Marketing Communications (MarCom) is concerned with the promotional aspect of the marketing mix (four Ps: product, price, place, promotion). To briefly explain what MarComs is about it is worth looking into the communication process.
The Communication Process
Starting with a sender, a message is chosen and then encoded into a creative advertisement designed to gain the viewers attention. This advertisement is known as the media; TV, radio, magazines, internet etc. Messages travel to audiences which are the receivers and is decoded when they view the advertisement. They take their own understanding the advert they have viewed (heard or touched) and make decisions based on their interpretation. The problem occurs with what we call Noise. Noise is a barrier that prevents marketing messages from being efficient and effective. It disrupts the message and can occur at any stage in the communication process. An example of noise could be watching a television advert when the telephone rings and distracts you.
MarComs can be used to manage brands as it is concerned with the promotion of an organisation’s brand, product(s) and/or service(s) to both internal and external customers through touch points (also known as brand contact points). Every time the brand is seen, touched and interacted with in some shape or form is it leaving an impression and therefore must be managed and monitored to control the customer’s experience.
MarComs is focused on the product/service, not the corporate communications where the focus of communications work is the company itself. It is primarily concerned with demand generation and product/service positioning while corporate communications deal with issue management, mergers and acquisitions and so forth.
