Marketing Communications in Israel

Almost every decision that a business makes over the product or service it offers its clients has direct effect over the consumer. The famous case in which Coca Cola decided to change its secret formula resulted in a major protest on the side of Coke consumers and the company quickly retreated. Marketing communications involves consistently sending out a message to a market via branding, promotion, and public relations to name a few mediums. In the case of Coca Cola the message that was being sent did not match the public's perception of the product.

Often the decisions a company makes regarding its products are less intrusive to the actual product and focus more on changes to its packaging and marketing. These types of decisions have the capacity to be even more harmful. Irritating a customer who loves a product with bad messaging around it can have the same outcome as coming up with a bad product to begin with.

As the people of Tropicana found out in early 2009 cosmetic alteration to a popular product can have destructive consequences. In retrospect the message the new packaging was sending out was harmful. People no longer had a picture of an orange on the container and the overall package became very similar to the generic brands that cost less and are of lower quality. Tropicana inadvertently shot itself in the leg and it took apologies and bringing back the old packaging in order to appease its customers.

As one would expect from a western capitalistic country, the people of Israel are active consumers. They enjoy using their cell phones and wearing brand name jeans and much like the Americans that protested when someone changed the packaging of their favorite orange juice Israelis are too creatures of habit.

Marketing communications in Israel incorporates using many aspects of mass media in order to send a message or even retain a perception of a product or service. Osem, one of Israel's largest snack producers sells its peanut butter flavored puffs "Bamba" in 2 different style bags. One new and modern, the other has been around for over twenty years. It is precisely the same product and the same size bag but with a completely different design. The fact that Osem does this shows that it is in touch with both the new consumers of its products and the ones that have been around for a long time and do not wish to change anything.

Success in sending out the right message over time in a competitive environment such as Israel requires not only being familiar with the market but also consolidating several aspects of marketing communications such as generating publicity, online marketing, and advertising. Achieving a unified message as a result of using all these mediums correctly can contribute greatly to a company's prosperity.

MS Business Communications is a public relations and a marketing communications agency based in Tel Aviv, Israel.