Understand the differences between marketing and general business communications.
Marketing and communications are two issues that frequently come up in company business meetings because they are both immensely important to a company's healthy operation. Sometimes the two terms are used together when a manager puts a focus on marketing communications. But separately, these terms represent different concepts for a business.
Importance of Marketing
Marketing is a way of getting in touch with the most-likely customers for a company's offerings. The main purpose of a marketing plan is to generate demand and eventually bring sales to the company. The company gets in touch through public relations, promotions, advertisements and research (focus groups and surveys). The company must also communicate with distributors, as distribution is a key element of the marketing process.
Importance of Business Communications
Business communication is the process of staying in touch with every party that is crucial to a company's operations. The communication may be through email, phone, Internet, mail, printed memos, in-person meetings or other methods. A company can build up its entire reputation based on a solid business communications policy. The communications policy is normally based on both the needs and preferences of business contacts as well as the capabilities of the company.
Understanding the Difference
While marketing and business communications are related concepts, they're not exactly synonymous. Business marketing is a plan for specifically reaching both prospective and existing customers to convince them to patronize the business. General business communication relates to every aspect of the business, both internal and external. For instance, business communication includes getting in touch with suppliers, clients, shareholders, employees or competitors. Marketing is an element of a company's business communication strategy.
Considerations
A breakdown at any level of communicating, whether with the general buying public or stakeholders in the company can be disastrous for a company. For this reason, both of these issues should be addressed in detail in the company's strategic business plan, incorporated in company policies and distributed to employees so that everyone is on the same page. Company managers should also continually update both the marketing and communications plan as needed to ensure that the company keeps up with industry-wide trends.
Tags: business communications, touch with, business communication, communications policy, company business