Catching the Buzz: Promotional Strategy and Integrated Marketing Communication

1. Catching the Buzz: Promotional Strategy and Integrated Marketing Communication

2. Chapter Objectives • Understand the role of marketing communication • Understand the communications model • List and describe the traditional elements of the promotion mix • Explain how word of mouth marketing, buzz marketing, viral marketing, and guerrilla marketing provide effective marketing communication

3. Chapter Objectives (cont’d) • Describe integrated marketing communication and its characteristics • Explain the important role of database marketing in integrated marketing communication • Explain the stages in developing an IMC plan

4. Real People, Real Choices • General Motors R* Works (Vince O’Brien) • Needed marketing plan supporting Chevy’s commitment to skiing while increasing sales at local dealerships • Option 1: continue ski promotion but better qualify test-drive traffic • Option 2: offer season passes to local ski mountain as purchase incentive for designated SUV • Option 3: scrap ski relationship and look for another platform to promote Chevy’s products

5. Tailoring MarketingCommunication to Consumers • Promotion: the coordination of marketing communication efforts to influence attitudes or behavior • Marketing communication: • Informs • Reminds • Persuades • Builds relationships

6. Tailoring Marketing Communicationto Consumers (cont’d) • Integrated marketing communication (IMC): process that marketers use to plan, develop, execute, and evaluate coordinated, measurable, persuasive brand communication programs over time to targeted audiences • Consumers see the variety of messages from a firm as a whole.

7. Discussion • With an IMC program, firms need to coordinate all marketing communication activities. • What inherent problems do you see in ensuring this coordination?

8. Figure 12.2:The Communication Model

9. FRAM.COM The Communication Model • Encoding: process of translating an idea into a form of communication • Source: organization or individual sending the message • Message: the communication in physical form • Medium: communication vehicle used to reach members of a target audience

10. The Communication Model (cont’d) • Receiver: individual or organization that intercepts and interprets the message • Decoding: process whereby a receiver assigns meaning to a message • Noise: anything that interferes with effective communication • Feedback: receiver’s reactions to the message

11. Marketing CommunicationStrategy and Promotion Mix • Promotion mix: communication elements the marketer controls Advertising Sales promotion Public relations Personal selling Direct marketing

12. Figure 12.3: Control Continuum

13. Mass Appeals • Advertising: Nonpersonal communication from an identified sponsor using mass media

14. Mass Appeals (cont’d) • Sales promotion: contests, coupons, and other incentives designed to build interest or encourage product purchase during a specified period • Public relations: communication activities that create/maintain a positive image of a firm and its products

15. Personal Appeals • Personal selling: direct interaction between a company representative and a customer • Direct marketing: efforts to gain a direct response from individual consumers

16. Group Activity/Discussion • Traditional promotion elements include advertising, sales promotion, public relations, personal selling and direct marketing. • --Which do you feel is most effective for each of the following clients? • 1. a cellular phone service provider • 2. a hotel • 3. a university • 4. the manufacturer of a new soft drink

17. Buzz Appeals • Buzz: everyday people who help marketing efforts by talking about a product or a company to others • Buzz marketing: high-profile entertainment or news that gets people to talk about the brand • Viral marketing: entertaining or informative messages designed to be passed along

18. Buzz Appeals (cont’d) • Word of mouth (WOM) marketing: activities that give people a reason to talk about the product • Guerrilla marketing: activities that “ambush” consumers with promotional content where not expected

19. Discussion • Some say buzz marketing is just a craze that will fade in a year or two. --Is it here to stay? --Do you think buzz is effective? Why or why not?

20. SPALDING.COM Group Activity • Your team is a word-of-mouth marketing department for a sports equipment company such as Spalding. • Develop ways to create buzz for your company’s products.

21. Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) • With IMC, marketing communication programs create and maintain long-term relationships with customers by satisfying their needs. • IMC unifies all marketing communication tools to send a consistent, persuasive message.

22. Characteristics of IMC • Creates a single unified voice for firm. • Begins with the customer. • Seeks to develop relationships with customers through one-to-one marketing. • Relies on two-way communication.

23. Characteristics of IMC (cont’d) • Focuses on stakeholders, not just customers. • Generates a continuous stream of communication. • Measures results based on actual feedback.

24. IMC and Database Marketing • Database marketing: creation of ongoing relationship with a set of customers who have identifiable interest in a product • --Customers’ responses become part of ongoing communication process. • Is interactive Builds relationships • Locates new customers Stimulates cross-selling • Is measurable Yields trackable responses

25. Discussion • Consumers are concerned that databases invade privacy. • --Do you feel this is a valid concern? • --How can marketers use databases effectively and protect individuals’ rights?

26. Developing the IMC plan (Figure 12.4)

27. Developing the IMC Plan • Step 1: Identify target audiences • Step 2: Establish communication objectives • Create awareness • Inform the market • Create desire • Encourage purchase and trial • Build loyalty

28. Figure 12.5: The Hierarchy of Effects

29. Step 3: Determine and allocate the marketing communication budget • Determine total promotion budget • Top-down budgeting techniques • Percentage-of-sales • Competitive-parity • Bottom-up • Objective-task

30. Step 3: Determine and allocate the marketing communication budget (continued) • Push strategy: move products through the channel by convincing channel members to offer them • Pull strategy: move products through the channel by building desire among consumers, convincing retailers to respond to demand

31. Step 3: Determine and allocate the marketing communication budget (continued) • Allocate the budget to a specific promotion mix • Organizational factors • Market responsiveness • Market potential • Market size

32. THEWOMB.COM • Step 4: Design the promotion mix • Type of appeal • AIDA model: communication goals of attention, interest, desire, and action • Structure of the appeal • Communication channel

33. Step 5: Evaluate the effectiveness of the communication program • Are communication objectives adequately translated into marketing communication that is reaching the right target market?

34. Discussion • Some people argue there’s really nothing new about IMC. • What do you think? Why? • Why is the IMC plan superior to conventional advertising?

35. SKICHEVY.COM Real People, Real Choices • General Motors R* Works (Vince O’Brien) • Vince chose option 2: offer season passes to local ski mountain as purchase incentive for designated SUV. • Chevrolet has completed its sixth year of this Ski Chevy promotional program, and it’s all smooth going from here!

36. Marketing in Action Case:You Make the Call • What is the decision facing American Express? • What factors are important in understanding this decision situation? • What are the alternatives? • What decision(s) do you recommend? • What are some ways to implement your recommendation?

37. Keeping It Real: Fast-Forward to Next Class, Decision Time at BzzAgent • Meet Joe Chernov, director of PR at BzzAgent, Inc. • Buzz marketers accused of “perpetrating large scale deception upon consumers” • The decision: What public relations strategy to use to respond to the criticism?