Future Trends in Marketing Communication

Problem

What are the future trends in marketing communication?

Learning objectives

1) What are the current trends in marketing communication?
2) What are the future trends?
3) How does technology affect marketing communications? (future)

What are the trends in marketing communication?

- Digital marketing is evolving as fast as any other medium on our tablets, smartphones, Google Glass and beyond, including mobile and video marketing.

- Marketing will be personalized, customized, and adapted. Data will be essential, and as users, we’ll be paying with our data. Customers will be forming relationships with brands that are built on trust, and if a company breaks that trust, it will be very quickly viral and very quickly over. 

- By 2020, unauthorized targeting of consumers will essentially be useless. I, as a consumer, am going to choose who I want to hear from. I’m going to like things, or I won’t like them, and you will have to earn that from me.

- In the future, the “reason to buy” will be socially motivated. If a product is great and everybody loves it, it will sell. And you’re going to stop buying things from companies that don’t fit your values.

- Companies can collect all the data they want, but data alone will never be enough. You still need to
reach consumers on an emotional level. The bottom line for marketers will be that if a product or service isn’t humanized, it won’t sell — because buying something isn’t an intellectual process of saying “this could be useful”; it’s saying “I really want this.”

- Ad blocking will continue to grow

Global Ad Blocking Growth, source: smartinsights.com

How does technology affect marketing communications in future?

- due to internet everything is going to be faster. There will be tons and tons of information that consumers will have to deal with, therefore, it is going to be a hard job for marketers to create outstanding marketing messages.

- virtual reality drops people inside their favorite TV show, provides an on-the-ground preview of their next vacation, or puts them behind the wheel of their next car. Customer experience is priority number one and 3D technology will move from novelty to mainstream. Smart marketers will look for ways to bring their products to virtual life. (Newman, 2015)

1. Computing everywhere. Through the proliferation of mobile devices, buyers and salespeople can reach each other anywhere and anytime.

2. Advanced, pervasive, invisible analytics. By layering analytics seamlessly on top of linked data on customers, sales activities, and salespeople, companies can deliver the right decision assistance to the right salespeople and customers at the right time.

3. Context rich systems. Data and analytical insights can be tailored and targeted for the specific situations faced by customers and company personnel. The extreme customization aligns perfectly with how salespeople think and work.

4. Cloud Computing and

5. Software Defined Infrastructure: These enable fast deployment and at-will scaling of systems to keep up with ever-changing business, customer, and sales force needs.

Sources

Chrzanowska, N. (2016). 4 trends that will change your marketing communication in 2016. Retrieved from http://www.smartinsights.com/traffic-building-strategy/integrated-marketing-communications/4-trends-will-change-marketing-communication-2016/. Accessed: 27.04.2016.

Newman, D. (2015). The Top 10 Marketing Trends That Will Define 2016. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielnewman/2015/11/03/the-top-10-marketing-trends-that-will-define-2016/#df250487d582. Accessed: 27.04.2016

Rousmaniere, D. (2013). A Futurist Looks at the Future of Marketing. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2013/05/a-futurist-looks-at-the-future. Accessed: 27.04.2016.

Zoltners, A. A., Sinha, P., & Lorimer, S. E. (2015). The Technology Trends That Matter to Sales Teams. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2015/05/the-technology-trends-that-matter-to-sales-teams. Accessed: 27.04.2016.

Creative idea and messages

Problem: How can a creative process lead to effective messaging?

Learning objectives:
1. What does a creative process consist of?
2. How to create appealing messages for target audience?
3. Examples

1. What does a creative process consist of?

The creative process consists of four steps:

1. Initiate

In this first step you recognize a need or opportunity and as questions that launch a focused creative process. For example, you review your catalogue and ask yourself if there are would be some sort of illustration or catchy headline that would make your catalouge more exciting.

2. Imagine

In the second step you generate imagination. Assembling a team and do some brainstorming will support you at this stage.

3. Invent

In this stage you take a closer look at some of the ideas you and your team imagined and choose a few best ones. Pick them and see how you can make them more practical an feasible for your campaign.

4. Implement

In this stage you put your creative ideas into practice.

A creative brief should include the following steps:

1. Background/ Overview

2. Objective

3. Target audience

4. Focus

5. Reasons why

6. Also: what else might help the creative team? 

7. Schedule

2. How to create appealing messages for target audience?

emotional vs. rational appeal:
emotional:
Relates to the customers' social needs for purchsing. Many motives for purchasing decisions are emotional.

rational:

Focus on the consumer’s practical and functional need for the product or service and emphasize features of a product or service and/or benefits or reasons for owning or using a particular brand.

Consumer purchase decisions are often made on the basis of both emotional and rational motives, and attention must be given to both elements in developing effective advertising.


- use creative storytelling- Ask your customers how they would like to receive content
- Triggered emails
- What your competition isn’t doing
- Don’t just network — host an event
- Referral rewards
- Simplify
- Make it musical/visual --> appeal to all senses

- multisensual marketing

 

Examples:

Case Study BMW:

Companies should not underestimate the power of the composition of different senses. BMW connects sound and visual elements/ colors. The following video is an acoustical decoding of the pleasure/joy associations (dark grey) and the actual sound of BMW (light grey).

Multi sensory marketing: The following video is one example of how a supermarket/retailer used sensory branding and achieved a 400% increase in sales using multisensory marketing and social influences:

more creative marketing campaigns at:
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/creative-marketing-ad-campaigns/

Sources:

AD Cracker. 2016. Sample Creative Brief 2016 for advertising and design projects. URL: http://www.adcracker.com/brief/Sample_Creative_Brief.htm. Accessed: 10.04.2016

DeJesus, N. 2007. How to make your advertising appeal to consumers. URL: http://adsoftheworld.com/blog/ndejesus/2007/apr/10/how_to_make_your_advertising_appeal_to_consumers. Accessed: 11.04.2016

Gunelius, S. 2010. 10 Common and Effective Emotional Triggers. URL: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/205240article. Accessed: 11.04.2016

Hiam, A. 2016. Marketing: Managing the Creative Process - For Dummies. URL: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/marketing-managing-the-creative-process.html. Accessed: 10.04.2016

Howell, J. 2014. 7 Creative Marketing Ideas To Make Your Small Business Stand Out! URL: http://www.steamfeed.com/7-creative-marketing-ideas-make-small-business-stand/.Accessed: 09.04.2016

Spiegel, B. (n.d.). 6 ways to improve the creative process. URL: https://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2433447/6-ways-to-improve-the-creative-process. Accessed: 11.04.2016

Media agencies

Learning objectives:

1. What do media agencies do?
2. What stages are involved in media planning?
3. How to optimize media expenditure?

Problem: How to optimize media expenditure?

1. What do media agencies do?

Definition: 

According to cambridge dictonary a media agency is a company that advises companies on how and where to ​advertise and on how to present a postitive picture of themselves to the ​public: Many ​firms use a media agency to represent their brands online.

Role of a media agency:

A media agency (or media planner) is responsible for the strategic recommendation of media activities for your campaign. After receiving a brief from the client, the planning process involves analysing the audience objectives and balancing the reach, frequency and costs of media options to deliver a detailed media plan that maximises advertising exposure and impact.

Planning should demonstrate a coordinated approach to different media and illustrate the thinking behind the proposed approach. Media planners work closely with advertising agencies to ensure the client's advertising budget is well spent, as well as adhering to the overall campaign strategy. (Source: NSW Strategic Communications)

2. Media Planning

Media Planningc is the expertise to ensure that our clients' messages appear in the right place and at the right time to ensure they reach the correct target group. (Source: MediaCom)

Planning process:

Media agencies receive briefs from their clients. They can be tasked to do many different things, help launch a new camera, drive sales of a brand extension or change perceptions of a brand operating in a sensitive industry, for example.

The next step for a media agency is to seek to understand more about the people it needs to influence. 

A media agency will also research how the target group consumes and uses media, both traditional and social media.

The media agency will then work closely with the client and the brand's other agencies, if appropriate, to develop an idea and a media plan that media buyers and/or content creators can then implement. (Source: MediaCom, 2014)

According to Carr (2006) there are five steps of media planning:
Step 1: Capture the market share you "should own". Insert yourself into the marketplace by being present 

Step 2: Merchandise the product or service. Make sure that your prospective customer clearly understands what your product has to offer by manipulating its features and benefits to position against those of your competitors.
Step 3: Eliminate confusion. Capture incremental revenue by eliminating "confused customers" through usability testing and site optimization.
Step 4: Create intangible benefits through branding. Create perceived value, brand personality and other intangible benefits.
Step 5: Retain customers and create fans by crafting the experience. Get to know your customer and their friends by supporting their needs and facilitating their experience with your product or service.

3. How to optimize media expenditure?

According to Quigley (2014) there are 3 ways of how to optimize your marketing expenditure:
1. Test new marketing opportunities in order to stay up to date
2. Get engaged: connect to your customer
3. The proof is the data: by wisely using data a company can access a deep pool of potential consumers

Sources: 

Cambridge Dictionary. 2014. media agency Bedeutung im Cambridge Englisch Wörterbuch. URL: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/de/worterbuch/englisch/media-agency. Accessed: 05.04.2016.

Carr, R. 2006. 5 Strategic Media Planning Steps. URL: http://www.imediaconnection.com/articles/ported-articles/red-dot-articles/2006/sep/5-strategic-media-planning-steps/. Accessed: 06.04.2016.
MA webtechnologies. 2015. Online Media Buying Company - paid media services. URL: http://www.mawebtechnologies.com/onlinemediabuying.php. Accessed: 05.04.2016.

MediaCom. 2014. How does a media agency work? URL: http://www.mediacomedinburgh.com/en/what-we-do/our-industry/media-agencies/how-does-a-media-agency-work.aspx. Accessed: 05.04.2016.

MediaCom. 2014. Media planning. URL: http://www.mediacomedinburgh.com/en/what-we-do/our-industry/media-planning.aspx. Accessed: 05.04.2016.

NSW Strategic Communications. n.d. Role of advertising & media agencies - Planning a campaign. URL: http://www.advertising.nsw.gov.au/advertising/planning-campaign/advertising-and-media-agencies. Accessed: 05.04.2016.

Quigley, P. 2014. 3 Ways to Optimize Ad Spend. URL: http://www.dmnews.com/marketing-strategy/3-ways-to-optimize-ad-spend/article/349707/. Accessed: 06.04.2016.