Marketing communication is the way in which a company uses different methods in which their products, services, and brands are presented and considered to the audience through different forms of media either offline or online. (Fill, C. 2013) Marketing communication allows marketers to inform, persuade, incite, and remind the customers of their products or services through different forms of media. It is an important aspect to business today. (Keller, K.L. 2011) This report will discuss the different forms of marketing communications as well as how it has changed through out the years. Furthermore, the report will look into a business called Boots Ltd. and further discuss its marketing communication and how that helps strengthen their competitive position in the marketing industry.
Literature Review:
Companies today all use different forms of marketing communication to be able to get across to their audience and develop their own reputation. According to (Keller, K.L. 2011), marketing communication represents the voice of a brand and is a form in which a company can create a dialogue with consumers. This is important because building a relationship or an understanding with a business/company helps consumers understand more about what they want to buy or what they can buy. This helps encourage customers to become more interested to a businesses products or services.
Marketing communications has developed into a bigger and more challenging concept to marketers today. There are different methods in which marketers can use to convey their message to their consumers. The simplest way to break down these methods is the traditional methods and the online methods of marketing communications. The traditional methods of marketing communications can also be explained as the offline methods. An example of a traditional method would be on print media, which can be either on magazines or newspapers. An example of the online methods of marketing communications is using the Internet.
Newspapers and magazines are the two types of media in the class. One of the strengths of this method is that it is very effective at delivering to their target audience. (Fill, C. 2013) Most people have access to magazines and newspapers, not for an expensive price as well. Newspapers and magazines are quite an efficient method to use because consumers read them to keep up to date with the news or events or even for a source of entertainment. This method is also helpful to marketers as it gives the businesses an understanding of the people who read the newspapers/magazines and their business/leisure interests. Another strength about print media is that the readers have all control in the pace in which they read a magazine/newspaper and also with the advertisements. Magazines/newspapers are also often passed along from readers, which generate a cycle of readers and how many people who see the advertisements in just one magazine/newspaper. (Fill, C. 2013)
However, this form of marketing communication also has its weaknesses. One weakness of print media is that the amount of genuine readers of both magazines and newspapers has decreased. (Fill, C. 2013) The amount of advertisements in magazines/newspapers is high but the amount of readers is not as high as they were before. In result of this issue, another weakness arises for print media. Due to the decrease of readers, advertisements on magazines or newspapers have become more expensive for marketers to advertise their business. (Fill, C. 2013)
Another key form of marketing communication, as mentioned earlier, is the online method. One key method of online marketing communication is the Internet. The Internet provides people with a wide range of different activities, such as email, global information access and retrieval systems, particular websites of businesses, and more. (Fill, C. 2013) All the activities