Part 1  •  IntroductIon to MarketIng coMMunIcatIons14

The tasks of marketing communicationBowersox and Morash made a significant contribution in their 1989 paper when they demon-strated how marketing flows, including the information flow, can be represented as a network that has the sole purpose of satisfying customer needs and wants. Communication is important in these exchange networks as it can help achieve one of four key tasks:

● It can inform and make potential customers aware of an organisation’s offering.● Communication may attempt to persuade current and potential customers of the desirability

of entering into an exchange relationship.● Communications can also be used to reinforce experiences. This may take the form of

reminding people of a need they might have or reminding them of the benefits of past transactions with a view to convincing them that they should enter into a similar exchange. In addition, it is possible to provide reassurance or comfort either immediately prior to an exchange or, more commonly, post-purchase. This is important, as it helps to retain current customers and improve profitability, an approach to business that is much more cost-effective than constantly striving to lure new customers.

● Finally, marketing communications can act as a differentiator, particularly in markets where there is little to separate competing products and brands. Mineral water products, such as Perrier and Highland Spring, are largely similar: it is the communications surrounding the products that have created various brand images, enabling consumers to make purchasing decisions. In these cases it is the images created by marketing communications that enable people to differentiate one brand from another and position them so that consumers’ purchas-ing confidence and positive attitudes are developed. Therefore, communication can inform, persuade, reinforce and build images to differentiate a product or service, or to put it another way, DRIP (Fill, 2002) (see Table 1.1).

At a higher level, the communication process not only supports the transaction, by informing, persuading, reinforcing or differentiating, but also offers a means of exchange itself, for example communication for entertainment, for potential solutions and concepts for education and self-esteem. Communications involve intangible benefits, such as the psychological satisfactions

Verhoef, P.C., reinartz, W.J. and Krafft, M. (2010) Customer engagement as a New Perspective in Customer Management, Journal of Service Research, 13(3), 247–52.

As already mentioned in the text, the use of the term ‘engagement’ has become increasingly widespread in the marketing literature. The term is used in different ways to mean different things and this paper is a good example of the different inter­pretations that are available. This paper considers engagement as a behavioural manifestation toward the brand or firm, one that goes beyond transactions. The authors propose a conceptual model of the antecedents, impediments, and firm consequences of customer engagement. Readers might be interested to know that this journal published a special edition on customer engagement.

Scholars’ paper 1.1 Beware, Engaging confusion

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ChaPter 1  •  IntroducIng MarketIng coMMunIcatIons 15

associated with, for example, the entertainment value of television advertisements or the experiences within a sponsored part of a social network. Communications can also be seen as a means of perpetuating and transferring values and culture to different parts of society or networks. For example, it is argued that the way women are portrayed in the media and stereotypical images of very thin or ‘size zero’ women are dysfunctional in that they set up inappropriate role models. The form and characteristics of the communication process adopted by some organisations (both the deliberate and the unintentional use of signs and symbols used to convey meaning) help to provide stability and continuity.

task Sub-task explanation

differentiate Position To make a product or service stand out in the category

Reinforce Remind or reassure To consolidate and strengthen previous messages and experiences

Inform Make aware, educate To make known and advise of availability and features

Persuade Purchase or make further enquiry

To encourage further positive purchase­related behaviour

table 1.1 drIP elements of marketing communications

Two particular companies which operate in the holiday market serve to illustrate how important it is to understand the tasks that marketing communications are required to undertake. These companies are tuI, which owns the thomson and First choice brands, and thomas cook. the trading results show two different situations, with tuI  reporting a 25 per cent  rise  in pre-tax profits,  to £360 million, and Thomas Cook making a £398 million pre­tax loss.

At times some consumers confuse Thomson with Thomas Cook, if only because of the similarities of the first four letters of the brands’ names. so, marketing communications are used to differentiate the brands, as tuI did in 2011 when it released a national press ad with the line ‘another holiday company may be experiencing turbulence, but we’re in really great shape’. this sent a message that tuI travel results were on course, yet Thomas Cook and others in the market had experienced a fall of 14 per cent. It also said tuI are different from thomas cook.

Branding in the holiday market usually takes second place to price­based promotional activities. However, there are signs that tuI have been trying to communicate some of the brand values associated with Thomson and First Choice. For example, Thomson invested £5 million communicating its ‘exclusive’ and ‘tailored’ offering using the strapline ‘uniquely designed holidays’. £3 million was used to relaunch and reposition First Choice, as ‘the home of all­inclusive’.

thomas cook has had to cope with an entirely different set of circumstances. not only did it delay the announcement of its full­year results, it was also forced to issue a third profits warning in a year. This was followed by a £100 million emergency refinancing operation and changes in senior management. These results and activities led to considerable negative publicity, all of which required their marketing communications to take a very different approach.

the response from thomas cook to tuI’s advertising was a press ad designed to inform consumers that its business had delivered ‘great value for 170 years’, and that 2012 would be no different.

Source:  Based on eleftheriou-smith (2012).

Viewpoint 1.2 Holiday tasks

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