customers to achieve a position of knowledgeable
authority.
• Mapmaking - Outlining both an account strategy and a solutions strategy (for the customer).
This means laying out a plan, discussing it with the customer, and revising it as changes
require.
• Guiding - Bringing incremental value to the customer by identifying problems and
opportunities, offering alternative options and solutions, and providing solutions with
tangible value.
• Fire starting - Engaging customers and driving them to commit to a solution.
7 step selling process:
• Prospecting and Qualifying
• Preparation
• Approach
• Presentation
• Overcoming Objections
• Closing the sale
• Follow up
Characteristics of top sales performers:
• Ego strength
• A sense of urgency
• Ego drive
• Assertiveness
• Willingness to take risk
• Sociable
• Abstract reasoning
• Skepticism
• Creativity
• Empathy
UNIT 9
Cause-Related Marketing
Cause-related marketing is a mutually beneficial collaboration between a corporation and a
non-profit designed to promote the former's sales and the latter's cause.
Benefits of Cause-Related Marketing:
• Fulfilling the demand for corporate social responsibility
• Optimizes awareness and reputation thus Improving their corporate image
• Building a relationship with the community
• Increasing customer loyalty towards brand/ company
• Boosting employee morale
• Standing out from the competition
• Generate publicity
Disadvantages of Cause-Related Marketing:
• Can be costly
• Wrong decisions
• Public scrutiny, if inauthentic then criticism
Types of Cause Marketing Campaigns:
• Point of sale
• Special products
• Special incentive for donation
• Digital campaign
• Buy one, give one model
Building a Successful Cause Marketing Campaign:
• Identify your cause
• Determine your contribution
• Involve your audience
• Co-promote with a non-profit
