Communication Mix: Explanation, Elements, Example

Priyanshi Shah October 28, 2020January 16, 2023 0 Comments

Communication is an exchange of ideas, opinions, between two or more persons. Communication is a two-way process and an important part of marketing. An important function of communication is to provide information on the new product to the existing consumers and potential consumers. The communication should be complete and clear. Below we’ll be looking about Communication Mix and its elements.

Definition of Communication Mix:

Communication mix is such a group of tools which provides information about the product and services to the consumers and persuade them to buy the product. Communication mix includes advertisement, personal selling, publicity, public relations, and direct marketing. Every business unit uses communication tools to a different extent. The communication mix is determined after considering the attitude of consumers for the purchase of products, the nature of the product, price of the product, etc.

Elements of Marketing Communication Mix:

1. Advertising:

Advertising is a valuable economic factor because it is the cheapest way of selling goods, especially if the goods are worthless. Advertisement is paid messages placed in any of the mass media by an identified sponsor in order to persuade members of a particular target audience about the product or services. Advertising can be done through tv, radio, dailies, magazines, internet, etc.

Functions of Advertisement:

Creates demand
The benefit of large-scale production
Product awareness
Helpful in employment generation
Betterment of the standard of living
Maintenance of quantum of sales

2. Personal selling:

Advertisement conveys the information about the product of a business unit to the consumer but sometimes it does not give the required results. Hence the marketing manager relies on the next alternative which is personal selling. Generally, in personal selling, the seller directs and explains about the product to the prospective consumer. It creates faith in the mind of prospective consumers. Any doubt in the mind of the consumer can be cleared by the seller. Personal selling not only creates awareness about the product but also creates a preference for the product.

According to Professor Philips Kotler,” Salesman is that person who represents the business unit to the consumer and his job is to highlight the nature of the product, demonstrate the product, and explain its usefulness to the consumer and clear doubts. Through personal selling, the business unit creates a definite type of relationship with the consumer.”

3. Sales Promotion:

Sales promotion consists of all promotional activities other than advertising, personal selling, publicity which are used to encourage the buyers to make immediate purchase of a product or boost its sale.

According to Roger A Strong,” Sales promotion are short term incentives to encourage purchase or sale of a product or service.”

Functions of Sales Promotion:

Stimulates demand

It increases the demand for the product as the company provides various offers, gifts, vouchers, etc it encourages the existing consumers as well as new customers to buy the product.

Builds goodwill

It increases the company’s reputation as the company provides quality products with discounts. The quality of the product plays a key role to increase the goodwill of your company.

Educate consumer

One of the primary objectives of sales promotion is to educate consumers that means if your product is sold to the consumer then it will provide various information related to the product to the consumer like its benefits to your health, the effect on the skin, saving in money, etc.

Stabilizes sales

Sometimes there occurs a situation when the consumer stops purchasing your product. So that’s the time when the sales promotion technique can be useful.

4. Publicity:

Any form of non-personal presentation of goods, services, and ideas done through public media which is free of cost is known as publicity. The business unit doesn’t have to pay any charge for this. Sometimes it is considered a part of public relations. This is done by addressing the public or giving a presentation or an interview in a newspaper or on the radio or on tv channel, giving donations, inaugural function of an office by the film star, or a cricketer. Publicity is considered to be the most reliable in the Communication mix. For publicity, the company has not to pay anything therefore it the cheapest promotional tool. Sometimes it includes the task of public relations in which the marketing manager can give more information with less effort. Mass communication with reliability makes publicity more effective.

Also Read: Brand Essence: Explanation, Importance, Examples

5. Public Relations:

A company makes use of public relations for maintaining its prestige. Public relations are a group of activities that are designed or prestige in such a way that it creates and maintains a good impression of the company In front of the consumers, parties, etc. It also means to stay connected with the consumers by providing daily news of the company, to plan activities like seminars, workshops, etc. Public relation is very important for the company to keep up a good image.

6. Direct Marketing:

Direct marketing is an advertising strategy that directly deals and connects with consumers. Various mediums are used for e.g. emails, TV, print media, and the internet through which the manufacturer directly connects with the consumer. It is primarily used by small businesses. There are certain examples of direct marketing like the product you purchase from the store, the door to door selling, etc.

Example of Communication Mix:

If you are running an event management company and want to sell the tickets of the events so you will first advertise the event whether it is a social event, or a concert event, etc. Then you will hire some salesman to do personal selling of the tickets. The salesman targets the audience based on the type of event which points out that if it is a concert event then the salesman would target the youngsters and if it the social events the salesman would target the adults. The sales promotion also takes place by providing buy one get one free on the tickets.

To do the publicity of the event the company may call a celebrity as a chief guest. And to maintain the public relation various conferences can be held and the various programs can be launched according to the event. The direct marketing of the tickets can be done by the apps like book my show which directly provides the tickets. So, this how an event can be organized using the tools of the communication mix.