Week 10

Week 10 ยท Introduction to Marketing

Integrated Marketing Communications (The Fourth P)

Davood Wadi, PhD

Welcome to Week 10

Exploring Integrated Marketing Communications

Understanding the Fourth P of the Marketing Mix

The Promotion Mix

Defines the specific blend of promotional tools

The five promotion tools in a row: a megaphone for advertising, a newspaper for public relations, a coupon for sales promotion, two people for personal selling and a phone for direct and digital. A line runs down from each into its own share of one long bar, the blend.ADVERTISINGPUBLIC RELATIONS%SALES PROMOTIONPERSONAL SELLINGDIRECT AND DIGITALTHE SPECIFIC BLEND OF PROMOTIONAL TOOLS

Used to engage consumers and build customer relationships

Three rows, one after another. In each a brand seal on the left and a consumer on the right. In the first row they are far apart with a thin dashed link; in the last they stand close with a thick two-way link.ENGAGERELATIONSHIP

Communicates customer value persuasively

A brand seal on the left speaks a large bubble. Inside the bubble a price tag with a check mark: customer value. An arrow carries it to a consumer on the right.CUSTOMER VALUEPERSUASIVELY

Forms the core of marketing communications

Two circles, one inside the other. The inner circle holds the five promotion tools around a brand seal and is labelled the promotion mix. The wide outer circle around it is labelled marketing communications.MARKETINGCOMMUNICATIONS%PROMOTION MIX
Knowledge Check

A juice brand decides how much of its effort goes to TV ads, how much to in-store coupons, and how much to its sales team. What is it deciding?

Elements of the Promotion Mix

A hub and five spokes. At the hub a circle holding the brand seal, labelled consistent brand message. Arrows run out from it to the five tools around it, and each tool carries a copy of the same seal.CONSISTENTBRAND MESSAGEADVERTISINGPUBLIC RELATIONS%SALES PROMOTIONPERSONAL SELLINGDIRECT AND DIGITAL

  1. Advertising: Paid, non-personal presentation of ideas

  2. Public Relations: Building good relations with various publics

  3. Sales Promotion: Short-term incentives to encourage purchase

  4. Personal Selling: Personal customer interactions by the firm's sales force

  5. Direct and Digital Marketing: Engaging directly with targeted individual consumers

Knowledge Check

To launch a new flavour, a snack maker gives shoppers $1 off if they buy it before the end of the month. Which element of the promotion mix is this?

Advertising

Reaches masses of geographically dispersed buyers

A megaphone on the left. Sound rings spread out from it across the whole plate, and some thirty buyers stand scattered far apart across that field, every one of them inside the rings.ADVERTISINGMASSES OF GEOGRAPHICALLY DISPERSED BUYERS

Enables the seller to repeat a message many times

A megaphone on the left, then six identical speech bubbles in a row along a time line, each carrying the same brand seal, numbered one to six.THE SAME MESSAGE, MANY TIMES123456TIME

Can be very costly for forms like television

A television set on the left. On the right a very tall stack of coins, drawn in the contrast colour: what a television campaign costs.TELEVISIONVERY COSTLY

Lacks the direct persuasiveness of company salespeople

Two rows. Above, a television sends a thin dashed one-way arrow to a distant viewer. Below, a company salesperson and a buyer stand face to face, joined by a thick two-way arrow.ADVERTISINGDIRECT PERSUASIVENESSCOMPANY SALESPEOPLE

Public Relations

Highly believable compared to ads

Two bars measuring believability. Public relations, shown by a newspaper, has a tall bar. Ads, shown by a megaphone, have a short one.BELIEVABILITYPUBLIC RELATIONSADS

Reaches prospects who avoid salespeople and advertisements

A prospect at the bottom centre. A megaphone at top left and a salesperson at top right each send a dashed arrow that is stopped by a cross before it reaches them. A newspaper above sends a solid arrow that gets through.ADVERTISEMENTSSALESPEOPLEPUBLIC RELATIONSPROSPECTS
A spotlight at the top throws a cone of light onto a stage. On the stage a single product carrying the brand seal. A row of audience heads in the foreground watches it.DRAMATIZES

Dramatizes a company or product

Often underused despite its strong potential

Public relations, shown by a newspaper, beside one long bar labelled strong potential. Only a short stretch at the start of the bar is filled; the long remainder is empty and marked underused.STRONG POTENTIALUSEDUNDERUSED

Sales Promotion

Includes coupons, contests, discounts, and premiums

Four tiles. A coupon with a perforated stub. A trophy with a number one. A price tag reading percent off. A product with a free gift box tied to it.COUPONSCONTESTSDISCOUNTSPREMIUMS%1% OFF

Attracts consumer attention and offers strong incentives to purchase

A shelf of five identical packs. The middle one carries a starburst offer. Three shoppers below all look at that one pack, their gaze lines meeting on it.STRONG INCENTIVE TO PURCHASE%ATTENTION

Rewards quick response from buyers

A time line with a clock marking a deadline. Three buyers who act before it each hold a gift. Two buyers who come after it get nothing.QUICK RESPONSELATERTIME

Effects are often short-lived and not as effective in building long-term brand preference

A time chart. A shaded band marks the promotion. The sales line leaps up inside the band and drops straight back to where it began once the band ends. The long-term brand preference line below barely moves at all.PROMOTIONSALESLONG-TERM BRAND PREFERENCESHORT-LIVEDTIME
Knowledge Check

A cereal brand runs a contest and a coupon for three weeks. Sales jump, then fall back to normal once the offer ends, and shoppers show no stronger liking for the brand. What does this illustrate?

Personal Selling

The most effective tool at certain stages of the buying process

Particularly important in building buyers' preferences, convictions, and actions

The buying process drawn as six chevrons in a row. Above each, a bar for how effective personal selling is there. The bars are short over the first three and tall over the last three, labelled preferences, convictions and actions.PERSONAL SELLINGMOST EFFECTIVEPREFERENCESCONVICTIONSACTIONSTHE BUYING PROCESS

Requires a longer-term commitment than advertising

Two bars along a time line. Advertising is a short bar. Personal selling is a long bar that runs most of the way across.ADVERTISINGPERSONAL SELLINGTIME

Represents the company's most expensive promotion tool

A coin stack above each of the five promotion tools. Personal selling's stack, drawn in signal colour, is by far the tallest.%MOST EXPENSIVE

Direct and Digital Marketing

More targeted and directed to a specific customer or community

A phone on the left. Across the right a faint crowd of dots. Two arrows leave the phone: one goes to a single customer circled in the crowd, the other to a small circled community of five people.A SPECIFIC CUSTOMERCOMMUNITY

Immediate and personalized for rapid response

A large phone. On its screen an incoming bubble carrying a small portrait of the one person it is for, and right beneath it that person's reply bubble.PERSONALIZEDRAPID RESPONSE

Highly interactive, allowing for two-way dialogue

A brand seal on the left and a customer on the right. Between them four speech bubbles take turns, brand, customer, brand, customer, stepping down the plate.TWO-WAY DIALOGUE
A phone on the left fires an arrow straight into the centre of a target.HIGHLY TARGETED

Well suited to highly targeted marketing efforts

Discussion: Selecting Promotional Tools

A balance. On its left pan a megaphone, mass advertising; on its right pan two people, personal selling. On top of the beam a stack of coins, the budget, with a question mark above it.THE BUDGET?MASS ADVERTISINGPERSONAL SELLING

Imagine you are launching a highly technical, high-priced B2B software product. Would you allocate the majority of your budget to mass advertising or personal selling, and what factors drive your decision?

The Need for Integrated Marketing Communications

Consumers are bombarded by commercial messages from a broad range of sources

A single consumer in the centre. Twelve sources ring them, megaphones, newspapers, coupons, salespeople and phones, and every one fires an arrow straight at them.A BROAD RANGE OF SOURCES%%

Conflicting messages from different sources can result in confused company images

Three sources on the left, a megaphone, a newspaper and a phone, each send a differently shaped message: a square, a triangle, a dotted ring. All three arrive in one consumer's thought cloud, where the shapes pile on top of each other beside a question mark.DIFFERENT SOURCESCONFLICTING MESSAGES?CONFUSED COMPANY IMAGE

A fragmented media landscape complicates the communication process

The media landscape drawn as nine broken, uneven shards, each holding a different medium. A brand seal at the top left and a consumer at the bottom right, joined by a dashed route that has to wind through the cracks between the shards.FRAGMENTED MEDIA LANDSCAPE%%

IMC ties together all of the company's messages and images

The same three sources, megaphone, newspaper and phone. This time each sends the same brand seal, and the three lines are drawn together through a single ring labelled IMC, then carried as one arrow into the consumer's thought cloud, which holds one clear seal.IMCTIES TOGETHERALL OF THE COMPANY'S MESSAGESONE COMPANY IMAGE
Knowledge Check

A bank's TV ads call it premium, its app pushes the cheapest rates, and its branch posters stress community. Customers are no longer sure what the bank stands for. What is the problem?

Defining IMC

Carefully integrating and coordinating the company's many communications channels

Five channels start on the left, one from each promotion tool, as wandering grey lines. They pass through a single clasp in the middle. On the far side they run as five straight parallel lines in signal colour into one brand seal.%INTEGRATING AND COORDINATINGMANY COMMUNICATIONS CHANNELS

Delivers a clear, consistent, and compelling message about the organization and its products

Three tiles. Clear: a sharp brand seal framed by viewfinder corners. Consistent: three identical seals in a row joined by equals signs. Compelling: a seal with a person drawn toward it by an arrow.CLEARCONSISTENTCOMPELLING
Two rows of two departments. In the top row the link between them is broken and each sends a different shape. In the bottom row they are joined by a solid line and both send the same brand seal.DEPARTMENTDEPARTMENTUNCOORDINATEDDEPARTMENTDEPARTMENTCOORDINATED

Prevents the disconnect that occurs when different departments create uncoordinated messages

Builds a unified brand identity across all touchpoints

Five touchpoints in a row, a store, a billboard, a phone app, a package and a salesperson, each carrying the same brand seal, all tied together by one line along the bottom.STOREBILLBOARDAPPPACKAGESALESPERSONA UNIFIED BRAND IDENTITY ACROSS ALL TOUCHPOINTS

Steps in Developing Effective Communication

Five steps cascading down from top left to bottom right, each block feeding the next: identify the target audience, determine the objectives, design the message, choose the media, select the source and collect feedback. A dashed feedback line runs from the last step back up to the first.1IDENTIFY THETARGET AUDIENCE2DETERMINE THEOBJECTIVES3DESIGN THEMESSAGE4CHOOSE THEMEDIA5SELECT SOURCE,COLLECT FEEDBACKFEEDBACK
  1. Identify the target audience
  2. Determine the communication objectives
  3. Design the message
  4. Choose the media to send the message
  5. Select the message source and collect feedback
Knowledge Check

A marketer has identified the target audience and determined the communication objectives. Which step comes next?

Determining Communication Objectives

Marketers must determine where the target audience stands in relation to the product

A product on the right. Three members of the target audience stand at different distances from it, near, middling and far, and a measuring line runs from each of them to the product.PRODUCTWHERE THE TARGET AUDIENCE STANDS

Move the consumer through buyer-readiness stages

Stages include awareness, knowledge, liking, preference, conviction, and purchase

Six columns rising like a staircase: awareness, knowledge, liking, preference, conviction and purchase, the last one lit. A consumer stands on the first step, and a dashed arrow climbs over the steps toward purchase.BUYER-READINESS STAGESAWARENESSKNOWLEDGELIKINGPREFERENCECONVICTIONPURCHASE
A consumer on the left. A dashed guiding path curves up and over to a large ticked box on the right, the final purchase decision.FINAL PURCHASE DECISION

The goal is to guide the consumer toward the final purchase decision

Designing the Message

The message should get attention, hold interest, arouse desire, and obtain action

Four bands stacked into a funnel, each narrower than the one above: get attention, hold interest, arouse desire, and at the narrow bottom, lit, obtain action.AGET ATTENTIONIHOLD INTERESTDAROUSE DESIREAOBTAIN ACTION

Content choices involve rational, emotional, or moral appeals

Three tiles. Rational: a rising bar chart with a tick. Emotional: a heart. Moral: a balanced pair of scales.RATIONALEMOTIONALMORAL

Structure decisions determine whether to draw a conclusion or leave it to the audience

Two messages. The first ends in a boxed conclusion and hands it to the listener. The second ends in a question mark, and the listener supplies the conclusion in their own thought bubble.CONCLUSIONDRAW A CONCLUSION?LEAVE IT TO THE AUDIENCE

Format considerations include design, layout, color, and sound

An ad poster on a dashed layout grid: a heavy headline bar, an image block, lines of copy and a sound wave. Beside it three colour swatches. Callouts name design, layout, color and sound.DESIGNLAYOUTCOLORSOUND

Setting the Promotional Budget

Affordable Method: Setting the budget at the level management thinks the company can afford

One bar of company funds. Most of it goes to everything else; only the small piece left over at the end goes to promotion.WHAT THE COMPANY CAN AFFORDEVERYTHING ELSEPROMOTION

Percentage-of-Sales Method: Setting the budget at a certain percentage of current or forecasted sales

Two sales bars, current and forecasted. The same fixed slice at the start of each, marked with a percent sign, becomes the promotion budget.CURRENT SALES%FORECASTED SALES%

Competitive-Parity Method: Setting the budget to match competitors' outlays

Two coin stacks of the same height, the competitors' and ours, joined by a dashed level line with an equals sign between them.=COMPETITORS' OUTLAYSOUR BUDGET

Objective-and-Task Method: Developing the budget by defining specific objectives and determining the tasks needed to achieve them

A flag on the left, the objective. Arrows lead to three task boxes, each with a small pile of coins beside it. A bracket gathers the three piles into one stack, the budget.OBJECTIVETASKTASKTASKBUDGET
Knowledge Check

A sportswear firm looks at what its two main rivals spent on promotion last year and sets its own budget to the same level. Which method is it using?

Objective and Task Method Advantage

Forces management to spell out its assumptions about the relationship between dollars spent and promotion results

A chart of dollars spent against promotion results. A line rises through it, and a card pinned to the line reads assumption: the relationship has been written out.PROMOTION RESULTSDOLLARS SPENTASSUMPTION

The most logical approach to budget setting

Three boxes joined by arrows in one line of reasoning: objectives, then tasks, then budget.OBJECTIVESTASKSBUDGET

Ensures spending is tied directly to strategic goals

A stack of coins on the left tied by a taut line to a flag planted on a hill on the right: spending attached to the strategic goal.SPENDINGSTRATEGIC GOALS

Often the most difficult method to use effectively due to prediction challenges

The same chart of dollars spent against results. A solid line runs a short way from the origin, then splits into a widening fan of dashed lines, any of which could be the outcome, with a question mark inside.RESULTSDOLLARS SPENT?PREDICTION

Measuring Effectiveness

Evaluating the return on investment for promotional activities

A small stack of coins spent on the left goes into a campaign, shown as a megaphone, and a taller stack comes back on the right: the return on the investment.RETURN ON INVESTMENTINVESTMENTRETURN

Asking the target audience whether they remember the message

An interviewer with a clipboard asks a question, drawn as a bubble with a question mark. The member of the target audience across from them pictures the brand seal in a thought bubble.?DO THEY REMEMBER THE MESSAGE?
Left, an eye above tally marks counting the times the message was seen. Right, a card listing four points of the message, three of them ticked as recalled.TIMES SEENPOINTS RECALLED

Measuring how many times they saw it and what points they recall

Analyzing changes in sales and market share resulting from the campaign

Left, monthly sales bars: level before a dashed campaign line, clearly higher after it. Right, two market-share rings, before and after, the campaign's slice larger in the second.CAMPAIGNSALESBEFOREAFTERMARKET SHARE
Knowledge Check

After a campaign, a brand asks people whether they remember its ad, how many times they saw it, and which points they recall. What is the brand doing?

Discussion: Budgeting Strategies

Three sales bars for years one, two and three, growing each year. The same fixed percentage is sliced off the top of each for promotion, so in year one the slice is a sliver. Above year one a faint megaphone and a question mark.PERCENTAGE OF SALESPROMOTION BUDGETYEAR 1YEAR 2YEAR 3?

If a startup uses the percentage-of-sales method during its first year when sales are low, how might this impact their ability to build brand awareness, and what alternative method might be more appropriate?

Conclusion: Integrated Marketing Communications

  1. The promotion mix consists of advertising, PR, sales promotion, personal selling, and digital marketing

  2. IMC ensures all promotional tools work together to deliver a consistent message

  3. Effective communication requires understanding the audience and setting clear objectives

  4. Strategic budgeting and measurement are essential for maximizing promotional impact