Marketing communication is the most essential part of any company’s marketing strategies; it includes the messaging as well as the media which is arrayed in order to communicate with the market. Marketing communication functions by using a combination of tools as well as different channels of marketing.  There are a number of different marketing communication available, including personal selling, advertising, direct marketing, communication, sponsorship, public relations and promotions. Marketing communication is essential because of a lot of functions that it performs for a particular company. Marketing communication is important as it builds brand equity, increases the market share etc.

In order to explain marketing communication a number of communication theories have been introduced in the recent years about which  we shall discuss in the following section of this blog.

The Theory Of Hierarchy Of Effects (By Robert J Lavidge And Gary A Steiner):-

The theory of hierarchy effects includes six different stages which are awareness, knowledge, liking, preference, conviction and purchase. According to the hierarchy of effects theory, the advertisers are told to bring out their advertisement in such a way that their advertisement follows the six stages that it states.

The six stages stated by Lavidge and Steiner basically describe the consumer buying behaviour. The initial two steps i.e. awareness and knowledge are cognitive, the following two; liking and preference are effective and the last two; conviction and purchase are behavioural. Let us discuss about the six steps in detail: –

Awareness

The most crucial step of the effect of hierarchy model is the initial step i.e. awareness. It states that the brands should ensure that the customers are aware of their particular brand in the segment of a particular product. The complete stress in the stage of the model is to make the consumers aware of the brand. since, it is the most  basic and initial step, it is considered very important.

Knowledge – In this step of the effects of hierarchy theory, your product will be evaluated by the consumers against the other brands of the same particular product. In other words, your product will basically compete with the same products of other brand. Hence, you should ensure that enough knowledge is available to the consumers about your product through the means of internet, retail stores or the product package.

Liking – This stage focuses mainly on the liking of the products for the consumers. This is the most important step as; this step alone builds up an emotional connect with the consumer. Once, the consumer is satisfied with the quality as well as working of the product, he commits to the product for the rest of his life and this is where the product sale increases for a lifetime.

Preference – By the time this stage arises, the customer might get convinced by the quality as well as the working of your product but the consumer might still wish to try out other brands. At this point you should ensure that your product has some unique qualities which make your brand a preference for the customer.

Conviction – At this stage, all the doubts of the consumer regarding your brand should convert into action. This step can be aided by adopting certain marketing strategies by the marketers. The marketing strategies involve giving out of free sample, test drive sessions etc. In this step the marketers convince the customers to buy the product of their brand.

Purchase – This is the very last step of the theory, in this step; the consumer finally purchases the product. Here you should make sure that the buying cycle doesn’t come to a halt but continues functioning. You can encourage the purchase of your product by keeping simple as well as multiple payment options.

The main aim of this theory is to make the consumers go through all the six steps and then ends up on purchase at the end. Even if the consumer does not follow other steps but should land up to the purchase of the product.

 A.I.D.A Model In Marketing Communication:-

A.I.D.A stands for attention, interest, desire and action. Just like the effects of hierarchy model, the A.I.D.A model has 4 main stages. Let us talk about them in a bit detail: –

Attention – This portion of marketing communication includes grabbing the attention of the customers by using various tactics. You can easily make your product more attractive by using attractive image, layout, colour, size, certain celebrities, models etc.

 Interest – Once the product has grabbed the attention of the consumers, it is important to make the consumers interested to know more about the product as well as the brand. You can evoke interest in the customers by using an attractive sub headings, tagline etc.

 Desire – Once the consumer has paid enough attention towards the product and is interested in knowing more about it, a desire to buy the product should arise in the mind of the consumer. The desire can be evoked by a number of different ways.

Action – The last and the final step of this theory is the action. In this step, the consumer is completely convinced with the product and acts in order to buy the product.

The A.I.D.A model focuses on making the advertisements more attractive for the customers. It basically focuses on the advertisements. This model helps the copywriter to form the advertisements more presentable and eye-catching.

There are a number of different theories of marketing communication which help the company grow as well as do better. Apart from these theories there are certain theories of integrated marketing communications too which involve the integrated marketing communication theories.