Marketing Chapter 17 Integrated Marketing Communications Teaching Resources Quick

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CHAPTER 17

Integrated Marketing Communications

TEACHING RESOURCES QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE

Resource

Location

Purpose and Perspective

IRM, p. 376

Lecture Outline

IRM, p. 377

Discussion Starters

IRM, p. 386

Class Exercises

IRM, p. 387

Chapter Quiz

IRM, p. 389

Semester Project

IRM, p. 390

PURPOSE AND PERSPECTIVE

This chapter is the first of three dealing with promotion decisions and activities. Its primary objective is to

give students an overview of promotion and integrated marketing communications. First, we show how

integrated marketing communications (IMC) provides the maximum informational and persuasive impact

on customers. Then, we examine the communication process. After that, we present a theoretical

Answers to Discussion and Review Questions

IRM, p. 391

Answers to Application Questions

IRM, p. 394

Answers to Internet Exercise

IRM, p. 395

Answers to Developing Your Marketing Plan

IRM, p. 396

Comments on the Cases

IRM, p. 397

Case 17.1

IRM, p. 397

Case 17.2

IRM, p. 398

Examination Questions: Essay

Testing CD

Examination Questions: Multiple-Choice

Testing CD

Examination Questions: True-False

Testing CD

PowerPoint Slides

Chapter 17: Integrated Marketing Communications 377

LECTURE OUTLINE

I. The Nature of Integrated Marketing Communications

A. Integrated marketing communications is the coordination of promotion and other marketing

efforts to ensure the maximum informational and persuasive impact on customers.

B. A major goal of IMC is to send a consistent message to customers.

C. IMC has been increasingly accepted for several reasons.

1. Mass media advertising is used less today than in the past because of high cost and

unpredictable audiences.

D. The specific communication vehicles employed and the precision with which they are used are

changing as both information technology and customer interests become increasingly dynamic.

E. Today, marketers and customers have nearly unlimited access to data. Integrating marketing

II. Promotion and the Communication Process

A. Communication is a sharing of meaning. Implicit in this definition is the notion of transmission

of information because sharing necessitates transmission.

B. As shown in Figure 17.1, communication begins with a source, which is a person, group, or

organization that has a meaning it attempts to share with an audience.

378 Chapter 17: Integrated Marketing Communications

E. To share an encoded message with a receiver or audience, a source selects and uses a

communication channel, which is the means of carrying the coded message. When a source

F. In the decoding process, signs or symbols are converted by the receiver into concepts and ideas.

1. The meaning that a receiver decodes is seldom exactly the same as the meaning the source

intended.

2. When the result of decoding differs from what was coded, noise exists. Noise is anything that

reduces a communication’s clarity and accuracy. It has many sources and may affect any or

all parts of the communication.

G. The receiver’s response to a message is feedback to the source.

1. During feedback, the receiver or audience provides the original source with a response to the

message. Thus, communication can be viewed as a circular process.

H. Each communication channel is limited on the volume of information it can effectively handle.

This limit, called channel capacity, is determined by the least efficient component of the

communication process.

III. The Role and Objectives of Promotion

A. Promotion is communication that builds and maintains favorable relationships by informing and

persuading one or more audiences to view an organization more positively and to accept its

products.

B. The overall role of promotion is to stimulate product demand and to build and enhance

relationships with current and potential customers.

Chapter 17: Integrated Marketing Communications 379

C. Although there are several objectives of promotion, these vary widely from one organization to

another and within organizations over time.

1. Create Awareness

a. For an organization introducing a new product or a line extension, making customers

2. Stimulate Demand

a. Primary demand is demand for a product category rather than for a specific brand of

product.

(1) Primary demand is stimulated through pioneer promotion, which informs potential

b. Selective demand is demand for a specific brand.

(1) Marketers employ promotional efforts which point out the strengths and benefits of a

3. Encourage Product Trial

a. Promotion activities are necessary to move customers through the product-adoption

4. Identify Prospects

a. Certain types of promotional efforts are directed at identifying customers who are

5. Retain Loyal Customers

a. Maintaining loyal customers is a major goal of most marketers.

380 Chapter 17: Integrated Marketing Communications

6. Facilitate Reseller Support

7. Combat Competitive Promotional Efforts

8. Reduce Sales Fluctuations

a. Demand for many products varies because of climate, holidays, or seasons.

b. Promotional techniques are often designed to stimulate sales during sales slumps or low-

demand periods.

IV. The Promotion Mix

A. When an organization combines specific methods to promote a particular product, that

combination constitutes the promotion mix for that product.

B. Advertising

1. Advertising is a paid, non-personal communication about an organization and its products

transmitted to a target audience through mass media, such as television, radio, the Internet,

4. Because advertising is highly flexible, it can reach a large target audience or focus on a small,

precisely defined segment.

5. Advertising offers several benefits.

a. It is extremely cost-efficient when it reaches a vast number of people at a low cost per

Chapter 17: Integrated Marketing Communications 381

a. Even though the cost per person reached may be low, the absolute dollar outlay can be

extremely high, thus limiting and sometimes preventing the use of advertising in a

promotion mix.

C. Personal Selling

1. Personal selling is a paid, personal communication that seeks to inform customers and

persuade them to purchase products in an exchange situation.

4. The salesperson can take advantage of several types of communication in addition to verbal

language.

a. Kinesic communication, or body language, includes movement of one’s head, eyes,

D. Public Relations

1. Public relations is a broad set of communication efforts used to create and maintain favorable

relationships between an organization and its stakeholders.

E. Sales Promotion

382 Chapter 17: Integrated Marketing Communications

1. Sales promotion is an activity or material that acts as a direct inducement offering added

value or incentive for the product to resellers, salespeople, or customers; examples include

free samples, games, rebates, sweepstakes, contests, premiums, and coupons.

V. Selecting Promotion Mix Elements

A. Marketers vary the compositions of promotion mixes for many reasons. A promotion mix can

include all four elements, but frequently a marketer selects fewer than four.

B. Promotional Resources, Objectives, and Policies

1. The size of an organization’s promotional budget affects the number and relative intensity of

promotional methods included in the promotion mix.

2. An organization’s promotional objectives and policies also influence the types of promotion

used.

(1) If a company’s objective is to create mass awareness of a new convenience good, its

promotion mix is likely to lean heavily toward advertising, sales promotion, and

C. Characteristics of the Target Market

1. The size, geographic distribution, and demographic characteristics of an organization’s target

market help dictate the ingredients to be included in a product’s promotion mix.

Chapter 17: Integrated Marketing Communications 383

D. Characteristics of the Product

1. Generally, promotion mixes for business products concentrate on personal selling, whereas

consumer goods promotion relies on advertising. However, this generalization should be

treated cautiously; producers of business products do use some advertising to promote goods.

2. Marketers of highly seasonal products may have to emphasize advertising and sales

4. The stage of the product life cycle affects marketers’ decisions regarding the promotion mix.

a. In the introduction stage, a considerable amount of advertising may be necessary for both

business and consumer products to create awareness.

advertising.

5. The intensity of market coverage at which a product is distributed may influence the

composition of its promotion mix.

a. When a product is marketed through intensive distribution, the firm depends heavily on

6. A product’s use can also affect the combination of promotional methods employed.

E. Costs and Availability of Promotional Methods

1. The costs of promotional methods and the availability of promotional techniques are major

F. Push and Pull Channel Policies

1. One element marketers should consider is whether to use a push policy or a pull policy.

384 Chapter 17: Integrated Marketing Communications

VI. The Growing Importance of Word-of-Mouth Communications

A. Depending on the type of customers and the products involved, buyers to some extent rely on

word-of-mouth communication from personal sources, such as family members and friends.

1. Word-of-mouth communication is personal informal exchanges of communication that

customers share with one another about products, brands, and companies.

2. Effective marketers understand the importance of word-of-mouth communication and attempt

to identify opinion leaders and encourage them to try their products in the hopes that they will

spread favorable comments about them.

B. In addition, customers are increasingly going online for information and opinions about goods

and services as well as about the companies.

1. Electronic word-of-mouth is communicating about products through websites, blogs, email,

or online forums.

2. Electronic word-of-mouth communication is considered particularly important for consumers

who wish to stay abreast of trends. Many websites set and report on trends and marketers

increasingly must cater to these sites in order to garner positive reviews.

3. An approach called buzz marketing is an attempt to incite publicity and public excitement

surrounding a product through a creative event.

C. Word-of-mouth, no matter how it is transmitted, is not effective in all product categories.

Chapter 17: Integrated Marketing Communications 385

1. It seems to be most effective for new-to-market and more expensive products.

VII. Product Placement

A. Product Placement is the strategic location of products or product promotions within

entertainment media content to reach the product’s target market.

VIII. Criticisms and Defenses of Promotion

A. A number of specific criticisms have been lodged against promotional activities.

B. Is Promotion Deceptive?

1. Although some promotion is deceptive or misleading, not all promotion should be

C. Does Promotion Increase Prices?

1. Promotion is often blamed for higher prices, but if promotion is working to stimulate

D. Does Promotion Create Needs?

1. Critics of promotion claim promotion manipulates consumers by persuading them to buy

E. Does Promotion Encourage Materialism?

1. Promotions are sometimes criticized for encouraging materialism.

F. Does Promotion Help Customers Without Costing Too Much?

1. Critics question whether promotion helps consumers enough to be worth the costs.

386 Chapter 17: Integrated Marketing Communications

DISCUSSION STARTERS

Discussion Starter 1: Selling You the Brand Using IMC

ASK: How could integrating marketing tools assist you in getting the job you want?

Integrated marketing forces managers to pay attention to all of the various communication channels

Discussion Starter 2: Web2.0 and Social Media

ASK: How many of you use Facebook or Google+ every day?

Given the increasing use of social media, such as Google+ and Facebook, marketing communication

ASK: Why are organizations that use social media as part of the IMC program cautioned to have “a

thick skin”?

Since these are interactive and open forums, marketers will hear both the good and the bad about the

Discussion Starter 3: Favorite Commercials

ASK: What are your favorite print ads or television commercials? What works well and why?

Pull up some of the ads on YouTube. Connect the examples with concepts from the promotion mix

Chapter 17: Integrated Marketing Communications 387

CLASS EXERCISES

Class Exercise 1: Increasing Promotion Mix Effectiveness

This exercise focuses on how components of the communication process influence the effectiveness of

the promotion mix. Pose the exercise questions after the following activity:

Bring a necktie to class for this exercise. Select a student volunteer who knows how to tie a necktie

properly. Select another volunteer who knows nothing about tying a necktie. Ask the volunteers to stand

back to back in front of the class. Give the tie to the second student, and ask the first student to explain

how to tie the tie. Occasionally, you’ll have students who can communicate the procedure, but generally

the second student is left wearing something less than a perfectly tied tie.

Prompt for students:

1. What promotion mix element was this communication process most like?

2. What problems did the source have with the coding process?

3. How did noise affect the decoding process?

4. How is feedback different in a personal selling situation versus using mass communications? What

are the pros and cons associated with each form?

5. How does channel capacity affect the ability to properly share meaning? Did the source (and other

sources of noise) exceed the receiver’s ability to effectively decode all information?

6. How might it have helped if the source had been able to use kinesic and tactile communication? How

might the receiver respond with proxemic communication?

Answers:

1. This is personal selling in that immediate feedback was available and the source was trying to inform

and persuade the receiver through personal communication.

Class Exercise 2: Classifying Promotions