¨ Marketing communications are the means by which firms

attempt to inform, persuade, and remind consumers—

directly or indirectly—about the products and brands they
sell.
¨ Consumers can learn who makes the product and what the
company and brand stand for, and they can become
motivated to try or use it.
¨ Marketing communications allow companies to link their
brands to people, places, events, brands, experiences,
feelings, and things.
¨ They can contribute to brand equity—by establishing the
brand in memory and creating a brand image—as well as
drive sales and even affect shareholder value.
¨ Marketing communications are the means by which
firms attempt to inform, persuade, and remind
consumers— directly or indirectly—about the products
and brands they sell.

¨ IMC is a concept of marketing communications planning

that evaluates the strategic roles of different
communications disciplines and combines these
communications disciplines to provide clarity,
consistency, and maximum impact through the
integration of communication messages.
$90 million in integrated communication to launch
the Lincoln LS

Targeting younger set of

buyers, Lincoln LS invested in:
1. $6 million in a dealer
education event at Treasure
Island navel base in San
Francisco Bay.
2. 4000 opinion leaders for a
cross-country road show
3. Innovative TV, print ad and
internet campaign
4. Sponsorship deal for a
traveling theatre & ballet
show
5. Sales kit with a video of the
TV ad, CD-ROM featuring
the internet campaign, and
product catalogue.
¨ Advertising is any
paid form of non-
personal presentation
and promotion of ideas,
goods, or services.
¤ Builds up long term image
¤ Cost efficient in reaching
geographically dispersed
buyers.
¤ Has an effect on sales
merely by being present as
it gives the image of “good
value” to the advertised
brand.
¨ Sales Promotion
¤ A variety of short term
incentives that create a
stronger and quicker
response, thus encouraging
trial or purchase. Used for the
purpose of:
n Increasing market share
n Boosting sagging sales.
n Managing production over-
capacity.
n Moving stock/dated items.
¨ Public Relations
¤ Provides an organization
with exposure to their
audiences using topics of
public interest and news items
through:
n Financial relations: providing
information to business reporters
and stakeholders
n Consumer relations: gaining
publicity without
using advertising; for example
editorials and advertorials.
n Crisis relations: responding to
negative accusations or
information
n Industry relations: providing
information to trade bodies
n Government relations: engaging
government departments to
influence policymaking
¨ Personal Selling:
¤ Personal presentation by the
firm’s sales force for the
purpose of:
n Making sales
n Building customer relation.
n Building up buyer preference
and conviction
n Soliciting fast buyer action
¨ Direct Marketing:
¤ This is a form
of advertising that reaches its
audience through techniques
such as fliers, catalogue
distribution, and promotional
letters.
¤ It has the advantages of:
n Directly connecting with
carefully targeted individual
consumers
n Localized and customized
used to reach well defined
target segments
¨ Interactive Marketing:
¤ Broadcasters use interactive
TV as a means for creating
an enhanced experience.
¤ It can also create a tailored
ad experience for users, by
feeding ads on the basis of
activities and expressed
preferences.
¤ This can increase ad
targeting and advertisers
may pay a premium for this
service.
¨ A target market is the
set of consumers that a
company plans to sell
to or reach with
marketing activities.
¨ A target audience is
the group or segment
within that target
market that is being
served advertisements.
¨ A buying center brings
together all those who
are involved in the
buying process.
¨ The five main roles in a
buying center are:
1. Initiator
2. Influencer
3. Decider
4. Buyer
5. User
¨ 10 possible communications
objectives:
1. Create/increase awareness
2. Stimulate demand
3. Trigger trial for a brand
4. Build brand image
5. Communicate a sales promotion to
trigger purchase.
6. Convey information about a
corporation/brand
7. Remind the consumer of a certain
brand.
8. Position/reposition a brand
9. Change consumer behavior towards
a brand
10. Deposition a competitive brand
¨ Formulating the communications to achieve the
desired response requires answering three
questions:
1. Message strategy: what to say
2. Creative strategy: how to say it
3. Message source: who should say it
¨ Unique Selling
Proposition (USP)
refers to the
unique benefit that
enables the brand
to stand out from
competitors.
¨ The unique selling
proposition must be a
feature that highlights
product benefits that
are:
¤ meaningful,
¤ valuable,
¤ believable,
¤ and deliverable to
consumers.
Creative strategy
¨ Creative strategies are the way marketers translate
their messages into a specific communication.
¨ We can broadly classify them as either
1. Informational Appeals: An informational appeal
elaborates on product or service attributes or
benefits.
2. Transformational Appeals: A transformational
appeal elaborates on a nonproduct-related benefit
or image.
¨ Message structure
refers to whether or
not the message will
have a conclusion
drawn for the target
customer group.
¨ One-sided messages:
"A message that
presents only those
arguments in favor of
a particular position."
¨ Two-sided messages:
"A message that
presents the arguments
in favor of a
proposition but also
considers the opposing
arguments."
¨ Order of presentation is whether to put the strongest
argument first or last in the advertiser’s presentation.
¤ In a one-sided message, presenting the strongest argument
first arouses attention and interest, important in media
where the audience often does not attend to the whole
message. With a captive audience, a climactic presentation
might be more effective.
¤ For a two-sided message, if the audience is initially
opposed, start with the other side’s argument and conclude
with your strongest argument.
¨ The Rational
Appeal persuades
audiences to purchase
something or act on
something
by appealing to their
sense of reason or
logic.
¨ Emotional
appeals are usually
based on imagery
rather than
information, which
attempt to achieve the
advertiser's objectives
by evoking strong
emotional feelings.
¨ Communicators also
use positive
emotional appeals
such as humor, love,
pride, and joy to
attract attention and
raise involvement with
an ad.
¨ Communicators use
negative emotional
appeals such as fear,
guilt, and shame to get
people to do things.
¨ Fear appeals work best:
1. When they are not too strong.

2. When source credibility is high.

3. When the communication promises, in a

believable and efficient way, to relieve the
fear it arouses.
¨ Moral appeals are
directed to the
consumes' sense of what
is right and proper.
¨ These are often used to
exhort people to
support social
and ethical causes