Catching the Buzz: Promotional Strategy and Integrated Marketing Communication

1. Catching the Buzz: Promotional Strategy and Integrated Marketing Communication

2. Chapter Objectives • Understand the role of marketing communication • Understand the communications model • List and describe the traditional elements of the promotion mix • Explain how word of mouth marketing, buzz marketing, viral marketing, and guerrilla marketing provide effective marketing communication

3. Chapter Objectives (cont’d) • Describe integrated marketing communication and its characteristics • Explain the important role of database marketing in integrated marketing communication • Explain the stages in developing an IMC plan

4. Real People, Real Choices • General Motors R* Works (Vince O’Brien) • Needed marketing plan supporting Chevy’s commitment to skiing while increasing sales at local dealerships • Option 1: continue ski promotion but better qualify test-drive traffic • Option 2: offer season passes to local ski mountain as purchase incentive for designated SUV • Option 3: scrap ski relationship and look for another platform to promote Chevy’s products

5. Tailoring MarketingCommunication to Consumers • Promotion: the coordination of marketing communication efforts to influence attitudes or behavior • Marketing communication: • Informs • Reminds • Persuades • Builds relationships

6. Tailoring Marketing Communicationto Consumers (cont’d) • Integrated marketing communication (IMC): process that marketers use to plan, develop, execute, and evaluate coordinated, measurable, persuasive brand communication programs over time to targeted audiences • Consumers see the variety of messages from a firm as a whole.

7. The Communication Model • Encoding: process of translating an idea into a form of communication • Source: organization or individual sending the message • Message: the communication in physical form • Medium: communication vehicle used to reach members of a target audience

8. The Communication Model (cont’d) • Receiver: individual or organization that intercepts and interprets the message • Decoding: process whereby a receiver assigns meaning to a message • Noise: anything that interferes with effective communication • Feedback: receiver’s reactions to the message

9. Marketing CommunicationStrategy and Promotion Mix • Promotion mix: communication elements the marketer controls • Advertising • Sales promotion • Public relations • Personal selling • Direct marketing

10. Mass Appeals • Advertising: Nonpersonal communication from an identified sponsor using mass media

11. Mass Appeals (cont’d) • Sales promotion: contests, coupons, and other incentives designed to build interest or encourage product purchase during a specified period • Public relations: communication activities that create/maintain a positive image of a firm and its products

12. Personal Appeals • Personal selling: direct interaction between a company representative and a customer • Direct marketing: efforts to gain a direct response from individual consumers

13. Buzz Appeals • Buzz: everyday people who help marketing efforts by talking about a product or a company to others • Buzz marketing: high-profile entertainment or news that gets people to talk about the brand • Viral marketing: entertaining or informative messages designed to be passed along

14. Buzz Appeals (cont’d) • Word of mouth (WOM) marketing: activities that give people a reason to talk about the product • Guerrilla marketing: activities that “ambush” consumers with promotional content where not expected

15. Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) • With IMC, marketing communication programs create and maintain long-term relationships with customers by satisfying their needs. • IMC unifies all marketing communication tools to send a consistent, persuasive message.

16. Characteristics of IMC • Creates a single unified voice for firm. • Begins with the customer. • Seeks to develop relationships with customers through one-to-one marketing. • Relies on two-way communication.

17. Characteristics of IMC (cont’d) • Focuses on stakeholders, not just customers. • Generates a continuous stream of communication. • Measures results based on actual feedback.

18. IMC and Database Marketing • Database marketing: creation of ongoing relationship with a set of customers who have identifiable interest in a product • --Customers’ responses become part of ongoing communication process. • Is interactive Builds relationships • Locates new customers Stimulates cross-selling • Is measurable Yields trackable responses

19. Developing the IMC Plan • Step 1: Identify target audiences • Step 2: Establish communication objectives • Create awareness • Inform the market • Create desire • Encourage purchase and trial • Build loyalty

20. Step 3: Determine and allocate the marketing communication budget • Determine total promotion budget • Top-down budgeting techniques • Percentage-of-sales • Competitive-parity • Bottom-up • Objective-task

21. Step 3: Determine and allocate the marketing communication budget (continued) • Push strategy: move products through the channel by convincing channel members to offer them • Pull strategy: move products through the channel by building desire among consumers, convincing retailers to respond to demand

22. Step 3: Determine and allocate the marketing communication budget (continued) • Allocate the budget to a specific promotion mix • Organizational factors • Market responsiveness • Market potential • Market size

23. Step 4: Design the promotion mix • Type of appeal • AIDA model: communication goals of attention, interest, desire, and action • Structure of the appeal • Communication channel

24. Step 5: Evaluate the effectiveness of the communication program • Are communication objectives adequately translated into marketing communication that is reaching the right target market?

25. Real People, Real Choices • General Motors R* Works (Vince O’Brien) • Vince chose option 2: offer season passes to local ski mountain as purchase incentive for designated SUV. • Chevrolet has completed its sixth year of this Ski Chevy promotional program, and it’s all smooth going from here!

26. Marketing in Action Case:You Make the Call • What is the decision facing American Express? • What factors are important in understanding this decision situation? • What are the alternatives? • What decision(s) do you recommend? • What are some ways to implement your recommendation?

27. Keeping It Real: Fast-Forward to Next Class, Decision Time at BzzAgent • Meet Joe Chernov, director of PR at BzzAgent, Inc. • Buzz marketers accused of “perpetrating large scale deception upon consumers” • The decision: What public relations strategy to use to respond to the criticism?