Evolution of Integrated Marketing Communications - Essay Example

Evolution of Integrated Marketing Communications 1. Explain the evolution of Integrated Marketing Communications to Integrated Brand Promotion over the last decade and why IBP is crucial to brand success Integrated marketing communication is the use of a range of promotional and marketing activities to communicate with the consumers about the product. As marketers become more sophisticated, they are recognize that IMC is more that just coordinating the various elements of the marketing and communications to have a 360 degrees approach to deliver a single message, as the concept of branding is emerging and more importance is laid upon the creation of an experience and promise that the brand holds, the concept of integrated brand promotion is a phenomenon that focuses on building brand identity and equity with the use of IMC to communicate and deliver the branding message effectively and efficiently. Building and maintaining brand identity and equity require the creation of well-known brands that have favorable, strong and unique associations in the minds of the consumer. 2. Imus Brothers Coffee, distributed by Fred and his radio disc jockey brother Don Imus' mail order Company, makes ground coffee and has targeted heavy users in the past. The company is now considering, however, switching to targeting college students, a target segment that is comprised largely of people who have just started to drink coffee and don't consume anywhere near as much as the heavy users. What are the disadvantages of the heavy-user strategy? What is the term used to describe the college students the company is considering targeting? What are the advantages of targeting this college student segment? Heavy users are more conscious about the quality of the coffee and are often choosy about what they want. They may be put off by some small mistake and have a negative image of the brand and may also lead to negative word of mouth among other heavy users. The company is targeting an emerging market which is untapped when it comes to coffee and this could mean that they could have a new segment to enter and achieve. This market development and would lead to increased market share and growth in sales. 3. You are the marketing manager for a mail-order company that ships spices from all over the world to customers across the globe. Given a choice between access to a mailing list and access to a marketing database, which would you choose? What are the advantages of your choice? Be as specific as possible. Marketing database would be a more efficient choice as it would be diverse and dense. The marketing database is created taking segmentation into consideration and it is more useful in terms of reach. Marketing database would hold complete information of the users and could also enable targeting and segmentation according to the company offerings. 4. Describe what branded entertainment is, how it differs from brand/product placement, and what its future is as a branding tool. The advent of brand entertainment is considered as one of the most major changes in the way IMC takes place since the past few years. The enormous growth of the concept of brand entertainment appends to its future as a successful branding tool. Brand entertainment can be described as a blend of marketing and entertainment and the process of using the entertainment media to grab the attention of the consumers and help them gain better exposure to the brand. Brand entertainment makes us of television, music, film and technology to create the mix between entertainment and marketing. Product/brand placement was a long time phenomenon used in films although brand entertainment is the same concept, but brand entertainment has led product placement to go beyond films to now embrace all forms of media. From films, to music videos, to computer games, all forms of media can be used to create or recreate an emotional connection with the consumers and increase exposure with the use of technology to spread the message across multimedia channels (Lehu, 2008). Brand entertainment continues to grow in terms of number and in dollar amounts gaining the advantages of exposure, frequency, source association, acceptance and more specific targeting. 5. List and describe the three main media used to communicate with consumers on the Internet. Summarize the ways product information is conveyed in each medium. The most common form of advertising on the web is through banner ads. Banner ads may be used to create product awareness and recognition; they may also be used for entering viewers into contests and sweepstakes to retain interest and increase interactivity or for direct-marketing objectives. Some studies indicate that banner ads prove to be effective in building brands and creating recall among the viewers. The increased penetration of broadband into households has increased the attention given to streaming videos. Rich media can be defined as all those media that involves interactivity, dynamic motion and makes use of sensory features such as video, music and animation. With the increase in these streaming videos, advertisers are creating videos with their products and brands to be featured over the internet. Companies have found internet to be an effective medium to carry out sales promotion. A plethora of companies are now placing promotions over purchases carried out over the internet through e-commerce. These promotions enable the consumers to be involved in activities and special offers that enable them to win prizes and discounts. 6. List and briefly describe two audience measures for each of the four major classes of traditional media. Television audience can be measured through rating services and share of audience. Rating services provide program ratings that give the percentage of TV households that are tuned to a specific program during a specific period of time. Share of audience is another important tool to get information over the potential audience. Radio audience can be measured through rating services over the radio channels. They can be measured by person estimates which are the number of people listening and rating which is the percentage of listeners in the survey area population. Newspaper audience can be measured through circulation figures available through rate cards, publisher's statements or standard rate and data services. Newspaper circulation figures are usually broken down into city zone, retail trading zone and other areas. Magazines audience can be measured through circulation and total audience size. Market research companies provide broad range of information over the audience. 7. Describe the differences, if any, between design and layout. What is the primary purpose of each? Design can be referred to as the visual artwork that is used in the advertisements. The design is made with the considerations of the target audience, the product, brand image and the message that it wants to send across. Layout is the placement of the graphics, text, logo, brand name and the message so as to create an integrated concept of what has to be communicated to the audience. There is a slight disparity among the two. While design is what is being sent across, layout refers to how it is placed and shown to the consumers. 8. A headline for a Mercedes-Benz diesel automobile reads, "A Mercedes-Benz has been driven over one million miles. Pick a color you can live with." List two possible purposes this headline could serve. Briefly explain how this headline matches the criteria of the listed purposes. The headline describes the durability and reliability of the Mercedes-Benz. It creates an image while displaying the characteristic of the car as being long lasting and durable for a very long time. The purpose of the headline is also to inculcate in the consumers the confidence and dependability that the car holds. 'Pick a color you can live with' shows the assurance and self-belief that if you own a Mercedes-Benz, you would not want another car for a long time. 9. In the past, research has suggested that advertisers should exert caution when attempting to use certain methods of advertising. List two of these methods, and for each method describe two of the lessons that advertisers can learn from the research. Advertisements using sexual appeal have received the most criticism from the consumers. These techniques aim to gain the attention of the consumer and may not always have a connection with the product. This kind of advertising often receives bad feedback from consumers as most viewers see them as demeaning for women. Moreover, some liquor companies have been criticized not just for their advertising but also other promotional methods that are concerned with sex appeal Fear appeal is also something that advertisers must be cautious about. The lessons learnt include that over use of fear appeal may scare the consumers and they may not have a positive association with the brand. On the other hand, less than required use of fear may not be effective and result in failure to influence the audience. 10. A complaint concerning an allegedly misleading advertising practice is filed with a local Better Business Bureau and eventually ends up at the FTC. Outline the path the complaint would take to get there. Specifically, list the organizations it would pass through and in general terms, the actions that would need to be taken by each organization for the complaint to end up at the FTC. Finally, describe three possible outcomes at the FTC level. BBB investigates the complaint and it is looked after by the National Advertising Division of the CBBB(NAD) which reviews the ads for truthfulness and correctness. The complaint also passes through the National Advertising Review Council (NARC). Every local BBB Web site has an online complaint form which can be filled to file the complaint. If the complaint meets BBB guidelines, it will be forwarded to the business within one to five days. The FTC would review the complaint and check whether the filed case is in fact true. If the case stands accurate, then the FTC would cease and desist orders and may take the case to the federal and administrative courts. References Lehu, J. (2008) Brand entertainment. Kogan Page Ltd. Belch, G. E. & Belch, M. A. (2007) Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communication Perspective. McGraw-Hill Irvin. Read More