MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
Summary
Academic year 2020-2021
Prof. Dr Patrick De Pelsmacker
EP
,Chapter 1: Integrated communications
1 Marketing mix
Usually when we talk about marketing, we talk about the 4 p’s. Now we have to talk about the 4C’s. 4 P’s
are inside out. 4 C’s are defined of the point of view of the customer. Basically they are the same set of
tools. This course is about the 4 th one: communication, promotion. It is the most visible aspect of marketing.
2 Instruments of the communication mix
Advertising
Brand activation (promotions, in-store, experience)
Direct marketing communications
Public relations
Sponsorship
Exhibitions and trade fairs
Offline and online
4th category. There is no such thing as the online and offline world. It is integrated. Every customer is both.
2.1 Advertising
First important tool. Everybody has a feeling about what it is, but some find it difficult to define it. In what
differs it in other tools?
One-to-many:
It is a mass communication tool (one-to-many). It is a mass audience.
Monologue:
Someone is talking to you and you can only listen, not really interact. At best in offline advertising, there
is an invitation to interact like ‘visit our website’. Online, you can click on a link, leave your email, …
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, Paid:
If you see an add, you know there is a company that has paid for it to show you this. People realise that.
It is persuasion knowledge (you see an add on street or bus, this brand has paid to be on the back of
the bus. People know you paid for doing this). People are also sceptical, is it all true? Or do they just
want to persuade me? This scepticism lead to nowadays many hybrids advertising to avoid this. Bv
everybody knows product placement (products placed in media bv james bond movies). Brands paid to
be in the bond movie. People who watch it don’t see it as advertisement. To them it is content of the
movie. Don’t develop a lot of persuasion knowledge. They don’t develop the sceptical attitude. Hybrid
formats are there to diminish the persuasion knowledge and scepticism.
Often long term:
A lot of advertising works on the mind of people and not on immediate behaviour. You know where to
buy something, get interesting in trying something what you hadn’t before. Not you see an add and
you immediately buy it. Typically it takes a while. Advertising has to lead to sales. It is an investment in
profit.
Intermediate effects:
It works through intermediate effects. You see an add, you learn something new, you like, it is maybe
something for me, you will try to find it in the shop and then you buy it. A lot of advertising works that
they eventually buy it. But not immediately. People see an ad for a car model. They think it is nice? Visit
the dealer. Nobody immediately buys it. You will take a test drive, negotiate about the price, … and
then you buy it. Some advertising is just announcing promotions. Then there is an immediate link
between add and sales. Normally they want to work on the mind and feelings of products.
2.2 Online advertising
Online advertising is just like any other advertising. Not fundamentally different from offline. It is about
targeting, trying to get them interesting, let them like it, invite them to your web shop. The difference is
that the possibilities online are that you can reach a massive audience in a short time, target in a specific
way and also reach them, personalize your message much better, measure better the effects of you
campaign. But the purpose are the same. Examples:
Websites
Advertising on websites
E-mail
Social media advertising
Mobile advertising
2.3 Brand activation
Intended to work on the short term immediately on the behaviour of people. (<-> advertising in the mind
of people in the long run). Typical is that people do something with the brand, they behave in a certain way.
A typical example is sales promotions.
What is sales promotions
Sales stimulation:
You give an incentive to buy your product. If you buy today two items, you get the third item for
free. If you buy one kilo of this product you get 200 gr for free. The mechanism is always the same.
I give you something (money, present, extra product, saving card, …) but you should do something
now, buy me. It is about stimulating sales. Not working on the mind of people but the behaviour of
people. It is buying oriented.
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, Incentive-based:
It is incentive-based. In all sales promotions you get something free.
Image-destroying:
Some people doubt that doing promotions is a very good idea. It is potentially image destroying.
You have to imagine that you advertise for a product bv a car. You tell: this is the best car of the
planet, best performance, beautiful, … this I the price. Imagine you say at the same time you get a
10% discount. That would be a very bad idea. It happens all the time, but it is not good marketing.
Good marketing is avoiding a price argument. Make people buy a product because of it intrinsic
qualities, built a reputation by means of advertising and other marketing communications tools.
See to it that people buy the products of it is intrinsic values and not of the discount. So the basic
ideas is that if you use sales promotions too often, at the end of the day you are selling discounts
and not products. People get used to it. People will think it is the normal price then. You change
their price expectations. Worst marketing. Reference price becomes the price of the promotions.
Avoid to change the price perceptions of people. You will destroy your whole image of your
advertising campaign by doing that.
In luxury cars, you never get a discount. What you get is like a premium. An extra pack for less
money. They will not touch the unit price of the car. They will use different promotions that do
not alter the price perception of the car, they will give you an extra gift, warranty, sound system,
extra features, … You can use sales promotions. But you have to be careful of the kind of
promotions you use.
In-store communications:
Also about in-store communications. It is everything you see on the shop floor. Bv messages on the
shelves, small videos how to prepare food, … it is supposed to be a part of brand activation. It activates
people because they get interested and the products are on the shelves nearby. They may buy
something by seeing what happens on the shop floor. Shop floor is very important because that is
where people and products meet. You don’t necessarily meet products in front of your computer or
television, but in the shop. The same goes for a web shop of course. Place where people buy. You talk
to them in an environment where they can buy stuff and you hope to activate them.
Example Red Bull campaign:
Launch campaign of red bull in Belgium. It uses the same
arguments they are still using. This is an example about fuel
nozzle advertising. Tool you hold in your hand when putting
gas in your car. A bit of space of advertising. This is where
they put it. This campaign is in fact in-store communications
because you are at the premise of a gasoline station. You put
it on the fuel nozzles. A good campaign because:
First challenge of a marketing communicate is to communicate in a way that people have to
look at you. Big challenges of most advertising is that people don’t see it or avoid it. So put
your adds in a such a place that they will see them or have to see them. That is the case with
the fuel nozzle. You have to look at it, you have to concentrate to the fuel at least for a couple
of seconds. For that reason that is good advertisement. The same goes for advertising on a
parking meter. Inside of toilet door. Nothing else to see.
Many people who buy gas at a high way, they are in for long haul trips. All these people, the
message will appeal to them. Don’t get tired, get your reaction up to speed. Stimulate your
body and mind. Be attentive, be awake. They are driving a truck and a long truck, this is what
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, they want to read. It is the right message at the right place at the right time. You are exposed
to the message. Then you can immediately buy the product because usually close to a gas
station there is a shop where you can buy Red bull. A lot of advertisements don’t work
because there is a disconnect in time between when you see the message and when you can
act upon it. Bv if you see an ad for washing powder on tv, you can’t buy it immediately. You
can go to the shop a day after or a week after. But then maybe the effect is gone? There is a
disconnect in time between you see the message and when you can act upon it. Big
advantage of in-store communication is on premise advertising.
Not an expensive tool with an enormous impact.
Good example of a situation in which you talk to people who are interested in the message at that
point in time and that place. Message in place that people have to see it. Add in a place where
people can act immediately upon it and close to buy it. Looks very simple, but is well thought of.
Experience marketing:
Make people interested in a product by bringing them in touch with the product. Bv test drive with a
car. You experience the product instead of only listening to the communications about the product.
Another example is a flagship store bv Nike, M&M’s stores. They bring people in their store and show
cases. You bring people in contact in a very experiential way. Bv personalize M&M’s. in that way they
want to activate consumers to buy it. Make people experience the product, it is more influential than
talking to them. They can connect with the product.
The art of creating an experience where the result is an emotional connection to a person, brand,
product or idea.
You make people interact with the product, brand. In such a way you make them like the brand.
Because they experience what it is.
Field marketing, customer service, special events, product promotions, PR stunts…
Different names: field marketing, customer service, …
Creating connection through a designed emotive experience.
Stunt in supermarket is for example the BBQ week. Special section where you can buy BBQ stuff:
tools, meat, beer, sauces, … it creates an experience with all the brands together
E.g. flagship stores, for instance Nike, M&Ms
Nike: try on the latest models. Learn about latest technologies. Mirrors where you can fit the
shoes.
2.4 Direct marketing
Another tool we will not discuss in this course extensively.
Direct mailing: you get letters, e-mail
Telemarketing: people call you
Catalogue selling: hand out catalogue offline and online. Explain what they sell
Increasingly online
Personal
Measurable
Bv 100 e-mails and 1% buys something => measurable. In marketing it is hard to know the return on
investment is. People buy maybe two weeks from now. In sales promotion it is clear in the sense that
if there is an action. At the end of the week you know how many people bought your products. You
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, send out 100 000 electronic news letters. 5000 clicked on something or bought something, it is easily
measured.
2.5 Public relations
Not really going to discuss this.
Mainly corporate communications tool
Press releases, organize events, invite customers, generate positive publicity, involves many
stakeholders (customers, banks, consultants, politicians, stakeholders, …).
Building and maintaining goodwill and reputation
Basically building good will for your company as a whole and your products by means of events,
combining sponsorships, press releases, annual reports etc.
Generate positive publicity
Many stakeholders
2.6 Sponsorship
Important tool. Increasing in importance.
Cash or kind
Return!
Strong imago carry over effects
Other sponsors!
Match-up
You support a good cause or football team or museum, in return you get feasibility, extra seats or invite
people to a meet and greet with famous people. Always quit…pro quo (??), you donate money or facilities.
You let an organisation use your rooms or premises or lend them a car. But in return you get something:
feasibility, good reputation, sympathy from consumers and more sales. Sponsorship is very similar to
advertising, same characteristics (monologue, mass communication, mind of people, results on sales in long
term). Only difference is that there is carry over effect bv if you sponsor a football team. If people appreciate
the football team, it will carry over to your brand. That is not the case (usually) in ordinary advertising. In
sponsorship there is a match-up between the two. I am a big bank and sponsor of a football team. There
will be a carry-over effect. The customers of the bank will love the football team and the supporters of the
football team will love the bank.
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,3 Personal versus mass marketing communications
Reach of big audience
Number of tools of the marketing communications mix and advertising brand activation, sponsorship, direct
marketing and online. Each of these tools can be categorized on the bases of dimensions personal vs mass
marketing communications.
Mass communications:
Typically mass marketing would be tv, outdoor advertising, sponsorship, even a lot of public
relations. Personal communications would be personal selling (sales person that visits you), online
advertising (to a certain extend) is also one to one on a personal bases. Both tools have their own
strengths and weaknesses. Can be categorized in 3. First of all the reach of big audience and their
speed and their cost per reached person. Typically mass communication is fast and cheap. Fast
means that you can reach a large audience (many people) online and offline at a very low cost. This
is a surprise maybe because tv ads are expensive. But if you calculate it as a cost per person reached,
it is very cheap.
Personal communications:
When you compare that to personal communications, it is expensive and slow. Depending on the
tool. A typical example is a sales person that visits a customer or a prospective customer, that is a
very expensive marketing communications tool. The person cost a lot of money, a car, takes time,
… it is a slower process. Online is different. Also there you have a more personal contact with your
(prospective) customer and it is not slow in the sense that online advertising is very fast. There is an
immediate reaction of people on your add (if it is a good add). It can be fast but also very expensive.
It depends on how well you design your online campaign.
Influence on individual
How can personal and mass media communication have an impact on the prospective customer?
Mass communications:
One thing is the attention value of mass communication is low. It means that bv tv add or radio adds
that typically people don’t pay attention to it. They don’t see the billboard or don’t really listen to
the radio. There is more selective perception in mass media. Selective perception is bad. It means
that you see some parts of the add but you don’t see other parts. Typically when you are watching
television and there is a break, you go to the toilet, get something to drink and talk to other people
in the house. You may hear the add, but you don’t see it. That phenomenal is more prevalent in
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, mass communication. You only see parts of the add. The comprehension is low because of the
selective attention and the low attention value.
Personal communications:
The attention value of personal communication is higher. Personal selling context means higher
attention. You talk one to one to a person and you catch the attention of that person. The selective
perception is much more limited, usually you get the whole message. With comprehension in
personal communications, it is high. When someone explains something to you, you pay attention,
there is no selective perception so you understand everything.
Feedback
Mass communications:
The weakness of mass communications is that feedback is suboptimal. Very often it is one-way
(monologue), people cannot give feedback. The speed of feedback is low, by the time you know
what the tv campaign did, if it did well… it may take a while. Measuring effects of this is very
difficult. It is because there is a lot of interference. If you run an add this week every day, it is hard
to measure which part of your sales are because of that campaign? People don’t react immediately,
it can take two weeks before they buy something.
Personal communications:
Also online. it is a two-way communication. You show people adds and can click on the adds. It is
very fast, within seconds people react. The measurement is very accurate. You can easily know how
they reacted and what they do.
Conclusion: both of them have their value. Advantage of mass media is fast and cheap. Advantages
of personal communication is more impact, more feedback and more accurate measure.
Essentially online advertising combines both. That is the big advantage of online advertising. It can
be relatively be cheap, higher attention value, better comprehension but especially the feedback
is accurate, immediate and fast.
4 Image and action communications
Categorize marketing mix communications in image and action communication.
Image communication Action Communication
= Changing something in the mind of people, Bv brand activation is a typical action
knowledge, awareness. Bv advertising, communication tool.
sponsorship, public relations.
Brand awareness (how many people know Buying behaviour
me) Stimulate purchases
Brand preference (how many people prefer
my brand after seeing my campaign)
Satisfaction (next slide)
Loyal (next slide)
(Above the line)
(Below the line)
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, Above - below the line:
In most campaigns you need both. Mostly a combination of the two. The line comes from the old days
in marketing history at companies of Unilever and P&G in which they told the brand managers to make
a plan for next year, advertising plan. Which media are you going to use? Bv billboards, television, …
then you put a line beneath it and there you describe sales promotion or events. So above the line
means traditional mass media advertising and below the line means typical sales promotions. The
importance of the line is, for everything above the line you need an advertising agency. You had to pay
the agency 15% of media costs. That’s why most people who run an advertising agency are now
millionaires, because of the old days. Now they are paid for what they do, on an hourly bases. That is
the history of the line. Now above and under the line is associated with those two categories.
Advertising is above the line, but advertising that announces promotion is action communication.
Sponsorship formerly is below the line, but sponsorship is typically image communication. They are not
really synonyms, but today they are used as synonyms.
Satisfaction and loyalty
The Satisfaction –profit chain: Satisfaction => Loyalty => Profit
It is almost a low in marketing that it is way easier and cheaper to market products to a loyal
customer, to retain customers than to have to look to new customers acquisition. It is more
expensive and more costly than make your customers loyal. It is a chain of events, causal effects.
Satisfaction leads to loyalty and loyalty leads to profit. The more satisfied you customers are, the
more loyal they are going to become and the more profitable they become.
Loyalty is both attitudinal and behavioural: a person only buys the products from one single
company, and truly believes there is no better supplier
It is a universal phenomenal. Loyalty has two components. A behavioural and an attitude
component. The attitude component means a loyal person truly believes that a certain brand is
the best for him and that there is no better brand and always wants to buy the same brand.
Behavioural loyalty is a result of that. If you truly believe that the brand is the only good one, then
you are always going to buy that brand and you are also behavioural loyal. You have to make a
distinction between a person who buys a product repeatedly, who is at first sight behaviourally
loyal on the one hand, and a person who is truly loyal at the attitudinal sense of the word. Many
people buy the product frequently, not because they are loyal but because they are lazy and it is
a routine. The main component of loyalty is attitudinal, that they truly believe there is no better
product. True loyalty has something exclusive: this is my brand. True loyalty leads to more profit,
you are not going to look to other options. So a company has less costs to keep you. You are not
going to run away when there is a problem. You give the company a chance to recover, to do
better in the future. You forgive their mistakes. Less marketing costs on the one and on the other
hand they are also advocates, they talk to other people about it. How do you get people loyal? By
making them satisfied.
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, Graph
Loyalty increases proportionally with satisfaction. But that is not the case, because loyalty doesn’t linearly
relate to satisfaction. But rather in the way that he pictured it on the slide.it is very important for the
management of satisfaction and loyalty. Typically if a person gives you a 7, this doesn’t mean that this
person is going to be loyal. It corresponds with a low loyalty score. It means my satisfaction is just enough
to stay with you, not delighted. You are delighted if you give 9 or 10. They satisfy you more than just doing
your job. Delighters are going to promote you. If most of your customers only give you a 7, you are in
trouble.
Advocates are people who are delighted and then exclusively loyal to you. Always aim for a high satisfaction
score. Sometimes people are not satisfied at all, but still stay with you (hostages). Why? Bv monopoly. There
is no competition. Bv exit barriers. There is competition, but it is difficult to do so. It will cost you money to
move. Bv psychological barrier, change providers then you have to change your number. Bv technological
barrier. If a company uses Microsoft and not apple, then it is difficult to switch, nobody will support it. Bv
contractual barrier. Penalty of breaking it. You can also keep people by giving them positive exit barriers,
give a reward, positive incentive.
Obviously all certain exit barriers at a certain period disappear. And then very quickly your customer base
turns into terrorist. Those are really dissatisfied and disloyal and are going to look for something else very
quickly. Create exit barriers, but never do it at the expense of a normal level of satisfaction. In the long run
building a satisfied customer base is important.
Variety seekers are satisfied, but it is fun to try something else. Very satisfied, but not loyal. Don’t try to
keep the variety seeker in marketing. They are always ready to go. Good thing is that the variety seekers of
other brands also come to you. Loyalty doesn’t progresses with satisfaction.
5 Integration of marketing communications (IMC)
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