— Dr. Pradeep Nair

Communication is essential in any relationship. Building and managing relationships with consumers and customers has a direct bearing on marketing communications. Marketing communications helps to define an organization’s relationships with customers not only by the kind of messages exchanged, but also by the choice of media and occasion to suit their customer’s preferences.

    Marketing communication is the science and art of communicating information that the company wants to divulge to the public. The information could be related to the marketing of a product, talk about a new product, launch or community initiatives taken by the company.

    Marketing communication is more than just a new idea. It is a revolutionary approach to marketing which redefines the discipline, and sets up radically new models of thinking. Now, marketing communication has changed its traditional role as a tactical activity to a new role of strategic management tool. Therefore, marketing communication is not just about making tactical decisions in terms of communications. It is about thinking and elaborating business strategies that will impact the entire business organization.

Scope and Areas of Work

   Marketing communication functions within a marketing framework. Traditionally known as the promotional element of the four Ps of marketing (Product, Place, Price and Promotion), the primary goal of marketing communication is to reach to a defined audience, and to affect its behaviour by informing, persuading, and reminding. Marketing communication acquires new customers for brands by building awareness and encouraging trial. Marketing communication also maintains a brand’s current customer base by reinforcing their purchase behaviour by providing additional information about the brand’s benefits. A secondary goal of marketing communication is building and reinforcing relationship with customers, prospects, retailers, and other important stakeholders.

    The study of marketing communication in management studies is gaining a lot of attention these days because it prepares marketing practitioners for more complete engagement with the technological changes taking place in the new global markets.

    Marketing Communication is a multidisciplinary field of study having a wide scope for the graduates from the fields of Communication, Economics, Commerce, Social Sciences, and Management. Successful marketing communication relies on a combination of options called the promotional mix. These options include advertising, sales promotion, public relations, direct marketing and personal selling. The internet has also become a powerful tool for reaching to certain important audiences. The role each element takes place in a marketing communication program relies in part on whether a company employs a push strategy or a pull strategy.

    A pull strategy relies more on consumer demand than personal selling for the product to travel from the manufacturer to the end user. The demand generated by advertising, public relations, and sales promotion “pulls” the good or service through the channels of distribution. A push strategy, on the other hand, emphasizes personal selling to push the product through these channels.

    The scope of marketing communication is tremendous. It offers an excellent opportunity to communication scholars having a good understanding of management and marketing mix. One should know the main areas of the marketing mix—the product, service or idea itself; the price at which the brand will be offered; and the places at or through which customers may purchase the brand. The best promotion cannot overcome poor product quality, inordinately high prices, or insufficient retail distribution.

    There is a peculiarly intimate relationship between the management practices and communication process. Successful marketing communi-cation relies on sound management decisions regard-ing the coordination of the various elements of the promotional mix.

    Marketing communication is a promising field within the broad discipline of management and communication sciences dealing with the use of all forms of the promotional mix to reach customers at different levels in new and better ways.

Nature of the Job

Having a Degree or Diploma in Communication/Media Studies along with a broad understanding of marketing and management practices can offer you a range of communication activities to work as a link between media and business practices. As a marketing communicator one can work for various business organizations to study marketing perspective that has been shifting from being market oriented to market driven.

    One can also find immense scope for studying the processes of branding. Branding is a key concept in marketing communication. Marketing communication helps you to understand how by news reports, word-of-mouth, expert’s opinions and financial reports, the consumer forms attitudes and opinions about a brand or company and make purchase decisions.
    As an expert of marketing communication you can get the assignments to coordinate the multiplicity of product and company messages being issued and used by consumers and others.

    As a communication expert you will have an opportunity to know the media habits and lifestyles of important consumer segments. With the help of this, you can tailor messages through media that are most likely to reach these segments at times when these segments are most likely to be receptive to these messages, thus optimizing the marketing communication efforts.

Where to Study and the Eligibility

Presently many departments of Communication, Economics, Commerce and Business Studies of Indian Universities are offering Marketing Communication as one of their optional subjects at Post Graduate level. People trained in Journalism and Mass Communication with a degree in Economics, Commerce, Management or Business studies can find a job assignment in the field of Marketing Communication.

    Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi, Mudra Institute of Communication, Ahmedabad, Symbiosis University, Pune, MS University of Baroda, Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai, National Institute of Advertising, New Delhi, Xavier’s Institute of Communication, Mumbai, National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, Sir JJ Institute of Applied Art, Mumbai are some institutes which offer specialized modules on marketing communication.

Where to Look for the Job

Government business organizations, corporate media agencies and departments, academic and research institutions, communication consultancies working in the field of media business generally have scope for young communication graduates having a good understanding of marketing communication. Corporate research firms working on the different dimensions of the field of media management have a lot of job openings for young researchers to work as a research associate or analyst to verify and develop marketing communication strategies. 

    A lot of openings are there for young marketing communication practitioners to develop comprehensive databases on customers and prospects, to segment these current and potential customers into groups with certain common awareness levels, pre-dispositions and behaviours. There is a scope for young people to develop and design media messages and strategies that should guide the communication tactics of business organizations to meet their marketing objectives. As a communication expert, you can help big multinationals to build and reinforce mutually profitable relationships with their customers and other important stakeholders and generate synergy by coordinating all the elements in the promotional mix into a communication program that possesses clarity, consistency and maximum impact.

Remuneration

The salary in marketing communication depends on your qualification and experience, your expertise in business and industry issues and on your communication skills. Having a degree or diploma in communication studies along with a good understanding of the management can help you to earn Rs. 20,000 to 25,000 at entry level positions. A Master’s or Doctoral degree in communication studies with a formal education/specialization in marketing communication is recommended for more opportunities.  Reputed Business Firms and Consultancies can offer good remuneration to marketing communication professionals for their different projects/programmes. International business organizations and government partners also offer good positions for people having a good understanding of cross-cutting support in marketing research. A strong leadership, team development and networking skills may promise you a high position in media and business sectors.

Excelling your Skills

As a marketing communication professional you should have a very clear understanding of the correlation of communication with the economic and management system of a country. It is also required that as a marketing communicator you must be aware of the new information gathering techniques which will help target more precisely customers and prospects using direct marketing strategies.

    New communication technologies are providing businesses and consumers new ways to establish and reinforce relationships that are important for the success of the organization and important for consumers as they make purchase decisions. As a communication expert, one should be well aware of the ways and techniques through which the organization communicates with a variety of constituents, customers, clients and other stakeholders.

 Dr. Pradeep Nair is presently working as a Research Scientist at Anwar Jamal Kidwai – Mass Communication Research Centre (MCRC), Jamia Millia Islamia (A Central University), Jamia Nagar, New Delhi – 110025 e-mail : nairdevcom@yahoo.co.in)