Dr. John Kautenberg
Marketing Communication and Brand Strategy
Marketing communication strategy implies the utilization of various approaches to communications to reach the target audience. It entails the message, the target, and the medium. Brand strategy, on the other hand, involves the actions that are taken to link customers to a business through recognition (Schilge, 2018). Various efforts can be used, which include sponsoring events and advertisement, among others. The following is a discussion on marketing communication and brand strategy.
Situational Analysis
Situational analysis in marketing explores factors like potential customers, competitors, and the projected growth to make a realistic analysis of a business. This strategy focuses on the specific objectives in business and examines the aspects that facilitate or hinder these objectives. Market segmentation identifies groups of buyers in the market of a product, especially the ones with similar needs (Lorette, 2019). In such a situation, the market will be segmented to help the business to match its capabilities to the requirements of one or more groups of buyers. Situational analysis will be integral to the marketing plan of the company to uncover issues in the segments of the markets of interest. Each target market will have buyers with similar needs, which will ease the process of product categorization by marketers and senior management. It is expected that the market segments may vary from the average features of the entire market. The homogeneity of the needs of customers in the segments can facilitate effective targeting of the marketing plan.
The analysis of the strength and weaknesses of competitors will account for a significant aspect of the situational analysis for the product. Both the potential and existing competitors need to be considered because their combination forms a strategic group that impacts the performance of a product in the market. The analysis will demonstrate the need to examine the strength and weaknesses.
The 4Ps Strategy
Creating a brand image is an initial approach to market communication and brand strategy. The process will entail the identification of the key audience that the product is supposed to satisfy. It is expected that the audience will be a mixture of external and internal groups that will be customers. This strategy also includes developing a key message and merging it with the needs of the audience.
The element of advertising strategy is a blueprint for selling a product to consumers. Numerous advertisement strategies exist, and each company chooses to use the one that aligns with its goals and mission. Media such as television commercials, magazine ads, product placement, and social media will be used to advertise the brand to the customers (Schilge, 2018). A range of factors will influence the choice of the media. For example, television ads will only apply to consumers where the product is sold. The company will come up with a budget that will cover the resources that are expected to be used in running the advertising strategy.
The element of public relations is integral to the plan. It involves disseminating the key message to the audience. The brands accompany all the news of the company in blogs, online, news outlets, and trade publications. It will be necessary for positioning the brand of the company in the market as an expert source in trends and breaking news and also a leader in the industry. Public relation is expected to improve the brand image as well as raise awareness in the market.
The Measure of Retention and Loyalty of Customers
Customer Retention Rate (CRR) can be used to measure these aspects. These aspects reflect the percentage of customers that remain loyal over a defined period. The CRR is significant in offering a quantitative interpretation of quantitative features (McEachem, 2018). A low rate implies that a few customers remained loyal to a company and its product. A higher percentage, on the other hand, indicates that a business is moving in the right direction. Although a hundred percent is considered as the ideal maximum, it is not completely achievable at times. Customer Retention Rate is calculated using the formula below.
CRR= {(CE-CN)/ CS} *100, whereby:
CE is the number of customers during the time of measure.
CN is the additional clients at the period of measurement and,
CS is the number of clients when the measure is evaluated again.
To improve the rate of customer loyalty and retention, a business needs to set realistic expectations. It needs to implement anticipatory services such as sending reminders for upcoming invoices. The business should also utilize social media to interact with customers at personal levels.
References
Lorette, K. (2019). A situational analysis of strategic marketing plan. Retrieved from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/situational-analysis-strategic-marketing-plan-1474.html
McEachem, A. (2018). The metrics you need to measure customer loyalty online. Retrieved from https://blog.smile.io/measure-customer-loyalty-online
Schilge, G. (2018). Situation analysis: A guide to your marketing situation analysis that works. Retrieved from https://www.matrixmarketinggroup.com/marketing-situation-analysis/
Michelle_Michy
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