Marketers are always interested in communicating their offerings to their consumers. Marketing Communication serve this purpose well. The main purpose behind communication is to promote organization its products or services and ideas. They use various promotional tools for this purpose including advertising, sales promotion, public relations, direct marketing and personal selling. These can be used in different ways and are also called traditional marketing tools. With the advent of new technology and availability of other digital media options, the tools for communication have also evolved. For instance, television media was the one widely used for advertising but now internet have emerged as another successful media which can be used for advertisement. Here i would briefly discuss each of the tools mentioned above:
Advertising: It is paid form of non personal communication where message may delivered by using broadcast, print or digital media. Companies want to inform, persuade and remind consumers of their offerings. We find numerous advertisements on television, hear multiple ads on radio, view several in newspapers, magazines, journals and find them embedded in various webpages, games and applications we use. These all are types of different advertisements. Advertisements are usually costly but reach masses. Current issue with this tool is clutter created by all companies. This can be avoided by creating innovative message that break the clutter and stand out.
Public Relations: It is all about maintaining good relationships with various public of the company which includes its customers, suppliers, dealers, government agencies, community people, creditors and shareholders. To keep in touch with this public, company may rely on press releases, corporate identity materiel, financial or some written reports by the company, websites, blogs, social communities, buzz marketing and special events etc. These marketing communication tools are less costly and help creating awareness better than advertising.
Personal Selling: Its is done through company representative who present company's offerings to prospective customers. These representatives are known as salesperson who influence and convince customers to buy product or service. They should be presentable, well equipped with communication skills and active listening. This form of marketing communication can help generating greater sales and attracting new customers. It may be more costly but can be effective.
Sales Promotion: Sales promotions are the incentives provided to consumers for short term. These incentives attract customers towards company's products or services. Companies use various types of promotional tactics such as free sampling, coupons, premiums, cash rebates, contests, specialty advertising, product packs and contests etc. These communication tools may not be expensive but can provide company with distinctive edge over its competitors.
Direct Marketing: It is direct form of marketing in which organizations directly contact with the target audience with their specific needs matching the company's offerings. It may be done using email, post mail, kiosks, telephone calls etc. This marketing communication is based on narrow casting approach in which only those consumers are contacted who comes in the target market of the company. One more benefit of this tool is that it help building closer customer relationship as they feel privileged and special.
