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p. 432
PPT 14-17
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PPT 14-18
PPT 14-19
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PPT 14-20
STEPS IN DEVELOPING EFFECTIVE MARKETING
COMMUNICATION
There are several steps in developing an effective integrated
communications and promotion program.
Identifying the Target Audience
A marketing communicator starts with a clear target audience in
mind. The audience may be potential buyers or current users,
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.
Determining the Communication Objectives
Once the target audience has been defined, the marketing
communicator must decide what response is sought. 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, the
stages consumers normally pass through on their way to making a
purchase. (See Figure 14.3)
The communicator must first build awareness and knowledge.
Assuming target consumers know about the product, how do they
feel about it? These stages include liking (feeling favorable about
the product), preference (preferring it to other brands), and
conviction (believing that the product is best for them).
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.
Actions might include offering special promotional prices,
rebates, or premiums.
Designing a Message
Having defined the desired audience response, the communicator
turns to developing an effective message.
The message should get attention, hold interest, arouse desire,
and obtain action (a framework known as the AIDA model).
In putting the message together, the marketing communicator
must decide what to say (message content) and how to say it
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Key Term:
Buyer-readiness
stages
p. 432
Figure 14.3:
Buyer-Readiness
Stages
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Ad: General Mills
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PPT 14-21
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PPT 14-22
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(message structure and format).
Message Content
The communicator has to figure out an appeal or theme that will
produce the desired response. There are three types of appeals.
1. Rational appeals relate to the audience’s self-interest.
They show that the product will produce the desired
benefits.
2. Emotional appeals attempt to stir up either negative or
positive emotions that can motivate a purchase.
Communicators may use positive emotional appeals such
as love, pride, joy, and humor. Communicators can also
use negative emotional appeals, such as fear, guilt, and
shame that get people to do things they should or to stop
doing things they shouldn’t.
3. Moral appeals are directed to the 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, better race relations, equal rights for
women, and aid to the disadvantaged.
Message Structure
The communicator must also decide how to handle three message
structure issues.
1. The first is whether to draw a conclusion or leave it to the
audience. Recent 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.
2. The second message structure issue is whether to present
the strongest arguments first or last. Presenting them first
gets strong attention but may lead to an anticlimactic
ending.
3. The third message structure issue is 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).
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 color. To attract attention, advertisers use
novelty and contrast; eye-catching pictures and headlines;
distinctive formats; message size and position; and color, shape, p. 435
and movement.
If a message is to be carried over the radio, the communicator has
to choose words, sounds, and voices.
If the message is to be carried on television or in person, then all
these elements plus body language have to be planned. Presenters
plan their facial expressions, gestures, dress, posture, and
hairstyles.
If the message is carried on the product or its package, the
communicator has to watch texture, scent, color, size, and shape.
Ad: Reese’s
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PPT 14-23
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PPT 14-24
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Choosing Communication Channels and Media
The communicator now must select channels of communication.
There are two broad types of communication channels: personal
and nonpersonal.
Personal Communication Channels
In personal communication channels, two or more people
communicate directly with each other.
Some personal communication channels are controlled directly
by the company. For example, company salespeople contact
buyers in the target market. But other personal communications
about the product may reach buyers through channels not directly
controlled by the company. Word-of-mouth influence has
considerable effect in many areas.
Companies can take steps to put personal communication
channels to work for them.
They can create marketing programs that will generate favorable
word-of-mouth communications about their brands.
Companies can create opinion leaders—people whose opinions
are sought by others—by supplying influencers with the product
on attractive terms or by educating them so that they can inform
others.
Buzz marketing involves cultivating opinion leaders and getting
them to spread information about a product or service to others in
their communities.
Nonpersonal Communication Channels
Nonpersonal communication channels are media that carry
messages without personal contact or feedback.
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Key Term: Personal
communication
channels
p. 435
Key Terms:
Word-of-mouth
influence, Buzz
marketing
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Ad: BzzAgent
PPT 14-25
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PPT 14-26
PPT 14-27
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PPT 14-28
Major media include print media, broadcast media, display
media, and online media.
Atmospheres are designed environments that create or reinforce
the buyer’s leanings toward buying a product.
Events are staged occurrences that communicate messages to
target audiences.
Nonpersonal communication affects buyers directly.
Communications first flow from television, magazines, and other
mass media to opinion leaders and then from these opinion
leaders to others. Thus, opinion leaders step between the mass
media and their audiences and carry messages to people who are
less exposed to media.
Selecting the Message Source
The message’s impact on the target audience is also affected by
how the audience views the communicator. Messages delivered
by highly credible sources are more persuasive.
Marketers often hire celebrity endorsers to deliver their message.
But companies must be careful when selecting celebrities to
represent their brands.
Collecting Feedback
After sending the message, the communicator must research its
effect on the target audience. This involves asking the target
audience members whether they remember the message, how
many times they saw it, what points they recall, how they felt
about the message, and their past and present attitudes toward the
product and company.
The communicator would also like to measure behavior resulting
from the message—how many people bought a 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.
Review Learning Objective 3: Outline the communication
process and the steps in developing effective marketing
communications.
p. 436
Key Term:
Nonpersonal
communication
channels
Assignments, Resources
Use Discussion Question 14-4 here
Use Video Case here
Use Real Marketing 14.2 here
Use Critical Thinking Exercise 14-7 here
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PPT 14-29
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PPT 14-30
p. 438
Explain the methods for setting the promotion budget and
factors that affect the design of the promotion mix.
SETTING THE TOTAL PROMOTION BUDGET AND MIX
How does the company decide on the total promotion budget and
its division among the major promotional tools to create the
promotion mix?
Setting the Total Promotion Budget
One of the hardest marketing decisions facing a company is how
much to spend on promotion. We look at four common methods
used to set the total budget for advertising.
Affordable Method
Some companies use the affordable method—they set the
promotion budget at the level they think the company can afford.
Small businesses often use this method, reasoning that the
company cannot spend more on advertising than it has.
Unfortunately, this method of setting budgets completely ignores
the effects of promotion on sales. It tends to place advertising last
among spending priorities, even in situations in which advertising
is critical to the firm’s success.
It leads to an uncertain annual promotion budget that makes
long-range market planning difficult. Although the affordable
method can result in overspending on advertising, it more often
results in underspending.
Percentage-of-Sales Method
Other companies use the percentage-of-sales method, setting
their promotion budget at a certain percentage of current or
forecasted sales. Or, they budget a percentage of the unit sales
price.
The percentage-of-sales method has advantages.
It is simple to use.
It helps management think about the relationship between
promotion spending, selling price, and profit per unit.
However, it wrongly views sales as the cause of promotion rather
than the result.
Learning Objective 4
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Key Term: Affordable
Method
p. 438
Key Term:
Percentage-of-Sales
Method
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Ad: Coca-Cola
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PPT 14-31
p. 438
The percentage-of-sales budget is based on availability of funds
rather than on opportunities. It may prevent the increased
spending sometimes needed to turn around falling sales. Because
the budget varies with year-to-year sales, long-range planning is
difficult.
Finally, the method does not provide any basis for choosing a
specific percentage, except what has been done in the past or
what competitors are doing.
Competitive-Parity Method
Other companies use the competitive-parity method, setting
their promotion budgets 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.
Two arguments support this method:
1. Competitor’s budgets represent the collective wisdom of
the industry.
2. Spending what competitors spend helps prevent
promotion wars.
Unfortunately, neither argument is valid. There are no grounds
for believing that the competition has a better idea of what the
company should be spending on promotion than does the
company itself.
Companies differ greatly, and each has its own special promotion
needs. Finally, there is no evidence that budgets based on
competitive parity prevent promotion wars.
Objective-and-Task Method
The most logical budget-setting method is the
objective-and-task method, whereby the company sets its
promotion budget based on what it wants to accomplish with
promotion.
This budgeting method entails:
1. Defining specific promotion objectives
2. Determining the tasks needed to achieve these objectives
3. Estimating the costs of performing these tasks
The sum of these costs is the proposed promotion budget.
The advantage of the objective-and-task method is that it forces
management to define its assumptions about the relationship
between dollars spent and promotion results. But it also is the
p. 438
Key Term:
Competitive-parity
method
p. 438
Key Term:
Objective-and-task
method
most difficult method to use. Often, it is hard to figure out which
specific tasks will achieve stated objectives.
Assignments, Resources
Use Discussion Question 14-5 here
Use Marketing by the Numbers here
Use Think-Pair-Share 5 here
Troubleshooting Tip
Some students have difficulty remembering the four
budget methods suggested in the text. It makes for an
interesting discussion to have the accounting or finance
majors discuss each method as an accountant or financial
advisor would. Which method would they prefer? Why?
p. 439
PPT 14-32
PPT 14-33
p. 439
p. 440
Shaping the Overall Promotion Mix
The IMC concept 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.
The Nature of Each Promotion Tool
Each promotion tool has unique characteristics and costs.
Marketers must understand these characteristics in selecting their
mix of tools.
Advertising can reach masses of geographically dispersed buyers
at a low cost per exposure, and it enables the seller to repeat the
message many times.
Beyond its reach, large-scale advertising says something positive
about the seller’s size, popularity, and success. Because of
advertising’s public nature, consumers tend to view advertised
products as more legitimate.
Advertising also has some shortcomings. Although it reaches
many people quickly, advertising is impersonal and cannot be as
directly persuasive as can company salespeople. For the most
part, advertising can only carry on a one-way communication
with the audience, and the audience does not feel that it has to
pay attention or respond. In addition, advertising can be very
costly.
Personal selling is the most effective tool at certain stages of the
buying process, particularly in building up buyers’ preferences,
convictions, and actions.
The effective salesperson keeps the customer’s interests at heart
in order to build a long-term relationship. Finally, with personal
selling, the buyer usually feels a greater need to listen and
respond, even if the response is a polite “No thank you.”
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Ad: Supercell
PPT 14-34
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p. 440
These unique qualities come at a cost, however. A sales force
requires a longer-term commitment than does advertising—
advertising can be turned on and off, but sales force size is harder
to change. Personal selling is also the company’s most expensive
promotion tool.
U.S. firms spend up to three times as much on personal selling as
they do on advertising.
Sales promotion includes a wide assortment of tools—coupons,
contests, cents-off deals, premiums, and others—all of which
have many unique qualities.
They attract consumer attention, offer strong incentives to
purchase, and can be used to dramatize product offers and to
boost sagging sales.
Sales promotions invite and reward quick response. However,
their effects are often short-lived.
Public relations is very believable—news stories, features,
sponsorships, and events seem more real and believable to
readers than ads do.
Public relations can reach many prospects that avoid salespeople
and advertisements—the message gets to the buyers as “news”
rather than as a sales-directed communication.
Marketers tend to underuse public relations or to use it as an
afterthought.
Direct and digital marketing has four distinctive characteristics:
1. Direct marketing is less public: The message is normally
directed to a specific person.
2. Direct marketing is immediate and customized: Messages
can be prepared very quickly and can be tailored to
appeal to specific consumers.
3. 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 marketing is well suited to highly targeted marketing
efforts and to building one-to-one customer relationships.
Promotion Mix Strategies
Marketers can choose from two basic promotion mix strategies.
Figure 14.4 contrasts the two strategies.
p. 440
PPT 14-35
p. 441
A push strategy involves “pushing” the product through
distribution channels to final consumers. The producer directs its
marketing activities (primarily personal selling and trade
promotions) toward channel members to induce them to carry the
product and to promote it to final consumers.
Using a pull strategy, the producer directs its marketing
activities (primarily advertising and consumer promotion) toward
final consumers to induce them to buy the product.
If the pull strategy is effective, consumers will then demand the
product from channel members, who will in turn demand it from
producers. Thus, under a pull strategy, consumer demand “pulls”
the product through the channels.
Most large companies use some combination of both.
Companies consider many factors when designing their
promotion mix strategies, including type of product and market.
For example, the importance of different promotion tools varies
between consumer and business markets.
Business-to-consumer (B-to-C) companies usually “pull” more,
putting more of their funds into advertising, followed by sales
promotion, personal selling, and then public relations.
In contrast, business-to-business (B-to-B) marketers tend to
“push” more, putting more of their funds into personal selling,
followed by sales promotion, advertising, and public relations.
Key Terms: Push
strategy, Pull strategy
p. 441
Figure 14.4: Push
versus Pull Promotion
Strategy
Assignments, Resources
Use Critical Thinking Question 14-6 here
Use Online, Mobile, and Social Media Marketing here
Use Additional Project 5 here
Use Individual Assignment 2 here
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PPT 14-36
p. 441
Integrating the Promotion Mix
Having set the promotion budget and mix, the company must
now take steps to see that all of the promotion mix elements are
smoothly integrated.
Integrating the promotion mix starts with customers. Whether it’s
advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, PR, or direct
marketing, communications at each customer touchpoint must
deliver consistent messages and positioning.
An integrated promotion mix maximizes the combined effects of
all a firm’s promotional efforts.
SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE MARKETING
COMMUNICATION
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PPT 14-37
p. 442
PPT 14-38
In shaping its promotion mix, a company must be aware of the
large body of legal and ethical issues surrounding marketing
communications.
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.
Sellers must avoid bait-and-switch advertising that attracts buyers
under false pretenses.
A company’s trade promotion activities are also closely regulated.
For example, under the Robinson-Patman Act, sellers cannot
favor certain customers through their use of trade promotions.
They must make promotional allowances and services available
to all resellers on proportionately equal terms.
Companies can use advertising and other forms of promotion to
encourage and promote socially responsible programs and
actions.
Personal Selling
A company’s salespeople must follow the rules of “fair
competition.” Most states have enacted deceptive sales acts that
spell out what is not allowed.
For example, salespeople may not lie to consumers or mislead
them about the advantages of buying a product. To avoid
bait-and-switch practices, salespeople’s statements must match
advertising claims.
Different rules apply to consumers who are called on at home
versus those who go to a store in search of a product.
Because people called on at home may be taken by surprise and
may be especially vulnerable to high-pressure selling techniques,
the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has adopted a three-day,
cooling-off rule to give special protection to customers who are
not seeking products.
Much personal selling involves business-to-business trade. In
selling to businesses, salespeople may not offer bribes to
purchasing agents or to others who can influence a sale. They
may not obtain or use technical or trade secrets of competitors
through bribery or industrial espionage. Finally, salespeople must
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Ad: Made w/Code
not disparage competitors or competing products by suggesting
things that are not true.
Review Learning Objective 4: Explain the methods for setting
the promotion budget and factors that affect the design of the
promotion mix.
Assignments, Resources
Use Critical Thinking Exercise 14-8 here
Use Marketing Ethics here
Use Company Case here
Use Think-Pair-Share 6 here
Use Outside Example 2 here
Troubleshooting Tip
The last area within the chapter that needs special
attention is found in the section on Integrating the
Promotion Mix. This is a new concept to most students.
Carefully explain the points and ask for demonstration of
understanding on the part of the students.
