Reducing the arising costs is, naturally, not a pure marketing objective, but the primary aim of every MBA.
The ascertainment of the accruing communication costs is not entirely easy. It is essential to explore the following aspects:
- Capital expenditure for setting-up a communication channel (time and costs), for example, installation of a franking machine
- Regular expenditure of time and money for the creation and maintenance of information, for example, writing a letter on PC
- Regular expenditure of time and money for processing replies/feedback, for example, reporting in the field work
- Regular expenditure of time and money for the post-processing in case of erroneous communication, for example, subsequent maintenance of incorrect addresses for direct mailings
- Direct costs for utilising the services of external service providers, for example, postage for letters
Here, we would like to examine only those costs, which accrue when using different marketing tools. The difficulty lies in that the tools, due to their differing features, can be compared only to a certain extent in terms of costs. Therefore, at this place, a standardised function (for example, announcement of a new sales price) is taken as the basis, which all the tools command in a similar manner.
From this viewpoint, the tools can be evaluated as follows:
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| Suitable tools and response elements |
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| Field work |  | |
| Direct Mail |  | |
| Catalogue |  | |
| Phone | | |
| Email |  | |
| SMS | | |
| MMS | | |
| E-Coupons | | |
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