1.

Marketing Communication Industry

Marketing communication is a fundamental and complex part of a company’s marketing

efforts and can be described as all the messages and media that company deploy to
communicate with the market. Marketing communication includes advertising, direct
marketing, branding, packaging, online presence, printed materials, PR activities, sales
presentations, sponsorships, trade show appearances and more.

1.1 Marketing Definition and Key Principles

There are uncountable definitions of what is Marketing. According to Kotler and

Armstrong (2010) “Marketing is the social process by which individuals and
organizations obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging value
with others”. According to The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) “Marketing is
the management process for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer
requirements profitably”. For me, marketing is related to long term relationship with
costumers trough their satisfaction and needs.

The key principles underlying marketing activities and strategies are:

 The 4 P’s:
o Product: The product that the company sells can be a physical item or
an intangible service. A product is evaluated by the degree to which it
satisfies a need and provides value for a specific group of consumers.
o Price: The price principle refers to how much consumers pay for the
product, and it is evaluated in terms of how the price maximizes profit
for the company.
o Place: The place principle considers the distribution channels i.e. where
the company will sell your product and how it goes to the market.
o Promotion: The promotion principle is about communicating with
consumers. It involves spreading the word out to potential customers.
 The 4 C’s:
o Clients: costumer’s wants and needs. Instead of focusing on the product
itself, the first C focuses on filling a void in the customer’s life.
o Cost: overall cost – not price – of the product to the customer.
o Convenience: Convenience is often compared to “place” in the 4P’s
marketing strategy. However, these two are very different. Place simply
refers to where the product will be sold. Convenience is a much more
customer-oriented approach to this marketing strategy.
o Communication: all interactions between the organization and clients.

1.2 Competitive Forces and Key Players

The marketing environmental scan is the process of continually acquiring information

on events occurring outside the organization to identify trends, opportunities and threats
to the business. This process is essential to identify the competitive forces and key
players of the industry. There are 6 main forces that marketers must look at:
Demographic, Socio cultural, Economic, Technological, Competitive (Direct, Indirect,
Perfect competition, Monopolistic, Oligopoly and Monopoly) and Regulatory.

The key players of marketing industry (and the reason why they are important) are:

 Company: Understand management’s knowledge, business acumen and

expertise (inherited or learned).
 Suppliers: continuous supply is crucial. Supply shortages, delays, labor strikes
and other events can cost potential sales in the short run and damage
relationships with customers in the long run.
 Intermediaries: marketing intermediaries such as resellers, wholesalers and
distributors help to promote, distribute and sell the products/services.
 Customers: different markets have different characteristics. The company needs
to analyze the type of market is its target: consumer market (B2C), business
market (B2B), resellers market or government market.
 Competitors: analyze the strengths and weaknesses of existing and potential
competitors.
 Publics: Public opinion and sentiment can shape the business environment. A
public is any group that has an actual or potential interest in or impact on the
company’s ability to achieve its business objectives.

1.3 Marketing Departmental Structures

There are a lot of marketing departmental structures, some examples of trends in

organizing the marketing team are: Elastic Organization, TOFU Organization, Inbound
Organization, Funnel Focused Organization, Culture Organization, Customer
Organization and Creative Organization.

1.4 Activities and Functions

Inserted on those organizations structures, marketers have a range of activities and

functions to perform in order to achieve the marketing objectives, such as researching,
buying, product development and management, production, promotion, standardization
and grading, pricing, distribution, risk bearing, financing and after sales-service.

1.5 Ethics and Social Responsibility in Marketing

In response to customer demands, along with the threat of increased regulation, more
and more firms have incorporated ethics and social responsibility into the strategic
marketing planning process. Marketing ethics includes the principles and standards that
guide the behavior of individuals and groups in making marketing decisions. Corporate
reputation, image, and branding are more important than ever and are among the most
critical aspects of sustaining relationships with key stakeholders. Most firms begin the
process of establishing organizational ethics programs by developing codes of conduct,
which are formal statements that describe what an organization expects of its
employees. A code of ethical conduct has to reflect the board of directors’ and senior
management’s desire for organizational compliance with the values, rules, and policies
that support an ethical climate.

1.6 Associations and Networks

Some examples of marketing associations and networks are “Association of Network

Marketing Professionals” (ANMP), “Advertising and Marketing International Network”
(AMIN) and “Agency Management Institute” (AMI).

2. Information Regarding the Focus Organization

Itaú Unibanco is a publicly-held company which, together with its subsidiaries and
affiliated companies, operates in Brazil and abroad, with all types of banking activities,
through its commercial, investment, real estate loan, finance and investment credit, and
lease portfolios, including foreign exchange operations, and other complementary
activities, with emphasis on Insurance, Private Pension Plans, Capitalization, Securities
Brokerage and Administration of Credit Cards, Consortia, Investment Funds and
Managed Portfolios.

2.1 Organizational Structure

The marketing departmental structure is under the “Strategy Committee” which is

responsible for the whole company strategy including financial, marketing and
operational.

A high-level structure chart outlined below provides an overview:

2.2 Stakeholders and Marketing Strategy

The Itau Unibanco’s relevant stakeholders are:

Internal External
Executives Shareholders
Managers Customers
Staff at all Levels Regulators

Itaú Unibanco is known as a company that invests on the relationship with their clients
offering a bunch of products and services to reach their satisfaction. Itaú Unibanco
seeks to establish a good customer relationship in the market. This would enable the
organization to increase the sales and subsequent revenues for the organization.
Additionally this would provide the origination with a sense of achieved customer
loyalty to the brand of the organization. Operational efficiency is also an objective of
the organization. This is essential for the organization to achieve its strategic goals such
as reduction of operational costs, increase in competitiveness and attainment of
organizational growth.

Itau Unibanco’s organizational culture tends to use meritocracy to reward the

employees that truly deserves a promotion on the company. Also, the company’s
marketing strategy is focused on offer products and services to people from all social
classes which is an advantage to its competitors.

References

https://www.itau.com.br/investor-relations/

http://heidicohen.com/marketing-definition/

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/marketing-department-organizational-structure-716.html

https://agencymanagementinstitute.com/

https://www.aminworldwide.com/

https://www.anmp.com/