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.
Ramon Diaz-BernardoAssociate Professor
