Integrated

Marketing
Communications
Strategy

Chapter 14
 Learning Objectives
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
1. Discuss the process and advantages of
integrated marketing communications in
communicating customer value

2. Define the five promotion tools and discuss the

factors that must be considered in shaping the
overall promotion mix

3. Outline the steps in developing effective

marketing communications

4. Explain the methods for setting the promotion

budget and factors that affect the design of the
promotion mix
  Marketing Communications Mix

 The specific mix of advertising,

personal selling, sales promotion,
direct-marketing tools and public
relations a company uses to pursue its
advertising and marketing objectives.

 Can be called as promotion mix

 The five factor above (advertising, personal
selling, sales promotion, direct marketing tools
and public relations) are called major promotion
tools.
Advertising

 Any paid form of non-personal

presentation and promotion of
ideas, goods or services by an
identified sponsor

 Depends on medium/media used,

printed, electronic
Personal Selling

 Personal presentation by the firm’s

sales force for the purpose of making
sales and building customer
relationship

 Many of B2B organizations use this

method

 Example, Avon, Tupperware

Sales Promotion

 Short term incentives to

encourage the purchase or sale of
a product or service
 Example, sales coupons, discounts
Public Relations

 Building good relations with the

company’s various publics by
obtaining favorable publicity,
building up a good corporate image,
and handling/heading off unfavorable
rumors, stories and events
 The Need For Integrated Marketing
Communications

 Conflicting messages from different sources or

promotional approaches can confuse company or
brand images
 Different people handle different marketing mix,
example advertising department handle
advertisement. PR department handle PR
 The Internet must be integrated into the broader
IMC mix because often, companies fail to integrate
their various communication channels.
Integrated Marketing
Communications
 The concept under which a
company carefully integrates and
coordinates its many
communications channels to
deliver a clear, consistent, and
compelling message about the
organization and its products.
Malaysian Example

 Ken Apothecary – retailers of cult

cosmetic products. A bit pricey. Targeted
at middle to higher level executives/ladies
that want to be different/unique.

 Use PR strategies (interviews in glossy

female magazines), launching new
products at events like the launching of
new Volvo, set up perfume boutique at Le
Meridien hotel
 The Communication
 Process
Communications efforts should be viewed from the
perspective of managing customer relationships over
time.

 The communication process begins with an audit of all

potential contacts a customer might have with the
brand.

 Effective communication requires knowledge of how

communication works.

 Two questions that need to be asked:

 How can we reach our customers?
 How can we find ways to let out customers reach
us?
 Elements in the
Communication Process

Sender Encoding Message Decoding

Media

Noise

Feedback Receiver
Response

Sender’s field Receiver’s field

of experience of experience
Steps in Developing Effective
Communication

 Indentifying the Target Audience

 Determining the Communication
Objectives
 Designing a Message
 Choosing Media
 Selecting the Message Source
 Collecting Feedback.
Step 1: Identifying the Target Audience

 Affects decisions related to what, how, when, and

where message will be said, as well as who will say
it
Step 2: Determining Communication
Objectives
Marketers must decide what purchase response they seek
from the target audience.

 Six buyer readiness stages:

i) Awareness – Proton use teaser ads to introduce Gen-2

ii) Knowledge
iii) Liking – feeling favorable, liking
iv) Preference – prefer Proton Gen-2 to other brands
v) Conviction – believe that Gen-2 is the best car
vi) Purchase – buy Gen-2
Step 3: Designing a Message

 Message must have AIDA framework guides message

design
 A – Attention
 I – Interest
 D – Desire
 A - Action

 Need to consider what to say (message content) and

how to say it (message structure and format)
 Message content: contains appeals or themes
designed to produce desired results
 Rational appeals
 Relate to audience’s self-interest
Show product will produce desired benefits
 Emotional appeals
Love, pride, joy, humor, fear, guilt, shame
 Moral appeals
What is right or proper.
Urge people to support social causes
 Message Structure: Key decisions are required with
respect to three message structure issues:

 Whether or not to draw a conclusion

 Advertiser asking questions and let the buyers come
to their own conclusion
 One-sided vs. two-sided argument
One-sided – mention all the benefits
Two-sided – mention benefits and shortcomings
 Order of argument presentation
Can get strong attention from the public
Anti climax
 Message Format: Design, layout, copy, color,
shape, movement, words, sounds, voice, body
language, dress, etc.
Step 4: Choosing Media
 Personal communication channels
 Includes face-to-face, phone, mail, and
Internet chat communications
 Word-of-mouth influence is often critical
 Buzz marketing cultivates opinion leaders

 Non-personal communication channels

 Includes media (print, display and online
media)
 Atmosphere (lawyers’ officer are designed
to communicate confidence)
 Events (press conferences, grand opening,
shows and exhibits)
Step 5: Selecting the Message Source

 How audience view the

communicator
 Highly credible sources
are more persuasive eg
Tiger Woods
 A poor spokesperson can
tarnish a brand
Step 6: Collecting Feedback

 Recognition, recall, and behavioral

measures are assessed
 Asking target audience – remember
the ads, how many times, what points
they recall, how the felt, their past
and present attitude about the
product and company
 May suggest changes in
product/promotion
Setting the Promotional Budget - 4
Common Methods
 Affordability Method
 Budget is set at a level that a company can afford
 Small companies often use this method, company
cannot spend more on ads
 Start with total revenues, deduct operating expenses
and capital outlays and then devote some for ads.

 Percentage-of-Sales Method
 Past or forecasted sales may be used
 Relationships between promotional spending, selling
price and profit per unit
Setting the Promotional Budget -
4 Common Methods
 Competitive-Parity Method
 Budget matches competitors’ outlays
 Monitor competitors’ ads or get industry
promotion spending estimates from publication or
trade association, then set budgets based on
industry average

 Objective-and-Task Method
 Specific objectives are defined
 Tasks required to achieve objectives are
determined
 Costs of performing tasks are estimated, then
summed to create the promotional budget
 Setting the
Promotional Mix
 Setting the Overall Promotion Mix
 Determined by the nature of each promotion tool
and the selected promotion mix strategy

 Promotion Tools
 Advertising
 Reaches large, geographically dispersed audiences, often
with high frequency
 Low cost per exposure, though overall costs are high
 Consumers perceive advertised goods as more legitimate
 Dramatizes company/brand
 Builds brand image; may stimulate short-term sales
 Impersonal; one-way communication
 Personal Selling

 Most effective tool for building buyers’

preferences, convictions, and actions
 Personal interaction allows for feedback and
adjustments
 Relationship oriented
 Buyers are more attentive
 Sales force represents a long-term
commitment
 Most expensive of the promotional tools
 Sales Promotion

 Makes use of a variety of formats: premiums,

coupons, contests, etc.
 Attracts attention, offers strong purchase
incentives, dramatizes offers, boosts sagging
sales
 Stimulates quick response
 Short lived
 Not effective at building long-term brand
preferences
 Public Relations

 Highly credible
 Many forms: news stories, news features, events
and sponsorships, etc.
 Reaches many prospects missed via other forms
of promotion
 Dramatizes company or benefits
 Often the most underused element in the
promotional mix
 Direct Marketing

 Many forms: Telephone marketing, direct

mail, online marketing, etc.
 Four distinctive characteristics:
 Nonpublic
 Immediate
 Customized
 Interactive
 Well-suited to highly targeted marketing
efforts
Promotion Mix Strategies

 Push Strategies
 A promotion strategy that calls for using sales force and
trade promotion to push the product through channels
 Usually used by B2B companies (Example, when retailers
are strong)

 Pull Strategies
 A promotion strategy that calls for spending a lot on
advertisement and consumer promotion to induce final
consumers to buy the product.
 Usually used by B2C companies
• Refer page 387

Most large companies use both strategies.

Socially Responsible
Communications
 Advertising and Sales Promotion
 Avoid false and deceptive advertising
 No bait-and-switch advertising
 Trade promotions can not favor certain customers over others
 Use advertising to promote socially responsible programs and
actions

 Personal Selling
 Salespeople must follow the rules of “fair competition”
 Business-to-business selling
 Bribery, industrial espionage, and making false and
disparaging statements about a competitor are forbidden