Designing and Managing Integrated Marketing Communications

DESIGNING AND MANAGING INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS THE ROLE OF MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS • Marketing communications are the means by which firms attempt to inform, persuade and remind consumers – directly or indirectly – about the products and brands that they sell. • Marketing communications perform many functions for consumers. Marketing communications mix Advertising Any paid form of nonpersonal presentation & promotion of ideas, products/services by an identified sponsor. Characteristics:  Build up a long-term image of products  Trigger quick sales  Reach geographically dispersed buyers  Different costs for different forms of ads  Pervasiveness  Amplified expressiveness  Impersonality Sales promotion Short-term incentives to encourage trial/purchase of a product/service. Characteristics:  Used for short-run effects  Communication  Incentives  Invitation Events and experiences Company-sponsored activities & programs designed to create daily or special brand-related interactions. Characteristics:  Relevant  Involving  Implicit Public relations and publicity Programs designed to promote or protect a company’s image or its individual products. Characteristics:  High credibility  Ability to catch buyers off guard

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Dramatization

Direct marketing Use of mail, telephone, fax, e-mail or Internet to communicate directly with or solicit response from specific customers. Characteristics:  Customized  Up-to-date  Interactive Personal selling Face-to-face interactions with one or more prospective purchasers for the purpose of making presentations, answering questions and procuring orders. Characteristics: Personal interaction, Cultivation, Response Integrated marketing communications to build brand equity Marketing communication program Brand equity  Advertising  Salespromotion  Events &experiences  Public relations& publicity  Personal selling  Direct marketing  Brand awareness  Brand image  Brand responses  Brand relationships DEVELOPING EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATIONS  Identify target audience  Determine objectives  Design communications  Select channels  Establish budgets  Decide on media mix  Measure results  Manage integrated marketing communications

STEP 1: Identify the target audience

The target audience may be the potential buyers, current users, deciders or influencers; individual, groups or various publics. The target audience will heavily affect the communicator’s decision on – – What to say – How to say – When to say – Where to say – To whom to say The image analysis, assessing the current image, can be conducted to profile the target audience in terms of brand knowledge to provide further insight. – The first step is to measure the target audiences’ knowledge of the object. (Familiarity) – Respondents who are familiar with the product can be asked how they feel toward it. (Favorability) STEP 2:Determine the communication objectives  Category need  Brand awareness  Brand attitude  Brand purchase intention STEP 3:Design the communications Formulating the communications to achieve the desired response will require solving three problems – – What to say (message strategy) – How to say (Creative strategy) – Who should say it (message source) Message strategy In determining message strategy, management searches for appeal that will – – Tie into the brand positioning – Help to establish POP or POD These may be related to product/service performance or more extrinsic consideration. Buyers may visualize the rewards from results-of-use experience, product-in-use experience or incidental-touse experience. Creative strategy Communication effectiveness depends on how a message is being expressed as well as the content of the message itself. Informational appeals It elaborates on product/service attributes/benefit.  Problem-solution ads  Product demonstration ads  Product comparison ads  Testimonials Issues related with informational appeals –

• Whether to draw a conclusion or leave it to the audience • Whether to present a one-sided argument or a two-sided argument • Whether to present the strongest arguments first or last Transformational appeals It elaborates on non-product-related benefit or image. It might depict – – What kind of person uses a brand – What kind of experience results from using the brand It often attempt to stir up emotions that will motivate purchase – – Negative appeals (fear, shame, guilt) to get people to do things or stop doing things – Positive appeals (humor, love, pride, joy) – Motivational devices to attract consumer attention and raise their involvement with an ad Message format • Print ads Headline, copy, illustration, color • Radio Words, sound, voices • Television or Facial expressions, gestures, in person dress, posture, hairstyle Message source Marketers use the company and known/unknown people as a source to deliver the message. Messages delivered by attractive or popular sources can potentially achieve high attention and recall. The important factor is the spokesperson’s credibility which includes –  Expertise  Trustworthiness  Likeability STEP 4: Select the communications channels Personal communications channels Channels through which two or more people communicate directly with one another whether faceto-face, by telephone, by mail or via the Internet. – Advocate channels - Company salespeople – Expert channels - Independent experts – Social channels - Neighbors, friends, family members, associates Personal influence carries especially great weight in two situations – – With products that are expensive, risky, or purchased infrequently – Where the product suggests something about the user’s status or taste Nonpersonal communications channels These are media that carry messages without personal contact or feedback.  Media Print media  Broadcast media  Network media  Electronic media  Display media – Sales promotions Consumer promotions, Trade promotions • Events & experiences - Sports

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Arts Entertainment Cause events

• Public relation - Employees - Consumers - Other firms - The government - The media STEP 5: Establish budgets Affordable method The company sets the promotion budget at the level management thinks the company can afford. Advantages: Helpful for smaller firms Disadvantage: - Ignores the effect of promotion on sale volume - Ignores the role of promotion as an investment - Result in over-spending or under-spending Percentage-of-sales method The company sets the promotion budget at a certain percentage of current or forecasted sales or as a percentage of the unit sales price. Advantage – Simple to use – Vary with what the company can afford – Encourages management to think of the relationship among promotion cost, selling price and profit Disadvantage - Sales become cause of promotion - No basis for choosing specific percentage - Leads to budget set by the availability of funds rather than market opportunity Competitive-parity method The company sets the promotion budgets to match competitors’ outlays. Advantage Prevent promotion wars

Disadvantage – It cannot prevent promotion wars – The competitors do not have better ideas on the company’s promotion needs

Objective-and-task method The company sets the promotion budget based on what it wants to accomplish. This budgeting method entails three steps – a. Defining specific promotion objectives. b. Determining the tasks needed to achieve these objectives. c. Estimating the costs of performing these tasks. The sum of these costs is the proposed promotion budget. STEP 6: Deciding on the marketing communication mix Characteristics of the marketing communication mix Companies must allocate the marketing communications budget over the six modes of communication depending on their characteristics and costs. Factors in setting the marketing communications mix Type of product market Buyer-readiness stage Product life-cycle stage STEP 7: Measuring communication results After implementing the communication plan, the communicator must measure its impact on the target audience by asking them – – Whether they can recognized or recall the message – How many times they saw it – What points they recall – How they felt about the message – About their previous and current attitudes