LEARNING OBJECTIVES
In this chapter, we will address the following questions:
1. What are the pros and cons of online marketing?
2. How can companies carry out effective social media campaigns?
3. What are some tips for enjoying positive word of mouth?
4. What are important guidelines for mobile marketing?
CHAPTER SUMMARY
1. Online marketing provides marketers with opportunities for much greater interaction
3. Social media offer marketers the opportunity to have a public voice and presence
online for their brands and reinforce other communications. Marketers can build or tap into
4. Word-of–mouth marketing finds ways to engage customers so they will choose to talk
5. Mobile marketing is an increasingly important form of interactive marketing by which
marketers can use text messages, software apps, and ads to connect with consumers via their
smart phones and tablets.
OPENING THOUGHT
It is important to focus on how and why the traditional view of marketing has changed, and to
introduce the various ways of measuring performance, since they will reappear throughout the
text. Marketing applies to a variety of different areas and is increasingly involving many
C H A P T E R
21
MANAGING DIGITAL
COMMUNICATIONS:
ONLINE, SOCIAL
MEDIA, and MOBILE
TEACHING STRATEGY AND CLASS ORGANIZATION
PROJECTS
1. Semester-Long Marketing Plan Project: At this point in the semester-long project,
2. Ask students to interview someone who manages social media information at a
company about how they track online buzz. Ask students to read Cotton Dello,
3. Ask students to review the Search Engine Optimization efforts of four of their favorite
Web sites. Students should create a table, which indicates whether each Web site was
ASSIGNMENTS
Ask students to select three emails they received from marketers in the past week and see how
many of the suggestions the Marketing Memo: “How to Maximize the Marketing Value of E–
mails” were incorporated into the messages. Then, ask them to relate the tactics used to their
personal perceptions of the e-mails effectiveness. Based on their analysis, ask them to provide
additional suggestions, if any, for maximizing the marketing value of e-mails.
In a research paper, students are to comb appropriate Internet sites, and documents, illustrating
the power of the “buzz” and “viral marketing” about products and/or services. Which ones do
they think are effective and why?
END–OF–CHAPTER SUPPORT
MARKETING DEBATE—What is the value of buzz?
One of the classic debates in the popular press is whether all buzz or word of mouth—
positive and negative—is good for a brand. Some feel that “any press is good press” and
that as long as people are talking, that is a good thing. Others challenge that notion and
say the content of the dialogue is what really matters.
Con: Consumers are savvy and are most likely to respond favorably to messages that allow
them to differentiate between offerings. Attention-getting tactics that do not provide
information may be viewed as intrusive. Further, consumers desire authentic dialogue with
MARKETING DISCUSSION
Pick one of your favorite brands and go to its Web site. How would you evaluate the Web
site? How well does it score on the 7Cs of design elements: context, content, community,
customization, communication, connection, and commerce?
Marketing Excellence: Facebook
1. Why is Facebook unique in the world of personal marketing? What are Facebook’s
greatest strengths?
Suggested Answer: The social networking Web site fulfills people’s desire to
communicate and interact with each other and uses that power to help other companies
2. Who are Facebook’s biggest competitors? What are the greatest risks it faces in the
future?
Suggested Answer: Facebook is a media company, so it competes with other social media and
traditional media firms for advertising dollars. It also competes with search advertising, since
3. What does a company gain by having a Facebook page or advertising through
Facebook? What would you think if a brand or company were not on Facebook?
Suggested Answer: Marketers need to communicate with consumers where they are, and
consumers spend a great deal of time on Facebook. Student responses to the question about
Marketing Excellence: Unilever (Axe and Dove)
1. What makes personal marketing work? Why are Dove and Axe so successful at it?
2. Can a company take personal marketing too far? Explain.
3. Is there a conflict of interests in the way Unilever markets to women and young men?
Is it undoing all the good that might be done in the “Campaign for Real Beauty” by
making women sex symbols in Axe ads? Discuss.
Suggested Answer: Student answers will vary and calls for judgments on the effectiveness of
Suggested in–class activity: Break the class up into two sections (male and female) and play
DETAILED CHAPTER OUTLINE
Opening Vignette: Marketing communications today increasingly occur as a kind of
personal dialogue between the company and its customers. New technologies have
encouraged companies, like PepsiCo, to move from mass communication to more
targeted, two-way communications. The Internet provides marketers and consumers with
opportunities for much greater interaction and individualization.
I. Online Marketing
A. Advantages of Online Marketing Communications
a. The variety of online communication options means companies can offer or
send tailored information or messages that engage consumers by reflecting
their special interests and behavior.
B. Disadvantages of Online Marketing Communications
a. Consumers can effectively screen out most messages.
C. Customers define the rules of engagement online
a. They insulate themselves with the help of agents and intermediaries if they so
choose
D. Online Marketing Communication Options
a. Web Sites
i. Companies must design Web sites that embody or express their
purpose, history, products, and vision and that are attractive on first
viewing and interesting enough to encourage repeat visits.
2. Physical attractiveness is ensured when:
a. Individual pages are clean and not crammed with
iv. Companies can transform various “touch points” related to privacy on
the Web site into a positive customer experience by:
1. Developing user-centric privacy controls to give customer
control
3. Preventing human intrusion by using automation whenever
possible
v. Companies may employ microsites, individual Web pages or clusters
of pages that function as supplements to a primary site.
b. Search Ads: An important component of online marketing is paid search or
pay-per–click ads.
i. In paid search, marketers bid in a continuous auction on search terms
that serve as a proxy for the consumer’s product or consumption
interests.
v. Search engine optimization (SEO) describes activities designed to
improve the likelihood that a link for a brand is as high as possible in
the rank order of all nonpaid links when consumers search for relevant
terms.
1. Broader search terms are useful for general brand building;
2. Search terms need to be spotlighted on the appropriate pages
3. Any one product can usually be identified by means of
4. It also helps to have popular sites link back to the marketer’s
Web site.
c. Display Ads or banner ads are small, rectangular boxes containing text and
perhaps a picture that companies pay to place on relevant Web sites.
i. The larger the audience, the higher the cost.
ii. Internet users spend only 5 percent of their time online actually
d. E-mail allows marketers to inform and communicate with customers at a
fraction of the cost of a d-mail, or direct mail, campaign.
i. E-mails can be very productive selling tools.
ii. The rate at which they prompt purchase has been estimated to be at
iii. Consumers are besieged by e-mails, though, and many employ spam
filters to halt the flow
iv. Privacy concerns are also growing
v. E-mails must be timely, targeted, and relevant.
1. Give the customer a reason to respond.
3. Offer something the customer can’t get via direct mail.
5. Combine e-mail with other communications such as social
media.
vi. Some researchers are employing “heat mapping,” which tracks eye
movements with cameras to measure what people read on a computer
screen, to improve the effectiveness of their emails.
II. Social Media
A. Social media are a means for consumers to share text, images, audio, and video
information with each other and with companies, and vice versa.
a. Social media allow marketers to establish a public voice and presence online.
B. Social Media Platforms include (1) online communities and forums, (2) blogs
(individual blogs and blog networks such as Sugar and Gawker), and (3) social
networks (like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube).
C. Online Communities and Forums
a. Often created by consumers or groups of consumers with no commercial
interests or company affiliations
f. Firms should avoid too much democratization of innovation or
groundbreaking ideas can be replaced by lowest-common-denominator
solutions
D. Blogs, regularly updated online journals or diaries, have become an important outlet
for word of mouth.
a. Blogs bring together people with common interests.
b. Corporations are creating their own blogs and carefully monitoring those of
others.
E. Social networks have become an important force in both business-to-consumer and
business-to–business marketing
a. Different networks offer different benefits to firms.
b. Twitter can be an early warning system that permits rapid response
c. Facebook allows deeper dives to engage consumers in more meaningful ways
F. Using Social Media: only some consumers want to engage with some brands, and,
even then, only some of the time
a. Social media may not be as effective in attracting new users and driving brand
penetration.
III. Word of Mouth
A. Word of mouth (WOM) is a powerful marketing tool, one of the most effective drivers
of its sales in some cases, along with unaided advertising awareness.
B. Forms of Word of Mouth
C. Creating Word-of–Mouth Buzz
a. Brands discussed offline are often those that are salient and visible and come
easily to mind.
b. Research has shown that consumers tend to generate positive WOM
themselves and share information about their own positive consumption
bored;
iii. Build an emotional roller coaster within the ad to keep viewers
engaged throughout;
iv. Surprise but don’t shock—if an ad makes viewers too uncomfortable,
they are unlikely to share it.
positive online ratings, and subsequent raters are more likely to be
influenced by previous positive ratings than negative ones.
ii. Consumers posting reviews are susceptible to conformity pressures
and adopting norms of others
iii. Positive online reviews or ratings are often not as influential or valued
k. A customer’s value to a company depends in part on his or her ability and
likelihood of making referrals and engaging in positive word of mouth
l. Rungs on the customer loyalty ladder (in ascending order):
i. Satisfaction—Sticks with your organization as long as expectations are
met.
D. Measuring the Effects of Word of Mouth
a. Many marketers concentrate on the online effects of word of mouth, given the
ease of tracking them through advertising, PR, and digital agencies.
b. Through demographic information or proxies for that information and cookies,
firms can monitor when customers blog, comment, post, share, link, upload,
friend, stream, write on a wall, or update a profile.
c. Other researchers focus more on characterizing the source of word of mouth.
d. More firms are setting up technologically advanced central locations to direct
their online tracking efforts.
i. Teams might monitor blog conversations, track sentiment, and, based
on feedback, make appropriate changes to the company’s marketing
on its Web page and elsewhere.
IV. Mobile Marketing
A. The Scope of Mobile Marketing
a. Mobile device is uniquely tied to one user
b. It is virtually always “on” given it is typically carried everywhere
B. Major opportunity for advertisers to reach consumers on the “third screen” (TV and
the computer are the first and second
a. Mobile apps can perform useful functions—adding convenience, social value,
incentives, and entertainment and making consumers’ lives a little or a lot
better.
work in wireless applications, technological advances are making it easier to
track users across their smart phones and tablets too.
C. Developing Effective Mobile Marketing Programs: the Web experience can be very
different for users given smaller screen sizes, longer download times, and the lack of
some software capabilities.
a. Marketers are wise to design simple, clear, and clean sites, paying even greater
attention than usual to user experience and navigation.
b. Being concise is critical with mobile messaging
i. Mobile ad copy should occupy only 50 percent of the screen, avoiding
complex viewing experiences that may take a toll on consumers’
D. Mobile Marketing across Markets: U.S. marketers can learn much about mobile
marketing by looking overseas.
a. In developed Asian markets such as Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, and South
Korea, mobile marketing is fast becoming a central component of customer
experiences