3 Customers and clients
4 Looking after customers 5 Handling complaints
Business cannot afford to be introspective: it must look outwards towards its customers and clients. This chapter considers the way this is done, examining (from the specific standpoint of communication) marketing and marketing research.
Communication with customers is examined, along with customer care, and the chapter ends with a consideration of the vital topic of complaints, and how to deal with them.
1 Relating to the external environment
There are a number of organisations, groups and people – sometimes known as stakeholders– with which businesses need to communicate. These include:
● shareholders
● suppliers and collaborators
● customers, potential customers and clients.
It is the last of these with which this chapter is especially concerned. The overriding factor here is competition. The dynamic nature of markets means that customers are hard to win, and demand attention if they are to be retained.
The context in which to see the communication that this demands involves marketing. Marketing is a much misunderstood concept. It describes a broad function, incorporating many disparate elements, all of which must link – and work – together.
The word marketing now carries many more overtones, but this definition is sufficient here, where were are concerned not so much with the marketing function itself, as with what it means for and in communication.
2 Marketing communications
Marketing communicationsare about the promotion of both the business and the goods and services it has to offer. All organisations are involved in promotion to a lesser or greater extent, whether this involves the commercial sale of goods or services, a charity fundraising campaign or attempts to influence legislators.
stakeholder
The ways in which an organisation uses marketing communications to relate to its external environment are often referred to as the promotional mix, which involves the use and coordination of a variety of promotional channels to achieve the end goal. It is difficult to categorise these channels precisely, but it is widely accepted that the mix will include some or all of the following:
● direct marketing
This chapter looks at some of the core concepts and principles of marketing
communications, and gives a brief overview of market research and planning. Specific forms of promotion – such as advertising and press relations – are looked at in more detail in Chapter 14.
2.1 Market research
Market researchlooks for the information needed to identify target markets and marketing opportunities. It generates information which will inform the decision-making process.
Research should only be conducted when the value of the information to be obtained is greater than the cost of obtaining it.
In summary, the research process follows certain key steps :
1 Define the marketing problem to be solved, and specify the research objectives.
2 Select the data collection method(s) to be used.
3 Select the sampling method(s) to be used. (Note that sampling may not be valid for every piece of research – if the universe (the whole population to be
investigated) is small, a census may be better.)
4 Develop an analysis plan. Specify what data will be reported and what statistical methods will be used to analyse the results.
5 Estimate the time and resources needed.
6 Check back to make sure everything fits with the person, department or organisation specifying the research.
7 Collect the data.
8 Analyse the data.
9 Report the findings.
There are two main types of research which may be carried out:
● Primary research: Original research which is being carried out for the first time for a particular purpose. This can be achieved by using a range of tools, including surveys, interviews, observations and experiments.
● Secondary research: Research into data that has already been published, such as a company’s own records, or published sources, such as government statistics.
CHAPTER 4 External communications: markets and customers 41
promotional mix
2.2 Marketing communications research
Marketing communications research includes advertising research, the evaluation of sales promotions and direct mail, trade journals, exhibitions, personal selling, corporate communications, telephone marketing, the internet and so on. It is
fundamental to the marketing process, evaluating, as it does, the overall effectiveness of an organisation’s marketing in general, and of any specific communications campaign being conducted. The organisation may need to research the characteristics of its customers, defining the target audience for future campaigns. The audience may be individuals or other organisations, depending on the product. Which will be the most effective media through which to conduct those campaigns? Television for individuals?
Trade journals for other organisations? How exactly should the message be presented?
What sales force will be required, and where or how should it be placed?
2.3 The marketing plan
A marketing plan is a document covering all a business’s marketing activities, including the implementation and control of those activities. It is a major way of communicating to staff, and hence of great importance in the context of this text. It:
● offers a ‘road map’ for implementing the firm’s strategies and achieving its objectives
● assists in management control and monitoring of the implementation of management strategy
● informs new participants in the plan of their role and function
● specifies how resources are to be allocated
● stimulates thinking and makes better use of resources
● assigns responsibilities, tasks and timing
● makes participants aware of problems, opportunities and threats.
A typical format will contain:
1 Business definition and market analysis: Categories of customers served, and their needs; market size and trends; analysis of market segments.
2 Situation analysis: Review of trends and changes in the environment the organisation operates in, from an economic, political, social, cultural and technological viewpoint; analysis of customers and potential customers; detail of the company itself – profit and performance, market and market share, resources.
3 Analysis of key issues/SWOT: All the key analyses from 1 and 2 in a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats statement.
4 Marketing objectives: A statement of marketing objectives, covering sales, market share, image, profit and margins.
5 Marketing strategy: Target markets, position in the market, marketing mix – product, price, distribution, promotion.
6 Financial projections and budgets: Budgets, sales forecasts, profit forecasts.
7 Controls, evaluations and contingency plans.
PART TWO Communication in the workplace 42
2.4 Advertising
To advertise is defined in some dictionaries as ‘to inform’, and it is indeed a prime way that business uses to communicate with and inform its customers and clients. More specifically, though, advertising is about persuasion. Customers have to be motivated to make a purchase. Advertising, therefore, seeks to identify and present the benefits of a product to the target audience, as effectively and as cost-effectively as possible. It is used to develop and reinforce a producer’s image, and to establish a brand image, an identity for a product to which customers can relate. Part of a brand image is the packaging used for the goods, and this in itself is a form of advertising, and a powerful way to convey a message from supplier to customer. For advertising to be effective, it must be well managed. There are six basic elements to managing advertising:
1 Identify the target audience.
2 Determine the objectives.
3 Determine the budget.
4 Select the message.
5 Select the media.
6 Evaluate the effectiveness.
Advertising is looked at in more detail in Chapter 14.
CHAPTER 4 External communications: markets and customers 43
Q Q A A
Putting the case 4.1
Why is it likely that existing sales staff will not form part of the sales team that James Peters needs to create?
There are two reasons:
First, productivity. It is probable that these people are already fully stretched by their task of selling to existing customers. More important, however, is that the nature of the new customers is very different: an arable farmer compared with the
manager of a suburban garden centre, for instance. It is likely, therefore, that the skills needed to communicate with the new customers will be different from those held by the existing team, and that people with experience relevant to the new task will need to be recruited. Some people might transfer, with suitable training, but it is essential that those doing this job are well matched to the task.
Identify four elements which are usually included in a marketing plan.