nature and purpose of marketing

Marketing exchange process and marketing communications

A widely held view about the nature and purpose of marketing communications is that it is principally concerned with advertising products and services in order to achieve sales and profits. Although much of marketing communications activity is concerned with advertising and selling products and services, Fill shows us that contemporary marketing communications is much broader, both in concept and application. He defines it thus:

“Marketing communications is concerned with the methods, processes, meanings, perceptions and actions that audiences (consumer and organisations) undertake with regard to the presentation, consideration and actions associated with products, services and brands.”  (Fill 2016: 3)

This broadening of the concept and application of marketing communications reflects a broadening of the concept and application of the marketing process itself. To appreciate the nature of contemporary marketing communications, therefore, we need to remind ourselves of the concept of marketing, and in particular the notion of marketing as an exchange process.

It is important to remember that marketing communications is a part of a company’s overall marketing activities and planning. So we need to remind ourselves about the process of marketing so we can explore the role of marketing communications in this process.

You will probably recall from your studies on the Marketing Management module, that the marketing process can most usefully be viewed as an exchange process. In understanding marketing communications, it is also important to understand the role that marketing communications plays in this exchange process. In order for exchange to take place, a number of conditions must be fulfilled.

The most important conditions necessary for any exchange to take place are:

• there must be two or more parties
• each party must have something of value to the other
• each party must be able and willing to give up its ‘something of value’ to receive the ‘something of value’ held by the other party.

Simple model of the exchange process

The process of exchange can be illustrated by the use of the simple model shown in Figure 1.1.

Figure 1.1: A simple model of the exchange process

Role of marketing communications in the  exchange process

If marketing is a process of exchange between two or more parties, what is the role of marketing communications in this process? The overall role of marketing communications is to facilitate and enhance the process of exchange. In what ways does marketing communications fulfil this role?

These are some of the most important roles for marketing communications.

• Competition between different parties wishing to exchange can be considerable. In addition, there are very many different types of potential exchanges which individuals and organisations may be confronted with. For example, a customer may choose between exchanging financial resources for a new car or an expensive holiday. Supposing the customer chooses the new car, a choice must also now be made between alternative suppliers of the new car. Because of this myriad of choices between exchange processes and parties, a key role for marketing communications is in differentiating one party’s offering from that of other parties.

Reassuring and reminding. The notion of marketing as an exchange process and our simple model, although useful, perhaps does not stress sufficiently the fact that increasingly, marketers are interested, not just in ‘one-off’ exchanges with their customers, but rather with repeat exchanges with them. In other words, the marketer wants customers to return the next time the exchange process is initiated. This is particularly relevant in the example of a customer choosing to spend on a new car, rather than a holiday. The dealer should be looking to develop a relationship, through appropriate marketing communications, to ensure that the customer returns to upgrade or replace the original