Page 463 - Foundations of Marketing

430 Part 6 | Promotion Decisions

effectiveness of promotion budgets. Thus, this approach fosters not only long-term customer
relationships but also the efficient use of promotional resources.
The concept of integrated marketing communications is increasingly effective for several rea-
sons. Mass media advertising, a very popular promotional method in the past, is used less fre-
quently today because of its high cost and lower effectiveness in reaching some target markets.
Marketers can now take advantage of more precisely targeted promotional tools, such as TV, direct
mail, the Internet, special-interest magazines, DVDs, cell phones, mobile applications, and outdoor
boards. Database marketing is also allowing marketers to more precisely target individual custom-
ers. Until recently, suppliers of marketing communications were specialists. Advertising agencies
provided advertising campaigns, sales promotion companies provided sales promotion activities
and materials, and public relations organizations engaged in publicity efforts. Today, a number of
promotion-related companies provide one-stop shopping for the client seeking advertising, sales
promotion, and public relations, thus reducing coordination problems for the sponsoring company.
Because the overall cost of marketing communications has risen signifi cantly, marketers demand
systematic evaluations of communication efforts and a reasonable return on investment.
Today, marketers and customers have almost unlimited access to data about each other.
Integrating and customizing marketing communications while protecting customer privacy
has become a major challenge. Through digital media, companies can provide product infor-
mation and services that are coordinated with traditional promotional activities. In fact, gath-
ering information about goods and services is one of the main reasons people go online. This
has made online advertising a growing business. Marketers spent more than $ 37 billion on
3
Internet advertising in 2012. College students in particular say they are influenced by Internet
ads when buying online or researching product purchases. The sharing of information and use
of technology to facilitate communication between buyers and sellers are essential for suc-
cessful customer relationship management.

LO 2 . Examine the process of THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS
communication.
Communication is essentially the transmission of information. For communication to take
place, both the sender and receiver of information must share some common ground. They
must have a common understanding of the symbols, words, and pictures used to transmit
information. Thus, we define communication as a sharing of meaning. Implicit in this defini-
tion is the notion of transmission of information because sharing necessitates transmission.
As Figure 15.1 shows, communication begins with a source. A source is a person,
group, or organization with a meaning it attempts to share with an audience. A source could

Figure 15.1 The Communication Process

communication A sharing of
meaning through the transmis-
sion of information
Receiver
source A person, group, or Source Coded Communications Decoded or
organization with a meaning it message channel message audience
tries to share with a receiver or
an audience
receiver The individual, group,
or organization that decodes a FEEDBACK
coded message
Noise Noise
coding process Converting
meaning into a series of signs
or symbols From Pride/Ferrell, Marketing 2014, 17E. 2014 Cengage Learning.

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