8/22/2023

CHAPTER 3.
AUDIENCES AND
MESSAGE DESIGN

Outline

► 3.1.Research in International
Business Communications
► 3.2. Overview of audiences and
factors affecting their behavior

3.1.Research in
International
Business
Communications

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THE USES OF RESEARCH

Research is the foundation of the

marketing and marketing
communications decisions that will
ultimately become the basis for
strategic planning decisions.

Market & Brand information

• Consumer perceptions of the brand,

product category, and competitors’
brands.
• Brand information assesses the brand’s
role and performance in the
marketplace—leader, follower, or
challenger.

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Market & Brand information

How do we gather information about a brand and the
marketplace?

• The brand experience

• Competitive analysis
• Marketing communication audit
• Content analysis

Define and discuss each of these techniques.

Customer/Consumer Insight
Consumer insight research therefore involves three
areas of exploration:
(1) understanding the consumer
(2) knowing the competition and
(3) interrogating the product.
It includes everything a marketer or planner can
uncover about the consumer’s relationship with the
brand, the category, competitors’ brands and the
advertising (and other communications) itself.

The DDB agency found

that a barrier to
purchasing cheese was
the lack of good recipe
ideas using cheese
products.

The American Dairy

Association responded
by getting more recipes
distributed through
advertising and its
website.

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Tai Pei frozen food: Research helps

uncover key truths about the
consumer’s relationship with the brand

Media information
• Media planners, account planners decide which
media formats will accomplish the objectives.
• Media research gathers information about all the
possible media and marketing communication
tools that might be used to deliver a message.
• Researchers then match that information to what
is known about the target audience.

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Creative research
Planners, account managers, media researchers,
and the creative team conduct their own informal
and formal research:
• Visit stores
• Talk to salespeople
• Watch buyers
• Look at client’s past advertising
• Look at competitors’ past advertising

Evaluation research
Evaluates an ad for effectiveness after it has been
developed and produced; before and after it runs as
part of a campaign.

Pretesting is research on a finished ad before it runs

in the media.

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Information source
Primary Secondary

Information source
Secondary research

Background research using available published

information:
• Government organizations
• Trade associations
• Secondary research suppliers
• Secondary information on the Internet

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Information source
Primary research

Information collected for the first time from original

sources, such as primary research suppliers.

Which one of the following research is secondary,

which one is primary ?

• Reports from a marketing research agency

• Customer satisfaction survey ran by the company
• The national consensus
• Direct interview with a group of customers

Research designs
Quantitative research design

Quantitative research design delivers numerical data

such as:
• numbers of users and purchases
• their attitudes and knowledge
• their exposure to ads
• other market-related information.
Use large sample sizes (100-1,000) and random sampling to conduct surveys and studies that track, count
or measure things like sales and opinions.

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Research designs
Quantitative research design

Survey Research
A quantitative method using structured interviews to
ask a large number of people the same question

For accuracy, researchers select a random sample

to represent the entire group (population).
Collection methods include telephone, door to door,
the Internet, mail.

Research designs
Qualitative research design

Qualitative research explores underlying reasons for

consumer behavior.
Research methods include:
• Observation
• Ethnographic studies
• In-depth interviews
• Focus group

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Problem Recognition
Some corporations and advertising agencies have used motivation research
to gain further insights into how consumers think.
► Chrysler had consumers sit on the floor, like children, and use scissors to cut
words out of magazines to describe a car.
► McCann Erickson asked women to draw and describe how they felt about
roaches. The agency concluded that many women associated roaches with
men who had abandoned them and that this was why women preferred roach
killers that let them see the roaches die.
► Saatchi & Saatchi used psychological probes to conclude that Ronald
McDonald created a more nurturing mood than did the Burger King (who was
perceived as more aggressive and distant).
► Foote Cone & Belding gave consumers stacks of photographs of faces and
asked them to associate the faces with the kinds of people who might use
particular products.
► The advertising agency Marcus Thomas, LLC conducted in-depth one-on-one
interviews and used projective techniques to determine underlying
motivations for choosing one cardiovascular care facility over another.

How do you choose

a research method?
• Validity means the research actually measures what it says it
measures. Poorly worded questions and samples that don’t
represent the population hurt validity.

• Reliability means you can run the same test again and get the
same answer.

• Quantitative methods are better at gathering descriptive data,

and qualitative methods are better at uncovering reasons and
motives.

ACTIVITY

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3.2. Overview of
audiences and
factors affecting
their behavior

DEFINITION
•Target audiences (TA) are individuals or groups that the
enterprise's communication activities are aimed at and want to
influence.

•First step of marcom planning: determine the target audiences

TYPES OF TARGET AUDIENCES:

Target audiences

Current Customers of
customers competitors
Influencer
Potential
group
customers

Approach:
(1) Clarify the profile of potential customers
(2) Who is their influencer group, how much influence do they receive
(3) Do current customers influence the decisions of potential customers?
(4) Does a competitor's customers have a (negative) influence on a potential customer's decision?
(5) What are demographic, behavioral, and psychological characteristics of potential customers in the same group?

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Customers of
competitors
Current
customers
Experts

Group of influencers

Enterprise Potential customers

Send a message

Need to specify the receiving channel, the behavior of receiving

messages

Need to specify the transmission channel, the behavior of conveying the

message

CUSTOMER PROFILE
TARGET CUSTOMERS

INFORMATION TO COLLECT:
1. Demographic characteristics: age, gender, income , place of residence, occupation , education ,
country, nationality, etc.
2. Psychological characteristics : expectations, frustrations, etc.
3. Behavioral characteristics: receive information (which channel, purpose of use , time of use ,etc.),
4. Characteristics of buying behavior: buying selection criteria, where and when to buy, influencers, etc.

PRESENTATION FORM:
Profile (Customer Persona) for customers
The profile of the customer should have a picture of the customer and a hypothetical name suitable to the
stated demographic characteristics

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Determine customer profile

through 5W2H
► WHO: Age, Gender, Education, Occupation, Job title, Income, Marital status, Having children or
not, number of children, Initiator/ Buyer/ User/ Decider/ Influencer (direct and indirect)...
► WHAT: Their JTBD, Barriers to purchase/ use, Criteria for choice, Hobbies
► WHY: Why they need our product? (Why 1), Why 2, Why 3... (See next slide)
► WHERE: Where do they buy? Where do they use the product? Where do they live? Where do
they work? Where do they read news? Where do they entertain? Where do they study?...
► WHEN: When do they have needs? When do they run out of products and buy back? When do
they buy? When do they use the product? When do they prefer to receive the product? When
do they search for information?...
► HOW: How do they buy? How do they make payments?...
► HOW MUCH/ HOW MANY: How many products they buy? How much are they willing to pay for
the product?...

Determine customer profile

through 5W2H
► Why 1: Why do customers
need instant wholegrain
breakfast cereals?
► They want to have a convenient and ► They want to loose weight  Why 2?
healthy breakfast.  Why 2? 
► They are overweight after giving birth
► They have enough time for preparing
breakfast for their children and take ► They are preparing marriage  Why 3?
their children to school.  They want to fit wedding dress

► They have time to practice yoga 

Why 3?
► They have health problem
► They practice yoga to stay fit  Why
4?

Activity: Describe the advertisement and

identify Target Audience (20 min)
► In group, you will present three key pieces of information:
► Firstly, you will insert into your assignment a picture of the
advertisement that you have been allocated.
► Secondly, you will describe the advertisement. You should include any
branding, slogans, call to action text, celebrity endorsers, colours,
links to websites and social media, any imagery or style cues that you
think are important.
► Lastly, answer the question “what do you think the advertisement
wants the reader to do?”

► Identification of the Advertisement’s Target Audience:

Here you will describe who you think the advertisement is
targeting.

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Consumer Decision-Making
Process

Problem Recognition

► The consumer perceives a need and becomes

motivated to solve the problem
► Is caused by a difference between the
consumer’s ideal state and actual state

► Sources of Problem Recognition?

Problem Recognition

► Sources of Problem Recognition:

► Out of Stock
► Dissatisfaction
► New Needs/Wants
► Related Products/Purchases
► Marketer-Induced Problem Recognition
► New (innovative) Products

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Problem Recognition

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Self-actualization needs
(self-development, realization)
Esteem needs
(self-esteem, recognition, status)
Social needs
(sense of belonging, love)
Safety needs
(security, protection)
Physiological needs
(hunger, thirst)

Problem Recognition

Psychoanalytic Theory (Sigmund Freud)

► Study the underlying motivations for human behavior
► Consumers’ motivations for purchasing are often very
complex and unclear to the casual observer—and to the
consumers themselves.
► Many motives for purchase and/or consumption may be
driven by deep motives one can determine only by probing
the subconscious.

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Information Search

 Internal search

 External search
 Sources of external info?

Information Search

Sources of external information:

► Internet sources: companies’ websites, consumer postings,
and organizations like Toplist, Websosanh, and so on
► Personal sources: friends, relatives, or co-workers.

► Marketer-controlled (commercial) sources: information from

advertising, salespeople, or point-of-purchase displays and
packaging.
► Public sources: articles in magazines or newspapers and
reports on TV and so on.
► Personal experience: actually handling, examining, or
testing the product.

External Search

 Ability to search
 Motivation
 Level of involvement
 Need for cognition
 Shopping enthusiasm
 Perceived cost
 Perceived benefit

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Involvement/engagement
in purchase decisions

Involvement and engagement refer to

the degree to which consumers are
engaged in making a product decision
or attending to an ad.

Perception

► Perception: The process by which an individual

receives, selects, organizes, and interprets information
to create a meaningful picture of the world.
► is an individual process
► depends on internal factors such as a person’s beliefs,
experiences, needs, moods, and expectations.
► is also influenced by the characteristics of a stimulus (such as
its size, color, and intensity) and the context in which it is seen
or heard

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3-
49

In this ad for Simply Orange, the use of color and context

influences the consumer’s perception and
helps promote the urge to purchase orange juice
Source: Simply Orange Juice Company

Perception
► Sensation - immediate, direct response of the senses
(taste, smell, sight, touch, and hearing) to a stimulus
such as an ad, package, brand name, or point-of-
purchase display.

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Perception
► Selecting Information
- People focus attention on some things and ignore
others because of psychological inputs (i.e., internal
psychological factors) such as the consumer’s
personality, needs, motives, expectations, and
experiences.

Perception

► Interpreting the Information

► the perceptual process focuses on organizing,
categorizing, and interpreting the incoming
information.
► is very individualized and is influenced by internal
psychological factors.
► also depend in part on the nature of the stimulus
(clarity vs. ambiguity, objectivity vs. subjectivity,
etc.)

Selective Perception

► Selectivity occurs throughout the various

stages of the consumer’s perceptual process

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Selective Perception

► Selective exposure occurs as consumers choose whether or

not to make themselves available to information.
► Selective attention occurs when the consumer chooses to
focus attention on certain stimuli while excluding others.
► Selective comprehension: consumers interpret information
on the basis of their own attitudes, beliefs, motives, and
experiences.
► Selective retention: consumers do not remember all the
information they see, hear, or read.

Color is used to attract attention to Coke products

Source: The Coca-Cola Company

Subliminal Perception
► The ability to perceive a stimulus that is below the
level of conscious awareness.
► Advertisers know consumers use selective perception
to filter out irrelevant or unwanted advertising
messages, so they employ various creative tactics to
get their messages noticed

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Subliminal Perception
► Coke's naked ice lady
► The Camel logo for the image of
a naked man with his "cigarette"
hanging out

Evaluation of Alternatives

► Evoked set: a which the consumer

is aware. subset of all the brands of
► The goal of most advertising and
promotional strategies is to
increase the likelihood that a brand
will be included in the consumer’s
evoked set and considered during
alternative evaluation (importance
of top of mind awareness &
reminder ad).

Evaluation of Alternatives
All available brands
Brand A Brand B Brand C Brand D Brand E

Brand F Brand G Brand H Brand I Brand J

Brand K Brand L Brand M Brand N Brand O

Evoked Set of Brands

Brand B Brand E

Brand F Brand I

Brand M

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Evaluative Criteria

► Dimensions or attributes of a product or service

that are used to compare different alternatives.

► Objective criteria

price, warrantee, etc.

► Subjective criteria

style, appearance, image, etc.

► Functional vs. Psychosocial outcomes

Consumer Attitude

► An individual’s overall feelings toward or

evaluation of an object
► Attitudes are important to marketers because they represent
positive or negative feelings and behavioral tendencies.

► Multi-attribute Attitude Models

Consumer Attitude

► Components of attitude
 Affective (feelings & emotions)
 Cognitive (knowledge & beliefs)
 Conative (intended behaviors)

► Attitude sequence
 Cognitive  Affective  Conative
 Affective  Conative  Cognitive
 Conative  Cognitive  Affective

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Consumer Attitude

Do – feel – learn example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R
-CuOOVjsUk

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3-
67

What emotion does this

Pamper Wipes
advertisement solicit?

Which attitude sequence

would be the most likely for
this product?

“Some things can be rough.”

“Her wipe shouldn’t be one of them.”

Attitude change strategies

► Can we change consumers’ attitude? and How?

Attitude change strategies

► Increasing or changing the strength or belief rating of a

brand on an important attribute (Colgate Optic White
toothpaste has the best whitening power).
► Changing consumers’ perceptions of the importance or
value of an attribute (Michelin tires provide higher gas
mileage and safety).
► Adding a new attribute to the attitude formation process
(the product is environmentally friendly [Clorox Green]).
► Changing perceptions of belief ratings for a competing
brand (GM shows its cars can compete with anyone’s).

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This Michelin ad stresses

advantages over
competitors’ ads. What
positioning strategy is
being employed?

Source: Michelin North

America, Inc.

Integration
► The way product ► heuristics (e.g., price-
knowledge, meanings, and based or promotion-
beliefs are combined to
based for familiar,
evaluate two or more frequently purchased
alternatives
products)
Different types of decision
affect referral
►
►
rules or strategies decision rule (based
consumers use to decide on overall impression
among purchase of various
alternatives.
alternatives)

Purchase decision

► Purchase intention or predisposition to buy a certain

brand.
► A purchase decision is not the same as an actual
purchase
► The purchase decision can be affected by:
– Attitudes of others
– Unexpected situational factors

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Post-purchase evaluation

► The post-purchase reaction is the

satisfaction or dissatisfaction the
consumer feels about the purchase.
► Relationship between:
– Consumer’s expectations
– Product’s perceived performance

Influences on consumer decisions

Influences on consumer decisions

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Influences on consumer decisions

► Ads targeted to subcultures

(Left): © Liya Kebede @ Viva Paris for L’Oréal Paris;
(Right): Source: Estée Lauder Inc

Influences on consumer decisions

ROLES IN PURCHASE DECISION

(1) An initiator is the person who suggests the idea

of a purchase
(2) An influencer gives advice or uses their power
to influences what gets chosen
(3) The decider ultimately decides what is to be
bought and when
(4) Buyers pay for it
(5) Users consume or use it.

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Business-to-Business
Buyer Behavior

The Buying Center

Individual Factors Affecting the Behaviors of

Buying Center Members

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Consumer Buying Process B-to-B Buying Process

Problem Identification
Recognition Of Needs

Establish Specifications
Information
Search

Identify Vendors

Evaluation
Of
Evaluate Vendors
Alternatives

Select Vendor
Purchase
Decision
Purchase Negotiations

Postpurchase
Evaluation

Customer journey
► Customer journeys are the complete set of interactions that a
consumer has with a brand for any given task or decision.

Source: McKinsey

Customer journey & some models used in advertising

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FCB grid by Richard Vaughn

Customer insight

Customer insight (CI)?

► ‘A non-obvious understanding of your customers which, if

acted upon, has the potential to change their behaviour for
mutual benefit’. – Paul Laughlin (Journal of Direct, Data and
Digital Marketing Practice, 2014)

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Customer insight?
► Four parts of that definition:
► 1. Insight is ‘non-obvious’ so it does not normally come from just one
source of information — often it does not come from just analysis or
research either. Rather, there is a need to converge evidence to glean
insights.
► 2. True insights need to be actionable — hypotheses that stay
theoretical and cannot be tested in practice are not insights.
► 3. Customer insights should be powerful enough that, when they are
acted upon, they can persuade individuals to change their behaviour.
Just benefiting from targeting based on analysing past behaviour and
assuming people will be creatures of habit does not reveal any depth of
understanding about them, let alone insight.
► 4. To be sustainable, the goal of such customer change must be for
mutual benefit. A key law for marketing today is ‘earn and keep the trust
of your customers’, which is achieved by acting in their best interests as
well as generating long-term value for the organization.

Process of searching for CI – DIKW pyramid

(Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom)
DECISION
Change behaviors,
Create trends
W: WISDOM OR INSIGHT
Understanding,
Analysis

comprehensive, feasible
K: KNOWLEDGE
context specific, organized and
synthesized

I: INFORMATION
Useful, well-structured

D: DATA
Collected from many sources, by many methods

Criteria for good CI?

► Surprising: makes you wonder “Aha, so it is! Why didn't I
think of it before? (CI differs from information/data in that it
is not immediately visible, but once you see it, you
suddenly realize the problem)
► Suitable: it has both the element of surprise and the
familiar, so it fits. It must make customers recognize them
in it, thereby have a favorable view. During the CI
conformity check process, it is necessary to approach very
close to your customer to understand clearly their lifestyle,
opinion, behavior
► Call to action: make customers feel they need to take some
action to change the current situation.
► CI is different from ideas: CI is the starting point of
countless subsequent ideas, an inspiration for branding,
innovation and customer experience improvement.

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Methods for searching CI

Observation

In-depth interview

Qualitative Focus group

Primary
research Survey
Quantitative
Research Experiment

Secondary Secondary
research sources

Secondary research

4C (Category, Competitor, Company, Customer)

► Category: general description of the market, current
market structure, market size, current customer segments,
key competitors, current and future market potential,
financials of competitors, ...
► Competitor: content posted on the web, social media, how
to interact with customers on social media, main keywords
in Google search, online advertising campaigns in the
past...
► Company: data related to past communication campaigns
► Customer: unmet needs, worries, media habits, behavior on
social media and other communication channels...

Secondary data collection

► Method 1: Leverage credible and available data sources

► Deep analytical data: fiingroup, euromonitor,
mordorintelligence, mintel, researchandmarkets,
marketsandmarkets, str
► Quick lookup data: statista, emarketer, forrester, WB open
data, GSO
► Method 2: using web scraping tools (scraping Bee, DiffBot;
Octoparse, Data Miner, Portia, Dexi,io, Fminer,
WebScraper,io, ParseHub)
► Method 3: Leverage internal data of enterprises (financial
data, sales, marketing, CRM, customer behavior tracking
on web and/or app)

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