In this article we describe communication objectives, an important part of the Marketing Mix (Promotion) of a business.
What are Communication Objectives?
Communication Objectives are - as the name suggests – the process of setting targets for communication. They describe the target that you want to reach with your planned actions. By formulating this in advance, it can ultimately be evaluated whether the desired target is reached.
Different kinds of Communication Objectives
There are different kinds of communication objectives that can be used. A summary below:
Building Awareness
Building Awareness is important for new products and companies that are still unrecognised in a market. The - often - initial promotion efforts are mainly directed to developing an identity. Aim for the promotion: 1) effectively reach clients 2) communicating benefits (pointing out benefits for client)
Providing information
In other situations, it is needed only to help clients in the seeking phase of the purchasing process. By providing information, you help them in making a choice. There are various forms depending on the competition in the market. With few competitors, you can keep it descriptive and only explain what the benefits are. With many competitors, it is possible to compare against competitors and thus making the advantages relative to the competitors clear.
Creating interest
Sometimes a potential client is already familiar (aware of) with a certain product/service or company but hasn’t bought anything (yet). Pushing a client from product awareness towards making a purchase is an important challenge. Creating a need has a central role here. The potential client must understand that he/she has a certain need, so that he/she considers purchasing. Often fundamental human qualities such as emotions, anxiety, sex and humour are used in order to persuade.
Corroborating a brand
A purchase is not the highest aim; client satisfaction and repeat purchases is where the marketer aims for. After a purchase has been done the marketer can drive a promotion in order to build a stronger relationship with the client. An example: many shops these days ask for e-mail addresses for follow-up emails and use client cards for loyalty programmes.
Stimulating demand
Some communcation are intended to stimulate (more) demand. The most important aim for this is to quickly actualise purchases. Some examples:
- trial software
- free trial
- customer base make an offer/ give reasons to buy (again)
When to set Communication Objectives?
Communication Targeting must always be formulated whenever money is invested for it. So it is possible to evaluate after completion whether the campaign has been succesful.
How to do Communication Targeting?
Targeting must always be formulated to be SMART. This stands for Specific, Measurable, Acceptable, Realistic and Timebound. Example:
- You research on the kind of communication that is desired
- You (briefly) describe your choice, for example --> building awareness
- You formulate the SMART aim, for example --> within 2 years 5% of the target group must be familiar with the product.