[MUSIC] In this lecture, we elaborate on the six elements of effective communications. Communications process starts with a clear target audience definition. You should decide on whether we would like to target current or potential consumers, whether we would like to target loyal consumers or brand switchers. Or you may decide to target individuals, specific groups, or public in general. The target audience we choose will influence the decisions in our communications strategy. It will affect the answers to questions such as what to say, how to say it, when to say it, and where to say it. After we identify the target audience, we need to decide on the communications objectives. We might aim for establishing brand awareness, disseminating information, changing attitude, or behavior. For example, if we identify our target audience as new consumers, then our communications campaign will probably aim to create brand awareness among them. Designing the communications to achieve the desired response will require solving three problems. One is what to say, which is mainly about deciding on the message strategy. Another one is how to say it, deciding on the creative strategy. And the last one is who should say it, deciding on the message source. In determining message strategy, we need to decide on the story and the appeals we will use and tie these into the brand positioning, so that we can establish points of parity and points of difference for our brands. We might choose to emphasize rational, hedonic, or social benefits of our product to attract our consumers. Please remember, what we say should be relevant and should be in line with what our target audience is interested in. Communication effectiveness also depends on how the message is being expressed, as well as the content of the message itself. An ineffective communication may mean that the wrong message was used or the right message was expressed poorly. Creative strategies are how marketers translate their messages into specific communications. Marketers may choose from different executional frameworks or appeals to deliver a specific message. And finally, we should decide on the message source. Who should deliver our message? Messages are delivered by attractive or popular people. Can potentially achieve higher retention and recall if that chosen celebrity, for example, can draw attention to our product. Many brands use celebrities to endorse their products to increase consumer attention. We will elaborate more on how we design our communications, what type of message strategies, appeals we can use in our ads, in the third module. The next element in effective communications is selecting the right communications channels. This is a hard task, because channels of communication become more and more fragmented and cluttered. Communication channels may be personal and non-personal. Personal communication channels involve two or more people communicating directly face-to-face, over the phone, or through an email. Personal communication channels allow for individualized presentation and feedback. It's usually more effective with products that are expensive, risky, and purchased not frequently. Non-personal communication channels are communications directed to more than one person, and includes media, sales promotions, events, and publicity. For example, a company can build its brand image through creating or sponsoring events that are designed to surprise the public and create a buzz. Think about Felix Baumgartner's free fall from the stratosphere, which is organized by Red Bull. Almost all of us heard about this one, right? Felix Baumgartner became the first man to break the speed of sound in free fall. Millions of people around the world watched this jump live on TV or on Internet. It was interesting. It was the first attempt for such a free fall. It grabbed consumers' attention. Red Bull's target audience is mainly young people, particularly males, in their late teens and twenties. Red Bull's CEO once said in an interview that what Red Bull stands for is that it gives you wings. And he said that this means that Red Bull provides skills, abilities, power, to achieve whatever you want to. It's an invitation as well as a request to be active, performance-oriented, alert, and to take challenges. You can see that Felix Baumgartner's free fall event is in line with the interests of the target audience, and is relevant with the brand promise of Red Bull. Once we select our channels, personal or non-personal, in other words mass media, we need to decide on the media mix. Companies allocate their marketing communications budget over the multiple modes of communication. We have many alternatives, such as advertising, sales promotion, public relations, digital marketing, and many more. Companies, within their limited budgets, need to target the modes of communication that will suit their target audience and their brand promise and their brand message. We all want to use our limited resources in the most effective and efficient way. We will elaborate in detail on the components of marketing communications mix in the fourth module. We will have interviews with senior executives from different sectors to give us information about different communication methods and to share some tips with us. Finally, we need to measure the outcomes and learn the return from our communications investment. Did we have an impact on our target audience? We need to know in what direction and extent we had an impact on our consumers. Did we manage to reach objectives? Does our target audience recognize or recall our message? What do they remember about our ads? How do they feel about it? Which communication channels work better? How did consumers respond to our campaign? Did they purchase our product? Did they recommend it? We need to know the answers for all these questions so that we can refine our communications campaign. In this lecture we talked about the elements, steps of effective communications. In this next lecture, we will focus on communications objectives. [MUSIC]
