Communication Objectives

The first part of written marketing communication plan will be creating the communication objectives. The objectives will be used to base the processes ahead upon. Masterman and Wood (2011) stated that it is crucial to have clearly defined objectives as they will set the boundaries and direction for the strategic decisions that must be made by the companies. Masterman and Wood (2011) also highlighted that the communication objectives will be based around the research analysis conducted in order to take advantage of the opportunities and strengths that present themselves within research such as target audience analysis and situation analysis.

When looking into the two events that have been chosen and the likely communication objectives that they would set for the events it would be assumed that they would have very contrasting communication objectives due to the obvious differences in the purpose of the events and their target audience.

London Fashion Weekend 

London Fashion Weekend's main communication objective is to inform their targeted audiences of the event itself and all the activities within the event as a form of enticement. As well as to sell tickets for the event and the different activities that are within the event such as the catwalk show. They also have communication objectives that revolve around attracting potential customers and repeat customers to the event so that they are able to reach a wider spread of people. 

International Confex

International Confex main communication objective is to attract event industry businesses and companies alongside people working within the industry. This is in order to create a business to business promotion along with sales and networking. As they do not have ticket selling this is not a communication objective that they have chosen. 

As can be seen the communication objectives of the two events are different as they are appealing to completely different target markets. London Fashion Weekend looks at drawing in customers for the tickets and activities of the event itself whereas International Confex objective is to specialise in communicating within the events industry and appealing to members of that targeted group and they do not have the factors of selling the event through ticketing but selling it through the opportunity of networking and resource gathering the happens within the event.

References

Masterman, G. Wood, E. (2011) Innovative marketing communications, strategies for the event     industry. New York. Routeledge.

Schramm's Model of Communication

Schramm's Model of Communication takes a look into humans behaviour within the communication process. The model incorporates different components in order to fully understand the way in which communication process is received. The components within Schramm's communication model are:

Source - This is the individual or the organisation that is sending the message.
Encoding - This is when the intended message is transferred into a symbolic style that can be transmitted.
Signal - The transmission of the intended message using a specific media.
Decoding - The symbolic style of the message must be understood in order for the intended message to be understood.
Receiver - The individual receiving the intended message.
Feedback - The receiver communicating back to the source (individual/organisation) once the message has been received.
Noise -This is a distortion of the communication process, making it difficult for the receiver to interpret the message as it was intended from the source.

References

A linear model of communication Fill, C. (1999) Marketing Communications, contexts, contents and strategies, Prentice Hall, p24

Types of Events

When looking at the types of events we look at who the event is created for and the marketing communications are aimed at. There are two different types of events that can be created the first is a business to consumer event and the second is a business to business event. 

The London Fashion Weekend and the International Confex are both different types of events and are aimed at different target audiences. Which therefore means that they have very different forms of marketing communications. This is because the London Fashion Weekend is a business to consumer event. Which means that businesses are taking their products i.e the designers and selling them to the consumers which are the attendees of the London Fashion weekend. Whereas the International Confex is a trade show which is a business to business event. This means that businesses will come together and sell their products and services to other businesses that attend the event. These factors strongly influence the way in which each event uses marketing communication tools to promote their events.

Target audience of London Fashion Weekend and International Confex

London Fashion Weekend

The London Fashion Weekend established their target audience through the visitor demographics and looking further into the profile of their target audience. As can be seen from the image below their target audience is female, in the ABC1 class and is an average age of 29 which fits with their key target audiences of women with high disposable incomes. As women in the age range of 29 and the social class ABC1 have higher forms of income. But as the profile develops it show that they are targeting audiences that have a high love of fashion in London and the major cities. As well as mums and daughters and women that want to have a girls day out. These target audiences will then be targeted through the marketing communication techniques that are used by the London Fashion Weekend.

This video shows what the London Fashion Weekend is all about and really highlights the audience that attended last year and shows the exclusivity that is within the event within the designers, brands and activities that are shown throughout the video. This really emphasizes the target audience that they have for the 2012 event.


Vodafone London Fashion Weekend 2011

International Confex

When looking into the target audience of International Confex they have established it through two key groups that they have outlined through their visitor profile. These two target audiences have been defined into specialists and generalists groups. These target audiences have been defined into the roles they have within the events industry so they can be targeted more specifically through factors of the jobs.

Specialists - These are the visitors whose core job is as an event's organiser. The specialist target audience are within companies such as blue chip, exhibition organisers, agencies, incentive motivation houses and major professional conference organisers.

Generalists - These are the visitors are within less core sectors and are responsible for areas such as meetings and events part of a wider job remit. This target audience includes sales and marketing managers, association executives,  PR executives, executive PAs and training and personnel managers.

These target audiences have then been further analysed in order to generate the best knowledge of the audiences thy wish to target through these specific groups. They have taken into consideration factors such as social class, gender and many other elements in order for them to fully develop their marketing communications campaign.


References


Bowdin,G. Allen, J. O'Toole, W. Harris, R. McDonnell, I. (2011) Events Management Third Edition. Great Britain. Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann.


London Fashion Weekend (2012) Vodafone London Fashion Weekend [online] Available from: www.londonfashionweekend.co.uk [Accessed on 18th January 2012]

London Fashion Weekend (2011) Vodafone London Fashion Weekend 2011 [online] Available from: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH2LkRdUoY8&context=C389df7dADOEgsToPDskJvbbHSwYHjYk4kkKKjSV2c [Accessed on: 25th February 2012]

What is segmenting and target audience?

As many products, services and events do not appeal to all types of audiences. So therefore it is essential for businesses and organisations to identify the consumer segments that matches the product, service or event experience. Morgan (1996) said that the market segments that are chosen must be measurable within the characteristics of the segment. Also a substantial enough size to be worth targeting and to be accessible by normal marketing communication channels that are consumed. Morgan (1996) also highlighted that it must be a segment that is actionable by business and organisations given the marketing budget and resources that they have. There are 4 different area's of audience segmentation, these are; Geographic, demographic and behavioural. For example the Pembroke Festival 2004 had a range of products which were all categorised into arts, drama, music, dance, food, family and youth. All of these categories offered something different so appealed to different audiences.

Once segmenting has been established the next crucial step is creating a target audience. A target audience is a selected group of people that are within the target market that the marketing communications are developed, created and aimed at. The target audience is established through different forms of research methods. Quantitative research which looks a sites such as Mintel or internal sales data, qualitative research which is methods such as one to one interviews or focus groups. Another form of target audience research is profiler research which uses primary research methods such as Day In the Life Charts and Media consumption. This will then be analysed and created into a target audience profile, which generates an overall look on the target audience that will be focused on taking into account, age, gender, demographic and many other specific factors.

References

Bowdin,G. Allen, J. O'Toole, W. Harris, R. McDonnell, I. (2011) Events Management Third Edition. Great Britian. Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann.

What is Marketing Communication?

Marketing communication is the way in which businesses and organisations promote their goods and services to an audience. Promotion is taken from the marketing mix of product, place, price and promotion.But it is not the same as communication, as communication is not just applied to the market audience it is taken further outside of the box and looks into other audiences. Masterman and Wood (2011) highlighted that in order for marketing to be successful there needs to be targeted communications at diverse ranges of stakeholders and audiences that are both internal and external to the business or organisation. Eagan (2007) stated that marketing communications is also values and ideas that are represented to their target audience. Marketing communication is used in order to create awareness of a product or service, as well as giving valuable information and creating imagery for the product or service. It is a powerful tool that is used in order to be successful and is used in many forms form Internet based market communications to paper based. Fill (2002) gives this figure as the planning framework that is followed and used within successful marketing communication.

 References

Eagan, J. (2007) Marketing communications. London. Thomson Learning

Masterman, G. Wood, E. (2011) Innovative marketing communications, strategies for the event     industry. New York. Routeledge.

Fill, C. (2002) Marketing communications: contexts, strategies and applications. Pearson Education

Second Event - International Confex

International Confex - This event is held at the Excel in London from the 6th to the 8th of March 2012. It is an event of inspiration that allows event organisers to connect and expand upon all aspects of events from venues, support services, destinations and all the essentials that are needed for all forms of events.
The International Confex event holds many different aspects from supplier stands, exhibits, conferences, educational programmes and discussions.International Confex provides an opportunity of networking, trade, innovation and contacts to be created within all the different areas of the events industry through bringing all areas of the industry from marketing, insurance, venues and design together at an event designed specifically to generate opportunities, collaboration and development for the industry.

For more information on International Confex see : http://www.international-confex.com/