Issues And Trends Affecting The Marketing Communication Industry

You must prepare an answer sheet consist of 4 to 5 pages from the following questions:

1.Briefly explain, what are the issue and trends that/those are affects the marketing communicating industry?

2.How you will categories industry structure and networks?
3.List down the current communication technologies, platform and devices and explain briefly their functions.
4.List down the principles of marketing communications and media strategies.
5.How to identify employment obligations and opportunities?
6.How you will update your industry knowledge?

Issues and Trends Affecting the Marketing Communication Industry

The major problems which marketing brands face currently are the results of issues as well as trends in marketing communication industry. This is because of the fact that most of the marketers have not updated marketing communication strategies according to the millennials consumers. Today’s customers are more demanding from the customer service point of view as well as less loyal to favourite brands (Fill & Turnbull, 2016).

As recent era’s consumers are more resistant to conventional marketing communication strategies hence these are the issues and trends those are affecting the marketing communicating industry:

As today’s consumers utilise various kinds of media for making shopping decisions from Facebook to YouTube to and hence segmentation for the marketing communication industry is becoming progressively harder and more complex (Becker et al., 2013).

This trend is bringing a positive change in marketing communication industry as through social media as well as flexible manufacturing, most of the companies are learning to provide customized products as well as designs to their customers (Putnam & Nicotera, 2009).

Source: (Fill & Turnbull, 2016)

There are many social media communication ways which are helping marketing communication industry to deliver targeted ads to their customers. For an example, Whatsapp is providing their users’ phone numbers to Facebook so that they can send the relevant favourite products’ ad to the users’ devices. This trend of marketing industry is beneficial to some extent when users’ data and devices are protected from any kind of data breach otherwise it is a challenge for marketing industry to use this way of effective marketing (Zheng et al., 2010). 

Source: (Cooren et al., 2011)

Marketing communication industry can be further categorized into sixth different marketing networks as follows:

• Sales promotion
• Advertising
• Public relations
• Personal selling
• Direct marketing
• Customer service (Putnam & Nicotera, 2009).

In this way, knowing these above mentioned six major networks of marketing communication helps in better organizing selling efforts. Furthermore, marketing communication industry structures are categorized in five major types and can be given as follows:

This type of structure is used when consumer segments show distinctly different requirements. The main advantage of this structure is it enhances Omni channel experience through the consumer-centric approach. Drawback is that it may create operational duplication.

Source: (Austin & Pinkleton, 2015)

These are the kind of structures where organizations are highly product-centred rather than customer-centred. The main advantage of this structure is that it provides deep product-marketing expertise which ultimately improves the firm’s ability to build products feedback loops. However, it can cause up-selling and cross-selling to be more difficult (Fill & Turnbull, 2016).

Categorizing Industry Structure and Networks

This marketing structure is utilised when the entire business is organized on the basis of purchasing channels. It evolves deep expertise in specific channels as well as can impede an Omni channel experience.

It is utilised when the organization’s consumers value local responsiveness as well as speed. Hence, it provides local responsiveness as well as nuance.

These kind of marketing structures are used when firms have a sole brand or they want deep expertise in the field of marketing (Fill & Turnbull, 2016).   

A creative transformation of marketing industry can be depicted through the amount of time we spend on mobiles, tablets as well as laptops. Hence, now the challenge for popular and unpopular brands is to effectively connect with consumers with the help of these above mentioned devices in real-time as well as create campaigns which can work across social media, e-commerce and display advertising (Farhadi et al., 2012). There are many famous communication technologies which are being current used on various platform and devices are as follows:

As there are millions of mobile users which are attracted towards augmented reality concept, hence marketers have started racing to create new AR apps to take an advantage of AR games as well as apps. In this way, AR is the technological platform to find new way to engage customers through bridging the gap amid physical and virtual world (Farhadi et al., 2012).

Personal digital AI assistants like Siri and Cortana can be seen as two landmark models of AI systems which are efficiently capable of communicating with customers. 

With the help of VR capabilities, advertisements as well as promotional messages are now occupied from an immersive realm and online shopping.

This technological platform offers access to huge amounts of consumers’ data through which marketing organizations can access to important insights related to consumers’ behaviour that subsequently leads to a better marketing campaign (Zheng et al., 2010). 

In this way, there are so many technological ways through marketing communication is becoming easier as well as efficient. Other examples are marketing communication, machine learning algorithms and Internet of Things (IoT) (Management Study Guide, 2017).

The seven Ps of Marketing communication industries are the principles as after developing a marketing strategy, the Seven P Formula should be used in order to evaluate and re-organize the business activities (Fill & Turnbull, 2016). In this way seven principles of marketing communications include Product, Place, Price, Packaging, Positioning, Promotion and People. For an instance, product marketing concept defines that while marketing any product, company need to consider all key features and benefits including styling, quality, repairs, and accessories which can be desired by the customers. In addition, a company must identify how much their customers can pay along with the profit margins as well as payment methods and other investment costs. To attract customers and retain your competitive advantage, you may also wish to consider the possibility of discounts and seasonal pricing (Martin & Nakayama, 2013).

Current Communication Technologies, Platforms, and Devices

Apart from the above 7 Ps principles there are some media strategies principles which are as listed below:

• Know customers from the granular level.
• Attempt to master the art of possibility
• Target those customers with whom company have the right to win
• Link Company’s consumer strategy to their overall identity in market
• Treat consumer as an asset whose value will grow in future
• Always try to ensure a seamless Omni channel experience
• Do not harm eco-system and adopt sustainable practices to preserve it
• Always excel in delivery step of business
• Always match organization’s culture with customer strategy
• Keep re-organize around the consumers behavior (Keller, 2013).

In order to identify employment obligations and opportunities in marketing communications when we explore career in this field then we find number of different roles.  Hence, jobs in marketing communications include internet marketing jobs, traditional marketing jobs such as radio, television or billboard marking (Farhadi et al., 2012).  Employees’ role at the marketing company can vary on the basis of skill set as well as the business needs. We can identify the employment opportunities as well as obligations of this industry such as social media positions to run online ads and marketing campaigns (Bowie et al., 2016). In this way, based on employment role, marketing employment opportunities require specific industry knowledge like consumer behaviour, market research, sales and competitor analysis. Moreover, work experience is an important factor in this field yet some employers do not hire peoples who do not have degrees as the biggest obligation of this industry. In this context, some famous and important business marketing jobs are as follows:

• Marketing Specialist
• E-Commerce Manager
• Social-Media Manager
• Email-Marketing Manager
• Advertising Coordinator
• Web Content Writer
• Search-Engine Optimization Specialist
• Web Producer
• Product Manager
• Marketing Data Analyst
• Advertising Manager
• Chief Marketing Officer
• Public Relations Manager
• Brand Manager (Fill & Turnbull, 2016).
• Digital Marketing Manager
• Media Buyer
• Digital Marketing Chief

Source: (Littlejohn & Foss, 2010)

As we know that updating my industry knowledge will allow give me a competitive advantage as well as helps me in the growth of my future career. In addition, to learn more about industrial facts, concepts, principles and strategies I will update my knowledge on the current issues and trends with the latest news in this industry (Austin & Pinkleton, 2015). I will also schedule my time-table of each day for the industry education and research in a way that all past experiences, info, knowledge as well as learning can be integrated and managed to be successful at future workplace. Furthermore, I will utilise below listed ways to update my industry knowledge:

I will find a mentor and update knowledge from this traditional way of professional learning which involves fortifying the guidance of an individual who is more established in my operational industry (Management Study Guide, 2017).

I will create a daily reading habit of trade publications, even when the time is limited.

I consider that networking is a way through which relaying and acquiring updated info about industry is possible. Hence I will attend business meetings, conferences and to be social and mingle (Becker et al., 2013).

I will schedule my time from each day to get updated on recent industry happenings through going online. I will set up Google news alerts for the topics of my interest, as well as bookmark high quality industrial blogs and forums. I will create a LinkedIn profile along with a business Twitter account to follow business accounts in my industry (Fill & Turnbull, 2016).

References

Austin, E.W. & Pinkleton, B.E., 2015. Strategic public relations management: Planning and managing effective communication campaigns. London: Routledge.

Becker, J., Kugeler, M. & Rosemann, M., 2013. Process management: a guide for the design of business processes. London: Springer Science & Business Media.

Bowie, D., Buttle, F., Brookes, M. & Mariussen, A., 2016. Hospitality marketing. London: Routledge.

Cooren, F., Kuhn, T., Cornelissen, J.P. & Clark, T., 2011. Communication, organizing and organization: An overview and introduction to the special issue. Organization Studies, 32(9), pp.1149-70.

Farhadi, M., Ismail, R. & Fooladi, M., 2012. Information and communication technology use and economic growth. PLoS one, 7(11), p.e48903.

Fill, C. & Turnbull, S.L., 2016. Marketing communications: brands, experiences and participation. London: Pearson.

Keller, , 2013. Social Media and Interpersonal Communication. Social Work Today, 13(3), p.10.

Littlejohn, S.W. & Foss, K.A., 2010. Theories of human communication. England: Waveland Press.

Management Study Guide, 2017. Popular Theories of Organizational Communication. [Online] Available at: https://www.managementstudyguide.com/theories-of-organizational-communication.htm [Accessed 04 December 2018].

Martin, J.N. & Nakayama, T.K., 2013. Intercultural communication in contexts. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Putnam, L.L. & Nicotera, A.M., 2009. Building theories of organization: The constitutive role of communication. London: Routledge.

Zheng, W., Yang, B. & Mclean, G.N., 2010. Linking organizational culture, structure, strategy, and organizational effectiveness: Mediating role of knowledge management. Journal of Business research, 63(7), pp.763-71.