ONLINE COURSE REPORT

Marketing communications in
the digital age

Students:
Lê Linh Đan - 10323006
Lê Phan Uyên Phương - 10323025
Nguyễn Trần Hoàng Phúc - 10323023
Instructor: Mr. James
AY: 2023 – 2024

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I. Course Summary
Despite digital media's development, communication marketing's purpose remains
unchanged. Marketing communication aims to engage with target audiences to achieve
at least one of four functions of the DRIP model.

The macro-model is the process of sending a message to the target audience; this is the
frame for every marketing campaign. A marketing communicator has to minimize the
differences between the intended message and its interpretation by the receiver.

The picture below is the macro-process.

The message itself is the most crucial part of this process. Marketers need to define:
● The message source or who will say the message, whether it is the expert, the
endorser, or the everyday persona.
● The balance between informational and emotional to create a compelling
message.
● How the message appeals is based on the balance of information and emotional
factors.
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 Information appeal:
- Utilized in non-profit, public sector, and social marketing campaigns to
convey detailed products or services.
- There are four informational appeals: factual, a slice of life, demonstration,
and comparative approaches.

Emotional appeal:
- Connect products or services to the target audience’s emotions using
appealing signs and symbols.
- Six common types of emotional appeal: Fear, Guilt, Shock, Sex, Humour
and Nostalgia.

Next, organizations use a combination of tools and methods to interact with target
audiences, which is called the mix of marketing communications with five components:
● Advertising: Raising awareness and reinforcing purchase decisions by utilizing
digital platforms.
● Sales Promotion: Short-term incentive to accelerate the sales rate and encourage
up-planned or impulse buying
● Public Relations: Improve and strengthen the organizational image through
sharing content and boosting optimistic mentions of the organization on
third-party websites.
● Direct Marketing: Identifying potential customers with a personalized message
to build long-term, trustworthy relationships.
● Personal Selling: Brand messages can be customized when they receive
immediate feedback through interpersonal communication in the purchasing
stage.

However, there are several issues in every marketing communication methods

● Advertising: Primarily concentrate on ethical debates in marketing.
● Sales Promotion: Deliberately falsely label products as "Wow deals”.
● Public Relation: Intrusiveness, deceptive practices, privacy violations, and
unintended associations with third-party advertising.
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 ● Direct Marketing: Share unauthorized lists, negative option sales, pressure
tactics, disguised mail, and prizes with conditions.
● Personal Selling: Balancing loyalty to the organization, personal interests, and
consumer needs.
II. REFLECTION
The course offers numerous positive aspects to students:
● Providing fundamental knowledge about marketing communications
● The explanations are easy to understand, even for students who are entirely new
to the marketing concept.
● Having thorough content, application tasks for every topic, and illustrative
example videos to increase the study's effectiveness.
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On the other hand, the course also has some negative aspects:
● The example advertisements needed to be updated because most are over ten
years old.
● Overemphasis on theory without practical application may hinder practical skill
development.
● Limiting networking and communication opportunities in online courses.
● The different recognitions of online credentials by various employers.
⇒ The course covers the fundamentals of marketing communication in the digital era,
focusing on message creation, information and emotional appeals, and the marketing
communication mix. The course also touches upon ethical issues in marketing
communications. This course is recommended for students who want to start learning
about marketing.

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