Overview
Question:
Don Schultz at Northwestern University came up with the concept of IMC during the early 1990s. It involves the active coordination of all of the communications mix to create a consistent message and to communicate value to the target customer. The eight major elements of marketing communications are described on pages 270-273 in your text. Visit the website for Mountain Dew (see course for link) and view some commercials for Mountain Dew. Also, visit a grocery store (preferred) or an online grocery retailer and look for the way Mountain Dew is merchandised or marketed. You may need to do some additional online research as well. Describe how each communications element has been used to market Mountain Dew. How has the campaign been integrated throughout the various elements? Discuss the IMC strategy.
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DEFINING THE COMMUNICATION MEDIA MIX Communication is not limited to advertising. Customers come to know a brand through a range of touch points, including online clubs and consumer communities, trade shows, event marketing, sponsorship, factory visits, public relations and press releases, and social cause marketing. To effectively communicate its value proposition to its target audience, a company should develop an integrated marketing communication campaign that spans different media. Consider how BMW has built the MINI Cooper brand in the United States by attracting attention through its creative use of diverse media formats. MINI Cooper When BMW launched the modernized MINI Cooper in the United States, it employed a broad mix of media: billboards, posters, the internet, print, PR, product placement, and grassroots activities. Many media were linked to a cleverly designed website with product and dealer information. The imaginative, integrated campaign built a six-month waiting list for the MINI Cooper. Despite its relatively limited communication budget, the brand has continued to develop innovative, award-winning campaigns ever since. The MINI has especially used outdoor advertising creatively: Two curved palm trees planted next to a speeding MINI on a billboard created an illusion of speed and power; a digital billboard personally greeted passing MINI drivers by using a signal from a radio chip embedded in their key fobs; and a real MINI on the side of a building was able to move up and down like a yo-yo. A worldwide campaign, “Not Normal,” spotlights MINI’s strong, independent character through classic and digital media. Now sold in 100 countries around the world, the MINI has expanded into a six-model lineup, including a convertible, a coupe, the Clubman four-door, and the Countryman wagon. These product introductions reinforce the idea that the MINI is agile, versatile, and fun to drive, and the marketing campaign as a whole builds strong emotional connections with drivers.11 We can evaluate integrated marketing activities in terms of the effectiveness and efficiency with which they affect brand awareness and create, maintain, or strengthen brand associations and image. Although Volvo may invest in research and development, and may engage in advertising, promotion, and other communication to reinforce its “safety” brand association, it also sponsors events to make sure it is seen as active, contemporary, and up to date. Notable Volvo sponsorships include golf tourna-ments and the European professional golf tour, the Volvo Ocean Race, the famed Gothenburg Horse Show, and cultural events. The communication media mix identifies the different modes of communication that a company will use to inform the target audience about its offerings. The most common media formats include advertising, online and social media communication, mobile communication, direct marketing, events d experiences, word of mouth, publicity and public relations, personal selling, and packaging. The key aspects of these communication formats are summarized as follows:12 • Advertising is any paid form of nonpersonal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or ser-vices by an identified sponsor via print media (newspapers, magazines, brochures, books, leaflets, directories), broadcast media (radio and television), network media, and display media (billboards, signs, posters, outer packaging, packaging inserts, ad reprints, and point-of-purchase displays). Advertising 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). Certain forms of advertising, such as TV, can require a large bud-get, whereas other forms, such as targeted online ads, do not. The mere presence of mass-media advertising might have an effect on sales: Consumers might believe a heavily advertised brand must be of good quality.13 • Online and social media communication involves 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 (websites, e-mails, search ads, display ads, company blogs, third-party chat rooms, forums, Facebook and Twitter messages, and YouTube channels and videos). Online marketing and messages can take many forms to interact with consumers when they are in active search mode or when they are just browsing and surfing online for something to do. • Mobile communication is a special form of online communication that places messages on con-sumers’ cell phones, smart phones, or tablets (text messages, online communication, and social media communication). Increasingly, online marketing and social media rely on mobile forms of communication such as smart phones or tablets. Mobile communication is timely—messages can be very time-sensitive and reflect when and where a consumer is—and pervasive, meaning that messages are always at consumers’ fingertips. • Direct marketing involves the use of mail, phone, e-mail, online messaging, or in-person inter-action to communicate directly with, or solicit response or dialog from, specific customers and prospects. The advent of data analytics has given marketers the opportunity to learn even more about consumers and develop more personal and relevant marketing communications. • Events and experiences are company-sponsored activities and programs designed to create brand-related interactions with consumers. Examples include sports, arts, entertainment, festivals, factory tours, company museums, and street activities, as well as events for causes and less formal activities. Events and experiences offer many advantages as long as they are engaging and implicit, meaning that they involve indirect soft sell. • Word of mouth involves the passing of information from person to person by oral commu-nication. Social media can be viewed as a specific instance of word of mouth, where personal communication occurs online and is observable by others. Marketers can influence naturally occurring word of mouth as well as help to create word of mouth by “seeding” a message that is likely to engage consumers and lead to word-of-mouth communication related to the company and its offerings. • Publicity and public relations involve 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 (press kits, speeches, semi-nars, annual reports, charitable donations, publications, community relations, lobbying, identity media, and company magazines). Marketers tend to underuse publicity and public relations, yet a well-thought-out program coordinated with the other elements of the communication mix can be extremely effective, especially if a company needs to challenge consumers’ misconceptions. The appeal of public relations and publicity is based on its high credibility: News stories and features are more authentic and credible to readers than ads. • Personal selling is a process in which a seller tries to convince a buyer to purchase a particular product or service. Personal selling typically involves face-to-face communication and is highly dependent on the persuasion skills and abilities of the seller. Personal selling often takes place in one of two formats—through retail, where a salesperson interacts with potential customers who come to inquire about a product, and through direct-to-consumer marketing, where a salesperson visits potential buyers to make them aware of a company’s offering. • Packaging is an effective form of communication, especially in the case of decisions that are made at the point of purchase. The product’s styling, the shape and color of the package, the store décor, and the company’s stationery all communicate an image to buyers and deliver an impression that can strengthen or weaken a customer’s view of a company. The rise of digital media gives marketers a host of new ways to interact with customers and pro-spective customers. We can group communication options into three categories.14 Paid media include TV, magazine and display ads, paid search, and sponsorships, all of which allow marketers to show their ad or brand for a fee. Owned media are communication channels that marketers actually own, such as a company or brand brochure, product packaging, website, blog, Facebook page, or Twitter account. Earned media are streams in which consumers, the press, or other outsiders voluntarily communicate something about the brand via word of mouth, buzz, or viral marketing methods. Social media play a key role in earned media.15 The different communication media formats and the ways in which they work in concert to cre-ate an integrated marketing communication campaign are discussed in more detail in Chapter 14. Issues pertaining to personal selling and managing a company’s sales force are discussed in more detail in Chapter 15. DEVELOPING A MEDIA PLAN The media planner must determine the most cost-effective vehicles within each chosen media type. The advertiser who decides to buy 30 seconds of advertising on network television can pay $100,000 for a new show, $500,000 for a popular prime-time show such as The Voice, or over $5 million for the Super Bowl. These choices are critical: The average cost to produce a national 30-second television commercial is about $300,000,16 so it can cost as much to run an ad once on network TV as to create and produce it! Media planners are using more sophisticated measures of effectiveness and employing them in mathematical models to arrive at the best media mix.17 Media planners must consider factors such as audience size, composition, and media cost and then calculate the cost per thousand persons reached. First, consider audience quality. For a baby lotion ad, a magazine read by 1 million young parents has an exposure value of 1 million potential buyers; if read by 1 million teenagers, it has an exposure value of almost zero. Second, consider audience-attention probability. Readers of some magazines may pay more attention to ads than do readers of others. Third is the medium’s editorial quality, meaning its prestige and believability. People are more likely to believe a TV or radio ad when it appears within a program they like. Fourth, consider the value of ad placement policies and extra services, such as regional or occupational editions, as well as the lead-time requirements for magazines. Communication programs involve a range of different media that should seamlessly convey the desired message to the target audience. Ocean Spray—an agricultural cooperative of cranberry growers—has used a variety of communication vehicles to turn sales around. Ocean Spray Facing stiff competition, adverse consumer trends, and nearly a decade of declining sales, Ocean Spray decided to reintroduce the cranberry as the “surprisingly versatile little fruit that supplies modern-day benefits,” through a 360-degree campaign that used all facets of marketing communications to reach consumers in a variety of settings. The intent was to support the full range of products—cranberry sauce, fruit juices, and dried cranberries in different forms—and leverage the fact that the brand was born in the cranberry bogs and remains there still. The authentic and perhaps surprising campaign, “Straight from the Bog,” was designed to also reinforce two key brand benefits—that Ocean Spray products taste good and are 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 (played by actors) standing waist deep in a bog and talking, often humorously, about what they did. The campaign also included a website, in-store displays, and events for consumers and members of the growers’ cooperative itself. Product innovation was crucial, too: New flavor blends were introduced, along with a line of 100 percent juices in diet and light versions, and Craisins—sweetened dried cranberries. Other elements included a pop-up restaurant in a bog created in New York’s Rockefeller Center, where winners of a Facebook cranberry-pairings contest were treated to appetizers and drinks made from Ocean Spray products. In addition, a leap-year promotion urged consumers to “leap” to Craisins. The campaign hit the mark, lifting sales an average of 10 percent in its first five years, in spite of continued decline in the fruit juice category.18 Winning the Super Bowl of Advertising The Super Bowl attracts the largest audience on television: More than 100 million viewers tune in to watch the broadcast. With an audience that large, a 30-second ad slot sold for over $5.5 million.19 Despite their high cost, one can argue that compared to regular television spots, Super Bowl ads are in fact a bargain when their huge audience is taken into account. Indeed, recent Super Bowls have been watched by between 110 and 115 million people each year, which means that at a cost of $5 million, a 30-second Super Bowl ad works out to between 4 and 5 cents per viewer. This actually could be lower than the average cost of advertising on a national network, where the perviewer cost ranges from 8 to 10 cents or more.20 In addition to its relative cost efficiency, Super Bowl advertising tends to be more impactful, given that the game is often viewed on a large high-definition screen. Moreover, thanks to the iconic status of Super Bowl advertising, many of the commercials are played indefinitely over social media, thus reaching a much larger audience than the directly purchased airtime. In fact, many Super Bowl advertisers develop sophisticated publicity and social media campaigns that can attract millions of additional viewers. Many Super Bowl ads now have a new purpose: to create curiosity and interest so consumers will go online and engage in social media and word of mouth to glean more detailed information. The most popular ads—like a Honda CR-V ad with Matthew Broderick spoofing his Ferris Bueller film role, a VW ad with a young kid playing Darth Vader, and Amazon’s “Alexa loses its voice”—drew tens of millions of YouTube views. Increasingly, Super Bowl ads are released online before the game as firms attempt to maximize their social media and PR power. Determining the Media Reach, Frequency, and Impact. Media selection aims to find the most cost-effective media to deliver the desired number and type of exposures to the target audience. What do we mean by the desired number of exposures? The advertiser seeks a specified communication objective and response from the target audience—which usually involves the degree of brand awareness generated. The number of exposures needed to reach a certain level of audience awareness is contingent on the reach, frequency, and impact of the media chosen: • Reach (R). The number of different persons or households exposed to a particular media schedule at least once during a specified time period • Frequency (F). The number of times within the specified time period that an average person or household is exposed to the message • Impact (I). The qualitative value of an exposure through a given medium (for example, a food ad should have a higher impact in Bon Appétit than in Fortune magazine)