CH 19

19.3 How Do Marketing Communications Work?

Marketing communication activities in every medium contribute to brand equity and drive sales in many ways: by creating brand awareness, forging brand image in consumers' memories, eliciting positive brand judgments or feelings, and strengthening consumer loyalty. marketing communications activities must be integrated to deliver a consistent message and achieve the strategic positioning. - The starting point in planning them is a communication audit that profiles all interactions customers in the target market may have with the company and all its products and services. For example, someone interested in purchasing a new smart phone might talk to friends and family members, see television ads, read articles, look for information online, and look at smart phones in a store. -To implement the right communications programs and allocate dollars efficiently, marketers need to assess which experiences and impressions will have the most influence at each stage of the buying process. Armed with these insights, they can judge marketing communications according to their ability to affect experiences and impressions, build customer loyalty and brand equity, and drive sales. - For example, how well does a proposed ad campaign contribute to awareness or to creating, maintaining, or strengthening brand associations? Does a sponsorship improve consumers' brand judgments and feelings? Does a promotion encourage consumers to buy more of a product? At what price premium? The Communications Process Models Marketers should understand the fundamental elements of effective communications. Two models are useful: a macromodel and a micromodel. MACROMODEL OF THE COMMUNICATIONS PROCESS - Two represent the major parties—sender and receiver. Two represent the major tools—message and media. Four represent major communication functions—encoding, decoding, response, and feedback. The last element in the system is noise, random and competing messages that may interfere with the intended communication. - Senders must know what audiences they want to reach and what responses they want to get. They must encode their messages so the target audience can successfully decode them. They must transmit the message through media that reach the target audience and develop feedback channels to monitor the responses. The more the sender's field of experience overlaps that of the receiver, the more effective the message is likely to be. Note that selective attention, distortion, and retention processes—first introduced in Chapter 6— may be operating. MICROMODEL OF CONSUMER RESPONSES - Micromodels of marketing communications concentrate on consumers' specific responses to communications. - All these models assume the buyer passes through cognitive, affective, and behavioral stages in that order. This "learn-feel-do" sequence is appropriate when the audience has high involvement with a product category perceived to have high differentiation, such as an automobile or house. An alternative sequence, "do-feel-learn," is relevant when the audience has high involvement but perceives little or no differentiation within the product category, such as airline tickets or personal computers. A third sequence, "learn-do-feel," is relevant when the audience has low involvement and perceives little differentiation, such as with salt or batteries. By choosing the right sequence, the marketer can do a better job of planning communications. --------- - To increase the odds of success for a communications campaign, marketers must attempt to increase the likelihood that each step occurs. For example, the ideal ad campaign would ensure that: The right consumer is exposed to the right message at the right place and at the right time. The ad causes the consumer to pay attention but does not distract from the intended message. The ad properly reflects the consumer's level of understanding of and behaviors with the product and the brand. The ad correctly positions the brand in terms of desirable and deliverable points-of-difference and points-of-parity. The ad motivates consumers to consider purchase of the brand. The ad creates strong brand associations with all these stored communications effects so they can have an impact when consumers are considering making a purchase.

For study Guide: informational versus transformational appeals

Informational: An informational appeal elaborates on product or service attributes or benefits. Examples in advertising are problem-solution ads (Aleve offers the longest-lasting relief for aches and pains), product demonstration ads (Thompson Water Seal can withstand intense rain, snow, and heat), product comparison ads (AT&T offers the largest 4G mobile network), and testimonials from unknown or celebrity endorsers (NBA phenomenon LeBron James pitching McDonald's, Nike, Samsung, Sprite, and others). Informational appeals assume strictly rational processing of the communication on the consumer's part. Logic and reason rule. Subsequent research, however, indicates that the best ads ask questions and allow readers and viewers to form their own conclusions. - You might expect one-sided presentations that praise a product to be more effective than two-sided arguments that also mention shortcomings. Yet two-sided messages may be more appropriate, especially when negative associations must be overcome.16 Two-sided messages are more effective with more educated audiences and those who are initially opposed. -Finally, the order in which arguments are presented is important.18 In a one-sided message, presenting the strongest argument first arouses attention and interest, important in media where the audience often does not attend to the whole message. With a captive audience, a climactic presentation might be more effective.For a two-sided message, if the audience is initially opposed, start with the other side's argument and conclude with your strongest argument. In a widely watched and admired Super Bowl ad in 2014, Radio Shack poked fun at its old-fashioned image by featuring a host of 1980s icons who wanted their store back, ending with an appeal to check out the chain's newly redesigned stores. -Transformational Appeals A transformational appeal elaborates on a nonproduct-related benefit or image. It might depict what kind of person uses a brand (VW advertised to active, youthful people with its famed "Drivers Wanted" campaign) or what kind of experience results from use (Pringles advertised "Once You Pop, the Fun Don't Stop" for years). Transformational appeals often attempt to stir up emotions that will motivate purchase. - Communicators use negative appeals such as fear, guilt, and shame to get people to do things (brush their teeth, have an annual health checkup) or stop doing things (smoking, abusing alcohol, overeating). Fear appeals work best when they are not too strong, when source credibility is high, and when the communication promises, in a believable and efficient way, that the product or service will relieve the fear it arouses. Messages are most persuasive when they moderately disagree with audience beliefs. Stating only what the audience already believes at best just reinforces beliefs, while messages too much at variance with those beliefs will be rejected. - Communicators also use positive emotional appeals such as humor, love, pride, and joy. Motivational or "borrowed interest" devices—such as cute babies, frisky puppies, popular music, and provocative sex appeals—are often employed to attract attention and raise involvement with an ad. These techniques are thought necessary in the tough new media environment of low-involvement processing and competing messages. Attention-getting tactics may also detract from comprehension, however, or wear out their welcome fast or overshadow the product. Thus, one challenge is figuring out how to break through the clutter and deliver the intended message. - The magic of advertising is to bring abstract concepts to life in the minds of the consumer target. In a print ad, the communicator must decide on headline, copy, illustration, and color.22 For a radio message, the communicator must choose words, voice qualities, and vocalizations. The sound of an announcer promoting a used automobile should be different from one promoting a new luxury car. If the message is to be carried on television or in person, all these elements plus body language must be planned. For the message to go online, layout, fonts, graphics, and other visual and verbal information must be laid out.

19.2 Marketing Communications Mix

Mondelēz International is partnering with nine digital start-ups to gain an advantage in that area, committing to spend 10 percent of its marketing budget on mobile. - To engage its diverse audience, GE uses an in-house content marketing and social media team to play the role of "storyteller" and explain the company's activities on a variety of online platforms. ----------- Company example: Ocean Spray The agency decided to tell an authentic, honest, and perhaps surprising story dubbed "Straight from the Bog." The campaign was designed to also reinforce two key brand benefits—that Ocean Spray products tasted good and were good for you. PR played a crucial role. Miniature bogs were brought to Manhattan and featured on an NBC Today morning segment. A "Bogs across America Tour" brought the experience to Los Angeles and Chicago. Television and print advertising featured two growers (depicted by actors) standing waist-deep in a bog and talking, often humorously, about what they did. The campaign also included a Web site, in-store displays, and events for consumers and for members of the growers' cooperative itself. Product innovation was crucial too; new flavor blends were introduced, along with a line of 100 percent juices, diet and light versions, and Craisins sweetened dried cranberries. ---------- Marketing Communications Mix 1. Advertising: Any paid form of nonpersonal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor via print media (newspapers and magazines), broadcast media (radio and television), network media (telephone, cable, satellite, wireless), electronic media (audiotape, videotape, videodisk, CD-ROM, Web page), and display media (billboards, signs, posters). 2. A variety of short-term incentives to encourage trial or purchase of a product or service including consumer promotions (such as samples, coupons, and premiums), trade promotions (such as advertising and display allowances), and business and sales force promotions (contests for sales reps). 3.Company-sponsored activities and programs designed to create daily or special brand-related interactions with consumers, including sports, arts, entertainment, and cause events as well as less formal activities. 4. A variety of programs directed internally to employees of the company or externally to consumers, other firms, the government, and media to promote or protect a company's image or its individual product communications. 5.Online activities and programs designed to engage customers or prospects and directly or indirectly raise awareness, improve image, or elicit sales of products and services. 6.A special form of online marketing that places communications on consumer's cell phones, smart phones, or tablets. 7.Use of mail, telephone, fax, e-mail, or Internet to communicate directly with or solicit response or dialogue from specific customers and prospects. 8. Face-to-face interaction with one or more prospective purchasers for the purpose of making presentations, answering questions, and procuring orders.

For study Guide: celebrity endorsements

- Celebrities are likely to be effective when they are credible or personify a key product attribute. Statesman-like Dennis Haysbert for State Farm insurance, rugged Brett Favre for Wrangler jeans, and popular singer and actress Jennifer Hudson for Weight Watchers' weight loss program have all been praised by consumers as good fits. - A celebrity should have high recognition, high positive affect, and high "fit" with the product. Tom Hanks and Oprah Winfrey could successfully advertise a large number of products because they have extremely high ratings for familiarity and likability (known as the Q factor in the entertainment industry). - Celebrities can play a more strategic role too, not only endorsing but also helping to design, position, and sell merchandise and services. Nike often brings its elite athletic endorsers in on product design. - Using celebrities poses certain risks. The celebrity might hold out for a larger fee at contract renewal or withdraw. And just like movies and album releases, celebrity campaigns can be expensive flops. The celebrity might lose popularity or, even worse, get caught in a scandal or embarrassing situation

For study Guide: hierarchy-of-effects-model

2. Set The Communications Objectives' - As we showed with Pottsville College, marketers can set communications objectives at any level of the hierarchy-of-effects model. - Establish need for category: Establishing a product or service category as necessary for removing or satisfying a perceived discrepancy between a current motivational state and a desired motivational state. A new-to-the-world product such as electric cars will always begin with a communications objective of establishing category need. - Build brand awareness: Fostering the consumer's ability to recognize or recall the brand in sufficient detail to make a purchase. Recognition is easier to achieve than recall—consumers asked to think of a brand of frozen entrées are more likely to recognize Stouffer's distinctive orange packages than to recall the brand. Brand recall is important outside the store; brand recognition is important inside the store. Brand awareness provides a foundation for brand equity. - Build brand attitude: Helping consumers evaluate the brand's perceived ability to meet a currently relevant need. Relevant brand needs may be negatively oriented (problem removal, problem avoidance, incomplete satisfaction, normal depletion) or positively oriented (sensory gratification, intellectual stimulation, or social approval). Household cleaning products often use problem solution; food products, on the other hand, often use sensory-oriented ads emphasizing appetite appeal. - Influence brand purchase intention: Moving consumers to decide to purchase the brand or take purchase-related action. Promotional offers like coupons or two-for-one deals encourage consumers to make a mental commitment to buy. But many consumers do not have an expressed category need and may not be in the market when exposed to an ad, so they are unlikely to form buy intentions. In any given week, only about 20 percent of adults may be planning to buy detergent, only 2 percent to buy a carpet cleaner, and only 0.25 percent to buy a car.

19.5 Selecting the Marketing Communications Mix

Companies must allocate their marketing communications budget over the eight major modes of communication—advertising, sales promotion, events and experiences, public relations and publicity, online and social media marketing, mobile marketing, direct and database marketing, and the sales force. Avon concentrates its promotional funds on personal selling, whereas Revlon spends heavily on advertising. Electrolux spent heavily on a door-to-door sales force for years, whereas Hoover relied more on advertising. Companies are always searching for ways to gain efficiency by substituting one communications tool for others. Many are replacing some field sales activity with ads, direct mail, and telemarketing. One auto dealer dismissed his five salespeople and cut prices, and sales exploded. Substitutability among communications tools explains why marketing functions need to be coordinated. Characteristics Of The Marketing Communications Mix ADVERTISING Advertising reaches geographically dispersed buyers. It can build up a long-term image for a product (Coca-Cola ads) or trigger quick sales (a Macy's ad for a weekend sale). -Because of the many forms and uses of advertising, it's risky to make generalizations about it.35 Yet a few observations are worthwhile: -Pervasiveness—Advertising permits the seller to repeat a message many times. It also allows the buyer to receive and compare the messages of various competitors. Large-scale advertising says something positive about the seller's size, power, and success. -Amplified expressiveness—Advertising provides opportunities for dramatizing the company and its brands and products through the artful use of print, sound, and color. -Control—The advertiser can choose the aspects of the brand and product on which to focus communications. SALES PROMOTION Companies use sales promotion tools—coupons, contests, premiums, and the like—to draw a stronger and quicker buyer response, including short-run effects such as highlighting product offers and boosting sagging sales. Sales promotion tools offer three distinctive benefits: -Ability to be attention-getting —They draw attention and may lead the consumer to the product. -Incentive —They incorporate some concession, inducement, or contribution that gives value to the consumer. -Invitation —They include a distinct invitation to engage in the transaction now. EVENTS AND EXPERIENCES Events and experiences offer many advantages as long as they have the following characteristics: -Relevant —A well-chosen event or experience can be seen as highly relevant because the consumer is often personally invested in the outcome. -Engaging —Given their live, real-time quality, events and experiences are more actively engaging for consumers. -Implicit —Events are typically an indirect soft sell. PUBLIC RELATIONS AND PUBLICITY Marketers tend to underuse public relations, yet a well-thought-out program coordinated with the other communications-mix elements can be extremely effective, especially if a company needs to challenge consumers' misconceptions. The appeal of public relations and publicity is based on three distinctive qualities: High credibility —News stories and features are more authentic and credible to readers than ads. Ability to reach hard-to-find buyers —Public relations can reach prospects who prefer to avoid mass media and targeted promotions. Dramatization —Public relations can tell the story behind a company, brand, or product. ONLINE AND SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING Online marketing and messages can take many forms to interact with consumers when they are in active search mode or just browsing and surfing online for something to do. They share three characteristics: Rich —Much information or entertainment can be provided—as much or as little as a consumer might want. Interactive —Information can be changed or updated depending on the person's response. Up to date —A message can be prepared very quickly and diffused through social media channels. MOBILE MARKETING Increasingly, online marketing and social media rely on mobile forms of communi-cation and smart phones or tablets. Three distinguishing characteristics of mobile marketing are: Timely —Mobile communications can be very time-sensitive and reflect when and where a consumer is. Influential —Information received or obtained via a smart phone can reach and influence consumers as they are making a purchase decision. Pervasive —Consumers typically carry their smart phones everywhere, so mobile communications are at their fingertips. DIRECT AND DATABASE MARKETING The advent of "Big Data" has given marketers the opportunity to learn even more about consumers and develop more personal and relevant marketing communications. Three noteworthy characteristics of direct and database marketing are: Personal —Personal facts, opinions, and experiences can be stored in massive databases and incorporated into personal messages. Proactive —A direct marketing piece can create attention, inform consumers, and include a call to action. Complementary —Product information can be provided that helps other marketing communications, especially in terms of e-commerce. A good catalog might spur online shopping. PERSONAL SELLING Personal selling is the most effective tool at later stages of the buying process, particularly in building up buyer preference, conviction, and action. It has three notable qualities: Customized —The message can be designed to appeal to any individual. Relationship-oriented —Personal selling relationships can range from a matter-of-fact selling relationship to a deep personal friendship. Response-oriented —The buyer is often given personal choices and encouraged to directly respond.

19.5 Factors In Setting The Marketing Communications Mix

Companies must consider several factors in developing their communications mix: type of product market, consumer readiness to make a purchase, and stage in the product life cycle. TYPE OF PRODUCT MARKET Consumer marketers tend to spend comparatively more on sales promotion and advertising; business marketers tend to spend comparatively more on personal selling. In general, personal selling is used more with complex, expensive, and risky goods and in markets with fewer and larger sellers (hence, business markets). -Although marketers rely more on sales calls in business markets, advertising still plays a significant role: -Advertising can provide an introduction to the company and its products. -If the product has new features, advertising can explain them. -Reminder advertising is more economical than sales calls. -Advertisements offering brochures and carrying the company's phone number or Web address are an effective way to generate leads for sales representatives. -Sales representatives can use copies of the company's ads to legitimize their company and products. -Advertising can remind customers how to use the product and reassure them about their purchase. Advertising combined with personal selling can increase sales over personal selling alone. Corporate advertising can improve a company's reputation and improve the sales force's chances of getting a favorable first hearing and early adoption of the product company example: IBM - Working with long-time ad agency Ogilvy & Mather, IBM launched "Smarter Planet" in 2008 as a business strategy and multiplatform communications program to promote the way in which IBM technology and expertise help government as well as transportation, energy, education, health care, and other businesses work better and "smarter." The point was that technology has evolved so far that many of the world's problems are now fixable. The campaign began internally to inform and inspire IBM employees about how they could contribute to building a "Smarter Planet." It was then rolled out with unconventional long-form, content-rich print ads, targeted TV ads, and detailed online interactive ads. A "Smarter Cities" tour hosted major events at which IBM and other experts discussed and debated challenges all cities face: transportation, energy, health care, education, and public safety. The success of the campaign was evident in the significant improvements in IBM's image as a company that was "making the world better" and "known for solving its clients' most challenging problems." On the flip side, personal selling can also make a strong contribution in consumer-goods marketing. Some consumer marketers use the sales force mainly to collect weekly orders from dealers and to see that sufficient stock is on the shelf. Yet an effectively trained company sales force can make four important contributions: Increase stock position— Sales reps can persuade dealers to take more stock and devote more shelf space to the company's brand. Build enthusiasm— Sales reps can build dealer enthusiasm by dramatizing planned advertising and communications support for the company's brand. Conduct missionary selling— Sales reps can sign up more dealers. Manage key accounts— Sales reps can take responsibility for growing business with the most important accounts. ---- BUYER-READINESS STAGE Communication tools vary in cost-effectiveness at different stages of buyer readiness. Advertising and publicity play the most important roles in the awareness-building stage. Customer comprehension is primarily affected by advertising and personal selling. Customer conviction is influenced mostly by personal selling. Personal selling and sales promotion are most helpful in closing the sale. Reordering is also affected mostly by personal selling and sales promotion and somewhat by reminder advertising. Note too that online activities can affect virtually any stage. PRODUCT LIFE-CYCLE STAGE - In the introduction stage of the product life cycle, advertising, events and experiences, and publicity have the highest cost-effectiveness, followed by personal selling to gain distribution coverage and sales promotion and direct marketing to induce trial. -In the growth stage, demand has its own momentum through word of mouth and interactive marketing. -Advertising, events and experiences, and personal selling all become more important in the maturity stage. -In the decline stage, sales promotion continues strong, other communication tools are reduced, and salespeople give the product only minimal attention.

For study Guide: 4 common communication objectives

Establish need for category: Establishing a product or service category as necessary for removing or satisfying a perceived discrepancy between a current motivational state and a desired motivational state. A new-to-the-world product such as electric cars will always begin with a communications objective of establishing category need. - Build brand awareness: Fostering the consumer's ability to recognize or recall the brand in sufficient detail to make a purchase. Recognition is easier to achieve than recall—consumers asked to think of a brand of frozen entrées are more likely to recognize Stouffer's distinctive orange packages than to recall the brand. Brand recall is important outside the store; brand recognition is important inside the store. Brand awareness provides a foundation for brand equity. - Build brand attitude: Helping consumers evaluate the brand's perceived ability to meet a currently relevant need. Relevant brand needs may be negatively oriented (problem removal, problem avoidance, incomplete satisfaction, normal depletion) or positively oriented (sensory gratification, intellectual stimulation, or social approval). Household cleaning products often use problem solution; food products, on the other hand, often use sensory-oriented ads emphasizing appetite appeal. - Influence brand purchase intention: Moving consumers to decide to purchase the brand or take purchase-related action. Promotional offers like coupons or two-for-one deals encourage consumers to make a mental commitment to buy. But many consumers do not have an expressed category need and may not be in the market when exposed to an ad, so they are unlikely to form buy intentions. In any given week, only about 20 percent of adults may be planning to buy detergent, only 2 percent to buy a carpet cleaner, and only 0.25 percent to buy a car.

19.4 Developing Effective Communications

Figure 19.3 shows the eight steps in developing effective communications. We begin with the basics: identifying the target audience, setting the communication objectives, designing the communications, selecting the communication channels, and establishing the total marketing communications budget. 1. Identify The Target Audience - The process must start with a clear target audience in mind: potential buyers of the company's products, current users, deciders, or influencers, as well as individuals, groups, particular publics, or the general public. The target audience is a critical influence on the communicator's decisions about what to say, how, when, where, and to whom. - Though we can profile the target audience in terms of any of the market segments identified in Chapter 9 , it's often useful to do so in terms of usage and loyalty. Is the target new to the category or a current user? Is the target loyal to the brand, loyal to a competitor, or someone who switches between brands? If a brand user, is he or she a heavy or light user? Communication strategy will differ depending on the answers. -------- 2. Set The Communications Objectives' - As we showed with Pottsville College, marketers can set communications objectives at any level of the hierarchy-of-effects model. - Establish need for category: Establishing a product or service category as necessary for removing or satisfying a perceived discrepancy between a current motivational state and a desired motivational state. A new-to-the-world product such as electric cars will always begin with a communications objective of establishing category need. - Build brand awareness: Fostering the consumer's ability to recognize or recall the brand in sufficient detail to make a purchase. Recognition is easier to achieve than recall—consumers asked to think of a brand of frozen entrées are more likely to recognize Stouffer's distinctive orange packages than to recall the brand. Brand recall is important outside the store; brand recognition is important inside the store. Brand awareness provides a foundation for brand equity. - Build brand attitude: Helping consumers evaluate the brand's perceived ability to meet a currently relevant need. Relevant brand needs may be negatively oriented (problem removal, problem avoidance, incomplete satisfaction, normal depletion) or positively oriented (sensory gratification, intellectual stimulation, or social approval). Household cleaning products often use problem solution; food products, on the other hand, often use sensory-oriented ads emphasizing appetite appeal. - Influence brand purchase intention: Moving consumers to decide to purchase the brand or take purchase-related action. Promotional offers like coupons or two-for-one deals encourage consumers to make a mental commitment to buy. But many consumers do not have an expressed category need and may not be in the market when exposed to an ad, so they are unlikely to form buy intentions. In any given week, only about 20 percent of adults may be planning to buy detergent, only 2 percent to buy a carpet cleaner, and only 0.25 percent to buy a car. ------- 3. Design The Communications - Formulating the communications to achieve the desired response requires answering three questions: what to say (message strategy), how to say it (creative strategy), and who should say it (message source). MESSAGE STRATEGY In selecting message strategy, management searches for appeals, themes, or ideas that will tie in to the brand positioning and help establish points-of-parity or points-of-difference. Some of these appeals or ideas may relate directly to product or service performance (the quality, economy, or value of the brand); others may relate to more extrinsic considerations (the brand as being contemporary, popular, or traditional). -Researcher John C. Maloney felt buyers expected one of four types of reward from a product: rational, sensory, social, or ego satisfaction. -They might visualize these rewards from results-of-use experience, product-in-use experience, or incidental-to-use experience. Crossing the four types of rewards with the three types of experience generates 12 types of messages. For example, the appeal "gets clothes cleaner" is a rational-reward promise following results-of-use experience. The phrase "real beer taste in a great light beer" is a sensory-reward promise connected with product-in-use experience. ---- CREATIVE STRATEGY Communications effectiveness depends on how well a message is expressed as well as on its content. If a communication is ineffective, it may mean the wrong message was used or the right one was poorly expressed. Creative strategies are the way marketers translate their messages into a specific communication. We can broadly classify them as either informational or transformational appeals. -Informational Appeals An informational appeal elaborates on product or service attributes or benefits. Examples in advertising are problem-solution ads (Aleve offers the longest-lasting relief for aches and pains), product demonstration ads (Thompson Water Seal can withstand intense rain, snow, and heat), product comparison ads (AT&T offers the largest 4G mobile network), and testimonials from unknown or celebrity endorsers (NBA phenomenon LeBron James pitching McDonald's, Nike, Samsung, Sprite, and others). Informational appeals assume strictly rational processing of the communication on the consumer's part. Logic and reason rule. Subsequent research, however, indicates that the best ads ask questions and allow readers and viewers to form their own conclusions. - You might expect one-sided presentations that praise a product to be more effective than two-sided arguments that also mention shortcomings. Yet two-sided messages may be more appropriate, especially when negative associations must be overcome.16 Two-sided messages are more effective with more educated audiences and those who are initially opposed. -Finally, the order in which arguments are presented is important.18 In a one-sided message, presenting the strongest argument first arouses attention and interest, important in media where the audience often does not attend to the whole message. With a captive audience, a climactic presentation might be more effective.For a two-sided message, if the audience is initially opposed, start with the other side's argument and conclude with your strongest argument. In a widely watched and admired Super Bowl ad in 2014, Radio Shack poked fun at its old-fashioned image by featuring a host of 1980s icons who wanted their store back, ending with an appeal to check out the chain's newly redesigned stores. -Transformational Appeals A transformational appeal elaborates on a nonproduct-related benefit or image. It might depict what kind of person uses a brand (VW advertised to active, youthful people with its famed "Drivers Wanted" campaign) or what kind of experience results from use (Pringles advertised "Once You Pop, the Fun Don't Stop" for years). Transformational appeals often attempt to stir up emotions that will motivate purchase. - Communicators use negative appeals such as fear, guilt, and shame to get people to do things (brush their teeth, have an annual health checkup) or stop doing things (smoking, abusing alcohol, overeating). Fear appeals work best when they are not too strong, when source credibility is high, and when the communication promises, in a believable and efficient way, that the product or service will relieve the fear it arouses. Messages are most persuasive when they moderately disagree with audience beliefs. Stating only what the audience already believes at best just reinforces beliefs, while messages too much at variance with those beliefs will be rejected. - Communicators also use positive emotional appeals such as humor, love, pride, and joy. Motivational or "borrowed interest" devices—such as cute babies, frisky puppies, popular music, and provocative sex appeals—are often employed to attract attention and raise involvement with an ad. These techniques are thought necessary in the tough new media environment of low-involvement processing and competing messages. Attention-getting tactics may also detract from comprehension, however, or wear out their welcome fast or overshadow the product. Thus, one challenge is figuring out how to break through the clutter and deliver the intended message. - The magic of advertising is to bring abstract concepts to life in the minds of the consumer target. In a print ad, the communicator must decide on headline, copy, illustration, and color.22 For a radio message, the communicator must choose words, voice qualities, and vocalizations. The sound of an announcer promoting a used automobile should be different from one promoting a new luxury car. If the message is to be carried on television or in person, all these elements plus body language must be planned. For the message to go online, layout, fonts, graphics, and other visual and verbal information must be laid out. MESSAGE SOURCE Research has shown that the source's credibility is crucial to a message's acceptance. The three most often identified sources of credibility are expertise, trustworthiness, and likability - Expertise is the specialized knowledge the communicator possesses to back the claim. Trustworthiness describes how objective and honest the source is perceived to be. Friends are trusted more than strangers or salespeople, and people who are not paid to endorse a product are viewed as more trustworthy than people who are paid. Likability describes the source's attractiveness, measured in terms of candor, humor, and naturalness. - Messages delivered by attractive or popular sources can achieve higher attention and recall, which is why some advertisers use celebrities as spokespeople. - Celebrities are likely to be effective when they are credible or personify a key product attribute. Statesman-like Dennis Haysbert for State Farm insurance, rugged Brett Favre for Wrangler jeans, and popular singer and actress Jennifer Hudson for Weight Watchers' weight loss program have all been praised by consumers as good fits. - A celebrity should have high recognition, high positive affect, and high "fit" with the product. Tom Hanks and Oprah Winfrey could successfully advertise a large number of products because they have extremely high ratings for familiarity and likability (known as the Q factor in the entertainment industry). - Celebrities can play a more strategic role too, not only endorsing but also helping to design, position, and sell merchandise and services. Nike often brings its elite athletic endorsers in on product design. - Using celebrities poses certain risks. The celebrity might hold out for a larger fee at contract renewal or withdraw. And just like movies and album releases, celebrity campaigns can be expensive flops. The celebrity might lose popularity or, even worse, get caught in a scandal or embarrassing situation -Another solution is for marketers to create their own brand celebrities - On the other hand, some marketers are using ordinary people in the their ads to give them more realism and overcome consumer skepticism. Ford featured actual customers being thrust into a press conference to describe their vehicles. Red Lobster used chefs from its restaurants to extol the virtues of its menu. ------------ 4. Select The Communications Channels Selecting an efficient means to carry the message becomes more difficult as channels of communication become more fragmented and cluttered. Communications channels may be personal and nonpersonal. Within each are many subchannels. - PERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS CHANNELS Personal communications channels let two or more persons communicate face to face or person to audience through a phone, surface mail, or e-mail. They derive their effectiveness from individualized presentation and feedback and include direct marketing, personal selling, and word of mouth. - Advocate channels consist of company salespeople contacting buyers in the target market. Expert channels consist of independent experts making statements to target buyers. Social channels consist of neighbors, friends, family members, and associates talking to target buyers. - Personal influence carries especially great weight (1) when products are expensive, risky, or purchased infrequently, and (2) when products suggest something about the user's status or taste. People often ask others to recommend a doctor, plumber, hotel, lawyer, accountant, architect, insurance agent, interior decorator, or financial consultant. If we have confidence in the recommendation, we normally act on the referral. Service providers clearly have a strong interest in building referral sources. - Positive word of mouth sometimes happens organically with little advertising, but as Chapter 21 discusses, it can also be managed and facilitated.27 Without question, more advertisers now seek greater earned media—unsolicited professional commentary, personal blog entries, social network discussion—as a result of their paid media and owned media efforts. NONPERSONAL (MASS) COMMUNICATIONS CHANNELS Nonpersonal channels are communi-cations directed to more than one person and include advertising, sales promotions, events and experiences, and public relations. - AT&T and IBM sponsor symphony performances and art exhibits, Visa is an active sponsor of the Olympics, and Harley-Davidson sponsors annual motorcycle rallies. - Companies are searching for better ways to quantify the benefits of sponsorship and demanding greater accountability from event owners and organizers. They are also creating their own events designed to surprise the public and create a buzz. Many efforts amount to guerrilla marketing tactics. -Events can create attention, though whether they have a lasting effect on brand awareness, knowledge, or preference will vary considerably depending on the quality of the product, the event itself, and its execution. INTEGRATION OF COMMUNICATIONS CHANNELS Although personal communication is often more effective than mass communication, mass media might be the major means of stimulating it. Mass communications affect personal attitudes and behavior through a two-step process. Ideas often first flow from radio, television, and print to opinion leaders or consumers highly engaged with media and then from these influencers to less media-involved population groups. - Some marketers are taking advantage of viral videos and other digital forms of expression to develop creative stunts or "reality pranks" to promote their brands. The successful ones capture the public's imagination while reinforcing the brand positioning in the process. Here are two examples. To demonstrate the picture quality of its Ultra HD TVs, with resolution up to four times greater than regular HD TVs, LG shot a hidden-camera prank commercial in Chile. In an office in a high-rise building, the company replaced the large window overlooking the city with one of its Ultra HD TVs showing the same scene. Then it filmed unsuspecting job seekers responding to interview questions from an actor posing as an employer. All is well until the middle of the interview when a large meteor is shown crashing into the city with a monstrous dust cloud rushing toward the building. The interviewees all try to remain calm until the realistic images eventually overwhelm them and they react in panic. -This two-step flow has several implications. First, the influence of mass media on public opinion is not as direct, powerful, and automatic as marketers have supposed. It is mediated by opinion leaders and media mavens, people who track new ideas and whose opinions others seek or who carry their opinions to others. Second, the two-step flow challenges the notion that consumption styles are primarily influenced by a "trickle-down" or "trickle-up" effect from mass media. People interact primarily within their own social groups and acquire ideas from others in their groups. Third, mass communicators should direct messages specifically to opinion leaders and others engaged with media if possible and let them carry the message to others. 5. Establish The Total Marketing Communications Budget Industries and companies vary considerably in how much they spend on marketing communications. Expenditures might be 40 percent to 45 percent of sales in the cosmetics industry, but only 5 percent to 10 percent in the industrial-equipment industry. Within a given industry, there are low- and high-spending companies. How do companies set their communications budgets? We will describe four common methods: the affordable method, the percentage-of-sales method, the competitive-parity method, and the objective-and-task method. AFFORDABLE METHOD Some companies set the communications budget at what they think they can afford. The affordable method completely ignores the role of marketing communications as an investment and their immediate impact on sales volume. It leads to an uncertain annual budget, which makes long-range planning difficult. PERCENTAGE-OF-SALES METHOD Some companies set communication expenditures at a specified percentage of current or anticipated sales or of the sales price. Automobile companies typically budget a fixed percentage based on the planned car price. - The percentage-of-sales method has little to justify it. It views sales as the determiner of communications rather than as the result. It leads to a budget set by the availability of funds rather than by market opportunities. It discourages experimentation with countercyclical communication or aggressive spending - Finally, it does not encourage building the communications budget by identifying what each product and territory deserves. COMPETITIVE-PARITY METHOD Some companies set their communications budgets to achieve share-of-voice parity with competitors. This approach is also problematic. There are no grounds for believing competitors know better. Company reputations, resources, opportunities, and objectives differ so much that communications budgets are hardly a guide. And there is no evidence that budgets based on competitive parity discourage communication wars. OBJECTIVE-AND-TASK METHOD The most defensible approach, the objective-and-task method, calls upon marketers to develop communications budgets by defining specific objectives, identifying the tasks that must be performed to achieve these objectives, and estimating the costs of performing them. The sum of these costs is the proposed communications budget. - Suppose Dr. Pepper Snapple wants to introduce a new natural energy drink, called Sunburst, for the casual athlete.32 Its objectives might be as follows: Establish the market share goal. The company estimates 50 million potential users and sets a target of attracting 8 percent of the market—that is, 4 million users. Select the percentage of the market that should be reached by advertising. The advertiser hopes to reach 80 percent of the market (40 million prospects) with its advertising message. Estimate the percentage of aware prospects who should be persuaded to try the brand. The advertiser would be pleased if 25 percent of aware prospects (10 million) tried Sunburst. It estimates that 40 percent of all triers, or 4 million people, will become loyal users. This is the market share goal. Calculate the number of advertising impressions per 1 percent trial rate. The advertiser estimates that 40 advertising impressions (exposures) for every 1 percent of the population will bring about a 25 percent trial rate. Find the number of gross rating points to be purchased. A gross rating point is one exposure to 1 percent of the target population. Because the company wants to achieve 40 exposures to 80 percent of the population, it will want to buy 3,200 gross rating points. Calculate the necessary advertising budget on the basis of the average cost of buying a gross rating point. Suppose it costs an average of $3,277 to expose 1 percent of the target population to one impression. Then 3,200 gross rating points will cost $10,486,400 (= $3,277 × 3,200) in the introductory year. Marketing communications budgets tend to be higher when there is low channel support, the marketing program changes greatly over time, many customers are hard to reach, customer decision making is complex, products are differentiated and customer needs are nonhomogeneous, and purchases are frequent and quantities small.

For study Guide: message source

MESSAGE SOURCE Research has shown that the source's credibility is crucial to a message's acceptance. The three most often identified sources of credibility are expertise, trustworthiness, and likability - Expertise is the specialized knowledge the communicator possesses to back the claim. Trustworthiness describes how objective and honest the source is perceived to be. Friends are trusted more than strangers or salespeople, and people who are not paid to endorse a product are viewed as more trustworthy than people who are paid. Likability describes the source's attractiveness, measured in terms of candor, humor, and naturalness. - Messages delivered by attractive or popular sources can achieve higher attention and recall, which is why some advertisers use celebrities as spokespeople. - Celebrities are likely to be effective when they are credible or personify a key product attribute. Statesman-like Dennis Haysbert for State Farm insurance, rugged Brett Favre for Wrangler jeans, and popular singer and actress Jennifer Hudson for Weight Watchers' weight loss program have all been praised by consumers as good fits. - A celebrity should have high recognition, high positive affect, and high "fit" with the product. Tom Hanks and Oprah Winfrey could successfully advertise a large number of products because they have extremely high ratings for familiarity and likability (known as the Q factor in the entertainment industry). - Celebrities can play a more strategic role too, not only endorsing but also helping to design, position, and sell merchandise and services. Nike often brings its elite athletic endorsers in on product design. - Using celebrities poses certain risks. The celebrity might hold out for a larger fee at contract renewal or withdraw. And just like movies and album releases, celebrity campaigns can be expensive flops. The celebrity might lose popularity or, even worse, get caught in a scandal or embarrassing situation -Another solution is for marketers to create their own brand celebrities - On the other hand, some marketers are using ordinary people in the their ads to give them more realism and overcome consumer skepticism. Ford featured actual customers being thrust into a press conference to describe their vehicles. Red Lobster used chefs from its restaurants to extol the virtues of its menu.

19.6 Implementing IMC

Many international clients such as IBM (Ogilvy), Colgate (WPP's Red Fuse), and GE (BBDO) have opted to place a substantial portion of their communications work with one full-service agency. The result is integrated and more effective marketing communications at a much lower total cost. Integrated marketing communications can produce stronger message consistency and help build brand equity and create greater sales impact. It forces management to think about every way the customer comes in contact with the company, how the company communicates its positioning, the relative importance of each vehicle, and timing issues. In assessing the collective impact of an IMC program, the marketer's overriding goal is to create the most effective and efficient communications program possible. The following "six Cs" criteria can help determine whether communications are truly integrated. COVERAGE: Coverage is the proportion of the audience reached by each communication option employed as well as the amount of overlap among those options. In other words, to what extent do different communication options reach the designated target market and the same or different consumers making up that market? CONTRIBUTION: Contribution is the inherent ability of a marketing communication to create the desired response and communication effects from consumers in the absence of exposure to any other communication option. How much does a communication affect consumer processing and build awareness, enhance image, elicit responses, and induce sales? COMMONALITY: Commonality is the extent to which common associations are reinforced across communication options; that is, the extent to which different communication options share the same meaning. The consistency and cohesiveness of the brand image are important because they determine how easily existing associations and responses can be recalled and how easily additional associations and responses can become linked to the brand in memory. COMPLEMENTARY: Communication options are often more effective when used in tandem. Complementarity relates to the extent to which different associations and linkages are emphasized across communication options. For effective positioning, brands typically need to establish multiple brand associations. Different marketing communication options may be better suited to establishing a particular brand association; for example, sponsorship of a cause may improve perceptions of a brand's trust and credibility, but TV and print advertising may be needed to communicate its performance advantages. CONFORMABILITY: In any integrated communication program, the message will be new to some consumers and not to others. Conformability refers to the extent to which a marketing communication option works for such different groups of consumers. The ability to work at two levels—effectively communicating to consumers who have and have not seen other communications—is critically important. COST: Marketers must evaluate marketing communications on all these criteria against their cost to arrive at the most effective and most efficient communications program.

19.1 The Role of Marketing Communications

Marketing communications are the means by which firms attempt to inform, persuade, and remind consumers—directly or indirectly—about the products and brands they sell. By strengthening customer loyalty, they can contribute to customer equity. Technology and other factors have profoundly changed the way consumers process communications, and even whether they choose to process them at all. The rapid diffusion of powerful smart phones, broadband and wireless Internet connections, and ad-skipping digital video recorders (DVRs) have eroded the effectiveness of the mass media. Although consumers are still more likely to recall an ad the next day if they've watched it live, some brand recall occurs even after an ad is deliberately skipped. Another challenge marketers have long faced is viewers' tendency to switch channels during commercial breaks. Recently, however, Nielsen, which handles television program ratings, has begun to offer ratings for specific ads. Before, advertisers had to pay for air time based on the rating of the program, even if as many as 5 percent to 15 percent of consumers temporarily tuned away. Now they can pay based on the size of the actual audience available when their ad is shown. Commercial clutter is rampant. The average city dweller is exposed to an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 ad messages a day. Short-form video content and ads appear at gas stations, grocery stores, doctors' offices, and big-box retailers.

For study Guide: personal communication channels and personal influence

PERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS CHANNELS Personal communications channels let two or more persons communicate face to face or person to audience through a phone, surface mail, or e-mail. They derive their effectiveness from individualized presentation and feedback and include direct marketing, personal selling, and word of mouth. - Advocate channels consist of company salespeople contacting buyers in the target market. Expert channels consist of independent experts making statements to target buyers. Social channels consist of neighbors, friends, family members, and associates talking to target buyers. - Personal influence carries especially great weight (1) when products are expensive, risky, or purchased infrequently, and (2) when products suggest something about the user's status or taste. People often ask others to recommend a doctor, plumber, hotel, lawyer, accountant, architect, insurance agent, interior decorator, or financial consultant. If we have confidence in the recommendation, we normally act on the referral. Service providers clearly have a strong interest in building referral sources. - Positive word of mouth sometimes happens organically with little advertising, but as Chapter 21 discusses, it can also be managed and facilitated.27 Without question, more advertisers now seek greater earned media—unsolicited professional commentary, personal blog entries, social network discussion—as a result of their paid media and owned media efforts.

19.5 Measuring Communication Results

Senior managers want to know the outcomes and revenues resulting from their communications investments. Too often, however, their communications directors supply only inputs and expenses: press clipping counts, numbers of ads placed, or media costs. In fairness, communications directors try to translate inputs into intermediate outputs such as reach and frequency (the percentage of target market exposed to a communication and the number of exposures), recall and recognition scores, persuasion changes, and cost-per-thousand calculations. Ultimately, though, behavior-change measures capture the real payoff. After implementing the communications plan, the communications director must measure its impact. Members of the target audience are asked whether they recognize or recall the message, how many times they saw it, what points they recall, how they felt about the message, and what are their previous and current attitudes toward the product and the company. The communicator should also collect behavioral measures of audience response, such as how many people bought the product, liked it, and talked to others about it. EXAMPLE: Figure 19.5 provides an example of good feedback measurement. We find 80 percent of the consumers in the total market are aware of brand A, 60 percent have tried it, and only 20 percent who tried it are satisfied. This indicates that the communications program is effective in creating awareness, but the product fails to meet consumer expectations. In contrast, 40 percent of the consumers in the total market are aware of brand B and only 30 percent have tried it, but 80 percent of them are satisfied. In this case, the communications program needs to be strengthened to take advantage of the brand's potential power.

19.6 Managing the Integrated Marketing Communications Process

The American Marketing Association defines integrated marketing communications (IMC) as "a planning process designed to assure that all brand contacts received by a customer or prospect for a product, service, or organization are relevant to that person and consistent over time." " When done well, this planning process evaluates the strategic roles of a variety of communications disciplines and combines them seamlessly to provide clarity, consistency, and maximum impact of messages. To facilitate one-stop shopping for marketers, media companies and ad agencies have acquired promotion agencies, public relations firms, package-design consultancies, Web site developers, social media experts, and direct-mail houses. They are redefining themselves as communications companies that help clients improve their overall communications effectiveness by offering strategic and practical advice on many forms of communication. COMPANY EXAMPLE: Table 19.3 lists the different lines of businesses for marketing and advertising services giant WPP, for example. -ADVERTISING -MEDIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT -CONSUMER INSIGHT -PR AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS - BRANDING AND IDENTITY -Direct, Promotion, & Relationship Marketing -HEALTH CARE COMMUNICATIONS -SPECIALIST COMMUNICATIONS -WPP DIGITAL --- Coordinating Media - Media coordination can occur across and within media types, but marketers should combine personal and nonpersonal communications channels through multiple-vehicle, multiple-stage campaigns to achieve maximum impact and increase message reach and impact. - Promotions and online solicitations can be more effective when combined with advertising, for example.38 The awareness and attitudes created by advertising campaigns can increase the success of more direct sales pitches. Advertising can convey the positioning of a brand and benefit from online display advertising or search engine marketing that sends a stronger call to action.

For study Guide: overview of characteristics of the marketing communication mix (the brief review found at the end of chapter 19).

The communications process consists of nine elements: sender, receiver, message, media, encoding, decoding, response, feedback, and noise. To get their messages through, marketers must take into account how the target audience usually decodes messages. They must also transmit the message through efficient media that reach the target audience and develop feedback channels to monitor response to the message. Developing effective communications requires eight steps: (1) identify the target audience, (2) choose the communications objectives, (3) design the communications, (4) select the communications channels, (5) set the total communications budget, (6) choose the communications mix, (7) measure the communications results, and (8) manage the integrated marketing communications process. choosing the marketing communications mix, marketers must examine the distinct advantages and costs of each communication tool and the company's market rank. They must also consider the type of product market in which they are selling, how ready consumers are to make a purchase, and the product's stage in the company, brand, and product life cycle.

For study Guide: Marketing communications mix (the 8 major modes)

The marketing communications mix consists of eight major modes of communication: advertising sales promotion public relations and publicity events and experiences online and social media marketing mobile marketing, direct and database marketing and personal selling.