ZİRVE UNIVERSITY
BUS 380
INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
Dr. Hurrem Yilmaz
Advertising Journal
Students are required to develop an Advertising Journal, which should focus on your interest and
understanding of various advertising and promotion issues, strategies, trends, etc. Be creative, yet
thorough with your journal. Have fun, but make sure your understanding of advertising and
promotion management shines through. Be sure to present your journal in a professional manner
in a FOLDER (so the pages don't get lost).
Exercises. You are to complete specific exercises related to the chapters we cover this semester.
Here is the entire set of exercises below. Due dates can be found in the syllabus.
Assignments will be graded on the basis of your understanding of the topic, the thoroughness of
your answer, and the quality of the research and writing.
All elements of the journal must be typed.
Advertising and Promotion Exercises
These exercises are part of the Advertising Journal. Details of this assignment can be found in the
course syllabus as well as individual exercise due dates. Please note that most of these assignments
require set-up time, so please plan accordingly; do not wait until the last minute to complete assignments.
Analysis should generally be in the range of 600 to 1,000 words.
Whenever possible, include all supporting material, such as copies of articles, ads, etc. When doing
research on articles, please rely more on the library databases (ABI/INFORM probably the best) than on
Internet searches. Some of your supporting material MUST come from legitimate advertising and
marketing journals.
1.Using Advertising and Promotion to Build Brands
Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) is all about having all communications, all marketing, have a
consistent message. Apple Computer has gotten major kudos for the iPod (whether the original, Nano, or
Shuffle). Do a little research… go to the Apple iPod Website, try to find an iPod ad (in print or television),
and examine any PR Apple has gotten about the iPod. Examine the product and the packaging. What is
the message one gets from all these elements? Why did it become so much more successful over other
MP3 players? Finally, in your opinion, has Apple followed an IMC strategy -- and not just for the iPod, but
for the entire company?
Product and Company information and evaluation: 3 pts
IMC Tools:
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Advertising: 1 pt
Public Relations: 1 pt
Internet / Direct Marketing: 1 pt
Sales Promotions: 1 pt
Point of Purchase and Packaging: 1 pt
Personal Selling: 1 pt
Product Placement and Word-of-Mouth: 1 pt
TOTAL: 10 pts
2. Brands and Stakeholder Relationships
For the advertising journal 2 you can get help from the CH 1 slide number 8 (The role of IMC in
Branding) when you explain the identity of your brand which means you have to
1.BRAND IDENTITY: discuss your brand's identity using those factors, such as name, logo ,
design, symbols, packaging, performance, associations (make sure you discuss each)
2. POSITIONING: explain your brand's positioning concept in the market
3. who are your brand's major competitors and what are their strengths and weaknesses?
4. DIFFERENTIATION: how is your brand different than the others?
5. BRAND SWITCHING: What would ever make you switch brands? How can your brand get
other consumers to switch to it?
SUGGESTION: using the numbers when answering the questions and using titles and subtitles
always help the reader. Make sure that you answer what is asked, refer to the concepts you are
asked to discuss, use your marketing concept knowledge as well as the concepts that are discussed
in your book. As usual, copies of ads or other visual material of your brand are good supplements
of your journal.
3. How Brand Communication Works
1.Use the P&G Website. Then, go do a little hands-on research by visiting a retail outlet that sells
laundry detergent; conduct an analysis of the P&G brands of laundry detergent
Here is what you need to do:
2.How does P&G differentiate these brands (Tide, Gain, etc. make sure you cover all brands)?
What are the distinguishing features of each brand?
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3. Are they clearly communicated to the consumer? (you should attach copies of ads for each
detergent) and analyze these ads to see if message, picture, general look of the ads match with the
positioning (differentiation) concept
4. Compare prices, shelf space, etc. What are the target markets for each brand?
5. Are the positions (positioning concepts) different enough to avoid cannibalization? Should
P&G even care about the issue of cannibalization?
as usual, please spell, grammar check your document
answer the questions 2-5 and use brand names as titles within each answer.
4. Segmenting and Targeting
Find five different ads targeting five different segments of the market. You don't have to use products from
the same category, though there are some product categories that do have numerous target markets. Hint:
You may need to go through five different magazines to find the five ads. Explain your results and provide
Two ways to find and use the ads for this journal:
1. Find a product category and segment it using segmentation bases (categories of demographic,
psychographic, geographic and behavioral segmentation) and make sure that you can come up with at
least five segments. Then go find an advertisement for each segment. (This is the hard way)
2. Find five ads for any product category (or from different product categories), i.e., cars (or car, chocolate,
baby food, running shoes, soda), and for each, determine the segmentation base they are using
what specific segment they are targeting. (This is an easier way)
5. Creative Message Strategies
Come up with a new Big Idea for Zirve University and then test it with a small convenience sample of
current students. Be sure to include some detail about what your big idea means and why you chose that
one for this assignment.
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