Marketing Communications Research Guide

What is Marketing Communications?

Marketing communications refers to a company's promotional activities, a key component of the "marketing mix," and one of the four "Ps" of marketing. Promotional activities include a wide range of functions, including personal selling, mass selling (advertising and publicity), public relations and sales promotion. Sometimes marketing communications or "marcom" may refer narrowly to communications messaging and positioning of a company's products and services, and the channels for delivering those messages, including print media, interactive media and public relations. Marketing communications is an important part of a company's brand identity, the sum total of the consumer's experience and perception of a company and its offerings.

Getting Started

Before beginning research, spend some time thinking about the topic at hand and how to develop a search strategy for finding information about it. Some things to consider include:

• Are you focusing on a particular element of marketing communications, e.g., advertising, public relations or sales promotion? Or are you examining the area as a whole?
• Are you looking at marketing communications within a particular context or industry, such as marketing communications for non-profit institutions, or a particular company, such as brand positioning strategies at Merck?

 

Finding General or Background Information on Marketing Communications:

Marketing communications, or promotion, encompasses a number of elements, each of which is a separate searchable topic in its own right. You are likely to find information on these individual elements. For example, a search for "advertising" or "marketing" in Encyclopedia Britannica or XreferPlus includes elements of and references to marketing communication. Searching ROSIE for "marketing encyclopedia" or "marketing dictionary" retrieves two useful titles:

• The Blackwell Encyclopedic Dictionary of Marketing [electronic resource]
• Dictionary of Marketing Terms - R HF5415 .D4874 1995

Finding Marketing Communications in Books

Searching ROSIE Using Keywords

It’s often best to begin searching ROSIE with a word search. As with any search strategy, brainstorm for synonyms and ideas related to your topic and begin by searching with those. For example, "marketing communication," "integrated marketing" and "public relations," are all terms you might use. Remember that you’ll also probably gather some results that aren’t appropriate for your topic. When you find appropriate books, you can link to their subject headings for a more focused search.

Searching ROSIE by Subject

Searching by Library of Congress Subject Heading allows you to do a more precise, focused search for your topic. Some subject headings that may be useful in doing marketing communications research include:

Advertising
Advertising media planning
Communication in marketing
Public relations
Sales promotion

Browsing Call Numbers

Because books are arranged on the Library’s shelves by subject, browsing the library stacks in the call number area suggested below can also be useful. You may also browse the shelves virtually by using the Call Number search in ROSIE. Within marketing communication, there are several areas of the collection you will find useful for browsing:

HF5415 - Marketing
HF5438 - Sales Promotion
HF5821 - Advertising
HM263 - Public Relations

Finding Articles About Marketing Communications Using Research Databases

Bowman Library subscribes to many Web-based databases where you will find newspaper, magazine and scholarly journal articles. Ones that are particularly useful for researching Marketing Communication are listed below. See Searching Electronic Resources Effectively for guidelines on making the most of your search.

Business and Company Resource Center - In addition to information on specific companies and the industries of which they are a part, this database can also be searched under "Articles" for business and trade journal articles on branding, internet marketing, the marketing industry and marketing communications.

ProQuest - Search for marketing or marketing communications and then narrow your search using the Suggested Topics near the top of the page. Includes articles from scholarly, trade and general interest publications.

Selected Free Web Sites

The following Web sites have been selected by Bowman Librarians as examples of sites appropriate for college research. Keep in mind, however, that free Web resources are rarely filtered, often making it difficult to determine the content's accuracy. Use our guide Evaluating Web Resources to help you review the authority, currency and objectivity or bias of every site you use.

Public Relations Society of America - Includes access to PR Tactics and The Strategist Online .
http://prsa.org/

Know This (Marketing Virtual Library)
http://www.knowthis.com/
A leading resource for information on marketing, market research, advertising and other areas of the marketing field. Contains tutorials, articles and research reports.

ClickZ
http://www.clickz.com/
A large Internet marketing resource site devoted to interactive (online) marketing, including news, commentary from experts, statistics and in-depth feature articles.

International Association of Business Communicators
http://www.iabc.com/
This organization is a leading resource in all facets of business communication, including marketing communications. Its membership journal, Communication World, is available to Menlo College students through ProQuest.

MarcommWise
http://www.marcommwise.com/
Marketing Communications resources, hosted by a Canadian market research company. Includes articles, a glossary of marketing communications terms and calculators to help estimate costs and profitability of advertising campaigns.

American Marketing Association
http://www.marketingpower.com/
Registration and/or membership are required to reach certain areas of this site, but there is plenty of free information, including articles on best practices and a dictionary of marketing terms.

Citing Your Sources

Be sure to check with your professor on which citation style is required. Bowman Library provides the following resources to assist with citation format:

For online resources, see How to Cite Your Research for links to MLA, APA and Chicago citation styles.

MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers - LB2369 .G53 2003 (Located in Library Permanent Reserves).

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association - BF76.7 .P83 2001 (Located in Library Permanent Reserves).

The Chicago Manual of Style - Z253 .U69 2003 (Located in Library Permanent Reserves).

Have Questions?

• Explore WOODIE for help with Research.
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