CHAPTER: 6

Integrating
Marketing
Communications to
Build Brand Equity
Learning Objectives
• Describe some of the changes in the new media
environment.
• Outline the major marketing communication options.
• Describe some of the key tactical issues in evaluating
different communication options.
• Identify the choice criteria in developing an integrated
marketing communication program.
• Explain the rationale for mixing and matching
communication options.
Marketing Communication
• Means by which firms attempt to inform, persuade,
and remind consumers about the brands they sell.

• Can contribute to brand equity by:

• Creating awareness of the brand.
• Linking points-of-parity and points-of-difference
associations to the brand in consumers’ memory.
• Eliciting positive brand judgments or feelings.
• Facilitating a stronger consumer-brand connection and
brand resonance.
The New Media Environment
• It has changed dramatically in recent years:

• Traditional advertising media seem to be losing their

grip.
• Digital revolution has changed the way consumers
learn and talk about brands.
• Changing media landscape has forced marketers to
re-evaluate how they should best communicate with
consumers.
The New Media Environment
Challenges in Designing Brand-Building
Communications

• Information processing model of

communications

Role of Multiple Communications

Challenges in Designing Brand-Building
Communications

• Skilfully designed and implemented marketing

communications programs:

• Should be efficient and effective.

• Require careful planning and creative knack.

Information Processing Model of Communications

• For a person to be persuaded by any form of

communication the following steps must occur:

• Exposure: Seeing or hearing communication.

• Attention: Noticing communication.
• Comprehension: Understanding the intended message.
• Yielding: Responding favorably to the message.
• Intentions: Planning to act in the desired manner of
communication.
• Behavior: Actually acting in the desired manner.
•An ideal advertisement campaign would ensure:
• The right consumer is exposed to the right message at the
right place and at the right time.
• The creative strategy for the advertising causes the consumer
to notice and attend to the ad but does not distract from the
intended message.
• The ad properly reflects the consumer’s level of
understanding about the product and the brand.
• The ad correctly positions the brand in terms of desirable and
deliverable points-of-difference and points-of-parity.
• The ad motivates consumers to consider purchase of the
brand.
• The ad creates strong brand associations to all these stored
communication effects so that they can have an effect when
consumers are considering making a purchase.
Figure 6.2: Simple Test for Marketing
Communication Effectiveness
Role of Multiple Communications
• Advantages of multiple communications:

• Optimal utilization of monetary and other resources.

• Different communication options also may target

different market segments.
Marketing Communication
Options
Marketing Communication

Advertising and Events and

Interactive Mobile
Promotion Marketing Experiences Marketing
Advertising
• Any paid form of non-personal presentation and
promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified
sponsor.

• Powerful means of creating strong, favorable, and

unique brand associations and eliciting positive
judgments and feelings.

• Specific effects are difficult to quantify and predict.

Types of Advertising Media
Television

Radio

Print

Direct Response

Place
Television

• Advantages
• Effective means of vividly demonstrating product
attributes and persuasively explaining their
corresponding consumer benefits.
• Compelling means for dramatically portraying user and
usage imagery, brand personality, emotions, and other
brand intangibles.
Television

• Disadvantages
• Due to the fleeting nature of the message, consumers
can overlook product-related messages and the brand
itself.
• The large number of ads and nonprogramming material
on television creates clutter that makes it easy for
consumers to ignore or forget ads.
• The large number of channels creates fragmentation,
and the widespread existence of digital video recorders
gives viewers the means to skip commercials.
Television

• Guidelines
• In designing and evaluating an ad campaign, marketers
should:
• Define the proper positioning to maximize brand equity.
• Identify the best creative strategy to communicate or convey
the desired positioning.
• Effective TV ad should contribute to brand equity in
some demonstrable way.
• Copy testing can be conducted to evaluatethe
effectiveness of message and creative strategies.
Radio

• Advantages
• Is flexible and stations are highly targeted.
• Ads are relatively inexpensive to produce and place.
• Effective medium in the morning and can effectively
complement or reinforce TV ads.
• Enables companies to achieve a balance between broad
and localized market coverage.
• Disadvantage
• Lack of visual image.
Radio

• Relatively passive nature of consumer processing.

• Guidelines
• Identify your brand early in the commercial.
• Identify it often.
• Promise the listener a benefit early in the commercial.
• Repeat it often.
Print

• Advantages
• Self-paced, provides detailed product information.
• Magazines are particularly effective at building user and
usage imager.
• Newspapers are more timely and pervasive
• Disadvantages
• Poor reproduction quality and short shelf life diminish
some of the possible impact of newspaper advertising.
• Guidelines
Print

• Creative guidelines for print ads are that of clarity,

consistency, and branding.
Direct response
• Advantages
• Makes it easier for marketers to establish relationships
with consumers.
• Allows marketers to explain new developments with
their brands to consumers on an ongoing basis.
• Allows consumers to provide feedback to marketers
about their likes and dislikes.
• Guidelines
Place
• Develop an up-to-date and informative list of current
and potential future customers.
• Put forth the right offer in the right manner.
• Track the effectiveness of the marketing program.
• Precision marketing - Combining data analytics with
strategic messages and compelling colors and designs in
their communication.
• pLACE
• Known as “non-traditional,” “alternative,” “support”
or out- of- home advertising
• Marketers reach out to people in environments,
where they work, play, and, of course, shop
Place
• Advantages
• Can reach a very precise and captive audience in a cost-
effective and increasingly engaging manner.
• More effective at enhancing awareness or reinforcing
existing brand associations than at creating new ones.
• Guidelines
• As the audience must process out-of-home ads quickly,
the message must be simple and direct.
• Marketers must stress on creative means of placing the
brand in front of consumers.
Promotion

Consumer Promotions

Trade Promotions
• Promotion
• Are short-term incentives to encourage trial or usage of
a product or service.
• Are designed to change the behavior of the:
• Trade so that they carry the brand and actively support it.
• Consumers so that they buy a brand for the first time, buy
more of the brand, or buy the brand earlier or more often.
Consumer promotions
• Designed to change the choices, quantity, or timing of
consumers’ product purchases.
• Type of consumer promotions:
 • Customer franchise building promotions like samples,
demonstrations, and educational material.
• Noncustomer franchise building promotions such as price-off
packs, premiums, sweepstakes, and refund offers.
• Customer franchise building promotions can affect brand
loyalty.
• Marketers evaluate sales promotions by their ability to
contribute to brand equity and generate sales.
Trade promotions
• Financial incentives given to channel members to
facilitate the sale of a product through slotting
allowances, point-of-purchase displays, contests and
dealer incentives, training programs, trade shows, and
cooperative advertising.
• Designed either to secure shelf space and distribution for
a new brand, or to achieve more prominence on the
shelf and in the store.
Promotions
• Advantages
• Permit manufacturers to charge different prices to
groups of consumers who vary in their price sensitivity.

• Convey a sense of urgency to consumers.

• Can build brand equity through actual product

experience.

• Encourage the trade to maintain full stocks and

support the manufacturer’s merchandising efforts
 Promotions
• Disadvantages
• Decreased brand loyalty and increased brand switching.

• Decreased quality perceptions, and increased price sensitivity.

• Inhibit the use of franchise.

• Divert marketing funds sales promotion.

• Increase the importance of price as a factor in consumer

decisions.

• May subsidize buyers who would have bought the brand

anyway.
Online Marketing Communication
Web Sites

On line Ads and Videos

Social Media
Online marketing communication
• Advantages of marketing on the Web
• Low cost, greater level of detail and higher degree of
customization.
• Can accomplish almost any marketing communication
objective .
• Valuable in terms of solid relationship building.
Web sites
• Encourages the collaborative effort required for
brand building, between consumers and marketers.
• Marketers must carefully monitor different forums
and Web site pages that may include ratings,
reviews, and feedback on brands.
Online ads and videos
• Use banner ads, richmedia ads, and other types of
ads for the purpose of advertisement.
• Advantages
• Accountable
 • Nondisruptive
• Targets consumers such that only the most promising
prospects are contacted, who can seek information as
they desire.
Disadvantage
• Consumers may ignore banner ads and screen them out
with pop-up filters.
Social media
• Advantages
 • Allows brands to establish a public voice and presence
on the Web.
• Complements and reinforces other communication
activities.
• Helps promote innovation and relevance for the brand.
• Provide an easy means for consumers to learn from and
express attitudes and opinions to others.
• Disadvantage
• Not everyone actively participates in social media.
Events and Experiences
• Focus on engaging the consumers’ senses and
imagination as a part of brand building.

• Event marketing: Public sponsorship of events or

activities related to sports, art, entertainment, or
social causes.

• Range from extravagant sponsorship events to a

simple local in-store product demonstration:
• Rationale
• Guidelines
Rationale
• To identify with a particular target market or lifestyle.
• To increase awareness of the company or product name.
• To create or reinforce consumer perceptions of key brand
image associations.
• To enhance corporate image dimensions.
• To create experiences and evoke feelings.
• To express commitment to the community or on social issues.
• To entertain key clients or reward key employees.
• To permit merchandising or promotional opportunities.
Guidelines
• Choosing sponsorship opportunities
• Sponsor ship events:
 • Must meet the marketing objectives and communication
strategy defined for the brand.
• Must have:
• Sufficient awareness.
• Possess the desired image.
• Be capable of creating the desired effects with the target market.
• Should closely match the ideal target market in terms of
the audience attending the event.
 • Should be unique but not encumbered with many
sponsors.
• Designing sponsorship programs
• Sponsor should strategically identify itself at an event
through banners, signs, and programs.
• Measuring sponsorship activities
• Supply-side method- Focuses on potential exposure to
the brand by assessing the extent of media coverage.
• Demand-side method- Focuses on reported exposure
from consumers.
Mobile Marketing
• Product advertising on various mobile platforms.

• Geotargeting: Marketers send messages to

consumers based on their location and the
activities they are engaging in.

• Opt-in advertising: Users agree to allow

advertisers to use specific, personal information
send them targeted ads and promotions.
To Sum up...
• Marketing communication is indispensible to the
process of brand building.

• Developments in technology has provided new and

creative modes of communication.

• Marketers should employ judicious communications

mix to achieve their goals.
Brand Amplifiers
• Efforts made to engage consumers and the public
via word-of-mouth and public relations and
publicity.

• Amplify the effects created by other marketing

activities through:
• Public relations and publicity
• Word-of-mouth
• Public relations and publicity
• Publicity: Nonpersonal communications such as
press releases, media interviews, press conferences,
films, and tapes.
• Public relations: Include annual reports, fund-
raising and membership drives, lobbying, special
event management, and public affairs feature
articles, newsletters, photographs, films, and tapes.
• Word-of-mouth
• Critical aspect of brand building.
• Consumers share likes, dislikes, and experiences
with each other.
• Assures greater degree of credibility and relevance.
• Buzz marketing: Various techniques marketers
apply to get people notice and talk about the brand.
Developing Integrated Marketing
Communication Program (IMC)

Criteria
for IMC
Programs

Using
IMC
Choice
Criteria
• Developing integrated marketing communication
program (IMC)
• Choosing the best set of marketing communication
options and managing the relationships between
them.
• Example - Kellog’s “ Share your breakfast” campaign
included:
• A Web site where consumers could upload pictures of
their breakfast.
• In turn, Kellogs would donate a meal through a
partnership with the nonprofit, Action for Healthy Kids.
Criteria For IMC Program

Coverage Contribution Commonality

Complementarity Comformability Cost

• Coverage
• Proportion of the audience reached by each communication option, as
well as how much overlap exists among communication options.
Contribution
• Inherent ability of a marketing communication to create the desired
response and communication effects from consumers in the absence of
exposure to any other communication option.
Commonality
• Extent to which common information conveyed by different
communication options shares meaning across communication options.
Complementarity
• Describes the extent to which different associations and linkages are
emphasized across communication options.
Conformability
• Extent that a marketing communication option is robust and
effective for different groups of consumers.
• Types of conformability
• Communication conformability - Ability of the mode of
communication to effectively communicate with the diverse group
of customers.
• Consumer conformability - Ability of the communication option to
inform or persuade consumers who vary on dimensions other than
communication history.
Cost
• To arrive at the most effective and efficient communication
program evaluations of marketing communications on all of
the preceding criteria must be weighed against their cost.
Using IMC Choice Criteria

Evaluating Communication Options

Establishing Priorities and Trade-Offs

• Evaluating communication options
• Communication types vary in their:
• Breadth and depth of audience coverage.
• Commonality and conformability according to the
number of modalities they employ.
• To arrive at a final mix requires making decisions on
priorities and tradeoffs among the IMC choice
criteria.
Establishing priorities and trade-offs
• Three possible tradeoffs with the IMC choice
criteria resulting from overlaps in coverage are:
• Commonality and complementarity will often be
inversely related.
• Conformability and complementarity will also often be
inversely related.
• Commonality and conformability do not share an
obvious relationship.
Figure 6.7: General Marketing
Communication Guidelines