ENGAGING CUSTOMERS AND COMMUNICATING

CUSTOMER VALUE

IM1019 Principles of Marketing

Sem 2, 2024-2025

Adapted from Kotler P. T. & Amstrong G. 2018, Principles of Marketing (17th Global Edition), Pearson.
Learning objectives

1. Answer what is communication and identify the role of marketing communication

2. Define the communications mix for communicating customer value and discuss the
need for integrated marketing communications.

3. Outline the communication process and the steps in developing effective

marketing communications.

4. Explain the methods for setting the communication budget and factors that affect
the design of the communication mix.
The role of marketing communications

Marketing communications: The means by which firms attempt

to inform, persuade, and remind consumers about the products
and brands they sell
The role of marketing communications
Marketing communications:
❖ Represent the voice of the company and its brands
❖ A means to build a dialogue & customer relationships
❖ Show how/why a product is used, by whom, where, and when
❖ Tell who makes the product, what the firm & brand stand for
❖ Link brands to people, places, events, brands, experience, feelings
❖ They can contribute to brand equity as well as drive sales and even affect
shareholder value
The Communication Mix

❖ The Communication mix (also promotion mix) is the specific blend of

promotion tools that the company uses to persuasively communicate
customer value and build customer relationships.
▪ advertising
▪ sales promotion
▪ public relations
▪ personal selling
▪ direct marketing
The Communication Mix

❖ Advertising is any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of

ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor.
▪ e.g. broadcast, print, online, mobile, outdoor
The Communication Mix

❖ Sales promotion is a short-term incentive to encourage the purchase or sale

of a product or service.
▪ e.g. discounts, coupons, displays, demonstrations
The Communication Mix

❖ Public relations involves building good

relations with the company’s various
publics by obtaining favorable publicity,
building up a good corporate image, and
handling or heading off unfavorable
rumors, stories, and events.

▪ e.g. press releases, sponsorships,

events and Web pages
The Communication Mix

❖ Personal selling is the personal interaction by the firm’s sales force for the
purpose of engaging customers, making sales, and building customer
relationships.
▪ e.g. sales presentations, trade shows
The Communication Mix

❖ Direct and digital marketing involves engaging directly with carefully

targeted individual consumers and customer communities to both obtain an
immediate response and build lasting customer relationships.
▪ e.g. direct mail, catalogs, online and social media, mobile marketing
A view of the communication process
Steps in developing effective marketing communication

Identify the target audience

Determine the communication objectives

Design the message

Choose the media to send the message

Select message source and collect feedback

Identifying the target audience

❖ A marketing communicator starts with a clear target audience in mind, which

will determine

▪ What will be said

▪ How it will be said
▪ When it will be said
▪ Where it will be said
▪ Who will say it
Determine the communication objectives
Designing the message

❖ AIDA Model

▪ Get Attention

▪ Hold Interest

▪ Arouse Desire

▪ Obtain Action
Designing the message

❖ Message content – What to say

▪ Rational appeal relates to the audience’s self-interest.

▪ Emotional appeal is an attempt to stir up positive or negative emotions to

motivate a purchase.

▪ Moral appeal is directed to an audience’s sense of what is right and proper.

❖ Message structure and format – How to say it

Choosing communication channels and media

❖ Personal communication involves two or more people communicating

directly with each other (via face to face, phone, mail or e-mail, texting or
Internet chat)

▪ e.g. salesperson, independent experts, family & friends, other customers

❖ Nonpersonal communication channels are media that carry messages

without personal contact or feedback, including major media (print, display,
broadcast, online), atmospheres, and events.
Choosing communication channels and media

❖ Opinion leaders are people whose

opinions are sought by others.

❖ Buzz marketing involves cultivating

opinion leaders and getting them
to spread information about a
product or service to others in
their communities.
Selecting the message source

❖ The message’s impact depends on how the target audience views the
communicator.

▪ Celebrities (e.g. athletes, entertainers)

▪ Professionals (e.g. health care providers)

Celebrities endorsement
Collecting feedback

❖ Collecting feedback involves the communicator understanding the effect on

the target audience by measuring behavior resulting from the content.

▪ e.g. asking target audience members whether they remember the content,
how many times they saw it, what points they recall, how they felt about
the content, and their past and present attitudes toward the brand and
company
Setting the communication budget
❖ The affordable method sets the promotion budget at the level management
thinks the company can afford.

❖ The percentage-of-sales method sets the promotion budget at a certain

percentage of current or forecasted sales or as a percentage of the unit sales
price.

❖ The competitive-parity method sets the promotion budget to match

competitors’ outlays.

❖ The objective-and-task method develops the promotion budget by specific

promotion objectives and the costs of tasks needed to achieve these objectives.
Integrated marketing communications
❖ The new marketing communications model is needed due to

▪ Consumers are changing - better informed and more communications

empowered

▪ Marketing strategies are changing - focused marketing programs

designed to build closer relationships with customers in more narrowly
defined micromarkets

▪ Advances in digital technology - changes in the ways in which

companies and customers communicate with each other
Integrated marketing communications

❖ Integrated marketing communications

(IMC) involves carefully integrating and
coordinating the company’s many
communications channels to deliver a
clear, consistent, and compelling message
about the organization and its products.

→ identifying the target audience and

shaping a well-coordinated promotional
program to obtain the desired audience
response.
Integrated marketing communications
 The nature of each communication tool
Advertising: reaches geographically dispersed buyers. It can build up a long-term
image for a product or trigger quick sales
❖ Pervasiveness—Advertising permits the seller to repeat a message many times. It also
allows the buyer to receive and compare the messages of various competitors.

❖ Amplified expressiveness—Advertising provides opportunities for dramatizing the

company and its brands and products through the artful use of print, sound, and color.

❖ Control—The advertiser can choose the aspects of the brand and product on which to
focus communications.
The nature of each communication tool
Sales promotion: Companies use sales promotion tools—coupons, contests,
premiums, and the like—to draw a stronger and quicker buyer response, including
short-run effects such as highlighting product offers and boosting sagging sales

❖ Ability to be attention-getting—They draw attention and may lead the consumer to

the product.

❖ Incentive—They incorporate some concession, inducement, or contribution that gives

value to the consumer.

❖ Invitation—They include a distinct invitation to engage in the transaction now.

The nature of each communication tool

Public relations is a very believable form of promotion that includes news stories,
features, sponsorships, and events.

❖ High credibility—News stories and features are more authentic and credible to
readers than ads.

❖ Ability to reach hard-to-find buyers—Public relations can reach prospects who prefer
to avoid mass media and targeted promotions.

❖ Dramatization—Public relations can tell the story behind a company, brand, or

product.
The nature of each communication tool
Personal selling is the most effective method at certain stages of the buying
process, particularly in building buyers’ preferences, convictions, actions, and
developing customer relationships.
❖ Customized—The message can be designed to appeal to any individual.

❖ Relationship-oriented—Personal selling relationships can range from a matter-of-

fact selling relationship to a deep personal friendship.

❖ Response-oriented—The buyer is often given personal choices and encouraged to

directly respond
The nature of each communication tool
Direct and digital marketing is an immediate, customized, and interactive
promotional tool that includes direct mail, catalogs, telephone marketing, online,
mobile, and social media.
❖ Personal—Personal facts, opinions, and experiences can be stored in massive
databases and incorporated into personal messages.

❖ Proactive—A direct marketing piece can create attention, inform consumers, and
include a call to action.

❖ Complementary—Product information can be provided that helps other marketing

communications, especially in terms of e-commerce. A good catalog might spur
online shopping
Integrating the communication mix

❖ The company must take steps to see that each promotion mix element is
smoothly integrated.

❖ The various promotion elements should work together to carry the firm’s
unique brand messages and selling points.
Integrating the communication mix by company strategy
❖ Push strategy: uses the manufacturer’s sales force, trade promotion money,
or other means to induce intermediaries to carry, promote, and sell the
product to end users.

❖ Pull strategy: the manufacturer uses advertising, promotion, and other forms
of communication to persuade consumers to demand the product from
intermediaries, thus inducing the intermediaries to order it.
Integrating the communication mix by company strategy
Socially responsible marketing communication

❖ Advertising and sales promotion

▪ Communicate openly and honestly with consumers and resellers

▪ Avoid deceptive or false advertising

▪ Avoid bait-and-switch advertising

▪ Conform to all federal, state, and local regulations

Socially responsible marketing communication

❖ Personal selling

▪ Follow rules of “fair competition”

▪ Do not offer bribes

▪ Do not attempt to obtain competitors’ trade secrets

▪ Do not disparage competitors or their products

THANK YOU!!!!