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CHAPTER 13
ADVERTISING, PROMOTION, AND SALES
Chapter Outline
A. The Marketing Communications Process
B. Planning Promotional Campaigns
1. The Target Audience
C. Other Promotional Elements
1. Personal Selling
2. Direct Marketing
Chapter Objectives
The chapter discusses the message channel in which the message moves from the sender to the
receiver and then back to the sender. It also focuses on how to manage the different elements of a
Suggestions for Teaching
This chapter is usually the one students show the most interest in due to the appeal of promotion
in general and increasing exposure to foreign creative work. Since advertisements are really an
excellent profile of a culture (e.g., U.S. ads are more emotional, German ads practical, Japanese
A classroom discussion that concentrates on the tools of communication can be initiated.
Depending on the proficiency of the students (from other classes such as promotional strategy),
the instructor can concentrate on tools which may have a more prominent role in international
marketing than in the domestic counterpart; e.g., trade fairs. The instructor can assign
A. The Marketing Communications Process
Exhibit 13.1 illustrates the marketing communications process.
Effective communications requires three elements—the sender, the message, and the
receiver—connected by a message channel. Encoding the message simply means
converting it into a symbolic form that is properly understood by the receiver.
B. Planning Promotional Campaigns
1. The Target Audience
Global marketers face multiple audiences beyond customers. The expectations of
these audiences have to be researched to ensure the appropriateness of campaign
decision making.
2. Campaign Objectives
Campaign objectives can be divided into overall global and regional objectives as
well as local objectives. The objectives that are set at the local level are more specific
and set measurable targets for individual markets. These objectives may be product-
3. The Budget
The promotional budget links established objectives with media, message, and
control decisions. Ideally, the budget would be set as a response to the objectives to
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4. Media Strategy
• Media Availability
Exhibit 13.4 summarizes the media available to the international marketer in
major ad markets.
Media spending, which totaled $464 billion in 2011, varies dramatically
around the world. Media spending varies by market. The amount devoted to
television, print, outdoor, and transit advertising varies from country to
challenging.
• Product Influences
Marketers and advertising agencies are currently frustrated by wildly
differing restrictions on how products can be advertised. Agencies often have
Beyond the traditional media, the international marketer may also consider
product placement in movies, TV shows, videogames, or Internet sites.
Although there is disagreement about the effectiveness of the method beyond
creating brand awareness, products from makers such as BMW, Omega,
Nokia, and Heineken have been placed in movies to help both parties to the
media strategist would need data on (1) media distribution, that is, the
number of copies of the print medium or the number of sets for broadcast; (2)
media audiences; and (3) advertising exposure.
• Global Media
Global media vehicles have been developed that have target audiences on at
5. The Promotional Message
Developing the promotional message is referred to as creative strategy. The marketer
must determine what the consumer is really buying—that is, the consumer’s
motivations. These will vary depending on:
• The diffusion of the product, service, or concept into the market.
6. The Campaign Approach
In the organization of promotional efforts, a company has two basic decisions to
make: (1) what type of outside services to use and (2) how to establish decision–
making authority for promotional efforts.
• Outside Services
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Exhibit 13.8 provides a list of the world’s top 25 agencies and agency
groups.
Agencies form world groups for better coverage. Smaller advertising
Advertising agencies have gone through major geographic expansion in the
last five years. New markets are also emerging, and agencies are establishing
their presence in them.
The main concern arising from the use of mega-agencies is conflict. With
only a few giant agencies to choose from, the global marketer may end up
with the same agency as its main competitor.
Despite the globalization trend, local agencies will survive as a result of
The important question is not who should make decisions but how
advertising quality can be improved at the local level. Gaining approval in
multinational corporations is an interactive approach using coordinated
decentralization.
7. Measurement of Advertising Effectiveness
Measures of advertising effectiveness should range from pretesting of copy appeal
and recognition, to posttesting of recognition, all the way to measuring sales effects.
The measures most used are sales, awareness, recall, executive judgment, intention to
buy, and profitability, regardless of the medium used.
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1. Personal Selling
Personal selling involves direct relations between the seller and the prospective buyer
or customer. It can be defined as a two-way flow of communication between a
potential buyer and a salesperson and is designed to accomplish at least three tasks:
(1) identify the buyer’s needs; (2) match these needs to one or more of the firm’s
products; and (3) on the basis of this match, convince the buyer to purchase the
product.
Personal selling is the most effective of the promotional tools available to the
marketer; however, its costs per contact are high.
• Indirect Exports
• Direct Exports
At some stage, the exporter may find it necessary to establish direct contact
with the target market(s), although the ultimate customer contact is still
handled by locally based intermediaries, such as agents or distributors.
Communication with intermediaries must ensure both that they are satisfied
with the arrangement and that they are equipped to market and promote the
• Integrated Solutions
The final stage of globalization involves either a sales office in the target
market or a direct contact with the buyer from home base. This is part of the
exporter’s perceived need for increased customer relationship management,
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where the sales effort is linked to call-center technologies, customer-service
departments, and the company’s website.
2. Direct Marketing
The purpose of direct marketing is to establish a relationship with a customer in order
to initiate immediate and measurable responses.
The Internet connects users of all types all around the world to each other and
contains an amazingly large information repository. It offers five main advantages:
First, it allows the company to increase its presence in the marketplace and to
communicate its overall mission and information about its marketing mix. Second,
3. Sales Promotion
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Sales promotion has been used as the catch-all term for promotion that does not fall
under advertising, personal selling, or publicity. Sales promotion directed at
consumers involves such activities as couponing, sampling, premiums, consumer
education and demonstration activities, cents-off packs, point-of-purchase materials,
4. Trade Shows and Missions
A trade show is an event at which manufacturers, distributors, and other vendors
display their products or describe their services to current and prospective customers,
suppliers, other business associates, and the press. In the consumer goods area,
expositions are the most common type of show.
Whether an exporter should participate in a trade show depends largely on the type of
business relationship it wants to develop with a particular country. Some of the
arguments why exporters should participate in a trade show are:
• Trade fairs provide an excellent opportunity to introduce, promote, and
The following are among the reasons cited for nonparticipation in trade fairs:
• High costs. An exporter can also lower costs by sharing expenses with
distributors or representatives.
5. Public Relations
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6. Internal Public Relations
Especially in multinational corporations, internal communication is important to
create an appropriate corporate culture. A basic part of most internal programs is the
employee publication produced and edited typically by the company’s public
relations or advertising department and usually provided in both hard-copy and
electronic formats.
• External Public Relations
External public relations is focused on the interactions with customers. In the
proactive context, marketers are concerned about establishing global
Crisis management is becoming more formalized in companies, with
specially assigned task forces ready to step in if problems arise. Crisis
management policies should have the following traits: (1) openness about
With growing and evolving interactive technology, consumers can find or
initiate topics of interest on the Web and engage in online discussions that
strongly affect their and others’ views. This new form of communication,
consumer-generated media (CGM), is growing at 30 percent per year. To
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7. Sponsorship Marketing
Sponsorship involves the marketer’s investment in events or causes. Sponsorship
funds worldwide are directed for the most part at sports events (both individual and
The challenge is that an event may become embroiled in controversy, thus hurting the
sponsors’ images as well. Furthermore, in light of the high expense of sponsorship,
marketers worry about ambush marketing by competitors. Ambush marketing is the
use of an event without the permission of the event owner.
First-party certification is the most common variety, whereby a single firm develops
Key Terms
Encoding: The process by which the sender converts a message into symbolic form that will be
properly understood by the receiver.
Decoding: The process by which the receiver of a message transforms “encoded” messages from
symbols into thought.
Cause-related marketing: Marketing that links a company or brand with a cause, such as
environmental protection or children’s health.
Corporate image advertising: An umbrella marketing campaign used by multidivisional
companies either to boost the image of lesser-known product lines or to make the company itself
be correctly understood or perceived more positively; used by companies to support their
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Customer relationship management: Exporter’s strategy to increase perceived attention to the
foreign customer through call-center technologies, customer service departments, and the
company’s website.
Database marketing: A promotional tool combining telemarketing with data on the purchasing
habits of a customer; allows the creation of an individual relationship with each customer or
prospect.
Social networking service: Promotional strategies in a targeted market relying primarily on
1. For over 30 years, wildlife rescuers have used Dawn dishwashing liquid to gently remove oil
and help save wildlife affected by oil spills. Everyday Wildlife Champions’ Facebook page
lets you chose your own unique way to help. What do you care about?
2. Mobile phone users worldwide are projected to be 4.85 billion by 2015. Suggest features
(e.g., GPS and social networking are most valued).
Students’ answers will vary. Some features that may be most valued by customers are:
o GPS
3. What type of adjustments must advertising agencies make as more companies want “one
sight, one sound, one sell” campaigns?
The choice of an advertising agency will largely depend on the quality of coverage the
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4. Assess the programmed management approach for coordinating global advertising efforts.
The programmed management approach for coordinating global advertising efforts is an
iterative and interactive process of developing campaigns as can be seen from Exhibit 13.9.
5. Some exporters report that they value above all the broad exposure afforded through
exhibiting at a trade show, regardless of whether they are able to sell directly at the event.
Comment on this philosophy.
Marketers participate in trade shows for several reasons, including broad exposure,
6. What is the role of community relations for a global marketer? How can the marketer treat
even the antiglobals as customers?
The role of community relations for a global marketer is to ensure that the most
effective advertising campaign is utilized, rather than one global campaign. Marketers
1. Working with its Asian American advertising agency, Toyota has built an integrated
marketing campaign that includes TV, print, out-of-home, digital, and social media,
primarily targeted to the Asian American market. Not only are commercials in English, but
2. The global advertising industry has experienced significant consolidation, with a few giant
communications companies owning most of the major advertising, branding, public
relations, digital marketing, marketing research, and other marketing services agencies. Visit
the websites of the four largest communications groups, www.wpp.com,