[MUSIC] How are you today? Effective communications should accomplish four things. Establish a connection, promise a reward, inspire action and stick in the memory. We need to follow eight clear steps in developing effective communication. Identifying the target audience. Determining the objectives. Designing the communications. Selecting the channels. Establishing the budget. Deciding the media mix. Measuring results. And finally, managing integrated marketing communication. I'm going to start by explaining what's identifying the target audience. The process must start with a clear target audience in mind. Potential buyers of the companies market offering, current users, deciders or influencers. The target audience has a critical influence on the communications decisions about what to say, how, when, where and to whom. It may be useful to identify it in terms of usage and loyalty. For example, is the target new to the category or a current user? Is it loyal to the brand or to a competitor, or switches between the brands? If it's a brand user, is it a heavy or light user? Communication strategy will differ depending on the answers. A second factor would be determining the objectives. We can identify four possible objectives. The category need, the brand awareness, the brand attitude and the brand purchase intention. I will start with the category need. Establishing a product or service category as necessary to remove, or satisfy a perceived discrepancy between the current motivational state and a desire and emotional state. The example would be a new technology like, for example, the electrical car. Communication objective is establishing a category need. A second objective would be brand awareness. Ability to identify the brand within a category to make a purchase. Recognition is easier to achieve than recall. Brand recall is important outside the store and brand recognition inside the store. For example, recognizing the brand when you are in a supermarket. There is a third objective, that is brand attitude. Evaluating the brand with respect to its perceived ability to meet a current relevant need. For example, household cleaning products, they use a problem solution. Whereas for example, in the perfumes, we use a sensory oriented-advertising. And finally, we have the objective of brand purchase intention. Self-instructions to purchase the brand or take purchase related action. An example would be the promotional offers, encouraging consumers to make a mental commitment to buy a product. In most cases, companies intend to achieving multiple communication objectives. A third step is designing the communication. Designing or formulating the communication to achieve the desired response will require solving three problems. What to say, the message strategy. How to say it, the creative strategy and what we should say. That is the message source. So, we start with creative strategy. Communication's effectiveness depends on how a message is being expressed and the content of the message itself. Creative strategies are the way markets translate - markets or marketers - not translate their message into a specific communication. It can be informational, or transformational appeal. In the informational appeal, we elaborate market offerings quality and payment attributes or benefits. Very rational, processing of the communication on the part of the consumer. Logic and reason rule. An example would be the advertising that provides a solution, demonstrates a clear benefit, offers a product comparison or testimonials. On the other side, we have the transformational appeals. Elaborates on non-market offering related benefit or image. It may depict what kind of person uses a brand, attempt to stir up emotions that will motivate purchase. For example, Renault presents its Clio model as attractive for female drivers and Megane for male drivers. Communications also uses negative appeals, such as fear, guilt and shame to get people to do things. So for example, brushing your teeth. Or cleaning the kitchen or for them to stop doing things, like smoking or drinking alcohol or overeating. On the other side, communicators also use positive emotional appeals, such as humor, love, pride and joy. For example, in baby products. If we talk now about the message source, many communications do not use a source beyond the company itself, but others use known and unknown people. Messages delivered by attractive or popular sources can achieve higher attention and recall and celebrities are likely to be effective when they are critical, or personify a key market offering attribute. What is important is the spokesman's credibility. The main factors that underlie source credibility are the expertise, their trustworthiness and their likability. And we have, for example, George Clooney in the Nespresso campaign or Cristiano Ronaldo with Nike. Another step in building the communication program is selecting the channels. Selecting efficient means to carry the message becomes more difficult as channels of communications become more fragmented and cluttered. For example, the pharmaceutical industry. They advertise in medical journals. They use direct mail. They provide free samples. They sponsor clinical conferences and they use all this media to build a physician preference for their brand. The best strategy is focus on connecting the company's cost to their target audience's values rather than telling people to value the company's cost. Concentrate and inundate rather than spray, and pray. We can consider several channels. Personal communications channels. Buzz and viral marketing. Opinion leaders. Blogs and non-personal communication channels. I will start with personal communications channels. It means that two or more people communicate face to face, person to audience over the telephone or through email. Instant messaging and independent sites are other the channels of growing importance. The personal communication channels drive their effectiveness through individualized presentation and feedback. For example, for service providers, a referral is key. We talk about doctors, lawyers. Now, we will talk about the buzz and viral marketing. It generates excitement. It creates publicity and conveys new relevant brand related information through unexpected means. Information about the market offering to only a few known people in the target audience. Viral marketing is another way of word of mouth that encourages consumers to pass on company developed impressions of company offers to others online. Opinion leaders. They function, as a liaison and connect two or more groups without belonging to either. The blogs, regularly updated online journals and diaries have become an important outlet for word of mouth. And finally, the non-personal channels. They are communications directed to more than one person and include media, self-promotions, events and experiences and public relations. Now that we know how to develop effective communication and the steps to follow, in the next class, we will learn to establish a communication budget. [MUSIC]
