Contents
Chapter 3: How marketing communications work.........................................................................................2
Chapter 4: marketing communications planning...........................................................................................7
Chapter 7: Media planning...........................................................................................................................16
Chapter 13: Measuring campaign effectiveness..........................................................................................22
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, Chapter 3: How marketing communications work
Hierarchy-of-effects models: assumes that things have to happen in a certain order, implying that earlier effects form
necessary conditions in order for later effects to occur. According to these models, consumers go through three
different stages in responding to marketing communications, namely: a cognitive, affective, and conative stage (think-
feel-do). Usually in this sequence but sometimes in a different order:
Low-involvement hierarchy-of-effects-model: after frequent exposure to marketing messages, consumers might buy
the product, and decide afterwards how they feel about it (cognitive-conative-affective)
Experiential-hierarchy-of-effects model: consumers’ affective responses towards a product lead them to buy it and,
if necessary, they reflect on it later. (affective-conative-cognitive)
Foote-Cone-Belding grid: (alternative to/modification of this grid is the Rossiter-Percy grid)
Brand attitude
Type of motivation
Informational Transformational
High involvement - Insurance - Vacations
- Refrigerator - Jewelry
Type of decisions
- Light beer - Candy
Low involvement - Household - DVDs
cleaners
Critic on these classical hierarchy models:
- Empirical support for the fact that consumers go through each stage is lacking
- Hierarchy models do not allow interactions between the different stages, which is very unlikely
Transformational buying motives: consist of positive motivations, such as sensory gratification, social approval or
intellectual stimulation
Informational buying motives: reducing or reversing negative motivations such as solving or avoiding a problem, or
normal depletion.
Top-of-mind-awareness (TOMA): indicates which brand is most salient within a product category. It reflects the first
brand that comes to mind when thinking of a particular product category. It is generally acknowledged that brands
that are top of mind are more likely to be purchased.
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, Attitude: a person’s overall evaluation of an object, a product, a person, an
organization etc. In this view, an attitude towards a particular brand (Ab) can
be considered as a measure of how much a person likes or dislikes the brand,
or of the extent to which (s)he holds a favourable or unfavourable view of it.
The more favourable e.g. brand attitudes are, the more likely a purchase of
the brand becomes. Although brand attitudes are relatively stable, they can
be changed over time. So, the ultimate challenge for marketing
communications is to change attitudes in favour of the company’s brand.
Components:
Cognitive (knowledge, beliefs, evaluations of the object)
Affective (feelings associated with the object)
Behavioural (action readiness with respect to the object)
Motivation: a willingness to engage in behaviour, make decisions, pay attention, process information, etc. Largely
influenced by consumer needs and goals
Consumer needs: can be
o Functional (can be related to the informational motivation dimension, and pertain to solving
consumer problems)
You buy detergent to clean your clothes, and hire a baby-sitter to not leave your baby
unattended
o Symbolic relate to how we see ourselves, and would like to be perceived by others
You wear calvin klein jeans to show you’re trendy
o Hedonic relate to consumers’ desires for sensory pleasure
Tourists buy Belgian chocolates when visiting Belgium because of their delicious taste.
Needs/goals can also be classified as:
Approach or promotion goals
Avoidance or prevention goals
o E.g. consumers can decide to shop at Carrefour because it offers them a nice shopping experience ( =
approach, promotion) or because they do not have to drive far ( = avoidance, prevention)
Ability: the resources needed to achieve a goal
You may be motivated to process a computer ad, but when it is too difficult to understand you may not be
able to process it
Opportunity: deals with the extent to which the situation enables a person to obtain the goal set
E.g., you want to buy Danone, but if the Supermarket doesn’t have any you can’t buy it.
The effects of the MAO factors on attitude formation and marcom processing are presented in the Elaboration
Likelihood Model (ELM). If motivation, ability, and opportunity are all high, the ELM is said to be high and consumers
are expected to engage in central-route processing. This means they are willing to elaborate on the information, to
evaluate the arguments and to find out what the information really has to offer. If one or more of the MAO factors
is/are low, consumers are more likely to process peripherally. The result is no real information processing, but an
evaluation based on simple, peripheral cues, such as background music, humour, an attractive source of endorser,
number of arguments used etc.
Ads without attractive peripheral cues, but with easy-to-process, product-related message, might also work under
low MAO, simply because the cognitive resources to form counter-arguments are lacking.
The ELM, as well as other models, assume that under different MAO conditions, both rational arguments and affect
may give rise to peripheral and central (and even biased) processing. It is not so much the MAO factors, but
consumers’ goals that might determine whether consumers rely on the substance of the message to form a
judgment or on their affective responses.
Research also shows that when individuals focus on ideals they consider affective information as more relevant than
the substance of the message and, as a consequence, are more likely to base their evaluation on affect. On the other
hand, when consumers’ ‘oughts’ are their driving goals, the opposite result is found.
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