Communication in Marketing (Byte Size Skills Course).

Communication in Marketing (Byte Size Skills Course)

The marketing departments of today have developed from a more narrowly focused function, that initially included only advertising and sales, to include public relations and sales promotion. Just as finance is concerned with money in all its forms, so marketing has communication as its prime focus. Marketing acts as a communications conduit between the organisation and its markets. The management of these communication processes is a key marketing skill that requires detailed understanding of the behavioural processes that underpin "communication".

Section 1 of this course will look at various models that have been devised to explain the communications process. Section 2 looks at how to select the most appropriate promotional tool and Section 3 at the use of advertising agencies. Section 4 deals with the management of marketing communications.

Communication is a two-way process. To be a successful communicator it is necessary not only to deliver a message, but to ensure that the message is heard, understood, accepted and acted upon. Evidence is therefore needed that the communication has been effective, and monitoring feedback is a process that continues until a desired end result is achieved. This may be relatively short-term or continuous.

"Marketing communications" and "promotion" are often used synonymously but they are, in fact, different. The one describes all communications emanating from marketing. The other describes the communications processes intended to "promote" one or more courses of action. The distinction is to some degree artificial, since the underlying purpose of most (if not all) communication is to persuade, but  "promotion" is aimed at sectors external to an organisation and is under the sole control of the marketing department.

Effective communication relies upon effective and efficient management - upon establishing strategies and tactics that are managed within a budget. Section 4 will be looking at the setting of promotion objectives and the management of communications.

By the end of this course you will be able to:

• determine the factors that make up effective communication
• select and correctly use communication tools appropriate to a given purpose
• set and monitor communication objectives
• select, brief and manage promotional agencies.

Activity 7 (Section 2) requires the student to use a public library. It is to be conducted over the course of several months.