The Effects and Comparative Success of Marketing Campaigns - Term Paper Example

Consumer Research Outline Introduction 2. Corporate identity 3. Corporate image and reputation 4. Ethics of visual presentations 5. Standard practices in advertising 6. Face-ism 7. Women in the media 8. Male gaze 9. Conclusion 10. references Consumer Research Consumer research is a form of applied sociology that concentrates on understanding society aspects. Aspects such as preferences, attitudes, and behaviors of consumers in a market based economy are assessed. Consumer research also aims at understanding the effects and comparative success of marketing campaigns. Further, consumer research may also be defined as the systematic and objective identification, collection, analysis and dissemination of information for the purpose of assisting management of a particular company in identifying and solving the problems of marketing. Marketing research, if not well done, can lead to huge loses in profits and loss of public trust on a particular product or company. Marketing researchers are constantly surveying people about their likes and dislikes, their voting intentions, their thoughts about advertisements, and consumer feelings towards brands. Advertising, as a means of awareness, is not equivalent to a measure of a brand’s strength, value or equity. The fundamental question that should be asked is; what can marketing communicators do to enhance the equity of their brands so as to affect the behavior of their present and prospective customers? Or how can marketing communicators justify their investments in advertising, sales promotion and other common elements and demonstrate financial stability? (Shimp, 2008). One of the ways in which marketing communications would represent corporate identity is its awareness. Brand awareness is an issue of whether a brand name comes to mind when consumers think about a particular product category and the ease with which the name is evoked. Consumers have to be aware of the brand for it to represent the corporate identity. Achieving brand awareness is the initial challenge for new brands while maintaining high levels of brand awareness is the task faced by all established brands. The second dimension is the brand image portrayed in the adverts. Brand image represents the associations that are activated in the memory when people think a particular brand. The associations can be conceptualized in terms of brand strength, type, favorability and uniqueness. Although advertising of the brands is based on a variety of associations that consumers have developed over time, brands just like people can be thought of as having their unique personalities. Corporate identity Corporate communication is aimed at influencing people’s perception about the company. To perform this duty, the management is willing to report good news but reluctant to disclose bad news. In addition, corporate social reporting is also aimed at providing information that legitimizes company’s behavior by intending to influence stakeholders and the society’s perceptions about the company, in such away; a company is regarded as a good corporate citizen (Shimp, 2008). Images as well as advertisements on a particular company or products, describes corporate identity. Corporate identity is defined as the strategically planned and operationally applied internal and external self presentation and behavior of a company. It may also mean; the manners in which organizational members present themselves to an audience. A company’s behavior is the most effective medium to create or harm a corporate identity. Target audience will judge the company by its actions although it is acknowledged that providing information on the actions is also important. Communication is the most flexible medium that can be used tactically to help manage organizations relationships with its customers and the public through the shaping of external perceptions (Williams, Lee and Haugtvet, 2004). Corporate Image and Reputation Organization’s image is described as the way organizational members believe others see the organization. Corporate image involves other peoples perceptions of the organization, which is the result of information transmitted via mass media and through interpersonal communication (Shimp, 2008). Organizations with good reputation can among other things charge premium prices, enhance their access to capital markets, attract investors more easily, and have better credit ratings. Reputation can form a competitive advantage for firms. Efficient corporate communication involves not only the message itself, but also the medium that carries and delivers it. Companies have strived to find the best way to get company communications to the customers and potential customers without causing dissent views. They therefore, have to design various messages, especially the adverts, accurately to a void distortion of message content by the society (Williams, Lee and Haugtvet, 2004). Particular patterns of language must be used to promote a product or service to a wide audience. Companies can strategically relate to their customers through public relations and advertising. Means of communication include newsletters, crisis management with the news, special events planning and communicating with stakeholders, clients or donors, at the same time ensuring that communication ethics are followed. Ethics of visual presentations Ethics representation is concerned with moral principles taken into consideration when designing visual communications such as adverts. Visual representations in corporate communication and news media signify cultural codes of race, class, ethnicity, and gender so as to create a distance in specific people or groups. The advertising community has always produced advertisements that members of the society continue to question their credibility (Cornelissen, 2004). Adverts may be emotion arousing. They can then cause anxiety to a group of viewers; the various groups may feel hostile towards others or fell a loss of self esteem. The viewers may then decide to take action against advertisers. Advertisers should identify advertising boundaries so that they can recognize the potential consequences of taking creative risks. In contemporary marketing strategy, images claim center stage. Pictures of people, for instance, models celebrity endorsers, spokespersons, consumers, managers and employees; constitute a large part of marketing communication imagery. When marketing communications depend upon images, the ethical tools meant to provide guidance for international marketing communications must be capable of addressing the concerns that such depictions evoke. Most approaches to marketing ethics generally adopt an information based model of marketing communication, emphasizing marketing’s role as a strategic source of information for consumers. Criticisms of marketing communications are often understood in simple terms as general critiques of capitalism. Represented identities in the advert images profess to express something true or essential about those represented. Marketing managers must be aware of representational practices that may cause harm (Williams, Lee and Haugtvet, 2004). Standard practices in advertising Succeeding in social marketing requires intelligence and imagination. As far as originality in social marketing is concerned, there is a certain emphasis put by the scientific community regarding it as a main ingredient for the success of a social marketing’s campaign through the use of new ways of communication or new approaches of the target audience (Cornelissen, 2004). The interference of marketing, and especially of advertising, in social issues led to the coinage of the term “social marketing”. Marketing’s contribution to the solution of social problems, such as the dealing with racism or the increased support of the education, constitutes a historical phenomenon and a policy of numerous business organizations. Social marketers must ensure that they change the deeply established opinions and attitudes of the audience which may be harmful to the audience in a short or long term period of time, and to a greater extent to the society (Cornelissen, 2004). A typical strategy of the social marketers for the achievement of their advertising targets is the arousal of intense emotions to the audience. This is always done through the demonstration of advertisements appealing to the emotions such as fear. It is important to note that there is no ideal empathy policy of the target audience, because people’s views and opinions are influenced by the advertisements appealing to the negative or positive emotions in respect to their character. Face-ism There is a systematic bias in the way in which minorities are depicted in movies, television, and magazines. Women are often portrayed on screen and in photographs with lower levels of facial prominence compared to men. Face-ism is assessed by computing the ratio between the distance from the top of the head to the lower point of the chin, over the distance between the top of the head and the lowest part of the body that is depicted in the frame or photograph. The more the frame is occupied by the face, the higher the level of racism. Differences in face-ism are determined to some extent by individual differences in creator’s attitudes toward the targets that are being depicted. Individual differences in stereotyping or prejudice towards women may affect face-ism; however, it does not seem to be the case that photographers or camera personnel produce these facial prominence effects out of their own will. In addition, differences in face-ism can have effects on social perception. Faces of high or low in face-ism actually cause members of the social groups to be perceived more or less stereotypically. To be specific, high face-ism signifies notions of power and dominance. The way in which an individual is portrayed in the media and on pictures has a significant impact on how those individuals are perceived. Women in the media Advertising as well as entertainment programs in all types of format emphasize the image of women as a decorative object and as the home and marriage oriented person. The women have also been portrayed in the media as being secondary to and dependent on men for financial, emotional and physical support. The continued projection of negative and degrading images of women in the media communications such as the electronic, print, visual and audio; must be changed. Print and electronic media in most countries do not provide a balanced picture of women’s diverse lives and contributions in the society in a changing world. In addition, violent and degrading or pornographic media products are also negatively affecting women and their participation in the society. There is an obvious under representation of women in top level positions in parent companies that encompass mass media today. This, however, is contrary to the fact that women are fully represented in managerial positions. Being media literate and understanding the difference between mass communication and the mass media help women interpret media messages presented by pictures. Male gaze Discrimination against women can be seen and understood at visual level. Pictures of women are always used by men to rate the most beautiful. This is called visual harassment, men have the power to gaze, and they can watch women in private and in public. Several advertisements nicely situate the complex levels of power and interpretation involved in the understanding of sexual harassment. Male gaze is quite evident in most advertisements that it is often assumed or taken for granted. Women are often shown offering their nude bodies for the pleasure of an absent male spectator. Advertising images increasingly affects advanced and emerging industries. The ability of advertising is not only to reflect but also to mould social meanings. Mass media advertising has played a role in reaching at particular definitions, often stereotypes, of gender roles and gender relationships. Throughout the history of advertising, detailed definitions of the perfect female, her beauty, her social roles, and her sexuality, have occupied a central place. These messages, selling everything from cosmetics to cars and beverages, prescribe how women should be looked at, how they should feel, and how they should act (Cornelissen, 2004). Advertising has been criticized for appropriating hard fought gains of the women’s movements, and other marginalized groups and assigning them to products. In most cases, women’s roles are stereotyped in adverts, either women’s’ place is in the homes or women are decorative sex objects. Advertisements give a false picture of women’s real lives. Women of color and members of other marginalized groups face more complex issues. In advanced and emerging industrial societies, the cultural gaze is not only male but also white. Most women of color grow up not seeing themselves reflected in mainstream advertising, which has made them unworthy of representation. Until recently, women of color appeared in advertising only if they were fine featured and light skinned, resembling the European standard of beauty. For women of color who are viewers, striving to achieve idealized feminine qualities entail not only adjusting or refining ones body but also rejecting ones identity and certain physical characteristics altogether. Women of color are sometimes represented in advertising, though there is still little diversity within the stereotypes of women of color in mainstream advertisements. Conclusion Corporate communication is very important to any company. It helps an organization to create distinctive and appealing images with is stakeholders groups, build a strong corporate brand, and develop reputation t o the company. Advertisements should not arouse negative feelings in the consumers; rules of ethical publicity should be followed. There must be an organization in the communication objectives of a company. Communications organization carries important strategic and political dimensions; the manner in which communications is structured not only determines whether communications activities that are carried out at various places within the organization are coordinated in a cost effective manner, but also whether the communications function is able to provide strategic input into corporate decision making. - References Jerome Williams, Wei-Na Lee and Curtis Haugtvet (2004). Diversity in advertising: broadening the scope of research directions. New York, Routledge. Joep Cornelissen (2004). Corporate communications: theory and practice. New York, Sage. Terence A. Shimp (2008). Advertising promotion and other aspects of integrated marketing communications. New York, Cengage Learning. Read More