Chapter 17: Communication policy Flashcards
promotion
internal
external
all activities of a company aimed at bringing the product it supplies to the
attention of the public in order to promote the sale of that product.
Internal promotion: the promotional activities that take place within the store.
External promotion: all promotional activities aimed at increasing the interest and purchase intention of consumers in the catchment area of the store.
A common classification of the communication methods available to a retailer
is paid/unpaid VS. personal/impersonal.
Creating a digital marketing strategy
- Search engine optimization - SEO vs.
- Search engine advertising - SEA
- Organic social media: free and only reaches active followers of a retailer or brand vs.
- Paid social media: potential customers who are not followers can also be reached with paid ads through different payment models:
Paid advertisement → Cost Per Mille, Cost Per Click, Cost Per Action
Marketing funnel:
a model in which the consumer goes through the following phases by analogy with the retail waterfall: awareness, consideration, choice, purchase, and return. Marketers are particularly influential at the beginning of the funnel. A lot of influence also exists in the next phase (the consideration phase).
the customer journey is not static. A new era has begun and only those who understand the new journey will win. A model is a simplistic representation of the complex reality, therefore, changes in the real lead to a new more complex model:
the infinite customer journey
● Non-linear
● Cross-channel: It can take place via multiple channels, digitally and physically
● Digital First
● Infinite: there is no longer a beginning or end point in the journey, but rather an infinite loop
Customer journey mapping
with this method the Customer Journey is mapped in 6 different phases. Each phase includes several activities that can be performed or experienced by the customer and to which the retailer can respond in different ways. The mapping is done according to the templates. For each retailer a map can be made per channel and per location. It is valuable to perform this mapping not only for the retailer itself but also for its competitors.
customer journey map table explained
The figure shows which steps a retailer must take in order to properly map the current CJ. possible frictions in the CJ become apparent as the retailer assesses its own performance in the various areas. Per phase and per component the performance of the own organisation with a green, yellow or red score. In this way, it quickly becomes clear whether cooperation leads to the removal of frictions. This can also be done for two competitors.
Review marketing
- Cheapest form of marketing
- Considered independent by consumers
- On product level and supplier level*
Reviews are particularly important for product choices. Comparison sites are an option for customers to inform themselves.
Retailer sites are the ideal place for product reviews.
The product reviews of consumers can contribute to increasing objectivity. The reviews can be brought back to the store floor by placing them with the products on the shelves, or via mobile website by making the scanning of the product available on the customer’s smartphone. Amazon has even developed a store concept based entirely on customer recommendations.
*product or supplier reviews:
supplier reviews
since consumers are also looking for supplier reviews, this is also relevant for a retailer. Those reviews wil have to be collected on an independent forum. If this forum/platform is supported by consumers, retailers can post the score obtained from this forum on their own website. This way, consumers can see at a glance what other consumers think about the retailer in question.
Objectives of retail communication
short term
medium term
long term
- Short term: look at direct sales. Include the majority of retail advertising.
- Medium-term: look at store traffic. Increase the flow of visitors to the store, partly by increasing the visiting frequency of existing customers, partly by attracting new visitors
- Long term: profiling the store formula (reputation). By increasing the interest within the catchment area (market penetration) and by the expansion of the catchment area (market development)
An important distinction closely related to the communication objective is that between
Thematic communication = aimed at anchoring the desired store image
Action communication = aimed at generating sales
How to measure thematic communication?
o Brand awareness research: simply asking, before and after the start/end of the thematic campaign, which providers people know. Spontaneous brand awareness vs. assisted brand awareness.
o TOMA research: not only ask for brand awareness, but also rank the answers. The higher the TOMA value, the more likely the supplier is to be included in the consumer’s consideration shopping alternatives.
o Reputation research: in an extensive and expensive in-depth consumer research aimed to find out to what extent the reputation pursued by the provider is actually experienced by the consumer and how this perception is developing (before and after)
How to measure action communication?
o Primarily by changes in sales (this brings up the main problem in advertising impact measurement in retail: how do we define the change in sales? In other words, how do we separate the additional sales generated by the communication from the autonomous sales movement?)
o Also measure the effect in the weeks before and after (drops?)
Customer Relationship Management
(CRM) and loyalty offer multiple marketing analytics opportunities.
CRM is based on a database in which a combination of customer data is recorded (personal characteristics and areas of interest). CRM offers the possibility of making statements about the needs of the customer through data mining.
