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Chapter 6
Integrating Marketing Communications to Build Brand Equity
Chapter Objectives
1. Describe some of the changes in the new media environment.
2. Outline the major marketing communication options.
3. Describe some of the key tactical issues in evaluating dierent
communication options.
4. Identify the choice criteria in developing an integrated marketing
communication program.
5. Explain the rationale for mixing and matching communication
options.
Overview
This chapter describes the new media environment and role of
marketing communications in building brand equity. Advertising,
promotions, direct marketing, event sponsorship, personal selling,
publicity, public relations, and other forms of marketing
communications are the means by which )rms stay in touch with
consumers and form relationships with them. They can help build
customer-based brand equity by aecting brand awareness; by
creating, reinforcing or strengthening favorable and unique band
associations; by eliciting positive brand judgements or feelings; and
facilitating brand resonance. A communication campaign should
contain a mix of options, each selected based on its ability to achieve
speci)c objectives and to integrate with other options to maximize
brand equity.
The options included in a mix should, through their complementarity,
produce results that are greater than the sum of their individual
eects. Whenever possible, options should be linked to one another
through the use of common visual or verbal information. Such links, or
cues, enhance consumer motivation, ability, and opportunity to
process and retrieve brand-related information. Hence, they facilitate
the formation of strong, favorable, and unique associations.
Components of a communication strategy can be judged for their
ability to achieve the desired brand knowledge structures and elicit the
dierential response from consumers that creates brand equity. Six
success factors for advertising are identi)ed: consumer targeting, ad
creative, consumer understanding, brand positioning, consumer
motivation, and ad memorability. A 2exible marketing program is one
that contributes to brand equity in a number of dierent ways.
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall.
Each type of marketing communication tool is evaluated in the chapter.
These include all advertising, in the form of television, radio, print,
direct response, online, place (billboard, poster, movie, airport, product
placement). Also included are promotions – sales promotions,
consumer promotions, and trade promotions; event marketing and
sponsorship; public relations and publicity; and personal selling.
The chapter discusses the importance of integrated marketing
communication for maximizing the contribution to brand equity of a
brand’s marketing program. An integrated marketing communication
program must be judged on six criteria: coverage, contribution,
commonality, complementarity, versatility, and cost.
Brand Focus 6.0 discusses how to coordinate media buys in order to
maximize brand equity. Strategies for coordination include the
implementation of brand signatures and ad retrieval cues, designing
complementary media schedules across media, and developing
television campaigns over time.
Science of Branding
THE SCIENCE OF BRANDING 6-1
THE IMPORTANCE OF DATABASE MARKETING
Regardless of the particular means of direct marketing, database
marketing can help create targeted communication and marketing
programs tailored to the needs and wants of speci)c consumers.
Database marketing is generally more eective at helping )rms retain
existing customers than in attracting new ones. Many marketers
believe it makes more sense the higher the price of the product and
the more often consumers buy it.
Database marketing pioneers include a number of )nancial services
)rms and airlines. Even packaged-goods companies are exploring the
possible bene)ts of database marketing. Database management tools
will become a priority to marketers as they attempt to track the
lifetime value (LTV) of customers.
THE SCIENCE OF BRANDING 6-2
COORDINATING MEDIA TO BUILD BRAND EQUITY
For brand equity to be built, it is critical that communication eects
created by advertising be linked to the brand. There are a number of
reasons why TV ads in particular do not “brand” well:
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall.
Competing ads in the product category can create interference
and consumer confusion.
“Borrowed interest” creative strategies and techniques may grab
consumers’ attention, but result in the brand being overlooked in
the process.
Delaying brand identi)cation or providing few brand mentions
directs attention away from the brand.
Limited brand exposure time in the ad allows little opportunity
for elaboration of existing brand knowledge.
Consumers may not have any inherent interest in the product or
service category, or may lack knowledge of the speci)c brand.
A change in advertising strategy may make it diAcult for
consumers to easily relate new information to existing brand
knowledge.
Strategies to Strengthen Communication Eects
One common tactic marketers employ is to make the brand name and
package information prominent in the advertisement. Although
consumers are better able to recall the advertised brand, there is less
other information about the brand to actually recall. Three potentially
more eective strategies are brand signatures, ad retrieval cues, and
media interactions.
Brand Signatures
The brand signature is the manner by which the brand is identi)ed in a
TV or radio ad or displayed within a print ad. An eective brand
signature often dynamically and stylistically provides a seamless
connection to the ad as a whole.
Ad Retrieval Cues
These cues are visual or verbal information uniquely identi)ed with an
ad that is evident when consumers are making a product or service
decision. The purpose is to maximize the probability that consumers
who have seen or heard the cued ad will retrieve the communication
eects stored in long-term memory. Ad retrieval cues may consist of a
key visual, a catchy slogan, or any unique advertising element that
serves as an eective reminder to consumers.
Media Interactions
Cueing a TV ad with an explicitly linked radio or print ad can create
similar or even enhanced processing outcomes that can substitute for
additional TV ad exposures. Moreover, a potentially useful, although
rarely employed, media strategy is to run explicitly linked print or radio
ads prior to the accompanying TV ad. The print and radio ads in this
case function as teasers and increase consumer motivation to process
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall.
the more complete TV ad consisting of both audio and video
components.
Branding Briefs
BRANDING BRIEF 6-1
BRAND BUILDING VIA THE X GAMES
Although the action sports industry contains a variety of high-energy
and sometimes potentially high-risk sports, it is largely de)ned by
various forms of skateboarding, snowboarding, sur)ng, and BMX
biking. ESPN’s X Games, begun as a biannual event in 1995, remain at
the forefront of the industry. They are ESPN’s largest owned and
operated property and are regarded as the gold standard in the action
sports world.
X Games quickly grew into a franchise that has staged more than 65
events attended by more than 2.5 million fans. It has successfully
launched a variety of brand extensions in consumer products and
home entertainment and touches all seven continents. ESPN believes
the evolution and growth of all elements of the X Games have
positioned it well for continued successes—in brand perception and
relevance, live event attendance, record-setting broadcast viewership
and ratings, increased sponsor investment, and overall popularity and
incorporation into the mainstream.
Partners for X Games 17 in the summer of 2011 were chosen based on
their ability to meet the various needs of the sponsors, the X Games
franchise, and ESPN as a whole.
Brand Focus
BRAND FOCUS 6.0
EMPIRICAL GENERALIZATIONS IN ADVERTISING
Empirical generalizations emerge from careful, thoughtful research.
Empirical generalizations are not formal laws themselves and there
may be important exceptions and boundary conditions as to when they
operate. Nevertheless, they suggest three possible bene)ts to having
some empirical generalizations: 1) as a starting point in the
development of an advertising strategy; 2) as an initial set of tentative
rules that management can follow; and 3) as a benchmark, giving
management some sense of how much change to expect when
advertising is launched or something changes in the advertising
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall.
environment. The empirical generalizations can be grouped into four
broad topics: ROI; 360-degree media planning; value of TV; and
creative quality.
Discussion questions
1. Pick a brand and gather all its marketing communication materials.
How eectively have they “mixed and matched” marketing
communications? Have they capitalized on the strengths of
dierent media and compensated for their weaknesses at the same
time? How explicitly have they integrated their communication
program?
2. What do you see as the role of the Internet for building brands?
How would you evaluate a Web site for a major brand, e.g., Nike,
Disney, or Levi’s? How about one of your favorite brands?
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall.
3. Pick up a current issue of a popular magazine. Which print ad you
feel is the best, and which ad you feel is the worst based on the
criteria described in the chapter?
4. Look at the coupon supplements in a Sunday newspaper. How are
they building brand equity, if at all? Try to ,nd a good example and
a poor example of brand-building promotions.
5. Choose a popular event. Who sponsors it? How are they building
brand equity with their sponsorship? Are they integrating the
sponsorship with other marketing communications?
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall.
AACSB: Analytic Skills
Exercises and assignments
1. Have students divide into groups and ask each group to develop a
marketing communications strategy for the same brand. Once they
have )nished, discuss the various plans and the groups’ rationales
for them. Compare and contrast the plans on their reliance on pull
vs. push, mass vs. direct media, advertising vs. consumer
promotions, traditional vs. non-traditional options, and broadcast vs.
print.
2. Assign students the task of identifying brands that have appeared in
movies or television shows. Discuss why the particular movies or
shows were chosen and what the likely eect of the placement was
on consumers.
3. Compare the communications strategies for two competing brands
on the factors delineated in #1 above. What are the reasons for the
dierences? And for the similarities? Which brand’s strategy do you
think is more eective? Why?
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall.
4. Identify brands that have received publicity, favorable or
unfavorable, as the result of action taken by the brand’s
management. Analyze the press coverage, its positive and negative
eects, and the company’s eorts to capitalize on or downplay the
attention. Recent examples include Philip Morris changing its name
to Altria, the television advertisement for Nuveen that featured
digitally-enhanced images of Christopher Reeves rising from his
wheelchair and walking, and ads for Cingular and Alcatel featuring
famous speeches by Martin Luther King, Jr.
Key take-away points
1. It is through marketing communications that brands build
relationships with consumers.
2. According to the customer-based brand equity model, marketing
communications can contribute to brand equity by creating
awareness of the brand; linking points-of-parity and
points-of-dierence associations to the brand in consumers’
memory; eliciting positive brand judgments or feelings; and
facilitating a stronger consumer–brand connection and brand
resonance.
3. Four vital ingredients to the best brand-building communication
programs: 1) advertising and promotion, 2) interactive marketing, 3)
events and experiences, and 4) mobile marketing.
4. Development of an integrated marketing communications campaign
entails “mixing and matching” options based on their ability to
produce a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
5. Creating a dialogue with consumers requires thinking beyond
traditional advertising and promotion strategies.
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall.
6. Consistency is the key to creating brand awareness and strong
brand associations.
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall.
