marketers must consider how to communicate the value of a new product and or service
more specifically the value proposition--to the target market
integrated marketing communications (IMC)
represents the Promotion P of the four Ps. It encompasses a variety of communication disciplines--general advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations, direct marketing, provide clarity, consistency, and max communicative impact. IMC programs regard each of the firm's marketing communications elements as part of a whole, each of which offers a different means to connect with the target audience
three elements in any IMC strategy
the consumer, the channels through which the message is communicated, and the evaluation of the results of the communication
the communication process
the sender, the transmitter, encoding, the communication channel, the receiver, noise, feedback loop,
The sender
the message originates from the sender who must be clearly identified to the intended audience
the transmitter
the sender works with the creative department, whether in house or from a marketing (or advertising) agency, to develop marketing communications. such an agency or itnermediary is the transmitter
encoding
converting the sender's ideas into a message, which would be verbal, visual or both
The communication channel
the medium--print, broadcast, the Internet--that carries the message
The Receiver
the person who reads, hears, or sees and processes the information contained in the message and/or advertisement
decoding
the process byh which the receiver interprets the sender's message
Noise
any interference that stems from competing messages, a lack of clarity in the message, or a flaw in the medium, and it poses a problem for all communication channels
feedback loop
allows the receiver to communicate with the sender and thereby informs the sender whether the message was received and decoded properly. Can take many forms: customer's purchase of the item, a complaint, compliment, redemption of a coupon or rebate, etc
How Customers Perceive Communication
receivers decode messages differently, senders adjust messages according to the medium and receivers' traits
Receivers decode messages differently
different people shown the same message will take radically different meanings from it
Senders Adjust Messages According to the Medium and Receivers' Traits
marketers make adjustments to their messages and media depending on whether they want to communicate with supliers, shareholders, customers, or the general public as well as the specific segments of those groups
The AIDA Model
to create effective IMC programs, marketers must understand how marketing communications work. generally marketing communications move consumers stepwise through a series of mental stages for which there are several models. The most common is the AIDA model which suggests that Awareness leads to Interest, which leads to Desire, which leads to Action
AIDA stands for
Awareness leads to Interest which leads to Desire which leads to Action
at each stage of the AIDA model
the consumer makes judgments about whether to take th enext step in the process.
Customers actually have three types of responses, so the AIDA model is also known as
the "think, feel, do" model.
in making a purchase decision
the customer goes through each of the AIDA steps to some degree, but the steps may not follow the AIDA order
Awareness
brand awareness, aided recall, top of mind awareness
brand awareness
refers to a potential customer's ability to recognize or recall that the brand name is a particular type of retailer or product/service. It is the strenght of the link between the brand name and the type of merchandise or service in the minds of customers
Number of awareness metrics
aided recall to top of min awareness
aided recall
when consumers indicate they know the brand when the name is presented to them
top of mind awareness
the highest level of awareness occurs when consumers mention a specific brand name first when they are asked about a product or service
Interest
once the consumer is aware, communication must work to increase his or her interest level--must persuade the customer that the product is worth investigating--do so by ensuring the ad message includes attirbutes that are of interest to the target audience
Desire
after the firm has gotten the customer's interest, the goal of subsequent IMC shold move the customer from I like to I want
Action
the ultimate goal of any marketing communication is to drive the receiver into action.
The Laggard Effect
sometimes consumers don't act immediately after receiving a marketing communication because of the laggard effect--a delayed response to a marketing communication campaign. It generally takes several exposures to an ad before a consumer fully processes its message. Measuring the effect of a current campaign becomes more difficult because of the possible lagged response to a previous one.
Elements of an IMC Strategy
for any communications campaign to succeed, the firm must deliver the right message to the right audience through the right media
proliferation of media
has led many firms to shift their promotional dollars from advertising to direct marketing, Web site development, product placements, and other forms of promotionin search of the best way to deliver messages to their target audiences
media fragmentation
occured on tv. networkds are dedicated to certain types of preferences and each of the tv channels allow IMC planners to target their desired audience narrowly.
Individual Elements of IMC
Advertising, personal selling, sales promotions, direct marketing, public relations, electronic media
advertising
the placement of announcements and persuasive message in time or space purchased in any of the mass media by business firms, nonprofit organizations, gov't agencies, and individuals who seek to inform and or persuade members of a particular target market or audience about their products, services, organizations, or ideas
personal selling
the two-way flow of communication between a buyer and a seller that is designed to influence the buyer's purchase decision. can take place in various setting: face to face, video teleconferencing, on the telephone, or over the internet. the cost is high but it is the best and most efficient way to sell certain products and services
Sales promotions
special incentives or excitement-building programs that encourage the purcahse of a product or service, such as coupons, rebates, contests, free samples, and point of purchase displays-- many sales promotions are designed to build short term sales, though others like contests and sweepstakes have become integral components of the firms CRM programs as means to build customer loyalty
Direct marketing
component of IMC that received the greatest increase in aggregate spending recently is direct marketing--or marketing that commhnicates directly with target customer to generate a response or transaction--includes telephone, mail, program length television commercials (infomertials), catalogs, and internet-based initiatives such as email and m commerce
m-commerce (mobile commerce)
involves communicating with and even selling to customer through wireless handheld devices such a cell phones and PDAs
Public relations
the organizational function that manages the firm's communications to achieve a variety of objectives, including building and maintaining a positive image, handling or heading off unfavorable stories or events, and maintaining positive relationships with the medi
Electronic Media
website, corporate blogs, social shopping, online games, community building
blog (Weblog)
contains periodic posts on a common Web page . can create positive word of mouth, connect customers by forming a community, increase sales because the ocmpany can respond directly to customs' comments, and develop a long-term relationship with the company
social shopping
firms communicate with their customers through word of mouth (WOM) or communication between people about a firm. a new pathway for WOM communication is through social shopping--a communication channel where consumers usethe Internet to engage in the shopping processs by exchanging preferences, thoughts, and opinions among friends, family and others
online games
through short online games can reach younger consumers--
community building
many firms operate web sites devoted to community building--they offer an opportunity for customer with similar interest to learn about products and services that suppor their hobbies and share info with others. can post questions and seek info. doesn't need to be electronic--REI offers adventure travel planning resources for hiking trips, bike tours, etc customers can select from more than 90 trips worldwide
Planning for and Measuring IMC Success
after marketers have set goals, they can set a budget for the campaign and choose marketing metrics they will use to evaluate whether it has achieved its strategic objectives
goals
firms need to understand the outcome they hope to achieve before they begin--goals can be short term like generating inquiries, increasing awareness, and prompting trial. or they can be long term in nature such as increasing sales, market share, and customer loyalty
Setting and allocating the IMC budget
firms use a variety of methods to plan their marketing communications budgets. no method should be used in isolation
objective and task method
determines the budget required to undertake specific tasks to accomplish communication objectives. marketers first establish a set of communication objectives then determine which media best reach the target market and how much it will cost to run the number and types of communications necessary to achieve the objectives--this proces must be repeated for each product or service. the sum of all individual communication plan budgest becomes the firm's total maketing communications budget. in addition to the objective and task method various RULE OF THUMB METHODS can be used to set budgets
rule of thumb methods
use prior sales and communication actitivies to determine the present communication budget--once the IMC budget is set, firms decide how much fo the budget to allocate to specific communication elements, types of merchandise, geographic regions, or long and short term objectives. allocation decisions are more important than the decisiona bout the amount to spend on communication
Measuring the success using marketing metrics
teh firm should examine when and how often consumers have been exposed to various marketing communications. specifically the use measures of frequency and reach to guage consumers' exposure to marketing communications
frequency
for most products and situations, a single exposure to a communication is hardly enough to generate the desired response. Therefore marketers measure the frequency of exposure--how often the audience is exposed to a communication within a specific period of time
reach
describes the percentage of the targe tpopulation exposed a specific marketing communicationsuch as an advertisement, at least once
gross rating points (GRP)
marketing communications managers usually state their media objectives in terms of GRP, which represent reach multiplied by frequency (GRP = reach * frequency)
Web tracking software
web based communications efforts in an IMC campaign generally requires web tracking software to indicate how much time viewers spend on particular web pages and the number of pages they view
click-through tracking
measures how many times users click on banner advertising on web site
online couponing
a promotional web technique in which consumers print a coupon directly from a site and then redeemthe coupon in a store
online referring
consumers fill out an interest or order form and are referred to an offline dealer or firm that offers the product or services of interest
Planning, Implementing, and Evaluating IMC programs--An illustration of Google advertising
below
search engine marketing (SEM)
allows firmsto show up in searches based on the keywords potential customers use
to estimate reach:
click, the number of impressions (times the ad appears in front of the user), and the click-through rate(CTR)- number of clicks/number of impressions
relevance
of the ad describes how useful an ad message was to the customer doing the search--AdRank is used to rank the ads in GOogle search--calculated on the basis of the quality score determined through click through rate and the price that the company pays for the advertisement.
return on investment (ROI)
(sales * gross margin % - Marketing expenditure) / marketing expenditure
commercial speech
a message with an economic motivation, that is, to promote a product or service, to persuade someon to purchase, etc. marketers can only make commercial claims that are fact based, not mere opinions. needs to be substantiated. statement such as "our product is superior to our competitor's product" this must be substantiated
noncommercial speech
message that does not have an economic motivation and therefore is fully protected under the First Amendment--firms can express matters of opinion such as when the president of the firm tells an audience, "our company makes the best products" without needing to offer substantiation for the claim as long as those claims are not designed with an economic motivation