What are the steps of the marketing communication planning model?
We’ll be discussing marketing communication planning in this week’s topic. Plans for marketing are not the same as marketing communications. While a communications plan creates a means of telling, a marketing plan aims to sell. Now let’s get started.
We’ll look at the marketing and communications planning framework (MCPF) from Chris Fill’s 2024 book Marketing Communications: Brands, Experiences, and Participation as an illustration of a well-thought-out approach. A model for comprehending the various components of a marketing plan and their relationships is the MCPF, as seen below.
The MCPF illustrated
In theory, this model is linear, but in practice, it might not be. We will begin at the top despite the absence of linearity. Context analysis is the first step in the model. This is a review of the variables affecting the intended communication’s delivery and reception. Create a list of variables that could impact the brand, either positively or adversely. The author emphasizes avoiding organizational variables since they would divert attention from communications and were probably considered while creating a marketing plan.
The information obtained during the marketing planning phase forms the foundation of the context analysis. When creating a communication plan, information on segmentation, business and marketing objectives, and market analysis should already be available. Contextual analysis aims to justify the remaining portions of the plan. The context can be divided into four categories: external, internal, business, and customer contexts.
Setting goals and positioning for communication is the next step. There are three sets of goals in this step: communication, marketing, and corporate. The organization’s mission statement and business plan should serve as the direct source of the corporate goals. The marketing plan should contain the marketing goals, which are sales-related KPIs. The communications goals encompass several aspects such as perception and awareness levels, attitudes, and decisions between repositioning and brand maintenance. The development of the communication goals have to be guided by the context analysis.
The 3Ps of communication strategy are the next phase. The terms “Push, Pull, and Profile” are used here. Pull strategy involves talking to the customer or final user of the product, whereas push strategy is all about interacting with middlemen like merchants.
An illustration of the communication flow in the pull approach
Assessing communications with other stakeholders, including NGOs, governments, community organizations, and so forth, is the focus of profile strategy.
The communication channel in the profile strategy
Marketing managers should be extremely aware of the target audiences, their priority, and the approach that applies to each of them. All communications should be integrated, as we covered last week, but this doesn’t mean that various approaches aren’t applicable. Positioning can significantly influence which tactic to prioritize. While every component matters, a company redesigning its identity can believe that the pull strategy is the most crucial way to let customers know about the change. However, a company under new ownership or with a reorganized management team needs to use a push approach to reassure partners that everything is fine or that the necessary changes have been made..
When establishing marketing communication strategies, sorting out the coordinated communications mix is necessary. This is the preliminary version of the message that will be sent. At this point, you should take into account each relevant stakeholder’s preference for style, type, and media. You should balance objectives and support decisions with the available resources and their relative importance. Outside organizations may also be involved in this step to start drafting the communications.
Resources is the following topic. The use of project planning software, like Microsoft Project, or its acquisition are examples of resources. To enable the approval and allocation of financial resources, precise cost estimates must be prepared. It is necessary to assess the assignments and needs of the workforce. It is necessary to make the necessary hires. The evaluation of time constraints should come last. Consequently, scheduling comes next. This section should go without saying. It is necessary to communicate with relevant partners and intermediaries in order to roll out the plans’ events, media, and approaches strategically. Depending on segmentation and the forms used, the timing of media pushes could be crucial.
Implementation, Control, and Evaluation are the last stages. The implementation process is as simple as it gets. Press the button. Give the domino a tip. Control and evaluation are essential to the project’s success after the rollout has started. “Unless there is some form of evaluation, there will be no dialogue and no true marketing communications,” as Chris Fill puts it. The communication goals and objectives established early in the process deserve particular attention. Feedback is one of the factors that is depicted in the diagram but isn’t specifically named. Information is fed back up the latter at every stage of the process to refine and enhance each one. As variables shift during the process, goals and scope could as well. Any project’s success depends on its ability to receive and process criticism, and this one is no exception.
The SOSTAC model is another tool for communication planning. Even if created for digital marketing, larger communication strategies might also use this. However, author Chris Fill cautions that due to its multifunctionality, the communication focus could be lost or muddled when using it.. Watch the video below to learn more about SOSTAC from PR Smith, the model’s designer, or go here for a comprehensive how-to guide on creating an SOSTAC model.
A brief manual from PR Smith, the creator of SOSTAC
What qualities make a plan or campaign for marketing communication successful?
Plans for marketing communications that are really successful are always goal-oriented. These goals could be behavioral or come in the form of communication goals. The goals of communication are to inform or change customers’ opinions about the product. Behavioral objectives accomplish precisely what their name suggests: they aim to alter consumer behavior. You can use market research, referred to as “feedback” in the preceding paragraph, to measure these. You can analyze communication objectives based on knowledge, attitudes, recall, brand recognition, and awareness. These could be hard to define and might need a lot of investigation. Fortunately, behavioral goals are far simpler to quantify. These variables include market share, first-time purchases, click-through rates, likes, shares, and so on. After that, After that, you further refine the communication plan using these facts..
An example of successful marketing communication
Let’s look at Apple, the first trillion-dollar corporation in the world, as an illustration of an effective communication approach. The business was in utter disarray in the late 1990s. perilously close to insolvency. Steve Jobs now comes in. The business would reinvent itself as an electronics manufacturer for those who didn’t fit the model a year later. Everyone in the market replicated the iMac’s design, which lived up to its tagline of “think different.” The machine was a welcome return of the old iconoclast, and it reminded us of the Macintosh in all the right ways. Even after more than two decades, the company’s signature marketing communications plan remains the same. Persuading us that purchasing from the most prosperous corporation in the world signifies uniqueness continues.
