4 Lims

Marketing Communications

Marketing communications are the media and messages used to communicate with a market. It deals in practicing activities like advertising, branding, direct marketing, graphic designing, packaging, promotion, publicity, public relations, sales, sales promotion, online marketing and sponsorship. Marketing communications are connected with the general behavior of the organization and the perception of the organization among the customers and stakeholders.

These are a subset of marketing. Marketing has a marketing mix consisting of four components that are price, place, promotion and product. It can be described as the promotion of the marketing mix. Such communications are integrated to convey a single and clear message. These communications have a mix whose elements are blended in different ratios depending upon the marketing campaign.

A few elements of communication mix for marketing are given below.

Personal selling is the selling of products and services by directly contacting the existing and potential customers. Sales promotion deals with promoting the products and services of a company by using different techniques. Public relations include maintaining relations with the existing customers and finding potential customers. Advertising involves spreading a word about the products or services through different media like television, radio, internet, magazines, newspapers etc.

Direct marketing includes the sale of the products and services by directly contacting the customers. Trade fairs and exhibitions are a way of communicating about a number of products and services at the same time. E-marketing includes the promotion of various products and services through the internet.

The above key elements are integrated into a coherent whole pattern which forms the basis of an effective marketing campaign.