Marketing Communications and Social Media

This assignment delves into the realm of marketing communications and its intersection with social media. Students are tasked with examining various theoretical frameworks, such as the 'accidental internationalists' theory and the takeoff of social media in tourism, alongside practical applications like social selling and advertising in the social marketing mix. The analysis should encompass the influence of social media on consumer buying behavior and brand equity within a global context.

Portfolio /Report

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1 ...........................................................................................................................................1
Promotion Mix............................................................................................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
AIDA and the Communication Process:.....................................................................................4
Communication Process: ............................................................................................................6
Above/Below the Line: ..............................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Marketing refers to the business activity in which managers of organisation plan actions
in order to sell and market products and services. Marketing also helps in the direct interaction of
the company with their target customers to know what they want and how the company can
provide them with their wants (Ahmed and Rahman, 2015). These days, there are many changes
which are taking place in external market, so in order to deal with them, it is responsibility of
managers to make changes in their products and services according to the changing trend of the
market. Hence it is essential to make strategies through which information about product and
services conveyed to consumers. This helps in increasing sales and creating brand image in
industry. Marketing is basically dependent on four major components i.e. product, place, price,
promotion. These components combinationally known as marketing mix. With the help of this
technique, it is easy to communicate about product to relevant consumers in specified market
with appropriate promotional technique.
This report is based on ASDA which is British super market chain established in 1949
having head quarter in Leeds, UK. It offers items such as of groceries, fresh and chilled, frozen
food, health and beauty products, home and clothing, home furnishings, etc. In this report, there
is discussion about promotional mix strategies which covers five strategies i.e. advertising, sale
promotion, direct marketing, personal selling and public relations. Secondly it covers AIDA
model and communication process which helps to communicate with consumers (Bruhn,
Schoenmueller and Schäfer, 2012).
TASK 1
All companies make use of some or the other tools in order to promote and increase the
sale of their goods. Likewise ASDA is also making use of various promotional techniques for
increasing the sale of their products.
Promotion Mix
Promotion Mix is a part of Marketing Mix. It can be defined as the set of activities which
are used top communicate about the brand, product or service to the end user (promotion mix,
2019). Promotion Mix can be defined as a specific combination of promotional methods and
techniques used for a product or more for making an increment in their sales. The idea behind
promotion is to make people aware, attract and make others to buy the product of an
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organisation. There are several types of promotions which are used by the companies for making
an increase to their sales. The types of promotion mix are discussed as under in detail:
Sales Promotion: It can be defined as the process of influencing a potential customer to buy the
product. Mainly this techniques is used to influence the demand in a positive way for a short
period only. This change in the purchasing behaviour of the customers is made by providing
them with several benefits which attracts them and make their mindset to purchase the product.
This change is made with the help of providing them with several discounts, schemes, buy one
get one free offer, exchange offers, free services, contests, etc. to the customers (Davari and
Strutton, 2014). These all are included in the sales promotion techniques and are also helpful in
creating a positive effect on the demand of the products in short term period. Sometimes, buyers
may purchase the products because of heavy discounts and rebates but the quality of the product
attracts them and can also make those potential customers the real customers.
ASDA is also making use of the same approach to increase the sales of their products. It
provides offers, rebates and discounts to their customers on some occasions, festivals to enhance
their sales in the market. For example, price reduction and other special offers are very common
in ASDA. Sponsorship is another way which ASDA is using for the promotion of its products. It
has also created its partnership with one of the leading sports charity Sports Aid which provides
funds and other needed support to the British Athletes. These social contribution made by ASDA
also helps in the promotion of their products.
Advertising: It is one of the most important component of promotion mix in which the wish to
buy a several product is created in the mind of the customers. Advertising can be defined as the
paid for of one way communication in which the use of some media is done to make the people
aware about the product in the market. The main motive of advertising is also to create a positive
effect on the sales of the product. As such in advertising, the use of several media channels such
as televisions, newspapers, magazines, radio, leaflets, social media, internet, etc. are done in
order to change the demand of the product in the market (Deval. and et. al., 2012).
ASDA is also making use of these medial channels for promoting their products in the
market and also for communicating their real and potential customers in the target market.
ASDA is also making use of bill boards and the mails to reach their local customers. These
billboards are placed at a site where the visitors level is very high so as to cover most of the
people at a single time. ASDA has a wide range of product portfolio and it believes in mass
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selling. The promotion of this company is about to sell products on low profit margins but in
greater quantity which increases their profit level. This has been made possible only with the
help of advertising to a much extent (Filip, 2012). ASDA has also invested a huge amount for
doing the advertisement of their products on television. The use of publications is also done by
ASDA in order to make the customers continuously aware about the new products and arrivals
such as by ASDA News, ASDA Magazines.
Public Relations or Publicity: Public Relation can be defined as the management of
relationship and communication in between the organisation and public for maintaining goodwill
and the understanding in between them. This is a non paid form of promotional activity which
also creates awareness about the products of a company in the market. The main purpose of
public relation is to maintain and building a positive image of the company in the minds of the
their target market. This maintenance of relation with public will help the company during the
time of their new launches in the market which will get support from the public because of its
good image.
ASDA also makes use of communication with other groups, public relation creates an
environment for the company which makes easier for conducting the promotional and marketing
activities of the company. By making use of descriptive tag lines, ASDA also promotes its brand
such as “ Save Money Live Better”, “ All Together Better”, and the recent Christmas Campaigns
organised by the company. In the Christmas Campaign, the company steps away from the
traditional way and celebrates the anticipation and attitude of the season with more than a touch
of ASDA's personality, which is straight forwards creating a positive impact on the mindset of
the customers. All these social works makes their contribution towards increasing the support
from public for company and also helps in increasing their goodwill in the market (Fill and
Turnbull, 2016).
Direct Marketing: Direct Marketing is a type of promotional tool which is used by the
companies for bringing an action in a selected group of customers in a response provided by the
marketer. It can be formed in different ways such as direct mail marketing, postal mail, e mails,
telemarketing. All these are the ways in which the direct marketing can be done to the people or
the target customers, the same is in the case of ASDA. This company is also making use of direct
marketing to the customers such as by sending them mails regarding their new arrivals, new
offers, etc. to the people so as to enhance their sales. Not only this it also helps in targeting
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different segments of the market differently. By this, ASDA is also able to increase the loyalty of
their customers towards the products and services of the company (Westberg and Pope, 2014).
Personal Selling: Personal Selling can be defined as the ongoing of selling process with the
mutual face to face interaction in between the buyer and seller. In this method, the seller
promotes their product through knowing the attitude, behaviour, needs and with the help of his
own skills which are very necessary to sell the product. These Salesman are the sales
representative of the producers who sells the goods on behalf of the company. However, ASDA
does not make use of this form of promotion but it can also be beneficial for it as in the local and
rural areas where there is no access to the products of ASDA to the people. At that place,
personal selling can be beneficial for promoting the sales of the company and increase their
market share (Hennart, 2014). ASDA also deals in beauty and cosmetics products so it can easily
attract to women as their target market and can have positive results with an increase in both the
market share and sales of the company. Another reason of attraction is that the queries related to
the product of the customers will be resolved at the initial level itself and a good relation in
between the customers and company can be made. Comparing to the other methods of
promotion, people gives more attention to what the salesman is discussing about the product. As
the Salesman will first know about the demand of the customers and then will start discussing
about the benefits of the products to the buyers.
TASK 2
There are also some theories and models which can be applied by ASDA in their working
and for making the marketing communication among the customers and the company to be
effective. It is so as to further know about the needs and wants of the customers as the taste and
preferences of the customers changes regularly (Hvass and Munar, 2012). So it is also necessary
to make changes in the communication process from time to time. The theories and models
which can be applied by ASDA for making the marketing communication more effective are
discussed as under:
AIDA and the Communication Process:
The following Model was developed by St. Elmo Lewis, in the year of 1898 for
explaining about the working of personal selling (Verger, 2012). AIDA Model stands for
Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. In accordance with this model, it is explained that an
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individual passes through various stages during the process of purchasing a product or service.
This model is mostly used in case of digital marketing, public relation campaigns, or sales
strategies. Below is the explanation of all these stages of the model:
Attention: This is the first stage in the Model which focuses on the ways that how the customers
can be attracted towards the product by organising campaigns, advertisings, etc. In this stage of
model, the message of the marketing is shown in the beginning and provides the customer with a
reason why to buy the product or service of the company (Jackson, 2013). It tells that the first
impression of the advertisement must be capable of catching the attention of the individuals at
the very first instance so that they may arise some wish to learn more about the product and the
interest of people can be encouraged. ASDA should also present those main points of their
advertisement which directly catches the attention of the customers and catches their attention.
Interest: In the next stage of AIDA Model, when the customer's attention is caught than comes
the interest. It is focused on grabbing the interest level of the customers towards the existing
products and services of the company. It is done by raising the interest of the customers by
focusing and demonstrating the advantages and benefits of the product to the customers instead
of telling about the features of the product which does not create any sense to increase the
interest level of the the customers. In this stage, ASDA should focus upon the ways by which the
level of interest of the customers can be enhanced so this interest further will get converted into
the desires of the customers (Kotler and et. al., 2015).
Desire: At this stage, the interest of the customers towards the product or service is converted
into desire. The buying motive of the customer is converted into their desire which convince the
customers that they want the product or service and it will satisfy the needs of the customers. It
also provides the ways how the benefits and advantages of the products which will fulfil the
needs and wants of customers. If this stage is managed properly than the customers will have the
desire to make the purchase. By providing continuous solution to queries of customers and
telling the benefits of the product to the customers will help in creating the desire to buy the
product in the minds of the customers (Marshall and et. al., 2012).
Action: This is the final stage in the AIDA Model, in which the customer finally converts the
desire into needs which means to say that the customer finally makes the purchase of the
product. The chances of purchase action to happen can be enhanced by providing several other
benefits to the customers such as rewards and benefits, schemes, offers, etc. also makes
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contribution towards making a positive change in the purchasing behaviour of the customers. At
the last stage, ASDA will be successful in converting the desire into need of the customers that
needs to be fulfilled and directly this action makes the customers to buy the product.
In the same way, ASDA can also apply this model for knowing the preference of the
customers and can change their desire into want by adopting several measures and changes in
their products and services. Continuous evaluation and analysing of the markets as well as the
customers needs will help the company in getting more closer to their customer so that the
company may reach to their wants and can fulfil them by providing them with the products and
services available with them (Moore, Raymond and Hopkins, 2015).
Effectiveness of AIDA Model:
This model is effective for ASDA as with the help of this model it will easy for the company to
calculate and know about the improvement in customers experience by their purchasing decision.
Further this model passes through psychological feature to the affective feature also (Stead and
Hastings, 2018). It involves both the mind and the practical work as well. In practise, this model
gives advertisers with a checklist which can be used for the purpose of analysing and measuring
the effectiveness of communication process in between the company and the consumers in
relation to advertising, presentations, sales talks, etc. All the stages of this Model needs effective
communication in between the customer and the company because this will help in
understanding about what the customer needs and than according to this the judgement regarding
product will be taken.
Communication Process:
In marketing, the communication process can be defined as the process by which the
company can communicates to their customers with the help of advertisements and various
promotion related activities for providing the customers with the knowledge about the products
and services of ASDA. There are certain steps which are involved in making the marketing
communication process to be effective and these steps are discussed as under:
Identifying the Target Audience:
In the very first step of communication process, ASDA has to identify its target audience
to which it is going to communicate about the products and services through promotional
activities to the targets such as individuals, groups, etc. (Scott, 2013).
Determination of the Communication Objectives:
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After that ASDA will make clear the objectives of the communication process. For
example, ASDA is launching a new product than objectives of promotional activities can be
creating awareness about the product or to provide knowledge about the new product of the
company.
Message Content:
In this step of marketing process, the content which should be included in the message so
as to reach to the customers is decided. It is done in order to get a positive response from the
customers such as by rational appeal, emotional appeal (Niazi and et. al., 2012).
Choosing Media:
In the next step, the channels by which the message is to be delivered to the customers is
decided such as personal or non personal.
Collecting Feedback:
In the last step of marketing process, the feedback from the target customers is taken
about the message delivered to them. This collection of feedback is done in order to make some
rectifications in the marketing campaigns or programs. This is done by analysing the buying
behaviour of the customers.
Above/Below the Line:
In this model, the marketing activities are divided into two parts which are above the line
and below the line. This Model is used for the purpose of differentiating the marketing motives,
target groups of the company, and the budget level of the company. In accordance with these
basis of differentiations the company can choose the type of marketing it wants to choose. These
two parts can be abbreviated as ATL (Above The Line) and BTL (Below The Line). These two
methods have separate type of promotional activities to use which are discussed as under:
Above The Line:
These consist of those advertising advertising activities which are mostly done without
any target but have a large coverage area. It includes activities such as advertising, television,
radio, print advertisement such as magazines and newspapers, etc. in it (Schwarz and Hunter,
2012).
Below The Line:
These consist of those type of advertising activities which have their own target market
group of customers. It includes ways such as outdoor advertising, sponsorship, direct mail
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marketing, in store marketing, etc. which are focused on targeted customers depending upon the
place where they are placed (Okazaki and Taylor, 2013).
Effectiveness of ATL and BTL:
The effectiveness of both types of advertising activities will be known by analysing about
the suitability of these two. These two methods of marketing are effective as they can cover a
large area for making them aware about the product of ASDA. ATL is effective for ASDA as it
will help in creating brand awareness and goodwill of the company in the market as it will cover
a very large area. It is also effective because with the help of this method the new products can
easily be launched as well as the brand awareness can be easily created. BTL is another way of
doing marketing for the products of ASDA. It is also beneficial for the company as it will
increase the brand loyalty of the customers towards the product of the company because of the
direct engagement and conversions in between the company and the customers (Palmer, 2012).
CONCLUSION
From the above given data it can be concluded that all these types of promotion
techniques have their own importance and uses. These must be applied by proper analysing the
market so that the suitability of the technique can be best assessed and the company may have
positive results from the used ways for increasing the awareness of the product. Further, ASDA
is doing its business at a global level so that best suitable practise for promotion of their products
is advertising and sales promotion as it reaches to a large number of customers through the use of
internet, televisions and the benefits can also be provided to the customers with the
advertisement which are helpful in creating demand of the product. Further it is also concluded
that for making the communication level better in between the companies and their customers,
the use of AIDA Model and Above/below the Line will be done as these both are concentrated
upon reaching to the customers in an effective and efficient way which tells the same ot the
customers what the company wants to convey with them.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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790.
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consumers' pro-environmental beliefs and behaviors. Journal of Strategic Marketing.
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Deval, H. and et. al., 2012. How naive theories drive opposing inferences from the same
information. Journal of Consumer Research. 39(6). pp.1185-1201.
Filip, A., 2012. Marketing theory applicability in higher education. Procedia-social and
behavioral sciences. 46. pp.912-916.
Fill, C. and Turnbull, S. L., 2016. Marketing communications: brands, experiences and
participation. Pearson.
Hennart, J. F., 2014. The accidental internationalists: a theory of born globals. Entrepreneurship
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Verger, A., 2012. Framing and selling global education policy: the promotion of public–private
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Westberg, K. and Pope, N., 2014. Building brand equity with cause-related marketing: A
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Online
promotion mix. 2019. [Online]. Available Through:
<http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/promotion-mix.html>
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