Communication Strategy in Marketing: Why You Need It and What It Consists Of
We know from experience — consumer behaviour is hard to predict. Consumers rely on many factors when choosing, and they are not always rational.
We know from experience — consumer behaviour is hard to predict. Consumers rely on many factors when choosing, and they are not always rational. These include recommendations from friends, entrenched stereotypes and bad personal experiences. How do you get the consumer to choose your brand specifically? Engage them. That is — speak their language, tell jokes they know, focus on their interests and pain points. There is an ideal marketing tool for building the right dialogue between a business and the consumer — a communication strategy.
If the brand platform — is an image that appeals to the audience, is based on the company's strengths and sets it apart from competitors, then the main goals of a communication strategy — are to prevent the positioning from being diluted across multiple touchpoints and to adapt the message and the form of communications for each target group. From a management perspective, the main tasks a communication strategy helps to solve — are simplifying media planning, content management and the development of advertising messages.
Every brand needs a communication strategy. When is it especially important?
First — when strategy, tactics and content management are split between several employees. Communications are most often consistent when a single marketer handles them. In a company with several management levels, it is difficult to translate the brand's ideological foundation into specific, multiple communications that all target audiences understand, without losing meaning.
Second — the brand has several target audiences. Consumers with different socio-cultural backgrounds will perceive the same message differently. A communication strategy makes it possible to balance the consistency of the brand image with the adaptability of its application across different target audiences and communication formats.
Third — launching a brand on the market. Only a strong brand with a focused image at every level can truly launch effectively. Building awareness of a product or company — is a subtle art that determines the future success of the business.
Last — rebranding. To adjust the brand's image in the eyes of consumers, a clear action plan is needed, — that is, a communication strategy.
What does it consist of?
Analysis of the brand platform, competitors' media activity and the media diet of the various target groups makes it possible to establish the following constants of the communication strategy:
- Big idea
- Tone of voice
- Key message matrix
- The most effective communication channels
- Advertising activity plan
Let us start with the Big Idea. This is the idea that unites all communications — it underpins advertising, everyday interaction with consumers and so on. The big idea conveys the company's key message to the client, setting it apart in the competitive field.
The key message matrix makes it possible to break down communications for different target audiences — if we tell mothers that the product is safe and healthy, then we tell the child — that the product is fun. And so on ad infinitum. Key messages for different audiences may overlap — for example, an eco-friendly message may be equally effective for two different audiences.
A company's tone of voice — is a set of rules and characteristics for communicating with its audiences. If your brand is a family brand — like “Fruktovy Sad” — it should not be talking to its audience about upcoming punk concerts. TOV defines what the brand will and will not communicate in various channels, and in what manner. The consistency of communications is determined by how well the TOV is observed across all channels.
And finally — the channels for delivering messages and the frequency of advertising activity. Preliminary analysis of the competitive field, the company's current image and the consumer media diet makes it possible to develop a clear promotion action plan. Communication channels really do matter here — analysis helps you understand where you can meet your consumer — at a billboard near Moscow City or at a graduation party in Gorky Park.
