Personal and impersonal communication has a great impact on the brand and influences consumers in different ways: it shapes their tastes and views, knowledge about the product and its perception (Lance and Woll, p. 34).
- The main paid impersonal communication tools used by Nine west are billboards, radio and television adds, web banners and advertising in press, plastic bags and stickers, streaming audio and video, posters and printed flyers. Nine West gives a special attention to the message of an ad and its impact on potential consumers. The main ingredients that contribute to a great advertising campaign are a unique slogan (message) and image of an ad. Paid impersonal communication is especially useful for packaged consumer goods and widely used consumer durables in which rapid technological developments and changing fashions or tastes play an important role in successful marketing. Most of slogans and images of Nine West have great emotional impact on potential consumers and their decision to purchase (Lance and Woll., p. 23). Paid impersonal communication is based on visual images popularizing particular life style and consumer culture; advertisements persuade customer to buy Nine West products as symbols of unique consumer culture and fashion. The name of a current advertising campaign is “All I want is shoes”.
- Paid personal communication involves e-mails and personal selling. Using its own database, Nine West sends direct messages to repeat customers and inform them about new models and goods available at shops. Personal selling involves direct sales through catalogues, but it is not popular at Nine West because of low response rate and the nature of products (Lance and Woll, p. 43).
- Unpaid impersonal communication takes form of conferences and newsletters, media reports and trade shows, company publications and brochures, TV and radio talk show appearances by company personnel, special events, and home pages on the Internet. This refers to the combination of policies and procedures adopted from time to time by Nine West in its marketing program. It involves the integration of the elements of a marketing program that will best achieve the objects of a company in a given time period. On the other hand, PR involves non-business activity such as political or social promotion campaigns created to inform potential target audience about a particular matter. It is important for these agencies to decide what type of public image is required. Then a basic public relations policy can be put forward to ensure that the public are influenced to react to information in the desired way. There are a number of publics, e.g. shareholders, customers, employees (potential and present), suppliers and government (Levy and Weitz, p. 233).
- Nine West can improve its advertising messages paying more attention to unpaid impersonal communication: the company should actively participate in trade shows and promote its brand using features articles and company profiles. Information about the company and its plans will impress the customers and remind some pleasant moments of their life. Also, Nine West should use more billboards and stickers in order to promote its brand in urban areas. The sum of impressions received from different types of media creates a unified message about both the products and brand. Orientation of viewers includes such categories as convenience, preference and specialty goods (Lance and Woll, p. 32). Nine West should design corporate newsletters in order to inform all participants and potential clients about recent changes and innovations applied by the company. This information will help to create an image of Nine West as market leaders and inform wide audience about company’s performance.
Works Cited
- Lance, S., Woll, J. The Little Blue Book of Advertising: 52 Small Ideas That Can Make a Big Difference. Portfolio Hardcover, 2006.
- Levy, M., Weitz, B.A. Retailing Management, Irwin, Chicago, IL, 1995.