Introduction to

Marketing Communication and Advertising

The Marketing Communication Mix
A company’s total communications mix
also called its promotion mix consists:

 Advertising
 Sales Promotion
 Public Relations
 Personal Selling
 Direct Marketing
ADVERTISING:

«Any paid form of nonpersonal presentation and

promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an
identified sponsor»
Advertising
• Build awareness, inform, persuade, and remind
• Challenge: How stand out from the crowd?
– Yankelovitch study shows 65% of people feel “constantly bombarded” by
ad messages; 59% feel ads have little relevance
– TV, radio broadcasts, newspapers, magazines, Internet, many physical
facilities, transit vehicles--all cluttered with ads
• Effectiveness remains controversial
• Research suggests that less than half of all ads generate a
positive return on their investment

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SALES PROMOTION

«Short-term incentives to encourage the purchase or

sale of a product or service»
Sales Promotion
– Defined as “Communication that comes with an incentive”
– Should be specific to a time period, price, or customer group
– Motivates customers to use a specific service sooner, in greater
volume with each purchase, or more frequently
– Interesting sales promotions can generate attention and put firm in
favorable light (especially if interesting results publicized)
– e.g. SAS International Hotels – If a hotel had vacant rooms, guests
over 65 years old could get a discount equivalent to their years
– When a guest announced his age as 102 and asked to be paid 2% of the room
rate in return for staying the night, he received it— and got a game of tennis with
the general manager!

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PUBLIC RELATIONS

«Building good relations with the company’s various

publics by obtaining favourable publicity, building up a
good corporate image, and handling or heading off
unfavourable rumors, stories and events»
Public Relations
– PR/Publicity involves efforts to stimulate positive interest in an
organization and its products through third parties
– e.g., press conferences, news releases, sponsorships
– Corporate PR specialists teach senior managers how to present
themselves well at public events, especially when faced with
hostile questioning
– Unusual activities can present an opportunity to promote
company’s expertise
– e.g., FedEx – safely transported two giant pandas from Chengdu, China, to the
National Zoo in Washington, D.C. in a FedEx aircraft renamed FedEx PandaOne.

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PERSONAL SELLING

«Personal presentation by the firm’s sales force for

the purpose of making sales and building consumer
relationships»
Personal Selling
• Interpersonal encounters educate customers and promote
preferences for particular brand or product
• Common in b2b and infrequently purchased services
• Many b2b firms have dedicated salesforce to do personal
selling
– Customer assigned to a designated account manager
• For services that are bought less often, firm’s representative
acts as consultant to help buyers make selection
• Face-to-face selling of new products is expensive—
telemarketing is lower cost alternative

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DIRECT MARKETING

«Direct connections with carefully targeted individual

consumers to both obtain an immediate response and
cultivate lasting customer relationships – the use of
telephone, mail, fax, e-mail, the Internet, and other
tools to communicate directly with specific consumers»
 Direct Marketing

• Mailings, recorded telephone messages, faxes, email

• Potential to send personalized messages to highly
targeted microsegments
– Need detailed database of information about customers and
prospects

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Direct Marketing
• Advance in on-demand technologies empower consumers
to decide how and when they prefer to be reached, and by
whom
– e.g. email spam filters, pop-up blockers, podcasting
• Permission Marketing goal is to persuade customers to
volunteer their attention
– Enables firms to build strong relationships with customers
– e.g., People invited to register at a firm’s website and specify what type
of information they like to receive via email

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The Changing Communications Environment

There are two major factors changing the face of

today’s marketing communications:

1. Focused marketing programs designed to build

closer relationships with customer in more
narrowly defined micromarkets.
 The Changing Comminications Environment

2. Vast improvements in information technology are

speeding towards segmented marketing.
Messages through Marketing Channels: Trade Shows
• Popular in b2b marketplace
• Stimulate extensive media coverage
• Many prospective buyers come to shows
• Opportunity to learn about latest offerings from wide variety of
suppliers
• Sales rep who usually reaches four to five potential customer
per day may be able to get five qualified leads per hour at a
show

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Messages through Internet: Company’s Website
• The web is used for a variety of communication tasks
– Creating consumer awareness and interest
– Providing information and consultation
– Allowing two-way communication with customers through email and chat rooms
– Encouraging product trial
– Allowing customers to place orders
– Measuring effectiveness of advertising or promotional campaigns

• Innovative companies look for ways to improve the appeal and

usefulness of their sites

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 Messages through Internet: Online Advertising
• Banner advertising
– Placing advertising banners and buttons on portals such as Yahoo,
Netscape and other firms’ websites
– Draw online traffic to the advertiser’s own site
– Web sites often include advertisements of other related, but non
competing services. E.g,
» Advertisements for financial service providers on Yahoo’s
stock quotes
page

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Messages through Internet: Online Advertising
• Search engine advertising
– Reverse broadcast network: search engines let advertisers know exactly
what consumer wants through their keyword search
– Can target relevant messages directly to desired consumers
– Several advertising options:
» Pay for targeted placement of ads to relevant keyword searches
» Sponsor a short text message with a click-through link
» Buy top rankings in the display of search results

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Moving from Impersonal to Personal Communications
• There used to be a difference between personal and
impersonal communication
• Technology has created a gray area between the two
• Direct mail and email can be personalized
• Electronic recommendation agents can also personalize
communications
• With advances of on-demand technologies, consumer are
increasingly empowered to decide how and when they like to
be reached

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Messages through Service Delivery Channels
• Service outlets
– Can be through banners, posters, signage, brochures, video screens,
audio etc.
• Frontline employees
– Communication from frontline staff can be for the core service or
supplementary elements
– New customers in particular need help from service personnel
• Self-service delivery points
– ATMs, vending machines and websites are examples

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Messages Originating from Outside the Organization
• Word of Mouth (WOM)
– Recommendations from other customers viewed as more credible
– Strategies to stimulate positive WOM:
» Having satisfied customers providing comments
» Using other purchasers and knowledgeable individuals as
reference
» Creating exciting promotions that get people talking
» Offering promotions that encourage customers to persuade their friend
to purchase
» Developing referral incentive schemes

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Messages Originating from Outside the Organization
• Blogs – A new type of online WOM
– Communications about customer experiences influence opinions of brands and
products
– Some firm have started to monitor blogs as form of market research and
feedback
• Twitter
– Becoming increasingly popular – fastest-growing social networking
service
• Media Coverage
– Compares, contrasts service offerings from competing organizations
– Advice on “best buys”

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Steps In Developing Efffective Communication

Step 1: Identifying the Target Audience

Image analysis:
Beliefs,
Ideas,
Attitudes,
Impressions &
Actions
– regarding an
object
Steps In Developing Efffective Communication

Step 2: Determining the Communication Objectives

Buyer Readiness Stages

Awareness

Knowledge

Liking

Preference

Conviction

Purchase
 Steps In Developing Effective Communication

Step 3. Designing a message

Message content
Rational Appeals
Emotional appeals
Moral appeals Message Structure
Draw Conclusions
Argument Type
Argument Order Message Source
Source credibility
Endorser
Message Format
Headline, Copy, Color,
Words & Sounds,
Body Language

ATTENTIO
ATTENTION INTEREST DESIRE ACTION
N
Steps In Developing Effective Communication

Step 4: Choosing Media

Personal Communication
Channels
Non-personal Communication
Channels
 Choice of Communication Channel

CHANNELS
PERSONAL NON PERSONAL

ADVOCATE EVENTS MEDIA

ATMOSPHERE
EXPERT PRINT
BROADCAST
NETWORK
ELECTRONIC
SOCIAL DISPLAY
 Steps In Developing Effective Communication

Step 5: Selecting the Message Source

• Personal selling
– direct presentation of a product to a prospective customer
by a representative of the selling organization
• Advertising
– A paid, impersonal mass communication with a
clearly- identified sponsor
• Sales promotion
– Demand-stimulating activity designed to
supplement advertising and facilitate personal selling
 Steps In Developing Effective Communication
Step 5: Selecting the Message Source

• Public relations
– A planned communication effort by an organization to
contribute to generally favourable attitudes and opinions
toward an organization and its products
• Publicity
– A special form of public relations that involves news stories
about an organization or its products
Steps In Developing Effective Communication

Step 6: Collecting Feedback

• Target audience is usually asked whether they

• Recognize or
• Recall
• The message
What else can influence Marketing Communication Mix
Type of product (service) – consumer or B2B
Stage of product life cycle
Level of consumer readiness to accept product (service)
Promotion strategy (Push or Pull)
Competitors MarCom Mix
Financial resources
Setting The Total Promotional Budget

Percentage-of-Sales
Affordable Method
Method

Competitive-parity Objective-and-Task
Method Method
Setting The Promotional Mix
Nature of Each Promotional Tool

Advertising
Reaches many Buyers, expressive,
Impersonal
Personal Selling
Personal Interaction, Builds Relationships,
Costly
Sales Promotion
Provides Strong Incentives to Buy
Short-lived
Public Relations
Believable, Effective, Economical
Underused by many Companies
Direct Marketing
Nonpublic, Immediate, Customized,
Interactive
Factors In Developing Promotion Mix Strategies
• push strategy
– directs communication efforts at channel members
– many products, such as business products, are promoted with
a push strategy, involving personal selling and use of trade
promotions
• pull strategy
– directs promotion at the end consumer
– most consumer products would rely more heavily on a pull
strategy
– where promotion is directed at the consumer to stimulate
demand
Factors In Developing Promotion Mix Strategies
Push Strategy: “Pushing” the product through Distribution Channels to
final Customer

Pull Strategy: Producer Directs it’s Marketing Activities Towards Final

Consumers to Induce them to Buy the Product

Product
Type of
Life-Cycle
Product/market
Stage

Buyer
Readiness
Stage
Chancing Face Of Marketing Communications

New Marketing Communications Realities

Improvements in
Marketers have shifted Information Technology
away from Mass has led to
Marketing Less Segmented Marketing
Broadcasting More Narrow Forecasting
Integrated Marketing Communications
Company Carefully Integrates and Coordinates its many Communication
Channels to Deliver a Clear, Consistent, Compelling Message

Packaging Advertising

Event
Marketing Message Personal Selling

Direct Sales Promotion

Marketing
Public Relations
Integrated Marketing Communications
A planning process
designed to assure
that all brand contacts
received by a customer or prospect for
a product, service, or organization
are relevant to that person and
consistent over time.
IMC Requirements
Awareness of audience’s media habits and
preferences
Understanding of audience’s knowledge
and beliefs
about the product
Use of coordinated media blend linked to a specific
objective
Key is a single, coordinated message and image
thrust
IMC
• Synergy
• Better use of communication funds
• Balancing the ‘push’ and ‘pull’ strategies
• Improves the company’s ability
– to reach
– the right consumer
– at the right place
– at the right time
– with the right message
What else is important?

Segmentation
Targeting
Positioning
Segmentation
– A market segment is basically
• a set of individuals unique in some way or the other
• Sharing one or more common characteristics
• Having similar needs
• Responding to market conditions in the same manner
• Have similar behavioural patterns
• May or may not be belonging to
– the same community,
– group or
– niche
Targeting
• Selecting the target audience (TA)
– for whom your product or service
– is meant to be, most likely based on
• Age group
• Likes and dislikes
• Gender
• Socio-economic factors
• Geographic location
Positioning
• Refers to the image your target audience has regarding your product or
service as compared to your competitors

• It is all the more essential in today's setup, where literally no sector is

devoid of an oligopolistic setup

• Primary, and in most cases, the ONLY objective:

– To highlight your product's USP in the most striking manner