Chapter One

An Introduction to Integrated
Marketing Communications
• Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception,
pricing, promotion,

• And distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges

that satisfy individual and organizational objectives.

• Exchange------relationship marketing----------value---------customer
relationship management(CRM)
 Marketing is defined by the American Marketing Association as "the
activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating,
delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients,
partners, and society at large." The term developed from the original
meaning which referred literally to going to market with goods for sale.
 From a sales process engineering perspective, marketing is "a set of
processes that are interconnected and interdependent with other functions" of
a business aimed at achieving customer interest and satisfaction.
 Philip Kotler defines marketing as“ marketing is about Satisfying needs and
wants through an exchange process”
•Marketing communications (MC, marcom(s), marcomm(s)) uses different
marketing channels and tools in combination: Marketing communication
channels focuses on any way a business communicates a message to its
desired market, or the market in general. A marketing communication tool
can be anything from: advertising, personal selling, direct marketing,
sponsorship, communication, promotion and public relations.
•Marketing communications are made up of the marketing mix which is
made up of 4P's: Price, Promotion, Place and Product, for a business selling
goods, and made up of 7P's: Price, Promotion, Place, Product, People,
Physical evidence and Process, for a service based business.
• “IMC is the integrated management of all communications to
build positive and lasting relationships with customers and
other stakeholders.

• “It is a customer-centric, data-driven approach to marketing

and branding that stresses communicating to consumers
through multiple forms of media and technology”.
• “IMC plans balance an institution’s responsibility to create
awareness with its need to generate results.”

• The objectives of integrated marketing communications are to

co-ordinate all of the company’s marketing and promotional
efforts to project and reinforce a consistent, unified image of the
company or its brands to the market-place.
• IMC is a concept of marketing communications planning that
recognizes the added value of a comprehensive plan that evaluates
strategic roles of a variety of communication disciplines.

• For example, general advertising, direct response, sales promotion,

publicity and public relations -and combines these disciplines to provide
clarity, consistency, and maximum communications impact.
•Today IMC is more likely to be talked about in terms of ‘customer
relationships’.

• In fact, Kotler (2003) has put it in just those terms. He now defines IMC
as ‘a way of looking at the whole marketing process from the viewpoint
of the customer ’.
• Integrated marketing communications (IMC) is the use of
marketing strategies to optimize the communication of a
consistent message of the company's brands to stakeholders.

• Coupling methods together improves communication as it

harnesses the benefits of each channel,

• which when combined together builds a clearer and vaster

impact than if used individually.
• Some of the key definitions that have been advanced during IMC's
evolution are outlined here:
 "IMC is the process of all sources and information managed so a
consumer or prospect is exposed which behaviorally moves the customer
more towards a sale." (Schultz, 1991)[78]
 "The strategic co-ordination of all messages and media used by an
organization to influence its perceived brand value." (Duncan and Everett,
1993) [79]

• "The process of strategically controlling or influencing all messages and

encoring purposeful dialogue to created and nourish profitable

relationships with consumers and other stakeholders." (Duncan &

Caywood, 1996)
A Contemporary Perspective of IMC

Recognized as a business process

IMC Multiple relevant audiences

Demand for accountability and

measurement of outcomes
 Reasons for Growing Importance of IMC
• During the 1980s, many companies began taking a broader perspective of
marketing communication and seeing the need for a more strategic
integration of their promotional tools.

Major characteristics of this marketing revolution include:

• A shifting of marketing expenditures from traditional media advertising to

other forms of promotion as well as nontraditional media.

• The rapid growth of the Internet and social media that is changing the
nature of how companies do business and the ways they communicate and
interact with consumers.

• A shift in marketplace power from manufacturers to retailers.

Cont.…….

• The growth and development of database marketing.

• Demands for greater accountability from advertising agencies and changes

in the way agencies and other marketing communication firms are
compensated.
 More budget allocation for sales promotion due to intensifying
competition.
 In general, advertising has become more expensive and less cost effective.
 Escalating price competition is resulting in more price promotions than
advertising.
 Power of trade compels companies to offer fees and allowances for
promotion.
 The Role of IMC in Branding

Brand Identity is a combination of factors: Name, logo, symbols,

design, packaging, product or service performance, and image or
associations in the consumer’s mind.

IMC plays a major role in the process of developing and sustaining

brand identity and equity.
The Promotional Mix: The Tools for IMC
Elements of the Promotional Mix

• Advertising

• Direct Marketing

• Interactive/ Internet Marketing

• Sales Promotion

• Publicity and Public Relations

• Personal Selling
• Advertising is any paid form of non-personal communication about
an organization, product, service, or idea by an identified sponsor.

• In direct marketing organizations communicate directly with target

customers to generate a response and/or a transaction. It involves
activities such as database management, direct selling, telemarketing,
and direct-response advertising through direct mail, the Internet, and

various broadcast and print media.

• Direct Marketing is Part of IMC

 Direct Mail

Internet Sales Direct Response

Advertising
Direct
Marketing
Shopping Channels Telemarketing

Catalogs
• Interactive/Internet marketing allow users to perform a variety
of functions such as receive and alter information and images,
make inquiries, respond to questions, and, of course make
purchases.

• Interactive media allow for a back-and-forth flow of information

whereby users can participate in and modify the form and content
of the information they receive in real life.
• Sales promotion are those marketing activities that provide
extra value or incentives to the sales force, distributors, or the
ultimate consumer and can stimulate immediate sales.

• Publicity refers to non-personal communications regarding an

organization, product, service, or idea not directly paid for or run
under identified sponsorship.
• Public relations is the management function which evaluates
public attitudes, identifies the policies and procedures of an
individual or organization with the public interest, and executes
a program of action to earn public understanding and
acceptance.
• Personal selling is a form of person-to-person
communication in which a seller attempts to assist and/or
persuade prospective buyers to purchase the company’s
product or service or to act on an idea.
IMC Planning Process
• The first step in the IMC planning process is to review the marketing
plan and objectives.
• Before developing a promotional plan, marketers must understand where
the company (or the brand) has been, its current position in the market,
where it intends to go, and how it plans to get there.
• Most of this information should be contained in the marketing plan, a
written document that describes the overall marketing strategy and
programs developed for an organization, a particular product line, or a
brand.
• Marketing plans can take several forms but generally include five basic
elements:
1. A detailed situation analysis that consists of an internal marketing audit and
review and an external analysis of the market competition and environmental
factors.
2. Specific marketing objectives that provide direction, a time frame for
marketing activities, and a mechanism for measuring performance.
3. A marketing strategy and program that include selection of target market(s)
and decisions and plans for the four elements of the marketing mix.
4. A program for implementing the marketing strategy, including determining
specific task to be performed and responsibilities.
5. A process for monitoring and evaluating performance and providing feedback
so that proper control can be maintained and any necessary changes can be
made in the overall marketing strategy or tactics.
 Market Segmentation
Market segmentation is a marketing term that refers to aggregating
prospective buyers into groups of segments with common needs who
respond similarly to a marketing action .

It enables companies to target different categories of consumer who

perceive the full value of certain products and services differently from
one another.
• Markets can be segmented in several ways:

Geographically: is technically a subset of demographic segmentation.

This approach groups customers by physical location, assuming that
people with in a given geographical area may have similar needs.

• For Example: A clothing retailer may display more raingear in their

pacific north west location compared to south west location.
 Market segmentation

Demographic
Demographic
variables
variables
• Behaviorally: is relies heavily on market data, consumer actions, and
decision making patterns of customers.

• This approach groups consumers based on how they previously

interacted with markets and products.

• And it assumes that consumers prior spending habits are an indicator of

what they may buy in the future.

• For example: Millennial consumers traditionally buy more craft beer,

while older generations are traditionally more likely buy national brands.
 Psychographic variables

Attitude
Attitude It is clear that the attitudes people hold
will impact on products and services.

Considering the reasons which lay behind the

Motivation
Motivation particular purchase decision.

the basis of the benefits which purchasers

seek from the product in question.

important factors, such as activities,

interests and opinions (AIO).
The task of targeting is an essential part of the process of developing
effective marketing communications campaigns.
As with other aspects of marketing and marketing communications,
the same word can be used in different contexts.
This is the case with the use of the word ‘targeting’.
There are two important dimensions to this task which affect aspects
of campaign development.
Target of market and target of consumers
 The targeting of markets

 When used in the broader context of marketing, the task of

targeting implies the appropriate evaluation and identification of

one or more market segments in which it is desired to operate.
 This is a fundamental strategic decision which will help define

the subsequent development of both marketing and marketing

communications programmes.
• Undifferentiated marketing – sometimes referred to as mass
marketing – in which the company offers the product to the entire
marketplace.

• The company will ignore the differences which may exist between
separate market segments and offer a single product designed to appeal
to all consumers.
• Differentiated marketing – in which the company

develops different combinations of the marketing mix,

each of which is designed to appeal individually to the
separate identified segments of the market.
• Concentrated or targeted marketing – in which the company
identifies one or more target segments and develops different
marketing mixes for each of those segments.
 The targeting of consumers
Targeting consumers based on different consumer characteristics / Target
audience.

1. Custom marketing – in which the company develops campaigns to respond

to meet the needs of individual consumers. Most commonly applied through
the techniques of direct marketing, this is the ultimate in differentiation.

2. Positioning-- Positioning involves the creation of an image for the product

or service in order that consumers can clearly understand what the company
provides relative to its competitors.

• A critical dimension of positioning is the gaining of an understanding of the

needs and wants of consumers.
 Upshaw (1995) identifies several different types of positioning prompts:

which is the use of specific features of

Feature-driven
Feature-drivenprompts
prompts the product to differentiate the brand.

solution prompts, in which the product is seen

Problem
Problem to be the ‘unique’ solution to a particular
problem.

uses the nature of the consumer to identify a

Target-driven
Target-driven place in the market. In essence, the message is
that ‘people like you use this brand’.

where the product adopts an overt

Competitive-driven
Competitive-driven stance relative to an identified
competitor.
 Four c’s of IMC

Consistency: do all
Coherence: are the
messages across all of
different communication
your platforms support
logically connected?
and reinforce each other?

Continuity: is your Complementary

campaign clearly : hoe do all the elements
connected to previous of the campaign work
campaigns? together?
 Chapter Two
Analysis of Marketing Communication Process
 Communication and its process
 Smith, Berry and Pulford (1997) defined communication as
dissemination of information from the mind of one individual to
another.
 For example, when we talk to others either in-person or over
mobile phone, when we send a message to our friend over Whats
App, when we send an email to our client or when we make a call
to customer care of our bank or health insurance company,
communication is taking place indeed.
 Communication helps to exchange information, ideas, views or
feelings etc.
 Any communication process consists of eight essential
components viz. a) Sender, b) Message, c) Channel, d) Receiver,
e) Feedback, f) Environment, g) Context and h) Noise.
• Figure 2.1 elements of communication process
 Source Encoding
• The sender, or source, of a communication is the
person or organization that has information to
share with another person or group of people.
• The source may be an individual (say, a
salesperson or hired spokesperson, such as a
celebrity, who appears in a company’s
advertisements) or a non-personal entity (such as
the corporation or organization itself).
• The communication process begins when the
source selects words, symbols, pictures, and the
like, to represent the message that will be delivered
to the receiver(s).
• This process, known as encoding, involves putting
thoughts, ideas, or information into a symbolic
form. The sender’s goal is to encode the message in
such a way that it will be understood by the
receiver. This means using words, signs, or
symbols that are familiar to the target audience.
 Message
• The encoding process leads to development of a message that
contains the information or meaning the source hopes to
convey.
• The message may be verbal or nonverbal, oral or written, or
symbolic.
• Messages must be put into a transmittable form that is
appropriate for the channel of communication being used.
• In advertising, this may range from simply writing some
words or copy that will be read as a radio message to
producing an expensive television commercial.
• For many products, it is not the actual words of the message
that determine its communication effectiveness but rather the
impression or image the ad creates
 Channel
• The channel is the method by which the communication
travels from the source or sender to the receiver.
• At the broadest level, channels of communication are of two
types, personal and non personal.
• Personal channels of communication are direct interpersonal
(face-to-face) contact with target individuals or groups.
• Salespeople serve as personal channels of communication
when they deliver their sales message to a buyer or potential
customer.
• Social channels of communication such as friends, neighbors,
associates, co-workers, or family members are also personal
channels.
• They often represent word-of-mouth communication,
a powerful source of information for consumers.
• Non personal channels of communication are those
that carry a message without interpersonal contact
between sender and receiver.
• Non personal channels are generally referred to as
the mass media or mass communications, since the
message is sent to many individuals at one time
• The receiver is the person(s) with whom the sender
shares thoughts or information.
• Generally, receivers are the consumers in the target
market or audience who read, hear, and/or see the
marketer’s message and decode it.
• Decoding is the process of transforming the sender’s
message back into thought.
• This process is heavily influenced by the receiver’s
frame of reference or field of experience, which
refers to the experiences, perceptions, attitudes, and
values he or she brings to the communication
situation.
• For effective communication to occur, the message
decoding process of the receiver must match the
encoding of the sender.
• Simply put, this means the receiver understands and
correctly interprets what the source is trying to
communicate.
 Noise
• Throughout the communication process, the message is subject
to extraneous factors that can distort or interfere with its
reception.
• This unplanned distortion or interference is known as noise.
Errors or problems that occur in the encoding of the message,
distortion in a radio or television signal, or distractions at the
point of reception are examples of noise.
• When you are watching your favorite commercial on TV and a
problem occurs in the signal transmission, it will obviously
interfere with your reception, lessening the impact of the
commercial.
• Noise may also occur because the fields of
experience of the sender and receiver don’t
overlap.
• Lack of common ground may result in improper
encoding of the message using a sign, symbol, or
words that are unfamiliar or have different
meaning to the receiver.
• The more common ground there is between the
sender and the receiver, the less likely it is this
type of noise will occur.
• The receiver’s set of reactions after seeing, hearing, or
reading the message is known as a response.
• Receivers’ responses can range from non observable
actions such as storing information in memory to
immediate action such as dialing a toll-free number to
order a product advertised on television.
• Marketers are very interested in feedback, that part of
the receiver’s response that is communicated back to
the sender.
• Feedback, which may take a variety of forms, closes
the loop in the communications flow and lets the
sender monitor how the intended message is being
decoded and received.
• The Response Process the most important aspect of
developing effective communication programs involves
understanding the response process the receiver may go
through in moving toward a specific behavior (like
purchasing a product) and how the promotional efforts
of the marketer influence consumer responses.
• In many instances, the marketer’s only objective may
be to create awareness of the company or brand name,
which may trigger interest in the product.
• In other situations, the marketer may want to convey
detailed information to change consumers’ knowledge of
and attitudes toward the brand and ultimately change
their behavior.
• Generally Processing is the general term that applies
to the short-term attention paid to marketing
communication, and what follows.
• It occurs with each exposure to a message execution,
however delivered: via traditional advertising or
promotion, the package, even the product itself, or
just hearing the brand name.
• Processing reflects how the target audience deals with
the message being delivered in an integrated
marketing communication (IMC) campaign.
• It is obviously dependent upon exposure to the
message, and if successfully processed will lead to the
desired response.
 Analyzing receivers
• To communicate effectively with their customers
marketers must understand who the target audience is,
what it knows of feels about the company's product or
services, and how to communicate with the audience to
influence its decision making process.
• Marketers must also know how the market is likely to
respond to various sources of communication or
different types of communication.
• Before they make decisions regarding sources,
messages and channel variables, promotional planners
must understand the potential effects associated with
each of these factors.
Identifying the target audiences
• The marketing communication process really begins with
identifying the audience that will be the focus of the
individual.

Mass market and audiences

Market segment
Niche markets
Individual and group audiences
• Individual: the target audiences for some products and
services can be viewed as consisting of individual for
whom communication must be specifically tailored. Life
insurance , financial services, and real estates are often
promoted through individualized sales presentation.
• Group audiences: a second level of audience aggregation
is the group. Organizational purchasing often involves
buying centers or communities and requires
communication with multiple parties. Decision making in
the consumer market can includes a group when various
family members become involved in the purchase process.
• Market segments: marketers look for customers who
have similar needs and wants thus represent market
segments that can be reached via the same basic
communication strategy.
 very small, well defined groups of costumers are often
referred to as market niches and can usually be reached
through highly targeted media such as direct marketing.
• Mass audience: the situation facing most marketers is
that of communicating with large members of
consumers or mass audiences through one way
communication via the mass media.
 The response process
Perhaps the most important aspects of developing
effective communication program involves understanding
the responses process the receiver may go through in
moving toward a specific behavior like purchasing a
product and how the promotional efforts of the marketer
influences consumer responses.
Traditional response hierarchy models: A number of
models have been developed to depict the stages a
consumer may pass through in moving from a state of not
being aware of a company, product, or brand to actual
purchase behavior. While these response models may
appear similar, they were developed for different reasons.
• The model provide a complete understanding of the
response of a consumer through all stages of his path
from unaware of the product to the purchase action. The
article throws light on the five main models of response
hierarchy that explain the consumer behavior across
three awareness stages. Cognitive stage, affective stage
and behavioral stage.
1. Cognitive stage(think): what the receiver knows or
perceives about the particular product or brand.
2. Affective stage(feel): the receiver's feelings or affect
level for the particular product of brand.
3. Behavioral or conative stages(do): the receiver’s
action to ward the particular product or brand.
• The five response Hierarchy models are as follows:
1. AIDA model
2. Hierarchy of effects model
3. Innovation adoption model
4. Information processing model and
5. Operational model.
•
Models
stages AIDA Hierarchy of Innovation Information
model effects model adoption model processing model

Cognitive Attention Awareness Awareness Presentation

knowledge Attention
Comprehension/
understanding
Affective Interest Linking Interest Yielding/consent
Preference
Desire Conviction/trust evaluation Retention/holding
Behavioral Trial/test
Action Purchase Behavior
Adoption/acceptance
• The AIDA model was developed to represent the
stages a salesperson must take a customer through in
the personal-selling process.
• This model depicts the buyer as passing successively
through attention, interest, desire, and action.
• The salesperson must first get the customer’s
attention and then arouse some interest in the
company’s product or service.
• Strong levels of interest should create desire to own or use
the product.
• The action stage in the AIDA model involves getting the
customer to make a purchase commitment and closing the
sale.
• To the marketer, this is the most important stage in the
selling process, but it can also be the most difficult.
• Companies train their sales reps in closing techniques to
help them complete the selling process.
• Perhaps the best known of these response hierarchies is the
model developed by Robert Lavidge and Gary Steiner as a
paradigm for setting and measuring advertising objectives.
• Their hierarchy of effects model shows the process by
which advertising works; it assumes a consumer passes
through a series of steps in sequential order from initial
awareness of a product or service to actual purchase.
• A basic premise of this model is that advertising
effects occur over a period of time.
• Advertising communication may not lead to immediate
behavioral response or purchase; rather, a series of effects
must occur, with each step fulfilled before the consumer
can move to the next stage in the hierarchy.
• The hierarchy of effects model has become the
foundation for objective setting and measurement of
advertising effects in many companies.
• The innovation adoption model evolved from work on the
diffusion of innovations.
• This model represents the stages a consumer passes through in
adopting a new product or service.
• Like the other models, it says potential adopters must be
moved through a series of steps before taking some action (in
this case, deciding to adopt a new product).
• The steps preceding adoption are awareness, interest,
evaluation, and trial.
• The best way to evaluate a new product is through actual use
so that performance can be judged.
• Marketers often encourage trial by using demonstration or
sampling programs or allowing consumers to use a product
with minimal commitment. After trial, consumers either adopt
the product or reject it.
• The final hierarchy is the information processing model of
advertising effects, developed by William McGuire.
• This model assumes the receiver in a persuasive communication
situation like advertising is an information processor or problem
solver.
• McGuire suggests the series of steps a receiver goes through in being
persuaded constitutes a response hierarchy.
• The stages of this model are similar to the hierarchy of effects
sequence; attention and comprehension are similar to awareness and
knowledge, and yielding is synonymous with liking.
• McGuire’s model includes a stage not found in the other models:
retention, or the receiver’s ability to retain that portion of the
comprehended information that he or she accepts as valid or
relevant.
• This stage is important since most promotional campaigns are
designed not to motivate consumers to take immediate action but
rather to provide information they will use later when making a
purchase decision.
 Alternative Response Hierarchies
• Michael Ray has developed a model of information
processing that identifies three alternative orderings of
the three stages based on perceived product
differentiation and product involvement.
• These alternative response hierarchies are the standard
learning, dissonance/attribution, and low-involvement
models
1. The Standard Learning Hierarchy
• In many purchase situations, the consumer will go
through the response process in the sequence depicted by
the traditional communication models.
• Ray terms this a standard learning model, which consists
of a learn → feel → do sequence.
• Information and knowledge acquired or learned about the
various brands are the basis for developing affect, or
feelings, that guide what the consumer will do (e.g., actual
trial or purchase).
• In this hierarchy, the consumer is viewed as an active
participant in the communication process who gathers
information through active learning.
• Ray suggests the standard learning hierarchy is
likely when the consumer is highly involved in the
purchase process and there is much differentiation
among competing brands.
• High-involvement purchase decisions such as those
for industrial products and services and consumer
durables like personal computers, printers, cameras,
appliances, and cars are areas where a standard learning
hierarchy response process is likely.
• Ads for products and services in these areas are usually
very detailed and provide customers with information
that can be used to evaluate brands and help them make
a purchase decision
2. The Dissonance/Attribution Hierarchy
• A second response hierarchy proposed by Ray involves
situations where consumers first behave, then develop
attitudes or feelings as a result of that behavior, and then
learn or process information that supports the behavior.
• This dissonance/attribution model, or do →feel
→learn, occurs in situations where consumers must
choose between two alternatives that are similar in
quality but are complex and may have hidden or
unknown attributes.
• The consumer may purchase the product on the basis of a
recommendation by some non media source and then
attempt to support the decision by developing a positive
attitude toward the brand and perhaps even developing
negative feelings toward the rejected alternative(s).
• According to this model, marketers need to recognize that in some
situations, attitudes develop after purchase, as does learning from
the mass media.
• Ray suggests that in these situations the main effect of the mass
media is not the promotion of original choice behavior and attitude
change but rather the reduction of dissonance by reinforcing the
wisdom of the purchase or providing supportive information.
• Some marketers resist this view of the response hierarchy because
they can’t accept the notion that the mass media have no effect on
the consumer’s initial purchase decision.
• Marketing communications planners must be aware of the need for
advertising and promotion efforts not just to encourage brand
selection but to reinforce choices and ensure that a purchase pattern
will continue.
3. The Low-Involvement Hierarchy
• Perhaps the most intriguing of the three response hierarchies
proposed by Ray is the low-involvement hierarchy, in which
the receiver is viewed as passing from cognition to behavior to
attitude change.
• This learn → do → feel sequence is thought to characterize
situations of low consumer involvement in the purchase
process.
• Ray suggests this hierarchy tends to occur when involvement
in the purchase decision is low, there are minimal differences
among brand alternatives, and mass-media (especially
broadcast) advertising is important.
• Krugman wanted to find out why TV advertising produced a
strong effect on brand awareness and recall but little change in
consumers’ attitudes toward the product.
• He hypothesized that TV is basically a low-involvement
medium and the viewer’s perceptual defenses are reduced or
even absent during commercials.
• In a low-involvement situation, the consumer does not
compare the message with previously acquired beliefs, needs,
or past experiences.
• The commercial results in subtle changes in the consumer’s
knowledge structure, particularly with repeated exposure.
• This change in the consumer’s knowledge does not result in
attitude change but is related to learning something about the
advertised brand, such as a brand name, ad theme, or slogan.
• According to Krugman, when the consumer enters a
purchase situation, this information may be sufficient to
trigger a purchase.
• The consumer will then form an attitude toward the
purchased brand as a result of experience with it.
• Thus, in the low-involvement situation the response
sequence is as follows: Message exposure under low
involvement → Shift in cognitive structure →Purchase→
Positive or negative experience →Attitude formation
• In the low-involvement hierarchy, the consumer
engages in passive learning and random information
catching rather than active information seeking.
• The advertiser must recognize that a passive,
uninterested consumer may focus more on non message
elements such as music, characters, symbols, and
slogans or jingles than actual message content.
• Advertisers of low-involvement products also repeat
simple product claims such as a key copy point or
distinctive product benefit.
• A study by Scott Hawkins and Stephen Hoch found that under
low-involvement conditions, repetition of simple product claims
increased consumers’ memory of and belief in those claims.
• They concluded that advertisers of low involvement products
might find it more profitable to pursue a heavy repetition strategy
than to reach larger audiences with lengthy, more detailed
messages.
• For example, Heinz has dominated the ketchup market for over
20 years by repeatedly telling consumers that its brand is the
thickest and richest.
• Heinz has used a variety of advertising campaigns over the years.
However, they all have communicated the same basic message
that Heinz is the best and most preferred brand of ketchup
 Establishing communication goals and objectives
• Some marketers do recognize the problems associated with
sales-oriented objectives.
• They recognize that the primary role of an IMC program is to
communicate and that planning should be based on
communications objectives.
• Advertising and other promotional efforts are designed to
achieve such communications as brand knowledge and
interest, favorable attitudes and image, and purchase
intentions.
• Consumers are not expected to respond immediately; rather,
advertisers realize they must provide relevant information
and create favorable predispositions toward the brand before
purchase behavior will occur.
• Advertising and promotion perform communications
tasks in the same way that a pyramid is built, by first
accomplishing lower-level objectives such as awareness
and knowledge or comprehension.
• Subsequent tasks involve moving consumers who are
aware of or knowledgeable about the product or service
to higher levels in the pyramid.
• The initial stages, at the base of the pyramid, are easier to
accomplish than those toward the top, such as trial and
repurchase or regular use.
• Thus, the percentage of prospective customers will
decline as they move up the pyramid.
• Not all marketing and advertising managers accept
communications objectives; some say it is too
difficult to translate a sales goal into a specific
communications objective. But at some point a sales
goal must be transformed into a communications
objective.
• If the marketing plan for an established brand has as
an objective of increasing sales by 10 percent, the
promotional planner will eventually have to think in
terms of the message that will be communicated to
the target audience to achieve this.
• Possible objectives include the following:
Increasing the percentage of consumers in the target
market who associate specific features, benefits, or
advantages with our brand.
Increasing the number of consumers in the target
audience who prefer our product over the
competitions.
Encouraging current users of the product to use it
more frequently or in more situations.
Encouraging consumers who have never used our
brand to try it.
 DAGMAR: AN APPROACH TO SETTING
OBJECTIVES
• In 1961, Russell Colley prepared a report for the
Association of National Advertisers titled Defining
Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results
(DAGMAR).
• In it, Colley developed a model for setting advertising
objectives and measuring the results of an ad campaign.
• The major thesis of the DAGMAR model is that
communications effects are the logical basis for advertising
goals and objectives against which success or failure
should be measured.
• Colley’s rationale for communications- based
objectives was as follows:
• Advertising’s job, purely and simply, is to communicate
to defined audience information and a frame of mind
that stimulates action.
• Advertising succeeds or fails depending on how well it
communicates the desired information and attitudes to
the right people at the right time and at the right cost.
• Under the DAGMAR approach, an advertising goal involves
a communications task that is specific and measurable.
• A communications task, as opposed to a marketing task, can be
performed by, and attributed to, advertising rather than to a
combination of several marketing factors.
• Colley proposed that the communications task be based on a
hierarchical model of the communications process with four
stages:
1. Awareness—making the consumer aware of the existence of
the brand or company.
2. Comprehension—developing an understanding of what the
product is and what it will do for the consumer.
3. Conviction—developing a mental disposition in the
consumer to buy the product.
4. Action—getting the consumer to purchase the product.
• Other hierarchical models of advertising effects can be
used as a basis for analyzing the communications
response process.
• Some advertising theorists prefer the Lavidge and Steiner
hierarchy of effects model, since it is more specific and
provides a better way to establish and measure results.
• While the hierarchical model of advertising effects was
the basic model of the communications response process
used in DAGMAR, Colley also studied other specific
tasks that advertising might be expected to perform in
leading to the ultimate objective of a sale. He developed a
checklist of 52 advertising tasks to characterize the
contribution of advertising and serve as a starting point
for establishing objectives.
 CHARACTERI STICS OF OBJECTIVES
• A second major contribution of DAGMAR to the
advertising planning process was its definition of what
constitutes a good objective.
• Colley argued that advertising objectives should be stated
in terms of:
concrete and measurable communications tasks,
specify a target audience,
indicate a benchmark starting point and
the degree of change sought, and
specify a time period for accomplishing the
objective(s).
• Concrete, Measurable Tasks, The communications
task specified in the objective should be a precise
statement of what appeal or message the advertiser
wants to communicate to the target audience.
• Advertisers generally use a copy platform to describe
their basic message.
• The objective or copy platform statement should be
specific and clear enough to guide the creative
specialists who develop the advertising message.
Note: Fosters developed an entirely new positioning
campaign with the following objectives:
• Strengthen the brand’s image
• Maximize brand presence
• Broaden the market base beyond traditional import beer
drinkers
• Increase sales
 Setting Objectives for the IMC Program
• One reason so much attention is given to advertising
objectives is that for many companies advertising has
traditionally been the major way of communicating with
target audiences.
• Other promotional mix elements such as sales promotion,
direct marketing, and publicity are used intermittently to
support and complement the advertising program.
• Another reason is that traditional advertising-based views
of marketing communications planning, such as
DAGMAR(Defining Advertising Goals for Measured
Advertising Results , have dominated the field for so long.
• These approaches are based on a hierarchical response
model and consider how marketers can develop and
disseminate advertising messages to move consumers
along an effects path.
• This approach, is what professor Don Schultz calls
inside-out planning. He says, “It focuses on what the
marketer wants to say,
• when the marketer wants to say it, about things the
marketer believes are important about his or her brand,
and in the media forms the marketer wants to use.”
•
• Promotional planners study the various media customers and
prospects use, when the marketer’s messages might be most
relevant to customers, and when they are likely to be most
receptive to the message.
• A traditional advertising campaign, the basis of an IMC
campaign is a big idea.
• However, in IMC the big idea can be public relations, direct
response, packaging, or sales promotion.
• An effective IMC program should lead with the marketing
communications function that most effectively addresses the
company’s main problem or opportunity and should use a
promotional mix that draws on the strengths of whichever
communications functions relate best to the particular situation.
• Many of the considerations for determining advertising objectives
are relevant to setting goals for other elements of the integrated
marketing communications program.
 ALLOCATING THE BUDGET
• Once the budget has been appropriated, the next step is
to allocate it.
• The allocation decision involves determining which
markets, products, and/or promotional elements will
receive which amounts of the funds appropriated.
• Allocating to IMC Elements As noted earlier, advertisers have
begun to shift some of their budget dollars away from
traditional advertising media and into sales promotions targeted
at both the consumer and the trade.
• Direct marketing, the Internet, and other promotional tools are
also receiving increased attention and competing for more of
the promotional budget.
• The advantage of more target selectivity has led to an increased
emphasis on direct marketing, while a variety of new media
have given marketers new ways to reach prospective customers.
• Rapidly rising media costs, the ability of sales promotions to
motivate trial, maturing of the product and/or brand, and the
need for more aggressive promotional tools have also led to
shifts in strategy.
• Client/Agency Policies Another factor that may influence
budget allocation is the individual policy of the company or the
advertising agency.
• The agency may discourage the allocation of monies to sales
promotion, preferring to spend them on the advertising area.
• The agency position is that promotional monies are harder to
track in terms of effectiveness and may be used improperly if
not under its control.
• Market Size While the budget should be allocated according to
the specific promotional tools needed to accomplish the stated
objectives, the size of the market will affect the decision.
• In smaller markets, it is often easier and less expensive to
reach the target market. Too much of an expenditure in these
markets will lead to saturation and a lack of effective spending.
• In larger markets, the target group may be more dispersed and
thus more expensive to reach than others.
 FACTORS AFFECTING AN IMC STRATEGY

• Careful selection of IMC tools and more carefully designing a

suitable IMC strategy is vital and depends on a number of
factors.

• While one company or brand may use advertising and publicity

prominently, other may rely on sales promotion or may be
combination of other IMC tools.

• The choice of a specific or a combination of IMC tools is

determined by several factors such as:
Product or Service Category

Target Group Characteristics (Demographic, Geographic

etc.)
Budgetary Constraints

Stage in Product Life Cycle (PLC)

Regulatory Considerations etc.

1. Product or Service Category: Selection of IMC tools mainly
depends on the type of product or service category.

• Products or services which are technical or industrial (Ex.

machinery, gear boxes, medicines) in nature or require high
involvement would necessitate personal selling while advertising
and sales promotion are best suited for convenience, low
involvement product categories (Ex. biscuits, shampoo, hair oil,
confectionaries etc.).
2. Target Group Characteristic: Factors such as
demographic (age, gender, income, marital status,
education etc.) and geographical characteristics (urban,
semi urban, rural etc.) of target market assume a very
significant role in designing the IMC strategy for a brand.
• For example, for a product or service category targeted
at young consumers, IMC tools such as media
advertising, direct marketing etc. are most suitable.
• Similarly, when the target market for a product or
service is rural consumers, IMC tools such as wall
painting, are most relevant due to low literacy levels
and exposure.
3. Budgetary Constraints: The budget outlay and availability of
funds with the firm is another factor which determines selection of
IMC tools and strategy.
Media advertising requires huge budgets while PR and publicity
are considered to be free of cost. It also affects the reach and
frequency decisions.
• Multi-National Companies (MNCs), big corporate groups have
huge IMC budgets while small firms, start-ups have limited
budgets and hence, IMC tools are chosen very intelligently taking
into considerations the cost benefits analysis and the pros and
cons of each of the selected tool.
4. Stage of Product Life Cycle (PLC) and Regulatory
Considerations: The stage of the PLC of the brand and its
readiness and other allied factors of product or service
offerings are essential and should be considered accordingly.
• In addition the regulatory considerations also play an
important role in selecting appropriate IMC tools. As the
objective of marketing communication changes with the
PLC stage, the IMC tool need to be selected accordingly.
• For instance, when a product is in introduction stage, the
company’s or brand’s objective is to make consumers aware
about the product, its uses. In such case, media advertising
and publicity is considered most suitable and relevant. A
brand may also consider sales promotion to let people try
the newly launched product or service.
• Furthermore, government regulations also affect the choice of
IMC tools and strategy.
• For example, media advertising, direct marketing, out of home
(OOH) etc. are prohibited for pharma products or services in
India.
• Therefore, they use personal selling (referrals from doctors or
specialist) to promote the products or services. In the same way,
adverting of tobacco and alcohol is banned in our country.
• Generally IMC is based on basic
persuasive communication theory,
understanding communication theory
and allows communication objectives to
be set by considering response model.
 Chapter four
Personal selling and Direct Marketing
 Personal selling
• Personal selling may be defined as a person-to-person
process, whereby the seller tries to determine the
prospective buyers’ wants, and seeks to satisfy these by
offering suitable goods, services or ideas
• Personal selling is interpersonal communication with
a commercial objective.
• This two-way communication is one of the major
strengths of personal selling.
• A sales person to customize or modify the message,
according to the buyers’ individual needs and
reactions, as well as to provide instant and precise
feedback on customer requests or questions (Duncan,
2005: 624).
• Personal selling enables The direct contact of the
sales force with the current and potential
customers in the market allows them to provide
the company with valuable feedback on the
market, including customers’ reactions and
specific needs, market trends and competitors’
offers (Du Plessis et al., 2010:175).
• Is often more effective than mass advertising or
publicity, due to the more intense personal
involvement of the prospective buyer (Pitta,
Weisgal & Lynagh, 2006:157).
• The accountability of personal selling is a further
advantage, because sales generated by each sales person
are directly quantifiable, as opposed to other marketing
communication elements, where the effect is indirect
(Duncan, 2005:624).
• The possibility of increased sales is enhanced by direct
communication to qualified prospects, because sales
persons can then screen and select the most likely clients
(Belch & Belch, 2012:24).
• Personal selling has evolved from a short-term focus to
convincing customers to buy a product, to building a
long-term relationship and partnership between
customers and sellers.
• The role of personal selling has changed from the
traditional role of providing information and persuasion
via personal contact – to providing solutions and
relationship marketing, and thereby building long-term
and meaningful relationships with clients.
• Data-base marketing, direct-response marketing and
the tracking of marketing communications are
techniques used in this process that require a wider
perspective to integrate marketing and marketing
communication in the implementation thereof.
• Data base marketing is systematic approach to the
gathering , consolidation and processing of consumer
data. Database marketing is also a form of direct
marketing and may be called customer relationships
management.
• Data of both customers and potential customers are
collected and are maintained in a company's database.
• Data base can be used for storing information about
customers, products, or any other type of data.
• Direct mail and direct marketing are excellent
examples of precise targeting.
• Direct mail is advertising that is sent directly to the
mailing address of a target customer.
• Direct marketing: is a marketing technique that uses
various media such as mail, print, broadcast, telephone
for the purpose of soliciting a direct response from a
consumer.
• A major advantage of direct marketing is its ability to
generate measurable responses.
• This capability enables direct marketers to measure the
profitability of their effort, directly through such variables as
cost-per-inquiry.
• cost-per-sale and income-per-advertisement and to evaluate
the timing and frequency of campaigns.
Direct Marketing
• Like personal selling, direct response marketing is interactive,
allowing for customization of the marketing message, and
affording the potential to the customer of feedback.
• In a direct response marketing, companies deal directly with
customers without any retailers or wholesalers as
intermediaries.
• Direct-response marketing, whereby an organization
communicates directly with its target customers, is an
interactive system of marketing, which uses one or more
media to achieve a measurable response or transaction
(O’Quinn et al., 2000:671).
• Multiple media can be used in direct-response
marketing, including direct mail, telemarketing, direct-
response advertising (on TV, radio or in magazines or
newspapers, telemarketing, internet sales, and shopping
channels) (Belch & Belch, 2012:20).
• Direct-response marketing aims to generate a
measurable and immediate response from its
customers.
• This could be in the form of a purchase, a request for
further information, or a reply that offers specific
information on the customers’ needs or interests.
• Direct-response marketing does not require
salespeople or a retail store; transactions can occur
at any physical or virtual location that is most
convenient for the customers.
Purposes of using direct-response marketing

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to identify potential prospects, while
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providing selected customers with

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providing users of the products with
valuable product information or rewards
The factors contributing to the growth of direct marketing
Recent years have seen fundamental changes in both
consumer attitudes and behaviors which have, undoubtedly,
contributed to the growth of direct marketing:
• The desire for experimentation: The increased penetration
of home computers and modems increases the potential for
shopping in unconventional ways.
• New ‘shopping outlets’: Although mail order has been
around for a century or more, the convenience of shopping at
a time when the consumer wishes to do so is beginning to
reassert itself. This trend is likely to continue progressively
with the development of direct shopping channels on
television and the advent of interactive television facilities
through the medium of cable. The recently announced
contract for digital broadcasting is likely to extend the reach
of these facilities further.
3. The focus on the home, witnessed by various studies
conducted by the Henley Research Centre, accentuates the
desire to shop at home through mail order and shopping
channels.
4. Underlying changes in society. More working women,
changes in the composition of the family, and similar trends
– have contributed to the desire for a more personalized
service which is sometimes unavailable through
conventional retail outlets.
• Importantly, this fragmentation of the audience represents
a challenge to conventional marketing, as consumers want
products and services which are more directly tailored to
their own personal requirements.
5. Desire for greater shopping convenience.
• Changing lifestyles have dictated a need for new patterns of
shopping to which, for a variety of reasons, traditional
retailers have been slow to respond.
• With the increasing numbers of working women, for
example, shopping can no longer be restricted to the normal
‘daylight hours’.
• In the absence of conventional retailers responding to their
needs, some consumers have turned to mail order catalogues,
telephone marketing, and other forms of non-retail outlets to
satisfy their needs.
• The same principle applies equally to the services sector.
• If the consumer wants to renew an insurance policy or pay a
bill at 9 o’clock in the evening, he or she needs to access
those services even if the retailers providing them are closed.
6. These have been paralleled by fundamental changes
in the broader marketing environment.
• An important trend over recent decades has been the
progressive growth of the service sector.
• As material standards have improved, individuals have
turned to other areas to improve their lives.
• Services such as insurance, security and so on have
directly benefited and, more importantly, have been able
to utilize direct marketing approaches to achieve the most
cost-effective coverage of their target consumers.
• The impact of direct marketing techniques can be
clearly seen from the results of their application by
companies such as Direct Line and their followers,
which have decimated the traditional insurance
brokerage business.
• Progressively, economic power in modern business
is moving towards the service industries – and, in
turn, these organizations have recognized that there
is no longer the need for expensive retail outlets to
service the needs of consumers.
7. The increasing costs of reaching fragmented audiences.
• With the increasing costs of media, and the inevitability of a high
wastage factor, marketers have been encouraged to seek
communications mechanics which are more precisely targeted and
less wasteful.
• Even for a high-volume, fast-moving consumer goods product,
many of the viewers of a particular television programme, for
example, in which the product is advertised will not be interested
in the product proposition.
• For slower-moving products and business-to-business propositions,
the resultant wastage is likely to be considerably higher.
• The progressive splintering of media audiences, witnessed by the
dramatic growth in all media channels, means that more
sophisticated approaches need to be taken to reach the target
audience in a cost-effective manner.
8. As marketing, and particularly market research
techniques, have improved, it has become increasingly
possible to segment markets along different lines.
• Because consumers are different, it is reasonable to
assume that in many ways their needs, desires and
aspirations will also be different.
• Direct marketing offers the opportunity to develop a
line of communications with these identified market
segments and to ‘tailor’ the message in ways that would
not be possible using a conventional media approach.
9. The growth of the cashless society.
• Increasing numbers of consumers have become holders of
bank accounts, credit cards and similar ‘charging
platforms’.
• These have become important in two respects.
• Firstly, cash is no longer the primary means of making a
purchase.
• As more consumers become familiar with the principles of
‘charging’, so their patterns of purchase are likely to
change.
10. The improvements in information technology, both in
terms of computer facilities and other areas of IT, have provided
the means for realizing the potential of direct marketing.
• The creation of databases, the processing of information, the
possibility of conducting cross-analyses with other sources of
information, the profiling of prospective consumers, and
similar techniques are, potentially, made much easier with the
widespread use of new technology.
• Most importantly, analyses can be conducted speedily – whilst
the information is still fresh – and the prospective consumer
can be contacted before his or her own situation has changed.
McCorkell (1995) suggests that there are three
prerequisites for the continued growth of direct
marketing:
The universal acceptance of direct marketing as a
legitimate and logical marketing activity.
Widespread knowledge of its precise functions and
how these dovetail with other marketing activities.
Availability of sufficient direct marketing physical
resources and professional skills.
 The advantages of direct marketing techniques
1. Targeting
• One of the primary reasons for the increase in direct
marketing techniques is the desire to target customers more
precisely.
• By establishing a database gathered from previous
customers, or profiled against the lifestyle of a typical
customer, it is possible to target more effectively and
profitably.
2. Relationships
• A key aspect of direct marketing is the creation of
relationships between the company and the prospect.
• Once a contact has been established, the ensuing messages
can be directed and personalized to a named individual.
3. interactivity
• Unlike conventional advertising, which communicates
with all prospective consumers in a somewhat
indiscriminate manner, direct marketing has built-in
response mechanisms which encourage a flow of
information from the prospective consumer back to the
manufacturer.
• The feedback of communication between the prospect
and the company may be especially useful in avoiding,
for example, post-purchase dissatisfaction, or
identifying potential new product opportunities.
4. Motivating action
• Most direct marketing activity is designed to encourage a specific
response, often using inbuilt incentive programmes. Whilst many
other forms of marketing communications have a similar objective, it
is the speed of monitoring the levels of response which provides
direct marketing with its unique appeal to marketers.
5. Databases
• By encouraging response, the company can build up a database of
named individuals.
• Recognizing that many individuals will not make a purchase on their
first exposure to a proposition, such individuals can be contacted at
intervals with similar or varied messages in order to achieve the sales
objective.
• Moreover, once a sale has been secured, those individuals can be re-
contacted, either to encourage them to re-purchase, or to secure the
purchase of another product or service from the same company.
6. Transactional information
• Over time, it will be possible to build up specific profiles
of customers.
• These might include, for example, the frequency of
purchasing, the nature of purchases, differential responses
to incentive programmes, characteristics of purchasers,
and so on.
• Such information, which would not be available in the
context of conventional marketing techniques, provides a
basis for developing cost-effective sales among defined
audiences.
7. Measurement
• Because direct marketing produces a measurable response,
it is possible to calculate the effectiveness of a specific
campaign with a considerable degree of accuracy.
• Moreover, as enhancements are made to the database, it
will be possible to predict levels of response to subsequent
activities.
• Measurability is the central focus of direct marketing. It
generates a response back to the advertiser; therefore the
effect of any activity can be measured.
8. Predictability
• ‘One of the greatest advantages of the direct mail
medium is its predictability.
• If one has information about past direct mail efforts,
then it is not only possible, but highly desirable to
forecast the results of planned mailings.’ (Nash, 1992)
• To these can be added several other benefits which
derive from the use of direct marketing techniques.
9. Comparatively low investment
• Unlike conventional advertising, where the capital costs
of both producing an advertisement and obtaining the
space or time in which it will appear can be very high,
the costs of direct marketing – especially direct mail –
can be comparatively low.
• Companies can scale the level of investment to match the
size of their businesses, and use the income generated to
reinvest to further develop the business.
• Even small operators can, therefore, use direct marketing
to reach their identified target audiences.
10. Controlled growth
• Companies can develop their businesses on a progressive
basis, rather than risking the potential of ‘over-trading’.
• By limiting the number of mailings, For example, to
manageable proportions, the company can ensure that it
matches customer demand with an appropriate level and
speed of response.
11. Testing
• With the high degree of controllability of direct marketing, it
is far easier to mount small-scale test exercises.
• The impact, For example, different advertising messages, or
different mail pieces, can be assessed in advance of full-
scale activity.
12. costs
• Whilst the costs of origination may be high, the fact that
the audience can be more precisely targeted means that
much wastage can be eliminated.
• Often, direct marketing is associated with comparatively
low costs per customer purchasing.
• ‘Direct Marketing: - allows you to isolate someone as an
individual
• allows you to build a continuing relationship with them
• allows you the ability to test and measure responses.’
 The limitations of direct marketing
1. Image factors
• In the context of the need to create and preserve the brand
image, there is the potential danger of ‘inappropriate’
mailings or other direct marketing activities undermining
the consumer’s image of the brand.
• ‘Junk mail’/unwanted items potentially undermines the
image which may have been expensively acquired over
many years through conventional media advertising.
• Purchase of cheap space or time may result in an
inappropriate media environment.
• In the same way, low-cost production, may undermine both
image and response.
• Brand familiarity: It is important to establish brand
familiarity from the outset. Response levels tend to be
higher when the target consumer is familiar with and
confident in the brand.
• Accuracy of lists: The use of the wrong list or one which
has not been properly refined can serve to create a
negative impact on the recipients of direct mail items.
• Moreover, the high costs of wastage associated with old
lists adds to the overall cost of the direct marketing
activity.
 Chapter Five
Sales promotion and Public relations
 Sales promotion
• It is difficult to define sales promotion in a precise
manner because it involves with a variety of activities
and techniques.
• Sales promotion refers to many kinds of incentives and
techniques directed toward consumers and traders with
the intention to create an immediate sales effects.
• There is no single definition of sales promotion which
is universally accepted by one and all. There is a wide
spectrum of views and different experts have defined
sales promotion in different ways.
The definition given by American Marketing
Association (AMA,1960)
• “In a specific sense, sales promotion include those
sales activities that supplement both personal selling
and advertising and coordinate them and help to
make them effective,
• Such as displays/exhibitions, shows and expositions,
demonstrations and other selling efforts not in the
ordinary routine”
• As per AMA definition it is inferred that all those
promotional activities, which don’t fall under the
category of personal selling, advertising and publicity,
should be considered under the head of sales promotion.
• Roger A. “Sales promotion is short-term
incentives/encouragements to encourage purchase or
sale of a product or service.”
• Philip Kotler “Sales promotion consists of a diverse
collection of incentive tools, mostly short term,
designed to stimulate quicker and/or greater purchase of
particular product/services by consumers or the trade”
• Kazmi and Batra as “Sales promotion includes
incentive offers and interest creating activities which
are generally short term marketing events other than
advertising, personal selling, publicity and direct
marketing.
• The purpose of sales promotion is to stimulate,
motivate and influence the purchase and other desired
behavioral responses of the firm’s customers.”
 Objectives of Sales Promotion
• Building Product Awareness- Several sales promotion
techniques are highly effective in exposing customers to
products for the first time and can serve as key
promotional components in the early stages of new
product introduction.
• Additionally, as part of the effort to build product
awareness, several sales promotion techniques possess
the added advantage of capturing customer information
gathering tool (i.e., sales lead generation), which can then
be used as part of follow-up marketing efforts.
• Creating Interest- Marketers find that sales
promotions are very effective in creating interest in a
product. In fact, creating interest is often considered
the most important use of sales promotion.
• Another important way to create interest is to move
customers to experience a product.
• Several sales promotion techniques offer the
opportunity for customer try products for free or at
low cost.
• Providing Information- Generally sales promotion
technique are designed to make customers to some
action and are rarely simply informational in nature.
• However, some sales promotions do offer customers
access to product information.
• For instance, a promotion may allow customers to try a
fee-based online service for free for several days.
• This free access may include receiving product
information via e-mail.
• Stimulating Demand- Next to building initial product
awareness, the most important use of sales promotion is
to build demand by convincing customers to make a
purchase.
• Special promotions, especially those that lower the cost
of ownership to the customer (e.g., price reduction), can
be employed to stimulate sales.
• Reinforcing the Brand- Once customer have made a
purchase sales promotion can be used to both encourage
additional purchasing and also as a reward for purchase
loyalty.
• Many companies, including airlines and retail stores,
reward good or “preferred” customers with special
promotions such as e-mail “special deals” and surprise
price reductions at the cash register.
 Consumer oriented sales promotions
• Consumer will not make a distinction between trade
promotions delivered at retail outlets, retail promotions,
and consumer promotions.
• If they see a special display in the store or have a coupon
or see a price special, they are not concerned with
whether it was the brand or the retailer that was
responsible.
• But, from the brand’s perspective, there is a world of
difference.
• Consumer promotions are initiated by the brand, not
the retailer, and the brand controls the content.
 Trade Oriented Promotions
• Trade promotion is designed to improve relations with
the trade in order to gain and hold new distribution, to
build inventory with the trade, or to obtain trade
cooperation and merchandising support.
• There are three basic categories of trade promotion that
can be considered are:
1. allowances promotions,
2. display material promotions, and
3. trade premiums and incentives
Allowance promotions provide the trade with a monetary
allowance of some kind in return for buying or promoting
a specific quantity of a brand, or for meeting specific
purchase or performance requirements.
➢Display material promotions are when the manufacturer
actually provides special display material to be used in
featuring the brand, often in conjunction with a trade
allowance.
➢Trade incentives are special gifts or opportunities to earn
or win valuable trips or prizes in return for purchasing
specified quantities of the brand or meeting specific sales
quotas.
 Advantages of Sales Promotion
1. Price discrimination: Producers can introduce price
discrimination through sales promotion.
• They can charge different prices to different consumer
and trade segments varying in their price sensitivity.
• Coupons, special sales events, clearance sales and
discount are examples of it.
2. Effect on consumer behavior: As sales promotion are
mostly announced for a short period, customers may feel a
sense of urgency and stop comparing the alternatives.
• They are persuaded to act now rather than later.
• For many customers, who feel time-pressured, buying
on deal is a simple decision rule and many consumers
may also consider buying on deal as smart move
3. Effect on Trade Behavior: Short-term promotions
present an opportunity and encourage dealers to forward-
buy.
• This forward buying ensures that retailers won’t go out of
stocks.
• As dealers have more than normal stocks, they think it
advisable to advertise in local media, arrange display and
offer attractive promotional deals to consumers.
• These actions help in increasing the store traffic.
• The aim is to speed-up the consumer purchasing from their
outlet.
• Point of Purchase (POP) display attracts customers, serve
as reminders and lead to impulses or unplanned purchases.
 Drawbacks Sales Promotion
• There are certain limitations of sales promotion and they
may also produce negative effects.
1. Decrease in brand loyalty: The major objective of many
sales promotions is to encourage brand switching/exchanging.
• This is especially true in case of low-involvement category
products, or where there is little or no significance
differentiation among brands and the unit value is low.
• Sales promotion announced by marketers thus counter the
brand-image building efforts of competitor’s brands, for
which they develop expensive advertising campaigns.
• There is agreement among most managers that sales
promotion expenditure have decreasing effect on brand-
image and this lead to decreasing brand loyalty
2. Increased price sensitivity: Frequently promoted brands in
a product category, especially on the basis of price, make
consumers and traders more price sensitive, not only for the
promoted brand but for the brands as well in the same product
category.
• Consumers wait for the promotional deals to be announced
and then purchase the product. This is true even for the
brands where brand loyalty exists.
3. Quality image may become tarnished: If the promotions in a
product category have been rare, or the product happens to be
of high-involvement category, the promotions could have a
negative effect about its quality image.
• Consumers may start suspecting that perhaps the product has
not being selling well, the quality of the product is low
compared to the price, or the product is likely to be
discontinued because it has become out dated.
4. Merchandising support from dealers is doubtful: One of
the trade promotion tools is to offer promotional allowances to
trade people to motivate them to provide merchandising
support and to pass on some benefit to consumers.
• This is generally the condition attached with such
promotional allowances.
• In many cases the dealers do not cooperate in providing the
merchandising support, nor do they pass on any benefit to
consumers and in this practice.
5. Short-term orientation: Sales promotions are generally for
a short duration. This gives a boost to sales for a short period.
This short-term orientation may sometimes have negative
effect on long-term future of the organization.
• Heavy use of sales promotion, in certain product categories,
may be responsible for causing brand quality-image dilution
 Public relations
• Public relations represents an important part of the overall
marketing communications mix.
• Many public relations executions take on a sales promotion
format, For example. A newspaper-based competition
designed to create awareness of a new product might
originate from either a sales promotion agency or a public
relations consultancy.
• Public relations is the dimension of communications which
is specifically concerned with establishing and enhancing
goodwill between an organization and the various publics
with which it seeks to communicate.
• Although sometimes used independently, more often PR is
integrated with other aspects of the promotional mix, for
example, advertising, sales promotion or personal selling.
• The Public Relations Society of America adopts a
broader-based definition and, more importantly,
identifies a series of specific functions relating to
public relations:
1. Anticipating, analyzing and interpreting public
opinion, attitudes and issues which might impact, for
good or ill, on the operations and plans of the
organization.
2. Counseling management at all levels with regard to
policy decisions, courses of action and
communication.
3. Researching, conducting and evaluating, on a continuing basis,
programmes of action and communication to achieve informed
public understanding necessary for the success of the
organization’s aims.
4. Planning and implementing the organization’s efforts to
influence or change public policy.
5. Managing the resources needed to perform the functions of
public relations.
Benefits of public relations
• PR is comparatively inexpensive since, as noted above, there is
no direct media cost
• In many instances, a public relations campaign can achieve
substantial effect for relatively little cost.
• PR has a greater degree of credibility.
• PR can be used to publicize a company’s name and reputation.
 Public relations can deliver against a wide variety of
objectives:
• Increase awareness of the company;
• Increase awareness of the brands or services provided
by the organization;
• Reinforce the business objectives of the organization;
• Identify and explain company policy;
• Provide a focus of attention on those issues which are
important to the company;
• Encourage external debate on those issues;
• Help to change opinions to those which are favorable to
the organization;
• Assist the process of changing attitudes towards the
organization and its operations;
• Create positive attitudes towards the company’s products
and services;
• Help in the building of the reputation of an organization;
• Help in the building of the reputation of an organization;
• Motivate staff and enhance the recruitment process;
• Help restore the credibility of a company, particularly after
some specific crisis;
• Reinforce the marketing and sales efforts;
• Build upon or change purchasing behavior.
Three areas in which public relations can make a
contribution to brand strategy:
1. Topicality – linking the product with news events as they
occur. A PR campaign ensured that this fact received
widespread publicity in many of the most important media
outlets.
2. Credibility – PR offers the implied endorsement of a third
party commentator.
3. Involvement – creating interactive opportunities.
Shortcomings associated with the public relations
• A public relations message is uncontrollable. there is
certainly no guarantee that the message will appear in its
original form.
• Often, the medium will modify the story even to the point of
changing the intention of the message, and this is entirely
outside the control of the company.
 Advertising
• Advertising has traditionally been the most evident form
of marketing communication.
• To be more specific, advertising is the planned, paid for,
non-personal presentation of information related to a
product, service or idea to a multitude of existing and
prospective consumers through the mass media with the
aim of creating awareness, persuading, informing and/or
reminding the target audience (Du Plessis et al., 2003).
• Advertising is also referred to by some authors as an
‘awareness builder’ (Du Plessis et al., 2010).
• Advertising is a creative, mass-communication process.
• Its objective is to communicate an idea; change or
reinforce an attitude; or provide important information
about a particular product or service.
• Advertising is one of a variety of marketing
communications tools that companies can utilize to
achieve their defined objectives.
• Historically, advertising has always played the lead role
in terms of communications activity, although that
position is being eroded dramatically as the other tools of
marketing communications gain more widespread usage.
 The functions of advertising
• The particular roles that advertising can play are many
and varied, although they fall within three broad areas:
• To inform
• To persuade
• To sell
 The advantages and limitations of advertising
• Many organizations, both commercial and those in
the not-for-profit sector, use advertising to achieve
their goals.
• It is important to recognize that the users of
advertising can control the specific nature of the
message and, to a large degree, the composition of
the audience to whom that message is addressed.
 Advertising offers a number of benefits to the users
• It can create images of products which serve to differentiate
them in the marketplace.
• Since, as we have already seen, the increasing convergence of
technology has resulted in a situation in which many products
cannot be differentiated in physical terms, manufacturers must
utilize other methods to create some distinction for their
products or services.
• In many product categories, consumers are unable to
discriminate between competing brands in ‘blind’ tastings, yet
they express preferences for particular brands.
• The basis of their selection, in many instances, is the positive
associations of the brand in terms of the image or appeal of
the product derived from the style and content of the
advertising supporting that brand.
2. Advertising can assist in the creation and maintenance of
brand equity.
• Today’s brands have a real financial value which is
significantly greater than the investment required to produce
them.
3. Advertising can create a unique personality for a brand. It is
undeniably true that it is the brand personality which is the key
to sparking consumer desire.
• Advertising creates specific impressions of a brand which are
left beyond the actual message being communicated. There
are many examples of this, including Levi’s, Tango, John
Smith’s Bitter and Nike.
• All of these demonstrate the important part played by the
personality created through advertising as a major contributor
to the consumer’s propensity to purchase the brand.
4. Advertising can be used to reduce overall selling costs.
Imagine a sales force attempting to communicate with millions
of potential consumers of a product category without access to
conventional media!
 Limitation of Advertising
• It has to be recognized that advertising is not a universal
panacea/solution.
• Whilst it can introduce consumers to a new product concept
and may encourage them to try it, if the product fails to live
up to expectations, even the most powerful advertising
campaign will seldom overcome consumer rejections of an
ineffectual product or service.
2. Advertising is inherently an expensive means of
communicating with a desired target audience, at least in capital
terms.
• With some exceptions, advertising media costs are extremely
high and involve varying degrees of wastage.
• Even the best planned media schedule will reach consumers
who have little or no interest in the product category.
• As a vehicle for communication, advertising essentially
represents a one-way medium.
• Increasingly, marketers are recognizing that there is a need
to establish a two-way dialogue with the potential
consumer.
• Unless some form of feedback mechanism is built into the
execution, such dialogue is inhibited.
• Advertising tends to be somewhat impersonal.
• Whilst it is effective in communicating simultaneously to
large numbers of people, the specific needs and wants of
the individual cannot be recognized and responded to.
 Chapter Six
Measuring the Effectiveness of the promotional program
 Pros and cons of measuring the effectiveness of
promotional program
Pros cons
 Avoid costly mistakes. Cost of measurement
 Evaluate alternative strategies. Disagreement on what to test
 Increasing the efficiency of Lack of time
program in general. Objections of creative personal
 Determining if objectives Problems with research.
are achieved.
 What to test
 Sources factors Where to test
 Message variable  Laboratory test
 Media strategies  Field test.
 Budget decision

How to test
 Testing guidelines When to test
 Pretesting
 Appropriate/Proper
 Post testing
test
 Testing methods
1. Pre test : laboratory test
Consumer juries/judges
Portfolio test
Psychological measures
Theater test
Rough test
Concept test
Readability test
Comprehension and reaction test
 2. Field post testing

Recall test

Association
Tracking studies
measures
Methods

Recognition test Research

Inquiry/review/survey
test
 The testing process

1. Concept generation and

testing

2. Rough art, copy, and

Occurs at commercial testing
various stage
3. Pretesting of finished art or
commercial testing

4. Market testing / post testing

 Concept generation and testing
Conducted early in campaign development
To explore the targeted consumers response to potential Ads
or campaign.
i.e. Focus group and mall intercepts
Limitation
 the result are not quantifiable
Sample sizes are too small to generalize to larger
population
Group influences may bias participants responses
 Market test Print Ads
1. Inquiry/review test
2. Recognition test
3. Tracking test
4. Recall test
Essential of effective tests

Testing
 The end
Thank you for your
attention!!!