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Chapter 15
Markeng Communicaons
This chapter begins with the learning outcome summaries followed by a set of lesson plans for
instructors to use to deliver the content.
Lecture (for large sections) on page 4
Company Clips (video) on page 5
Group Work (for smaller sections) on page 8
Review and Assignments begin on page 10
Review questions
Application questions
Application exercise
Ethics exercise
Video assignment
Case assignment
Great Ideas for Teaching Marketing from faculty around the country begin on page 26
Learning Outcomes
15-1 Discuss the role of promotion in the marketing mix
Promotional strategy is the plan for using the elements of promotion—advertising, public
relations, sales promotion, personal selling, and social media—to meet the firm’s overall
objectives and marketing goals. Based on these objectives, the elements of the promotional
strategy become a coordinated promotion plan. The promotion plan then becomes an integral
part of the total marketing strategy for reaching the target market. A competitive advantage is the
set of unique features of a company and its products that are perceived by the target market as
significant and superior to those of the competition.
15-2 Describe the communication process
When an individual or organization has a message it wishes to convey to a target audience, it
encodes that message using language and symbols familiar to the intended receiver and sends the
message through a channel of communication. Transmission of a message requires a channel—a
voice, radio, newspaper, computer, smartphone, or other communication medium. Reception
occurs if the message falls within the receiver’s frame of reference. The receiver decodes the
message and usually provides feedback to the source. Normally, feedback is direct for
interpersonal communication and indirect for mass communication. The Internet and social
media have increased the amount of feedback received by marketers: consumers are now able to
become senders, and marketers can personalize the feedback channel by initiating direct
conversations with customers.
15-3 Explain the goals and tasks of promotion
The fundamental goals of promotion are to induce, modify, or reinforce behavior by informing,
persuading, and reminding. Informative promotion explains a good’s or service’s purpose and
benefits. Promotion that informs the consumer is typically used to increase the demand for a
general product category or to introduce a new good or service. Persuasive promotion is
designed to stimulate a purchase or an action. Promotion that persuades the consumer to buy is
essential during the growth stage of the product life cycle, when competition becomes fierce.
Reminder promotion is used to keep the product and brand name in the public’s mind.
Promotions that remind are generally used during the maturity stage of the product life cycle.
Connection promotion is designed to form relationships with customers and potential customers
using social media. Connecting encourages customers to become brand advocates and share their
experiences via social media.
15-4 Discuss the elements of the promotional mix
The elements of the promotional mix include advertising, public relations, sales promotion,
personal selling, and social media. Advertising is a form of impersonal, one-way mass
communication paid for by the source. Public relations is the function of promotion concerned
with a firm’s public image. Sales promotion is typically used to back up other components of the
promotional mix by stimulating immediate demand. Personal selling is a purchase situation
involving a personal, paid-for communication between two people in an attempt to influence
each other. In this dyad, both the buyer and the seller have specific objectives they wish to
accomplish. Social media are promotion tools used to facilitate conversations among people
online. Finally, paid media is based on the traditional advertising model, whereby a brand pays
for media space.
15-5 Discuss the AIDA concept and its relationship to the promotional mix
The AIDA model outlines the four basic stages in the purchase decision-making process, which
are initiated and propelled by promotional activities: (1) attention, (2) interest, (3) desire, and (4)
action. This model proposes that consumers respond to marketing messages in a cognitive
(thinking), affective (feeling), and conative (doing) sequence. It shows that although advertising
does have an impact in the later stages, it is most useful in gaining attention for goods or
services. A purchase can occur without interest or desire perhaps when a low-involvement
product is bought on impulse. Personal selling is most effective in developing customer interest
and desire.
15-6 Discuss the concept of integrated marketing communications
Integrated marketing communications is the careful coordination of all promotional messages for
a product or service to ensure the consistency of messages at every contact point where a
company meets the consumer—advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, public relations,
and social media, as well as direct marketing, packaging, and other forms of communication. The
most common rift typically occurs between personal selling and the other elements of the
promotional mix. Integrated marketing communications has received more attention in recent
years due to the proliferation of media choices, the fragmentation of mass markets into more
segmented niches, and the decrease in advertising spending in favor of promotional techniques
that generate an immediate sales response.
15-7 Describe the factors that affect the promotional mix
Promotion managers consider many factors when creating promotional mixes. These factors
include the nature of the product, product life cycle stage, target market characteristics, the type
of buying decision involved, availability of funds, and feasibility of push or pull strategies. As
products move through different stages of the product life cycle, marketers will choose to use
different promotional elements. Characteristics of the target market, such as the geographic
location of potential buyers and brand loyalty, influence the promotional mix as does whether the
buying decision is complex or routine The amount of funds a firm has to allocate to promotion
may also help determine the promotional mix. Last, if a firm uses a push strategy to promote the
product or service, the marketing manager might choose to use aggressive advertising and
personal selling to wholesalers and retailers. At the other extreme is a pull strategy, which
stimulates consumer demand to obtain product distribution.
Key Terms
Integrated marketing
communications (IMC)
Promotional mix
AIDA concept Promotional strategy
Channel Interpersonal communication Publicity
Mass communication Public relations
Competitive advantage Noise Pull strategy
Decoding Owned media Push strategy
Encoding Paid media Receiver
Earned media Personal selling Sales promotion
Feedback Sender
Lesson Plan for Lecture
Suggested Homework
The end of this chapter contains assignments for the Pepe’s Pizzeria video and for the Coors
Light case.
This chapter’s online study tools include flashcards, visual summaries, practice quizzes, and
other resources that can be assigned or used as the basis for longer investigations into
marketing.
Lesson Plan for Video
Company Clips
Segment Summary: Pepe’s Pizzeria
Pepe’s Pizzeria is a popular restaurant located in Connecticut. The CEO discusses the thought
process behind their marketing strategy, how promotions work for Pepe’s and the general
location strategy that comes into play when opening new locations.
These teaching notes combine activities that you can assign students to prepare before class, that
you can do in class before watching the video, that you can do in class while watching the video,
and that you can assign students to complete as assignments after watching the video in class.
During the viewing portion of the teaching notes, stop the video periodically where appropriate
to ask students the questions or perform the activities listed on the grid. You may even want to
give the students the questions before starting the video and have them think about the answers
while viewing the segment. That way, students will be engaged in active viewing rather than
passive viewing.
Pre-class Prep for You Pre-class Prep for Your Students
Preview the Company Clips video segment
for Chapter 15. This exercise reviews
concepts for LO1–LO7.
Review your lesson plan.
Stream the video HERE
Have students review and familiarize
themselves with the following terms and
concepts: competitive advantage, elements of
the promotional mix, the communication
process, the goals and tasks of promotion, the
AIDA concept, factors that affect the
marketing mix, and integrated marketing
communications.
Have students bring written definitions of
three of the above terms to class.
Ask students to monitor their mail (or a
friend’s mail) for two weeks. Have them
collect all the mail that pertains to restaurants
in those two weeks and bring it to class.
Video Review Exercise
Activity
Warm-up
Briefly discuss students’ findings. What types of restaurants are sending out
mailers? Are they national chains, local chains, independent restaurants, delivery
only, dine-in promotions? Ask students about their restaurant dining habits: How
often do they dine in? Carry out/eat delivered food? Have them classify the types
of restaurants they eat at in an average month. Based on the results, discuss
student perceptions on the mailers they brought in and why they do/don’t eat
there.
In-class
Preview
Remind students about the elements of promotion while you Exhibit 15.1 (the
role of promotion in the marketing mix) onto the board.
Discuss Exhibit 15.1, Role of Promotion in the Marketing Mix. Point out that
promotion does not simply refer to advertising, but the whole of an
organization’s communication strategy.
Discuss Exhibit 15.2, Communication Process. Select either a mailer brought
in by a student or a promotion for a well-known product to use as an example,
and discuss how noise can adversely affect the desired effect of a message.
Also, note that marketers are increasingly relying on individual consumer
feedback to adjust their marketing mixes.
Have copies of the Company Clips questions available for students to take
notes on while viewing the video segment.
Viewing
(Solutions
below)
1. What are the goals for Pepe’s promotions? Explain your reasoning.
2. Discuss how the factors that affect the promotional mix affect how Pepe’s
promotes its various locations.
Follow-up
In class, divide students into groups of three to five students and have them
prepare a short report on how Pepe’s Pizzeria integrates its marketing
communications.
Solutions for Viewing Activities
1. What are the goals for Pepe’s promotions? Explain your reasoning.
Students answers will vary. They could address how Pepe’s integrates its atmosphere into ʼ
all its stores to remind customers of the quality of pizza they received in the original
location. They could discuss the use of the pizza box promotion to inform customers of the
new location. The free pizza and the good neighbor programs are persuasive tactics to
persuade people to continue to patronize Pepe’s. Direct mailers and billboards can be
argued for reminder promotion or persuasive promotion. Social media and the good
neighbor program are also part of the connecting goal for promotion.
2. Discuss how the factors that affect the promotional mix affect how Pepe’s promotes its
various locations.
Students answers will vary. The following are some possible answers for each of the ʼ
factors affecting the promotional mix.
Nature of the product: Pepe’s is a consumable product and is restricted to areas where
customers can come eat in or pick up their pizza. It is viewed as a consumer product, but
could also be used by businesses. The main form of promotion is advertising, rather than
personal selling.
Stage in product life cycle (PLC): Pepe’s is in the pizza industry, which is in the maturity
stage. There are many, many competitors, and how Pepe’s differentiates itself from
competitors will be key to its success. For this, Pepe’s uses billboards and mailers to
remind customers that they enjoy the unique aspects of Pepe’s over national pizza chains.
The free pizza week at new Pepe’s also differentiates it from other pizza places through
confidence in the product.
Target market characteristics: Pepe’s is limited to the areas where it has a restaurant, which
are specific towns primarily in Connecticut, and this is the reason why local mailers and
billboards work well for Pepe’s.
Type of buying decisions: This depends on the customer. For regular pizza eaters, this is a
routine decision. For people who rarely eat out, it may require more information. Either
way, reminder promotions work well, such as mailers and billboards.
Funds for promotion: Pepe’s is a small organization, so maintaining lower cost promotions
fits their budget better and makes sense with the localized nature of the restaurant.
Push/pull strategy: As with most restaurants, Pepe’s uses a pull strategy to some extent.
Driving customers to the restaurant through mailers and other reminder promotions is how
Pepe’s sells pizza.
Lesson Plan for Group Work
In most cases, group activities should be completed after some chapter content has been covered,
probably in the second or third session of the chapter coverage. (See “Lesson Plan for Lecture”
above.)
For “Class Activity: Promotional Mix,” provide the information and the questions asked by
the class activities.
The first Application Exercise is extremely well suited to group work. Form students into
teams of no more than four. Each team must create a print advertisement for a given
product without using a set of words generally used in association with the product. This is
a variation on the Hasbro game Taboo. Full information on setting up the exercise can be
found later in this manual.
Class Activity: Promotional Mix
The purpose of this exercise is to emphasize the effect of various factors on the strategy of
choosing a promotional mix. The main factors that affect the promotional mix can be classified
into three major categories: (1) product related, (2) market related, and (3) organization related.
Product-related factors include product type, product costs and risks, product life cycle stage, and
amount and complexity of product information. Market-related considerations are target market
characteristics and the type of buying decision involved. Organization-related factors are the
availability of funds and feasibility of a push or a pull strategy.
Divide the class into teams and give each team one of the following situation descriptions:
Situation 1
Consumer durable product that is slightly complex
Introductory stage of product life cycle
Selective distribution
Large firm
Highly concentrated market (in large urban areas only)
Situation 2
Convenience item
Growth stage of product life cycle
Intensive distribution
Small firm
Non-concentrated, large market
Situation 3
Industrial product that is large, complex, and expensive
Introductory stage of product life cycle
Small company (few available funds)
Small market, highly dispersed
Situation 4
Consumer food item
Mature stage of product life cycle
Intensive distribution
Large company
Non-concentrated market
Each team should present a plan that outlines the promotion ingredients to be used and the
relative importance of each element in the promotional mix. The team should be able to explain
which factors were most important and how the team arrived at its decisions.
