EVENTS AND THEIR IMPORTANCE IN STRATEGIC MARKETING COMMUNICATION

Moise Daniel EVENTS AND THEIR IMPORTANCE IN STRATEGIC MARKETING COMMUNICATION Roman Nr 6 sector 1 Bucure ti, sala 1406, 010374 Bucure ti; Telefon: 0721.530.980; Email: moisedaniel@gmail.com erb nic Daniel Roman Nr 6 sector 1 Bucure ti, sala 1406, 010374 Bucure ti; Telefon: 0722.5325.172; Email: daniel.serbanica@gmail.com Constantinescu Mihaela Roman Nr 6 sector 1 Bucure ti, sala 1406, 010374 Bucure ti; Telefon: 0721.223.896; Email: mihaela.co@gmail.com Filip Alina Roman Nr 6 sector 1 Bucure ti, sala 1406, 010374 Bucure ti; Telefon: 0729.813.571; Email: filip.alina@gmail.com Abstract: In our days society confronts itself with an important series of transformations, in what involves the manner in which organizations can communicate with their target public. We can discuss about radical changes that appear in the way of transmitting messages to the stakeholders, taking into account the importance and the role of public relations, especially of marketing events concomitant with lowering of the advertising power. In Europe, a larger number of companies are starting to implement activities of marketing events. The Marketing of events has an impact on the environment in which the company is developing: the internal public of the company (employees, the management team, shareholders) but also on the external public of the company (contractors, clients, competitors, state organizations, the press, nongovernmental organizations). Key words: marketing communication, public relations, events, The appearance and evolution of marketing events It can be said on a good motivation that the events appeared at the same time with the forming of tribes, and even if they were preparing to hunt, to fight, to celebrate different occasions, they evolved and expanded together with humanity. In what involves the public communication we have as historic reference points from the times of Greece and Ancient Rome when the sports and cultural events were used in political purposes, at which assisted over 50 thousands people at the Colosseum and 250 thousands at Circus Maximus, the product being the offering of amusement to the mass of people, but the objective was to attract the votes and sympathy of the people. So the Roman emperors offered the crowd panem et circenses upgrading the ludic need to the rank of primary need; with an old tradition of 2000 years in China, the Dragon Boat festival, which commemorates the poet and minister of the state Chu, from the first feudal dynasty of China, Qu Yuan (340 278 B.C.), but it represents at the same time a chance for the Chinese people to chase away the diseases and to strengthen their bodies, it is celebrated every year on the fifth day of the fifth month, and it still remained even in our days one of the most important festivals. The races represent the most exciting parts of the festival, the boats were painted in lively colors and they are called dragon boats because the front sides as well as the back side have the shape of a traditional Chinese dragon. The festival is celebrated in China, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan but also in some minorities from China settled in Japan, Great Britain, Vietnam that continue this tradition, in the last 25 years the dragon boat races have been adopted also in countries from Europe, North America, Australia or Africa becoming in this way an international sport extremely popular, the number of those who assist at this festival reaching often 50 977

million people. In what involves fairs, conferences, exhibitions positions, a vital role was played by the commercial and artisan's associations, which provided the structures that lead to such events. It can be stated that these organizations had helped in the evolution of fairs, conferences and expositions. Even from Middle Age and the employment system in Europe, the associations gave the people a reason to come together having common interests and goals. The sociologist Ferdinand Tonnies described the preindustrial society called Gemeinschaft community, as being a type of organization in which people were connected through a series of social unity factors, like relative relations, traditions or friendship. In other words, the associations are incubators for any type of events, serving to the countless purposes for which these associations exist. Among their functions there can be underlined the following: 1. for establishing the industrial standards; for influencing the legislative and political businesses 2. the improvement of the relation between employers and employees 3. the building up of some scientific knowledge by publishing books and articles; the dissemination of general information 4. the defining of industries and professions through demography, the involvement of them in events; the possibility of having a bigger power during the process of purchasing products, services 5. the creation and maintenance of social relations; the carrying out of some public services 6. the professional development and growth of members; education and trainings 7. the development of some public positive relations; the delivery of opportunities for groups to travel; the achievement of some industrial and professional fairs; 8. the implementation of some amusement programs, the building of networks and interaction between people who have the same interests. These are just a few of the functions that associations can have, they had a bigger role defining and identifying marketing events as being a self standing profession. Associations consider their proper events as being the critical function because of the gathering of members at that specific event and which can personify in this manner the corporatist culture, because the competition for the members' money and time are to important to consider it otherwise. Marketing events were transformed from an ad hoc organization into a scientific discipline on which the association's existence itself depends. The association's community has also guided other types of innovative and creative events to draw participants and the recognition from the public. Corporatist meetings, civil celebrations, religious feasts, reunions, sport events, fund raising balls, scientific and technical symposiums, the launching of some new products, services, parades, awarding of prizes and official dinners all have benefited from the principles of marketing event. The Definition of Marketing Events The communication in marketing represents a relatively new concept, appeared in the last decades of the twentieth century, as a consequence of the spectacular evolution which the marketing has encountered in this period. The novelty of the concept, as an extremely complex character of reports which are established in the framework of the marketing communication system, have made it possible so far the fact that it has not been reached a consensus of opinions, specialists have different points of view regarding its content. From a etymological point of view, the noun communication derives from the Latin word comunicatio, which means sharing, conversation; likewise, the verb to communicate derives from the Latin word comunico, meaning to make common, to share with somebody, to be in connection with. Therefore, communication defined in the Romanian Explanatory Dictionary ( DEX ) as being the action of communicating its result represents the approach of making something common, of sharing ideas, thoughts, information, attitudes. This presumes that the transmitter and the receiver of the message must be found on a common ground, so that between them there is established a real connection, with double sense. The communication efficiency is conditioned by the understanding of the transmitted message and by the receiver's adoption of the attitude wanted by the transmitter as an answer to the message. 978

Congruent to the Romanian Explanatory Dictionary ( DEX ) - the events are important happenings, acts of great significance. The Dictionary of Marketing Integrated Communication defines the media event as being the type of event in which the communication initiative belongs to the public relations that mainly resort to publicity, also including here the possibilities to take photographs, to film; and the press event action designed to create opportunities of photographing the object of the meeting. The Terminology Glossary M.I.C.E. defines the event as being (a) portion(s) of a meeting, a component of a meeting and meeting as a general term indicating the coming together of a number of people in one place, to confer or carry out a particular activity. Can be an adhoc basis or according to a set pattern, a general term indicating the gathering of a number of people in one place, to carry out and finalize a specific activity. It can be adhoc or planned, Therefore, the English term meeting is used in a generic sense as the Romanian word event. As a conclusion I can say that marketing events can be defined as a modulus through which different governmental organizations, non-governmental, profit and nonprofit can use the communication through event to transmit a message to the external public, represented by the shareholders but also to the internal public, represented by the employees. There are both strong and weak points of the communication through events: - amongst the strong points we can count : the circulation of messages to other market segments besides the ordinary customers like opinion leaders, being more credible than the communication through traditional publicity, having many times lower costs; - and as weak points, we can underline the absence of control of how the average of the specific event will be covered and it is really difficult to measure its impact. Either if we are talking about a conference, or an agreement, banquet, the launching/re-launching of a product/service, exhibition, fair, meetings, or various occasions there are three essential elements for the success of any event: The three E-s of Marketing Events are: a) Entertainment b) Excitement c) Enterprise Entertainment amusement is, nowadays, available everywhere in our society. A few years ago, people had to make a big effort to participate in sport competitions, to go to the theatres, cinema, having to leave home so that they could take part in that event. But now they are fed up with the methods of conventional entertainment that they own of in their houses, like: television, internet, radio. For being successful, the event that you want to promote has to be different, unique and it has to address especially to the target segment, so that those people would be determined to leave their houses. Excitement delight, it could seem intangible, but it is real, being a key element for an unforgettable event. The delight can be generated by the main element of attraction of that specific event: the famous music band, the fabulous party. Many marketers miss the opportunity to promise the delight for that specific event, for its promotion. The delight could mean the launching of a new brand and logo at a sale fair or at a company s anniversary. Enterprise enterprising, being defined by the Webster s Unabridged Dictionary as a person who is prepared to assume risks or to try something unique, to have energy and initiative. The place and role of Marketing Events Taking into consideration the fact that the advertising volume coincided with a decrease of its efficiency, and all studies about advertising efficiency have reached the same conclusion: with the existence of a larger quantity of advertising in a given environment, we have an increase in the inefficiency in each ad. The studies show that not only the volume of advertising has increased, but also the advertising costs, that have increased faster. It resulted that a high volume reduces efficacy, and the increasing costs reduce the advertising efficiency. Advertising is perceived as being something imposed by the potential buyer, in comparison with the Public Relation actions that are much more credible and less expensive, being able to easily reach towards the targeted audience, so that the brands could be built-up. Events represent a section of Public Relations, being one of the ways through which a profit or non profit 979

organization can communicate especially with the stakeholders and in general with the open public. Public Relations are essential in nowadays complex world for facilitating the communication and the agreement. They involve research, analyses, political adoption, programming, communication and feedback from a diverse public category. To Public Relations are given the following definitions, the most used are underlined below: An event can be transformed into a communication environment only in the proportion in which it is exploited by the organization in promotional purposes. In the internal or external environment of any organizations there are many opportunities which the marketing managers should accordingly know to turn to account the objectives in concordance with the global strategy of marketing, tool. In what involves the achievement of communicational objectives, the organization can orientate itself to the usage of promotional event, having the possibility to choose, between multiple alternatives which the technique offers, that or those which are the best integrated in its communicational strategy. Practically, the efforts of such nature ca be pointed either in the exploitation sense of the existing events, or in the purpose of creating special events, where the advantage consists of the fact that the created event represents a perfect support adapted to the communication objectives, capable of transmitting the best conditions of the wanted message to the aimed targets, at the same time, the unique character of the event concedes originality, increasing in this manner the public impact. The event audience must be a part of the market segment of that specific brand. The event must possess in the wanted image and also it must be capable to create the desired effects within the market segment. An ideal event is the one that: a) Its audience is formed by the market segment to which the organization addresses b) Generates favorable attention c) It is unique but it is not sponsored by many other organizations so that the brand imagine could be a distinctive one, many times the organizations that have a financial power prefer to be the main sponsor of the event d) That supports the marketing activities of the organization and brand e) Which reflects or increases the image of the organization and brand In what involves the communication process with the help of the events there can be noticed the following formula: Sender event organizer Encoding images chosen for posters Message an inciting event Transmitted through media channels / billboards Decoding interpretation Receiver the target Feedback Request for more information Response awareness, interest in the event The Communication System [from Fill C. Marketing Communications: Contexts, Strategies and Applications; Pearson Education; 2003] In general the organizations that want to communicate through event follow the achievement of the next objectives: 980

1. The identification with a market segment: the customers being segmented from the geographical point of view, demographic, psychographic or behavioral point of view, depending on the event. 2. The increasing of a company or brand s notoriety: events patronage offering the possibility of exposure in what involves the brand or organization. 3. To create or to strengthen the customer's perception about a brand, but also to enlarge the dimensions of the organization's image: the improvement of perceptions that the organization is pleasant and impressive. 4. To involve themselves in the community and country s social problems where the organization has its business, through the organization of balls for fund raising. 5. To cheer up the important clients and to remunerate the employees, through the organization of events, like parties where the employees should be awarded with different awards consisting in products or services. 6. To allow the merchandising and promotional opportunities usage when an event takes place. Selective bibliography: 1. Clow K.; Baack D.: Integrated Advertising, Promotion, and Marketing Communications, 2nd edition, Pearson Prentice Hall 2004 2. Fill C.: Marketing Communications: Contexts, Srategies and Applications; Pearson Education; 2003 3. Kotler Philip: Marketing Management 12 edition, Editura Pearson Prentice Hall, New Jersey, 2006 4. Popescu C.: Comunicarea în Marketing, edi ia a II-a rev zut i ad ugit, Editura Uranus, Bucure ti, 2003 5. Al Ries; Laura Ries: C dere Advertisingului i Ascensiunea PR-ului; editura Brandbuilders Grup, 2005 J Goldblatt Special Events, Twenty First Century Global Event Management. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 6. erb nic Daniel: Dic ionarul Comunic rii Integrate de Marketing;editura Rossetti Educa ional, 2006 7. erb nic Daniel: Rela ii Publice, editura ASE, 2003 8. Waldorf J. & Rutherford Silvers: The Event Management Certificate Program Sport Event Management and Marketing, Washington, DC: George Washington University; 2000 981