Importance of Budget in Marketing Communication Strategy

This report discusses the role of marketing communication in an organization's overall marketing strategy and the importance of establishing an appropriate budget for it. The report provides relevant examples to support the arguments and highlights the significance of budget in evaluating the spending of an organization. It also discusses the relevance of communication budget in the marketing communication strategy and its impact on the success of an organization. The subject of the report is marketing, and it does not mention any specific course code, course name, or college/university.

RUNNING HEAD: Marketing
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Marketing

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Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Role of marketing communication........................................................................................................2
Importance of establishing an appropriate budget in the marketing communication strategy................4
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................6
References.............................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
The marketing mix comprises marketing communication. The marketing communication is
all about the promotion which includes advertising, direct marketing, branding, packaging,
sales presentations and more. In this report, the importance of marketing communication has
been discussed which has significant role in the success of an organization’s overall
marketing strategy. The assignment is preceded by the relevant examples to support
arguments. This report will also consider the importance of establishing a proper budget for a
marketing communication strategy. Further, the relevance of the communication budget in
the marketing communication strategy in a marketing communication strategy has been
discussed along with the examples.
Role of marketing communication
The marketing communications are the messages and the media used to communicate in the
market. The major aim of marketing communication is to reach a particular audience to affect
behavior by updating, encouraging and prompting. A marketing communication maintains
customer base by reinforcing the purchasing behavior of customers by enabling customers
with additional information about the benefits. The marketing communication depend on the
promotional mix which contains options like marketing, sales promotion, advertisement,
personal selling and public relations. It is an approach of planning communications which
provides an organization a capability to get better results from campaigns and diminishes
marketing costs (Avramescu, Petroman, Constantin & Varga, 2015). The marketing
communication creates brand attentiveness among the customers at minimum costs. It is not
only for the business to business marketing but for the direct interface with the customers.
The organizations implement marketing communication not only for promoting the brand but
also for targeting audience to develop trust. The marketing communication scores over the
out-dated ways of marketing. It stresses on not only winning new customers but also on
sustaining long-term relationships with them. A marketing communication for the success of
an organization depends on a combination of options known as a promotional mix (Valos, et.
al. 2016). The marketing communication relies on the strategy of an organization such as
push and pull. A pull strategy relies more on the demand of consumers than personal selling
whereas the push strategy emphasizes personal selling to push the products through the
channels such as advertising, public relations, and sales promotion (Belch, Belch, Kerr &

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Powell, 2014). The scope of marketing communication in the success of an organization’s
overall marketing strategy can be assumed by the following points:
Better results: In the traditional approach of marketing communications, the organizations
used to plan separate campaigns for the communication tools to improve marketing
effectiveness. In the modern marketing communications, the advertisement is made to raise
awareness of products and generate a lead for the sales. The direct mails and emails can be
used for the advertising and press campaigns (Bacile & Swilley, 2014). The telemarketing
can be used to sell directly and make appointments for the sales team. For instance, Hawken
took up an initiative to challenge the negative perceptions about Skoda and created a new
brand platform ensuring future growth and better results. This action plan called for the
innovation and the marketing communication strategy comprised advertising, direct
marketing, and public relations. As a result, the image of the brand of the company improved
and changed altogether.
Creative consistency: The headlines, slogans, and pictures in each communication make sure
that the customers receive the regular messages. The creative consistency helps in
strengthening campaign themes by increasing the number of projections got the same
message (Smyth & Lecoeuvre, 2015). For example, Volkswagen deployed two elements in
it’s marketing communication strategies such as online marketing and double marketing. The
official website of the company provides the live experience of choosing a car over the
internet. The customers can also know about the availability of the models at the specific
time. The double marketing was incorporated for the launch of multiple models.
Cost saving: The creative consistency in the communication campaign can save money of an
organization. The same image and adapting copy of same media helps in reducing copy-
writing and design costs (Karjaluoto, Mustonen & Ulkuniemi, 2015). The agency fees can be
reduced by working with the external communication suppliers which offers communication
services rather than separate specialist services.
Customer preference: The marketing communication campaign helps customers in providing
information the way preferred by them. The consumers and the business customers are free to
specify the product information through email, direct mail, text message and phone
(Todorova, 2015). The marketing communication ensures that customers receive the same
information. The need of customers can also be met who search the internet for the product

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information by integrating the design of the website. For instance, Volkswagen uses double
marketing as a key. It is not about the several messages into single campaign rather several
campaigns on the different messages contemporarily. The company indulges itself in
launching various models and exploits the strategy. The campaign of the company in 2006
provided information to customers as per their preference such as design and control.
In order to be marketing communication successful, the decision of an organization should be
made in other areas of the marketing mix as well which are product, price, and place. These
factors decide at which price product will be offered and at a place, products can be
purchased (Sozinova & Fokina, 2015). The marketing communication relies on the sound
management decisions regarding various elements of the promotional mix.
Importance of establishing an appropriate budget in the marketing communication
strategy
It is important to establish a budget in the marketing communication strategy. The
appropriate budget serves as advertising roadmap in the marketing communication strategy.
A formal budget helps in evaluating the spending of an organization and provides control
over the marketing initiatives. The clear documentation outlines the spending is done by the
company and the return on the investment can be easily calculated later. The budget identifies
whether the marketing campaign was profitable or not (Schivinski & Dabrowski, 2016). An
appropriate budget firstly allocates corporate resource demands. An organization is required
that it’s each department receives financial resources to conduct their initiatives properly. An
organization should weigh which department will receive how much and combined it
becomes the total budget in the strategy (Luxton, Reid & Mavondo, 2015).
Secondly, the budget is a guide to the head of the marketing communications department.
The budget ensures how much can be allocated to the different communication activities. The
resources can be allocated to social marketing, advertising, and development (Killian &
McManus, 2015). Third, an appropriate budget in the marketing communication strategy is
important as it enables the company to accomplish analysis and comparisons. The
organization can also see whether it is getting a good return on investment on the amount
spent on communicating with existing and potential customers. For instance, an organization
can allocate $12000 per year to communications as a part of marketing communication

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strategy. They can consequently analyze whether the communications generated more sales
and customers for the long term.
The budget for the marketing communication contains costs associated with the advertising,
direct marketing comprising database list rental and social media content management. For
instance, the budget also includes the product for trade shows and stock for brand
ambassadors to use. The products used in the sales promotion activity and new brand identity
design need to be allocated (Patti, Hartley, Van Dessel & Baack, 2017). The budget also
includes postage, administration and follow up calls for the acquisition campaign. If an
organization cannot manage due to lack of resources then the third party such as agencies and
other intermediaries can be allocated within the marketing communication budget.
The budget affects the most areas of an organization. The budget has critical role towards the
success of marketing communication strategy. The marketing communication has more scope
than just advertising and promotions. The budget also cover aspects like planning, pricing,
and distribution of the product in order to remain modest and earning profits. The budget
should include the macro segments of an organization like market research, product design
and development and financial forecasts in order to set production, pricing objectives, supply
methods, advertising and public relations (Finne & Grönroos, 2017). The relevance of
communication budget can be elaborated from these steps:
List the items that have an associated cost: For approving the marketing and communications
objectives, the items are listed which cost money in some way. For instance, if an
organization planning to add an online application forms to the website then the company
need to prepare a budget for a web developer or a new CRM.
Add everyday stuff: The everyday stuff includes on-going day to day expenses such as a
subscription to stock photo resource and social media tools. The infrastructure costs such as
website hosting and URL subscriptions fall under responsibility and budget.
Create a budget document: It is recommended to follow the non-profit’s budget format. It has
advantages to use non-profit format and organizing budget items under the non-profit’s
existing budget lines. For instance, using the same format makes it easy to get the budget
approved because it is familiar and fits in the format.

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Adding budget items to budget document: In this step, budget items are added under the
appropriate budget line. For instance, if the organization has a website budget line then the
new volunteer application forms planning to develop come under this heading (Kitchen &
Burgmann, 2015).
Source and the estimated costs: After creating a budget document and listing budget items,
the actual budget is filled in the dollar amounts. There are some costs which are easy to find
whereas some other are estimated costs (Petersen, Kushwaha & Kumar, 2015). For instance,
an organization is required to have a preliminary conversation with the colleagues and
vendors regarding re-branding.
Approval of budget: The approval is required from the supervisor or board. Despite the
formal process, an organization is required to make sure that it communicates the budget and
ties directly to the objectives of marketing and communications.
Manage: After approving the budget, it is the responsibility of an organization to stay on top
regardless of the money spent on work (Mikeska, Harrison, Carlson & Coryn, 2017).
Managing budget means updating the budget document when any item is canceled, money
spent and adding a new budget item.
Conclusion
The marketing communication contains the promotional activities which has significant role
to play in the success of an organization’s overall marketing strategy. The marketing
communication generates brand conciousness among the customers. The budget provides a
roadmap to the market communication strategy. The budget ensures the amount to be
allocated to the different communication activities. It also helps in getting a good return on
investment and the amount spent to communicate with existing and potential customers.

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References
Avramescu, D., Petroman, I., Constantin, E.C. and Varga, M., 2015. Interdisciplinary use of
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Bacile, T.J., Ye, C. and Swilley, E., 2014. From firm-controlled to consumer-contributed:
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Marketing, 28(2), pp.117-133.
Belch, G.E., Belch, M.A., Kerr, G.F. and Powell, I., 2014. Advertising: An integrated
marketing communication perspective. McGraw-Hill Education.
Finne, Å. and Grönroos, C., 2017. Communication-in-use: customer-integrated marketing
communication. European Journal of Marketing, 51(3), pp.445-463.
Karjaluoto, H., Mustonen, N. and Ulkuniemi, P., 2015. The role of digital channels in
industrial marketing communications. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 30(6),
pp.703-710.
Killian, G. and McManus, K., 2015. A marketing communications approach for the digital
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Mikeska, J., Harrison, R.L., Carlson, L. and Coryn, C.L., 2017. The influence of parental and
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