Marketing Communications Mix Strategies | Tesco

Marketing Communications Mix Strategies | Tesco Although the 4P characterization has led to widespread use of the term promotion for describing communications with prospects and customers, the term marketing communications is preferred by most marketing practitioners as well as by many educators. Consider that we may want to use marketing communications to refer to the collection of advertising, sales promotions, public relations, event marketing, and other communication devices. Promotion is considered as Sales Promotion. (Shimp 2007) {Terence A. Shimp (2007), Integrated Marketing Communications in Advertising and Promotion, 7th Edition, Ohio, Thomson South-Western, P: 4.} Marketing Communication is used by organisations to communicate with customers with respect to their product offerings. In this sense, Marketing Communication is one side of the communication process with customers. Market research, in which suppliers seek to elicit information on consumer requirements from consumers, is the complementary component of the communication process. The following summarises this very simply: (Rowley 1998). Source: Promotion and marketing communications in the information marketplace. According to Rowley producer should communicate to reach the customers and in turn should listen to the customers needs and requirements to enhance the product and service. Tesco proudly announced that one of the reasons to its Success is listening to their Customers and its suppliers. Tesco has adopted multiple qualitative research techniques to reach their customers such as focus groups, accompanied shops, home visits to collect the feedback in order to straighten the things and respond quickly. Modestly they say Its simple we listen and respond, providing customers with what they tell us they want. { [online] < http://www.tesco.com/talkingtesco/listening/> (March 19, 2010)}. Marketing Communications Mix also know as Promotional Mix consists of Advertising, Personal Selling, Sales Promotion, Direct Marketing, Internet Promotion and Publicity. Marketing communications Mix strategies: Source: Promotion and marketing communications in the information marketplace. Push Strategies: A promotion strategy that calls for using the sales forces and trade promotion to push the product through channels. The producer promotes the product to wholesalers, the wholesalers promote to retailers and the retailers promote to consumers (Kotler et al. 2005). Pull Strategy: A promotion strategy that calls for spending a lot on advertising and consumer promotion to build up consumer demand. If the strategy is successful, consumers will ask their retailers for the product, the retailers will ask wholesalers and the wholesalers will ask the producers (Kotler et al. 2005). Push Strategy aims at Intermediaries, its make good use of Sales promotion and Personal Selling. Pull Strategy aims at direct customers, its make good use of Advertisements. Advertising: Source: You tube : Tesco Christmas 2009 advertisement. [Online]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8y85QTa1g8 (March 19, 2010) This Advertisement is about promotional offers at Tesco for Christmas, It states that everyone could enjoy a finest Christmas at Tesco with an affordable range of products. Advertising is a paid form of non-interactive showcase of products and services to the consumer through print media or other common advertising channels (Rowley 1998). Advertising Models: AIDA Model: Attention: Making customer aware of the product. Interest: Developing an interest in the product. Desire: Making customer think that he needs the product. Action: Purchase is made. Designing communication strategies is important to identify whether the objective is to draw to attention, cultivate interest, stimulate desire or provoke action(Rowley 1998). Communication Objectives: Source: Promotion and marketing communications in the information marketplace. From the above objectives, AIDA is strongly recommended (Rowley 1998). According to Rowley a communication strategy should have a message and it should go along with its communication objective. The message should reflect the unique selling proposition (USP) of the products. The organizations should concentrate on elements of the message that need to be considered are: Content, Structure, Format and Source. Importantly these Advertisements should be target oriented; the Organisations should often have a strategy on the market to target. Impact of Advertisements: A good communication strategy would yield results per expectations. It should be market oriented and should reach market without any cost to the market. Directive would leave an impact, provided its ethical. Positives of Advertisements: It can create awareness in the targeted market. It can reach markets far and wide. Positioning of the product and Brand image could earn customers trust. Negatives of Advertisements: It cannot answer the customer queries. Always may not provoke customers to purchase decision. Too many Advertisements may cause audience loose concentration. Personal Selling According to Baker (2003) personal selling can be defined as the personal contact with one or more purchasers for the purpose of making a sale. To be effective, marketing management needs to integrate personal selling with other promotional elements, with other organizational functions such as distribution and production, and with the customer and competitive structures prevailing in the market. Different stages in Personal Selling: Generating leads and identifying prospects Pre-call planning The approach The presentation Overcoming objections Closing Follow-up. Baker says Personal selling is a two-way approach and it employs push strategy and is relatively expensive per contact and according to a 2001 survey, the average cost of an outside salesperson is in excess of 55,000 pounds per annum. The actual time spent on face-face customer communication is typically around 20-30 per cent of working hours. Sales management issues: Selection of sales Team Training Leadership and supervision Remuneration Evaluation and control Impact of Personal Selling: Efficient sales force often yield results Personal selling increases the customers interest and desire on the product and it could lead to purchase Personal Selling should act as forum for answers to all the customers queries Positives of Personal Selling: High Interactive communication between the buyer and the seller Detailed product information and features Relationships can develop Negatives of Personal Selling: Cost oriented Team Not appropriate approach towards thousands of prospective buyers Sales closure time could lead to customer dissatisfaction Sales Promotion: Sales promotion consists of short-term incentives to encourage purchase or sales of a product or service (Kotler et al. 2005). As per the above definition, sales promotion offers reasons that would achieve immediate sales. It seeks to lure people to buy now. Promotional Tools: Samples Coupons Rebates Price packs Premiums Advertising specialties Patronage rewards Point-of-purchase Competitions, lotteries and games Impact of Sales Promotion: It helps to lure consumers and attract them from competitors Customers trying our products, giving a chance to retain them Positives of Sales Promotion: Increase immediate sales Interim strategic tool Negatives of Sales Promotion: Not for long-term usage, as customers may get used to this. Too much involvement into sales promotion may harm the brand image Seasonal Promotions: Advertisement Models: Internet promotion: Its interlinked with Place i.e. Mix in Mix. Sales Promotion: Public relations: Promotional Strategies: Pull Strategy: Push Strategy: Mercer (1996), in emphasizing that communication must be a two-way process, says (p. 309): The ideal form of promotion is the conversation which takes places between the expert sales professional and his or her customer. It is interactive and conversation is specific to the needs of both. Other forms of promotion, which deal in the average needs of groups of people can only hope to approximate to this ideal. Promotional Mix: Place: Introduction: The main purpose of this report is to determine the importance of the Location in retailing. It includes an analysis of Tesco and Corner Shop locations by taking into account all the factors of well chosen place for retail store as well as current situation on the Market. Report discusses the role location played in the success of those retailers. It also tries to assign the importance of the Location in comparison to other elements of the retail Marketing Mix. First Tesco Metro has been opened in 1992 and are usually located in the town and city centre locations (http://www.tescocorporate.com/page.aspx? pointerid=3DB554FCAE344BD88EEEEFA63D71B831). They are usually smaller than ordinary Tesco store but bigger than Tesco Express with the size varying between approximately 7,000 to 15,000 sq.ft. Source: Online Available http://www.tesco.com/talkingtesco/stores/. Psychology Analysis: The Epic of Gilgamesh Psychology Analysis: The Epic of Gilgamesh Jungian analysis is a deep psychology of the unconscious and includes the interpretation of dreams as well. Jung believes that most dreams are attitude-compensations. The attitudes that dreams balance are those of the ego. Carl Jung believed that myths and dreams were the main way to the self-realization because he believed that they allowed humans to understand and relate to parts of their psyches which would have otherwise been unreachable. Dreams offer the ego information, advice, constructive criticism, and even sometimes wisdom. If the ego is open to acceptance rather than defensive, it can evaluate these alternative perspectives and decide whether to accept or reject them. Jung developed a process called individuation, which was the therapy he created which tries to deepen a persons experiences psychologically. Responding to dreams required interaction of many aspects of the personality, which he titled the archetypes: the Self, shadow, animus, and anima. He defined an archetyp e as a universal and recurring image, pattern, or motif representing a typical human experience. Archetypes are patterns and behaviors; are primordial images which are part of our psyche and social systems. Archetypes can grow on their own and present themselves in many different ways. When people dream, they form images unconsciously. The images that are formed in these dreams correspond to the sacred images, stories, and myths of primitive people. Archetypes are similar to instincts and they also reveal themselves in peoples unconscious by these powerful symbolic images; they are collective meaning they are held in common by a social group. They appear simple on the surface, but they are very complex. The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the oldest written stories in the history of earth and it comes from ancient Sumeria. Many believe it was first written on clay tablets, showing the adventures of the historical King of Uruk-Gilgamesh. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, he travels between his c onscious and unconscious in order to solve inner problems and grow out of his own fear of death. Through the Jungian analysis one can determine how the myth of Gilgamesh fits into the unconscious of every human. Gilgamesh is a king that oppresses his kingdom and forces his people to build a wall around his land, which inside he is guilty of committing atrocious acts. Gilgamesh is one third mortal and two thirds divine, because his mother was a goddess. He is an arrogant king who constantly oppresses and wrongs the people of his kingdom. He is struggling throughout the epic with the gods, his kingdom, and most importantly, himself. In order for an individual to reach their unconscious, there needs to be a specific dreamer established an in Gilgamesh, the dreamer is the hero of the story-Gilgamesh. He must go through the process of individuation, which is the psychic life of the individual, the archetypes interact in a pattern which both reflects and fosters the development of the personality (Devinney and Thury, 2005). The natural process that individuals go through which causes the need for self-realization and leads people to explore and integrate parts of themselves which they have never l ooked into before is individuation. It helps people become different from others in their society. In order for Gilgamesh to discover and uncover who he truly is, he must encounter the shadow, the animus and anima and most importantly-the self. In the epic, the ego is the conscious I of the self that works to produce and preserve its self-defined identity. In the process of individuation, the conscious coming-to-terms with ones own inner self usually begins with a cutting off of the individuals personality and the hardships that go along with that process. The second archetype in the individuation process is the anima and animus. Jung stated the anima was the unconscious feminine component of males and the animus was the unconscious masculine component of females. Jung believed the anima and animus act as guides to the unconscious, and that every individual must form one and building that connection is a very difficult but rewarding process, and that it is necessary for psychological growth. They are determined by the gender of the dreamer themselves. Due to Gilgamesh being a male, he has an anima, which is the personification of all feminine psychological tendencies in a manes psyche. The first animia in the epic is Gilgameshs mother, the goddess Ninsun. In the beginning of the myth the reader discovers that Gilgamesh is worshiped like a god, even though he is part human as well. His mother acts as a guide and confidant throughout the myth, and he receives word of Enkidu through dreams that his mother interprets for him. She leads him to the next stage of growth for himself by giving him the information about his new companion, Enkidu. For Gilgamesh, he still is unaware of a lot of his own personality and this is where the third archetype comes into play. The shadow is the same sex as the individual, but has the complete opposite personality and self-image. The shadow for Gilgamesh is Enkidu, he is a replica god of Gilgamesh himself-but he is uncivilized and beast-like. He represents the great opposite of Gilgamesh, but they are identical in authority and vigor. He first appears to Gilgamesh as an enemy, informing the shepherds that he will go to Gilgameshs kingdom and will challenge him in front of his people and state that he is the strongest around. They quarrel in Gilgameshs city and he beats Enkidu which caused them to become friends and also causes Gilgamesh to have a bigger insight to his unconscious. When Gilgamesh and Enkidu travel through the forest, they encounter another shadow archetype. Together they embark on a trip into the forest where Humbaba, the king of this forest lives. Humbaba signifies all t he personality characteristics that Gilgamesh wants, including strength, courage and glory. Gilgamesh believes that by killing Humbaba he will create some immortality for himself and his people. On their way back home, Gilgamesh comes to an anima, Ishtar the goddess of fertility. She is drawn to Gilgameshs beauty and strength and she recommends for him to marry her, but Gilgamesh refuses and continues to insult her with stories of her past lovers, which causes her to become extremely angry with him. Ishtar is a negative anima, who can cause Gilgamesh to demolish himself. Ishtar sends the Bull of Heaven to kill Gilgamesh but Enkidu kills the bull, which causes him in the end to suffer a slow death from the gods, and ultimately hurts Gilgamesh because he lost his comrade. With Enkidus death, Gilgamesh goes crazy and eventually becomes his shadow and takes on those characteristics. Gilgamesh turns away from his kingdom and takes on the beast-like personality Enkidu displayed when they first met. A third shadow archetype is displayed in the land of Utnapishtim, where Gilgamesh winds up on his search for immortality. Utnapishtim is the land of gods, where they live and thrive. Gilgamesh longs for the gods immortality, it is shown here the fear that he has for death and why this search is so important to him. The gods inform him if he stays awake for seven days and seven nights and they will grant him with immortality-but he fails at this challenge and therefore he fails at reaching his goal of becoming immortal. On his return back to his kingdom Gilgamesh has won his wish of immortality in a different sense, he found his self through the journey. By encountering all the archetypes Gilgamesh builds his inner self and builds his personality in many different ways. The archetypes he encountered represented his unconscious dreams and wishes, and he discovers his self through his unconscious discoveries. Using Jungs theoretical perspective to analyze the epic myth of Gilgamesh, one discovers Jungs belief that myths and dreams were intertwined. Jung attempted to uncover ways that individuals could determine their inner selves and he found that myths and dreams were a way to reach into ones unconscious. Through Jungian analysis, a reader can interpret a myth to better understand the personality characteristics of humans. The fear of death that haunted Gilgamesh also haunts many individuals in our society and societies prior. This epic shows the reader that any individual can discover their inner self through understanding different archetypes including, shadows, animas and animus, and lastly inner selves which will help them break into their own unconscious. Gilgameshs heroic journey has been dignified because it is more than just a great journey story; it is also an unbelievable academic quest. Gilgamesh has courage and determination which is important for him to defeat the obstacles he was faced with during his journey, but he also must have undeterred tolerance, internal strength, and willful self-examination.