MKTG 491
Business to Business Marketing
Chapter (7)
Market Communication
Brands
The meaning of a brand in business markets; “a shared desirable and exclusive idea embodied in products, services, places and/or experiences” (Kapferer, 2008: 13). A brand also consists of both functional and emotional values, for business customers the functional value is most important.
Identity, image and reputation
A brand develops an identity in the organization resulting in the expression to target audiences of a company’s enduring traits via selected symbols, behavior and communication activities (internal), the image and reputation is mostly happening outside of the company (external).
Identity, image and reputation
The relative importance of tangible/intangible attributes captured within the identity of a brand is determined by the type of product (For example, a supplier who sells leather deals with buyers who have a high degree of knowledge of the product and therefore the quality of the leather itself is the most important attribute of the brand) Over time the intangible attributes become more important than before because of the relationship with the supplier.
Integrated communication strategy
It is important that companies formulate communications strategies which are integrative, to ensure that consistent! messages are received by the target audience. The target audience will assimilate the given information and the result differs, for instance they can;
• arrange the information as intended by the marketer
• ignore the information
• put the information together in a way the marketer didn’t even think of.
Integrated communication strategy
The best a company can do to control this process is “try to understand the integration process and to modify their own approaches to maximize the return on the integration which occurs naturally” (Schultz, 1996: 140). The formulation of such communications strategy involves:
• setting communications objectives
• dividing on the role of each component to be used in the communications mix
• determining the communications budget; and
• selecting specific strategies for each component of the communications mix
Communication objectives
Communication objectives can be related to ‘what does a firm want its audience to do with the information transmitted via its communication tools’. Many objectives are associated with “buyer readiness states” or the “hierarchy-of-effects model”. The model describes the stages through which the buyer progresses when engaging with communications material.
Communication objectives
Awareness is developed when potential customers become familiar with a product/brand. At this stage a company is trying to generate “leads” by directing its communications campaign to all potential customers within a particular target market segment. To ensure exposure to what might be a large group of potential customers a company is likely to use (impersonal) mass communication such as advertising, public relations or even direct mail
Communication objectives
The next step is interest, reflecting a potential buyer’s desire to learn more about the product/brand. “Enquiries” (questions) arise out of this interest. A company responds to this by either handing out brochures, show videos (of recorded demonstrations or just general information), refer to the website or participate in trade shows.
Communication objectives
When a need for supply arises, so does “desire”, this results in evaluation of the suppliers. Prospects play a big role in this part; they are the potential customers for the product/service. At this stage a company uses telemarketing and field sales visits.
Trial is the next step and this is done by inside sales calls to new customers to try and get them excited and/or used to their product.
When it comes to purchase, the last communication objective in the table, a company uses transactional and relationship teams to try to maintain a bond with established customers.
Communication Mix
The communications mix is the set of objectives and tools used by marketers to achieve their goals, these vary for different types of products, also the product life cycle (intro, growth, maturity, decline) should be taken into consideration since different types of tools offer different types of results.
Communication Mix
1. Budgeting
When it comes to setting a budget for marketing and/or sales-activities it’s hard to set an appropriate budget, to counter these though decisions there are few methods which are used often:
I. Objective and task (Difficult since it requires a lot of analysis and estimating)
II. Percentage of sales
III. Competitive parity (Using competitors as a guideline)
IV. ‘All that can be afforded’
Communication Mix
2. Advertising strategy
When formulating an advertising strategy, a firm must make a number of decisions, namely;
I. Setting advertising objectives (performance goals / target audience)
II. Formulating a creative plan (development of a message / in B2B less emotion, more rationality)
III. Media selection; and (digital / broadcasting / search engine / display etc.)
IV. Evaluating the effectiveness
Communication Mix
3. Sales promotion
When a company aims for short-term results, a sales promotion could be handing out incentives to those who sell well. This is used a lot in one-off transactional sales situations, this may hurt a company when they are trying to develop relationships with customers since employees tend to go for the incentives.
Communication Mix
4. Trade missions and trade shows/exhibitions
Trade shows bring buyers and sellers together in one physical location. Sellers showcase and/or demonstrate their products/services to a fairly well-qualified (international) audience.
A trade mission is a government-sponsored promotional activity typically to increase economic welfare in a particular region/country. An example could be the government of country A sponsoring such an event in country B to stimulate export from A to B.
Communication Mix
5. Public relation (PR)
Public relation is used to manage a company’s image with its stakeholders and to close the gap between a company’s desired image and the way it is actually perceived by its various publics. PR’s importance is increasing, it can be used to;
• Attract and keep good employees
• Handle issues and overcome misconceptions relating to an organization
• Build goodwill amongst publics such as governments, local communities, suppliers, distributors and customers
• Build an organization’s prestige and reputation; and
• Promote products