CHAPTER 1 : INTEGRATED COMMUNICATIONS
Chapter objectives
- Situate marketing communications in the marketing mix
- Get an overview of the instruments of the marketing communications mix
- Understand what integrated (cross-cultural) marketing and corporate communications mean, and their
organisational implications
- Learn the factors leading to integrated communications
- Get an overview of the different levels of integration
- Understand why fully integrated communications are not easily implemented
- Get an overview of the essential steps in the marketing communications plan
Instruments of the marketing mix
Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas,
goods and services to create and exchange value, and satisfy individual and organisational objectives.
Product Price Place Promotion
(customer need) (cost to the customer) (convenience) (communication)
Benefits List price Channels Advertising
Features Discounts Logistics Public relations
Options Credit terms Inventory Sponsorship
Quality Payment periods Transport Brand activation
Design Incentives Assortments Direct marketing
Branding Locations Point-of-purchase
Packaging Exhibitions and trade fairs (B2B!!)
Services Personal selling
Warranties Online communication
The course is part of the broader topic of marketing. In marketing we talk about the 4 P’s, which are the basic tools
of the marketing mix : design a product, put a price on it and put it in a certain place and promote this.
The 4 P’s are inside out, you start with a product and then you go to the customer.
PRODUCT : 3 layers
- Core product : the unique benefit that is being marketed. It is the position, the unique place in the mind of
the consumer.
- Tangible product : quality, options, design, packaging...
- Augmented product = service layer : gives more value to the tangible product and more customer appeal. E.g.
installation service, after-sales service...
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,PRICE : this doesn’t cost anything, but it provides the resources to spend on production and marketing activities.
List price = official price of a product, but discounts and incentives can be used to make the product more
attractive.
Price cuts are an effective way to attract consumers, but are at the same time the reason why margin and profit
gets lost. Also price cuts can create brand-switchers, therefore the price tool has to be avoided as much as possible.
PLACE / distribution : with this the company manages the process of bringing the product from the production site
to the customer. E.g. transportation, inventory, selecting retailers...
Distribution strategy also implies maintaining co-operation between the company and the distribution channel,
and finding new ways to distribute products.
PROMOTION : the most visible aspect of marketing communications. This includes all instruments by means of
which the company communicates with its target groups and stakeholders to promote its products or the company
as a whole.
~ 4 C’s : defined from the point of view from the customer, you base your product on these customers.
- Customer solution : which problem is solved for the customer?
- Cost to consumer : price of producent + costs a person has to make to get the product (e.g. transport
to the store)
- Communication : promotion, but also conversation with the customer
- Convenience : earlier it was okay if you had to wait a certain time to receive a package, now it has to
go quick.
Instruments of the communications mix
Marketing communications is a process through which organisations and audiences engage with one another.
Organisations convey messages that are of significant value to customers and stakeholders, and these audiences
are encouraged to offer cognitive, attitudinal and behavioural responses.
- Advertising
- Brand activation (promotions, in-store, experience)
- Direct marketing communications
- Public relations
- Sponsorship
- Exhibitions and trade fairs
- Offline and online
The offline or the online world does not exists, they are both integrated in the world of the customers. There
is no such thing as a customer that is offline or a customer that is online, they are both.
Advertising
- One-to-many (mass)
You talk as a company, and hopefully many customers listen to you. Online advertising is a bit different here,
because there is often a personalization. But still it is a mass audience!
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,- Monologue
Someone is talking to the customers, but the customers cannot really response. However with online
advertising, interaction is sometimes possible, since you can click on a certain link and interact. In offline
advertising, there is no possibility to interaction (but sometimes there is stated you can visit us at that site,
but not the same).
- Paid
A business always pay a certain amount to get a banner on the internet, to have a commercial on the
television... people know this = persuasion knowledge : a customer sees an ad on the street and the customer
realises that a certain brand paid to be visible on the street and paid to be liked, so that a customer will be
persuaded. However a customer will be sceptical about this, but at the same time also curious.
This has led to hybrid advertising formats that try to avoid this persuasion knowledge : e.g. everyone knows
product placement = brands are placed in media content, e.g. Tom Ford costumes in James Bond movies; but
customers do not see this as advertising, but just see the figure in the movie and the brands they wear, but
do not link this to persuasion knowledge.
Hybrid formats are used to diminish the persuasion knowledge and the scepticism.
- Often long term
A lot of advertising works on the mind of people and not on the behaviour of people. Typically, but not
exclusively, advertising can lead to a situation that you know a brand that you did not know before, that you
like the brand that you did not like before. It works on what people feel and what they intend to do. It is not
on the behaviour directly : it is not that you see an ad and immediately run to the store. In the long term you
will do this maybe, but not immediately.
Advertising is an investment in sales and in profit in the end of the day, but not directly.
- Via intermediary effects
Advertising works through intermediary effects : you know a brand, you like it, you intend to buy it, you see
it in the store, you buy it... there are a lot of steps in between. It is not because you see an ad of a car, you
immediately buy it : you think about it, you go to the dealer, you take a test drive...
But sometimes advertising are announcing promotion : “only this week you get this benefit”. With this sort of
advertising you go to the shop the same week. Here there is an immediate link between the ad and the sales.
But this is only an exception, most of the time the ad works on the mind of the people with the goal that a
person buys the product.
Online advertising
- Websites
- Advertising on websites
- E-mail
- Social media advertising
- Mobile advertising
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, The principles are the same for offline and online advertising : you have to pick a target group, they should like
your product, they should click a link, they should buy something. However for online advertising the options are
endless : you can reach a lot of people really fast, you can personalize more easily, you can measure the impact,
more detailed information can be given... Efficiency, size, scope, scale, speed, measurement of effect... are
different. But there is a same goal in online and offline.
Brand activation
It is intended to work in the short-run, immediately on the behaviour of people. People do something with the
brand, they are activated to something.
It is the integration of all available communications means in a creative platform in order to activate consumers
by stimulating interest, initiating trial and eventually securing consumer loyalty.
- Sales promotions
You give people an incentive to buy a product. “If you buy today two products, you get one for free”. I give
you something (material incentive : money, a saving card, a present...), but you have to do something
immediately : buy now.
- Sales stimulation
It is not oriented on the mind but on the behaviour, buy right now, act now.
- Incentive-based
In all sales promotions you get something for free (a product, a discount...).
- Image destroying?
Some people doubt that it is good to do promotion. Imagine you are selling a car and you say that it
is the best car of the world and that this is the price. But you also say that this week there is a 10%
discount. This is bad marketing. good marketing is avoiding the price argument : make people buy
a product because of its intrinsic qualities, by means of advertising and others marketing
communications tools, make people like the product and not the sales promotions.
If you use sales promotions too often, you are selling discounts and not the product. If you lower the
price, people will see this lower price as the normal price and will only buy this product at the lower
price. This destroys your image. Therefore luxury brands never give promotions, since this would
destroy their brand. People buy e.g. a Ferrari because of its intrinsic qualities and its image. If Ferrari
would give discount, the brand will be devaluated. They can give you a sort of promotion, by giving
you a certain package if you buy the car; but this does not alter the price perception of the car.
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