COMMUNICATING THE VALUE PROPOSITION

Introduction to IMC

1. What is Integrated Marketing Communication, why and how it is used?

2. 2. What are the steps of communication planning?
3. 3. What is a communications mix and how to build it?

Also, I want you to understand the current communication trends & to critically engage with key ideas
of marketing communication!

RECAP: Marketing, STP and communications

What is the role of communication in marketing?

MARKETING : Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating,
delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value to the customers, clients, partners and society at large

From selling to marketing :

The selling concept = inside-out = make-and-sell ( pre 1950 ) :

Starting point ( factory ) > Focus ( product ) > Means / method ( selling and promoting ) > ends = Goals
( profits through sales volume ).

The marketing concept = outside-in = sense-and-respond (post 1950 )

Profit through customer satisfaction > Integrated marketing > Customer needs > Target market

THE MARKETING CONCEPT

Marketing is not merely a business function but a philosophy of organizational management based on the
core idea of customer orientation.
Levitt (1960) talked about marketing myopia, or short-sightedness, as a management shortcoming of
understanding what business one is in > “our” business is defined by the customer need and value.
Customer orientation, that customer needs and wants should drive organizational policy, is the heart of the
marketing concept.

”Products and services deliver fundamental elements of value that address four kinds of needs:
functional, emotional, life changing, and social impact.
In general, the more elements provided, the greater customers’ loyalty and the higher the company’s
sustained revenue growth.”

The Marketing process

1) Understand the marketplace and customer needs and wants. Analyze : Needs/Wants/Demands/Desires
2) Design a customer-driven marketing strategy. Develop : Objectives/STP/Differentiation/Offerings
3) Construct an integrated marketing program that delivers superior value. Implement : Marketing mix
4) Build profitable relationships and create customer delight. Control: CRM/Value creation/ Satisfaction
5) Capture value from customers to create profits and customer equity. Customer lifetime value (CLV) /
Share of customer Customer equity

1/2/3/4 = Create value for customers and build customer relationships

5 = Capture value from customers in return

Market research
A market analysis is a quantitative and qualitative assessment of a market.
It examines the market size, various market segments, customer buying patterns, the competition, and the
economic environment. During market research you face different sources of data :

Secondary data : Data that was collected by others and that can be sources of information for your company
(market size, sales by distributors, political situation, etc.)
Primary data: Data that the company will collect to understand a specific situation or group of consumers
(survey, qualitative interviews, focus groups, etc.)

The STP process :

Segmentation : Divide the market into homogeneous subsets that will receive a specific marketing action.
General (geographic / demographic) vs specific (behavioral) criteria, Objective vs inferred (psychographic)
criteria.
Example of segmentation variables : most common ( behavior, location, age ), most effective ( behavior,
location, personal interests, life stage, attitude, financial measures, age ).

Targeting : Assess the relative attractiveness of each segment and choose segments to focus efforts on .
Attractive and for which the company has a relevant strength (Sustainable Competitive Advantage ).
Often it is more useful to use a combination of variables to come to a selection of a target segment

Positioning : Finally, plan an appropriate offer for the chosen target and develop the matching marketing
and communication mix. The “place in the mind” that a product occupies relative to its competitors.
Define a value proposition that will allow the offer to have a unique, distinctive and valuable place in the
mind of the consumer. This is possible if it is:
1. Based on the consumer behaviour analysis
2. Based on the competition analysis
3. Based on the analysis of it’s own strengths
4. Delivered with a strategy of communication that is in line with the value proposition

To (target segment and need) our (brand) is (concept) that (point of difference).
Ex : To busy multitaskers who need help remembering things, Evernote is a digital content management
application that makes it easy to capture and remember moments and ideas from your everyday life using
you computer, phone, tablet, and the web. = Marketing mix

The marketing mix :

Positioning is ‘operationalised’ through marketing mix.

COMMUNICATION & MARKETING

1. Researching customer/stakeholder needs and value

2. Identifying, selecting and targeting particular group of customers/stakeholders who share similar
discriminatory characteristics, including needs and wants;
3. Developing an offering that satisfies the identified needs at an acceptable price, which is available
through particular sets of distribution channels;
4. Making the target segment aware of the existence of the offering

Promotions and advertising :

- The promotion element of the marketing mix (4Ps)

- Advertising comprises of paid-for, non-personal promotional message from an identifiable source carried
on a mass medium
- Promotional communication includes public relations, sales promotion, product placement, sponsorship,
personal selling, direct mail and direct marketing, exhibitions
IS IT ALL THE SAME? YES! AND NO!

Consumers typically make no distinction between advertising and promotions à Consumers commonly
perceive almost all forms of marketing communications as advertising

The boundaries between forms are blurring with native advertising, product placement, endorsement and
influencer marketing on the rise
Interactivity in the ‘new media’, consumer engagement and UGC change who is control of the message

CHANGES IN MEDIA CONSUMPTION

Media platforms and media consumption are rapidly changing

Smaller audiences for terrestrial media with real time audiences have migrated to social media and other
digital > audience fragmentation

Many more media vehicles (media fragmentation) but also media convergence of use through one device /
platform

Promotional spend is moving to digital and mobile

BOUGHT, EARNED & OWNED

- Bought media (e.g. spot advertising) can distinguished from ‘earned’ media (likes and shares) - - - -Social
media have enabled earned media through shared content, including blogs, videos, Tweets, etc.
- Owned media is a useful platform for exposure: company website, YouTube channel, etc.

WHY COMMUNICATE?

1. Facilitate exchange by increasing demand and creating new markets

2. Create awareness, reposition and regain lost customers
3. Influence opinions, tastes, consumption practices and educate
4. Impact the environmental and social thread of the society

HOW TO IMC ?

IMC brings together the brand, the message, and the media focussing on the consumer perspective.
Planning and execution across various methods and localities

IMC offers principles for effective strategic planning of marketing communication for synergy and
consistency.
The combined effects are larger than the sum of each individual tool. “360 degrees view” from the
consumer’s perspective.

Activities include:
1. The planning, creation, integration, and implementation of diverse forms of communications that are
delivered over time to a brand’s targeted consumers.
2. With the aim to influence or directly affect behaviour.
3. It needs to considers all touch points, or sources of contact, that a consumer has with the brand as
potential delivery channels.
4. It needs to provide a consistent message with the consumer as the starting point for determining the
types of messages and media that will serve best to inform, persuade, and induce action.

Central considerations are:

1. How to reach viable numbers of the target consumers with a uniform campaign?
2. How to integrate media channels (and platforms) to reach target audiences given media fragmentation?
3. How to integrate creative themes in order for the campaign values to be same across channels and
creative executions.

BARRIERS OF IMC :