These respective communication strategies are set forth in Table 2 below. Table 2

Collaborative and Autonomous Marketing Communication Strategies

Collaborative communication strategy

Autonomous communication strategy

Interaction is frequent and prolonged with bi-directional flows of data through informal media, and direct efforts to change behaviour through requests, recommendations, promises, and appeals to legal obligations

Interaction is infrequent and mostly unidirectional and formal, concentrating on indirect efforts to change the beliefs and attitudes about the desirability of intended behaviour with no specific request for action (e.g. discussion of general business issues and operating procedures)

The structure is relational (joint planning, long-term perspective on high interdependence) with a supportive climate and a symmetrical balance of power.

The structure is centered on discrete exchanges on an ad hoc basis with a short-term orientation and low interdependence.

Source: Varey 2002, p. 139

Details of the Communication Method

Strategy for each Marketing Communication method selected.

Collaborative communication strategy. This communication strategy will be used with the company's strategic business partners.

Autonomous communication strategy. This communication strategy will be used with the company's existing medical community clientele as well as with potential clientele.

An outline of costs involved. The costs associated with the development of effective marketing campaign materials for these two communication strategies are estimated in Table 3 below.

Table 3

Estimation of Respective Costs for Collaborative vs. Autonomous Communication Strategies

Communication Strategy

Initiative

Projected Costs

Collaborative communication strategy

1. Implementation of a company-sponsored intranet that provides strategic business partners with access to sales forecasts, promotional materials,

The costs of this type of intranet range of zero for open source applications to between $3,000 and $4,000, depending on the level of in-house expertise available (Spoolstra, 2009).

2. Distribution of graphical presentation of Anthology Hip Replacement System to business partners highlighting their superior qualities and functionality in restoring range of motion using PowerPoint presentations on DVDs and CDs.

Typical costs of a professionally produced PowerPoint presentation by third-party providers begin at just $99, and even highly sophisticated versions can be produced for slightly higher but still relatively modest amounts (TaskForce Presentations 2011). The costs...

Addition of computer animation and graphics contained in PowerPoint presentation to corporate Web site.
There will be no additional costs incurred for this initiative beyond the Web site administration costs.

2. Distribution of graphical presentation of Anthology Hip Replacement System to potential medical community customers highlighting their superior qualities and functionality in restoring range of motion using PowerPoint presentations on DVDs and CDs.

There will be no additional costs incurred for this initiative beyond those described in the foregoing section.

Methods for measuring the effectiveness of the marketing communication methods. The same method will be used to measure the effective of both the collaborative as well as the autonomous communication strategies. A code will be placed on all marketing materials indicating which communication strategy was used and this code will be requested on the company's Web site or by sales representatives to identify the number of inquiries and referrals received and the time required to achieve these responses.