3.1 Marketing communications in practice

Under the banner of marketing communications (in practical terms) retailers have to decide what messages they wish to send to their customers and how to convey the message. There are three key areas to consider when planning marketing communication activities:

1. the message
2. the media
3. the communication tools.

The following image illustrates these three areas of consideration: the message, the communication tool (advertising), the media (outdoor).

We are going to explore each of these elements in turn but before doing this we need to consider the basic model of communication.