Communication
Strategies for the Asia
Pacific
Asia-Pacific Marketing Federation
Certified Professional Marketer
Copyright
Marketing Institute of Singapore
Outline
 Developing an effective Marcom
program
 Targeting the audience
 Designing the message
 Push and pull strategies
 Major advertising decisions
 Measuring communication effectiveness
Introduction
After you have selected the product
positioning, you need to communicate
it in order to secure a place in the
minds of the consumers. This is
when you need to decide on the
communication strategies
Steps in developing an Effective
Marcom Program
1. Define the product and the target
market segment
2. Decide on the communication objectives
3. Decide on the promotion mix
4. Decide on the strategy for each
component of the promotion mix
5. Decide on the promotion budget
What information is needed for
purchase decisions?
Consumer-adoption process model
Awareness=>
Interest=>
Evaluation=>
Trial=>
Adoption
Marcom Objectives
 Move the target audience to higher state of
readiness to buy e.g. using Response
Hierarchy Models
 Ultimate objective is to get customers to buy
and to provide post-purchase satisfaction
 Increase sales to new users, former users,
users of other brands, switchers and current
users
 Increase repeat purchase
Promotion Mix
 Advertising; Sales promotion; Personal
selling; Public relations; Personal
selling; Direct Marketing
 The promotion mix is dependent on:
 The information needs of potential buyer
 The nature of the product and the market
 The resources available
Targeting the Audience
 Target audience = current and
potential buyers of our products
 Measure the product image by
 Familiarity surveys (awareness)
 Favorability scale (disposition)
e.g. Coke and Pepsi used the Indian
winner of Ms Universe and Ms World
respectively in their advertisement in
India to win consumer preference
Designing the Message
1. Message content
 Say what to whom, and for what


response
Demonstrate clearly the Unique
Selling Proposition (USP)
How?



With rational appeals (claimed benefits)
Emotional appeals (fear, guilt, shame,
humor, love, pride etc) and
Moral appeals (supporting social causes)
Designing the Message (cont’d)
2. Message Structure



Use one-sided argument if audience is
predisposed to your position or
Use two-sided arguments if they are
not
Present the strongest argument first or
last
Designing the Message (cont’d)
3. Message Format

Choose headline, copy, illustration, and
color suitable for the local audience e.g.
 In China, red represents prosperity
 In ASPAC countries, any graphics that
resemble the religious symbols must not
be used
 Refrain from “Sexy” advertising
Selecting the Communication
Channel
 Personal communication channels
 Either directly or indirectly e.g.
Opinion leaders: if the top echelon of
government drives a certain make and
model of car, it says a lot about that
particular model
Selecting the Communication
Channel (cont’d)
 Non-personal communication channels
 Print media; electronic media; display media
 The servicescape—the environment in which
the product is sold or the service is being
delivered—conveys a powerful message
 Events such as news conferences, grand
openings, and sport or race sponsorship is
popular in ASPAC in recent years e.g.
Emirates Airlines sponsored the Derby
(Horse Racing) in Singapore regularly
Promotion Budgeting
The budget to be allocated depends
on:
 The geographic dispersion
 The stage of the PLC
 The communication activities, and
 The marginal costs of
communication effectiveness
Promotion-Expenditure
Strategy
 Percentage-of-sales approach
 Affordable approach
 Return-on-investment approach
 Competitive-parity approach
 Objective-and-task approach
Push Strategy
 Push through a distribution channel in a
sequential manner
 Emphasis is on personal selling to wholesalers
and retailers with trade promotion
 When is it especially appropriate?
 When the product is an impulse item
 When there is low brand loyalty in a product
category
 When brand choice is made in the store, and
 When the product benefit is well understood
Pull Strategy
Creates initial interest in potential buyers
How? By heavy end-user advertising
e.g. free samples; coupons
When is it appropriate?
When primary demand is favorable
When the product has hidden benefits
When the product can be differentiated
When there are strong emotional buying
motives such as health, beauty and safety
Major Advertising Decisions
 Advertising objective decisions e.g.
create salient attribute
 Budget decisions
 Message decisions
 Media decisions
 Advertising evaluation
The Advertising Objective
Funnel
Exposure
Awareness
Attitude change
Sales
Profit
The Advertising Objectives
As we move down the funnel, the
objective becomes
 More relevant to decision making, but
 More difficult to measure
The issue is whether the objectives at
each level are linked to the purchase
decision
Measuring Advertising
Effectiveness
 To develop more effective
advertisements and to determine the
optimal level of expenditures
 Commonly used measurements:
 Number of inquiries received, increase
product knowledge, and attitude change
towards the product. Sales are the best
criteria
Measuring Advertising
Effectiveness
 Tracking
 Qualitative research in the form of
before-and-after brand image maps e.g.
“Of all the advertising you’ve seen, what,
if anything, do you particularly remember
from it?”
 Carrying out experiments with test
markets
Advertising Wear-out
 Over time, a decline in advertising
effectiveness occurs due to repetition
and wearout
 How to reduce wearout?
 Change the advertisement structure
 Change the advertisement copy and
 Change the media regularly
Sales Promotion Strategy
 Promotion to consumer targets
 Promotion to industrial targets
 Promotion to middle men
 Promotion to sales force
Evaluation and Control
 Continuously monitor the execution of
the communication plan or strategy to
ensure objectives are met
 Evaluate the outcome against the
planned budget and adjust as
necessary