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LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. What is the role of marketing communications?
2. What is the marketing communications mix?
3. How do marketing communications work?
4. What are the major steps in developing effective communications?
5. How should the communications mix be set and evaluated?
6. What is an integrated marketing communications program?
CHAPTER SUMMARY
1. Modern marketing calls for more than developing a good product, pricing it
attractively, and making it accessible to target customers. Companies must also
communicate with present and potential stakeholders and with the general public.
2. The marketing communications mix consists of eight major modes of
communication: advertising, sales promotion, public relations and publicity, events and
experiences, online and social media marketing, mobile marketing, direct and database
marketing, and personal selling.
3. The communications process consists of nine elements: sender, receiver, message,
media, encoding, decoding, response, feedback, and noise. To get their messages through,
marketers must take into account how the target audience usually decodes messages.
They must also transmit the message through efficient media that reach the target
audience and develop feedback channels to monitor response to the message.
4. Developing effective communications requires eight steps: (1) identify the target
audience, (2) choose the communications objectives, (3) design the communications, (4)
select the communications channels, (5) set the total communications budget, (6) choose
the communications mix, (7) measure the communications results, and (8) manage the
integrated marketing communications process.
5. In identifying the target audience, the marketer needs to close any gap that exists
between current public perception and the image sought. Communications objectives can
be to create a need for the category, brand awareness, brand attitude, or brand purchase
intention.
6. Designing the communication requires answering three questions: what to say
(message strategy), how to say it (creative strategy), and who should say it (message
C H A P T E
R 1
9
DESIGNING AND
MANAGING
INTEGRATED
MARKETING
COMMUNICATIONS
source). Communications channels can be personal (advocate, expert, and social
channels) or nonpersonal (media, atmospheres, and events).
7. Although other methods exist, the objective-and-task method of setting the
communications budget, which calls upon marketers to develop their budgets by defining
specific objectives, is typically most desirable.
8. In choosing the marketing communications mix, marketers must examine the
distinct advantages and costs of each communication tool and the company’s market
rank. They must also consider the type of product market in which they are selling, how
ready consumers are to make a purchase, and the product’s stage in the company, brand,
and product life cycle.
9. Measuring the effectiveness of the marketing communications mix requires
asking members of the target audience whether they recognize or recall the
communication, how many times they saw it, what points they recall, how they felt about
the communication, and what are their previous and current attitudes toward the
company, brand, and product.
10. Managing and coordinating the entire communications process calls for integrated
marketing communications (IMC): marketing communications planning that recognizes
the added value of a comprehensive plan to evaluate the strategic roles of a variety of
communications disciplines and that combines these disciplines to provide clarity,
consistency, and maximum impact through the seamless integration of discrete messages.
OPENING THOUGHT
Perhaps, the most challenging aspect of this chapter is the section on the nine elements of
the communications process: sender, receiver, message, media, encoding, decoding,
response, feedback, and noise. Students not previously exposed to these concepts in other
marketing or communications’ courses will find these concepts somewhat difficult to
fully understand and perceive without good use of examples and trial. The instructor is
encouraged to use examples gleaned from advertisers Web sites, advertisers, television or
print commercials to demonstrate via dissection these concepts, especially encoding and
decoding.
The remainder of the chapter covers material previously reviewed such as identifying the
target market, and designing the marketing message. What is different in this chapter is
the integration of all of the communication’s “mix” or elements of communicating to the
target audience in a consistent and effective manner.
Finally, the coordination and integration of all of the elements of the communications mix
and their effect/affect on the total message (evaluation of their effectiveness) remains a
challenge to prove. The fact is that the concept of the combined effectiveness of the
integration of all marketing communications is difficult to prove in the real business
world. Instructors are encouraged to use examples of non-effective communication(s) to
highlight what the “possibilities” could be with an integrated marketing communications
process.
TEACHING STRATEGY AND CLASS ORGANIZATION
PROJECTS
1. At this point in the semester-long marketing plan project, students should have agreed
upon their integrated marketing communications matrix. The instructor is encouraged
to evaluate the submissions vis-à-vis the material presented in this chapter. In
reviewing the submissions, the instructor should evaluate the continuity of the
message across all possible communication media (students will tend to concentrate
their media to television or the Internet and exclude other forms such as personal
selling and radio).
2. With the instructor’s guidance and attendance, set up a field trip to a local advertising
agency in the community to gather from the agency’s management, their (ad agency)
views on the topic of integrated marketing communications. Especially, what services
have their clients’ requested that the ad agency performs to build an integrated
marketing communications program? Today, many progressive ad agencies are
including among their services: print, marketing intelligence, personal selling
training, and strategy development in their portfolios.
3. Sonic PDA Marketing Plan: Every marketing plan must include a section showing
how the company will use marketing communications. The question is not whether to
communicate, but rather what to say, to whom, how to say it, how often, and which
promotional tools to use. You are responsible for planning integrated marketing
communications for Sonic’s new PDA. Review the strategies you previously
documented in the marketing plan for the targeting, positioning, branding, product
management, pricing, and distribution of the Sonic 1000. Now use your knowledge of
communications to answer these questions:
What audience(s) should Sonic target in its integrated marketing communications
plan?
What image should Sonic seek to create for its first PDA product?
What objectives are appropriate for Sonic’s initial communications campaign?
What message design and communication channels are likely to be most effective
for the target audience?
Which promotional tools would be most effective in Sonic’s promotional mix?
Why?
How should Sonic decide the amount to allocate to its marketing communications
budget?
Summarize your answers in a written marketing plan or type them into the Marketing
Mix section of Marketing Plan Pro.
ASSIGNMENTS
The opening vignette of this chapter is about Oreo, including its real-time marketing
efforts. Have the students read the following articles: Tim Nudd, “Inside Oreo’s Adorable
Triple Play for Father’s Day,” Adweek, June 10, 2013; Jennifer Rooney, “Behind the
Scenes of Oreo’s Real-Time Super Bowl Slam Dunk,” Forbes, February 4, 2013; T. L.
Stanley, “Brand Genius: Lisa Mann, VP Cookies, Mondelēz International,” Adweek,
October 29, 2012; Stuart Elliott, “For Oreo Campaign Finale, a Twist on Collaboration,”
New York Times, September 24, 2012; Rohit Nautiyal, “Cookie Time,” The Financial
Express, June 28, 2011. After reading, have the students’ share their impressions on the
effectiveness of its communications with the target market.
This chapter states that the marketing communications mix consists of six major modes
of communication and that every brand contact delivers an impression that can strengthen
or weaken a customer’s view of the company. In small groups, have the students select a
company and see if its messages are consistent across all major modes of media:
advertising, sales promotion, events, and experiences, public relations, direct marketing,
and personal selling.
The starting point in planning marketing communications is an audit of all the potential
interactions that customers in the target market may have with the brand and the
company. Students should select a brand of their choosing and in their papers “map” out
or create an audit of all the potential interactions that customers in the target market have
with the brand and company. Students should, for the purpose of this assignment, assume
that they are a member of the target market.
Have the students read the following sources listed in the Marketing Insight: “Don’t
Touch That Remote.”: Merrill Barr, “In a World of DVR Monsters, Do Time Slots Still
Matter?,” Forbes, November 1, 2013; “Over Half of Multi-Channel Video Households
Have a DVR,” www.leichtmanresearch.com, November 30, 2012; Andrew O’Connell,
“Advertisers: Learn to Love the DVR,” Harvard Business Review, April 2010, p. 22; Erik
du Plesis, “Digital Video Recorders and Inadvertent Advertising Exposure,” Journal of
Advertising Research 49 (June 2009); S. Adam Brasel and James Gips, “Breaking
Through Fast-Forwarding: Brand Information and Visual Attention,” Journal of
Marketing 72 (November 2008), pp. 31–4; Kenneth C. Wilbur, “How Digital Video
Recorder Changes Traditional Television Advertising,” Journal of Advertising 37
(Summer 2008), pp. 143–49. After reading the articles, ask them to write a memo that
summarizes how DVRs are affecting the way marketers should engage consumers that
includes at least three specific recommendations. They should write the memo from the
perspective of a brand management team member for a consumer packaged goods brand
(of their choice) that uses television advertising.
Have the students read the following sources listed in the Marketing Insight: “Playing
Tricks to Build a Brand,” Will Burns, “Samsung ‘Stare Down’ the Latest Great Reality
Prank,” Forbes, May 31, 2013; “An Eye to Eye Phone Competition,”
www.feishmanhillard.com, accessed March 30, 2014; Will Burns, “LG Ultra HDTV: A
Product Demo for the Ages,” Forbes, September 5, 2013; Salvador Rodriguez, “LG
Hidden-Camera Prank Ad for Its Ultra HD TV Goes Viral,” Los Angeles Times,
September 7, 2013. After reading these articles, ask the students to take a position: For or
against using tricks to build a brand.
DETAILED CHAPTER OUTLINE
Modern marketing calls for more than developing a good product, pricing it attractively,
and making it accessible. Companies must also communicate with present and potential
stakeholders and the general public. For most marketers, therefore, the question is not
whether to communicate but rather what to say, how and when to say it, to whom, and
how often. Oreo has used various comunications in different markets to establish a strong
global positioning.
I. The Role of Marketing Communications
A. Marketing communications are the means by which firms attempt to inform,
persuade, and remind consumers—directly or indirectly—about the products
and brands they sell.
i. They represent the voice of the company and its brands; they are a
means by which the firm can establish a dialogue and build
relationships with consumers.
ii. By strengthening customer loyalty, they can contribute to customer
equity.
iii. Marketing communications also work by showing consumers how and
why a product is used, by whom, where, and when.
iv. Consumers can learn who makes the product and what the company
and brand stand for, and they can become motivated to try or use it.
v. Marketing communications allow companies to link their brands to
other people, places, events, brands, experiences, feelings, and things.
vi. They can contribute to brand equity—by establishing the brand in
memory and creating a brand image—as well as drive sales and even
affect shareholder value.
B. The Changing Marketing Communications Environment
i. Technology and other factors have changed the way consumers
process communications, and even whether they choose to process
them at all.
ii. Commercial clutter is rampant.
iii. Marketers must be creative in using technology but not intrude in
consumers’ lives.
II. Marketing Communications Mix
A. Advertising is often a central element of a marketing communications
program, but it is usually not the only one—or even the most important one—
for sales and building brand and customer equity.
B. Marketing communications mix consists of eight major modes of
communication:
i. Advertising—Any paid form of nonpersonal presentation and
promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor via
print media (newspapers and magazines), broadcast media (radio and
television), network media (telephone, cable, satellite, wireless),
electronic media (audiotape, videotape, videodisk, CD-ROM, Web
page), and display media (billboards, signs, posters).
