Communication Challenge in Marketing

Key Concepts

• Target Audience: Identifying the specific group of consumers a brand aims to reach.
• Communication Challenge: Defined as the behavior and mindset change a brand wants to instill in its target audience.
  • Involves understanding existing consumer mindset and behavior.
  • Defines the desired consumer mindset and behavior.
  • Summarized by one line: "The one thing I want to convince my target consumer of is..."

Importance of Framing the Communication Challenge

• Reflects understanding of the user and marketing expertise.
• Must consider market context, target audience behavior, and competitive landscape.
• Should be singular - focus on changing one aspect of consumer psyche.

Example: Amazon vs. Flipkart Case Study

• Context: Amazon #2 in market; Flipkart #1 at start of 2015.
• Objective: Drive category penetration, reach new e-commerce users.
• Challenge: Convince users Amazon's differentiator (variety) is essential to a delightful shopping experience.
• Barrier: Users might doubt necessity of the vast number of products and stick with the number one brand.
• Strategy:
  • Frame challenge around user needs: Choice and variety as essential parts of shopping experience.
  • Convince users that Amazon's wide product range is crucial for a non-compromising shopping experience.

Key Takeaways

1. Understand the Market Context: Knowing position relative to competitors influences strategy.
2. Essential Differentiator: Highlight why and how the differentiator matters to the user.
3. Clarity and Singularity: One clear, focused communication goal.

Steps in Framing a Communication Challenge

1. Identify the current consumer mindset and behavior regarding the brand.
2. Define the desired mindset and behavior change.
3. Summarize the central communication task in one line.

Summary

• Began by identifying the business objective (penetration, frequency, or average rate of consumption).
• Determined the target audience and associated communication challenge.
• These are the first two of seven elements in generating a comprehensive marketing campaign.