Do you have the balanced marketing communications mix in your company?

When I meet with clients who are seeking to re-tweak their market strategy relative to their advertising and marketing objectives, there are many areas that are examined. Keep in mind that during the past several decades companies all around the world perfected the art of mass marketing. This was simply selling standardized products and services to the masses. For that period of time it worked. The customers continued to buy and return for more business. The solution as it related to advertising during that period was mass-media advertising driven by mass-marketing strategy. Those companies routinely spent millions of dollars in the mass media, reaching tens of millions of customers with a single ad.

However as we know, today is a very different situation and a much more targeted approach needs to be deployed.We are in a changing communications environment. Two major factors are changing the face of today's marketing communications. First, as mass markets have fragmented, marketers are shifting away from mass marketing. More and more they are developing focused marketing programs designed to build closer relationships with customers in more narrowly defined micro-markets. Second, the vast improvement in information technology helps speeding the movement toward segmented marketing. Today's information technology which is CRM (Customer Relationship Management) driven, helps marketers keep a much closer track of customer needs. The data and analytics that is now captured and analyzed at all customer touch points, creates the ability now to communicate one-to-one with each customer with the right personal message at the right time.

So, today one needs to have five major promotion tools to follow:

• Advertising
• Sales Promotion
• Public Relations
• Personal Selling
• Direct Marketing

Each category involves specific tools. For instance, advertising includes print, broadcast, Internet,outdoor and other forms. Sales promotion includes point-of-purchase displays, premiums, discounts, coupons, specialty advertising and demonstrations. Public relations includes press releases, sponsorships, and special events. Personal selling includes sales presentations, trade shows, and incentive programs. Direct marketing includes catalogs, telephone marketing, kiosks, the Internet (Social Media )and more.