E-Marketing Professionals

2. DESIGNING THE MESSAGE Preparing a successful message is difficult—if only because of the countless ways in which it can be constructed. Yet the payouts from good messages are substantial. For example, simple changes in the wording of a print ad have been known to generate a substantial increase in sales for retail stores, mail-order houses, and direct-mail sellers. All marketing communications involve some degree of information and persuasion. Each message, for example, involves a sponsor or a brand name, which is basically informative. And each message directly or indirectly advo¬cates some change by the audience, which is basically persuasive.

3. SELECTING THE COMMUNICATION CHANNELS Channel selection is a three-step process. First, marketers decide which promotion components to use: advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, or publicity. Second, they choose the specific activities within each component. In advertising, this involves considering such media as TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, or billboards. A consumer sales promotion could consist of coupons, free samples, or premiums. Third, within each activity they must decide which specific vehicle to employ; for example, in advertising, this requires selecting a TV or radio program, while in sales promotion, they must decide about the coupon specifics—its value, size and color, message format, and how it will be delivered.

4. PREPARING THE PROMOTION BUDGET There are a number of ways to prepare the promotion budget, most of which work from the top down (i.e., managers first deter¬mine the total amount to be budgeted and then allocate various amounts to the different mix components). These budget-setting methods are discussed briefly below.

The percentage of sales method is the one most commonly used. The procedure consists of setting this year's budget as a percentage of this year's anticipated sales. Under this approach, sales determine the promotional activity versus planning to achieve some desired sales objective. Even though illogical, this method has some advantages. It is simple to calculate and is risk-adverse because spending is linked to sales

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