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The indisputable facts about marketing communications

• Communications work best when there is feedback.
• It is essential for the sender of the message to have a common field of experience with the receiver.
• The AIDA model (acronym for the 4 stages of response to communications - Attention, Interest, Desire and Action) rarely works with just 1 form of communication.
• The promotional mix (PR, advertising, personal selling, sales promotion leading to purposeful marketing communications) is a recipe; the ingredients are not interchangeable.
• Publicity and PR are probably the most cost-effective promotional tools you have available.
• The media are only interested in newsworthy items, not in thinly disguised advertisements. PR works best when used as part of an integrated programme of activities.
• PR requires a long-term commitment to cultivating the media.
• Train anybody who may have to deal with the press or TV.
• PR will only help publicise your good points; it will not give you what you have not got.
• Advertising is not the only way to increase sales, and may not even be the best way.
• Advertising needs to be planned and targeted to the right segment in order to avoid wasting money and effort on people who will not buy the product.
• People will not read long-winded advertisements.
• Artwork is more memorable than copy.
• Selling is about meeting the customer's needs with a suitable product from the range.
• Selling is learned, not somehow magically inborn.
• Sponsorship tends to have strong positive effects on both brand and corporate images.

Source: 'Marketing communications and promotional tools' The Essentials of Marketing by Jim Blythe (2001)

This is a general guide, and Peacheys accept no responsibility for any actions that may or may not be taken based on this information.