Marketing Communications

Chapter 4 : Marketing Communication Planning Process

Marketing & Marketing Communications
Marketing Communications Plan

Situational Analysis

Competition
Market Analysis
Customer Analysis
Positioning Analysis

Marketing Communication Objectives

Creating Brand Awareness and Building Brand Equity
Providing Information
Increasing Sales
Differentiating the Brand
Influencing Consumer Behavior

Budget Planning

Developing a Marketing Communications Program

Selection of Marketing Communications Mix
Creative Strategy
Media Decisions

Evaluation and Control of Marketing Communication Programs.

Chapter Summary

For successful implementation of the marketing communications program a systematic marketing communications plan is necessary. A cohesive and proper marketing communications plan will help the company implement marketing communication programs effectively in terms of achieving objectives and costs. In this chapter we outlined the steps involved in drawing up a marketing communications plan.

As marketing communications is a subset of overall marketing mix, companies have to first formulate a marketing strategy. A marketing plan involves the following steps – situational analysis, identifying marketing objectives, creating a marketing strategy, implementing a marketing strategy, evaluation and control. After developing a marketing plan, companies have to develop a marketing communications plan based on the marketing plan.

The primary step in the marketing communications plan is to analyze the internal and external marketing environment. There are four key environmental variables that companies have to evaluate. They are: competition, market analysis, customer analysis and positioning analysis. The next step in the marketing communications plan is to establish marketing communication objectives that reflect the analysis made in the previous step.

There are usually five key objectives -creating brand awareness and building brand equity, providing information, increasing sales, differentiating the brand and influencing consumer behavior. Based on the marketing communications objectives, companies have to decide the budgeting allocation for marketing communications activities. Companies usually use-- arbitrary method, affordability method and percentage of sales method, competitive parity method, objective and task method, and payout planning method -- to set the budget.

After deciding on the marketing communication objectives and the budget allocation, companies have to design the marketing communications program. The decisions to be taken in this regard are: selection of communication mix, developing a creative strategy and media decisions. The final step in the marketing communications plan is evaluating and controlling the marketing communications programs. This evaluation can be done through the communication audit.

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