Develop a marketing communications plan Create a marketing communications plan. The four main sections are: Situation analysis basic decision Marketing Communications Implementation Marketing Communications Program Evaluation The following framework for developing a marketing communications plan applies to developing plans for established or new brands. For clarity, remember that a brand represents a specific organization into a specific product category. A brand can be a product, service, nonprofit program, or any other type of market offering. Regardless of the nature of the brand, a marketing planner develops a plan in an effort to gain, maintain, or build his or her brand's market share in a competing product category. The Marcom program requires the activities described in the following sections. Situation and SWOT analysis

The initial aspects of marketing communications planning involve performing a situational analysis and conducting a SWOT analysis.

Situational Analysis Situational analysis involves a detailed examination of: (1) Competing brands in product categories in which the marketing planner brand competes, (2) Customers who purchased brands in this category (3) Environmental factors (economic, socio-cultural developments, pressing regulatory issues, etc.) are relevant to the growth prospects of categories and brands within categories. When conducting a situation analysis, one might want to know everything one can about the competing brands and their marketing communications plans and marketing practices. For example, how are competing brands priced? What advertising messages do they use? How do they arrange media? How is the brand packaged? What form of promotions do they use? To what extent are they using the Internet as a marketing communication medium? In addition to providing answers to these and other related questions, it is also important to determine each brand's market share and growth trends and identify its competitive strengths and weaknesses. As global competition intensifies, it becomes increasingly important for situational analysis to investigate competitive alternatives and not just domestic brands. Research on customers will include why they buy or don't buy in the category; the size of your brand's and competing brands' customer base; your brand's and competing brands' customer base characteristics (in terms of demographics, psychographics, etc.); customer behavior changes, if any, and anticipated developments that may affect customer behavior in the foreseeable future. Environmental analysis examines all external factors of the company and its brands that affect the product category and its constituent brands. This would include a study of economic trends; an investigation of socio-cultural developments relevant to the category; and perhaps an analysis of regulatory issues affecting a brand's potential for success. SWOT Analysis A SWOT analysis is a natural extension of situational analysis and includes researching product categories and the opportunities and threats facing your brand, as well as objectively analyzing your brand's strengths and weaknesses compared to competing brands.

Marketing Communications Strategy: Basic Decisions

Brand managers must make four fundamental marketing communications decisions: positioning, positioning, targeting, and budgeting. These decisions provide the strategic basis for the brand and guide subsequent decisions in implementing the marketing communications plan.

Positioning The initial fundamental decision is to choose the primary (and perhaps secondary) customer segment that the brand will appeal to. Positioning decisions provide a clear picture of the type of customers a brand is most likely to attract and who are most likely to buy from it. Targeting can be based on any combination of buyer characteristics, demographics, geography, and psychographics. Research is often required to determine the appropriate basis for marketing campaigns for your brand. Based on this analysis, brand managers should ultimately estimate the number of consumers that constitute the target market. It is important not to target too generally (for example, claiming that all women represent the target market, not just those who belong to a restricted age group and represent a specific socioeconomic status). At the same time, it is crucial that targeting decisions cannot be exclusive. That said, don't exclude any particular group from your market norms unless you have a compelling reason to do so. It's even more important to note that the target market size specified here will undoubtedly be smaller than the market size you specify in your follow-up media analysis. This is because market size specifications for media usage are often very broad, for example, "all adults ages 18-49". It is important to realize that a well-defined target market (including psychographics and demographics) is essential for message development purposes, whereas market norms for media analysis purposes are more inclusive and therefore broader in scope. Note that this apparent conflict arises because (1) media vehicle data is often limited to demographics, and (2) by specifying a large target market, the "numbers" (GRP, reach, etc.) are more impressive. total, Positioning - Having identified the target market, the brand manager can now specify how the brand will be positioned. In other words, in this part of the marketing communications plan, the challenge is to create a specific meaning for the brand based on the positioning strategies used by competing brands. A positioning strategy should be based on a brand's competitive advantage in a particular product attribute or benefit. Because brands are sometimes superior to competing products in terms of function or utility, it is often necessary to position brands based on mental imagery. Goal Setting Marketing communications plans are created for a specified time period, which may be as short as a 13-week business quarter, or more typically, a full year. Thus, a marketing communications plan can be conceptualized as an activity, or in other words, as a set of marketing communications activities with planned start and end dates. Branding campaigns are designed to achieve a specific goal or set of interrelated goals. Therefore, a brand manager must initiate a campaign by identifying what the marketing communications plan is to achieve during the campaign. These goals can be conceptualized in terms of achieving different levels in the effect hierarchy. Budget Budgeting and goal setting decisions are inextricably linked. The budget amount limits the possible marketing achievements of a brand in a marketing campaign. At the same time, more ambitious goals require larger budgets. Therefore, budgeting and goal setting are fully interactive decisions. Since companies typically use relatively simple procedures to set budgets (for example, investing a certain percentage of expected revenue in a marketing communications plan), the budget decision can be a fairly simple one, or, when a more analytical budgeting process is employed (for example, the goal-and-task approach), may require extensive research and deliberation. Budget decisions should be based on considerations such as product category revenue outlook, competitive spending levels, SOV/SOM considerations, financial practicality, etc. Budgeting should consider the interplay between marketing requirements and financial obligations. Brand managers can be very aggressive, very conservative, or somewhere in between when it comes to budgeting. Regardless of the strategy chosen, it is important to fully rationalize the budget level chosen, recognizing that the overall marketing budget is a critical decision as all other decisions will be influenced by the amount of budgetary resources available.

Marcom implementation

From strategy formulationthat is, previous goal setting, positioning, target setting, and budget determinationthe challenge now is to move from the strategic level to implementation or tactical norms. Implementation includes decisions on determining the mix of marketing communications tools, creating messages, selecting media and vehicles, and determining what must be done to maintain the momentum behind the marketing communications plan. (By the way, for new brands, the brand management team with the marketing department or product category group must first identify an appropriate brand name and, for many products, develop appropriate packaging.) Determine the mix of marketing communications tools Advertising, promotions, marketing-oriented public relations, and event and cause sponsorships are the primary marketing communications tools that can be mixed to achieve event goals. Identifying the right blend is a complex decision that requires a mix of art and science. Mixed decisions are influenced by budgetary resources, campaign activity, the types of goals that must be achieved during a campaign, and, frankly, management's beliefs about what works best. Whatever the determining factors, the mix of marketing communications tools should be continually evaluated to best suit current market dynamics. Creating Messages The positioning strategy previously created for the brand must be implemented in the form of specific messaging executions for each marketing communications tool. For example, a bottled water brand might be positioned based on a brand image that suggests that the brand's users are sexy. To achieve this positioning, a humorous message can be devised to convey the concept. Alternatively, a subtle emotional message can be devised that shows your brand's users consuming the product while satisfying romantic interest. Brand managers can use a variety of message execution formats. Importantly, according to the specified IMC requirements, it is essential that all marketing communications tools "speak with a single voice" by using the same consistent message in a seamless manner. Selecting Media and Vehicles For each marketing communication vehicle (advertisement, promotion, etc.), the brand manager must choose a general medium to deliver the message and within each medium a specific vehicle to reach the target market. For example, by using advertising as a marketing communications tool, managers can use media categories such as online, television, radio, newspapers, and magazines. For television media, vehicle options include numerous shows airing on the network and cable TV. In the field of promotions, media and vehicles can be thought of as types of promotions chosen to achieve specific goals during an event. Coupons, rebate programs, sweepstakes, backgrounds, games and giveaways are just some of the options available. as always, Maintain Momentum - Marketing communicators sometimes invest heavily in advertising and promoting brands in a short period of time. Brand awareness and market share typically grow significantly during this period. However, when the program is suspended, the benefits usually fade quickly and return to baseline levels. Therefore, it is critical for brand managers to determine in advance how to maintain momentum. This often means investing in cheaper media and vehicles for the long term, rather than blowing up your budget in the short term. The availability of internet advertising is an extremely valuable medium to maintain momentum. Regular event sponsorships also help maintain momentum.

Marcom Program Evaluation Given the goals established, a formal effort is required to track the brand's performance against those goals and determine whether the goals are being met and, if not, what changes are required to the marcom plan to accomplish within the specified target budget constraints.