‘Whether it is international, national, local or direct basis, advertising can engage audiences by creating awareness, changing perceptions/attitudes and building brand values, or by influencing behaviour, often through calls-to-action.’ (Fill, C. (2013). Advertising: Roles, Forms and Strategy. In: n/aMarketing Communications. 6th ed. Harlow: Pearson Educated Limited. 416.)

‘Much of advertising mirrors socials standards, lifestyles, values and aspirations, very often represented in an idealised form (Fill, C, Hughes, G, De Francesco, S. (2013). The nature and role of advertising in society. In: n/a Advertising: strategy, creativity and media. Harlow: Pearson Educated Limited. 11.) Therefore, for the majority of advertisements, the product is incorporated into daily life that is somewhat tweaked to attract the customer and appeal to their emotions, consequently for the customer to visualise the emotional response gained by buying that product.

According to Ambler, when considering the strong theories of advertising, ‘The hierarchy-of-effects theories of persuasion clearly assume that advertising works in a directly persuasive way (or ‘strong’ way.’ (Ambler, 1998), however, in comparison to the weak theories of advertising, Sperber and Wilson (1986, cited in Forceville, 1996) stated that all non-verbal communication can be seen as ‘weak’ communication.’ (Hackley, C. (2005). Theorizing Advertising and Promotion. In: n/aAdvertising and Promotion. London: SAGE Publications. 36.)

BUSINESS TO CONSUMER (B2C)

‘Share a Coke’ was Coca Cola’s new package designed product released in 2014. Using advertisements ensured the message was broadcast to the mass population to inform them of this new, innovative design.

“Share a Coke is about taking our global brand and making it personal to our consumers, giving them the chance to Share a personalised Coke with friends or loved ones and creating special moments of happiness, and memories.” (Austin, L, Coca Cola, 2014) collectively with the tagline ‘Open Happiness’ demonstrates the use of connecting with its customers by evoking emotional response and experience.

Share a Coke picked up seven awards at the 2012 Cannes Lions festival (Coca-Cola.co.uk, 2014) showing this was an effective temporary product repackaging and advertisement awarded for its recognition in the market.

BUSINESS TO BUSINESS (B2B)

Considering the example of Tesco, collectively, brands and supermarkets are able to advertise their promotions, product costs and trustworthiness, as seen in the example, the catchy tagline, ‘Price Promise, you won’t lose out on big brands, fresh food or own label’ to entice the new and existing audience, increase revenue as well as build a customer loyalty base via their business to business partnership. Within this advert, the audience is made aware of the availability of the branded products in Tesco and therefore encourage customers to visit the Tesco store in order to purchase the product, in addition at a ‘price promise’ cost.

‘Public relations practice is discipline which looks after your reputation with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behaviour’ (The Institute of Public Relations, 1997) Public Relations encourages brand awareness and the importance of achieving a desired reputation reputable to the organisation/product.

Grunig and Hunt (1984) created a framework that endeavours the four main procedures in which public relations activities can be established, press agentry, public information, one way asymmetric and two way asymmetric. ‘Grunig (1992) revised the model to reflect the dominance of the ‘craft’ and the ‘professional’ approaches to public relations practices.’ (Fill, C. (2013). Public Relations. In: n/a Marketing Communications. 6th ed. Harlow: Pearson Educated Limited. 450.)

BUSINESS TO CONSUMERS (B2C)

The Salvation Army tactically identified a global, internet sensation which divided the world as the ‘#TheDress’ tested their eyesight as to whether the dress was in fact white and gold or black and blue. With the attention on the words ‘black and blue’, The Salvation Army approached this idea to its advertisment on domestic abuse. With the charities intent to shock its audience whilst capture the worlds attention in relation to viral sensation, overall was considered an effective PR campaign.

Similarly, Just Eat also embraced the publicity of ‘#TheDress’ by promoting its own business via twitter, along with other charities.

As a progressivelly techonologically dependant world in which an upload via the internet can become a global sensation, demonstrates why many organisations launch their own campaign relating to viral sensations and worldwide newstories as there is the understanding it will captivate a large audience due to the publicity of the original story.

BUSINESS TO BUSINESS (B2B):

Movember Foundation raises awareness of the risks of male cancers. To promote donations to fund the developments into research and medical improvements of male cancers is by encouraging the male population to grow moustaches throughout November, emphasising creativity of their moustache, this PR act is therefore recognised and enjoyed globally by the male population whilst raising awareness and receiving donations. Within this B2B formation this publicity stunt allows all parties involved to receive donations and the awareness of their institute is increased.

‘The Movember Foundation is committed to accelerating progress and outcomes. To do this, we believe that we need to take risks, and be a disruptive but positive force for rapid progress and change.’ (uk.movember.com/programs/?landing, 2015) Key phrase within this statement being ‘be a disruptive but positive force’ in which a key characteristic of public relation acts is to capture the attention of the targeted audience and improve reputation and awareness.

‘Drive product sales, increase brand awareness and generate more revenue through promotions’ (sales-promotions.com, 2015)

‘There are many sales promotion techniques, but they all offer a direct inducement or an incentive to encourage receivers of these promotional messages to buy a product/service sooner rather than later.’ Fill, C. (2013). Sales Promotion, Field Marketing and Brand Experiences. In: n/a Marketing Communications. 6th ed. Harlow: Pearson Educated Limited. 537.

Lee (2002) considers there are four main objectives in which sales promotion is used, firstly, against competitor activities, to push short-term sales objectives, boost long-term sales objectives and lastly as a result of inertia, meaning a quick way to reduce stock.

Considering the use of customer retention/loyalty schemes as a form of sales promotions encourages a customer to return to store and increase purchases as a reason for the rewards gained by doing so. ‘The benefit for the company supporting the scheme is that the promised rewards motivate customers to accrue more points and, in doing so, increase their switching costs, effectively locking them into the loyalty programme and preventing them from moving to a competitor brand.’ (Fill, C. (2013). Sales Promotion, Field Marketing and Brand Experiences. In: n/a Marketing Communications. 6th ed. Harlow: Pearson Educated Limited. 547.)

BUSINESS TO BUSINESS (B2B)

Laura Ashley and MasterCard collaborated in creating a partnership credit card in which customers of Laura Ashley receive benefits by using the card, therefore increasing revenue and customer retention for Laura Ashley, as well as the benefits MasterCard receive by a customer opening and using the card. To entice a customer to register for the card, the partnership offer the promotion of ten percent off the customer’s first purchase using the card.

Collectively, each business promotes one another to the customer in possession of the card, whilst both gaining the benefits and revenue of a customer’s purchases.

BUSINESS TO CONSUMER (B2C)

Laura Ashley regularly disclose several sales promotions in store and online to encourage customers to purchase the relatively expensive items at a discounted price to effectively boost sales and entice new and existing customers onto the company’s impressive customer retention programme. As a furniture and clothing industry, both departments entail add-on products and therefore tactically encourages customers to return to Laura Ashley stores to make further purchases.

‘Sign up to receive our emails & get 10% off your first online order’, this promotion encourages customers to join the Laura Ashley loyalty base in return for ten percent off their first product.

Personal sellings attributes is seen as the most effective marketing communication to encourage a sale, using one-to-one communication the customer receives the correct information, expertise and demostration at their own comfort and time, therefore the customer is at less risk of making an incorrect purchase. ‘The salesperson can clarify points, answer queries and raise the profile of issues that seem to be of great interest to he prospect.’ Blythe, J. (2006). Personal selling and sales management. In: n/aEssentials of Marketing Communications. 3rd ed. Harlow: Pearson Educated Limited. 254.

‘It means helping customers to articulate their needs, tailoring persuasive selling messages to answer those needs, then handling customers’ responses or concerns in order to arrive as a mutually valued exchange.’ (Brassington and Pettitt, 2002)

‘They suggest that financial services companies need to incorporate the relationship strategies used by many companies in the business to business (B–B) marketplace. The authors suggest that building a ‘sales culture’ that has a customer relationship philosophy will be a key to obtaining a competitive advantage in the financial services marketplace.’ Deeter-Schmelz, D. (2015). Personal Selling and Sales Management Abstracts. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 2015. 35 (2), 191-201. Personal selling simultaneously builds a relationship between the customer and salesperson/brand/product and therefore with a loyalty/relationship established, can encourage a customer to further purchases.

BUSINESS TO BUSINESS (B2B)

Department stores consist of many brands that are going to entice customers into their store and provide a substantial revenue, it is therefore essential the correct brands are chosen that are reputable to the store and accustom to the store’s expectations. Taking this into consideration, it is therefore the necessity of a brands spokesperson to personally sell and pitch what their brand can provide to the department store. Within this specific business to business establishment, collectively both organisations can increase revenue, improve reputation and effectively build a partnership.

‘We look forward to working together with our affiliates and forming a strong partnership that will grow from strength to strength.’ (houseoffraser.co.uk, 2015)

BUSINESS TO CONSUMER (B2C)

Beauty Consultants thrive by the communication skill of personal selling, in doing so, they are able to understand exactly what the customer is looking for and therefore, address, demonstrate, inform and indulge further expertise knowledge of the product to the customer so that the customer is comfortable in making the purchase. With this close communication, emphasises a relationship to be built in which a customer is primarily the beauty consultants only interest and a trust is built, in addition, the customer is more likely to return to make further purchases.

‘Makeup authority – M·A·C artist's make-up artistry, trend, product knowledge and their ability to share these expertise with our customers is what makes M·A·C the World’s leading professional make-up authority’ (maccosmetics.jobs/mac/why-join-us.html, 2015)

Individually, all of the four marketing communications play a substantial role in the stages of broadcasting a certain product/brand/service. It is therefore essential within the marketing development stages to identify which communication method is most appropriate and effective to reach their target audience.

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