Communicating with customers in times of change: message characteristics and suitable promotional tools

Abstract: One of the biggest challenges for organizations concerns future
planning, often because the environment is rapidly changing which forces
organizations to deal with changes on a day-to-day basis. These
organizations therefore need to have the ability to manage their current
business as well as be able to handle unexpected changes brought on by
change. The processes of planning, implementing and coping with change is
likely to remain one of the biggest challenges facing organizations in the
future, especially within the retail industry where marketing communication
is seen as a vital part if organizations desire to establish and maintain
profitable stakeholder relationships. Marketing communication
allows marketers to inform, persuade, incite, and remind the consumers
about the products and/or how the products are used: it represent the voice
of a brand. On daily basis consumers come in contact with hundreds of
messages that have the aim of being as effective as possible through
various promotional tools. The purpose of this study was to provide a
better understanding of how organizations within the Swedish retail
industry should communicate with customers during times of corporate
change. In order to be able to reach this purpose two research questions
that focused on how Apoteket AB’s messages should be characterized and how
non-personal promotional tools should be utilized when communicating to
their customers. Following a conceptual framework, two case studies were
conducted via focus group interviews in order to collect emprical data. The
findings showed that the message should employ certain formats, appeals and
colors in order to be effective. It was also found that some promotional
tools were favored over others. From a practical perspective, this study
provides Apoteket AB and other organizations a roadmap´when communicating
to customers during times of corporate change.