Strategic Planning in Marketing Communications

Strategic Planning in Marketing Communications

This work in writing constitutes a review of literature in the area of marketing communications strategies. Several works are reviewed and then reported in the following review of literature.

The work of Mulhern (2009) reports that media "is in the midst of a digital revolution that frees news, information and advertising from the technological limits of print and broadcast infrastructure." (p.85) Mulhern reports that advertising has "traditionally…been immersed in the process of aggregating large audiences and delivering messages to them." P.86) There are several forms that marketing communications can take and in how these communications are received by consumers: (1) audiences are aggregated into monolithic entities with homogenous tastes; (2) advertising can attach itself to media content and project itself onto audiences by interrupting the delivery of that content; (3) consumers will accept the intrusive delivery of commercial messages in exchange for free, or nearly free content; (4) Brand messages generate brand awareness and preferences that translate, however, loosely into consumer spending; (5) Brand communications can be bundled into media plans that span multiple vehicles which constitute a relevant array of exposure to target consumers. (Mulhern, 2009, p. 86) It is additionally reported that Digitization has resulted in "continuous stream of data about how people interact with information. Marketing communications are reported to be such that have "built an enormously large set of business practices on a very small amount of information from survey research and consumer panels…" (Mulhern, 2009, p.87) Marketing communications will be reorient[ed] by "the torrent of digital information now produced by digital media." (p.87)

The work of Smith, Berry and Pulford (1999) states that the "scope of marketing communications is much wider than is generally assumed in practice…" in that it "encompasses both the internal information and decision-making system, and the messages and images put across by the business to its present and potential customers and other stakeholders." (p.10) The marketing communications mix is reported to be comprised of the communication tools as follows: (1) salesforce; (2) advertising; (3) sales promotions; (4) direct marketing; (5) public relations; (6) sponsorship; (7) exhibitions; (8) corporate identity; (9) packaging; (10) point-of-sale promotions and merchandising; (11) word of mouth; and (12) Internet and new media. (Smith, Berry, and Pulford,1999, p. 11)

The work of Rossiter and Bellman (2005) presents a six-step model of marketing communications, which includes: (1) brand positioning; (2) campaign objectives; (3) creative strategy; (4) promotion strategy; (5) media strategy; and (6) campaign management. (p.77)