TECHNIQUES OF CONSUMER MANIPULATION THROUGH MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

In recent years, in order to achieve commercial success the enterprise needs not only to ensure high quality of goods, determine an effective pricing policy and select the optimal sales channels, but also to develop a marketing communications strategy.

Read in the article about the following:

1. The concept of Marketing Communications.
2. Advertising.
3. Sales incentives.
4. Personal Selling.
5. Public Relations (PR).
6. Coca-Cola Company’s marketing communications policy.

Marketing communications is the process of transferring information about the product to consumers. Properly developed communication policy allows the enterprise to win and retain its target audience, has a strong influence on consumer behavior, motivates them to make a decision to buy.

There are four main elements to the marketing communications system: advertising, public relations (PR), sales promotion, and personal selling.Each of them informs about the characteristics of the product, forms the image of the brand, has a special psychological impact on the consumer, manipulates his behavior.

Advertisement

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Advertising is any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods and services on behalf of a specific person (company).The purpose of advertising, first of all, is to inform consumers about the product and its characteristics. Proper advertising is bright, eye-catching, memorable, and persuasive. With the help of advertising, the manufacturer can appeal to a mass audience.Modern advertising has become a tool of competitive struggle, it is developed by psychologists and sociologists on the basis of research and only then is embodied by artists and designers.For a stronger impacton the consumer, attracting attentionadvertising specialistsinvideos use a lot of psychological techniques, the most popular of them are the following:

1. The use of spirals and circles(diverging) in the commercial– this is an ancient way of introducing a person into a trance, many people are susceptible to it, for example, this technique is used in advertising mobile operators “Beeline” and “MTS”.

2.A large number of commercials contain scenes of upward movement (escalator, rising elevator, airplane taking off). The natural human urge to fly is used here. Such short inserts create pleasant sensations, literally “lull” / “attract attention”, and accelerate the assimilation of the “command” to buy.

3. Repetition effect – the use in advertising of repeated repetition of the name of the company or brand, or demonstration of the same object, under different angles, perceived by a person as different objects. This allows the advertised object to remain in the memory of a person for a long time.

4. using the opinion of specialists (for example, a veterinarian or a dentist), or the thoughts of an ordinary person, which convincingly represents the brand, the participation in the commercial of famous persons of pop, sports and so on.

5. Presence of young people and girls, children or animals in the commercial. Here a double effect on the consumer is manifested, firstly, a person is pleased to perceive beautiful and aesthetic, secondly, a person tends to associate himself with others.

6. Emphasis on fashion and prestige.

7. Demonstration of the effect – advertising often shows the consumer the effect he will get by making a purchase, a kind of line is drawn: “product-effect”, for example, face cream – youth, health and beauty, car – respectability and prestige; mineral water – vitality, etc.

Sales incentives

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Sales promotion – various marketing activities that increase the initial value of a product or service for a specified period of time and directly stimulate buying activity, distributors and sales personnel.

But sales incentives should certainly not be limited to this alone.

Sales promotion includes techniques and sets of measures to work with resellers and consumers – to stimulate their interest in sales:

1. Free product samples (this allows consumers to evaluate the product and manufacturers to attract new customers);
2. Product demonstration (overcomes insensitivity to a new, unfamiliar product);
3. Distributing discount flyers (maximizes consumer attention to the product);
4. Sending promotional offers to consumers’ mailboxes (gives an opportunity to catch consumers in a familiar environment for using the product, convenient for them);
5. Publications in newspapers and magazines regarding promotional offers (allows the company to take into account geographical peculiarities of sales and reach the maximum number of potential consumers);
6. Money-back guarantee for the goods (increases the prestige of the manufacturing company and the degree of trust, consumer loyalty);
7. Backing up the purchase with a small gift (greatly increases sales);
8. Create a set of discounted items (greatly increases sales);
9. Holding contests and lotteries among consumers (increases the degree of trust in the company and its product).

Personal sales

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The next, no less important element of marketing communications is personal selling.

Personal, or personal, selling is a verbal presentation in conversation with one or more customers in order to make a sale. Personal selling is a form of communication in which the salesperson tries to help and persuade possible customers to buy the company’s product or service. A distinctive feature of personal selling is personal contact with the consumer – it provides communicative flexibility, allows to modify the information message for the consumer.

Personal selling have a special ability to persuade the consumer to make a purchase. In the process of personal contact the sales representative uses words that carry not only semantic but also emotional load. And also the method of “key words” is used, influence on the client by describing the potential benefits of the product. For example, when buying a cell phone they can be: satisfaction of the need to communicate, increase self-confidence, prestige and so on. In this way the representative, as a rule, successfully overcomes the consumer’s denial. A big role is played by the incentive – the consumer’s guilt for the time spent on him by the sales agent, as a result of which the purchase is also not rarely made.

Public Relations (PR)

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Public Relations (PR) – a type of activity that stimulates demand by disseminating information about the product or enterprise in the media, aimed at creating and maintaining good relations and mutual understanding between the organization and the public.

There is a huge number of PR means: press release, press conference, news projects, press tour, corporate publication, special events (opening ceremonies, receptions; conferences; open days; fairs; competitions; round tables), printed and electronic material, presentation, exhibition activities, sponsorship.

Apart from the basic PR tools, there are also different approaches and methods of PR:

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1. Black PR – use of “black technologies” (deception, falsification) to denigrate, as a rule, the main competitors of the company, distribution of offensive or economically dangerous statements on behalf of competitors, etc.
2. Pink PR is a technique for creating myths and legends that satisfy people’s need to hide under a “blanket of illusion”;
3. Yellow PR – attracting attention by using elements that are offensive and unacceptable to most members of society (taboo words in names, in advertising, obscene or ambiguous language, etc.);
4. Gray PR – hidden advertising (positive or negative);
5. White PR is open advertising on behalf of your company;
6. Green PR is socially responsible PR;
7. Viral PR – based on the need of people to share interesting information among themselves, the so-called “word of mouth”;
8. Social PR is an activity aimed at participation in social and charitable projects.

Thus, the importance of marketing communications is undeniable, so modern manufacturers try to build the most effective communication policy.

Marketing communications policy of the Coca-Cola Company

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For example, the global market leader in carbonated beverages, Coca-Cola, has produced a range of advertising messages since 1886. Coca-Cola advertising always carries positive emotions. It is bright, attractive; its main emphasis is on the atmosphere of love, family comfort, friendly company, holidays, youth and prestige. The Coca-Cola commercials featured many celebrities such as Courtney Cox, David Arquette, Penelope Cruz, Kate Beckinsaleyand others.

Red color in the company’s symbolism is the color of abundance, evokes feelings of warmth, love and strong emotions, increases heartbeat. The company also conducts a number of sales promotion activities: increasing the volume of beverage containers up to 2.5 liters and selling them at the price of 2 liters, gifts when buying drinks in the form of Coca-Cola branded glasses, contests – gifts in exchange for caps from the company’s beverage bottles, etc.

The “Coca-Cola” company is also known as a participant of the WWF program for the conservation of polar bear population, as an organizer of the project “The Second Life of Packaging” (the largest museums in Moscow exhibited useful products made of plastic bottles), as a sponsor of the World Football Championships and a permanent sponsor of the Olympic Games, as an organizer of the Caravan – “Coca-Cola” holidays, etc.The “Coca-Cola” company, asyou can see, leads anactive and properly constructed policy of marketing communications, brings its fruits – the company ranks first in the world in terms of sales of its products.

Modern marketing communications are designed not only to inform the consumer about a product or service, but also by all possible means seek to convince the consumer of the need to buy, to impose the product or service, to transfer consumers into the category of regular customers, to create a dependence of the buyer on the product. Marketing communications are an integral part of success in market conditions.To increase the effectiveness of their application can be using an integrated approach. Each of the elements of communications affects the consumer in different ways, so their coordinated and integrated application increases their effect many times, and boosts the process of achieving the company’s goals, as well as reduces the level of sales costs.

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KOLORO branding agency knows how to stimulate consumers to buy, how to form a positive image of the company or brand in the eyes of consumers, how to competently create a promotional video and sales text advertising! We will help you to develop a really working and effective marketing strategy!