[MUSIC] Hi, I would like today to introduce the communications strategy part of the marketing mix, in the marketing plan, and for this reason I have here today with me Professor Aida Sayin, which is a marketing professor at Eire business school and she's, of course, an expert in communication. So, Aida, thank you very much for being with us. >> Thank you for inviting me. >> And can you please tell us a little bit, why the communication strategy part of the marketing plan is so relevant and we dedicate so much time to discuss it. >> Yeah. My inner communications actually works for the company. It intends to inform, persuade, and remind consumers about the company, its brands, and its products. Right? And as marketers, we try to understand the market first. And when I say try to understand the market, it's actually about understanding the consumer needs. And once we understand that, then we try to create a product with a value proposition, which will satisfy that need. And then we try to deliver this to the market and capture value from the market. So we try to gain a revenues with the value proposition we are providing to the consumers, right? And if we don't communicate this, to our consumers effectively and efficiently, then we will not be able to gain as much from the market. So we need to make sure that we have a simple message for our consumers that is in line with our valid proposition. And then transfer this message to our consumers in a very clear, simple, and synergetic way through multiple channels. And once you make the consumers our value proposition and they understand that very clearly then we can believe that maybe they will believe that. That message will survive in their minds at the point of purchase because marketing communications is very important because there is usually a gap between the time of the exposure for the consumers to the message and the time that they will do their consumption decision. So we need to make sure that our communication pieces are evolving many elements in them. It has to have a rational argument. >> Hm-mm. >> So we need to provide them the benefits. It has to have some kind of an emotional appeal. So they should feel excited about our brand. They should like our brand, right? And then it should have some kind of a dramatic presentation. So it has to include some creative elements in it so that our message will grab the attention of our consumers. And they will be remembered when the consumer is actually trying to purchase a product from the category that we are competing with our competitors. So, I believe that in marketing communications it's very important and if we cannot communicate our valuable position with our consumers very effectively and efficiently, then we cannot expect to gain the best from the market in terms of capturing the value. >> Okay, so it seems like communication is necessary and is actually going to be one of the main elements of your marketing plan. Just to close this very interesting discussion, can you provide us with a short list or checklist of things to consider when trying to put together your communication strategy in a marketing plan? >> Yeah, first, the marketing communication process starts with defining the target audience. So we need to make sure that we are defining it very clearly, so are we targeting our current consumers or our potential consumers? >> Okay. >> Are we targeting our loyal consumers or a brand switchers, are we targeting specific group of people or public on general? So first we need to decide on this one. >> And once we decide on the target audience, then we can decide on our communication objective as a second step. And the communication objective could be either brand awareness or information dissemination. >> Mm-hm. >> Or changing attitude or behavior of the consumers. And dependent on our target audience definition, we will decide on the objective. For example, if we want to target new consumers, then our objective will be brand awareness. Right? But if we target consumers, current consumers who are actually using our competitor's products as well, then we will try to change their attitudes and change their behaviors, and we will try to make them more loyal to our brand. So at first we decide on our target audience Second, we decide on our objective for the communication. And third, we start designing our communications. So we need to decide on what to say, which is mainly about our message strategy. >> Mm-hm. >> And the content is very important, but together with that, how we say it is also very important. So we need to decide on the message that we will communicate, and how we will communicate that message. >> Okay. >> And who will say it is also another important decision that we need to take, because a spokesperson, a celebrity that we choose, might increase the recall of our message. So that's very important. So, first step is to target audience. Second step is the objective. Third step is designing the communication. Then we need to decide on our communication channels. >> Mm-hm. >> Are we going to target personal or non personal channels. Personal channels are providing us some means to transfer to communicate to more individualized messages to our consumers. We usually use this kind of messages with some products that are more expensive, that are risky, that the products that the consumers are not consuming very or purchasing very frequently like a car or an insurance policy or something like that. >> Okay. >> Or non-personal channels we can use for the Fast Moon products for example. And now we need to decide on the media mix in terms of which channels we will use. >> Okay. >> Are we going to have an advertising campaign, are we going to use PR activities? Digital marketing, event sponsorships. And depending on the first decisions in our checklist, we need to decide on the media mix, so that our messages communicated to our consumers through the right means, at the right time, by the right people. And once we do all this, then we need to make sure that we are evaluating our communications. So before we start our campaign, we need to set the standards for our campaign, in the sense of how we will evaluate it. We need to have something that determines standards in terms of the effectiveness of our campaign. We need to monitor the progress of our campaign, throughout the campaign, and make amendments and refinements if necessary. >> Good. >> So if we can successfully achieve all these steps. Then we can expect to have a very effective communications campaign, I suppose. >> Okay. So we have clear now, how relevant the communication campaign could be. And actually you have deliver up step by sep process to build your communication strategy and your marketing plan. So I think it's a right introduction for the communication strategy. I would like to thank Aida for being with us. And I would like to remind you that there is a specific course on marketing communications. Which is part of the Marketing Mix Implementation Course that I really recommend if you are interested in knowing more about communication strategy. Thank you very much. [MUSIC]
