Abstract:

Changes in marketing environment have, in many cases, rendered traditional company-to-consnmer marketing insufficient, as the need to target, communicate, and address the needs of different constituencies has increased. Marketing departments need to identify when marketing decisions have broader internal and external repercussions that may have a broad impact on a firm's image and positioning. These constituencies may be internal or external, but their impact on the success of a marketing plan cannot be under-estimated. Qualitative research is needed to fully understand how different constituencies may approach one issue from radically different contexts. While quantitative research can compare how different groups answer the same question, it fails to take into account that the same question may mean different things to different people. This paper presents different case studies illustrating how research can be applied to develop and integrate communication towards different audiences.