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In putting together a marketing communications mix, the question here is, to what extent might 'place' be important in enhancing a product perception in such a way as to increase sales? Let us take an example of two extremes. In one case take a new Russian wristwatch being offered by a soap-box salesman in Woolwich market. He claims that its accuracy is greater than any other watch owing to the application of new technology. The price is at a bargain knock-down level of £49.00 including gold bracelet. Now take the same watch and the same claims and price, and put it in the window of Harrods in Knightsbridge. Which 'place' is likely to be most successful? An interesting reflection on the reputation of Harrods is that, referring to the previous section, if the price of the watch were put up to £149.00, the sales might well increase.
Promotion
It is unreasonable to discuss promotional media before first examining the nature of the market with which it is intended to communicate, the people that go to make up that market, and their purchasing motivations.
In the first place, there is very little evidence to support the contention that any purchasing decisions, even those of consumers, are largely irrational. Purchases are made to provide a perceived satisfaction, and as long as they do just that, such an action can hardly be held to be irrational. What they are in fact is subjective, but that is quite a different matter. The confusion arises out of the basic purchasing motivation. What we have had drilled into us is that people buy things to satisfy their 'needs'. This is not so. They actually make purchases for the most part to satisfy their 'wants', a fundamentally different human characteristic. What a person 'wants' is a highly subjective matter and varies from individual to individual regardless of whether the decision is within the framework of a family purchase or a company (organization) purchase. Indeed, since the number of people known to be involved in the latter is so much larger, so also is the likelihood of decisions being all the more subjective and complex.
The change from a philosophy of 'needs' to one of 'wants' can be quite profound throughout the marketing process - in product design, in market research formulation, in pricing strategy, in selling, but above all in promotional propositions and promotional media. This is not to argue that objective factors do not enter into purchasing decisions. Quite the opposite: they enter into all such decisions to a greater or lesser extent. What is argued, however, is that there is also a high degree of personal motivation to satisfy the self in all purchases, whether for company, family, or indeed self.
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CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
'Consumer behaviour', whether personal or organizational, is governed by what might be termed internal and external factors. The former are largely outside the control of the marketer and comprise innate personality factors plus early acquired behavioural patterns such as attitudes, beliefs, cultural and social mores, ego deficiencies, and the like. External factors are much more current and dynamic influences; they contribute to people's continuous development in terms of preferences, aspirations, activities, and indeed their perceptions of themselves - how they would wish to be seen by their contemporaries and their peer groups.
Thus, in terms of buying behaviour, the messages reaching them will be from a vast variety of sources, some of which will be acceptable and others not, but all from one standpoint: the buyers themselves. And this must be the key to successful marketing information formulation. The starting point, then, of the buying process is the buyer and the buyer's perceived wants.
THE MEDIA MIX
AU markets are amenable to segmentation, especially industrial ones. And in each market segment there will be a multitude of quite different decisionmaking units, each comprising a number of individuals having their own particular egocentric motivations. Not only will the selling message need to vary from one to another, but, even more important, so will the media necessary to reach any target group. And a target group may vary between a few tens of people to millions. For effective communication, therefore, it is unlikely' that just one or two media can be relied on: rather more likely is the need to select by methodical analysis an optimum combination of media categories to achieve the desired effect on the buyer in the form of any of the classical marketing communications models such as attention, interest, belief, intention, desire, purchase. AU the indications are that, in order to make a thorough and positive communication with all the purchasing influences in a particular market segment, what is required is a 'media mix' .
Inter-Media Comparisons
To arrive at an effective media mix presupposes the availability of data upon which to make comparative judgements. In consumer advertising there is a relatively wide range of research material available to assist the media planner, but, even here the task is not easy. In the industrial sector it
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is difficult to obtain even the most elementary information. Thus, if guesswork is to be avoided, some form of logical grid should be devised against which each possible medium can be evaluated and given a comparative
rating.
Figure 3.3 is an example of a typical grid. The list of promotional media
is by no means exhaustive, and will differ from one company to another. In the same way, the criteria for media choice may vary depending, for instance, on whether the target market is a consumer or an industry. The following 12 factors and the use of a matrix are regarded as no more than an aid to planning for the marketing communicator.
1. Market size The total size of a market segment and all of the people within it must influence the choice of media. With a market size of 10 units, there is clearly not much room for anything more than personal contact and whatever back-up might be required. Move to 100 units and the situation hardly changes. At 1000, the personal contact must become selective: here one can add direct mail, specialized press, editorial publicity; literature, and perhaps sponsored films and audio-visual (AV) material, local