DECISIONAL MODELS FOR COMMUNICATION-MIX

Abstract

In the economic systems of the most developed countries, customers accept with less passivity products, communications and, in general, business supplies: they are subjects more and more aware, demanding and active. The consumers ability to step in the different moments of the relation between supply and demand outlines the company need to make supplies that, both in their technological and immaterial content, allow consumers to feel active. The previous considerations, completed with the observation of competing products more and more similar from a technical point of view, lead to state that the creation and conservation of a lasting and defendable competitive advantage nowadays is achieved trough a very strong immaterial component. Brand, considered as the specific relation created with a given market to state a particular offer, gives the right synthesis between material and immaterial elements, but next to the brand, commercial communication has a main function and it represent the instrument to guide that relation. That being so, in this paper first of all will be outlined the different forms of communication mix and after the factors on the basis of which companies can choose which approach assume. Traditionally, in marketing, finding the communication mix consists in a series of sequences: the analysis of the competitive sector, the demand segmentation, the choice of the reference target and the placement. The process ends with the specification of the operative actions which are on the variable decision which compose the marketing mix. Consequently the definition of communicati on follows the same process at the end of which the company decides the different tools to use to achieve both the set goals and the reference target. The process we have just seen however can be developed also in a parallel and not sequential way, thanks to the creation and the use of a database which contains information about customers. In particular, a database allows to study in real time the customer base, to immediately find the subjects to whom address and to define the more suitable actions to satisfy the individual needs . In substance it is put into action a marketing one to one approach. So that a company can assume an advanced marketing model it is fundamental the creation of a relation with consumers in order to obtain data that after will merge into the database: it becomes important the activity of collecting data. Between this two approaches which can be considered borderline cases, there are others that we can call intermediate cases in which, because there is no customer database, traditional forms of communication are used, for example advertising, to bring directly the consumer to use those direct communication tools typical of new media. In this case the main activities are developed by web, which is not only used to spread messages to the reference target, but it is also an important instrument to create a company database. All other media and communication tools are used to support on-line activities; of fact their duty is to push the communication recipient to visit the company web site and, then, to transfer his data to the company. In the end we can identify another approach to company communication which is defined as “not structured” because there are no analysis before company decisions. In this approach a major role is played by the set of relations that the businessman has established with his customers. All communication activities are settled to enforce those relations, and a great attention is given to public relations. Taxonomy of communication models doesn’t have to be considered a tool that ends in itself but an useful support to management to guide the communication actions. In order to develop this role the description of the different marketing approaches adopted by a company is not enough; it is necessary to find the factors that orientate company choices towards the adoption of an approach rather than another. In general, these elements can be very different, among which the intensity of competition, number of transaction, data acquisition cost, level of differentiation of the product/service and company dimension.

KEY WORDS communication mix | taxonomy of communication models | marketing approaches | decisional models | factors of choice.