Marketing Report: Communications, Advertising, and Brands

This report delves into various aspects of marketing communications, starting with an overview of mass and personal communications, and then proceeds to explore communication models, including the basic and two-way communication models. It examines the hierarchy of effects modeling, advertising roles, and strong versus weak advertising theories. The report also highlights the significance of brands for both customers and companies. Furthermore, it analyzes the relationship between advertising and public relations, the objectives of sponsorship, the factors representing persuasive impact, and the relevance of brand associations. The report provides references to books and journals supporting the concepts discussed, and includes illustrations of communication models and the hierarchy of effects theory. This report is a comprehensive analysis of key marketing concepts.

TEN QUESTIONS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Mass Communications and personal communications...........................................................1
2. Communications Models........................................................................................................1
3. Hierarchy of Effects Modelling.............................................................................................2
4. Advertising..............................................................................................................................3
5. Strong and Weak Theories of Advertising..............................................................................4
6. Importance of brands for customers and companies...............................................................4
7. Advertising and Public Relations............................................................................................4
8. Objective of Sponsorship........................................................................................................4
9. Factors representing Persuasive impact of sponsorship..........................................................5
10. Relevance of Associations...................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

1. Mass Communications and personal communications
Mass Communication Personal Communication
The size of the audience and the origin of the
information/message could be from either a
single person or a group of persons or a
combination of the both (DeFleur and DeFleur,
2016).
It is generally a single person communicating
with the other individual.
Rationale could be to convey a message to a
large audience at the same time.
Rationale could be expressing an emotion or
conveying a specific message to specific
person (Woelke and Koch, 2016).
It could be through radio, magazines, movies,
social networking sites, books etc.
It could be through personal emails, texts,
letters, telephone calls, face-to-face
2. Communications Models
The Basic Communication Model is the process of transmission of information/messages
between the sender and the receiver. For instance all interpersonal communications.
Illustration
1: The Basic Communication Model
Source: Marketing Communication, 2015
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While in accordance to the Two-way Communication Model people are directly not
influenced by the mass media, rather are influenced by the opinion leaders. He interprets media
messages due to direct exposure to the specific media content and turn them into the context of
the followers (Reitsma and et.al., 2016). For instance, in a company the Managing Director is the
Opinion Leader while Political leader may be for society.
In the real world, most of the communication are through the basic model. As the
communication process is direct. However, it is further transmitted through the two-way process.
3. Hierarchy of Effects Modelling
It is a model which inspires the advertisers to structure the advertisement in such a
fashion that consumers essentially undergo the following stages:
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Illustratio
n 2: Two-way Communication Model
Source: Communication Theory, 2012

Illustration 3: Hierarchy of Effects Theory
Source: Marketing Dictionary, 2016
It has been suggested by the specialists that the consumers essentially undergo the above
mentioned steps before purchasing any product. However, the model has faced immense
criticism on the issue that not all buyer undergo all the stages and even if they undergo all the
stages, they may not undergo in the same sequence. For instance, an impulsive decision to
purchase a product does not follow the hierarchy and may rather, contract it.
4. Advertising
It is one of the ways of marketing communications in order to promote a product or
service with the intend to sell it in the market (Amin, 2016). It is a medium of attracting public
attention. Advertising has the following roles: Marketing Roles: Promotes specific products in the market for increased awareness. For
instance, the unknown brand of Nike has gained the market share with the help of
effective advertisement. Communication Role: Transmits relevant information to the customers. For instance, the
advertisement communicates the sports and casual use of the products. Economic Role: Plays important role in price elasticity of the product.
 Societal Role: It may be a reflective of the society or what can be expected in the future.
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5. Strong and Weak Theories of Advertising
The strong theory suggests that advertising persuades consumers to go through the stags
of Awareness, Interest, desire and action. It states that advertising has a powerful influence on
the buying behaviour of the customers, and thereby turning the non-buyers into buyers of the
specific brand (Percy and Rosenbaum-Elliott, 2016).
On the other hand, the weak theory states that the steps involved in decision-making are
Awareness, Trial and Reinforcement. It is believed that advertising is not a powerful tool,
especially in the present competitive market. Loyalty to a single brand for a long time is a rare
phenomenon.
6. Importance of brands for customers and companies
Brand is the identity of a product or service in the market. It is important to build a brand
within the eyes of customers and other companies. Customers before buying a product check the
brand and then buy the product. The brand assures the quality and make a differentiation from
the other products. For instance, a product of IKEA shall be presumed to be of good quality.
Brand identifies a potential competitor for the other companies.
7. Advertising and Public Relations
The former is a paid way to promote the products and services through different types of
media such as T.V., radio, newspaper etc. whereas the latter is a strategic way of building
beneficial communications between public and the organizations (Percy and Rosenbaum-Elliott,
2016). The major difference lies in the fact that, there is no direct payment involved in public
relations but it may help in promoting the products.
8. Objective of Sponsorship
There is presence of greater number of objectives that are relates with Sponsorship. This
includes the following:
 To increase awareness of the brand
 To build preference of the brand as well as loyalty
 To increase sales as well as market share
 To offer platform to the corporate hospitality as well as entertaining clients
 To shape the attitudes of the customers
 To make generation of the interest among media
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 To offer point of differentiation from competitors
9. Factors representing Persuasive impact of sponsorship
There is presence of several factors that demonstrates the Persuasive impact of
sponsorship (Tennant, Weigold and Harris, 2016). Such have been enumerated in the manner as
under:
 Easy availability of finance in terms of increasing number of sponsors who are ready to
make investment in the event.
 Number of sponsors who are approaching the event company reflects the persuasive
impact of sponsorship
 Promotion of the event offers the platform for the event to gain number of sponsors for
the event.
10. Relevance of Associations
Brand Association is perception of that particular brand in the minds of the consumers. It
could be anything positive or negative. These are some of the factors which enable the
consumers to relate to a particular brand. For instance, the brand Apple is associated to luxury
and high price. If anyone is talking about high priced gadgets, Apple is generally the first though
in the minds of people. Further it also known to give the best and the most comfortable
experience to the users of its products such as i-phone, i-pad or i-pod. Hence the brand is
associated with being the best in all the aspects.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Amin, P., 2016. A study on perception and effectiveness of sms advertising in selected services
products in the state of gujarat.
DeFleur, M. L. and DeFleur, M. H., 2016. Mass communication theories: Explaining origins,
processes, and effects. Routledge.
Percy, L. and Rosenbaum-Elliott, R., 2016. Strategic advertising management. Oxford
University Press.
Reitsma, K. and et.al., 2016. Method of and system for authenticating and operating personal
communication devices over public safety networks. U.S. Patent 9,332,431.
Tennant, B. Weigold, K., and Harris C, 2016. User protection in a multimode personal
communication device. U.S. Patent 9,332,103.
Woelke, J. and Koch, S., 2016. Personal Influence. The Part Played by the People in the Flow of
Mass Communication. In Schlüsselwerke der Medienwirkungs forschung. pp. 61-71. Springer
Fachmedien Wiesbaden.
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