Marketing Communication Mix: the Levers of Marketing Communication

The Marketing Communication Mix (MCM) is the set of communication tools used by a brand to implement its marketing communication strategy. Each of these tools is characterized by its own peculiarities and is designed and chosen to reach a specific target and a specific objective.

Over time, the Marketing Communication Mix has changed to respond effectively to a range of new social, economic, communicative and technological stimuli.

In the current context, in fact, consumers have become increasingly aware, informed and even pro-active.

Communication is no longer one-way – in this case the flow of messages starts from the brand and reaches the customer – but becomes two- way and from many to many : we are all content producers, we all interact and everyone has the possibility and the freedom to express your opinion is to influence others with your messages.

This was also made possible thanks to the powerful driver that was technological innovation: the World Wide Web, Social Networks, data mining have forever changed communication and relationships.

Having clarified what the Marketing Communication Mix is ​​and in which renewed historical-social context it must integrate today, I will explain here what the objectives it allows to achieve and the most important levers of the MCM are in practice.

The levers of the Marketing Communication Mix

Marketing communication aims to pursue a competitive advantage for the brand and is aimed both at the final and intermediate customers of the company and at market influencers especially those who provide services like Amazon Seller Ungating.

In particular, the purpose of marketing communication is:

• activate and manage relationships with customers and all stakeholders to support the development of the company’s commercial activity;
• tell, consolidate and disseminate the perceived value of the brand and its offer;
• build and consolidate the brand reputation ;
• increase brand awareness ;
• communicate the corporate image and ensure that it is perceived consistently with the brand identity;
• promote brand recognition or the minimum recognition of the brand: people recognize the brand when they sell its logo or name or packaging;
• favor brand recall, that is the memory of the brand, which can be spontaneous (more important) or can take place upon request. NB: Top of the mind is the highest level of notoriety that a brand can achieve and to which it must aim because it means that the brand occupies a dominant position in the consumer’s mind.

To achieve these objectives, marketing communication strategies use different tools, the levers of the Marketing Communication Mix:

• traditional advertising (TV and radio commercials, for print media);
• promotions; _
• public relations ;
• the packaging ;
• the point of sale and the sales force ;
• press releases ;
• the fairs ;
• experiential marketing ;
• product placement ;
• digital communication: institutional website, SEO, blog, Social Network, Social Ads, Google Ads, Digital PR.

Digital communication is today the most powerful and precious lever of MCM: it allows you to reach a potentially infinite number of people and at low costs compared to traditional media, it allows you to talk about yourself without limits or barriers that can be interposed between people, humanizes the brand and allows to become a person among people.

And nothing more than this can win the trust, affection and esteem of others.

Mind you, however, for digital communication to work it must be the result of a truly effective, planned and professional strategy, it requires vision, it requires investments and the right team of people.

The 3 characteristics of the Marketing Communication Mix

What is the best strategy to exploit the full potential of MCM?

Integrate: the levers of the Marketing Communication Mix must be used in a manner consistent with the characteristics of both the specific medium and the specific target they reach and must be used in an integrated manner, communicating the same message in different ways;

Consistency is key. It is true that every message must be adequate in relation to the characteristics of the means of communication that spread it – Marshall McLuhan wrote that the medium is the message – but it is equally true that it is essential that each lever of the MCM communicates the message in a manner consistent with values. of the brand and other communication tools;

To ensure integration and coherence to the MCM it is essential that there is coordination and collaboration between all the tools.

The Integrated Marketing Communication Mix (IMCM)

As I suggested at the beginning of the post, marketing communication is aimed at different interlocutors: not only the direct and indirect customers of the brand but also all the stakeholders who enter or may come into contact with the company: founders, managers, employees, collaborators, suppliers, distributors, creditors, shareholders and – in an increasingly connected, aware and interested context – even society as a whole.

It is clear that reaching such a complex audience requires the integrated and coordinated use of all the tools of the Marketing Communication Mix, so much so that today we talk about IMCM or Integration Communication Marketing Mix.

The expression refers precisely to the entire ecosystem of communication and messages issued by the brand and directed to the different recipients.