This document provides an overview of integrated marketing communications (IMC). It discusses key concepts like how consumers perceive communications, the growth of some media channels and decline of others, and how firms can use marketing metrics to plan and measure IMC success. Specific topics covered include the AIDA model of promoting awareness, interest, desire and action; various IMC elements like advertising, personal selling, sales promotions, direct marketing and public relations; and methods for measuring IMC success.
2. Learning Objectives
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
How do customers perceive marketing
communications?
Why are some media channels growing while others
are shrinking?
How should firms use marketing metrics to plan for and
measure IMC success?
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3. Coke Zero
How did Coke Zero
deliver the “masculine”
message?
Coke Zero/NASCAR Commercial
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4. Integrated Marketing
Communications
Communication channel
Communication channel
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10. Awareness
Senders first must gain
the attention of the
consumers
A multichannel
approach increases the
likelihood the message
will be received
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11. Interest
After the customer is
aware, they must be
persuaded
The customer must
want to further
investigate the
product/service
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14. Lagged Effect
Advertising does not
always have an
immediate impact
Multiple exposures are
often necessary
It is difficult to
determine which
exposure led to
purchase
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16. Advertising
Most visible element of
IMC
Extremely effective at
creating awareness
and generating
interest
Terry Tate/Reebok
Commercial
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17. Personal Selling
Some products require
the help of a salesperson
More expensive than
other forms of
promotion
Salespeople can add
significant value, which
makes the expense
worth it
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18. Sales Promotions
Can be aimed at both
end user consumers or
channel members
Used in conjunction
with other forms of
IMC
Can be used for both
short-term and long-
term objectivesRetailmenot.com Website
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19. Direct Marketing
Growing element of
IMC
Includes e-mail and m-
commerce
Good for multicultural
groups
Database technology
improves
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20. Public Relations (PR)
“Free” media attention
Importance of PR has
grown as cost of other
media has increased
Consumers becoming
more skeptical about
marketing, PR
becoming more
important
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22. Planning and Measuring
IMC Success
Understand the
outcome they hope to
achieve before they
begin
Short-term or long-
term
Should be explicitly
defined and measured
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26. Search Engine Marketing
La Bodega is a small upscale sneaker store in downtown Seattle
La Bodega is a small upscale sneaker store in downtown Seattle
that targets well educated, hip, young men and women
that targets well educated, hip, young men and women
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27. La Bodega
Click through results
What does the data tell you?
What does the data tell you?
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29. The IMC communication process includes
all of the following EXCEPT:
A. the transmitter.
B. the sender.
C. the objective and task method.
D. the communication channel.
E. the receiver.
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30. Which of the following is NOT one of the
steps in the AIDA model?
A. Awareness
B. Desire
C. Action
D. Designing
E. Interest
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31. Check Yourself
1. What are the different steps in the
communication process?
2. What is the AIDA model?
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32. Public relations are becoming a larger part of
many companies’ IMC efforts because:
A. online couponing has declined.
B. consumers have become more skeptical of
marketing claims.
C. Web tracking software has become more
sophisticated.
D. gross rating points have become
marginalized.
E. commercial speech has become more
effective.
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33. Compared to other IMC alternatives, _______________ is
extremely effective for creating awareness and
generating interest in a product.
A. public relations
B. personal selling
C. sales promotion
D. advertising
E. coupons
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38. Check Yourself
1. What are the different elements of an IMC
program?
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39. Check Yourself
1. What are three rule-of-thumb methods
used for setting IMC budgets?
2. How would a firm evaluate the
effectiveness of its Google advertising?
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These are the learning objectives for this chapter.
The cans had dark masculine colors like red and black. The names had no references to dieting. Focused on promotions with Daytona 500. This YouTube ad (always check link before class) is the ad that is referred to in the opening vignette with the Coke executives interviewing NASCAR drivers.
The goal of IMC is to ensure all the various marketing mix elements work together to deliver a consistent message. Therefore, IMC takes the best of each communications medium and combines it to achieve the most effective marketing communications campaign possible.
New media options fragment communications and make it more difficult and complex to reach the desired target audience. Ask students : What media do you use on a daily basis? This should lead to a discussion of new and alternative media. Marketers must understand how the communication process works and identify possible communication breakdowns. Group activity : Play the game of telephone. Start with a short message, verbally pass it around the room, and see what emerges. Sample phrase: I caught the train heading for Richmond but went to Richland instead.
Marketers must remember that they do not have control over the decoding process, because each receiver decodes the message in his or her own way. Group activity : Identify advertisements or brand images that often result in different reactions from different consumers (e.g., ads for beer, cigarettes, and personal care products). Why do these ads generate differing responses? For example, a cigarette ad for smokers may arouse smokers and induce the desire for a cigarette. For former smokers it may induce a sense of loss. For non-smokers it may not illicit any emotion. Etc.
Ask students how this ad handles the challenges of decoding the fact that this is a breakfast food and not a lunch/dinner which is what SmartOnes is known for.
The AIDA model provides a basis for understanding how marketing communications works. Ask students to pick a product. The decision to buy this product must be somewhat complex. Then walk them through AIDA using the accompanying slides.
Dogs and babies are very good at attracting awareness or advertisements.
Discuss the now-famous Joe Camel study, which found a majority of three-year-old children were aware of Joe Camel, the spokes character for Camel cigarettes. The study’s authors suggested awareness would lead to smoking. Discuss whether awareness always translates to action; be sure to include the two intervening steps, interest and desire. Finally, note that in follow-up studies, preschoolers indicated they understood that cigarettes were adult products, and many were adamant that they would not smoke.
Ask students : Other than purchase, what can IMC prompt consumers to do? Possible answers include behavioral changes (don’t drink and drive), attitude changes (that product is high quality), or physical actions (pick up the phone, log on to the Website, volunteer).
After the firm has piqued the interest of its target market, the goal of subsequent IMC messages should move the consumer from “I like it” to “I want it.”
Ask students : provide examples of products that they had IMC exposure to, but did not purchase immediately. Then ask students : which IMC exposure moved you to purchase?
Sometimes consumers don’t act immediately after receiving a marketing communication because of the lagged effect — a delayed response to a marketing communication campaign.
To get the right message to the right audience through the right medium, an IMC planner must understand how each medium communicates and how to combine it with other media to generate the most impact.
Chapter Eighteen covers advertising, the most visible element of IMC, in depth. Ask students : Think about how an advertisement has made you aware of or interested in a specific product. You can use students’ chosen advertisements as the basis for subsequent discussions . Ask students what “advertainment” might be? It is advertising that is focused on entertaining the end user. One of the earliest and best examples are Reebok’s Terry Tate ads. This YouTube link (always check before class) will show the original ad which was aired on the 2003 Superbowl.
Chapter Nineteen covers personal selling, the most costly form of IMC, in detail. Ask students : For what kind of purchases is personal selling most appropriate? Their answers should note that this form of IMC works best when the purchase is complicated, because the salesperson can customize the communication to meet the needs of that specific buyer and purchase situation, which other IMC elements cannot.
Chapter Eighteen covers sales promotion in detail. Remind students that sales promotions can be used in a wide variety of situations to stimulate demand among either end users or other channel members . There are many websites that distribute coupons. This web link is for retailmenot.com, one of the more popular coupon sharing site. Ask students how retailers feel about this. The positive is that they are able to reach price sensitive customers who would otherwise not find them. The problem is that some of these coupons are profitable because the target frequent and large receipt buyers and they are not the kind of person who is downloading from the site.
As advertising has declined as a percentage of the total communications budget, direct marketing has increased. Ask students : What characteristics of direct marketing might explain this increased popularity? Direct marketing allows marketers to personalize their message. This enables marketers to communicate with an audience that is more likely to respond to their efforts. The text has some excellent examples of Meijer, Toys “R” Us and Best Buy using m-commerce
Ask students : Do you view PR as credible, because they are not “advertisements,” or not credible, because they come from the company?
These will be covered on the next several slides Ask students : What problems might firms that use text messaging to disseminate marketing communications face? Answer: There may be a backlash against the firm and the wireless provider if consumer phones are constantly flooded with such messages. Ask students: How would you like to receive advertising text messages? Answer: A lot of folks do not want such messages. However, the instant-messaging generation is likely to be much more tolerant about it.
Ask students : How do firms determine whether their IMC strategy has worked? Answer: It depends on the IMC objective. If the objective is to create awareness for a new product, then the firm would measure increases in customer knowledge and awareness. If it were to generate sales, like an ad in the paper, then sales would be the objective measure.
Ask students: How do you think firms set promotional budgets? How would you set one?
Every communication may be measured in terms of reach and frequency. Remind students that because of the lagged effect, marketers must not only expose the target audience to the message but also ensure that it has multiple opportunities to view it. This combined measure is GRP.
Technology has introduced a host of new products for tracking online communications, as well as new communication formats. Group activity : List the types of information firms might gather from Web-tracking software, click-through tracking, online couponing, and online referrals. What can firms do with this information? Many firms use this type of information in direct mail or other campaigns, it can also be used to customize the website and to build a network of buyers that are interlinked. Answer: Firms can use this type of information to better understand the consumer decision process and, their purchase patterns. This information can used to redesign the website, develop loyalty programs, and direct mail/e-mail campaigns
Ask students what La Bodega would want to measure if they were buying Google adwords for “sneaker store” and “Seattle sneakers”. The metrics are on the following slide.
The ‘La Bodega’ owner can see his total cost in column 3 and the sales from his adwords in column 4. The ROI in column 6 is higher for “sneaker store” due to its lower cost even though the sales were a bit lower. Ask students how else they can use the website for their IMC objectives? Gently lead them to the charts on the following slide.
Ask students why this was important for La Bodega owners. They should comment that the click throughs tell us nothing about the attitude, only the actions of the consumer.
Ans. C Explanation: The IMC communication process begins with the sender, followed by the transmitter (often an advertising agency) which encodes the message, followed by the communications channel through which the message is sent to the receiver, who decodes the message.
Ans. D Explanation: The AIDA process involves awareness, interest, desire, and action but not designing.
The sender, the transmitter, encoding, the communication channel, the receiver, noise, feedback loop Awareness, interest, desire, action .
Ans. B Explanation: Today, the average consumer is overwhelmed by advertising and promotional messages. Most consumers create screening mechanisms to decide which messages to listen to or view. Public relations has greater credibility and can often get through consumers’ screening mechanisms.
Ans. D Explanation: Advertising has the potential for a broad reach, allowing marketers to create awareness and interest in their products.
Probe to discover why students love these sites…they will say they are easy to use (good navigation), have good sales and specials (product decisions), and are fun (entertainment)
Southwest can learn what customers have to say…what they are interested in learning about products, company culture, and new product launches. Many firms are still experimenting with blogs; in 2006 Wal-Mart got in trouble for failing to disclose a blog written by two cross-country travelers was sponsored by the retailer.
This web link is for the shopstyle.com website featured on the slide. Some of the advantages are that consumers are discussing their product and creating buzz. In addition, online product reviews have been proven to increase customer loyalty. Challenges include the legitimacy of the reviewer and problems with negative reviews.
Ask students if they have played any online games? Did they feel differently about the product after? Did they like it more? Want to buy it more?
1. Advertising, sales promotion, public relations and personal selling, electronic media, direct marketing.
Competitive parity, Percentage-of sales, affordable Return on investment (ROI)
The return on investment (ROI) is the difference of the sales revenue and the advertising cost divided by the advertising cost.
Social shopping is a communication channel in which consumers use the Internet to engage in the shopping process by engaging preferences, thoughts, and opinions among friends, family, and others.
Many IMC elements require significant expenditures, and firms are reluctant to invest in marketing communications without some guarantee of return.