RETAIL

COMMUNICATION
MIX
 RETAIL MARKETING

The retail marketing concept is the acceptance by the retailer

that it is the “customer” and not “demand” that lie at the core
of the retail organization. The retail marketing concept is a
philosophy, not a system of retailing or retail structure.

It is founded on the belief that profitable retailing and

satisfactory returns on investment can only be achieved by
identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer needs and
desires.

It is an attitude of mind that places the customer at the very

centre of retailing activities.
 COMMUNICATION MIX

 Communication Mix is the range of approaches and

expressions of a marketing idea developed with the hope
that it be effective in conveying the ideas to the diverse
population of people who receive it.

 It is designed to achieve a variety of objectives for the

retailer, such as building a brand image of the retailer in
the customer's mind, increasing sales and store traffic,
providing information about the retailer's location and
offering, and announcing special activities.
Retailers communicate with customers through
various means. These elements in the
communication mix must be coordinated so
customers have a clear, distinct image of the
retailer and not be confused by conflicting
information.

The main elements that make up the

promotions/communications mix are:
 Paid Impersonal Communications
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 Advertising
 Sales promotions – Special events, In-store demonstrations
 Games, sweepstakes and contests
 Coupons
 Store atmosphere Boxes of KrustyO’s cereal at a New York 7-
Eleven stores, temporarily converted into a
 Website
Kwik-E Mart, to promote the Simpson Movie.
 Community building

Jack Star/PhotoLink/Getty Images

 ADVERTISING

It is an Effective medium for creating awareness

and interest. Low control over response.

 Television
 Cinema
 Radio
 Directories
 Packaging
 Hoardings/Posters
 Magazines
 Catalogues
 Brochures
 Internet
 SALES PROMOTION

 Effective medium for creating awareness, interest and

credibility.

 Little control.

 Publicity can be highly credible if it is well thought - out

and it is extremely cheap. A feature in a paper, magazine
sometimes seem more credible to readers than ads BUT it
is restricted by editorial decisions by the media source
used
• Money-off coupons
• Free gift Samples
 SALES PROMOTION

The combination of the store’s physical

characteristics (architecture, layout, signs and
displays, colors, lighting, temperature, sounds,
smells) together create an image in the customers’
mind
 Mediacart
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A shopping cart that delivers
point-of-decision
advertising
 Informs the customer
about special deals as the
customer passes them in
the aisle
 Each video screen is
embedded with an RFID
chip that interacts with
chips installed on store
shelves
 Records shopping habits,
dwell times, how shoppers
travel through the store
 Community Building
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Retailers’ Community Building

Websites
offer opportunities for
customers with similar
interests to learn about
products and services that
support their hobbies and
share information with
others
PAID PERSONAL COMMUNICATION
 Paid Personal Communication
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Retail salespeople are primary vehicle for

providing paid personal communication to
customers.

Personal selling

Direct Mail

Publicity

Public relation
 Personal Selling
In this salespeople satisfy needs through face to face
exchange of information.

Effective medium for influencing all stages of the

decision making process, especially the decision to buy.

 High level of control.

Good for small businesses with local markets complex

products and services.
 Direct Mail
Mailshots

E-mail:Retailers inform customers of new

merchandise, receipt of order or when order has
been shipped

CD-ROMS

M-Commerce (mobile commerce)

 Publicity
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Publicity is communication through significant

unpaid presentations about the retailer, usually a
news story, in impersonal media.

• Newspaper
• TV coverage
• Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
Public Relation
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The Gap, Emporio Armani, and Apple are

among several retailers selling red products,
a portion of the proceeds go to Product
RED, a charity to wipe out AIDS in Africa
UNPAID PERSONAL COMMUNICATION
 Word-of- mouth

Effective medium for creating interest and desire for your product
or service and it is extremely cheap.

Give excellent service and produce good quality

Pay attention to packaging

Give customers something to pass onto friends such as business

cards

Give customers incentive to bring new customers e.g. special

discounts
Become part of local community activities

To get people to tell others about you, you must:

 Personal Selling
 Presentations
 Meetings
 Telemarketing
 Trade fairs
 Social Shopping
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Social Shopping
 A communication strategy in which consumers use Internet
to engage in the shopping process by exchanging
preferences, thoughts, and opinions
 Product/service reviews
Social Shopping
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Comparison of
Communication Methods

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Planning the Retail Communication Program
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Steps in Developing a Retail Communication Program

 Identify Target Audience

Market research and market segmentation will help

to identify the audience for your product or service.

Information on how large the audience is, where

they are located and hopefully some idea of their
needs, attitudes and preferences and the benefits
they require from your product or service.
 The objectives of the promotion mix must be:

Realistic, Attainable ,Attributable. Measurable

 Specific goals related to the retail communication mix’s
effect on the customer’s decision-making process

 Long-term: ex) creating or altering a retailer’s brand image

 Short-term: ex) increasing store traffic

 Determine Promotion Budget

Allocate your budget wisely; money spent on a bad

promotion is worse than spending no money on
promotion.

 You must also be able to justify this cost in your

business plan.
Setting the Communication Budget
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• Marginal analysis
Advertising
• Objective and task Sales
• Rules of thumb
­ Affordable
Sales
­ Percent of sales
Advertising
­ Competitive parity
SettiMarginal Analysis Method
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 Basedon the economic principle that firms

should increase communication expenditures as
long as each additional dollar spent generates
more than a dollar of additional contribution

 Veryhard to use because managers don’t know

the relationship between communication
expenses and sales
 Objective-and-Task Method
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Determines the budget required to undertake

specific tasks to accomplish communication
objectives
Illustration of Objective and Task
Method for Setting a Communication Budget
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 Rule of Thumb Methods
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Affordable Budgeting
Method – sets Percentage of Sales Method –
communication budget communication budget is set
by determining what as a fixed percentage of
money is available after forecasted sales.
operating costs and
Drawback: This method assumes the
profits are budgeted. same percentage used in the past, or
by competitors, is still appropriate
Drawback: The affordable for the retailer.
method assumes that the
communication expenses
don’t stimulate sales and
profits.
 Rule of Thumb Methods
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Competitive Parity Method – this communication budget

is set so that the retailer’s share of communication
expenses equals its share of the market.

Drawback: This method (like the others) does not allow

the retailer to exploit the unique opportunities or problems
they confront in a market.
 Decide a suitable Time Span

A decision must be reached on the time scale of the

Promotion campaign. This will depend on the
objectives of the campaign, the medium used and the
allocated budget. The timing of the campaign is also
important e.g. advertising fireworks in January!
 Decide the message

The message and the medium used to convey that

message will be affected by the type of
product/service, the cost, legislation, what the
competition is doing etc.

 Most importantly, it will be affected by the desired

response from the consumer and the stage in the
buying process that needs to be influenced.
The “AIDAS” model can illustrate this buying
process:

Attention
Interest
Desire
Action
Satisfaction
Ideally the message should get the attention of the
consumer and take them through the stages until a
purchase is made and satisfaction reached. In
practice few messages take a consumer through the
whole process, but are pitched at a certain level that
meets the promotion objective.
 The message content should include a unique selling proposition (USP), i.e. a benefit, motivation,
identification etc. that appeals to the audience. This appeal could be: -

Rational - appeals to audience's self interest. Show that product

produces claimed benefits such as quality, economy, value, e.g. car
ads.
Emotional - stir up a positive/negative emotion that will
motivate purchase, e.g. Andrex puppies.
Moral - directed to the audience's sense of what is right, e.g.
support for social causes.

The message format should be strong in order to catch the

attention of the audience. The message format depends on the
promotional medium used. For printed ads, careful decision for
headline illustration, colour etc. For personal selling, decision as to
choice of words, portfolio, dress, body language.
 Decide on Promotion mix

Each promotional element has a different communication

capacity, is effective at different stages in the buying
process and we have a different level of control over each
one. Therefore the decision for choice of promotion mix
will depend upon:

 Target audience
 Objectives
 Timing stage of product life cycle
 Complexity of product
 Competition
 Legal restraints
 Monetary restraints etc.
 Carry out promotional plan

A pre planned promotion should be done so that it is

able to attract consumers and is successful.

Various methods for promotion can be adopted

Such As- advertising, sales promotion, personal

selling, e-mail, direct mail etc
 Measure and analysis result

It is important to measure in some way the

effectiveness of your promotion campaign.
Measuring and analysing the outcome of the
promotion campaign will help in the development of
future campaigns. It may be that you need to change
the medium used or the time - span etc, of the next
promotion campaign