Marketing Management II

Pilar Díaz-Usechi

Chapter 14: Engaging Consumers and Communicating Customer Value:

Integrated Marketing Communication Strategy
1. The Promotion Mix
Promotion mix (marketing communications mix): The specific blend of promotion tools that the
company uses to persuasively communicate customer value and build customer relationships.
The five major promotion tools:

 Advertising: Any paid form of nonpersonal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods,
or services by an identified sponsor. (includes broadcast, print, online, mobile…)
 Sales promotion: Short-term incentives to encourage the purchase or sale of a product
or a service. (includes discounts, coupons, displays, demonstrations, events…)
 Personal selling: Personal presentation by the firm’s sales force for the purpose of
engaging customers, making sales, and building customer relationships. (includes sales
presentations, trade shows, incentive programs…)
 Public relations (PR): 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. (includes press releases,
sponsorships, events, webpages…)
 Direct and digital marketing: Engaging directly with carefully targeted individual
consumers and customer communities to both obtain an immediate response and build
lasting customer relationships. (includes direct mail, email, catalogs, online and social
media, mobile marketing…)

2. Integrated Marketing Communications

2.1 The New Marketing Communications Model
Several major factors are changing the face of today’s marketing communications.

 Consumers: are better informed and more communications empowered. Rather than
relying on marketer-supplied information, they can use the internet, social media, and
other technologies to find information on their own. They can connect easily with other
consumers to exchange brand-related information or even create their own brand
messages and experiences.
 Marketing strategies: As mass markets have fragmented, marketers are shifting away
from mass marketing. More and more, they are developing focused marketing programs
designed to engage customers and build customer relationships in more narrowly
defined micro-markets.

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 Advances in digital technology: are causing changes in the ways companies and
customers communicate with each other (satellite, cable television systems,
smartphones, tablets, the Internet (brand websites, email, blogs, social media and
online communities, the mobile web…), etc.)
Despite the shift toward digital media, traditional mass media still capture a sizable share of the
promotion budgets of most major marketing firms. Rather than the old-media model collapsing
completely, most marketers foresee a shifting mix of both traditional mass media and online,
mobile, and social media that engage more-targeted consumer communities in a more
personalized way. In the end, the key is to integrate all of these media in a way that best
engages customers, communicates the brand message, and enhances the customer’s brand
experiences.
As the marketing communications environment shifts, so does the role of marketing
communicators. Rather than just creating and placing ads, many marketers now view
themselves more broadly as content marketing managers.
Content marketing: Creating, inspiring, and sharing brand messages and conversations with and
among consumers across a fluid mix of paid, owned, earned, and shared channels.
2.2 The Need for Integrated Marketing Communications
Consumers today are bombarded by brand messages from a broad range of sources. But all too
often, companies fail to integrate their various communication channels. Mass-media ads say
one thing, whereas company’s internet site, emails, social media pages, or videos posted on
YouTube say something altogether different. One problem is that marketing content often
comes from different parts of the company. Advertising messages are prepared by the
advertising department or an ad agency. Other company departments or agencies prepare
public relations messages, sales promotion events, and online or social media content.
Conflicting content from these different sources can result in confused company images, brand
positions, and customer relationships.
Thus, the explosion of online, mobile, and social media marketing presents tremendous
opportunities but also big challenges. It gives marketers rich new tools for understanding and
engaging customers. At the same time, it complicates and fragments overall marketing
communications. The challenge is to bring it all together in an organized way.

Integrated marketing communications (IMC): Carefully integrating

and coordinating the company’s many communications channels
to deliver a clear, consistent, and compelling message about the
organization and its products.
To help implement integrated marketing communications, some
companies have appointed a marketing communications director
who has overall responsibility for the
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company’s communications efforts. This helps to produce better
communications consistency and greater sales impact.
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3. Developing Effective Marketing Communication

3.1 A View of The Communication Process
Integrated marketing communications involves identifying the target audience and shaping a
well-coordinated promotional program to obtain the desired audience response. Too often,
marketing communications focus on immediate awareness, but now marketers are moving
toward viewing communications as managing ongoing customer engagement and relationships
with the company and its brands.
To communicate effectively, marketers need to understand how communication works.
Communication involves nine elements: (Definitions of these elements follow and are applied
to a McDonald’s “i’m lovin’ it” television commercial.)

 Major parties in a communication:

o Sender: the party sending the message to another party – McDonald’s.
o Receiver: the party receiving the message sent by another party – the customer
who watches the McDonald’s ad.
 Major communication tools:
o Message: the set of symbols that the sender transmits—the actual McDonald’s
ad
o Media: the communication channels through which the message moves from the
sender to the receiver— television and the specific television programs that
McDonald’s selects.
 Major communication functions:
o Encoding: the process of putting thought into symbolic form—McDonald’s ad
agency assembles words, sounds, and illustrations into a TV advertisement that
will convey the intended message.
o Decoding: the process by which the receiver assigns meaning to the symbols
encoded by the sender—a consumer watches the McDonald’s commercial and
interprets the words and images it contains.
o Response: the reactions of the receiver after being exposed to the message—the
consumer likes McDonald’s better, is more likely to eat at McDonald’s next time,
hums the “i’m lovin’ it” jingle, or does nothing.
o Feedback: the part of the receiver’s response communicated back to the
sender—McDonald’s research shows that consumers are either struck by and
remember the ad or they email or call McDonald’s, praising or criticizing the ad
or its products.
 Last element:
o Noise in the system: the unplanned static or distortion during the communication
process, which results in the receiver getting a different message than the one

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the sender sent—the consumer is distracted while watching the commercial and
misses its key points.
Figure of the 9 elements in the communication process:

This model points out several key factors in good communication:

 Senders need to know what audiences they wish to reach and what responses they
want. They must be good at encoding messages that take into account how the target
audience decodes them. They must send messages through media that reach target
audiences, and they must develop feedback channels so that they can assess an
audience’s response to the message.
 Also, in today’s interactive media environment, companies must be prepared to “flip”
the communications process—to become good receivers of and responders to messages
sent by consumers.
3.2 Steps in Developing Effective Marketing Communication
The steps in developing an effective integrated communications and promotion program:
1. Identifying the Target Audience:
A marketing communicator starts with a clear target audience in mind. The audience may be
current users or potential buyers, those who make the buying decision or those who influence
it. The audience may be individuals, groups, special publics, or the general public. The target
audience will heavily affect the communicator’s decisions on what will be said, how it will be
said, when it will be said, where it will be said, and who will say it.

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2. Determining the Communication Objectives:

Marketers must determine the desired response. The marketing communicator needs to know
where the target audience now stands and to what stage it needs to be moved. The target
audience may be in any of six buyer-readiness stages.
Buyer-readiness stages: The stages consumers normally pass through on their way to a
purchase: awareness, knowledge, liking, preference, conviction, and, finally, the actual
purchase.

The marketer must first build awareness and knowledge.

Assuming that target consumers know about a product, how do they feel about it? Companies
wants to move buyers through successively stronger stages of feelings: liking, preference, and
conviction.
Finally, some members of the target market might be convinced about the product but not
quite get around to making the purchase. The communicator must lead these consumers to
take the final step.
3. Design a message:
The communicator then turns to developing an effective message. Ideally, the message should
get attention, hold interest, arouse desire, and obtain action (a framework known as the AIDA
model). The AIDA framework suggests the desirable qualities of a good message. When putting
a message together, the marketing communicator must decide what to say (message content)
and how to say it (message structure and format).

 Message content: The marketer has to figure out an appeal or theme that will produce
the desired response. There are three types of appeals:
o Rational appeal: relates to the audience’s self-interest. It shows that the product
will produce the desired benefits.
o Emotional appeal: attempts to stir up either negative or positive emotions that
can motivate purchase. Communicators may use emotional appeals ranging from
love, joy, and humor to fear and guilt. Advocates of emotional messages claim
that they attract more attention and create more belief in the sponsor and the
brand. The idea is that consumers often feel before they think, and persuasion is
emotional in nature.
o Moral appeal: is directed to an audience’s sense of what is “right” and “proper.”
They are often used to urge people to support social causes, such as a cleaner
environment or aid to the disadvantaged.

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 Message structure: Marketers must also decide how to handle three message structure
issues.
o Whether to draw a conclusion or leave it to the audience. Research suggests
that, in many cases, rather than drawing a conclusion, the advertiser is better off
asking questions and letting buyers come to their own conclusions.
o Whether to present the strongest arguments first or last. Presenting them first
gets strong attention but may lead to an anticlimactic ending.
o Whether to present a one-sided argument (mentioning only the product’s
strengths) or a two-sided argument (touting the product’s strengths while also
admitting its shortcomings). Usually, a one-sided argument is more effective in
sales presentations—except when audiences are highly educated or likely to
hear opposing claims or when the communicator has a negative association to
overcome.
 Message format: The marketing communicator also needs a strong format for the
message. In a print ad, the communicator has to decide on the headline, copy,
illustration, and colors. To attract attention, advertisers can use novelty and contrast;
eye-catching pictures and headlines; distinctive formats; message size and position; and
color, shape, and movement.

4. Choosing Communication Channels and Media:

The communicator must select the channels of communication. There are two broad types of
communication channels:

 Personal communication channels: Channels through which two or more people

communicate directly with each other, including face-to-face, on the phone, via mail or
email, or even through an internet “chat.” They are effective because they allow for
personal addressing and feedback.
Some personal communication channels are controlled directly by the company. For
example, company salespeople contact business buyers. But other personal
communications about the product may reach buyers through channels not directly
controlled by the company (independent experts—consumer advocates, bloggers, and
others—making statements to buyers, or they might be neighbors, friends, family
members, associates, or other consumers talking to target buyers, in person or via social
media or other interactive media).
Word-of-mouth influence: The impact of the personal words and recommendations of
trusted friends, family, associates, and other consumers on buying behavior.
Buzz marketing: Cultivating opinion leaders and getting them to spread information
about a product or a service to others in their communities.
 Nonpersonal communication channels: Media that carry messages without personal
contact or feedback, including major media, atmospheres, and events.

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o Major media include print media (newspapers, magazines, direct mail),

broadcast media (television, radio), display media (billboards, signs, posters),
and online media (email, company websites, and brand mobile and social media
sites).
o Atmospheres are designed environments that create or reinforce the buyer’s
leanings toward buying a product.
o Events are staged occurrences that communicate messages to target audiences.
For example, public relations departments arrange grand openings, shows and
exhibits, public tours, and other events.

5. Select the message source:

In either personal or nonpersonal communication, the message’s impact also depends on how
the target audience views the communicator. Messages delivered by highly credible or popular
sources are more persuasive. Thus, many food companies promote to doctors, dentists, and
other health-care providers to motivate these professionals to recommend specific food
products to their patients. And marketers hire celebrity endorsers—well-known athletes,
actors, musicians, and even cartoon characters—to deliver their messages. But companies must
be careful when selecting celebrities to represent their brands. Picking the wrong spokesperson
can result in embarrassment and a tarnished image.
6. Collect feedback:
After sending the message or other brand content, the communicator must research its effect
on the target audience. This involves 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. The
communicator would also like to measure behavior resulting from the content—how many
people bought the product, talked to others about it, or visited the store. Feedback on
marketing communications may suggest changes in the promotion program or in the product
offer itself.
4. Setting the Total Promotion Budget and Mix
How does the company determine its total promotion budget and the division among the major
promotional tools to create the promotion mix?
By what process does it blend the tools to create integrated marketing communications?
4.1 Setting the Total Promotion Budget
One of the hardest marketing decisions facing a company is how much to spend on promotion.
How does a company determine its promotion budget? Four common methods used to set the
total budget for advertising:

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 Affordable method: Setting the promotion budget at the level management thinks the
company can afford. Small businesses often use this method.
 Percentage-of-sales method: Setting the promotion budget at a certain percentage of
current or forecasted sales or as a percentage of the unit sales price. It is simple to use
and helps management think about the relationships between promotion spending,
selling price, and profit per unit.
 Competitive-parity method: Setting the promotion budget to match competitors’
outlays. They monitor competitors’ advertising or get industry promotion spending
estimates from publications or trade associations and then set their budgets based on
the industry average.
 Objective-and-task method: Developing the promotion budget by (1) defining specific
promotion objectives, (2) determining the tasks needed to achieve these objectives, and
(3) estimating the costs of performing these tasks. The sum of these costs is the
proposed promotion budget.
4.2 Shaping the Overall Promotion Mix
The concept of integrated marketing communications suggests that the company must blend
the promotion tools carefully into a coordinated promotion mix. Companies within the same
industry differ greatly in the design of their promotion mixes.
Factors that influence the marketer’s choice of promotion tools:

 The Nature of Each Promotion Tool: Each promotion tool has unique characteristics and
costs. Marketers must understand these characteristics in shaping the promotion mix.
o Advertising: can reach masses of geographically dispersed buyers at a low cost
per exposure, and it enables the seller to repeat a message many times. Because
of advertising’s public nature, consumers tend to view advertised products as
more legitimate. Advertising is also very expressive; it allows the company to
dramatize its products through the artful use of visuals, print, sound, and color.
On the one hand, advertising can be used to build up a long-term image for a
product (such as Coca-Cola ads). On the other hand, advertising can trigger quick
sales (as when Kohl’s advertises weekend specials). Although it reaches many
people quickly, mass media advertising is impersonal and lacks the direct
persuasiveness of company salespeople.
o Personal selling: is the most effective tool at certain stages of the buying process,
particularly in building up buyers’ preferences, convictions, and actions. It
involves personal interaction between two or more people, so each person can
observe the other’s needs and characteristics and make quick adjustments. It is
the company’s most expensive promotion tool.
o Sales promotion: includes a wide assortment of tools—coupons, contests,
discounts, premiums, and others—all of which have many unique qualities. They

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attract consumer attention, engage consumers, offer strong incentives to

purchase, and can be used to dramatize product offers and boost sagging sales.
They invite and reward quick response. Whereas advertising says, “Buy our
product,” sales promotion says, “Buy it now.”
o Public relations: is very believable—news stories, features, sponsorships, and
events seem more real and believable to readers than ads do.
o Direct and Digital Marketing: from direct mail, catalogs, and telephone
marketing to online, mobile, and social media—all share some distinctive
characteristics. Direct marketing is more targeted: It’s usually directed to a
specific customer or customer community. Direct marketing is immediate and
personalized: Messages can be prepared quickly—even in real time—and
tailored to appeal to individual consumers or brand groups. Finally, direct
marketing is interactive: It allows a dialogue between the marketing team and
the consumer, and messages can be altered depending on the consumer’s
response. Thus, direct and digital marketing are well suited to highly targeted
marketing efforts, creating customer engagement, and building one-to-one
customer relationships.
 Promotion Mix Strategies: Marketers can choose from two basic promotion mix
strategies:
o Push strategy: A promotion strategy that calls for using the sales force and trade
promotion to push the product through channels. The producer promotes the
product to channel members who in turn promote it to final consumers.
o Pull strategy: A promotion strategy that calls for spending a lot on consumer
advertising and promotion to induce final consumers to buy the product,
creating a demand vacuum that “pulls” the product through the channel.

Business-to-consumer (B2C) companies usually pull more, putting more of their funds into
advertising, followed by sales promotion, personal selling, and then public relations.

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Business-to-business (B2B) marketers tend to push more, putting more of their funds into
personal selling, followed by sales promotion, advertising, and public relations.
4.3 Integrating the Promotion Mix
Having set the promotion budget and mix, the company must now take steps to see that each
promotion mix element is smoothly integrated. Integrating the promotion mix starts with
customers. Whether it’s advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations, or
digital and direct marketing, communications at each customer touch point must deliver
consistent marketing content and positioning. An integrated promotion mix ensures that
communications efforts occur when, where, and how customers need them. An integrated
promotion mix maximizes the combined effects of all a firm’s promotional efforts.
4.4 Socially Responsible Marketing Communication
In shaping its promotion mix, a company must be aware of the many legal and ethical issues
surrounding marketing communications. Most marketers work hard to communicate openly
and honestly with consumers and resellers. Still, abuses may occur, and public policy makers
have developed a substantial body of laws and regulations to govern advertising, sales
promotion, personal selling, and direct marketing.

 Advertising and Sales Promotion: By law, companies must avoid false or deceptive
advertising. Advertisers must not make false claims, such as suggesting that a product
cures something when it does not. They must avoid ads that have the capacity to
deceive, even though no one actually may be deceived.
 Personal Selling: A company’s salespeople must follow the rules of “fair competition.”
Salespeople may not lie to consumers or mislead them about the advantages of buying a
particular product.

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