Philip J. Kitchen & Marwa E.Tourky
INTEGRATED
MARKETING
COMMUNICATIONS
A Global Brand-Driven Approach
se c on d e di t ion
Integrated Marketing Communications
Philip J. Kitchen • Marwa E. Tourky
Integrated Marketing
Communications
A Global Brand-Driven Approach
2nd ed. 2021
Philip J. Kitchen
ICN-Artem Business School
Nancy, France
Marwa E. Tourky
Cranfield University
Cranfield, UK
ISBN 978-3-030-76415-9 ISBN 978-3-030-76416-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76416-6
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Acknowledgments
With grateful thanks to our lifetime companions, Diane and Ahmed, for helping us
work through the concepts and ideas represented in this text and for their patience
and forbearance.
We acknowledge with grateful thanks and esteem—Professor Don E. Schultz—
who co-authored the first edition of this book with Phil Kitchen and developed
many of the initial ideas and concepts. Don gave his kind permission to allow this
second edition to be written but, however, decided not to participate. In our view,
Don was the “guru” and is the acknowledged world leader in integrated marketing
communications or IMC. Don passed away Thursday June 4, 2020, at the age of 86.
He is greatly missed, and we will strive to honor his memory and legacy.
We acknowledge with gratitude the many individuals and companies who have
assisted in any way in providing insights for this text and in allowing these to be
cited, particularly the Institute of Advertising Practitioners (IPA), and the various
agencies in allowing some of their prize-winning campaigns (now case studies) to
be included.
We also thank postgraduate students who have been involved in discussion of
many of the materials found herein, and for their insightful observations.
We are grateful to Dr. Lucia Porcu—Associate Professor of Marketing and
Market Research at the University of Granada (Spain)—who provided Chap. 9. She
has previous experience as Visiting Scholar at Brock University (Canada),
Northwestern University (USA), and University of Bologna (Italy). Her research
interests lie in integrated marketing communications (IMC), integrated corporate
communications (ICC), organizational culture, cross-cultural marketing, and digital
humanities. She has participated in many international conferences and published in
several prestigious journals.
We thank Dr. Christopher Pich, Dr. Louise Spry, and Dr. David Cook of
Nottingham Trent University, UK, and Professor Varsha Jain from MICA, India, for
providing permission for their respective case studies.
v
Contents
1Introduction to Communicating Globally: An Integrated Marketing
Approach ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 1
2Transitioning in the Marketplaces and Marketspaces of 2020 and
Beyond�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 9
3The Global Marketplace Considerations������������������������������������������������ 31
4How Marketing Communication Works�������������������������������������������������� 49
5Integrated Communication or Integrated Marketing
Communication������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 69
6Developing Integrated Global Marketing Communication
Programs������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 89
7Implementing the IGMC Strategy ���������������������������������������������������������� 113
8Creative Execution: Gaining and Retaining Customers
and Influencing Stakeholders ������������������������������������������������������������������ 147
9IGMC Drivers and Agency Interaction �������������������������������������������������� 173
10Investments and Measurements: The Quest for the Holy Grail������������ 195
11The Way Forward: Overcoming Barriers with IGMC Solutions���������� 221
12
Case Studies������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 233
The Duality of Boris Johnson’s Political Brand Identity ������������������������ 233
Macmillan Cancer Support: Making Sure No One Faces Cancer
Alone, Today or Tomorrow���������������������������������������������������������������������� 236
“We’re Gonna Get Ourselves (Re-) Connected!”—How Can Major
Events Such as Euro 2020 Bring Societies Back Together in the
Wake of Covid-19—Or—Is the Writing on the Wall?������������������������������ 263
vii
viii
Contents
De Beers�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 271
Speeding (New Zealand Transport Agency): Mistakes���������������������������� 278
Tiffany: The Global Way�������������������������������������������������������������������������� 298
Narellan Pools: Diving into Big Data for Narellan Pools������������������������ 303
Its All About “Co-Opness”���������������������������������������������������������������������� 314
Guinness: Made of More, 2012–2018 ���������������������������������������������������� 320
13
ROCI Investment and Measurement Process:
A Worked Example������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 353
Index�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 369
About the Authors
Philip J. Kitchen is Professor of Marketing at tripleaccredited ICN-Artem Business School, Nancy,
France, where he served formerly as an affiliate professor. He is a member of CEREFIGE—Centre
Européen de Recherche en Economie Financière et en
Gestion des Entreprises based at 25 rue Baron
Louis–54000 NANCY. There he teaches and carries
out research in marketing communications, corporate
communications, branding, globalization, and marketing theory. Editor—Journal of Marketing
Communications. He holds Emeritus Chairs at Brock
University, Canada, and Salford University, UK. He
has published 20 books including Marketing Communications: Principles and
Practice; Public Relations: Principles and Practice; Communicating Globally: An
Integrated Marketing Approach (with Don Schultz); Marketing Metaphors and
Metamorphosis; Integrated Brand Marketing and Measuring Returns; The Evolution
of Integrated Marketing Communications: The Customer-Driven Marketplace (with
Don Schultz and Chuck Patti); and The Dominant Influence of Marketing in the 21st
Century: The Marketing Leviathan, among others. He has published 250 plus academic articles in leading journals around the world and served as keynote speaker
for many academic and practitioner conferences. Phil was listed as one of “The Top
50 Gurus Who Influenced the Future of Marketing,” Marketing Business, December
2003, 12–16. Tied for 16th place in the world in terms of comparative author ranking in the domain of advertising research, Journal of Advertising, 37 (3), 2008, 85.
In 2020 he was listed sixth in terms of “Top Scholarly Output” in the UK and all of
Europe between 2017 and 2020 by Scival Elsevier.
ix
x
About the Authors
Marwa E. Tourky is Associate Professor of
Marketing and Brand Management at Cranfield
School of Management, UK, and Program Director of
MSc Strategic Marketing. Previously she was a senior
lecturer at Exeter University Business School. Her
research is focused on areas such as corporate brand,
identity and reputation, communications, and
CSR. Marwa serves on the editorial board of Journal
of Marketing Communications and was Vice-Chair of
South West Federation of Museums and Art Galleries,
UK. She works hand in hand with non-academic partners, including charities and public sector such as
Devon and Cornwall Police, as a researcher, advisor,
and board member. Her research has appeared in leading scientific journals such as
Journal of Business Research, European Journal of Marketing, Corporate
Reputation Review and Qualitative Market Research, Journal of Marketing
Communications, Management and Organization Review, Management and
Organization Review, and Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing. She has
contributed chapters to edited books and reports for funded research projects, and
popular accounts of her work have appeared in The Times, The Daily Mail, Devon
Live, Palm FM, PlymouthLive, and CornwallLive.
1
Introduction to Communicating Globally:
An Integrated Marketing Approach
Twenty years on from the publication of the first edition of the book, Communicating
Globally: An Integrated Marketing Approach, two points stand out: its timeless
importance and its need to be brought fully into the twenty-first century. The text of
this new edition therefore reflects the revolutionary developments that have metamorphosed the world’s marketplaces and marketspaces over these two decades. The
explosion of technology, the fragmentation of markets, and the sea change in
corporate-­customer relations have transformed the landscape of integrated marketing communications (IMC). While these developments have been rapidly incorporated into the teaching of IMC, it is less clear that business practice has kept pace.
Fortunately, many of these developments have been recorded, enabling their incorporation into this updated text.
Indeed, one of the book’s original authors, Philip Kitchen, provided important
insights into IMC in this new era in his introduction to a special issue of the
European Journal of Marketing (Kitchen, 2017). The themes he dealt with—IMC’s
current position and future potentialities—are now more fully explored in the space
afforded by these pages. In this updated text, the difficult subject of ethics in business, management, and marketing communications is also addressed, using everyday language rather than the specialist narrative of philosophers, ensuring its
accessibility to the widest possible audience.
The scale of global change witnessed since the publication of the first book on
IMC (Schultz et al., 1993) has been truly remarkable. Technological advances and
media platforms have grown exponentially and quickened while markets have further splintered and fragmented (Kim et al., 2004; Kitchen, 2010; Kitchen, 2017;
Kitchen & Uzunoglu, 2015; Schultz et al., 2011). Measuring returns on investment
is more straightforward but the proliferation of channels adds new complexities.
The splintering of markets into ever-smaller segments and niches makes audiences
more difficult to access, influence, and persuade. Consumers are more streetwise,
savvy, and sophisticated. A multiplicity of media constantly communicates often
entirely irrelevant messages to consumers through their viewing, listening, and
reading habits—creating not only environmental noise but also market nuisance.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
P. J. Kitchen, M. E. Tourky, Integrated Marketing Communications,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76416-6_1
1
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1 Introduction to Communicating Globally: An Integrated Marketing Approach
Amid these accelerated communication modalities came the 2008 financial crisis,
which wiped trillions of dollars off the value of businesses around the world (Bank
of England, 2015) and severely dented consumer confidence. Its aftershocks will
continue to be felt for many years (Kitchen, 2013). The economic turbulence caused
by the crisis, and subsequently by the COVID-19 pandemic, do not alter the central
importance of IMC: its principles hold true in times of recession and crisis as well
as in times of growth and opportunity.
Over the same period, IMC has cemented its position as one of the world’s most
powerful marketing management frameworks. It is now the predominant refrain of
every marketing communications text and the constant focus of books and articles
presented at practitioner and academic conferences. Special issues and editorials
have been presented by, among others, the Journal of Advertising, Journal of
Advertising Research, Journal of Marketing Communications, and the International
Journal of Advertising. Hundreds of papers have appeared in the marketing and
communications practitioner press, and continuing calls are made for papers for
special issues. Major marketing associations now include courses on IMC as a
norm. Organizations including the American Productivity and Quality Council
(APQC) and the American Marketing Association (AMA) and advertising associations such as the UK’s Institute of Advertising Practitioners, and their equivalents in
other countries, have shown great interest in IMC. The Marketing Science Institute’s
priorities from 2014 to 2016 included measuring marketing investments and activities, and developing integrated approaches to marketing, which was amended to
“delivering integrated, real-time, relevant experiences in context” from 2016 to
2018 (MSI, 2016). Tafesse and Kitchen (2015) observed that “the first, and perhaps
most important, research priority is measurement,” echoing earlier calls by Taylor
(2010). This surge in academic recognition of the importance of IMC raises a number of practical questions which are tackled in the pages of this new edition. These
include the central issue of whether IMC is more about vocalization and volume, or
concerns actual usage.
Practical Challenges
As research progresses, today’s marketing and brand managers continue to face
many challenges, including the interface between the old and new worlds. While
traditional offline sales, marketing, and communications can clearly be distinguished from online interactive sales, marketing, and communication, there is a
strong and necessary overlap between them. The ability to combine them successfully is key. Of course, 20 years ago, businesses, managers, and communicators
faced the same challenges of engaging in brand marketing activities focused on
customers and prospects, with the need to measure or show marketplace results.
However, examples continue to abound of managerial ineptitude, sheer reluctance
to change, and reluctance to engage in spending that would enhance interactions
with customers, consumers, prospects, and stakeholders at the corporate brand
level—and in turn improve profitability. The challenge of keeping pace with market
Practical Challenges
3
developments therefore remains as demanding as ever and is reiterated in the
new text.
In the Journal of Marketing Communications’ first special issue on IMC, Don
Schultz and Heidi Schultz (1998) highlighted the need for firms and brands to shift
from where they were to a place that matched the communications needs of the
twenty-­first-­century global marketplace. They argued that the old 4Ps approach
(product, price, promotion, and place) was essentially outbound and linear and
driven by a supply-side orientation. Of course markets are not driven by products,
production, or even marketing and perhaps never have been (Kitchen, 2010, 2017),
but today more than ever a trend toward markets driven by customers, consumers,
and prospects is clearly visible. Demand-side factors are already as important as
supply-side considerations, and one day—if technological facilitators permit—the
shift to customer-­dominated and customer-driven markets will be complete. We are
not there yet, and may not be for some time; however, it seems reasonable to claim
that organizations that understand their customers, wish to engage in two-way communication with them, and recognize that business is demand-driven should be able
to capitalize on the continuous stream of information now available to them, in
order to secure sustainable competitive advantage. Going forward, customer insights
and integrated brand communications strategies are therefore likely to be key to
competing in and winning the marketing game—a game fought vigorously in every
country and every market.
From one perspective, the road to the integration of messages seems complete.
IMC thinking has become standard across the world, meeting the ideal of one-voice,
one-sight, one-sound proclaimed by Don Schultz and his colleagues at Northwestern,
and others since then. What began as a single-track road in the practitioner world of
the late 1980s was widened by the subsequent academic awakening and contributions in the 1990s and 2000s and underpinned by marketplace changes; today it is a
superhighway for companies, commentators, and researchers.
However, other perspectives make it clear that the construction of the superhighway is still far from complete in practical terms. For example, while the “one voice”
phenomenon has been fully incorporated, the journey toward integration from a
consumer or corporate perspective has scarcely begun. What Schultz and Kitchen
(2000) regarded as a four-stage process for most companies has, to all intents and
purposes, stalled at its very beginning. Yes, we can find message integration but not
necessarily consumer integration. Most companies carry out poor, ineffectual market research and lack a genuine understanding of markets, marketplaces, and marketspaces. There is a related lack of investment in data and database systems to
enable the ongoing gathering of information from customers and consumers. As a
result, most messages are still outbound and linear, but with the added virtue of
looking or sounding the same via all media. Fully integrated brand marketing, in
which the behavioral outcomes of marketing communications are measured,
remains a distant dream for most companies and academic commentators. While
some effective techniques and processes exist for after-the-event evaluation of IMC,
almost none works with immediacy or during campaign implementation. IMC has
therefore achieved one goal—message integration—but has not reached its
4
1 Introduction to Communicating Globally: An Integrated Marketing Approach
overarching purpose as a strategic business process (Schultz & Kitchen, 2000;
Kitchen & Schultz 2009; Berthon et al., 2012).
Academic Issues
On the academic front too, questions remain. There is healthy disagreement, conjecture, and criticism regarding issues as diverse as PR, turf battles, and a stages theory
of IMC. The theoretical foundations remain sketchy and academic quibbling persists. Since the crucible of practice—where IMC was born and raised—is where it
continues to drive forward and evolve, the time has come for more evidence to be
presented by companies and for more sophisticated questions to be asked and
answered. Only then will IMC’s weak theoretical foundations be strengthened.
Despite these complexities, it is important to remember that all the remaining
barriers, whether practical or academic, are capable of being understood, corrected,
and overcome. Some progress is already clearly visible. IMC is moving toward
achieving strategic and organizational integration, as evidenced in the pages of this
book. A more realistic picture of it is also emerging from the maelstrom of debate,
conceptualizations, and empirical evidence. For example, it can be claimed that
IMC’s adoption, irrespective of theory, is both situation-specific and context-­
dependent (Kitchen, 2016, 2017): while it is a widely accepted paradigm, its specific use within a company depends on budgetary constraints and senior managers’
decisions on investing in electronic infrastructure, data analytics, customer interfaces, and communication modalities. Equally important, IMC’s major tenets,
design, contribution, and benefits have been embraced by academics and practitioners around the world. It is even possible to detect the shape of what could be
termed a “central theory” acceptable to most researchers and practitioners. IMC has
already proved to be remarkably robust; it is no passing fad (Kitchen, 2010, 2017;
Kitchen et al., 2004).
New Content
It is against this complex backdrop that the updated chapters of this book, both
individually and collectively, unpack the significance and challenges of IMC. The
chapter titles from the first edition have been adapted as necessary, creating a base
of subjects that are relevant, current, and crucial to understanding the topic in the
third decade of the twenty-first century. The themes are provocative, multi-­
disciplinary, and eclectic. Taken together, they unravel the complexities of IMC or
Global Integrated Marketing Communication (GIMC) and point toward the future.
The content has also been updated to widen and strengthen its conceptual foundations and practical currency. The former Chaps. 9 and 10 have been completely
rewritten and combined into a more appropriate guide to investment and measurement. However, this comes with the caveat that this may constitute a search for the
holy grail of communications, since short-term results from campaigns cannot be
The Only Way Is Ethics
5
fully realized until coordinated and integrated data-sharing exists across supply
chains—including communications practitioners and media vehicles.
Another significant change is the inclusion of exercises in each chapter. These
include questions, case studies, boxed and highlighted material, and suggestions for
further reading. The case studies, which include questions that can be addressed by
individual readers or groups, also appear in the text, and are designed in such a way
that they can be related to one or more chapters. We are grateful to our colleagues in
the academic and business worlds for granting permission for their use.
Finally, an appendix on marketing communications investments and measurements has also been added.
The Only Way Is Ethics
The crucial subject of ethics is also given the attention it deserves in this updated
edition. The book is rich in recommendations for ways that organizations and businesses can operate in socially acceptable ways in a world of complex moral judgments. These apply in both management and marketing. The focus on ethics in
corporate culture is especially timely in an age of the flagrant flaunting of long-held
moral and ethical standards, of deliberate disinformation, and of “fake news.” These
behaviors have come into sharp focus in a series of globally significant events
stretching from the political sphere to the business world. Among the issues laid
bare by the 2008 financial crisis was that many well-respected financial institutions,
thought to have been operating ethically and showing good corporate social responsibility, had in fact invested unwisely and acted unethically. Some large financial
institutions went under; others were saved by government financial underpinning
paid for by taxpayers. At the time of writing, nearly a decade and a half later, no
financial return has been made to taxpayers, and older consumers who had relied on
their savings to bolster their retirement income can only watch their capital losing
value year-on-year. Businesses continue to be caught using unfair and unethical
practices, and for every case that comes to light it can be assumed that many more
go undetected and unreported.
Of course, what is considered ethical changes over time. Writers, commentators,
business practitioners, and the media can seem trapped like flies in amber by the
ethical contextual circumstances in which they live. Without stepping outside time
itself, it is impossible to see whether current marketing and communications practices will seem shameful and unethical to future eyes. Past generations accepted as
“normal” that young children worked in cotton factories and coal mines and that
some human beings were enslaved by others. With the benefit of hindsight, it is hard
to understand how these practices were ever regarded as ethically acceptable, and
yet they persisted for centuries with broad public acceptance.
Today’s ethical questions have shifted focus, although not always far. Is it ethical
for multinational or global businesses to buy goods produced in “sweatshops” or
using child labor? Is it ethical for a government to take its citizens into a weaker
economic future on the basis of a vote held several years earlier, and with no
6
1 Introduction to Communicating Globally: An Integrated Marketing Approach
possibility of changing their minds? Is it ethical to fail to tackle the vast gulf between
those living in luxury and those, in the same country, hopelessly enmeshed in life-­
limiting poverty? Here, the answers are much more difficult, as we are living with
these issues and lack the perspective of history.
In the realm of marketing and communications, we can only write about what is
ethically acceptable now, through the myopic lens of current circumstances. This is
what we have striven to do here. But it seems entirely possible that future generations may look back at our world of business practices and ask us some pointed
questions. Is globalization ethical? Is the planet being sacrificed in the name of
boundless, unregulated corporate expansion? Have we confused growth with greed?
Does marketing amount to little more than deliberately creating need in order to
satisfy it at a profit? Is it morally acceptable to bombard societies, market segments,
and citizens with unwanted or unneeded marketing messages designed to leave
them dissatisfied with what they already have?
These may seem like naïve questions but the answers are complex and elusive.
Those sections of society, including governments and multinational organizations,
that might offer leadership may have too much at stake to propose radical solutions.
Thus, we remain inexorably caught in the ethical web of our time. Looking back,
our mistakes may be clearer than they are now. Nevertheless, the imperative for
organizations to act with maximum social responsibility and ethical conduct
remains—and offers our best chance to secure a more prosperous future for the
world and all its people.
Overall, the ethical, practical, and theoretical considerations explored in this
updated text significantly enhance the first edition. The book presents a current integrated approach to marketing and communications, written in an accessible, comprehensible, and—hopefully—persuasive format. It combines insightful knowledge
of trends in global marketplaces and marketspaces, issues relating to consumers,
customers, and stakeholders, and a perspective on consumer-driven integrated communication strongly linked to the marketing concept. It offers a roadmap through
the sometimes bewildering maze of marketing communication issues and offers a
plan for brand-building and communications success in 2021 and beyond. It should
not be seen as “just another textbook.” Today’s students require shorter, pithier,
straight-to-the-point books—and we have striven to deliver this in the new edition.
We hope it provides an essential, engaging, and forward-looking read for anyone
wishing to understand IMC and how to tap into its still-unfulfilled potential.
With these factors in mind, let us make a beginning.
Discussion Questions
For this chapter, we consider the questions asked in the text of this chapter, a useful
way to engage with the subject in the broader context of current environmental
circumstances.
References
7
References
Bank of England. (2015, December). Financial stability report. Retrieved June 23, 2016, from
http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Pages/fsr/2015/dec.aspx
Berthon, P. R., Pitt, L. F., Plangger, K., & Shapiro, D. (2012). Marketing meets web 2.0, social
media, and creative consumers: Implications for international marketing strategy. Business
Horizons, 55(3), 261–271.
Kim, I., Han, D., & Schultz, D. E. (2004). Understanding the diffusion of integrated marketing
communications. Journal of Advertising Research, 44(1), 31–45.
Kitchen, P. J. (Ed.). (2010). Integrated brand marketing and measuring returns. Palgrave
Macmillan.
Kitchen, P. J. (Ed.). (2013). The dominant influence of marketing in the 21st century: The marketing Leviathan. Palgrave Macmillan.
Kitchen, P. J. (2016). IMC – Changing perspectives amid new realities. Invited presentation given
at the Faculty of Communication, Ariel University, Tel Aviv, Israel, 23 May 2016.
Kitchen, P. J. (2017). Integrated marketing communications: Evolution, current status, future
developments. European Journal of Marketing (editorial), 51(3), 394–405.
Kitchen, P. J., & Schultz, D. E. (2009). Integrated Marketing Communications: New Horizon/False
Dawn for a Marketplace in Turmoil?, Journal of Marketing Communications, 15(3), 197–204.
Kitchen, P. J., Schultz, D. E., Ilchul, K., Han, D., & Li, T. (2004). Will agencies ever “get” (or
understand) IMC? European Journal of Marketing, 38(11–12), 1417–1437.
Kitchen, P. J., & Uzunoglu, E. (Eds.). (2015). Integrated communications in the postmodern era.
Palgrave Macmillan.
Marketing Science Institute (MSI). (2016). Research priorities – 2020–2022. Retrieved March 2,
2021, from https://www.msi.org/wp-­content/uploads/2020/06/MSI_RP20-­22.pdf
Schultz, D., Patti, C., & Kitchen, P. J. (Eds.). (2011). The evolution of integrated marketing communications: The customer-driven marketplace. Routledge.
Schultz, D. E., & Kitchen, P. J. (2000). Communicating globally: An integrated marketing
approach. NTC Business Books and Macmillan Business.
Schultz, D. E., & Schultz, H. (1998). Transitioning marketing communication into the 21st century. Journal of Marketing Communications, 4(1), 9–26.
Schultz, D. E., Tannenbaum, S., & Lauterborn, R. F. (1993). Integrated marketing communications. NTC Business Books.
Tafesse, W., & Kitchen, P. J. (2015). IMC – An integrative review. International Journal of
Advertising, in press. Retrieved June 23, 2016 from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs.1
0.1080/02650487.2015.1114618
Taylor, C. R. (2010). Integrated marketing communications in 2010 and beyond. International
Journal of Advertising, 29(3), 345–348.
2
Transitioning in the Marketplaces
and Marketspaces of 2020 and Beyond
The challenges facing most marketing organizations in 2020 and beyond are multi-­
faceted, diverse, and form a continuous challenge for marketing and communication
practitioners and academic commentators. Back in 2000, organizations were challenged with transitioning from where they were then—that is mainly traditional
functions and operations to the apparently “brave new world” of the twenty-first
century and a benign, expansive, and expanding global marketplace. Today, the
same transitional challenge process continues for many organizations who admittedly may not be that good at marketing or communications in current marketplaces
or marketspaces. For other organizations, which successfully managed in their
spaces and places, the challenge is to keep up with the current changes in big data/
connectivity, not to mention turbulence caused by political, economic, and legal
change. In the first edition of this book the authors claimed the best mechanism for
making the adjustment then to new or changing marketplace realities was integrated
marketing communication. That claim is underlined and reinforced here.
Brands and branding are the crucible into which IMC has been poured. Building
and sustaining brand equity for all businesses is now paramount, that is, Apple,
Amazon, Carrefour, Pierre Cardin, Tesco to name but a few …. Brand equity is:
The sum of all distinguishing qualities of a brand drawn from all relevant stakeholders that
results in personal commitment to and demand for the brand…
These differentiating thoughts and feelings made the brand valued and valuable.
(ExpectAd, 2018)
As the value or equity, of a brand increases, positive outcomes result, which can
be viewed from both an organizational and customer perspective. From a firm perspective, this includes (1) achieving higher market share, (2) increasing brand loyalty, (3) being able to charge premium prices, and (4) earning revenue premium.
From the perspective of the consumer, a brand can be said to possess equity to the
extent that people are familiar with brand value and have stored in memory favorable, strong, and unique brand associations. Such associations are the particular
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
P. J. Kitchen, M. E. Tourky, Integrated Marketing Communications,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76416-6_2
9
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2 Transitioning in the Marketplaces and Marketspaces of 2020 and Beyond
thoughts and feelings that consumers have linked in memory with a particular
brand. These values are not inherent or innate. They have been incorporated into
memories by marketing communications.
We differentiate between corporate brands and individual brands and acknowledge that both communication types are necessary. They are conceptually and practically interactive and synergistic, and these days generally global or multinational
in scope and scale. The usage depends upon brand strategy, also called architectural
systems, that is, how a corporation names the brands in its portfolio such as:
• Monolithic strategy (Audi, Lego, Mercedes, Nike, British Airways) where the
corporate brand name is utilized for all products and/or services
• Endorsed strategy (Tesco Metro or TescoJack, Nestle KitKat) where all sub-­
brands are connected to overarching corporate brand either visually or verbally.
• Freestanding/branded strategy (Pantene, Ariel, Persil) where the corporate
name—if found at all is usually most discrete—and the individual product
branded for the target market.
It is important to note that each of these brand strategies has its pros and cons.
For example, in a monolithic strategy, where both corporation and products share
the same name, the master brand is the primary driver for brand associations.
Reciprocally, corporate brands take on values from the product portfolio as well as
from the corporation’s culture and heritage. The master brand becomes the umbrella
for various products or services offered. Virgin provides a typical example: Virgin
Cola, Virgin Music, Virgin Airlines, and Virgin Jeans. Other examples include
Honda, Philips, or Heinz. Corporate brands can be used to replace multiple, complex sub-brand structures to achieve cost efficiencies. In this situation, the synergies
between product and corporate brands are stronger, as the master brand contributes
to the offering by adding associations that enhance the value proposition, reinforcing the credibility, and increasing visibility and communication efficiencies.
In the case of separation between corporate and product brands, in the case of
branded strategy, these could avoid corporate brand associations that might adversely
affect the image of the product brand and vice versa. Likewise, at a corporate level,
it allows the company to diversify into new product categories without running any
risk of diluting its corporate brand equity. For example, P&G is able to manage
brands like Pampers diapers, Iams dog food, and Tide laundry powder without
affecting the brand equity of other brands or their own corporate brand equity.
We are surrounded, indeed almost inundated, by brands almost since we first
become aware of ourselves as sentient beings. However, no one is born with a set of
inbuilt intuited brand names such as Toshiba, Casio, Canon, Dyson, or Yamaha.
Instead we have been exposed to brand names by means of communications, which
as the twenty-first century unfolds are becoming inescapable in form, ubiquity, and
repetitiveness. No part of the world is exempt from this type of exposure. Amid this
maelstrom of brand and branding mantras, all organizations have to deal with and
manage the transitional process. Figure 2.1 simplistically illustrates the challenge
associated with transition. However, in reality, the progression to be made is unlikely
2
Transitioning in the Marketplaces and Marketspaces of 2020 and Beyond
11
Fig. 2.1 Transition is the challenge. (Source: The authors)
to be linear. It is more likely to be fractured, splintered, and odd in shape and form,
with occasional reversions to the known, the tried, and the tested.
There is no doubt that practically all marketing and communication managers
know their current brand or brand location; that is, they understand the marketplace
and spaces occupied, current competitive frameworks, target markets served, and
can access data concerned with sales performance, market share, and so on.
Consequently, most firms and managers have fairly well-established patterns for
communicating with customers and prospects and investing in processes and systems, and they have some idea of the return they can likely expect from those investments. Although they may not consider these conditions ideal, most managers
clearly understand where their organization is in today’s marketplace.
By the same token, most marketing and brand managers have some idea of where
they need, or would like, their organization or brands to be in the future. While the
view may be an amorphous given market or technological change, for the most part
managers know where they are trying to drive their organizations or brands in terms
of one, two, or more years of planning.
Marketers and marketing managers also have a fairly clear understanding of
where their firms and brands are in the marketplace. For example, they have many
guideposts marking present success such as market share, sales performance, profit
and loss accounts, and the like. These tell them how they are doing. In addition,
most marketing people have some vision of the future or where their marketplace is
going and how they might fit.
However, the challenge for both senior managers and marketing managers is not
“Where are we today?” or “Where do we need to be in the future?” but “How do we
get there?” This continuous and iterative question is the transition with which they
struggle. And that transition faces every senior management team and every marketing manager in every organization around the world. It also faces—to some degree—
each person in an increasingly globalized world.
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2 Transitioning in the Marketplaces and Marketspaces of 2020 and Beyond
The same transitional challenge confronts those responsible for marketing communications. They know which communication programs are in place now. They
know what seems to work and what doesn’t, but often not why for either. Therefore,
most know what they can and can’t do with communication to influence customers
and prospects in today’s marketplace. In addition, most communication managers
can eulogize about what the marketplace or space of the future will or might be:
increased globalization, regionalization, potential isolation, that is UK and Brexit,
Trump and Mexico, accelerated electronic systems, interactive communication,
social media, information and products on demand not necessarily globally, cloud
technology, and so forth. But, like senior management and marketing managers,
most have difficulty identifying how they might get to these emergent or new marketplaces and spaces and what needs to be done to facilitate transition. There are
many dynamic and interactive variables. Continuous change. Dynamic—at times—
revolutionary structures. Traditional communication processes such as “plan,
develop, execute, and evaluate” and accompanying models don’t seem to fit new
markets well. Indeed, it is argued that old models may be less relevant given the
challenges of a global marketplace where border-crossing, new cultures, new languages, and new media abound. Yes, how and in what ways, or with what mechanisms, to make the transition to the new global marketplaces and spaces of today
and tomorrow continues to be the question and the challenge.
This book concerns these questions: How to get managers and brands from here
to there? How to think outside the dimensions of a national or even an international
marketing and communication process and progress to one that is potentially global
in scope and scale? Such a process should also be fundamentally customer-focused/
customer-driven in orientation. Moreover, a process that—from an organizational
and managerial perspective—continues to incorporate new and emergent innovations and technologies to move managers, organizations, and brands to a bright
successful future.
That said, we leave others to write about the technological drivers and facilitators
of today and tomorrow. Our focus is upon how to develop and execute effective and
efficient marketing communication programs. True, these will make use of the new
technologies, but new media and new technology will not drive our focus. Instead,
the marketing process, media, and technologies will be used to underpin transition
from where firms and brands are to where they need to be. Thus, we will focus on
technology and how it can and will be used to create global communication systems
and global marketing communication programs, but never losing sight of the fundamental need for consumer and customer focus. Any business will likely not succeed,
unless customers and their needs like at the forefront of managerial thinking
and action.
Global Building Blocks
13
Global Building Blocks
To illustrate marketplace transition, we commence with some basic tools of the new
global marketplace. Four major interrelated elements or building blocks are driving
changes in the marketplace and thus marketing and marketing communication: digitalization, information technology, intellectual property, and communication systems. All have contributed or will contribute to global marketplace development and
the global marketing communication programs that must be developed for organizations to succeed. These global building blocks form the backbone for the major
communication renaissance that is affecting marketing communication everywhere.
Each is discussed in detail on the following pages. The impact of these building
blocks on the development and implementation of marketing communication programs will become more apparent in later chapters. In addition to these ongoing
forces or tools, we later describe the way these impact societies and markets.
Digitalization
There is little question that digital technology continues to have a sweeping impact.
The ability to convert almost all types of knowledge, information, and materials into
1s and 0s and to manipulate those digits through computers and other electronic
systems has literally changed the world. The computer—originally seen as a sort of
electronic abacus that could be used to simplify and take over mundane, repetitious
tasks such as accounting, calculating, and record keeping, is now seen as one of the
most creative tools man has ever devised. However, digitalization is used—whether
to develop computer-assisted design and manufacturing systems, store and manipulate huge data sets, analyze disease and uncover new treatments, create new logistical and distribution systems, or organize and manage satellites tens of thousands of
miles in space, the sheer ability to convert almost everything man does into a digitized form has changed and challenged almost everything in society, including business and human relationships.
The impact of digitalization on businesses and their marketing and communication activities has been so immense that we seem scarcely to have scratched the
surface of the changes it will create. Just look at the impact of digitalization on
Eastman Kodak, the photography giant. Eastman Kodak, for all intents and purposes, invented, developed, and brought to market the entire field of consumer and
pleasure photography. Using the basics of film, paper, and chemicals, Kodak built a
global business in photography and, in spite of tough competition from Fuji and
others, still controls more than half of the world’s vastly reduced sales of film and
developing. Today, however, the traditional film-, chemical-, and paper-based photography market is almost defunct despite a recent slight renaissance. It has been
overtaken by digital photography. Digital photography requires no film, no chemicals, and no paper, only electrons in the form of 1s and 0s. Think how radically digitalization has changed and will continue to change the traditional photography
business. Think of the impact the shift to digitalization had on Eastman Kodak, its
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2 Transitioning in the Marketplaces and Marketspaces of 2020 and Beyond
manufacturing facilities, and certainly its marketing communication activities. The
reality is that Eastman Kodak was unable to handle the economic and technological
tsunami that swept its business almost to one side and left remnants on the beach. It
could be argued that Kodak handled the transition badly. Yet, it is playing a part in
the twenty-first-century global marketplace, but it is small at present. To illustrate—
in 1996, Kodak alone had over 66% of the global market share, its revenues were
close to $16 billion, its share price in the USA was $90, and the corporation was
worth over $31 billion. The Kodak brand was then the fifth most valuable brand in
the world. How things have changed? In 2020, it is still there—just, but still struggling with transition. In 2013, Kodak had just emerged from bankruptcy. Many parts
of the business had been sold off to technology giants. Now, in 2019, it markets a
smartphone in the US market and plan to launch a cryptocurrency purely for serious
photographers. That sub-brand is doing well. Kodak’s share price today is £$2.40.
For first quarter of 2018, it reported a net loss of $25 million on revenues of
$357 million. It’s global brand is almost non-existent as it transitioned negatively
from corporate brand-buster to corporate crock in two decades. And, it’s not just
Kodak. This relates to every business, all of whom have to deal with transition. The
challenge continues (see Brew, 2018). The past is by no means a prelude to the
future. As Peter Drucker aptly stated, “the business that keeps on doing what it’s
doing now will fail.” The history of branding is littered with yesterday’s busted
branded businesses such as Borders Bookstores, Palm (hand-held computers),
Motorola, Blockbuster, Fannie Mae, Freddy Mac, Sun Microsystems, Sony Movies,
SAAB Cards, Sears, Sony Ericsson, Nokia … the list goes on. Even today’s brand
winners such as General Motors, Huawei, Facebook, and AirFrance-KLM are all
struggling in a world of continuous change.
Information Technology
By information technology we mean all those devices, techniques, and capabilities
that allow human knowledge, data, or experience to be transferred quickly and easily between organizations or individuals around the world. Information technology
is comprised of new electronic forms of data storage, transmission, analysis, and
distribution, ranging from mundane tools such as customer databases and the
Internet to the most complex forms of mathematical analysis and calculation. The
basis of information technology, however, is the formalization of methods of data
transfer that allows knowledge to be distributed to all levels of interface. The growth
of the World Wide Web is only the tip of the information technology iceberg. Today,
for less than $300, a consumer can buy a computer with Internet access. However,
the bright vision of customers shopping the world for brands, products, and services
has now led to the usual focus upon national distribution and—unfortunately—pricing. The illusion is that they still can. However, one cannot buy, for example, Levi
Jeans or Apple iPads from their country or origin or where they are least expensive.
The promise of the Internet not to limit consumers by time or space has been supplanted by re-directionality to national websites often with local national prices and
Global Building Blocks
15
oftentimes older models. Undoubtedly, the Internet has dramatically changed and
will continue to change the marketing arenas in which most organizations operate.
Just look at what Amazon.com did in the retail book business. It literally made every
book currently in print available to consumers. It made logistics and information
technology, not retail locations and store ambience, the keys to book-selling success. Indeed, the one-time upstart Amazon.com forced traditional book super-­
retailers to match its systems and processes, not the other way around. It is no longer
a mere online book retailer, but a global force in media and electronics. In 2004,
Amazon’s net sales revenue was a mere US$6.9 billion. By 2018, this had risen to
US$207 billion, with admittedly two-thirds of its business in the USA, the rest
elsewhere.
Information technology understood, applied, nationally, internationally and
globally reshaping the world, albeit for those firms able to advantage themselves of
this transitionary force (Statista, 2018).
Intellectual Property
Historically, nations, business organizations, and individuals were valued on the
basis of their tangible assets—raw materials, land, factories, and buildings, and even
cash and precious metals. Today the new wealth is knowledge, experience, understanding, and capabilities. Yesterday countries that controlled raw materials or converted raw materials into finished products were wealthy. Today and for the
foreseeable future (with some notable exceptions) wealth is created by the human
mind: books, music, art, movies, computer programs—all have become and will be
avenues to wealth and power around the world. For example, the largest export of
the USA, which at one time was entertainment in all its forms and formats, has now
been supplanted (Table 2.1):
Notably, in 2017, US businesses sold more than £2.3 trillion worth of goods and
services. Services are much more profitable, generating a US$250 billion surplus,
compared to a deficit of $566 billion in manufactured goods. Each area of economic
activity is spearheaded by continuous innovation, underpinned by human minds and
intellectual property. Trade deficits, in the USA and elsewhere, are sparking innovation and tariff reform all around the world in 2020 and beyond. World openness to
Table 2.1 US exports 2017
Product/service type
Food, beverage and feed
Crude oil, fuel, petroleum
Civilian aircraft and engines
Auto parts, engines, tyres
Passenger cars
Business stationery (United Kingdom)
Finance and insurance
Intellectual property
Marketing communication
133
109
99
86
54
236
76
49
Source: Derived from multiple sources and amalgamated by the authors
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2 Transitioning in the Marketplaces and Marketspaces of 2020 and Beyond
Free Trade, and political statements to this end, is often seen as one-way rhetoric in
favor of one nation or region. It is a form of rhetoric which is more business-friendly
than consumer-friendly. The alliance of big business and political rhetoric, albeit
couched in “globalization is good for customers and consumers” has been proved to
be demonstrably incorrect.
Communication Systems
While one might argue that communication systems are part of digitalization or
information technology, these are considered separately because they are critical to
the future of marketing and marketing communication. Historically, communication systems were indeed linear, developed, organized, and delivered from a single
source, whether that was a newspaper, a radio or television station, or a magazine,
to masses of listeners or readers or viewers, that is, a mass market of relatively
supine receivers. There was a single originating source, in many cases controlled or
at least regulated by various levels of government. Communication systems were
designed to distribute identical content, that is, either entertainment or information,
to large groups of people, commonly in single geographic areas. Thus, we saw the
development of the mass markets and mass audiences that many advertisers would
still like to believe are the most desirable. But no matter how intently communicators grasp at this bastion of former days, the world has moved on and is still moving.
Communication systems continue to undergo widespread exponential and irreversible change. Primarily they have increased greatly in number. Increased competition has forced most of them to become more targeted and focused on specific
groups of consumers or viewers or readers. In addition, many forms of media have
become interactive; that is, audiences can be both receivers and senders of messages
and information. There are fewer and fewer passive or supine mass audiences of the
past and are perhaps found in less well-developed societies. These two changes have
radically altered how people and organizations and even businesses communicate.
With this rapid review of the four building blocks—or, better said, driving
forces—that are behind the development of the global marketplace and space, we
next look at a further four global forces before looking at the marketplace transitions that have already occurred. Then, in Chap. 3, we relate these to the global
omnipresent global marketplace.
The four newer forces are even more disruptive in a generative sense, and we
acknowledge the book by Dobbs et al. (2015) and of McKinsey and Company.
These forces include:
• The age of urbanization…in essence growth has and is moving outward, toward
Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, fueled by global companies’ pursuit
of innovation, lower labor costs, and more relaxed tax regimes.
• Accelerating exponential technological change will continue to impact corporate
and brand life cycles and force managers still further into transition.
Marketplace, Marketer, and Marketing Communication Transitions
17
• An increasingly aging population and declining national population means new
demands for products and services, and caring for such populations will place
increased pressure on politics, parties, and governments.
• Greater global connectivity in trade, people, and finance. According to the
authors, when linked with technology, this will bring about new waves of globalization—admittedly creating marketing and communicative opportunities but
simultaneously stirring up likely economic, political, and cultural volatility, as
evidenced via multitudinous media modalities.
Each of these trends seems to lead inexorably to resetting managerial and individual
intuitions and desired skills. These wider dimensions inevitably impact the world of
business, brands, managerial, and communication developments. We now turn to
these in terms of transitional influences.
arketplace, Marketer, and Marketing
M
Communication Transitions
To explain and illustrate the marketplace, marketing, and marketing communication
transitions that have occurred or are still happening, we identify four specific market
structures: the manufacturer- or product-driven marketplace, the distribution-driven
marketplace, the interactive marketplace, and the global marketplace. In the following sections, we describe and discuss the first three. We hold the fourth marketplace,
the one we call global, for Chap. 3 since that will form a significant argument in this
book. We see, for example, the global marketplace as a template or backdrop to
these three initial marketplace structures. It cannot be left aside, shaded, or ignored
in marketing or branding activities.
As noted, while we separate the four marketplaces for discussion, we do so only
for reader convenience. In many cases the organization finds itself in some type of
blended or evolving marketplace. That simply means that while we define and
describe the various marketplaces, there are shades and variations of several marketplaces in which individual organizations are operating. For example, there are major
differences in marketplace structures in the USA, Japan, and Poland. Yet international organizations may market successfully in each. By the same token, organizations may be producing and marketing a wide range of products, some sold directly
to end users and others using very complex and complicated distribution systems,
with each individual market appearing to be successful in its present state. The same
is true for communication systems. In the USA, for example, choices of media
modes and manners for reaching customers and prospects are almost unlimited. In
India, however, the increasing internet penetration over the recent years, resulted in
the country’s digital population amounting to approximately 892.3 million active
users as of January 2018, yet there is still much reliance on local forms of media
such as outdoor, cinema, and even street demonstrations and sampling. Thus, the
structures we describe next are meant primarily as illustrations. They outline the
basic marketplace structures and serve as departure points for explanation of the
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2 Transitioning in the Marketplaces and Marketspaces of 2020 and Beyond
changes and dislocations global marketing and marketing communication managers
will find themselves addressing as they make the transition from “where they are”
to “where they need to be” in the 2020s global marketplaces and spaces.
To complicate the discussion further, many marketing and marketing communication managers will find their organizations operating in all of the marketplaces
described here at the same point in time. That might include various product or
service lines, or it might be on the basis of various countries and markets. Indeed,
the transition from one marketplace to another is not, in most cases, linear or even
clearly defined. Even worse, there is no real end in sight. That is, in our view, no
organization will “achieve globalization” in marketing and marketing communication and be done with it. Instead managers will face continuing change, continuing
response to customer needs, continuing challenges from competitors and technology, continuing change and evolution in relationships and ways of doing business,
and the challenges associated with the concomitant need for sustainability in an
environmental as well as business sense. We only have one world!
The following marketplace descriptions will be useful as we define and illustrate
how marketing and marketing communication must transition to the new global
marketplace.
The Manufacturer- or Product-Driven Marketplace
Most marketing history and certainly most of today’s marketing activities assume a
marketplace in which the manufacturer or producer of products and services has
most of the marketplace power. From the earliest forms of commerce, the manufacturer (or producer or grower or maker) took his or her wares to market. Buyers met
sellers at the market or bazaar. From the ancient souks of the Middle East to the
shopping malls of today, the marketplace has been driven by what producers have
offered and what customers have been able to purchase. Buyers searched for what
they needed. If those needs were not filled, they simply did without. Sellers, on the
other hand, controlled the supply and thus the marketplace. We illustrate these traditional marketplaces in Fig. 2.2.
As shown in our illustration, sellers brought their goods and services to the marketplace, where buyers came in search of the things they needed. Pricing, distribution, and marketing communication occurred on the spot and instantaneously.
Because the manufacturer or seller controlled the supply of products or services, it
also exerted control over the marketplace. Indeed, in these simple buyer-seller relationships, sellers always control the four major power elements in the marketplace.
They control facilities to produce, make, or assemble product or service offerings
(in our twenty-first-century global model that would be the digitalization and information technology building blocks). In the past producers also controlled information technology, crude as it was, necessary to create a marketplace in which the
products or services could be offered (in our building block model, we call these
information technology and intellectual property). Producers also controlled the
communication systems that existed in the marketplace simply as a way of advising
Marketplace, Marketer, and Marketing Communication Transitions
19
Fig. 2.2 The manufacturer-product-driven marketplace. (Source: Adapted from first edition)
or informing customers of the availability and location of products and services
being offered. By controlling these four building blocks, sellers dominated channels
and consumers or buyers. For example, even in ancient times, farmers owned the
land and thus the production of food and clothing. With this control the farmer could
decide when and where and what bazaar to visit, what products to offer at that time,
at what price, and whom to tell about availability. Thus, makers or manufacturers or
growers or weavers controlled the marketplace.
Such markets still exist today, although we may have added extensive distribution systems involving intermediaries and facilitators. For example, pharmaceutical
companies produce medicines presumably designed to heal the sick or cure various
diseases at a profit. The pharmaceutical company decides which diseases to focus
research on. It then decides what physicians it will tell about the developed drug and
through which distributors (e.g., pharmacies or chemists) it will make the drug
available. It develops the price for the drug and controls the amount it will supply in
alignment with the government legislation of the day, of course. Patients who suffer
from the disease must accept the form and manner in which the pharmaceutical
company wishes to market its products. Thus, we might say the pharmaceutical
company is an excellent example of a manufacturing organization that controls the
manufacturer-driven marketplace. The same is true of the diamond and oil, gas, and
fuel industries.
Today, in many situations, manufacturers of all types of products and services
still dominate the marketplace. They decide how much they will make in their plants
or what plants they will build to produce what goods or services. They then bring
those products or services to market, deciding during the process how much they
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2 Transitioning in the Marketplaces and Marketspaces of 2020 and Beyond
will make, how they will price it, how they will distribute it, whom they will tell
about availability, and the like. Almost all of our present-day marketing and marketing communication systems have been developed to support this manufacturer- or
producer-controlled model. The most common model is based on the famous 4Ps
(extended to 6Ps by Philip Kotler) model of marketing: product, price, place (distribution), and promotion. It is a linear, single-focus model based on transactions and
exchanges between sellers and buyers that is used, or at least adapted, by many
types of organizations around the world.
In terms of our four building blocks of today’s marketplace, the selling organization controls the development of digitalization, deciding where and when such technology should be applied in the development of the product or services. Information
technology is also under the control of the seller, whether that technology is used to
enhance the manufacturing of a product, the handling of data, or the billing of
customers.
The same is true of intellectual property. The knowledge or wisdom or experience of the organization has much to do with its success in the marketplace. The
ability to develop new products, to obtain patents, to develop unique manufacturing
skills, and the like gives the marketer great power in the marketplace. In addition,
the marketing organization certainly controls the communication systems. Almost
all media are designed to cater to the needs and wishes of the marketing organization. That is, media gather audiences that they then either rent or sell to marketing
organizations as vehicles and methods of promoting their products and services.
Since we are specifically concerned with marketing communication in this text,
we have illustrated how communication occurs in the manufacturer-driven marketplace in Fig. 2.3.
Fig. 2.3 Communication flow in the manufacturer-product-driven marketplace. (Source: Adapted
from first edition)
Marketplace, Marketer, and Marketing Communication Transitions
21
As shown, in the manufacturer-driven marketplace, the seller or producer or marketer has almost total control over the communication process that consists essentially of one step, where information is directed at prospective audiences, who in
turn have a passive role or participation in the communication process. Thus, almost
all communication is outbound, and it is almost all linear in structure; that is, it
flows out from seller to buyer with little or no return loop. In fact, this type of “marketing” activity is more akin to sales orientation and commercial communication
than anything else, as condemned by Theodore Levitt some 60 years ago.
In this arena the producer is always looking for broadcast media systems that can
be used to inform buyers, and are still inexpensive and broad ranging since the seller
generally never knows who potential buyers might be. This is how traditional forms
of mass media developed, and it is still the basis for much traditional advertising and
promotional activity throughout the world, though might not provide an accurate
representation of contemporary communication systems as it doesn’t take into consideration issues concerning media and audience fragmentation, social and relational dimensions of communication, and the impact of interactive communication,
which reduce the applicability of this model of communication in many contexts
nowadays. It is designed for a seller trying to influence a buyer, the marketer convincing the customer of the value of the product or service. Thus, the goal of the
communication demands that the messages almost always be persuasive in nature.
Most valuable to our analysis, this is the basic marketing model from which all
organizations and all managers are or will be trying to make a transition.
The Distribution-Driven Marketplace
Over the last 40 or so years, the traditional manufacturer-product-driven marketplace has evolved somewhat into what is now the dominant marketplace structure in
the western world, what we call the distribution-driven marketplace. This has come
primarily as the result of retailers, distributors, wholesalers, or other forms of channel organizations gaining control of the four marketplace building blocks. In most
developed economies this type of marketplace is represented by the example in
Fig. 2.4.
As shown, the distribution-driven marketplace is now at the center of the marketing system. From that central location, channels control marketplace power. That is,
channels now dominate sellers and buyers. This control in the retail area is a result
of huge investments in real estate and other place-based facilities along with major
changes in various forms of technology such as electronic point of sale (EPOS).
These retailers, whether they be physical or virtual, have made wide varieties of
products and services available to buyers. In other words, retailers have created
marketplaces for themselves, often becoming destinations in and of themselves for
the actual end users. The Mall of America in Minneapolis is an excellent example of
this development of retail. Today the Mall of America is the third most visited location for overseas visitors to the USA. Moreover, these large-scale, edge-of-town
malls are becoming commonplace throughout the developed world. Another mall,
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2 Transitioning in the Marketplaces and Marketspaces of 2020 and Beyond
Fig. 2.4 The distribution-driven marketplace. (Source: Adapted from first edition)
albeit on a smaller scale is the mecca-like marketing mall located in Trafford,
Manchester, even to the point of Eastern design.
As shown in the illustration, many distribution-based organizations have captured the traditional role of seller that originally was controlled by the manufacturer.
They have thus captured the interface with the consumer or end user, allowing them
to obtain large amounts of marketplace data and information. In addition, the commodification of products and services has enabled the distribution channel to take
marketplace power from the manufacturer. This is increasingly true in many consumer product categories and increasingly in the business-to-business arena as well.
Examples of these types of dominant retailing or distribution systems abound—
Wal-Mart (ASDA, UK), Carrefour, Marks & Spencer, Tesco, IKEA, and so on. To
illustrate this consolidation, the market share of major supermarkets in the UK is
shown in Table 2.2. We would expect to see similar consolidations of supermarkets
in other Western markets.
Just to emphasize the above, this equates to 93% of all supermarket trade in the
UK. Indeed, while one might argue that retailers or forms of retailing have always
existed and have always had marketplace power, it has been only within the last 30
or so years that they have begun to concentrate and consolidate into massive, logistically driven distribution systems that control dominant shares of many total retail
Marketplace, Marketer, and Marketing Communication Transitions
23
Table 2.2 Market share of major UK retailers
Name
Tesco
Sainsbury’s
ASDA (subsidiary of Walmart)
Morrisons
Aldi
Co-op
Lidl
Waitrose
% Share
27.8
15.8
15.3
10.4
7.0
6.3
5.2
5.1
Source: Derived from multiple sources and amalgamated by the authors
markets. Much of this concentration and consolidation has come as a result of channel or distribution organizations mastering the four building blocks we have been
discussing. And, simultaneously, smaller grocery stores have been sidelined or disappeared in many towns and cities. And, transition continues apace.
Beginning in the 1970s, the development of Universal Product Codes (UPCs),
electronic point of sale, scanners, and increased computer capability allowed retailers and distributors to capture, store, manage, and analyze massive amounts of market data at the retail and even at the individual market level. These data allowed
retailers to track product movement, determine effective pricing margins, and know
what customers bought and when they bought. They provided a much better understanding of the flow of products and services through the channel systems than had
previously been possible. As channels gained control over close-in marketplace
information (i.e., individual market and often even household consumer-level data
and individual customer-level data in the business-to-business market), marketplace
power quickly shifted from manufacturers to retailers or channels. This massive
amount of marketplace data generally came as a result of the rapidly developing
digitalization and information technology. From this, channels have been able to
create tremendous amounts of intellectual capital in terms of how the marketplace(s)
works, what consumers respond to, what they are willing to pay, and so on. They
have leveraged this information against manufacturers who often have only broad
ideas of market demand, consumer needs, and pricing levels. In addition, because
the channels have greatly improved the source, knowledge, and shopping convenience of consumers and end users, they have created powerful communication
systems, many of which are simply the retail stores and facilities themselves. Thus,
distribution channels of today use not only the traditional media systems but also
the retail facilities as forms of communication to bring buyers to the marketplace
and to fulfill their needs. Consequently, in market after market, channels or distribution systems have gained marketplace power and now in many instances can dictate
the rules of transaction to product manufacturers.
In terms of marketing communication, the present-day marketplace is controlled
by or at least greatly influenced by the retailers, channels, or distributors. That influence is shown in Fig. 2.5:
Distribution is now in the center of the marketing communication system.
Manufacturers or producers, while they still try to speak to or communicate with
24
2 Transitioning in the Marketplaces and Marketspaces of 2020 and Beyond
Fig. 2.5 Communication flow in a distribution-driven marketing system. (Source: Adapted from
first edition)
consumers and end users, generally through forms of mass media, increasingly have
focused their communication efforts through their distribution channels. Thus, they
have become dependent on the channels to provide information about usage and
purchases of their products or services by ultimate consumers or end users.
At the other end of the communication system, consumers or end users have
come to rely on the channels or distribution systems to provide the products and
services they want or need. Being in the middle of this communication exchange
system, the retailer or distributor is now the dominant element in this distribution-­
driven marketplace. As illustrated in Fig. 2.5, most marketing communication is
controlled by the distribution system operator, who communicates upstream to the
manufacturer or producer to obtain needed products. This is then matched against
expected or anticipated demand downstream to consumers and end users to advise
them of available products and services. Thus, while there is some interactive communication, primarily between producers and distributors or channels, most of the
communication is still outbound and one way, from the channel outbound to the
consumer or end user.
The communication systems that have developed in this marketplace are also
generally one way and outbound. For the most part these communication systems
are still fairly traditional, relying on established media systems such as newspapers,
radio, television, and magazines. Interestingly, however, the use of targeted communication from the channel to known customers is increasing, often to encourage
continuity of purchase. This occurs as the distribution channel learns more about the
end user through various forms of digitized data gathering. Retailers have made
substantial investments in databases, data management, and targeted
Marketplace, Marketer, and Marketing Communication Transitions
25
communication approaches such as direct mail and telemarketing as they attempt to
leverage the marketplace knowledge they have accumulated over time to make their
communication programs more relevant to consumers.
In an attempt to maintain some type of relationship with the consumer or end
user, manufacturers or producers commonly supply retailers or channels with
money and promotional materials in hopes of encouraging the retailers and distribution systems to favor or promote or display their products through their stores or
channel systems. Indeed, in the USA and other advanced nations, many consumer-­
product manufacturers now invest 70% or more of their total promotional and communication dollars against the retail trade compared to only 25% against end users
or consumers. In the business-to-business arena, manufacturers may invest all of
their promotional efforts against the channel or distribution system in an attempt to
gain its marketing support. Thus, in our view, much of today’s commerce in the
developed markets of the world operates in this distribution-driven marketplace. We
believe this model will be the one that will continue into the immediate future.
There is no evidence to negate the view that this marketplace structure dominates
much of retail trade in today’s world.
There is, however, another emergent model, defined as the interactive or
customer-­driven marketplace. This marketplace is also driven by the shift of control
of the four building blocks. We discuss this marketplace next.
The Interactive Customer-Driven Marketplace
Although this marketplace is still emerging, it is sufficiently well established to see
how the system will further develop in 2020 and beyond assuming no retrogressive
mechanism intervenes. The basic structure of this marketplace began to develop in
the early 1990s with the growth and expansion of various forms of electronic communication such as the Internet, the commercialization of the World Wide Web, and
the development of e-commerce. This once-new marketplace is radically different
in form to those that have gone before. Most important, it could—albeit potentially—put marketplace power in the hands of consumers rather than with the traditional producers or channels, hence the use of the term “customer-driven.” One need
to only compare Fig. 2.6 with the illustrations of the manufacturer-driven and
channel-­
driven marketplace examples shown earlier to see the dramatic
differences.
The most obvious change, of course, is the manner in which consumers or end
users can access information that enables them to acquire needed products or services. Rather than being at the mercy of the manufacturer or distributor, based on
what is offered or available in geographic or time-constrained marketplaces, in the
interactive marketplace the buyer or consumer actually initiates their own search for
products and services. The consumer can even search globally for the availability of
products and services from both the manufacturer and distribution channels. Indeed,
in the interactive marketplace, the consumer or buyer ostensibly controls the four
marketplace building blocks. We have mentioned earlier though the notion that
26
2 Transitioning in the Marketplaces and Marketspaces of 2020 and Beyond
Fig. 2.6 The interactive customer-driven marketplace. (Source: Adapted from first edition)
buying and selling on the Internet is gradually nationalizing or regionalizing. A
simple test here may suffice. For example, if you are located in the UK, prices of
iPads are lower in the USA. Try to buy one from there, and you will be redirected
back to Apple UK. Further, many organizations have rushed to build electronic firewalls whose sole purpose seems to be (a) lower their costs and (b) avoid any real
interaction with customers/consumers. The notion that websites—to which consumers are now directed with alarming regularity—do provide answers to queries
and problems is becoming a stale joke, probably engendering stress to an already
uncomfortable product purchase or usage.
But back in the more upbeat period of 2000 (Schultz & Kitchen, 2000), perhaps
the most interesting change in the interactive marketplace was the revision of traditional linear marketing systems. Instead of flowing from producers to consumers,
goods and services could flow through the interactive marketplace in or from any
direction. Buyers can now contact producers directly though are not necessarily
able to purchase from them. Alternatively, buyers can or could contact manufacturers directly or through distribution channels or even through media systems for
purchase (not after-sales). Of greatest importance, however, is … the give-and-take
nature of this then new marketplace/space. It was and is still potentially interactive:
there is a flow of product and service knowledge up, down, and throughout the
entire system, not just the outbound system we have observed in the manufacturer-­
driven or distribution-driven marketplaces of the past. There is really no beginning
or end to this new system. It flows and it moves, consolidates, and disaggregates,
based on the needs of the various members.
The reason buyers apparently gained control of this interactive marketplace is the
transition of the four marketplace building blocks. Digitalization and information
Marketplace, Marketer, and Marketing Communication Transitions
27
technology today have been made available to consumers in the form of computers,
electronic commerce, logistics and transportation, and electronic communication.
These systems and approaches take many forms and are developing continually.
From a marketing standpoint, however, the most important changes are that the
marketplace has been expanded. No longer are consumers dependent on products or
services presented to them in traditional marketplaces such as retail stores or shopping malls or sales force calls. Instead they have radically different alternatives that
enable them to potentially fill their wants and needs at their convenience and under
their own conditions—albeit to some degree and with caveats.
As a result of the shift of control of the four building blocks, there is no doubt
that many manufacturers and retailers must become more response driven, not product or service driven. The primary task of manufacturers and channels in the eventual future will be to respond to the needs and wishes of consumers. Manufacturers
and retailers must ultimately provide what the customer wishes or desires, not what
the organization is able to make or produce or supply. This, in and of itself, creates
a major change in the way the marketplace operates. Note that is a direct refutation
of marketing orientation. Many companies and organizations in the past were not
marketing oriented. The language of marketing was undoubtedly “there” but perhaps more as rhetoric than organizationally led radical change to actually serve
customers and consumers in ways they wanted or desired. This twenty-first-century
marketplace/space is a move in the right direction provided it is not reigned back to
a mere electronic online form of yellow pages.
Again, this power shift was driven by the four building blocks described earlier. In the new interactive marketplace, the consumer has—potentially—access
to the full range of marketplaces and—spaces through the development of digitalization and information technology. These electronic systems, driven by computers and modems, enable the consumer to access marketplace information on
demand. This change puts every supplier or seller in competition with all other
sellers everywhere in the world for the purchases of the end user to some degree.
Admittedly, this marketplace is not here yet. But it is on its way, dynamic, powerful, and hopefully—irresistible to all parties. Provided, governments do not
proscribe and businesses do not seek to dictate as in days gone by. All technology associated with communication and media, whether for information or for
entertainment, is rapidly being coalesced into new, more interactive hands.
These cannot be just the hands of businesses and marketers, but also have to
include customers and prospects.
Inherent in this power shift is the equalization of manufacturers and channels.
Thus, rather than either one of these traditional market brokers having marketplace
control, both are now and will be driven by the needs and requests of consumers and
end users. This is not a marketplace in which senior management, marketing management, or even the communication managers have much experience. This may be
the most difficult transition for managers and organizations, for they have little
experience or history in operating in a marketplace in which the consumer or end
user has control or claims to have such control.
28
2 Transitioning in the Marketplaces and Marketspaces of 2020 and Beyond
Fig. 2.7 Communication flow in an interactive marketplace. (Source: Adapted from first edition)
Marketing communication changes dramatically in the interactive marketplace
as well. As shown in Fig. 2.7, traditional flows of information through marketing
communication now become two-way rather than linear. That in itself is a major
change for most marketing organizations.
As shown, the major change for the marketing organization is that it has to
develop skills in responding to marketing communication enquiries from customers and prospects, not just in developing messages and information that it wants
to deliver or send out to the marketplace. In other words, the organization and its
managerial cadre must be able to listen, not just talk and interact in real time.
Many businesses try to avoid this when in fact it could be of benefit to them. Yet,
this is a major transition for most marketing organizations since they are accustomed to finding potential benefits for the product or service being offered and
then developing forms and methods of sending messages about those benefits to
prospective customers or users. Increasingly, communication is characterized by
attributing meaning to messages that are shared, updated, or responsive to other
Conclusions
29
messages. In the traditional communication systems that were dominated by the
manufacturer or producer or the channel or retailer, the marketing organization
traditionally has had total control. It decided what products it wanted to offer,
what means of communication it wanted to use, to what audiences its messages
would be directed, with what volume, and at what noise level. All that control
slips away when the organization becomes customer or prospect responsive. For,
with the consumer in control of digitalization, information technology, intellectual property, and media systems, a totally new communication system is
demanded. No longer will efficient delivery of messages or incentives be the driving force in marketing communication. Instead the challenge is how quickly and
completely the organization can respond to consumer or customer requests or
needs. No longer is the goal of communication to cut through the clutter of competing messages. Instead it becomes a question of how to involve the customer or
prospect in a dialogue based on interaction to obtain some sort of behavioral
response that will lead to an action or affirmative response. The interactive model
is important because it demonstrates the importance of people in the marketing
and communication process. However, successful communication is often determined by the level of interactivity the communication encourages. This said, there
is now significant evidence that many organizations are using such online communication mechanisms as ways to dissuade consumers and customers from real
interaction. Put another way, there is a concerted attempt by many organizations
to force the marketing clock backward, where customers accept their place which
is or was to be as quiescent as possible, preferably staying at the location where
purchase took place and not rocking the marketing boat too much, or at all.
There is, of course, the fourth marketplace, which we have termed the global
marketplace. This new marketplace that we see emerging is an amalgam, backdrop,
and template to the three marketplaces already described. Since that is the heart of
this book and really proscribes the various transitions that all organizations must
address, we discuss that new marketplace in detail in Chap. 3.
Conclusions
• The building blocks of the new marketplace are digitalization, information technology, intellectual property, and communication systems to which can be added
the forces identified by McKinsey & Company.
• The customer or consumer should be closer to the heart of all marketing systems.
Note, the customer, not just products, services, or branded businesses. They are
the ultimate arbiters of business success or failure.
• There are four marketplace structures: the manufacturer-driven marketplace, the
distribution-driven marketplace, the interactive marketplace, and the global
marketplace.
• Get ready for transitional change!
30
2 Transitioning in the Marketplaces and Marketspaces of 2020 and Beyond
Discussion Questions
1. How does transition affect brands?
2. Consider the four building blocks: Are these sufficient to underpin transition?
3. Which of the three marketplaces is preferred today? Why? Is there a fourth
marketplace underlying the others?
4. Bad brand managers die! How does this help or hinder brand managers?
5. Differentiate between supply and demand-side excellence and explain their
necessity.
6. Why should communication/promotion issues impact—eventually—organizational structure?
7. What “threats” face marketers today?
8. How and in what ways can marketers move forward? Is “imagination”
sufficient?
9. Is transition accelerating? Explain either way.
10. Is the customer-dominated economy a myth or reality? Or, are these NOT
mutually exclusive?
References
Brew, A. (2018). The Kodak brand lesson: Your heritage is not your future. Branding
Business. Retrieved October 4, 2018, from http://www.brandingbusiness.com/blogs/
the-­kodak-­brand-­lesson-­your-­heritage-­is-­not-­your-­future
Dobbs, R., Manyika, J., & Woetzel, J. (2015). No ordinary disruption: The four global forces
breaking all the trends. McKinsey Corporation, USA. Retrieved October 2018, from https://
www.mckinsey.com/mgi/no-­ordinary-­disruption
ExpectAd. (2018). Retrieved October 4, 2018, from http://www.expectad.com/white_paper/
Branding_Terms_Expect_Advertising_Inc.pdf, [PC1].
Schultz, D. E., & Kitchen, P. J. (2000). Communicating globally: An integrated marketing
approach. NTC Business Books and Palgrave Macmillan.
Statista. (2018). Annual net revenue of Amazon. Retrieved October 2018, from https://www.
statista.com/statistics/266282/annual-­net-­revenue-­of-­amazoncom/
3
The Global Marketplace Considerations
We live in most interesting times. For example, the world population now exceeds
seven billion and is forecast to reach nine billion by 2035. Many citizens and nations
live at standards scarcely foreseeable just a hundred years ago. Within this wealth of
opportunity, growth, and potential provision for all, there are serious inequities. In
the advanced nations of the West more than 1.9 billion people are overweight and
650 million are obese, among them are 41 million children aged 5 or under.
Meanwhile, 340 million children or adolescents aged between 5 and 19 were overweight or obese in 2016. The world’s multiplying heavyweights are, however, counterbalanced, by the nearly one billion people who are chronically undernourished
mainly in lower-middle-income countries, and the 25% of all children whose growth
is stunted as a result of lack of access to nourishing food and sound medical care
(Biery, 2014). In the UK alone (blazoned by pundits and politicians as “one of the
most successful economies in the world,” underemployment and unemployment are
widespread. In 2017 alone, nearly one and a half million three-day packs of food
were provided by foodbanks to hungry families and individuals. Low income, debt,
low social security benefits are the main causes here (Matthews-King, 2017). And,
it has become evident that politicians in the UK do not represent well or in some
cases at all the electorate who brought them to power. The idea that economic power
writ large as “globalization” brings only advantages to all nations, and economies
have to be counterbalanced by evidence of pronounced disadvantages. A world
where the rich get richer, and the poor—markedly poorer, is good for some but not
for all, especially the impoverished multitudes in our midst.
Let’s look at this through the lens of organizational and marketing issues.
It is un-arguable that the balance of power among the marketplaces described in
Chap. 2—that is, the manufacturer driven, the distributor driven, and the interactive—has shifted in recent years and change is accelerating. But here, it is the global
marketplace that needs investigation, because it is the overarching environment in
which most businesses will be operating, if they already do not do so.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
P. J. Kitchen, M. E. Tourky, Integrated Marketing Communications,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76416-6_3
31
32
3
The Global Marketplace Considerations
The Global Marketplace
Many organizational managers believe they already operate in the global marketplace. They may have created cross-border production, distribution, and marketing
systems that they are currently using to serve some clients. In marketing communication, typically, they have centralized communication development with one headquarters group and pared the agency list to one or two global suppliers. Through
those efforts they may have created and perhaps stumbled over what they call
“global advertising campaigns,” generally based on some type of “one sight, one
sound” marketing communication approach. They may have even appointed “global
managers” to oversee the programs they have created. However, these approaches in
many organizations have not reached the level of global customer focus, integration
of marketing and communication, and development of relationship approaches we
believe will be necessary in the new global marketplace. In the true sense of global
marketing communication, as defined in this chapter, these companies have not yet
moved into many of the realms of marketing and communication that we believe
will be critical.
These include:
1. using an outside-in approach, that is, identifying and valuing customers and
prospects that the organization is able to serve;
2. allocating finite corporate resources against the most important customers and
determining how much and where to invest those resources;
3. finding new ways to balance the improvement of shareholder returns with real
service to customers on an ongoing basis;
4. building ongoing relationships with current and prospective customers that provide benefits to both parties; and
5. totally integrating the marketing and marketing communication activities of the
organization, both internally and externally, to create ongoing, useful, interactive
communication systems that bring the organization and its customers closer
together.
Many of the organizations that have claimed to be “global” have not reached full
global capability, certainly not in marketing or marketing communication. Instead
they have simply aggregated a number of national markets, coordinated them in
some way, and offered the results to customers and prospects. The typical approach
has been to aggregate the world into some number of convenient geographic
groups—regions such as the European Union, Africa, and the Middle East; the
Americas; Asia-Pacific; and so on. They are perhaps following the counsel of
Kenichi Ohmae and other hyper-globalists to participate in the triad where over
72% of world trade takes place, that is North America—led by the USA; Pacific
Rim—at one time led by Japan, and now by China; and the European Union—led
by Germany and France. The corporate focus is, of course, to consolidate the multidomestic operations of the organization to make them more efficient, at least from
the company’s view. Commonly this type of “globalization” provides little or no
The Global Marketplace
33
value to the customer or prospect and often simply creates another layer of management for customers to attempt to deal with. Figure 3.1 illustrates the hyper-­
globalistic view:
To succeed in the twenty-first century, global organizations must organize around
customers and prospects and their operations and activities, not around geographies
and certainly not around products and services. Simply consolidating activities generally does not provide the type of integration or coordination to operate in the
global marketplace. The following example will illustrate the point. (Note: The
names of the marketing organization and the channel customer are not real. The
situation is, however, real and recognizable to a large number of organizations that
may be presently in the throes of globalization.)
hiz-Bang Stores and Marvel Products: A True Global
W
Marketplace Story
The manufacturer of a wide variety of consumer products sold a substantial amount
of its product lines to a very large retail organization that was expanding rapidly
outside of its traditional domestic base. For convenience, let’s call the manufacturer
Marvel Products and the retailer Whiz-Bang Stores. Marvel Products was organized
by product lines, manufacturing plants, and dedicated sales forces. It deployed its
resources against Whiz-Bang Stores in the same way that it was structured and
organized—by product line.
Fig. 3.1 The dynamic drive for globalization. (Source: Thompson (2015))
34
3
The Global Marketplace Considerations
Marvel Products had a sales force representing the Sticky Product line, another
representing the Grinder Product line, another representing Roller Stuff, and so on.
Behind these sales forces were production and operations groups that manufactured
the products, distributed them, billed and accounted for them, and handled other
tasks. Each product line was operated as a separate profit center and was generally
unrelated to the other groups in the Marvel Products organization.
The salespeople for the Sticky Product line called on the buyers of this category
of products at Whiz-Bang Stores. Back at the Sticky Product line plants and offices
of Marvel Products, separate groups produced the Sticky Product line products,
organized their shipment to the Whiz-Bang Stores, billed and invoiced for the products, resolved disputes, and so on. Each of the other divisions of Marvel Products
operated in approximately the same way. Every product line for Marvel Products
was separate, and Marvel management liked it that way. They believed it gave them
better control over the operations, and they could quickly identify which product
line was doing well and which wasn’t.
From the Whiz-Bang Stores’ view, the operations of Marvel Products were
acceptable since they were organized by stores and geographies and product lines as
well. Since Marvel Products and Whiz-Bang Stores operated in approximately the
same geographic areas and with the same structures, the system seemed to work for
both of them.
As Whiz-Bang Stores expanded its operations, it added products from the
Grinder line, Roller Stuff, and so on. As had been the case with the original Sticky
Product line, Marvel Products assigned a separate sales force to work with the managers at Whiz-Bang Stores. Since Marvel Products was organized by product lines,
that meant additional salespeople calling on Whiz-Bang buyers even though Whiz-­
Bang buyers often purchased multiple lines of Marvel Products. It also meant additional invoicing, accounting, and billing systems and additional delivery systems
and product management. Still, the systems worked since Whiz-Bang was not a
large customer and was willing to adapt its operations to fit its suppliers.
Whiz-Bang Stores grew very rapidly. As they did, they started to restructure for
global expansion. That meant consolidation of functions, more electronic and systematized logistical systems, increased emphasis on proper stocking for specific
stores in specific geographies, and so on.
As Whiz-Bang started to expand into other countries, it naturally wanted to offer
Marvel Products in those markets as well. Since Marvel Products was organized not
only by product line but also by geography, as Whiz-Bang Stores opened stores in
new countries, Marvel Products naturally assigned its local national sales force to
call on the Whiz-Bang buyers in that area. It did the same for logistics, invoicing,
shipping, and the like. While this created some problems for Whiz-Bang Stores
because it was centralizing and consolidating its operations, Whiz-Bang agreed to
the Marvel Products system.
One day Whiz-Bang management realized that a considerable amount of time,
effort, and energy was being spent contacting and being contacted by the various
levels of supplier companies in all the different geographies. Therefore, Whiz-Bang
management reorganized its operation on a global basis. Using the four building
The Global Marketplace
35
blocks we described in Chap. 2—digitalization, information technology, intellectual property, and communication systems—Whiz-Bang Stores organized itself into
a global structure. Its goal was to have one representative for each product line,
rather than having a separate contact for each of the Marvel lines.
Thinking that it had solved its internal problem, Whiz-Bang Stores contacted the
top management of Marvel Products to suggest that it could organize itself in the
same way or at least in some way that would fit with the new structure of Whiz-­
Bang Stores. Couldn’t Marvel Products have one contact person or a contact team
that could represent all the Marvel Products to Whiz-Bang Stores around the world,
that is, one person who could represent the Sticky Product line, the Grinder Product
line, and the Roller Stuff line? Along with that, couldn’t Marvel Products also have
one sales force that represented all Marvel Products rather than an individual sales
group for each product line? And, while they were at it, couldn’t Marvel Products
also provide one invoicing and billing system for all Marvel Products and also
arrange to have all Marvel Products orders consolidated and shipped to all Whiz-­
Bang Stores in one delivery rather than multiple deliveries from Marvel’s various
plants and facilities?
Marvel Products had over the years become a very successful company. Its organizational structure, sales force allocation, and billing and distribution system had
worked very well. Marvel liked the way it was organized and, to a certain extent,
resented its customer, Whiz-Bang Stores, for suggesting that it change the way it did
business just to suit Whiz-Bang. After all, Marvel had other customers, and none of
them had raised any questions about the procedures Whiz-Bang Stores was challenging. So the senior managers of Marvel Products met with the senior managers
of Whiz-Bang Stores. Their goal was to explain how Marvel Products operated, how
successful it had been, why its structure worked for Marvel, and why it really
couldn’t comply with Whiz-Bang’s requests.
Whiz-Bang managers listened to the presentation. They agreed with Marvel
Products that its marketing program and systems worked for Marvel. The problem
was, they didn’t work for Whiz-Bang Stores. And, since Whiz-Bang was the customer, they thought Marvel Products should try to do something to help them grow
and expand globally. They suggested that as partners such cooperation would work
to the benefit of both parties. In other words, Whiz-Bang Store managers said: “You
either find a way to work with us on a global basis—that is, all products, all stores,
all geographies, all billing, and all delivery—or we will have to find another supplier. We don’t believe your system or approach is good for our business, and we
don’t believe it will help us meet our goals and expectations. We understand why
you are what you are. We respect that it works for you, but it doesn’t work for us.”
To say that the Marvel Products management was chagrined is a vast understatement. They had just wandered into the global marketplace. They were not prepared
to meet the Whiz-Bang Stores request and, quite honestly, weren’t at all sure they
wanted to change their business to fit their customer’s needs. When they got back to
their home office, Marvel Products managers reevaluated their situation. Whiz-­
Bang Stores was a major, fast-growing, profitable customer, likely to become even
more important in the future. But Marvel Products wasn’t prepared to operate in the
36
3
The Global Marketplace Considerations
global marketplace. It was organized and prepared to market primarily in the
manufacturer-­driven marketplace in which its business had developed. It didn’t like
the change, but it recognized the transition it needed to make if it was to become a
global marketer—that is, developing the ability to respond to customer needs.
The story does have a happy ending. Whiz-Bang Stores and Marvel Products
were able to work together to resolve the problem. Each side was able to change and
adjust its processes and systems so that they were responsive to mutual needs. They
developed interlocking ordering, distribution, and billing systems that saved each
group substantial amounts of money, time, and energy. Most of all, they both moved
to a marketplace built on relationships, not transactions, which requires buyers and
sellers to come together to provide mutual benefits.
Global Marketplace Drivers
Almost all organizations began initially as domestically oriented firms. As they
grew, and as the markets for their goods and services expanded, organizations
tended to evolve from their initial structures and operations on a replicative basis.
That simply means that as organizations expanded beyond their initial geographic
base, they replicated their domestic structure in other areas. They became multidomestic organizations, where managers simply transferred products, organizational
structures, operating systems, and programs to other countries or geographies.
When these multidomestic organizations developed, senior management typically established the new company as a separate entity and operated it as a division
or unit with its own management structure and profit goals. While sometimes this
separation was required by the foreign government in which the unit was located,
often it was done simply because it was what the management of the domestic organization knew best. Thus, each country’s company became a mirror image of the
home company or as close as possible to that model, recognizing, of course, that
some modifications based on government policies, cultures, languages, and the like
were necessary. In other words, initial polycentrism led—for some—to ethnocentrism, but still falling short to a degree of globalism or globalization assuming this
is a worthwhile goal (see Levitt, 1983). Figure 3.2 illustrates the global evolution model.
As shown, the x-axis is time and the need for coordination and integration as the
company grows due to the global evolution, the y-axis. As shown in Fig. 3.2, an
organization which operates domestic in focus (ethnocentric) has all activities concentrated in the home market, might consider probably believing only in home values, with international marketing viewed as secondary to domestic operation. While
many organizations can survive like this, solely domestically oriented organizations
are doomed to long-term failure. As the organization grows from the domestic base
to a polycentric or multidomestic organization, operating in multiple geographies,
the firm places importance on international operations as a source of profit.
Management believes that each country is unique and allows each to develop own
marketing strategies locally. Based on the model, the next step is for the
Global Marketplace Drivers
37
Fig. 3.2 The global evolution of a company. (Source: The authors)
Fig. 3.3 The contextual
determinants of
international marketing.
(Source: The authors)
organization to become a global company. The problem is, of course, that global
companies are radically different from the domestic or multidomestic organizations
that call themselves international organizations. Organizations that operate internationally or multidomestically are driven by a number of contextual determinants.
These are factors that drive how organizations operate outside their domestic marketplace. Some of those determinants are illustrated in Fig. 3.3.
38
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The Global Marketplace Considerations
At the center of the model are the “Determinants of Internal Marketing,” factors,
as described by Professor Jagdish Sheth of Emory University, who provided one of
the best earlier explanations of the developing global marketplace and the changes
existing organizations needed to make to operate in that venue. Those determinants
drive how the organization markets to its own employees, suppliers, distributors,
and others, and are generally based on the type of product or service offered, the
manufacturing or production facilities, employment practices, management style,
and similar factors. There are three general external determinants (Sheth, 1998):
1. The Cultural Context: This context includes such factors as cross-cultural differences between the organization and the market in which it is operating, the level
of market development, and the political stability of the region. Note, this context could be ignored to a degree as propounded by Levitt (1983) and repeated
many times since … latest republication in 2006.
2. The Entry Context: This is how the organization has entered or has been allowed
to enter the new market. For example, government policy has much to do with
how the organization can be structured and how it might operate in the new market. Another important consideration is the ideology that drives the economy.
That ideology can be political, religious, or perhaps simply a unique way in
which the country or geography operates and the beliefs held by the population.
Fear of imperialism often drives countries or economies to set up specific laws
and regulations that restrict the ability of the organization to grow, develop, and
derive profits. These ideologies of course can be adjusted or changed, often
using the weapons at the avail of governments and societies. Consider, for example, the new USMCA—the US–Mexico–Canada Agreement—replacing the
long-held-in-place NAFTA, agreed on October 5, 2018 (Rosenfeld et al., 2018),
and the attempt to exert greater control via tariff reform in China and vice versa
(Jiang, 2018). This argument can be multiplied many times and continues apace
in many parts of the world.
3. The Operational Context: This context includes items such as infrastructure
adjustments that might be necessary for the organization to apply its operating
systems or hiring practices in the new country. It might also include functional
adjustments—circumstances that cause the organization to rethink or reorganize
the functional structures it uses both internally and externally. Product life cycle
management also has a great impact on how the organization will operate in the
new economy with the proviso that diffusion may be in different stages in different countries. These contextual forces have a great deal to do with how an organization operates as it moves from a multidomestic to a global approach.
The major change for an organization as it moves to a more global stance is how
it views the creation of value. Sheth uses the measure that he calls “shareholder
value” to determine the success of the organization. Figure 3.4 illustrates the necessary transition from past to future success.
As shown, past success in delivering shareholder value for multidomestic organizations involved some type of domestic portfolio management: organizations
Global Marketplace Drivers
39
Fig. 3.4 The fundamental shift in delivering shareholder value. (Source: Adapted from first
edition)
created shareholder value in domestic markets by managing a variety of brands or
products or services successfully. Often there were economies of scale in such an
approach represented in improving efficiency (and reducing waste), and success
came from dominating a domestic category such as detergents or dental care or
ready-to-eat cereals. Examples in the USA might include Procter & Gamble,
Unilever, McDonald’s, Colgate-Palmolive, and Kellogg.
In the near future, global success will be driven more by a focus on the core business or core capability of the organization and its ability to drive that success in
other markets around the world. In other words, the firm must become “world class”
in its area and be able to deliver that capability globally and increase its developmental impact. Examples of this type of global organization might include Samsung,
Apple, Huawei and Xiaomi mobile phones, Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, Sony,
Panasonic, and Dell in consumer electronics, and in goods production, Nestle,
Cargill, Kraft, and Unilever. Each of these businesses has developed demonstrable
worldwide expertise in its specific areas. The creation of shareholder value in the
global marketplace will be dramatically different from that in the domestic or international marketplace.
Global marketers must develop integrated systems and processes that can be
applied around the world. That concept is illustrated in Fig. 3.5.
Inherent in a globally successful marketing approach will be the ability of the
organization to develop and provide seamless, transparent products and services to
customers and prospects around the globe. That will require an integrated approach
that, as shown, will start with an understanding of global commerce. (Recall the
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The Global Marketplace Considerations
Fig. 3.5 Integrated global
marketing. (Source:
Adapted from first edition)
example of Marvel Products and Whiz-Bang Stores earlier in this chapter.) This
effort will require global products that are adaptable for use in multiple markets
around the world. Those products and services will need to be backed by globally
recognizable brands using some type of global account management system that
will be run by global managers. The global managers will require global production,
operations, and logistical processes and global systems. And, to succeed, these
global systems will require global sourcing of ingredients, raw materials, or skilled
employees along with the development of global logistical systems. And for the
global firm, they must standardize where possible and adapt where necessary.
Requirements of a Global Marketing Organization
In 1988 Bartlett and Ghoshal published the first edition of their text, Managing
Across Borders, which was then a landmark book on the structure and management
of what they termed the new “transnational organization.” Bartlett and Ghoshal
identified three major forces they suggested drive the strategy of organizations competing across borders, boundaries, and cultures:
1. Global Integration: “The past decade or so has been an era in which global
political boundaries were re-forming. Regional blocs were emerging, technological advances were changing, the economic structure that underlay industries
and competitive dynamics were reformulating the rules of the game in industry
after industry. All these forces for ‘global integration’ required companies to be
more integrated and coordinated across national boundaries.”
2. Responsiveness to National Environments: “As any international company well
understands, there are other forces that require sensitivity and responsiveness to
Requirements of a Global Marketing Organization
41
national environments. Most obviously, consumers differ country by country;
national infrastructures differ; competitors vary market by market; and host-­
country governments require companies to accommodate the interests of each
particular nation-state.”
3. Administrative Heritage: “The many aspects of a company’s past—its home-­
country culture, its history, the influence of specific individuals—collectively
constitute a company’s ‘administrative heritage.’ It is vital that a company understand its administrative heritage for two reasons: a company’s strengths lie
deeply embedded in this heritage, and a company must recognize those strengths
to protect them. But, at the same time, administrative heritage can be the biggest
barrier to change.”
Using these three forces, Bartlett and Ghoshal describe what they define as a transnational company:
This trend (companies must become more globally competitive, and, at the same time, more
sensitive and responsive to national differences) has given rise to what we call transnational
industries and transnational companies. What is different about a transnational company?
This type of company expands the dominant strategic asset created through its particular
administrative heritage into multiple sources of competitive advantage, layered one on top
of the other. Leading multinational companies have started to match the efficiency of global
companies, while leading global companies have begun to match the local responsiveness
of multinational companies. And as these companies match each other in efficiency and
responsiveness, they have begun to build a third source of competitive advantage—the ability to learn and innovate on a worldwide scale. This requires them to view the world not
only as a collection of marketplaces but also as an enormous source of information and
expertise. These companies are able to sense technologies and consumer trends that emerge
anywhere in the world; to tap into local resources, capabilities and entrepreneurships; and
to leverage the resulting innovations throughout their organizations. So, transnational companies compete on the basis of global efficiency and national responsiveness and the ability
to develop innovation on a worldwide basis.
Using these “three forces,” Bartlett and Ghoshal develop a strategic format that
helps managers identify the basic competitive framework, illustrated in Fig. 3.6, on
which the organization can or should compete in the global marketplace.
Bartlett and Ghoshal suggest that an organization must either focus on or dominate the marketplace in one of the three basic competitive advantages that organizations can develop—global integration, worldwide learning, or national
responsiveness. Further, emphasis on one area necessarily reduces the requirements
in the other two. As shown, for example, international companies tend to develop
strategies dominated by worldwide knowledge transfer. In other words, the organization competes in how well it can transfer knowledge from one branch or country
or region to another. Multinational companies become expert at responding to
national needs and requirements. This is done by continuously monitoring countries
and markets and developing strategies and approaches to provide the best possible
solution in that market. Then, by making those solutions available to allied companies in other countries, these organizations succeed in becoming the global supplier
42
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The Global Marketplace Considerations
Fig. 3.6 Alternative competitive marketplace approaches. (Source: Adapted from Bartlett and
Ghoshal (1998))
with standardized and coordinated products and services around the globe. Global
companies achieve global integration by developing strategies dominated by global-­
scale efficiency. In other words, they become the best in the world at what they do.
(Compare this to Sheth’s idea of “core capability” described in the preceding
section.)
At this point, managers should take stock of the organization. Using Bartlett and
Ghoshal’s concepts of competitive advantage, managers should identify where and
how the organization can compete in the global marketplace. While few organizations are purely international, multinational, or global, this approach does provide a
useful framework for thinking about where and how the organization is today and
where it might need to be in the future. It is useful to think about the current status
and what transition needs to occur in terms of both marketing and marketing communication for the company to truly succeed in the 2020 and beyond global
marketplace.
Likewise, the concept of creating shareholder value can be used to assist in determining the type of transition that needs to be made so that the organization can
compete in the future. That naturally will lead to considerations such as the integrated global marketing structure presented earlier, in Fig. 3.5.
As you read about how we see organizations developing marketing and marketing communication programs for the global marketplace in the following section,
please refer to the case study at the back of the book as an early example of an
organization that moved from multidomestic to global organization, Dow Chemical.
Marketing and Marketing Communication in the Global Marketplace
43
Despite, its location in time the case does describe the efforts made to become as
globally structured and responsive as possible, which includes necessary changes
and adjustments in marketing communication strategies and tactics. For Dow, this
was by no means an inexpensive process. It is a process that continues and will
continue given the exigencies of organizational structure in the ever-changing constellation of environmental exigencies.
arketing and Marketing Communication
M
in the Global Marketplace
As discussed at the beginning of this chapter, we see the twenty-first-century global
marketplace as essentially one in which customers, consumers, and end users—
eventually—may come to dominate the system. The corporate organizational systems are in place for many multinationals/global companies. We will have to wait
longer—perhaps much longer—for the full flowering of consumer/customer power
and influence.
However, as in the example of Marvel Products and Whiz-Bang Stores, the marketing organization will have to know and understand how customers want to be
served, not just how the organization wants to operate. In other words, the marketing organization will play a different role in the global marketplace, that of supplier
of identified customer and prospect needs, not simply a producer of somewhat under
differentiated products and services, as illustrated in Fig. 3.7, and as propounded
erroneously by Theodore Levitt as early as 1983.
Fig. 3.7 The global
marketplace. (Source:
Adapted from first edition)
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The Global Marketplace Considerations
In the twenty-first-century global marketplace, digitalization, information technology, intellectual property, and communication systems will enable the shift of
control into the hands of customers and consumers in most marketing systems,
eventually. It is happening to an extent now as seen in our example of the customer-­
driven marketplace in Chap. 2, but it is happening at a time when older and newer
marketplace structures are still in evidence and/or emergent. Just as Neanderthals
were eventually relegated to fossilized remains, so these older marketplace structures will persist for a time and then gradually be replaced by new more customer-­
friendly marketplace structures. While, not in the forecasting business, eventually
these older structures will become part of the sedimentary strata of the past.
For example, see the argument developed by Kitchen (2013). But eventually and
inexorably, this shift will place the customer firmly at the center of the system.
Perhaps they are already at the center, but history tells us of their inability to work
and operate together. That said, it is our contention that customers and consumers,
not sellers and tellers, will eventually control the marketing system despite attempts
by business to forestall consumer inroads in terms of influence or control. Further,
customers will be able to access the marketplace through any of the three previous
marketplace systems—the manufacturer driven, the distributor driven, or the interactive—depending on their orientation and needs. This will put tremendous pressure on traditional marketing organizations, for it means they will have to maintain
all three systems to serve the entire market. Few organizations will be able to cope
with this marketplace complexity. Most are not able to countenance it. For example,
even in 2020 we see the reversion of this global marketplace or space to its national
component. For example, if a customer from the UK wishes to access the US marketspace, information is readily available. And, just to take Hewlett Packard (HP),
Levi Strauss, and Apple—sure enough, information is readily available. However,
any attempt to buy online at the often lower prices available elsewhere, they are
immediately returned to their own national website. Thus product has become
global, price is still annoyingly national, promotion and distribution are variable
everywhere. Moreover, even if one were able to buy at say US prices, delivery to the
UK involves a governmentally imposed tariff. Put another way, manufacturers are
determined to maximize price wherever possible. Governments are keen to levy
taxes—wherever possible. Customers, the one-day drivers of the global system, are
effectively shut out of “real” global transactions. The same is true of many markets
and product and service areas.
Admittedly some die-hard consumers may prefer the traditional approach—a
manufacturer-driven marketplace in which the consumer is a passive recipient of the
marketing efforts of the seller. This is more likely to be the case in less-developed
countries where channel systems are still somewhat underdeveloped. Alternatively,
some consumers may well choose to obtain products and services through the
distribution-­driven system. That is, they still prefer the personal shopping experience where they can examine and evaluate products and services. In many cases,
particularly in the service arena, the distribution-driven system will likely continue.
It is difficult to imagine how dental services or emergency room hospital services
could be delivered anywhere other than at some place-based location.
Marketing and Marketing Communication in the Global Marketplace
45
Of course, some consumers will want to use the rapidly developing interactive
systems that are available via the Internet. While this area will continue to grow
exponentially, logistical and payment method problems are evident, perhaps occasioned by hackers, thus creating data security fears. Pictures and words displayed
via the Internet will not always provide sufficient information for consumers to
make decisions about the products or services offered there. For example, consumers will usually require the experience of smelling perfumes and colognes before
they make a purchase. Also, some customers are not comfortable giving out their
credit card numbers over the Internet. We do, however, expect many consumers and
end users to shift their purchasing patterns, albeit not totally, to these new forms of
electronic commerce.
As might be expected, eventual customer control of marketplaces and spaces will
create major transition problems and fears for many so-called marketing organizations. We are not so sure these are fears per se, but a wholeheartedly unwillingness
to embrace a global system that means less profit. In our simpler model, those that
currently market through the manufacturer-driven system will have to decide
whether to migrate initially to the distributor-driven system with a planned expansion to the interactive marketplace later on, or to attempt to leapfrog directly to the
interactive marketplace. Or, they may operate in all three market-places-spaces
simultaneously. Whichever decision it makes, the marketing organization will face
substantial transitional challenges. Likewise, those organizations that currently
market in the distribution-driven marketplace will find the transition much easier to
the interactive marketplace. Indeed, we already see much of this transition in retail
organizations. The latest data surprisingly shows that China has surpassed the USA
in terms of online retail and that Europe lags behind. Moreover, Apple has surprisingly out-shone other companies and has climbed to one of the top positions in the
American online market (Insider Monkey, 2014). However, readers please note “the
American online market.” Meanwhile, Land’s End, L. L. Bean, Sharper Image, and
others have all added interactive capabilities to their traditional catalog and retail
operations, but these are marketplace/space additions to what was already there.
For those organizations such as Amazon.com, Charles Schwab, CDNow, and
Cygus Technology, which have chosen to enter the interactive marketplace by selling primarily through electronic forms of marketing, the question will be whether or
not they need to go back upstream and develop systems in the manufacturer-driven
or distribution-driven marketplaces that would allow them to serve customers who
prefer those forms of commerce. We have already seen this occur in traditional
direct sellers such as Eddie Bauer, Talbot’s, and Pottery Barn, which, although they
started business as catalog retailers, have now opened substantial numbers of place-­
based retail stores that have allowed them to service customer groups who prefer to
shop in a “touch and feel” store. Again, much of the marketing organization’s decision will rest with how the customer wants to do business. If the marketer is unable
to provide the desired system, the organization may not be able to compete in that
marketplace. Thus, the major transition for most organizations will be to understand
the various customer groups they wish to serve and then be able to deliver brands,
products, and services via the type of marketing system those customers prefer.
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Inherent in the new global marketplace will be the exponential growth in importance and usage of multitudinous forms of marketing communication. As we outlined earlier, the consumer will have some control of the four building blocks of the
marketplace and will be the locus value in this communication system. Digitalization
has already shifted to a degree into the hands of the consumer through the multitude
of products driven or managed by computers or other digital systems. Information
technology in the form of computers, the Internet and intranets, global telephony,
satellites, and the like all provide the consumer with very sophisticated levels of
information technology. The availability of these information and communication
systems allows informal discussions about products and services; for example, on
Facebook or Twitter, which could progress to consumers creating structured reviews
and evaluations in text or video, become involved in the promotion or demotion of
brands through self-created advertising videos as well as in the modification of proprietary products and services and the distribution of these innovations. Eventually,
in the global marketplace, the consumer will be who drives the marketer, not the
other way around. Put another way, the consumer or customer deserves marketer
respect and relational interaction. Consider Procter & Gamble’s Old Spice brand.
This veteran brand was almost certainly in the decline phase of its product lifecycle
when an ad was created featuring NFL star Isaiah Mustafa as the “Old Spice Guy.”
The ad won the Golden Lion award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010, but the real
success came from its posting on YouTube with millions of downloads, very successful humorous tweets on Twitter, and the creation of a hugely popular fan page
on Facebook. Sales of Old Spice increased by 55% between April and June 2010
(O’Leary & Wasserman, 2010).
In all three marketplaces, underpinned by globalization, marketing communication will become the key element that allows customers and marketers to come
together. Of all marketing variables, only marketing communication or promotion is
charged with responsibility to move brands (products and services) forward.
Marketing communication will become the glue that holds buyers and sellers
together over time to leverage the brand. It will be the basis for the relationship
market in which the buyers and sellers agree to exchange information for the benefit
of both parties. Unlike the traditional manufacturer-driven and distributor-driven
marketplaces, where buyers and sellers were often at odds, or at least cast in competitive positions where one side won at the expense of the other, the global marketplace will hopefully become one where relationships and continuous give-and-take
take place among all parties. It will become a marketplace of shared values. That
said, it has a way to go yet, depending on the contextual determinants of the international marketing (explained in Fig. 2.3). For example, the existing level of technology in a country will determine what consumers do with existing and new
products. Consumers’ motivation to interact and the ways in which they do so will
also be related to their culture, especially the extent to which it is open to innovation
and to the expropriation of others’ intellectual property. Furthermore, consumers
will be restricted or given freedom by the nature of the legislation within the country
and their governmental interpretations and applications of the same. As of 2020 we
Discussion Questions
47
see no sign of any emergence of a global supranational entity operating on behalf of
customers or consumers, and yet the same is desperately needed.
This change in importance of marketing communication will be a major transition for many organizations. Historically, marketing communication has been used
to support various types of business activities, not to lead the marketing effort. Thus,
most marketing communication managers have been either staff positions or under
the direction of marketing or product managers. As consumers become more important and more emphasis is placed on understanding customers and prospects, and as
more focus is directed toward building, sustaining and supporting two-way long-­
term customer relationships, marketing communication will become one of the
most important areas of the entire organization. Indeed, how to develop and manage
marketing communication will become or is already among the most fundamental
and meaningful strategic decisions that senior and brand management will have
to make.
Conclusions
• You may think your company is global, but it’s probably multinational or even
multidomestic.
• Don’t make the mistake of operating in other cultures with a domestic (polycentric) strategy.
• Customers now potentially have far greater powers of choice, making marketers
sit up and take notice, or lose out in the global stakes of today and tomorrow.
• Globalization still has to deliver on its promises which while fulfilled by some
organization remain nascent for many customers and consumers.
Discussion Questions
1. Explore the view that the marketing mix and marketing principles are not
synonymous.
2. Is “geocentricity” desirable? Are there any shortfalls with this approach?
3. What, if anything, is wrong with Levitt’s 1983 Harvard Business Review
polemic?
4. Is there a difference between MNCs and global corporations or is it mere
semantics?
5. Why should national firms take globalization seriously?
6. What does it mean to say that “jobs are global”? How does this impact national
economies?
7. What is the impact of globalization on marketing communications? Are the elements of the promotional mix transferable globally? Explain either way.
8. What forces resist globalization and why?
9. Explore issues and ramifications surrounding the interconnected global
economy.
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The Global Marketplace Considerations
10. Can the claim be supported that the move toward globalization is something in
favor of consumers?
References
Bartlett, C. A., & Ghoshal, S. (1998). Managing across borders: The transnational solution.
HBR Press.
Biery, A. (Ed.). (2014). Crisis, credibility, and corporate history (ICA Studies, Series 1). Liverpool
University Press.
Insider Monkey. (2014). The 5 largest online retailers in the world. Retrieved October 5, 2018, from
https://www.insidermonkey.com/blog/the-­5-­largest-­online-­retailers-­in-­the-­world-­331292/
Jiang, S. (2018, May 30). China says it’s ready to fight back after US revives tariffs. CNNMoney,
Hong Kong. https://money.cnn.com/2018/05/30/news/economy/china-­us-­trump-­trade-­tariffs/
index.html
Kitchen, P. J. (Ed.). (2013). The dominant influence of marketing in the 21st Century: The marketing leviathan. Palgrave Macmillan.
Levitt, T. (1983, May). The globalization of markets. Harvard Business Review.
Matthews-King, A. (2017, November 21). UK’s rising use of food banks reveals ‘unfolding public
health crisis’, finds study. The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/food-­
banks-­uk-­usage-­public-­health-­crisis-­latest-­warning-­trussell-­trust-­study-­a8066231.html
O’Leary, N., & Wasserman, T. (2010, July 25). Old Spice campaign smells like
a
success
too.
AdWeek.
http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-­branding/
old-­spice-­campaign-­smells-­sales-­success-­too-­107588
Rosenfeld, R., Tan, J., & Moyer, L. (2018, October 1). Canada and US reach trade deal to replace
NAFTA. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/01/us-­canada-­nafta-­trade-­talks.html
Sheth, J. N. (1998). Reflections on international marketing: In search of new paradigms.
Presentation at the American Marketing Association Conference, ‘1998 Marketing Exchange
Colloquium’, Vienna, Austria, June 22–25th.
Thompson, K. (2015). The hyper-globalist/optimist view of globalization. ReviseSociology.
Retrieved
October
5,
2018,
from
https://revisesociology.com/2015/09/19/
optimist-­globalization-­hyper-­globalism-­neoliberalism/
4
How Marketing Communication Works
Marketing communication theory was originally based on the functional areas
of advertising, sales promotion, public relations, and direct marketing. Each of
these evolved into major but separate industries, and it was only in the 20 or so
years that they started to amalgamate underpinning the drive for integration.
Although marketing communication is still the major element of promotion and
communication expenditure, a corporate communication industry has also
evolved from its early roots in public relations to serve stakeholders’ interests in
what companies are and do, rather than just the brands they market. Indeed, the
corporate brand and not just individual brands are both communicated for all
they are worth. The latter part of the twentieth century saw the marketing communication industry begin to mature at the same time as media accelerated and
markets demassified and fragmented.
From a global perspective, the marketing strategies and tactics deployed by corporations have undergone and are undergoing radical and consistent change. Mass
markets have shrunk to fractions of their former size, and it is now much more difficult to reach consumers via broadcast and broadscale media, and one-to-one marketing (with individually conducted programs aimed at fulfilling the customer’s
unique needs to the point of satisfaction) is becoming a reality. In fact, technological
developments have underpinned movement to new forms of one-to-one communication. Also, the high level of information technology development and data availability facilitates acquiring the individual customer information market at a low
cost, which allows marketers to interact individually with customers to meet customers’ unique needs. The Internet is about individuals—with unique and diverse
hopes, needs, desires, and cultural backgrounds—more so than it is about mass
marketing or markets. The Internet is not one big market of 4.5 billion people—it’s
4.5 billion markets, each made up of one individual.
Over the last decade, international and national economic fluctuations and political machinations have shown the extent to which markets are interrelated. But the
major development has been the emergence of global markets on a previously
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
P. J. Kitchen, M. E. Tourky, Integrated Marketing Communications,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76416-6_4
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How Marketing Communication Works
unimaginable scale as propounded by Levitt (1993), but not necessarily in the form
or with the strategies he propounded. The phenomenon of globalization, and how
corporations respond to this, is crucial here.
The Changing Role of Communication
Within an increasingly crowded global market focused on organizational restructuring, return to core competencies, and competitive jockeying and turbulence, marketing communication is still charged with the responsibility to move products and
services forward. Integrated approaches to this goal are undeniably important, but
it’s also critical to understand how changes have taken place in terms of both communication and communication technologies. This is conceptualized in Fig. 4.1.
Consumers throughout the developed world have grown up surrounded by, but
not necessarily inured to, mass media systems. National television channels, radio
stations, magazines, newspapers, mass retail distribution systems, point-of-sale displays, and billboards are all part of many cultural backgrounds. These systems tied
countries together and helped underpin the earlier mass marketing systems on which
so much of modern marketing was based. Just about everyone in many advanced
nations heard or saw the same messages repeated ad nauseam through multiple
mass communication systems.
This all started to change as from around the mid-1980s, evidence indicated that
consumers were not just passive receivers of and responders to marketing messages.
Fig. 4.1 Global building blocks and marketing communication changes. (Source: The authors)
The Changing Role of Communication
51
Indeed, consumers were apparently becoming savvy, streetwise, and sophisticated.
Suddenly, specialized products were desirable, delivered via nonconventional
offline and online distribution channels, while communication altered to meet not
the need of mass markets, but also targeted segments, niches, and micromarkets.
The mass market—scheduled like the dinosaurs old for extinction—was metamorphizing toward the micro where market segmentation and target marketing became
the order of the day. Not was this the end of the splintering, fragmenting, and demassification process. While the causes of this process are relatively easy to discern on
a national basis, they are much more problematic when viewed from an international or global perspective. Factors impacting marketing communication from that
wider perspective can be divided into the following seven categories.
Global Growth in Advertising and Promotion
Advertising and other related forms of marketing communication activity are powerful and pervasive forces around the world. Advertising, sales promotion, marketing public relations, sponsorship, Internet communication, and forms of corporate
communication activity form a significant and recognizable cultural ambience in
every country. In 1993, worldwide expenditure on advertising had reached $218
billion versus $276 billion on all forms of below-the-line promotion. By 2019,
advertising spending worldwide surpassed US$560 billion. The leading global market in terms of advertising spending is, and always has been, the USA, investing
nearly $229.7 billion in promotional activities in 2018. This figure is roughly 2.5
times higher than that of its closest competitor, China, which in comparison only
spent $87 billion that year. Japan was third in line for the crown, with advertising
expenditures slightly surpassing $45 billion, while in Europe, the UK and Germany
are leading the pack, and in Latin America, Brazil is the frontrunner (Statista, 2018).
Needless to say, the world of advertising and sales promotion and elsewhere in Asia
is radically changing the marketplace and marketspace in Southeast Asia.
A number of ongoing cumulative forces have underpinned growth in these areas:
increasing costs of advertising (leading to increase below-the-line activities); saturated mature national markets (the only way to grow sales is to take sales away from
the competition); burgeoning price competition and price comparability in many
markets (more emphasis on trade and consumer promotions); and balance-of-power
shifts toward retailers who were buttressed favorably by the rise in scanner technology and consumer databases (providing more leverage for manufacturer-supported
sales promotion). The same retailers have grown in power and market share and, in
many countries, moved toward private label and, in some cases, generic product
lines, thereby producing three-tiered pricing structures. Further developments
include the growth of database marketing (supportive of the entire promotional
activity, including direct marketing) and changes in media buying systems that significantly adjusted the time-worn fossilized commission-based reward system.
These changes are all driven by supply-side considerations or market dynamics.
From a demand-side perspective, consumers are exercising or seeking to exercise
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increased powers of choice and discernment, underpinned by access to suitable
alternatives including multiple internet-accessible technologies. While there seems
little doubt that advertising, sponsorship, and marketing public relations do underpin and support nonrational brand loyalties, it is the totality of brand and corporate
messages through an accelerating and exponential multiplicity of contacts that
effect communication effectiveness. Thus, changes in advertising and promotional
activities of all forms and in consumer behavior have led to the birth, rapid growth,
usage, and establishment of integrated approaches.
Emergence of the Global Consumer
In what was seen as a milestone Harvard Business Review article, Theodore Levitt
(1983) trumpeted that “the world [was] being driven towards a single converging
commonality… the emergence of global markets for globally standardised products.” He sought to differentiate between old-style multinationals versus new-style
global firms that saw the world as one market to be reached with a distinct marketing mix. But the “world” in 1983 was really the areas identified as “the triad” by
Kenichi Ohmae—North America, the European Community, and nations spearheaded by Japan in Asia. The other constituted nations of the world were grouped
under COMECON and the then-underdeveloped or Third World nations. As we
move into the twenty-first century, the triad still forms a powerful trading bloc that
dominates world trade. Inside the triad, presumably global corporations operate
wherever possible with resolute constancy, as if the world were one market.
However, Keegan and Green (1999) noted that these firms “standardise where possible, and… adapt where necessary.” Many firms now exemplify the global
approach—McDonald’s, Levi Strauss, IBM, Caterpillar, Komatsu, Google,
Amazon, and so on. But in 1983, Levitt was rightly berated Kotler for “setting the
marketing clock back” to an earlier setting associated with production and sales
orientations. For Kotler and many others since, the marketing clock had moved
inexorably forward from mass to niche marketing, underpinned by the principles of
market segmentation and target marketing, leading to a greater focus on product
differentiation and multiple promotional tactics as a means to create and sustain
successful exchanges.
There is strong evidence that homogeneous segments of demand exist within
heterogeneous global markets, especially for items such as jeans, burgers, cameras,
cars, sunglasses, and many other product categories. Product categories and brands
can be standardized, but that does not necessarily mean that global demand can be
created by global (universal) appeals. Indeed, such appeals may work well in a
home market, and not be taken seriously when transplanted to other markets.
Products may be similar or the same, but receptivity to marketing messages takes
place through tinted cultural lenses—which involves verbal and non-verbal language, values and attitudes, ethics and morals standards, gender roles, country of
origin, and others. A simple example: Pepsodent toothpaste was unsuccessful in
Southeast Asia because it promised white teeth to a culture where black and yellow
The Changing Role of Communication
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teeth are symbols of prestige. General Motors was trying to find an explanation for
Chevrolet’s Chevy Nova poor sales in South America. They finally realized that in
Spanish, “nova” means “it won’t go.” Sales improved dramatically after the car was
renamed “Caribe.”
Many global marketing texts indicate that global firms take advantage of global
opportunities when available, reap the advantages of learning and experience curve
effects where possible, but also adapt when and where necessary. This is especially
important in the cultural domain where perception of the same advertisement or
other promotional activity may be radically different. In European countries, for
example, in the Netherlands, dentists derive 40% of their turnover from the sales of
products such as toothbrushes. In Germany, supermarkets are expected to sell only
cheap, utilitarian brushes, while the pharmacies handle the premium brands. In Italy
a premium brush has to carry a fashionable, exclusive label. This makes any above-­
the-­line ad campaigns difficult. The communication mix is built around direct mail
to dentists supported by point-of-sale and product literature, packaging design, and
sales presenters. Although all these change over time, it underlies the need for
detailed and thorough research before entering any market and considering different
marketing mixes and commination mixes for different countries if required.
Moreover, the “world” envisaged by Levitt has been joined by China (1.2 billion
consumers), Eastern Europe (300 million consumers), India (600 million consumers), and newly industrializing countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore,
and countries in South America such as Chile, Argentina, and Brazil. Such growth
is set to continue, while traditional markets stagnate to some degree.
Development and Importance of Integrated Approaches
One way of considering marketing communication is as a group of disparate functional activities. The problem is, unless these activities are orchestrated carefully
based on sound analysis of consumer behavior and market dynamics, consumers
may see “one brand” but hear numerous uncoordinated discordant messages.
Integrated approaches presuppose strategic marketing communication planning,
based on a sound understanding of the dynamics of behavioral segments, with a
clear set of procedural methods for analyzing effectiveness. A good example is
Coca-Cola’s 2016 “Taste the Feeling” campaign, in which the company decided to
take a more product-centric approach in an attempt to win back consumers and
revive sales in the struggling soda category by boosting sales of the sugar-free variants through its new “One Brand” global marketing campaign. The unified approach
meant that Coke would no longer have sub-brands but only variants, in other words,
Coke Classic, Diet Coke, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, and Coke Life were placed under
one “master brand. The campaign was positioned as a shift from the brand per se
toward the product, as the former Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), Marcus de
Quinto, had noticed over a period of time that the brand had just been talking about
‘happiness’ and forgetting that it was a drink that tasted good.”
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The campaign celebrated the product as well as the brand by featuring the product
at the heart of the creative where people were enjoying simple pleasures. The ads
featured universal storytelling with the product at the core to reflect both the functional and emotional aspects of the Coke experience. The spots gave the viewer
momentary, but intimate glimpses into everyday moments, feelings, and experiences such as a first date that people shared while enjoying Coca-Cola. The ads
featured simple stories and no dialogue, while using one unifying theme song. At
the close of each spot, the Coca-Cola variants united under the iconic red Coca-Cola
disc. The campaign kicked off with a lead spot called “Anthem” that placed Coca-­
Cola at the center of ordinary moments like ice-skating with friends, a first date, and
a first love. The ad featured an original song by Australian pop star Conrad Sewell
and a new audio signature inspired by the sounds of enjoying a Coca-Cola such as
the pop of the cap and the fizz.
Globally, alternate versions of the ads were produced with locally relevant casts
and culturally relevant vignettes. For instance, the “Elevator” ad released in Africa
and China featured a woman bellhop and a rap star getting stuck in a hotel elevator
while the African version of the ad starred Nigerian rapper Banky W; the Asian version featured Chinese pop singer Lu Han. The campaign also featured 100+ campaign images shot by noted fashion photographers Guy Aroch and Nacho Ricci
capturing people from around the world enjoying Coca-Cola in a variety of moods.
The images were used in print advertising, on out-of-home billboards, in-store, as
well as on digital media
Furthering its “One Brand” global marketing strategy, in April 2016, Coca-Cola
Company overhauled its packaging. The new packaging used a single visual identity system for all the Coke variants anchored by the iconic Coca-Cola Red Disc.
The Red Disc was prominently featured on bottles and cans of all Coke brands
underscoring the company’s commitment to providing choice. Besides the Red
Disc, the new packaging featured each sub-brand’s distinct tagline and signature
color throughout the packs, as for instance, black for Coke Zero, silver for Coca-­
Cola Light, and green for Coca-Cola Life. The upper half of the can was defined by
the color red while the different colors on the bottom represented the variants. The
company said the new designs would help consumers make informed choices by
identifying each Coca-Cola product with its signature color. The new packaging
also included product name and benefits on the front of the pack.
The unification of the brands through design marked the first time in its 130-year
history that the iconic company’s visual identity had been shared across products in
such a prominent way. Tish Condeno, marketing director of Coca-Cola Singapore,
Malaysia, and Brunei, said,
We realized that we were in danger of losing our iconic colour in a sea of other colours like
silver and black, and we knew we needed to reclaim it as an icon of our brand. That’s one
of the primary ideas behind the new strategy. (Roderick, 2016)
According to the company, early data on the “Taste the Feeling” campaign
showed “green shoots” having led to a growth in retail sales as well a rise in the
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profile of the Coca-Cola brand. In North America, Coca-Cola’s net revenues grew
8% for the fourth quarter of 2016 and 4% for the year, outperforming total retail
value growth for both the North America nonalcoholic ready-to-drink beverage
industry and US consumer packaged goods companies. Even in the UK, initial figures suggested the “One Brand” strategy had a positive effect on sales. In 2017, for
the first time ever, Coke’s sugar-free products contributed to half of the brand’s
overall sales in the UK. In the USA, sales of Coca-Cola Zero Sugar were up 13% in
2017. Other countries had experienced even greater growth, with Germany up
almost 20%, Great Britain at 50%, and Mexico at 90% (Coca-Cola, 2018).
Marketing communication success depends on building and sustaining brand
loyalties—in other words, blending marketing communication tools and activities
to meet consumer needs, wants, and desires. From our perspective, brand management (i.e., brands and managerial processes), interaction between corporate communication and marketing communication, and realignment of media services
(structures, offerings, and compensation) will have to be adjusted if corporations
wish to achieve the benefits of integrated approaches to markets and stakeholders.
Direct Marketing
Direct marketing, for so long regarded as an adjunct of advertising and the unloved
stepchild of marketing communication, enjoyed significant growth in the 2000s and
2010s. In the European Community, expenditures for 2018 were $118 billion, an
increase of 3% from 2017 (Statista, 2018). Monitored spending exceeded €2 billion
in six EU markets, with Germany being the largest followed by France. In the USA,
direct marketing expenditures have stabilized at around $46 each year for the last
five years, a long way from its peak of $135 billion in 1999. Part of the recent stability is based on FMCG manufacturers such as Heinz, Unilever, and Procter & Gamble
integrating direct marketing and selling alongside marketing communication activities. But it is by no means a slam dunk approach. Neil Martin, retail category manager at Mintel, explains:
Most people buy washing powder, alcoholic drinks, shower gel etc. at the same time as they
do their shopping. Not many people are engaged enough with most FMCG categories to
want to go directly to buy their preferred washing powder. (Vizard, 2017)
Direct marketing as a marketing communication function is difficult to identify
since no current definition is accepted universally. But all confirm it is concerned
with activities that yield a direct, measurable response. Direct marketing agencies
have multiplied throughout the developed world, and in many cases, advertising
agencies have acquired or developed direct marketing services in response to client
demand for integrated marketing communication approaches. Direct marketing has
progressed through at least three stages: sales orientation, image building, and, the
current stage—direct marketing or direct selling as part of an integrated marketing
communication system. At this stage, direct marketing is underpinned directly, as
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are all other marketing communication elements, by database marketing, and database marketing, while applicable in many sectors, may not be as robust when it
comes to the old-style mass markets of yesteryear.
Database Marketing: Toward a Coordinated Strategy
Database marketing accesses and uses the power and reduced cost of computer
technology to use customer data in new ways and it is revolutionary in scope and
potential application. Google ex-CEO Eric Schmitt commented in 2010 that:
5 Exabytes1 of information were created between the dawn of civilization through 2003, but
that much information is now created every 2 days. As the amount of data in the world
explodes, the ability to manage all of this information has become increasingly difficult. In
2009, over $4 trillion dollars was spent to manage close to 800,000 petabytes of data (1 PB
= 1M GB)—by 2020, total data is expected to be 44 times that! And 70% of this data is
media. As businesses move more and more online its necessary to understand the ramifications of doing so and this concerns technologies and practical applications of media data
management—what they are, how they work, how companies can benefit from them, and
the risks and limitations. (Schmitt, 1999)
This statement has been widely circulated and commented upon around the
world. It is more than likely wrong, but it does serve to illustrate that data capture,
maintenance, manipulation, management, and usage are accelerating. The database
is becoming an essential sine qua non of marketing, underpinning many decisions
as to how to address target markets, constituencies, stakeholders, and publics.
Database marketing is much wider in scope than direct marketing since it uses
technology to drive consumer-oriented programs in personalized, cost-effective
ways. It does this by analyzing consumer characteristics and purchasing behavior,
allowing the development of personalized attitudinal and behavioral databases,
which can be reformatted to help drive integrated marketing communication
approaches. Database marketing allows global firms to underpin promotional programs with informational resources. Database marketing potentially can alter competitive forces, strengthen customer relationships, overcome supply-side problems,
support or weaken barriers to entry, or generate new product ideas. Database marketing is crucial to developing integrated approaches to marketing communication,
but not just as a vanguard for expansionist direct marketing. Instead, it underpins the
entire range of marketing communication activities as discussed later in this book.
The Internet: Promotional Tool or Informational Tool?
Readers should access the Internet Society Global Internet Report 2017 “Paths to
our Digital Future” which can be downloaded from: https://future.internetsociety.
org/wp-­content/uploads/2017/09/2017-­Internet-­Society-­Global-­Internet-­Report-­
Paths-­to-­Our-­Digital-­Future.pdf.
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As early as 1998, 100 million people worldwide were using the Internet. By
2018, this had risen to 3.58 billion up from 3.35 billion a year before (Statista,
2018). Marketing is transitioning partially into “webonomics,” “the study of production, distribution and consumption of goods, services and ideas over the World
Wide Web,” according to Evan Schwartz, author of Webonomics. While this definition excludes marketing communication per se, the debate as to whether multinational firms view the Web as a promotional tool or an informational resource has
achieved a consensus. It is neither one nor the other, but it is both. Computer users
will object to this; it is mainly promotion, increasingly re-routed to national economies and prices. In 2000, Web users—were mainly male (65 to 80%), 18–35 years
of age, college-educated, earning higher than average incomes, and white-collar—
in other words, back then, typical Web users were unrepresentative of most known
markets. Today, 46% of the planets’ inhabitants are regular Internet users—that are
nearly half of all people on earth. Most people, just about everywhere, have access
to a global informational and promotional source … almost at their fingertips. So, it
is not surprising to see in the distribution of global ad spending in 2019; the Internet,
as a medium, has got the highest share (51.99%), which is roughly double the share
of television advertising spending (26.53%) for the same year (Statista, 2018).
However, most businesses or corporations have a realistic assessment of Internet
potentiality, which means marketing in a consumer-controlled electronic environment, alongside the other more traditional marketplaces. Thus, marketing on the
Internet is distinct from advertising and direct marketing in the sense that it apparently speaks to a consumer as advertising does, records a response as direct marketing does, and also responds in what seems to be real-time, but more often than
not—time-wasting. It is, however, only at the behest of users that websites are
accessed. Thus, it is an integrated mechanism driven by receivers, not senders,
despite evidence that spamming and spammers have also exponentially increased as
Internet diffusion expands.
The Internet as used for every part of our lives—in our personal relationships, for
entertainment, at work, and in our studies—is now much more understood and manageable. The Internet is an informational, directive, and promotional medium, especially with the use of social media and networking sites (Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, etc.) and blogs. The growing love of social media is
not just changing the way people communicate—it’s changing the way people live
in society and do business, the way politicians and governments interact with citizens, respond to disasters, and tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges, from
climate change to human rights violations.
Child marriage is one of the global problems, which is considered a violation of
children’s human rights and an extreme manifestation of gender inequality that cuts
across countries, cultures, religions, and ethnicities. Twelve million girls marry
before the age of 18 each year—almost one every two seconds (Plan International,
2014). Despite being prohibited by international law, it continues to rob millions of
girls under 18 around the world of their childhood. They are forced to leave school
before they complete their education, and are subject to physical and psychological
violence, sexual violence, and rape. They become susceptible to HIV infection and
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are often subject to very early pregnancies, which can be life-threatening for mother
and child (Plan International, 2014).
Plan International, an NGO working for girls’ rights, aims to increase knowledge
and engagement around child marriage among women, youth, politicians, and the
general population. In 2014 Plan Norway ran the #StopTheWedding campaign aiming to convince more people to become Plan supporters and create political pressure
for Norway to take a leading role in the fight against child marriage internationally.
To get the Norwegian people involved, Plan Norway invited people to help the charity stop the first official child marriage in Norway. The charity started out letting the
people get to know Thea, a Norwegian 12-year-old child bride, who was due to get
married to Geir, a man 25 years her senior (Rickman, 2014). Through Thea’s own
wedding blog, she shared her inner thoughts about the wedding and the wedding
preparations she was going to be a part of. To provoke people’s genuine reactions to
the news that a 12-year-old was due to marry, Plan Norway launched the blog without revealing that Plan was behind it (Plan International, 2014). The blog created a
huge reaction. Several people were furious and reported it to the police and social
services. In a few hours, Thea’s wedding blog was the most read blog in Norway for
an entire month, and discussions were rife in social media (Ridley, 2015). Only a
few hours after the publication of Thea’s blog, the biggest media outlets in Norway
contacted Plan, and it was time to reveal that the blog was part of a campaign against
child marriage. At the same time as the media publicized the story, Plan published
the revelation in social media, and Thea’s blog was integrated as part of the blog
portal (blogg.no).
The campaign culminated in Thea and Geir’s wedding day where more than
1000 people turned up outside Jakob’s Church in Oslo to show solidarity against the
concept of child marriage on the UN’s international day of the girl. A range of
celebrities, politicians, and party leaders turned up and standing outside were hundreds of interested demonstrators who couldn’t fit inside the church. A united
Norwegian press pack turned up alongside the international media such as Reuters,
Itar-Tass, and Huffington Post Japan. When the Vicar asked Thea if she wanted to
have Geir as her husband, everyone in the church shouted Stop the wedding! At the
same time, almost thousands of people shouted #stoppbryllupet on social media,
reaching out to millions of people as a national signal against child marriage which
spread far outside Norway’s boundaries.
The blog was visited by 2.5 million readers, and #stoppbryllupet generated more
than 14 million impressions on Twitter and Instagram, and that’s only the Norwegian
hashtag! The campaign was shared by celebrities such as Ashton Kutcher, Melinda
Gates, and Zooey Deschanel who collectively have 26 million followers on social
media. Several hundred thousand people shared the campaign through their own
social media channels. The film from the wedding has been watched by more than
8 million people on YouTube.
All future forecasts point that an entire generation of Internet digitally savvy
users has grown up with top-of-mind awareness and usage of this medium. User-­
generated content shared over social media is becoming vital to the advancement of
human rights by increasing awareness, encouraging action, and providing evidence
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of abuses so governments can take an action, and perpetrators can be held to account.
Also, mobile technology and social media, are changing the way stories are told and
who gets to tell them. Any participant with a cell phone and a data connection can
produce a testament to be shared with the wider world.
Coordination and Control: Process Versus Output
Given the previous points, many firms have reconsidered the ways in which marketing communication approaches are developed in an age of globalization. The debate
concerning standardization of adaptation of marketing communication is long-­
standing and continues to rumble on. However, any firm planning marketing communication needs to take into consideration potential adaptation so as to gain the
benefits of standardization while paying attention to local differences. Most marketing communication agency personnel around the world perceive adaptation of campaigns as vital to retain effectiveness. However, the driver for adaptation is not
based purely on consumer criteria but also upon legal, political, infrastructural, and
service provisions. The second factor of coordination and control relates to new
media development, particularly the World Wide Web, where many corporations
offer virtual meeting places, among them are Levi Strauss, American Express,
Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Cola, Apple, and Amazon. Examples gained from world-leading
firms lead us to surmise that communication, particularly advertising, is now both
integrated and standardized but also adapted where needed, based on company and
environmental criteria. Thus, we argue that the process of communication is the
same worldwide but the output—messages, media, and measurement—will likely
vary in accordance with internal company criteria and external environmental
considerations.
The Changing Role of Consumers
We consider dual aspects of marketing communication. The first is the extent to
which marketing communication is integrated and the underlying rationale for that.
The second is the extent to which marketing communication is standardized (global)
or adapted (domestic).
The extent to which communication is integrated or unintegrated, domestic or
global in scope, depends on several underlying factors. Our view is that these factors will include at least the need to think globally, manufacture regionally, and be
perceived (by consumers) as acting locally; to take advantage of regionalized or
globalized marketing communication agency capabilities; to consider the move
from marketplace to marketspace; and to be cognizant of consumer sophistication
in developed economies. Thus, the extent to which globalized or integrated marketing communication approaches can be deployed depends not on corporate edict but
on perceived marketspace realities, the stage of life cycle or brand development a
product may be in, and upon organizational structure and corporate philosophy. Of
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Fig. 4.2 Factors impacting consumer behavior. (Source: The authors)
these, one major marketspace reality concerns consumer needs, wants, and desires
or the essence and lifeblood of marketing.
In the world’s first book on IMC—Integrated Marketing Communications—by
Don E. Schultz, Stanley I. Tannenbaum, and Robert F. Lauterborn, the authors
referred to four major changes (namely: Media Fragmentation, Facts of Perceptions,
Functional Illiteracy, and Verbal to Visual), impacting consumers that led to substantial change for marketing communication. With the dynamic changes in marketing practices, we believe that experiential marketing is becoming more important
as, shown in Fig. 4.2.
The four changes introduced by Schultz and his co-authors did not occur just in
the USA, but reflect major and far-reaching aspects of the global marketing scenario. Many major corporations focus on visualization in terms not of what products
do but of what they mean. Words and symbols represent meaning, and meaning is,
of course, the essence of marketing. Apple, Amazon, IBM, Coca-Cola, American
Express, Virgin, Intel, Microsoft, Nike, and Reebok are represented not only in verbal form but also in terms of vision and sound. As stated earlier, a whole generation
has grown up in what Kenichi Ohmae described as the Triad has grown up with
icons, signs, signals, and symbols top-of-mind. These are now almost inescapable.
Even those trained in an age before computerization and digitalization are moving
through a world of representational images each and every time a computer is turned
on. What is being communicated is an image, representational but also powerful and
meaningful. The move from words to images is on a continual, accelerating curve.
Functional illiteracy is growing in all societies, but the real point is that icons,
graphics, pictures, and sounds are mechanisms that communicate to not just the
illiterate but to all the world’s consumers. Consider, for example, what consumers
are exposed to at an average shopping mall, at a sales presentation, during a business lunch, in a radio advertisement, in a direct mail piece crammed into the average
mailbox, or on the train or subway, or immediately they turn on their iPad,
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smartphone, laptop, or computer. Signs replacing words to communicate meaning
is not a possible future development. It has already happened.
Media fragmentation continues to accelerate. Recent decades in all developed
and less-developed economies have witnessed the steady and continuous infiltration
and multiplied diffusion of broadcast, cable, and satellite television channels;
DVDs; satellite TV; computer systems; radio stations; billboards; point-of-sale promotions; and integrated telephone systems, even newspapers are now in their heyday in India and China. These, coupled with the proliferation of brands, brand
extensions, and attempts at global brand franchising, have created a world virtually
awash with signs, symbols, imagery, colors, and sounds. It is nonstop ineluctable
cacophony which—at its worst—forms a materialistic pounding beat to life.
Yet the very proliferation and fragmentation of media goes hand in hand with the
splintering of markets into smaller and smaller units: hence, earlier references to
what seem to be one-to-one marketing. Thus, while audiences become harder and
harder to reach and evaluate with broadcast and mass media, the need for integration
of all communication messages becomes more and more paramount. Consumers
tend to lump all messages via every medium into public relations or advertising, and
every message, planned or unplanned, positive or negative, stands for brands, companies, or marketing organizations. This ties into the notion that perceptions, not
facts, drive much of consumer thinking and behavior.
Think of the many companies, brands, ideas, and individuals that have achieved
marketing success. Most decisions to buy or not buy, support or not support, are not
based on a carefully systematized rational process. Despite the popularity of cognitive processing and the intuitive appeal of elaboration likelihood models, most consumers base decisions on perceptions, not facts. In fact, there is evidence that action
is taken several seconds before the thought about taking it becomes conscious (Soon
et al., 2008). Neuroscience research (Kahneman, 2011) shows that we have two
modes of thinking: System 2 thinking, which is slow and rational and is used for
dealing with difficult problems, and System 1 thinking, which we use all the time
for making most of our decisions, is fast and intuitive. It depends on previously
stored emotional impressions which bring the importance of brand experience that
is composed of sensory, affective, intellectual, and behavioral dimensions. The sensory dimension is concerned with the creation of sensory experiences through the
visual, gustatory auditory, olfactory, and tactile senses in order to create extraordinary and unique experiences (Schmitt, 1999). For example, Singapore Airlines’
branding targets multiple senses—specifically, scent and sight. The airline has a
one-of-a-kind, refreshing, and subtle scent (rose, lavender, and citrus) worn by all
flight attendants that’s also sprayed onto their towels and throughout other elements
throughout services. This specific smell is one you’ll only experience while flying
with the airline. Starbucks is another brand which uses sensory marketing by involving all five human senses to create a deeper and more personal relationship with its
customers. A visit to Starbucks is much more than a cup of coffee; from brand management perspective, it should be an experience for the mind and the heart. The
inspiring environment makes it comfortable to read a book or talk with friends. The
green and yellow of the interior, together with pleasant lighting, offers a soothing
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and restful visual experience. The relaxing music is selected with precision and care
by the Starbucks content team to create the “sound of Starbucks.” The smell and
taste of the freshly grounded coffee, as well as the comfortable texture, solidity, and
shape of the armchairs, and you have the characteristics of the sensory experience
of the brand.
What this means from a global context relies on an understanding of how communication works.
How Communication Works
A simplified model of how communication works was put forward by Harold
D. Laswell in 1948 and then extended and amplified by Wilbur Schramm in 1971,
as illustrated in Fig. 4.3.
Since these two models were developed, both senders and receivers encode
(translate thought into symbolic form) and decode (interpret—derive meaning from
marketing message) thoughts, or something one party wishes to communicate to
another party. Also, it is now clear that the receiver can transpose position and
become the sender, transmitting information or feedback back to the original sender
(now the receiver).
Market research and marketing information systems serve as mechanisms
enabling senders to develop and transmit decodable messages more accurately. In
the absence of extrasensory perception, exact transmission of thought is impossible.
Fig. 4.3 How marketing communication works. (Source: Adapted from first edition)
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The best result that a sender can hope for is that some elements of the sender’s
thoughts are retained in the consumer’s long-term memory, where they can be
tapped during purchase decisions. Thus, if there is a key to communication from a
consumer perspective, then it lies in the domain of memory and the way in which
messages are decoded and meaning is allocated to appropriate stimuli by consumers. Remember, the average consumer is exposed to about 3000 commercial messages a day, the majority of which are automatically screened out as irrelevant.
From all available messages, consumers select those few they wish to pay attention
to. A very basic model for the way consumers process messages is shown in Fig. 4.4.
All marketing communication can be measured against this model. First, marketing communication can have no effect unless it reaches the sense organs of those
who are to be influenced. However, exposure alone is insufficient to ensure communication has taken place. Consumers must allocate processing capacity to the
incoming message or stimulus. Here the memory determines what is relevant or
irrelevant. For attention to be allocated, the message must find a unique way to
break through the clutter, because the more times the same message is transmitted
through the same media, the less communication effectiveness it has. At this stage,
the memory is operating in short-term mode, and the problem here is that the short-­
term memory (STM) has very limited processing capacity. Any message that is not
paid attention to will be lost within 30 seconds.
Assuming the message is attended to, it must be comprehensible; that is, it must
correspond or fit what the receiver already knows or has stored away in long-term
memory (LTM). Let’s suppose the message is unusual. Say a particular brand fails
to live up to expectations, or price rises markedly, or the company is enjoying
Fig. 4.4 Consumer information processing. (Source: Adapted from first edition)
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negative publicity. Each of these circumstances may create a new node or belief in
LTM, which may act in helping consumers behave differently, say, to purchase a
new brand. This is another reason for integrated approaches to marketing
communication.
Let’s assume that the message is understandable and meaningful (it fits in). It
must then be either accepted as part of a person’s cognitive structure, rejected, or
yielded to. Yielding is recognizably a function of persuasion, and persuasion is the
essence of marketing communication. The majority of consumers do not want to be
told. Marketing communication is never about creating the loudest marketing voice;
rather it is about meaning. Meaning is not in messages, nor is it in media vehicles.
Instead, consumers allocate meaning to messages. Senders transmit intended meaning; receivers decode received meaning. When there is yielding or acceptance to a
communicator’s message (or positive meaning is received), the essence of the message must undergo something analogous to an unconscious filing system in the LTM.
The nodes, beliefs, schemas, scripts, and memory organization packets into
which long-term memory is divided are simply ways of describing associated links
or connections among knowledge structures, beliefs, and information. Each of these
may be activated during information processing, and either is screened out or accelerates or retards meaning allocation. Marketers attempt to provide information that
will facilitate consumer learning either by strengthening linkages among memory
concepts or by developing entirely new linkages. One can see how important it is to
develop messages that will deliver intended meaning, then review to see if such
meanings have been decoded.
This cursory review has not done justice to three other models—the cognitive
processing model, the hedonic experiential, and the elaboration likelihood model
developed by Richard Petty and John Cacioppo. We recommend these models and
concomitant critiques be studied. They are useful but not discussed here as the focus
is to look at marketing communication from a global context (see also Andrews &
Shimp, 2018).
Of course, no understanding of how communication works is complete without
an understanding of why consumers may decode different meanings from the same
messages. The answer is that memory organization structure is different, because
each person’s field of experiences is unique. Figure 4.5 is a useful analogy. Fields of
experience are the sum total of all the experiences—knowledge, emotions, feelings,
signs, symbols, gestures, mathematical notations, and so on—a person has accumulated during a lifetime. These fields underpin the memory organization packets.
Consider, for example, the European “Mermaids” ad for Levi’s 501 jeans
(QuayFromDatWay, 2006). Here a handsome young man wearing a pair of Levi’s
preshrunk 501s falls overboard during a storm. To the background music of
“Underwater Love,” we become aware that he is to be rescued by mermaids. First,
the mermaids kiss him, which enables him to breathe. Then their attention switches
from the young man to his 501s, which they try to remove. He escapes and swims
to the surface, to the disappointment of the mermaids. Based on the fields of experience concept, what is going on here? Do the mermaids want the young man, his
jeans, or what’s inside the jeans? From a decoding perspective, we realize the young
The Changing Role of Consumers
65
Fig. 4.5 Fields of experience. (Source: The authors)
man is attractive because he’s wearing the 501s. The young man is a means to an
end. The mermaids want to be part of the Levi 501 generation. Further decoding
reveals that in mythology, when mermaids love a human, they can leave the water
and have their fins replaced by a beautiful pair of legs. Such legs need, of course, to
be covered to get by in today’s world. All these underlying associations support
nodes and beliefs relating to Levi 501s as being a brand that is trendy, a bit daring,
and attractive to the opposite sex.
But what if this message is presented to an audience with no background culture
regarding mermaids or for that matter—501s? What if the message is presented to
an audience with a rather puritan outlook? The sensual elements of the message
would have to be replaced with something more conservative. Plainly, the extent to
which communication is effective depends on the extent of overlap between fields
of experience. Or, put in another way, effectively decoding messages is dependent
on the receiver’s fields of experience, which in turn may act as a proxy for memory
organization packets.
It is not enough simply to place a message within a field of experience. As we
argued earlier, meaning is in the mind of the receiver. Hence, the greater the overlap
between a sender’s field of experience and the receiver’s field of experience, the
greater the probability that messages encoded by the sender will be decoded appropriately. Likewise, the smaller the overlap between the sender’s and receiver’s fields
of experience (based on lack of understanding), the greater the probability of messages being seen as irrelevant, and hence not worthy of attention. Referring back to
the model of consumer information processing (Fig. 4.4), communication has either
misfired or not progressed into LTM.
Finally, a message moving through a communication channel is subject to noise,
which is extraneous and distracting stimuli that interfere with or interrupt reception
of the message. Such interference or distortion is called noise. Noise may occur at
any stage in the communication process. For example, at the point of message
encoding, the sender may be unclear about what the message is intended to accomplish. A likely result is a poorly focused and perhaps even contradicting message,
rather than a message that is clear-cut and integrated. A noise can also occur in the
message channel—a poor internet connection, a crowded magazine page on which
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an advertisement is surrounded by competitive clutter, and a personal sales interaction that is interrupted repeatedly by texting and phone calls. Noise can also be
present at the receiver/decoding stage of the process, for example, the receiver simply may not possess the information base needed to understand fully the promotional message.
The Drive for Integrated Approaches in a Global Context
The field of information processing provides a rich source of modeling and data to
assist marketers in developing effective communication. But the world of communication had and is changing, and understanding how and in what ways consumers
store, process, and retrieve information is crucial to effective marketing communication. Information comes from many sources, and every potential contact with
consumers needs to be planned and orchestrated to reinforce positive associations.
There are at least four additional reasons why marketing communication should be
integrated and standardized whenever and wherever possible.
First, we are led to believe that control of information is passing from senders to
receivers of messages. The old idea of consumers mesmerized by a flickering
cathode-­ray tube and consuming soap operas, sitcoms, and advertisements has
already been laid into the fossilized sedimentary strata of the mass marketing age.
Consumers in the twenty-first century will have access to a proliferation of online
and offline sources, over which they will exert considerable control. In this context,
unintegrated messages, or messages unattuned to consumer mind-sets, will have
little impact and may even rebound negatively on established market share.
Second, product, brand, and corporate communication will follow the well-­
blazed, unrhetorical trail of politics and politicians. Sound bites and bits of information will become the norm. Telling consumers will be replaced by far more creative
forms of integrated communication hopefully more attuned to a sound understanding of consumer needs, wants, and desires (note, at the time of writing this is more
of a hope for the future than a current reality) (Kitchen, 2018).
Third, the future will be about firms building “real” rather than quasi or fake
relationships. Successful marketing is always about relationships. One-to-one marketing will become far more the norm, and retention of—and curricula with—existing customers will become the dominant paradigm in a product-, brand-, and
service-saturated planet.
The fourth reason is the globalization of markets. Consumers can be subdivided,
segmented, and targeted ad nauseam. But, they also wish to be served. Perception,
for consumers, is reality. It is not enough for a company to be global in scope or
scale or, for that matter, to develop integrated and standardized marketing communication campaigns. Instead, all forms of marketing communication must be focused
clearly on the dynamics of to-be-served markets, and the dynamics must be
understood.
Hence with this discussion of factors bringing about change in marketing communication, together with the review of how communication works from a
References
67
consumer perspective, the next chapter will look at what we consider integrated
marketing communication to be from a global perspective.
Conclusions
• Homogeneous segments of demand exist within heterogeneous global markets.
The global consumer has finally emerged—initially in the triad countries only,
but latterly spanning half the planet.
• The database of consumer or market information will come to underpin most of
all marketing decisions you make.
• To breakthrough communication clutter, invest your brand with meaning, so
much so that your basic message does not require words to be communicated.
• Meaning is in the mind of the receiver; thus, you must understand the cultural
framework of the customer you are trying to reach. Not doing so is courting
failure.
Discussion Questions
1. Explore the relevance of each of the following for a corporation of your choice
and assess the extent to which they are built into the communication strategy?
a. Semiotics
b. Cognitive information processing and hedonic experientialism
c. Elaboration likelihood
2. Drawing upon online sources, assess what the chosen company did well (or otherwise) with its communication strategy
3. How does this reflect on the communications process?
Note
1
An exabyte is a unit of information equal to one quintillion (10 18) bytes or one billion gigabytes.
References
Andrews, C. J., & Shimp, T. A. (2018). Advertising, promotion, and other aspects of integrated
marketing communications. Boston: Cengage Learning.
Coca-Cola Company. (2018). The discipline of growth—Exploring, challenging and leading with
brands to accelerate growth. Retrieved March 17, 2020, from https://www.coca-­colacompany.
com/news/leading-­with-­brands-­to-­accelerate-­growth
Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Palgrave Macmillan.
Keegan, W. J., & Green, M. C. (2017 [1999]). Global marketing (9th ed.). Prentice-Hall.
Kitchen, P. (2018). Unpublished personal notes, in development.
Laswell, H. D. (1948). Power and personality (pp. 37–51). Norton.
Levitt, T. (1983, May–June). The globalization of markets. Harvard Business Review.
Levitt, T (1993, May–June). The globalization of markets. Harvard Business Review.
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Plan International. (2014). Norway child bride blog goes global. Retrieved April 14, 2020, from
https://plan-­international.org/news/2014-­10-­10-­norway-­child-­bride-­blog-­goes-­global
QuayFromDatWay. (2006, April 18). Levi Mermaids advert [video file]. https://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=_vL6Tj9kb3U
Rickman, D. (2014, October 8). The truth behind Norway’s ‘first child wedding’. Independent.
https://www.indy100.com/article/the-­t ruth-­b ehind-­n orways-­first-­c hild-­w edding%2D%2
DlyHKZMEaBg
Ridley, L. (2015, January 9). Norway ‘child bride’ sparks outrage as 12-year-old’s wedding blog
goes viral. HUFFPOST. https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/10/09/child-­bride-­thea-­
norway_n_5957360.html
Roderick, L. (2016, September 7). Coca-Cola sees ‘green shoots’ as one brand strategy makes
‘promising’ start. Marketing Week. https://www.marketingweek.com/coca-­cola-­sees-­green-­
shoots-­as-­one-­brand-­strategy-­yields-­promising-­results/
Schmitt, B. (1999). Experiential marketing. Journal of marketing management, 15(1–3), 53–67.
Soon, C. S., Brass, M., Heinze, H. J., & Haynes, J.-D. (2008). Unconscious determinants of free
decisions in the human brain. Nature Neuroscience, 11, 1–3.
Statista. (2018). Spending on direct marketing in Europe from 2007 to 2018. Retrieved November 20,
2018, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/448738/direct-­marketing-­spending-­in-­europe/
Vizard, S. (2017, September 25). Are FMCG brands struggling to realise the promise of direct
selling? Marketing Week. Retrieved November 20, 2018, from https://www.marketingweek.
com/2017/09/25/fmcg-­brands-­direct-­selling/?ct_5bf413e1a9991=5bf413e1a9a40
5
Integrated Communication or Integrated
Marketing Communication
The Contextual Global Environment
From the mid-1980s a global economy or to use Levitt’s terms the globalization of
markets started to accelerate in earnest and was clearly differentiated from preceding stages. Since 2000, the world has progressed and is still progressing through a
dramatic series of economic, social, and political upheavals. John Dunning (1993),
author of Multinational Enterprises and the Global Economy, states with remarkable presence:
The decision-making nexus of the [multinational enterprise] in the early 1990s … resembles the central nervous system of a much larger group of interdependent, but less formally
governed activities, aimed primarily at advancing the globally competitive strategy and
position of the core organization. This it does, first by efficiently combining its 0-specific
resources with those it acquires from other firms, second by its technology, product and
marketing strategies, and third, by the nature of alliances it concludes with other firms.
(Italics added, slight paraphrasing from original)
The second edition by Dunning and Lundan (2008) adopted a similar approach and
definition, and there is little room for doubt that the global or multinational economy
and its accompanying global firms are here to stay and have developed significantly
since the first edition of this book. We now live in a world dominated by global, multinational, and international companies. Whether these correspond or fit the needs of
customers and consumers in today’s world is the subject of a very different book.
Dunning then cited cites Bartlett and Ghoshal (1998), mentioned in Chap. 3, who
suggest that for corporate success in today’s global environment, firms need to
develop and manage a cross-border network of separate but interrelated activities.
As discussed in Chap. 3, they determine that firms require a threefold competency,
which involves:
1. taking full advantage of economies of scale and scope arising from global
integration;
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
P. J. Kitchen, M. E. Tourky, Integrated Marketing Communications,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76416-6_5
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2. a proper appreciation of differences in the supply capabilities and consumer
needs in different countries, standardizing when possible and differentiating
only when and if necessary; and
3. using the experience gained in global, regional, and national markets to
strengthen the resource base of the firm as a whole
Dunning (ibid.) then astutely summarizes:
Such a balance between globalization, localization, and learning experience will clearly
vary according to the nature and range of products produced, where they are produced, and
firm-specific characteristics. It may also depend on the channels of knowledge and expertise within the [multinational enterprise] and the way in which decisions are taken.
Of course, not all firms are or may ever arrive at the stage where global decisions
need to be made. Firms may be located at various points on the continuum from
domestic to global and may be using one or many mechanisms to communicate with
those customers who could either impact corporate performance or constitute a target market. There is nothing particularly global or domestic (or, for that matter,
international or transnational) about a set of public or consumer needs or markets.
Needs are there to be understood, then focused on via marketing and marketing
communication activities. However, as said, the rationale for such activities is
always to advance the competitive strategy and position of the core organization and
to build relationships with customers. Back in the 1980s, two clear examples of
globalized companies were Coca-Cola and IBM. In 2020, they are still there but
joined by several others.
Several examples—some historical—from the business and academic worlds
make the point:
The international growth of the Financial Times—to the point that its circulation is now
greater outside than inside the UK—has been driven by the same trends … reshaped so
many British businesses over the past two decades…. They include … the rapid increase in
cross-border trade and capital flows, the growing acceptance of English as the language of
business, and changes in technology. (“The Global Financial Times,” Financial Times,
November 6, 1998)
And, as early as 1994, Jack Welch commented:
In the environment of the 1990s, globalization must be taken for granted. There will only be
one standard for corporate success: international market share. The winning corporations
will win by finding markets all over the world. (Jack Welch, CEO, General Electric, 1994,
cited in Keegan and Green (1999))
In 2020, these examples are joined by Amazon, Apple, Starbucks, Ikea, and Dow
Chemical, to name but a few (Animucka, 2015).
However, businesses competing internationally and globally in the 2020s face
greater competitive challenges. There is now a growing backlash against globalization, and the heady world of steady market liberalization which existed and was
The Contextual Global Environment
71
supported wholeheartedly in 2000 is no longer the case today. Second, it has become
patently evident that rules and ideologies favoring Western countries are still prevalent today and the favoring process is starkly evident, personified, for example, by
many statements by Donald Trump. Third, the citizens of countries, which are successful in globalizing businesses, have yet to see advantages accruing to them personally. For example, in the USA, 10 million children have no access to healthcare,
and 30 million live on or below the poverty line. In the UK, some 25–30% of families live below the poverty line, and millions of families where parent or parents
work full-time need to avail themselves of food banks. Meanwhile, the educational
and medical systems are almost breaking under the strain of a rapidly increasing
population on what is now an overcrowded island off the coast of Europe. Meanwhile,
the USA persists as the largest economy in the world, followed by China, Japan,
Germany, and then the UK. We could legitimately ask the question, does globalization benefit citizens and the answer is apparently a resounding “Yes” for the few and
a resounding “No” for the many (see Wade, April 26, 2018; and FocusEconomics,
2019; Kitchen & Sheth, 2016).
Despite internal national ambivalences and inequities, in today’s business society, only the best companies and brands prosper. Yet, there is no magical nostrum,
single secret, or panacea, to success. Superior technology, better quality, manufacturing and merchandising efficiencies, and marketing savvy are just a few of the
most significant ways in which a company and its brands may succeed. Marketing
communication … is a critical aspect of a company’s overall marketing mission and
a major determinant of its success. Indeed, it has been claimed that marketing in
[the next millennium] is communication and communication is marketing. The two
are inseparable (see Andrews & Shimp, 2018).
Despite misgivings among electorates everywhere, businesses are speeding
toward more not less globalization where success is built upon competitive performance and brand equity. Competitive performance is the major function of marketing effort, and marketing is basically about creating exchanges and hopefully and
eventually—relationships, while building goodwill (i.e., equity) over the brand
existence. From a firm’s perspective, outcomes of marketing and communications
focus on enhancing a brand’s value to its various audiences/stakeholders (e.g., final
consumers, retailers, wholesalers, suppliers, employees, etc.) which might result in
desirable outcomes such as higher market share, revenues, profits, ROI, stronger
brand loyalty, and so on. From a consumer perspective, creating brand awareness
and boosting brand image are other important outcomes, though might serve little
positive effect unless individuals ultimately make purchases or engage in some
other form of desired behavior. Following Andrews and Shimp (2018) in this highly
competitive global marketplace, whatever is marketed (such as product, service,
corporation, political party, and idea) has also to be communicated. The most meaningful and acceptable psychological metaphor for what is to be communicated is the
concept of brand. Firms need to communicate unique and positive messages via
advertising, personal selling, promotions, events, and other means in an integrated
manner, to differentiate their brands effectively from competitive offerings and
insulate themselves as far as possible from future price competition.
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Communication Transition to a Global
Brand-Oriented Approach
Most people trained in marketing recognize that, to all intents and purposes, it is a
product of the twentieth century. However, it was only late in the century that marketing was accepted as a legitimate business activity (Sheth et al., 1988; Kitchen &
Sheth, 2016). Marketing rests on three fundamental foundations or pillars:
1. A sound understanding of the dynamics of served markets
2. Critical examination of opportunities for competitive advantage and implementation of marketing strategies
3. Inside a marketplace/marketspace that is global in form, structure, and ubiquity
The anticipated outcomes of these activities are … market transactions or
exchange of money by loyal customers for goods and services which appear to offer
to satisfy some need.
Marketing is about creating satisfactory exchanges via effective and integrated
communication with consumers and building relationships with customers; and
with other publics who could impact organizational performance (i.e., investors,
analysts, employees, pressure groups, etc.) by means of effective corporate communication. Businesses are consumer- and profit-oriented. But the marketing concept—creating exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives more
effectively and efficiently than the competition—has been proclaimed by Philip
Kotler (1999) a leading doyen of marketing, as not entirely appropriate in a world
of environmental deterioration, overpopulation, hunger, poverty, and neglected
social services. Thus, the societal marketing concept was born—marketing in a way
that preserves or enhances consumer and societal well-being. This, when connected
with dynamic and irreversible changes in the global economy, means that firms have
to engage in a three-pronged balancing act: company profits, consumer need satisfactions, and public interest. Each of these responsibilities has resonance for integrated marketing communication (IMC). Both profits and consumer want
satisfactions are delivered by means of appropriate products, conveniently available, priced appropriately, and communicated relevantly. Each of the 4Ps of marketing, popularized by E. Jerome McCarthy, or the 6Ps of Kotler, is the basis for
effective traditional marketing strategies and tactics. Each is focused on target markets. And, in our view, all are quickly becoming the table stakes required simply to
survive. To prosper in the twenty-first-century marketplace will likely require more,
as we discuss later. Each is interactive and synergistic, and each plays a role in
communication.
Following nearly a century of development, most marketing-oriented companies
would be expected to get things right. But, in 1997, one of the world’s premier
branded marketers, Procter & Gamble, discovered that it had forgotten someone—
the consumer! Until 1997, P&G was making more than 55 price changes a day
across numerous brands, offering more than 400 sales promotions each year, tinkering continually with package design, color, and contents. In the Wall Street Journal
Communication Transition to a Global Brand-Oriented Approach
73
Europe, Durk Jager, P&G’s president and CEO, admitted, “We were confusing
[consumers].” P&G has now changed to a more concentrated, less confusing
approach.
Lest we think this problem is unique to P&G, consider the situation in 2019 of
Deutsche Bank—identified as a brand falling into difficulties in March 2019. On
Sunday, March 8, 2019, came the announcement:
•
•
•
•
•
•
18,000 immediate job cuts
Monday, some employees told: “clear desk by 11.00am”
Restructuring cost €7.4 billion
Second quarter loss—€2.8 billion
Share price, €7.5 to 7.1
The revolving CEO door, Julius Baer, to step down after two years
Deutsche Bank had moved from the relative safety of national stability and
steady growth to the uncertain stormy waters of international financial markets,
including corporate takeovers and a launch on the New York Stock Exchange. A
summary of its wheeler-dealer mentality is provided, courtesy of The Guardian July
8, 2018 (see Davies, 2019), and is an instrumental illustration not to rush lemminglike into not-so-well-known marketing waters. All companies including Deutsche
Bank can falter as environmental factors change. In the rapidly moving contexts,
even excellent communications may be insufficient to stay the tide.
Yet some have fared better as marketing moved from its secure moorings in
national environments and became of global significance. It is no longer company
versus company in a domestic setting but company versus company in a global or
international setting. Witness, for example, the rush of mergers and acquisitions by
firms jockeying for global position: in oil, British Petroleum’s taking over Amoco;
in automobiles, Daimler’s merging with Chrysler. Previous takeovers, such as
BMW and Rover in the UK, have not really created economies of scale in production, nor was BMW able to take advantage of learning and experience curve effects,
and there have been image problems. Daimler-Benz’s reputation for engineering
excellence does not square well with Chrysler’s overt focus on finance and
marketing.
• Just how does the drive to globalized markets affect consumers?
• Do consumers know of the drive for globalization?
• More important, do they care?
People do care and are increasingly concerned about what companies that market
brands actually do. Meanwhile Don Schultz the brand has become the key to integrated marketing. The brand is the center or hub of what consumers want, need, and
consider to be of value. But the brand can be a company as well as a functional or
emotional benefit wrapped in appropriate packaging.
So, the brand is key. Or is it? It could be argued that in the wake of new media
revolutions and expansiveness, in the revitalized focus on target marketing, in the
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focus on brand/consumer dialogues, in the jockeying for global market share, and
juxtaposed with the worldwide demand for marketing to prove its contribution,
there is pressure on all firms to integrate.
Integration needs to take place on two fronts to be of value. In an age of increasing similarities between competing brands, where price strategies and distribution
channels are fairly uniform, communication is becoming the sine qua non or heart
and soul of marketing. Many scholars have stipulated the need for all organizational
communication to be integrated, but this argument affects not just organizational
fiat but also corporate culture, strategies, and brand life cycles.
So what needs to be integrated? Undoubtedly, the brand has become or is becoming the dynamic hub around which all marketing effort and communication revolves.
Consumers ultimately own all brands. Firms create brands, but consumers own
brands. Firms strive to create brand identities; consumers give brands imagery.
Brand images can change as fashions and life cycles change, or, put another way, as
consumers change the ways they satisfy their needs. Twenty years ago, Levi Strauss
was galloping down the highway of global expansion with a pair of 501s fixed
firmly in the saddle. A recent estimate was it had revenue of around $10 billion. In
fact, its sales peaked at $7 billion in 1997 and then fell to $4.1 billion by 2002. From
2001 to 2010, they never exceeded $4.5 billion. By 2014, it had risen to $4.7 billion
and $4.9 billion by 2018, maybe not at their best performance, but by no means a
corporate crock. Their new CEO admittedly said that Levi’s strategy sounded like
“the gang that couldn’t shoot straight” (Berg, 2018).
So, admittedly, sales and profits declined precipitously, and Levi’s ambitious
goals turned into layoffs and factory closures. In this case, and despite the spin-off
toward work clothes with its Dockers brand, Levi Strauss encountered the downside
of the fashion/casual clothing life cycle and has been supplanted (perhaps only temporarily) by newer and more fashionable icons. But for a while, the Levi 501 brand
was the center of worldwide profitable growth.
Figure 5.1 indicates how and in what ways a brand can be the hub for profitable
growth. The variables outside the figure are all performed by different factors which
Fig. 5.1 Brand structure.
(Source: Adapted from first
edition)
Communication Transition to a Global Brand-Oriented Approach
75
are likely to have different perceptions. However, all the factors need to be taken
into consideration.
Levi Strauss is an example of a company with a corporate/product brand name.
Unable to respond quickly as a result of fashion cycle changes and some managerial
inertia, Levi encountered problems in terms of brand image, values, benefits, and
barriers, and these factors impacted individual brand performance and overall corporate results.
But, for many companies, the brand is a twofold entity. The first entity is the
brands consumers encounter. From ICI to Dow Chemical, Lysol to Armor-All, from
Colgate to Sensodyne, consumers the world over know these brands. But consumers
increasingly want to know more of the company behind the brand. What does it do?
What values does it personify? What personalities are running the company? What
environmental problems does it create or perpetuate? Do they take sustainability
seriously? If we are to talk brands, then companies have the usual choices concerning alternative branding strategies (product line branding, specific product branding, corporate branding, combination branding, private label branding, or no brand
identity). From a communication perspective, and maybe from the integrated marketing approach, specific product branding (Sensodyne, Pampers, Snickers, etc.)
comes to mind. These could be integrated under the heading of what has been
described as the promotional mix. But the corporation behind these brands presumably stands for an identity planned by corporate communication specialists and an
image possessed by publics impacted by the corporation. This is roughly conceptualized in Fig. 5.2.
The corporate brand is thus the central core or fulcrum that gives an overall sense
of meaning, identity, strategy, and dynamic thrust to the strategic business units and
individual brands within its portfolio. Meanwhile, individual brands, powerful corporate assets in their own right, provide exchanges that inculcate brand loyalty,
provide brand equity, and immeasurably enhance and empower corporations that
Fig. 5.2 The brand binds
together the four elements
of the organization.
(Source: Adapted from first
edition)
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ostensibly “own” them. But these individual brands can be affected by consumer
likes, dislikes, tastes, and perceptions, hence the somewhat arbitrary movement
away from Levi Strauss in the late 1990s. But equally, perceptions of the corporation can influence individual brand performances as—for example—in the case of
the French cosmetics company L’Oreal (a brand known for animal testing) which
acquired The Body Shop for £652 million (a brand known for its ethical products,
exotic ingredients, environmentally friendly practices, and social activism). After
L’Oreal’s acquisition of the brand and after the demise of its original founder in
2007, Anita Roddick, The Body Shop’s CEO who once pushed most of Europe to
ban testing on live animals, The Body Shop brand has started to lose its appeal and
edge over competitors, due to the negative spillover from the master brand—
although L’Oreal’s animal testing policy which took place in March 2013 as a cut-­
off date and the created animal testing FAQ on its website. This has contributed to
The Body Shop’s declining performance, as sales fell by ~5% to £779 million in
2016, while its operating profit declined by 38% during the same period to £28.5
million, which drove L’Oreal in 2017 to sell off Natural Beauty brand The Body
Shop (Forbes, 2017). The Body Shop might be an example of what happens when a
brand’s core values are lost due to being absorbed by a larger corporate identity.
However, the model is imperfect; it does not show the interactions between brands,
nor does it show the interactions between individual brands and the corporation in
terms of reflecting overall values associated with both—for the above example, it
was clear that there wasn’t much common ground between The Body Shop and
L’Oreal’s other brands.
There is a brand puzzle to be solved. From an individual brand perspective, communication needs to be integrated not just at the tactical level but ultimately in terms
of financial and strategic integration. This strategy of communication must be
underpinned by a sound ongoing analysis of consumer behavior in terms of returns
on investment by behavioral segmentation. From a corporate perspective, a similar
strategy needs to be deployed to internal organizational members, suppliers, retailers, customers, and analysts. Interactions between the two different types of brand—
the corporate brand and individual brands within the corporation’s portfolio—have
yet to be explained and/or fully analyzed.
Integrated Communication
To many managers, executives, and leading-edge managerial and marketing thinkers, globalization is already a reality. But as Theodore Levitt (1993) pointed out, the
real driving force of marketing is the marketplace that is not merely national or
international but is now global to a significant degree—aided by political elites
everywhere. But, as Levitt (1986) elsewhere:
… the marketplace is not autonomous. It merely reflects the results of those who act upon
it: those who “buy” in it, and those who “sell” in it. They marshal materials, technologies,
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77
people, sentiment, wits, and money to their intended ends, meeting head-on in an amalgamating and unforgiving crucible. (Italics added)
He also stated:
The purpose of business is to get and keep a customer. Without solvent customers in some
reasonable proportion, there is no business. Customers are constantly presented with lots of
options to help them solve their problems. They don’t buy things; they buy solutions to
problems. The surviving and thriving business is a business that constantly seeks better
ways to help people solve their problems. To create betterness requires knowledge of what
customers think betterness to be. This precedes all else in business. The imagination that
figures out what that is, imaginatively figures out what should be done, and does it with
imagination and high spirits will drive the enterprise forward. (Italics added)
One way to achieve this is through applying an outside-in approach; start with
the customer or prospect and then work backward to the brand communicator in
determining the most appropriate messages and media to employ for the brand. An
excellent example by Mountain Dew, which created a multi-step engagement strategy that became known as “DewMocracy.” This campaign gave a voice to the consumer (target young, active, adventure-seeking consumers who seek caffeine to
keep going); so instead of Mountain Dew creating their new drink, they created a
platform for consumers to do so. Consumers were invited to join this mythical
online world where they interacted with other visitors to agree on the look, feel, and
taste of a new drink with the goal of creating one of three potential new drinks.
These three unique flavors were then distributed nationwide for a taste test which
eventually led to one winner and consequently the new Mountain Dew flavor. The
campaign attracted 700,000 unique visitors that spent an average of 27 minutes on
the site with over 1000 people downloading the DewMocracy Facebook app. The
first DewMocracy campaign was launched in 2007 and it went so well that its success was later repeated in 2009, and in 2013 in Canada (FlockAssociatesLtd, 2013).
This is based on the supposition that the consumer increasingly wants to be in
control. In today’s marketplace, consumer-generated content serves as evidence of
this, with personalization and authenticity of marketing communication messages
being important in gaining consumer trust and engagement with such efforts.
Most of the preceding concerns marketing and exchanges, and we agree that the
marketing imagination is what drives initial marketing impetus. But consumers do
not choose just brands (usable, functional, or symbolically representative products).
They also choose to support (or not) and to carry images (positive or negative)
toward companies. The corporation in and of itself has meaning and resonance for
consumers and other publics. Corporate performance is not just a function of how
well its brands are doing but also of how well the company as brand is doing. In our
view, it is insufficient to integrate all communication activities at product brand
level only. All communication activities at the level of the business or corporation
must be integrated as well. Moreover, interaction between the two forms of communication must take place in an ongoing, interactive manner. No walls or barriers
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should stand between these types of communication, for both ultimately will drive
the business forward either annually or over a longer timescale.
Corporate communication is aimed at publics via a variety of interactive tools.
These include corporate advertising, corporate publicity, public affairs, government
relations and lobbying activities, issues management, city and analyst relations, and
corporate sponsorship. The aim of such activities is to support and underpin identity
and image.
Corporate Identity
Corporate identity refers to a set of intrinsic characteristics or “traits” (e.g., strategy,
culture, and core competencies) that give the organization its specificity, stability,
and coherence, albeit transmitted through formal and informal communication
channels and visual cues by which an audience can recognize the company and
distinguish it from others (See Kitchen et al., 2013). Firms approach identity, or the
ways of communicating with publics, in different ways. Cees Van Riel and Blackburn
(1995), author of Principles of Corporate Communication, indicated at least three
different strategies to approach corporate identity: (also called brand architectural
systems—as explained in Chap. 2)
1. Monolithic: The whole company uses one visual style. The company can be
recognized instantly, and it uses the same symbols everywhere. Such companies
have usually developed as a whole entity within a relatively narrow field.
Examples: Shell, Philips, IBM.
2. Endorsed: The subsidiary companies have their own style, but the parent company remains recognizable in the background. The different divisions can be
recognized, but it is clear which is the parent company. These are diversified
companies, the parts of which have retained parts of their own culture, traditions,
and/or brands. Examples: General Motors, L’Oreal.
3. Branded: Subsidiary companies have their own style, and the parent company is
often not recognizable to the “uninitiated.” The brands appear to have no relation
to each other or to the parent company. Separation of brands from parent company limits the risk of product failure, but it also means that the brands cannot
benefit from any favorable reputation that the parent company may enjoy.
Examples: Unilever, P&G—though even here small name or logo is to be found
on individual brands.
Ultimately, these visual identity structures (which are not mutually exclusive) are
related to different types of strategy. While it is not necessary to review all types of
strategy here, plainly companies not only are at different stages in terms of their
development but also adopt different strategies based on the overarching organizational strategy, which itself is a function of historical development. However, it is
our view that corporations are becoming more visible, more accountable, and less
able to hide inside empty corporate raincoats (see Kitchen & Schultz, 2001).
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79
Corporations have to play a role, become or attempt to appear to be global citizens,
be seen to contribute in some way to the quality of life on this planet—in other
words, go beyond quid-pro-quo exchanges. For example, what a company does or
does not do in Indonesia or Bangladesh in terms of employment policy may eventually impact corporate image around the world.
Corporate communication at its simplest is a mechanism for developing and
managing a set of relationships with stakeholders or interested parties who could
affect overall performance. These relationships must be viewed in a long-term, strategic fashion. Even for those firms that maintain a branded approach, many publics
are becoming more and more interested in what a company is, where it is coming
from, who is managing it, whether problems of an environmental nature are created
because of business processes, and how and in what ways the organization as a
whole is acting as a “good” corporate citizen. Moreover, each type of firm is involved
in the process of analysis, planning, implementation, and control of corporate identity programs in various markets around the world. Images are, to a very significant
degree, dependent on the meaningfulness of the identity programs deployed. And, it
is relatively straightforward these days via the Internet to access positive information (via a company website), but also to gather criticisms of firms, products, and
brands—at least some of the negative aspects of corporate and brand behaviors that
most firms would probably like ignored. Organizational image, in our view, can act
as a powerful and protective force field or umbrella in containing and nurturing the
basketful of brands within corporate portfolios. Expenditures in the corporate
domain, however, are dwarfed by the expenditures taking place at the level of individual brands.
Corporate Image
Corporate image has been described as the picture people have of a company. In
other words, corporate image may seem to be “owned” by people without any conscious effort by the company concerned, however doubtful this assertion. Cees Van
Riel and Blackburn (1995) described image as:
the set of meanings by which an object is known and through which people describe,
remember and relate to it. That is, the net result of the interaction of a person’s beliefs,
ideas, feelings, and impressions about an object [company]?
This definition corresponds to the idea of fields of experience and memory organization packets discussed in the previous chapter. People can be employees; consumers; suppliers of material, parts, labor, or capital; customers; distributors; agents;
joint venture partners; business analysts; share dealers; newspaper editors; business
journalists; or pressure groups. Each will have a view, an opinion, and an image,
which may consciously or unconsciously sway expectations and direct choices.
Corporate image can, to a degree, be seen as representative of the identity of an
organization’s “perceived identity” conveyed by the messages the organization
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communicates about itself. Thus, images are the ideas that people hold about an
organization, while identity is the planned or managed effort by an organization to
communicate with its target groups. At best, image will be a microcosm of the
attempts an organization makes to communicate its identity.
Integrated communication at the corporate level implies that relationships with
each of these publics or groups need to be managed in a pluralistic, interactive manner and with a long-term relationship marketing perspective in mind:
1. Integrated communication, like marketing, needs to be managed. It is preceded
by a sound understanding of the dynamic(s) of each public. Relationships have
to be planned, then implemented, monitored, and adjusted when necessary. This
implies that different stakeholders may require different approaches and different strategic alliances and relationships while not losing sight of the strategic
imperative for a globalized approach. Integrated communication is driven by the
long-term and the strategic vision. The process is not short term, or ad hoc.
Reactive fire-fighting may occasionally be necessary but must always return to
the strategic imperative.
2. Integrated communication is not about one activity. It is diverse in nature and
may involve singular or multiple deployment of elements of the corporate communication arsenal.
3. It is not one-way communication but two-way—interactive and aimed at mutual
benefits to some degree. Thus, it is concerned with identifying, establishing, and
maintaining relationships with various publics or stakeholders nationally,
regionally, internationally, and globally. These relationships presuppose regular
monitoring of awareness, attitudes, and behavior inside and outside an organization. The Economist, as early as 1989, suggested that this means that large companies have to change the way they talk to and listen to people both inside and
outside the organization.
4. Publics able to impact organizational performance are not singular (i.e., consumers) but plural. This means analyzing and adjusting corporate and marketing
policies in line with stakeholder interests and with the focus on organizational
survival and growth in a globalized market.
5. Image is too important to be left to chance. Relationships need to be built. Image
can be strengthened, reinforced, or improved by organizational efforts to create,
manage, and communicate corporate identity.
Integrated Marketing Communication
Integrated marketing communication was the major communication development in
the last decade of the twentieth century and has continued to be of value, significance, and relevance as we enter the third decade of the twenty-first century.
The concept of IMC emerged in the late 1980s in the USA (Caywood et al.,
1991). Three notable shifts occurring in the mid-1980s thrust IMC to the forefront:
the development and diffusion of digital technology across the entire spectrum of
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business operations in the Western world; the increasing emphasis on branding as
the major competitive differentiating tool; and the increasing focus on multinationalization and globalization as MNCs and marketing spread across geographic
boundaries (Schultz & Schultz, 2003).
Evidence shows that IMC rapidly developed and gradually spread to Europe,
Latin America, Oceania, and Asian countries (and continues apace). These days,
“IMC has become standard for marketing organisations, agencies, and the academic
community” (Kitchen et al., 2008, p. 531; Kitchen, 2017).
Just as businesses do not spring full blown into the arena as global combatants,
businesses do not suddenly decide to become integrated. More and more firms are
considering communication the key competitive advantage of marketing per se, and
we agree with them. For example, of all the variables of the marketing mix, only
promotion is charged with responsibility to move products, services, and brands
forward. Figure 5.3 outlines the relationship between integrated communication at
the corporate level and integrated marketing communication at the level of the brand.
Most firms have raised the corporate umbrella over the brands within their portfolios. These brands are powerful strategic assets. They need to be protected, nurtured, and developed into international and, in some cases, global brands. But to
consumers, the only real equity of those brands is in the knowledge organization
packets about the brands they use or recognize. What do consumers believe about a
company, product, service, or their relationship with the brand? Put another way,
what really creates and sustains brand loyalty and brand equity? It is communication! Product design, packaging, brand name, pricing strategy, location, and ambience of accessibility (or distribution) are all forms of communication. From our
perspective, all forms of communication over which the company can exercise
Fig. 5.3 Corporate communication and marketing communication: an integrated approach.
(Source: Adapted from first edition)
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Fig. 5.4 Stages in IMC development. (Source: Adapted from IMC Best Practice Report,
1998 APQC)
control or influence can be integrated. Firms do not arrive at integration overnight.
Instead, they may progress through at least four stages, shown in Fig. 5.4:
Tactical Coordination
Firms at this first stage of tactical coordination focus on the idea of one sight, one
sound, integrating promotional elements such as advertising, sales promotion, marketing public relations, direct marketing, and/or the Internet. Firms also strive to
maximize consistency and synergy among all promotional mix elements and may
instruct advertising agencies to maximize all potential exposures to the brand
through a multiplicity of different media. Typically, and in accord with marketing
communication theory, messages may vary in content, but the same core values will
be depicted repeatedly. Repetition of the same promotional campaigns, however,
which have been successful, say, in the USA, will undoubtedly mean problems if
adopted wholesale overseas. Typically, consumers may respond in different ways
simply because their fields of experience differ. Please note that this approach does
not rely on understanding the dynamics of served markets; it does no market
research, and it is almost a pure straightforward usage of sales orientation (please
see Schultz et al. 1983). This represents the “inside-out” stage of IMC development,
and many companies around the world practice IMC; it is a simple bundling together
of promotional mix elements so they look or sound alike.
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Redefining the Scope of Marketing Communication
At this second stage, the firm starts to adopt an outside-in (as opposed to inside-out)
perspective. This corresponds more with a move in the direction of marketing
focused upon exchanges that satisfy consumer and organization needs. Typically,
the focus here is on the consumer’s perception. Rather than simply integrating from
a tactical Stage 1 perspective, businesses look at all potential contacts a customer or
consumer may have with a product, service, brand, or company. For the first time,
firms start to consider integrated communication from the dual perspective and
potentially align all communication with the needs of customers, consumers, and
prospects—all exchange partners. Here, the costs exceed those of Stage 1 with the
deliberate purposeful intent to understand the dynamics of served markets. Of all
the companies and agency executives interviewed in several research phases, only
about 30% have moved to this stage. Reluctance to take this next step may be driven
by budgetary considerations.
Application of Information Technology
The third stage does not constitute the arrival and incorporation of consumer and
customer data as the driving force for marketing activity. Usually, this empirical
data is already available inside the organization. Instead, the firm starts to apply the
data to identify, value, and monitor the impact of integrated communication programs to key customer target markets or segments over time. However, the analysis
of the need for software and hardware focused upon served markets turns raw data
into customer and consumer knowledge. Costs for this stage dwarf those of Stage 2.
Also, information technology and infrastructure can stand in the way, prohibiting
the free and timely flow of IMC-relevant information or help remove some of the
implementation barriers.
Financial and Strategic Integration
The fourth stage constitutes the highest level of integration, where the emphasis
moves to deploy both the marketing database(s) derived from Stage 3, with the previous abilities derived from Stages 1 and 2 to drive corporate and marketing strategic planning using customer information and insight. Firms in this stage will tend to
reevaluate financial information infrastructures to aid the development of “closed-­
loop” planning and evaluation to determine and measure marketing expenditures
based on return on investment customer and consumer measures. Finally, we can
anticipate return on investment for our communication dollars, pounds, euros,
rubles, or renminbi—which we believe is the ultimate aim of communication efforts
following the heretical view that asserts that marketing communicators should
always state objectives/intended outcomes in terms of financial gains such as sales,
market share, ROI, and so on. It is important to note that the heretical view has been
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criticized by proponents of traditional view, given that financial gains are the consequence of a host of factors including the prevailing economic climate, competitive
activity, and all marketing mix variables used by a brand—an argument that is discussed in detail in Chap. 8.
Contextual Overview
The majority of firms, whether national, international, or global in scope or scale,
are hopefully moving through these stages, though very few will be at Stage 4 even
in 2020. Most multinationals or their managers will be working at Stage 1 or 2, with
a view considering how to integrate their large marketing databases with the customer segments or niches they are serving and the to-be-targeted marketing communication. However, overlaid on this ideal template will be firms positioned in
their historical, cultural, and managerial contexts; likewise, each brand within the
corporate portfolio may be positioned nationally, internationally, regionally, or
globally.
IMC Defined
In a study of IMC within advertising agencies in the USA, the UK, Australia, New
Zealand, India, and South Africa, this definition was used:
IMC is a concept of marketing communication planning that recognizes the added value of
a comprehensive plan that evaluates the strategic role of a number of communication disciplines (for example, general advertising, direct response, sales promotion, and public relations) and combines these disciplines to provide clarity, consistency, and maximum
communication impact.
This early definition was based on developmental work at Northwestern
University’s Medill School of Journalism. For its time (1983), the definition was
useful. Most ad agency practitioners in the countries mentioned agreed (to an extent)
that this definition adequately conceptualized IMC. From this definition, in 1993,
IMC was somewhat strategic in nature and tactical in implementation; in other
words, it was very closely linked with Stages 1 and 2 of IMC development. Some
ad agencies, particularly in the USA, were starting to express some misgivings or
attempting to expand the definition. At least part of the definitional process was
bound up inexorably with the rapidly changing marketing communication landscape in the 1990s. IMC itself was evolving with input from academics and practitioners around the world. A more succinct definition for the twenty-first century was
suggested in Schultz and Kitchen’s (2000) forerunner to this second edition:
IMC is a strategic business process used to plan, develop, execute and evaluate coordinated
measurable, persuasive brand communication programs over time with consumers, customers, prospects, and other targeted, relevant external and internal audiences.
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Another definition, applicable at the corporate and marketing level, was developed by Porcu et al. (2017):
The stakeholder-centred interactive process of cross-functional planning and alignment of
organisational, analytical and communication processes that allows for the possibility of
continuous dialogue by conveying consistent and transparent messages via all media to
foster long-term profitable relationships that create value.
These definitions draw attention firstly to strategy—a stakeholder-centric strategy of communication clearly related to the corporate mission, values, and needs,
but related equally to brand mission, values, and needs. At both levels, executives
will need to develop resonance and consonance in terms of brand identity.
Simultaneously, empirical studies in relation to clearly segmented target markets
and publics need to be carried out to ascertain and measure brand image. Results
need to be measured in behavioral, not just attitudinal, terms. Executives need to
know the return on investment from any communication activity. A strategic business process suggests an ongoing approach in what may be a global market or a
national market where for now the global approach may be inappropriate. For each
delineated audience/stakeholder, measurable outcomes need to be specified in
advance. This is based on knowledge of the psychological state of the target audiences or stakeholders with the brand; knowledge of the current or anticipated competitive situation in the product category; and the problems that the brand must
confront or the opportunities that are available. Also crucial will be an understanding of what is persuasive and is now creating value and could add to augment that
value. We ask, from a global perspective and with a marketing focus … how can a
persuasive message, delivered via a variety of media in one country, exert similar
persuasiveness and deliver value when deployed elsewhere? What, if any, changes
are needed?
Conclusions
• Whatever is marketed has also to be communicated, and the brand is the best
psychological vehicle for delivering meaning.
• Societal marketing means that you consider not only shareholder value but also
how to enhance societal well-being.
• Corporate image is owned by people inside and outside the corporation, whether
done consciously or not.
• Integrated marketing communication offers you a way to meld image and brand
meaning into a unified message—but it takes strategic and financial commitments to realize the potential of IMC.
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Discussion Questions
1. In a historical sense, explain the difference between the fragmentation of promotion versus the move toward IMC.
2. Is IMC likely to be more applicable to companies of specific types? (Give
examples.)
3. “Enter a new age in advertising: respectful, not patronizing; dialogue-seeking,
not monologic; responsive, not formula driven.” Critique this statement.
4. Does the statement represent an end to mass marketing? Justify.
5. Argue for or against the statement that IMC initially appeared to be “simply
marketing and advertising dressed up in new clothes.”
6. “All organizations (companies) should be integrated in terms of their communication.” Critically discuss.
7. Is the brand indeed the “best psychological vehicle” for conveying meaning?
8. Does IMC offer a way in which image and brand meaning meld into a unified
message?
9. Why isn’t inside-out/outside-in IMC insufficient to develop a fully integrated
campaign?
10. What is persuasive? (Be careful.)
11. Surely, the task of senior management is strategic, while marketing communication is tactical? Should marketing communications be strategic? Or, is this
heretical?
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Developing Integrated Global Marketing
Communication Programs
As discussed in Chap. 5, developing an integrated global marketing communication
(IGMC) program involves more than simply agreeing to a corporate logo or icon, a
recommended corporate color, or even an integrated campaign spearheaded by
advertising that can be translated, transliterated, or transmogrified into other cultures and languages. Nor, from a corporate view, is an IGMC program simply a
press release that can be edited so as to be made appropriate for various international editions of business publications or multiple stakeholders that might see it.
Nor is it sufficient these days for an online message to be transmitted or even available on the corporate website. IGMC is so much more than determining if the communication program could or should be localized or if a full global message and
image can be created and delivered. To develop a truly integrated global marketing
communication program requires at least nine organizational skills, talents, and
capabilities (summarized as “elements” below). Some may be present now, some
may have to be learned, and still others may have to be outsourced. These cannot be
learned overnight, nor taught in business schools. Much will have to be purchased
in the hard school of marketing communications practice.
Critical Requirements for IGMC Programs
In our view, any extant or wannabe corporation must either possess or have access
to nine basic elements to become a truly integrated global communicator. In reviewing these, a marketing or communication manager’s comments might well include:
These are not communication issues. These are management or finance or technology or
operations activities. We do only the communication here. We don’t develop the strategy or
run the company.
These are legitimate concerns for traditional managers in traditional companies.
In the past, most traditional marketing communication managers dealt primarily
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
P. J. Kitchen, M. E. Tourky, Integrated Marketing Communications,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76416-6_6
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with advertising, promotion, or merchandising content, message production, and
distribution issues either separately or in conjunction. For some companies in some
countries, this is still the case today. But, in many advanced (if this is still the correct
term) economies, strategic concerns generally reside elsewhere in the organization.
However, if all IMC is a functional support tool, it is insufficient for the globalizing
world of 2021 and beyond. IMC, and its global equivalent—IGMC—has to be a
strategic resource for the organization. As argued in Chap. 2, if most organizations
find they have no product, price, distribution, or even people advantage in the
twenty-first-century marketplace, then communication and ultimately brands,
branding, and the resulting relationships those activities create and maintain with
customers become the organizations’ only true competitive advantages. Thus, marketing communication has to move, flex, and adjust from its one-time primarily
supportive tactical role to one of leadership in the organization. IGMC has also to
move from echoing what the product is or does to identifying customers and prospects and where the organization should invest its finite resources.
Competencies Associated with Mastering IGMC
The following are the nine key areas we believe the organization must master or at
least be able to access to develop effective globally integrated marketing communication programs.
Create Global Processes and Standardization
Internal and external standardization is mandatory in the global arena of 2020 and
beyond. The ability to create systems and processes that can cross borders, cultures,
and businesses becomes absolutely critical (nb, borders can be psychological as
well as geographical). Until the organization has developed or put in place standardized methods of operating, producing, transporting, and communicating, it will be
nothing more than a group of geographically based elements struggling to find common ground with its other parts. In most cases, standardization is brought about
through the development of operating systems. Dow Chemical Corp (see Schultz &
Kitchen, 2000), for example, chose to initiate a totally new internal operating system. Other organizations chose to standardize on existing platforms. Others still
struggle to find a solution. In no area is standardization more important than in communication. The organization simply must have ways of communicating up, down,
and across to succeed. Please review the requirements of an international company
and worldwide knowledge transfer described in Chap. 3 as a prelude to the discussion of the IGMC process outlined in this chapter.
Competencies Associated with Mastering IGMC
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Start with Customers, Not Products or Geographies
IGMC is founded on communicating with all internal and external customer groups.
Historically, most communication started and ended with what the organization
wanted to sell. The communicator’s task was to find ways to deliver messages to the
most likely prospects. For the most part, this was an inside-out approach to marketing communication. What products are to be sold? To whom? Where should messages be directed? In what form? Through which media?
Integrated global marketing communication flips the process around. IGMC
starts with the customers—who they are, what they do, what interests they have,
how much they spend—and then works back to design products and communication. For example, questions in an IGMC process generally start with: How does the
customer or prospect behave toward our product category now? Do they use it?
Have they used it? Might they use it? What information do they have about our
products, services, or brands now? What would they need or like to know? How can
we make that information or knowledge or material available to them? This approach
puts the customer, not the marketer or the product, in the center of the system, as
described in Chap. 4 where historically the product was at the center and the system
was marketer-driven, and currently, the distributor is at the center and the system is
channel-driven, whereas the twenty-first-century global marketplace is headed
toward interactivity and customer focus. That is not to say the more traditional marketplaces of product and distribution will be swept away. These will either be dominant in the case of less-developed economies or co-exist alongside the marketplaces
and marketspaces of 2020 and beyond. However, in no market can customers be
ignored or treated as secondary in importance. Perhaps an exception can be made
for religious organizations where obedience, not interaction, is what is required, but
even here, patterns must be evaluated.
Inherent in our approach, and extending beyond customers as the major stakeholder, is the concomitant need to consider all organizational stakeholders in the
marketing and corporate communication process. As noted in Chap. 5, all organizational stakeholders have an interest in the firm or influence upon and can impact
future success/failure. Non-customer stakeholders can range from government
authorities to lobbyists and pressure groups. In addition, they might be employees
or channel partners or distributors. All these groups may be crucial to the short- and
long-term success of the organization. However, most internal and external stakeholders have a limited influence on income, affecting only the level of income flow
generated from end users. The global marketing communication manager (if they
exist) must always keep in mind that end users are the only people who generate
income for the firm. Customers supply the euros, pounds, dollars, pesos, or yen at
the top and provide the organization with the resources to manage and determine the
profits that are generated at the bottom. Echoing Theodore Levitt and Peter
Drucker—if an organization has no customers—then it has no future—no matter
how supportive or influential other stakeholders may be.
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Identify and Value Customers and Prospects
Since customers and prospects are key elements in organizational success, there
must be some method of identifying and valuing these people or firms. Commonly,
customers are valued based on income flows they have produced in the past and
their potential for the future. Further, prospects can be valued based on what income
flows they might create for the firm in the future.
For example, Chinese traveling for leisure are considered valuable travelers,
given their spending power. Despite China being one of the UK’s fastest-growing
source markets for inbound tourism, Britain has never been on the list of the top ten
places tourists wanted to visit the most. Research showed that Britain was viewed
by Chinese as cold and unwelcoming. To attract more young affluent Chinese to
visit Britain and spend, VisitBritain, Britain’s national tourism agency responsible
for promoting Britain worldwide and developing its visitor economy, launched a
campaign in 2014 called “Great Names for Great Britain” to engage with them,
particularly to change their perception of Britain from cold to warm and inviting and
that Britain had to offer more than just England and London (Casanova, 2013;
Government Practice WPP, 2020).
The campaign identified young, well-off, independent, and open-minded urban
Chinese as target travelers who were looking for rich cultural immersion trips.
Chinese were invited to name 101 points of interest across Britain, given that
Chinese were obsessed with giving nicknames to lots of their favorite places, celebs,
friends, food, and so on especially when they communicate with each other over
social networks, and also because most iconic British places had terrible Chinese
names, often phonetic translations offering a little enticement to visit (Government
& Public Sector Practice, 2015).
The campaign applied IMC with six variations of a launch film, demonstrating
how to go about coining names, appeared on cinema, social channels, and pre-rolls.
In addition, posters appeared on taxis and print media, and celebrity endorsements
and social influencers supported and endorsed the campaign during its three-month
run. To generate more interest, there was open voting for the favorite Chinese name
and the winning “Great Name for Great Britain” was announced at the Grand Finale,
with more than 13,000 names generated.
The campaign was highly successful as millions spoke about the campaign
online. These posts had been seen by more than 300 million times on Weibo alone.
Besides, over 2 million people visited the campaign pages, and 27 million Chinese
watched the launch video. The campaign also received unprecedented media coverage; over 260 media released reports about the Campaign (4 TV and Radio, 156
mass print, 14 travel magazine, 95 portal, vertical, and video platform). Importantly,
immediate tourism benefits were felt with Chinese visits to Britain marked incredible increase. Significant contributions were also made to the British economy with
Chinese tourist spend leaping to the highest level in the past three years (National
Audit Office, 2015).
In other words, we look at customers and prospects as assets worthy of nurturing
and protection. Our task as communicators is to manage those assets, so they
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produce the greatest return to the company. Thus, finite organizational resources
must be directed toward the best customers or prospects either to continue current
income flows or to generate new or increased income flows. It is really that simple:
the firm must direct its communication resources toward those customers and prospects most likely to pay the best returns. Inherent in this approach is the requirement
that there must be some way to identify or value customers and prospects for investment. If we can’t value them or estimate what return we might get from investments
in them, there is no way to determine either how much we should invest in communication or how returns might be measured. In the IGMC approach, we make
great use of information technology to capture and analyze vast amounts of information about customers and prospects. We describe this process in detail later in
this chapter.
Identification of Customer and Prospect Contact Points
In today’s crowded and confused marketplaces and marketspaces, it is not so much
how an organization wants to communicate with customers and prospects but
understanding how and where and in what ways the customer or prospect already
comes into contact with the firm and prefers to receive information. For example,
among present customers, any type of marketing communication the organization
might develop pales in comparison to the many ways in which the customer already
receives volumes of information about the company, its products, and services, how
it views customers, how its services support its products, and so on. For example, a
present customer interacts with the product or service in use and with channels or
systems through which it is delivered whether online or offline. For example,
Cadbury’s UK Bournville campaign has done very well on social media (History
West Midlands 2017).
The same is true with prospects. They observe product or service users in the
market. They see product and service evaluations in the media. They listen to or
ignore advocates. One worsening modality for many organizations concerns poor
customer service. Sales are easily made, but not sustained when poor service is
encountered online or offline (see Taylor et al., 2021).
Contact points with present and prospect customers are numerous, and online
communication is becoming more attractive given its relatively lower cost compared to traditional above-the-line communication. For charities, which often operate with limited budgets, digital communications offer almost endless possibilities
for innovative fundraising, service delivery, marketing, and awareness-raising.
A contemporary global human rights issue is related to gun violence, a daily
tragedy affecting the lives of individuals around the world. In the developed world,
these levels of gun violence are a uniquely American problem. Every year, 80,000
Americans are injured and 32,000 are killed with guns. Surprisingly, two-thirds of
the deaths are suicides. America’s gun problem has become a public health crisis.
To reduce gun-related death and injury, States United to Prevent Gun Violence
(SUPGV) charity is dedicated to making families and communities safer through
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education, advocacy, and legislation. The charity, through an offline and online
campaign, targeted first-time buyers (looking to purchase a gun for protection) to
change their minds about purchasing a firearm, and debunk the myth that guns make
people safer. A video for the campaign could be found here (Prevent Gun Violence,
2015) which explains the steps and provide footage and outcomes.
SUPGV opened both a real and virtual gun shop to provide customers with the
authentic experience of shopping for a firearm, and through that process, change
their minds about the safety gun ownership brings. SUPGV opened a real gun store
in New York City. Through targeted signage, the charity invited people looking to
purchase a firearm for protection to check it out. The store owner’s unique sales
pitch was by sharing the histories behind each firearm’s use in unintentional deaths
and injuries, which stunned customers. SUPGV captured their shocked reactions to
the unsettling histories through hidden cameras, and with the footage, created a
powerful public service announcement (PSA) to inform people interested in purchasing guns for safety of the potential risks and unpredictable outcomes.
SUPGV also developed the store’s website that mirrors the shopping experience
online which showed the deadly histories of guns used in a variety of shootings and
includes a risk evaluation tool that analyzed gun buyers’ personal data to show gun
tragedies and statistics that are related to their lives. To shake things up and get the
media talking, SUPGV conducted the social experiment and put together a compelling media package including a provocative press release, behind-the-scenes footage, detailed histories behind each firearm, and the public service announcement
video. SUPGV targeted PR and social media outlets on both sides of the argument
that had passionate opinions to kick off the mainstream debate about gun safety.
After learning the histories behind the guns, 80% of customers no longer wished to
own a firearm.
Undoubtedly paid, planned, and measured communication programs the organization develops are only a part of what exists in the marketplace and to which customers and prospects alike, along with employees and stakeholders, are exposed.
Thus, the task of the IGMC manager is not just to prepare and deliver integrated
marketing communication programs. It is also to understand how and where and in
what ways customers and prospects come into contact with the brand and the organization. The task is process—to understand the system, not just the specific elements involved, and then to begin to manage global communication programs in an
integrated fashion. How a potential organization looks at the global communication
system is illustrated in Fig. 6.1.
For example, even though Mobil joined Exxon in 2019 for Exxon Mobil
Corporation, the Mobil brand is a common sight in US petrol stations. Mobil Oil
brand managers still consider all the forms and ways it communicates with customers and prospects and attempts to manage all those elements as a process. In some
cases, Mobil controls the communication activities; in others, it doesn’t but may be
able to influence these in favor of the brand. The critical factor is to know and understand the system in which the organization operates and how that can impact the
overall fortunes of the organization.
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Fig. 6.1 Marketing communication as a process. (Source: Adapted from first edition)
Align the Organization’s Interactive Response Capabilities
Traditionally, marketing and communication organizations focused primarily on
developing and implementing outbound communication programs. That is, the
organization has decided what it wanted to do and then set about planning programs
that would implement those decisions. While some attention was paid to what customers or prospects wanted or indeed what they might need, the primary emphasis
in planning was on developing persuasive messages and incentives that stated the
organization’s views in the most appealing and creative ways possible. Persuasion
was the name of the game, while participation—for example via social media—was
seen as a distant dream.
For the most part, companies had at one time limited listening posts through
which to assess customer needs or wants, relying primarily on sales force reports
and formalized market research and increasingly on customer service activities and
data. As a result, the organization focused on outbound communication programs
for selected groups that it believed had potential. (Refer back to the marketer-driven
and distribution-driven marketplaces discussed in Chap. 2.) The primary focus of
the organization in the twenty-first-century marketplace must be its ability to
respond to customers, not just communicate with them on an outbound basis. For
the most part, this will require major changes in how communication programs are
developed and delivered. The outbound model must be replaced so that the organization can create and manage interactive communication with customers, often in
real-time and particularly in an online context. In an interactive system, response is
as important as planning, and time becomes critical. This becomes very important
in crisis management and when seeking to defend organizational stance, for example, AirB especially via social media—for example, how the company responds,
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and it is important to respond well. Further, the organization must be focused totally
on the customer and prospect so that all areas combine to provide an integrated
global communication message to every customer and prospect. We will deal with
this idea of integration and alignment of the organization in more detail in Chap. 7.
Manage Multiple Systems
Marketing and communication scholars and practitioners inevitably perhaps have
always tried to simplify and synthesize marketplace systems and communication
approaches (the 4Ps of marketing is an excellent example), as if, by controlling
those elements, customers and competitors can also be controlled. The same is true
with marketing communication. We used the attitudinal paradigm, for example,
“AIDA” (attention, interest, desire, action), a hierarchy of effects model, believing
if we could manage the process we could convince customers and prospects to buy.
Evidently, a global marketplace, however defined, is far more complex and certainly
not simple to summarize and synthesize. Indeed the marketing and communication
manager of the twenty-first century must recognize that there are multiple markets,
multiple marketplaces, multiple customers, multiple channels, multiple media, and
so on, as illustrated in the three-marketplace scenario developed in Chap. 2 and
depicted in Fig. 6.2.
The first task of the manager will be to identify the marketplace in which the
organization is operating. That, of course, will depend on the customers and prospects to be served. In many cases, the manager will quickly discover that there are
Fig. 6.2 Evolution and revolution. (Source: Adapted from first edition)
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customers and prospects in all three of the marketplaces illustrated in Fig. 6.2. And
there may well be some customers or prospects in totally new and different marketplaces specific to the organization. The key challenge is to recognize the marketplaces and their various customers and then define IGMC programs to serve them.
Often this analysis will reveal the need for multiple marketing and communication
programs. While there is commonly a need for an umbrella approach for the brand,
generally specific communication programs are needed for individual markets and
customers and prospects. In other words, for the most part, the global marketing
communication manager is involved in multiple communication programs in multiple markets for multiple customer groups. Please do not confuse this multiplicity
of programs with differences in geographies, languages, and cultures. Instead, recognize that the differentiation will come from different customers with different
needs seeking different types of information and responses from the marketing
organization. While there may well be local market requirements to deal with—language, culture, customs, and the like—it is the customer who will drive the system,
not the other way around. This perhaps has always been the case, but its reality is
much starker now than at any other point in business and human history. It is the
customer-based approach to marketing communication that differentiates IGMC
from the traditional international or multinational programs of the past. Put another
way, it is the ongoing technological revolution that has the potential to place power
into customers’ hands.
One of the best examples of how globalization has changed many traditional
planning approaches in marketing communication has been the development of
global media systems and brands. For example, CNN and BBC circle the globe.
They can be received in most countries where television is available. Yet these organizations generally broadcast in only a single language, English. MTV is a bit different. MTV, while featuring the same artists and concepts, changes the language
and some of the music to fit local countries, though the basic approach is the same.
In print, Playboy magazine is published in multiple countries, in local languages,
with local stories and personalities. But the Playboy concept is the same. Thus, what
we see today is the development of circular groups of customers and prospects
around the globe. They have the same interests, purchase the same products, and are
attuned to a culture and approach they have adopted, no matter where they live or
what language they speak. This globalization of markets is a key element in the
development of marketing communication programs today and will even more so in
the future, barring technological reversal or other human interventions. For example, French Connection and Benetton advertising has attracted criticism as it not
relevant and may be offensive in specific countries (see Just-Style (2003) and Duffy
(2017)). If something strikes customers and even non-customers as offensive, however, then there are two solutions: one, report it to the national advertising standards
authority; and, second, simply boycott the store, its product, services, and brands …
in perpetuity.
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Value the Brand
In a historical sense, for many organizations, brands have been things that “sort of
occurred” in the marketplace. Branding became much more important during the
1990s and has accelerated since value started to be placed on the brand itself. That
is, the brand developed and became important to customers and prospects not initially because of any planned brand effort per se on the part of the marketing organization but simply because the product and the product name delivered good value
to those who purchased the product or service. It wasn’t that the marketing organizations didn’t understand or value the brand; it was simply that they paid little attention to the management and growth of the brand in and of itself. It has only been in
the last 30 or so years that brand creation, growth, maintenance, and above all value
has become recognized as an organizational priority. Therefore, the real management of brands, branding, and brand communication is a fairly recent phenomenon;
it is becoming increasingly important to every company. Brand reputational damage—if sustained—can undermine an entire corporation.
If we refer back to the three marketplaces shown in Fig. 6.2, it is clear that the
brand was not terribly important in the product- or marketer-driven marketplace.
And in many organizations, it still isn’t. Better products, newer features, incremental innovations, and brand extensions were what marketer-driven organizations
were all about. The same is true for distribution-driven marketers. The brand is a
name to differentiate products and services from others in the distribution system. It
was generally not a major factor in the success of the firm. It is only when all the
traditional marketing activities become commodified or easily replicated that the
value of the brand comes to the fore, for example in the grocery sector of the UK
and the USA. Brand value captures different aspects of brand equity, such as knowledge (recall and recognition), and the unique associations (image) that are stored
and activated in memory when people think about a particular brand, which drives
behavioral and attitudinal forms of customer loyalty and affect revenues. For example, what types of associations which a person might strongly hold in memory about
McDonald’s? Probably, childhood recollections of trips to McDonald’s, the positive
smell of cheeseburgers and fries, the golden arches, and Ronald McDonald which
are unique in comparison to other fast-food chains. This applies not only to mature
consumers but also to children, for whom the fast-food restaurant may be seen as a
fun place to eat.
McDonald’s was the focus of an experimental study involving the taste perceptions of a sample of three- to five-year-old pre-school children from low-income
backgrounds (Robinson et al., 2007). The study design had the children taste two
versions of each of five products (hamburger, chicken nuggets, French fries, milk/
apple juice, and carrots). In one version, each product was presented to the children
in a package with McDonald’s packaging graphics. In the second version, the same
products were presented in plain-white packages absent McDonald’s identification.
With the exception of carrots, which were not sold at McDonald’s restaurants at the
time of the study, all other items were actual McDonald’s products, regardless of the
package used to present them. After tasting both versions of each product, the
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children were asked to indicate which version they liked more, or whether the two
versions tasted the same. The findings of the study indicated that preschoolers preferred the taste of all five food and drink items when they had McDonald’s packaging over the identical food/drink items with plain-white packaging. Simply placing
products in well-identified McDonald’s packaging led children to regard these items
to be superior tasting (Robinson et al., 2007). These preferences were especially
strong among those children who lived in homes with more television sets and who
more frequently ate food from McDonald’s—which reflect the influence of communications on consumers’ brand perceptions, and the impact this might have on
brand equity and value.
Our argument is that in a customer-driven marketplace, the brand, and the brand
experience and relationship with customers and prospects and other shareholders,
will be the primary competitive advantage organizations have. As a result, to compete in any of the marketplaces we have described earlier, it is important to understand and manage the brand properly, including, if necessary, the dualistic approach
discussed in Chap. 5.
Focus on Financial Measures
To be frank, many marketing and communication activities in the past have been
weak on measurement, particularly when attempts are made to relate marketing
communication spending to financial returns. The measurement focus has traditionally been on attitudinal responses from customers—awareness, preference, intent to
buy, and the like—rather than on what actually happened in terms of returns on
investments. While there are many reasons for this lack of focus on the financial
aspects of marketing and communication, this myopic process does not have to
continue. New technology and improved financial management mandate that marketing communication managers can relate their financial expenditures on marketing and communication to the financial returns received as a result of those
investments. Whether this is considered accountability, stewardship, or simply
return on investment (ROI), marketing communication managers must be able to
relate what was spent or invested to what was received in return.
The argument about whether to focus on attitudinal versus behavioral outcomes
extends to the notion of effective advertising, which according to Andrews and
Shimp (2018) varies from culture to culture. In the UK, a premium may be placed
on being different, humorous, or out-of-the-ordinary in differentiating campaigns
from mass advertising. In the USA, creative advertising is viewed more often as
being “effective” in that creativity has a purpose. That is, upon determining the
specific tasks and objectives that an advertising campaign must accomplish, it is the
challenge of the advertising team-advertising agency in association with the client—to develop advertising executions that connect with the target audience, cut
through the clutter, and position the brand optimally in view of the brand’s strengths
relative to competitive brands (Andrews & Shimp, 2018).
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In the IGMC approach, financial investments and returns from customers and
prospects are used as the basis for evaluation. Part of the difficulty in measuring
return on marketing communication investments has been a lack of precision in setting objectives. The two are intertwined; if you can’t measure, then you can’t set
realistic objectives. If you don’t set objectives, then you can’t measure. Given that
the firm has finite resources, the ability to invest those resources in activities that
will generate the greatest returns is critical. Thus, in the IGMC process, we focus on
financial objectives and use attitudinal measures to understand customer behavior
and to better understand our success in the marketplace.
Create Horizontal Organizational Structures
Managers have tended to organize things on a vertical basis. The Romans created
vertical structures with their legions. Kings created vertical structures with very
defined levels of prestige and authority. Organizations have been built on vertical
structures such as strategic business units, divisions, sectors, and the like. Religions
are often hierarchical in nature. Yet the burgeoning global marketplace would seem
to demand horizontal, not vertical, structures, the ability to work across business
units, the ability to cross borders and cultures. The demand today is for singular
units that can access and use all the talents in the organization to focus on customer
needs and wants. This demand for horizontal, not vertical, approaches is perhaps the
most difficult challenge for any organization attempting to operate globally. And, to
some degree, there may even have been an edging away from this horizontal structure, as the internet itself draws users back to their own national structure and pricing strategy in order to maximize profitability and simultaneously minimize
taxation.
As recalled from Chap. 3, most organizations are not global in their structure at
all. In many cases, they are not even international. Instead, they are multidomestic
with kingdoms and fiefdoms run by local managers spread across the globe. Yet, if
you will remember the mythical case example of Marvel Products and Whiz-Bang
Stores, customers today want and search for one point of contact, one billing and
delivery system, and one pricing schedule. This hasn’t happened yet, but it does
require horizontal structures, not vertical ones. Global communication must cross
borders, geographies, and cultures effortlessly and quickly. That means communication must move across and through and around and among groups and firms and
customers. That is horizontal organization in action. We will discuss this horizontal
approach in more detail later in the book. In the meantime, Fig. 6.3 illustrates how
the organization must align and integrate itself to focus on customers and prospects.
As shown in Fig. 6.3, the organization must align and integrate all the elements
in the communication process. That means internal integration and organization so
that marketing, sales, operations, production, and the like are all working together
and focused upon the customer. Similarly, external suppliers must be aligned and
integrated. Internal operations, which generally include employees, channels, and
support units, must be aligned as well. Likewise, external communication in the
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Fig. 6.3 External/internal alignment. (Source: Adapted from first edition)
form of advertising, public relations, sales promotion, direct marketing, events, and
the like must be integrated and aligned with a customer focus.
Now, we move from competencies or elements to the planning process.
he Eight-Step Integrated Global Marketing Communication
T
Planning Process
The first step in the development of an IGMC program is the planning process. This
process has been developed to include and enhance the nine competencies for mastering IGMC. As the process unfolds, you will see how the various elements fit
together and flow as a process.
The eight-step planning process discussed on the following pages has been used
successfully with a number of companies around the world. It is a logical approach
that leads the planner through the various steps involved in developing a successful
communication program. It is not, however, a template that can be used as a fill-in-­
the-blanks tool. Instead, it is a thinking process, a format, and a structure designed
to lead to logical outcomes and successful programs. Some organizations may need
to expand some of the steps; others may need to delete some of the activities. Much
depends on the specific organization in its current contextual circumstances for
which the communication program is being planned. We illustrate some of those
alternatives when the process is further explained in Chap. 7.
Figure 6.4 shows the circular nature of the IGMC planning process: working
through all eight steps takes us back to step 1. Through this closed-loop planning
system, the learning from each step in the process and from each completed communication program is included and combined with the data previously gathered
and stored and provides a basis for planning the next stage of the communication
plan or the next communication program. Managers are continuously learning from
marketplace experience and continuously improving and enhancing knowledge of
customers and prospects. Assumptions are constantly tested and connecting them to
marketplace reality. As explained in more detail in Chap. 7, the idea of a closed-loop
system is an integral part of the overall IGMC process.
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Fig. 6.4 The eight-step integrated global marketing communication process. (Source: The
authors)
Step 1. Global Customer/Prospect Databases
One key ingredient in the IGMC approach to developing effective and efficient
global marketing communication programs is substantive, continually updated
knowledge about customers and prospects. That generally comes from data and
information stored electronically in a customer or prospect database or in databases
that the organization may maintain. While we will delve into databases in more
detail in Chap. 7, the most important element for an organization to capture and be
able to use in planning is information that describes or illustrates the relationship the
organization has with the customer or prospect. This simple phrase relationship
with the customer or prospect separates a database from a mailing list or various
types of segmentation schemes. To plan and manage marketing and marketing communication on a global basis, the organization simply must have information on its
customer relationships, whether that be sales, service, or simply contact with customers and prospects. Without this type of data, the firm must revert back to practicing mass marketing on a global scale which has been stated by Philip Kotler as an
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inversion of the marketing process. The database lies at the core of any integrated
global marketing communication planning process.
Most useful databases contain, at a minimum, details on past purchases by the
customer or qualifications of prospects that allow them to be separated from mere
prospects. Generally, most organizations will have demographic details attached to
their customer’s records such as location, age, sex, education, income, and the like
for consumers or end users. In the business-to-business area, commonly the records
will include products or services produced, number of employees, annual turnover,
standard industrial code (SIC), and so on. The key ingredient in the database is the
relationship the organization has developed with customers and prospects over time,
reflected in data on purchases, inquiries, responses to promotions, and other behavioral data that allow the organization to determine what actions the customers or
prospects have taken in the past and thus what might be expected in the future. Such
longitudinal data usually provides the most insight for the marketing organization.
If one can observe customer behavior over time, then it is much easier to understand
the buying strategy the customers are employing or at least the trade-offs being
made in brand purchase and supplier selection.
Databases come in many forms. Ideally, they are electronic so the data can be
managed, analyzed, and massaged by multiple people in the organization. Hard
copy sales records and the like often have to suffice in less-developed economies.
The key ingredient in a database is bringing all known information and data about
customers and prospects together in one easily accessible form, whether that be
electronic or hard copy. It is here that most organizations have the most difficulty. In
too many instances in the past, customer files are set up individually by country or,
even worse, by strategic business units (SBUs) within a certain geography.
Commonly, the needed data was organized to provide working knowledge for the
group that initiated the database without consideration for how that data might be
used by other divisions. Thus, one of the major challenges for almost all organizations is simply gathering and combining the data that they currently hold on customers and prospects and putting it into some usable form that can be accessed by those
needing information, no matter where they may be or how the information might
be used.
In a benchmarking study conducted in the USA in 1997 on best practices in integrated marketing communication, we found that one of the major differences
between best-practice organizations and those seeking to improve their integrated
processes was that the best-practice organizations had managed to integrate and use
their global databases effectively while those seeking to emulate them had not. This
is still the case in 2020 and beyond. There is indisputable evidence that the database
is the key to developing effective IGMC programs.
Step 2. Customer/Prospect Valuation
The critical nature of the global customer database becomes apparent when we
consider that step 2 in the IGMC process is to value customers or prospects in some
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way. The reason for this valuation is simple. If we are to invest the finite resources
of the organization in cultivating the best customers and prospects, then we must
have some way of valuing each of them as a basis for this investment process.
The best way we have found to value customers and prospects is financially, that
is, by determining their purchases, or what we term “income flows.” If we know the
financial value of a customer or prospect, we have a solid base from which we might
determine the amount we would be willing to invest to either retain, grow, or migrate
that customer to other products or services in our portfolio. Likewise, if we have
some idea of the financial value of a prospect, that is, how much income that person
or group might generate in the future, then we would have a fair idea of how much
we would be willing to invest to acquire that prospect and turn him or her into a
customer. Experience around the globe has shown that neither all customers nor all
prospects are alike in terms of their current or future value to the firm. Therefore, we
convert the typical marketing and communication tasks of implanting messages or
gaining awareness into solid financial decisions that allow us to differentiate one
customer or group of customers from another.
Step 3. Contact Points and Preferences
Traditionally, marketing communication managers have made the decisions as to
how and when and under what circumstances customers and prospects were contacted or at least exposed to the organization’s marketing messages. Thus, historically, the primary goal of the marketing communicator has been to get the messages
and incentives in front of customers and prospects efficiently with only passing
regard for effectiveness. As a result, various forms of efficiency measures such as
CPM (cost per thousand) delivered, gross impressions, total audience, and the like
have been developed. Only rarely have we developed or used effectiveness measures—cost per sale, cost per order, return on investment, or the like—except in
direct selling situations. When we use financial measures to value customers and
prospects, many of our traditional media and communication tools become woefully inadequate. But, there is a larger problem as well.
We are now beginning to understand that customers and prospects come in contact with the organization in a multiplicity of ways in the marketplace. Often these
marketplace contacts come about with employees or channel partners or service
groups or other nonmarketing people. Yet these communication or brand contacts
are often much more powerful messages or relationships than those the communication manager can develop or deliver. Thus, our focus in the planning process is to
attempt to audit and value the various ways in which customers already come into
contact with the organization. From this, we can then view each of those contact
points as useful methods of communicating in the future. In many cases, the most
powerful communication tools at the disposal of the integrated global marketing
communication manager are noncontrollable but manageable communication methods, both internal and external to the organization.
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It is critical to determine what communication approaches customers and prospects prefer since, given the many alternatives available, we simply can’t push our
wishes on them. Instead, we must respond to their preferences. Thus, it is no longer
how the organization wants to communicate; it’s how the customer wants to communicate that really matters in the global system. Understanding current and existing customer contact points and preferences is critical to the IGMC process.
Another important part of understanding contact points is the impact of various
internal and external stakeholders. For example, an environmental group may mount
a strong online and offline communication program against the practices of our
brand or organization. Or it may attempt via lobbying to obtain legislation that
would impact or restrict the operations of the organization. The group may achieve
great public awareness through the press and electronic media. Obviously, the
global marketing communication planner must take these activities into consideration. The same is true for other stakeholders such as the financial community, government and legislative bodies, unions, and other organized groups. While these
stakeholder actions and activities may or may not be related directly to the specific
audience, for whom the marketing communication program is being planned, the
communication manager must factor them into the overall program to account for
the impact they may have or already have had in the marketplace/space.
Step 4. Brand or Organization Relationships
Obviously, there are major differences in how a firm should or would communicate
with a long-term, valuable customer and how it would communicate with the ones
with which it has had little or no relationship. For example, we can compare
Amazon, HSBC, and Benetton where the communication processes would differ.
Yet, obvious as this may seem, many global organizations attempt to treat all customers the same, or at least they do so in their communication activities—for example, Kellogg. The common practice for many marketing communication managers
is to prepare one advertisement and, using various forms of mass media, send it out
to every customer, prospect, suspect, and even those who are not interested, sometimes even ignoring culture itself. The same is commonly done with direct mail
packages, brochures, product literature, and most other forms of communication.
Everyone is the same to the communication manager, so all are treated the same in
the communication program. Often, this is done in the guise of efficiency, the rationale being that it is less expensive to produce one common piece of communication
than to try to individualize. Unfortunately, such efficiency is not always more effective. And in the customer-driven marketplace of the third decade in the twenty-first
century, it is effectiveness that will count the most.
We have different relationships with different customers and prospects. That
simple fact determines and defines step 4 in the IGMC process. We simply must
understand the relationship customers and prospects have with our firm to develop
effective marketing communication programs. We must also understand the relationship customers believe they have with us. That is perhaps the more important
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point. Often, this will involve the company not just in gathering hard data, but also
in assessing their qualitative perceptions by means of personal interviews, focus
groups, and the like. All of which become part of the database and can be revisited
and re-used as needed.
For the most part, customers have relationships with brands; that is, they have
confidence in the brand and the organization that produces it. There is a famous saying, often attributed to Jim Taylor, former marketing director of Gateway Computers:
“The brand is a promise and it is a promise we must keep with customers. There is
no difference between what we sell and what we are” (see also Deming, 2019). This
has never been truer. Customers buy brands. Customers trust brands. Customers rely
on brands. But—most of all—customers have relationships with brands. To build
effective communication programs, the marketing communication planner must
know what type of relationship the customer has with the brand.
It is also important to take into account the activities of various stakeholder
groups. The goals of these groups may be either to enhance or to destroy brand
relationships. While they often have only an indirect impact or effect, they must be
considered if an effective IGMC program is to be developed. In Chap. 7, we will
outline methods for understanding customer-brand relationships and, from that,
enhancing or initiating brand relationships.
Step 5. Message and Incentive Development and Delivery
One of the most dramatically different features of the IGMC process is that development of messages and incentives, generally at the heart of any marketing communication program, is fairly far down in the development process. That reflects the basic
premise of IGMC: you can’t develop effective messages or incentives unless and
until you understand the people and organizations you are trying to communicate
with. In our experience, all too often, communication managers come up with a
clever idea or a neat concept and then try to fit that to a singular audience. In other
words, the creative, rather than the customers and prospects or publics for whom the
communication is being designed, drives the communication. Creative is important,
but it must be controlled creative that reaches and impacts customers and prospects,
not creative that is simply unique and different for its own sake. For example,
Benetton 25 years ago was very different. It was both cutting-edge and exciting. At
one time, there were multiple production units or factories, with over 7000 shops in
100 plus countries. But this could be not be maintained. Over time, its market share
and brand recognition faded away. In 2000, it ranked 75th in Interbrand’s ranking of
best global brands. It fell to 100th by 2001. By 2002, it had disappeared almost
completely. Meanwhile, Zara and H&M have risen to the 2020 top 30 (Hill, 2018).
In Italy, Benetton is still a player, but elsewhere, trying to make a comeback
(Ranking the Brands, 2019). Meanwhile, Malala, a brand aimed at young girls, is
improving markedly (Malala Boutique, 2020).
You may have noticed that we use the terms messages and incentives rather than
advertising or public relations or sales promotion. This is intentional. In our
The Eight-Step Integrated Global Marketing Communication Planning Process
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research, we have found that customers rarely differentiate among the functional
areas of marketing communication. Instead, they tend to roll up the functional areas
into messages and incentives. In other words, customers say, “This organization is
trying to tell me something or to get me to remember this or that?” In other words,
the customer perceives that the organization is trying to deliver a message.
Alternatively, customers and prospects, on viewing other types of marketing communication activities, will say, “This firm wants me to do something and is offering
me an incentive to do it—a coupon or discount or a limited time offer?” In this case,
the customer takes the information to mean that the marketer desires short-term
action and is offering an incentive to encourage a favorable decision. So, to align
our thinking, we use customer or consumer terms. We will use messages or incentives in our planning process rather than refer to the functional activities that have
gained popularity over the years.
Along with the development of messages and incentives, this step includes delivery systems. Historically, we have thought of delivery systems as being forms of
media—print or broadcast, in-store or through the mail, and so forth. The broader
view, that delivery systems include whenever and wherever a customer or prospect
comes into contact with the brand or the organization, gives us a new view of how a
business might communicate with its audiences and stakeholders. In truth, the concept of delivery systems opens up totally new forms of communication for the
IGMC planner. It also removes many of the restrictions and constraints that previously existed. With this new freedom for the planner, however, comes accountability. That is, if new and unique forms of delivery are to be used, then there must be
methods and ways of measuring the impact and effect of those delivery systems so
they can be compared with existing media forms. Delivery systems may be more
important in the twenty-first-century marketplace than messages or incentives. If
the message or incentive can’t be delivered to the intended customer or prospect,
then it really doesn’t matter what the message or incentive is or was. Thus, delivery
systems have become extremely important and will become even more so in our
view in the years ahead.
Obviously one of the major decisions at this point will be whether or not the
marketing communication program should be local, regional, or global. We will
discuss the alternatives in the next chapter and provide some guidelines for what
really determines how the particular marketing communication program should be
executed. Those decisions will have a great deal to do with the level of investment
we make in the IGMC program and how we allocate our finite resources.
Step 6. Estimate of Return on Customer Investment
With a thorough knowledge of customers and prospects, their knowledge and understanding of our firm and our brands, and their relationship with them and to us, we
now should be able to develop appropriate messages and incentives and find ways
to deliver them to relevant customers and prospects. The next logical step is to estimate what type of return or response we might generate from our marketing
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activities. In the IGMC process, we call this return on customer investment (ROCI),
not the more familiar return on investment (ROI). While the differentiation may
sound like nitpicking, there are sound reasons for speaking of ROCI rather than ROI.
Most organizations get absolutely nothing back from their advertising investments. That is, no measurable return is given or in some cases even expected for
their level of spending. Media groups do not refund or rebate amounts to the organization for the investment. Nor does the postal service give a refund for properly
using its facilities. Income from marketing communication comes not from doing
the activities or events or even doing them well. The only return an organization gets
from its communication activities is from customers and prospects. They are the
ones who respond to the communication programs by taking a behavioral action,
that is, purchasing the firm’s goods or services, thereby producing income in commercial contexts. Customer returns, and therefore customers and custom are the
driving force. Therefore, our approach is to attempt to estimate what type of return
we might get from investing in various customers or customer groups. Obviously,
the better the customers or prospects we choose to invest in, the better our returns
should be.
One of the key ingredients necessary to estimate any type of return from a customer is knowledge of the current value of that customer. In other words, we must
know what the customer is worth now to be able to estimate what we might get back
from any level of investment in the future. Our initial information will come from
step 2, where we estimated the current and potential value of the customer. By
knowing that value and what our investment in messages and incentives might be,
we can begin to estimate what type of return we might generate. Clearly, in planning
an IGMC program, we will rely on estimates of returns—that is, based on experience or research or management knowledge, what we reasonably assume might
come back. Once the program is in the marketplace, however, if we have set up the
necessary closed-loop systems, we should be able to measure the actual results of
our investments. Thus, we start with estimates and convert those into actual returns
as we capture marketplace results. In Chap. 7, we will show how this might be done.
This initial estimating activity is critically important to the IGMC process. We
generally have before us a wide variety of activities and alternative messages and
communication programs. Only by estimating in advance can we determine which
might be most valuable or return the greatest result to the organization. It is this
testing process that leads to step 7, investment, and allocation.
It is in this step and the next that we first meet the question of time frames on
returns. If we invest our resources now, then when can we expect to see a return on
those customers against whom we have invested? Would our returns be short term,
within the current fiscal year of the organization, or would we expect to get our
returns over several accounting periods or perhaps several fiscal years? This is a
major decision for most organizations and has a great deal to do with the investment
of finite corporate resources.
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Step 7. Investment and Allocation
The next step in the IGMC process is the actual determination of the financial
investment we plan to make in customers and prospects through various forms of
IGMC programs. This is primarily a process of matching up costs of various marketing communication activities and testing them against estimated returns. Here a
great deal of skill and judgment is needed along with the information and material
contained in our databases and our actual marketplace experience. For example, we
may know we need to deliver messages to a specific group. At this point, the question becomes: should this be done through online or offline media advertising,
through direct marketing approaches, or would it be most effective through in-store
point-of-purchase? Here is where the skill, knowledge, and experience of the marketing communication manager come into play. While there might be equally relevant returns to the firm from any of these investments, the question is what will
provide the best returns on the investment? Thus, allocation of resources to messages and incentives is one of testing and evaluation of alternatives both by the
communication manager prior to the investment and through actual marketplace
results, as we will see in step 8.
The critical step in most investment and allocation decisions is to take a zero-­
based budgeting approach. There should be no preconceived conditions or preset
media or delivery choices. These are approaches more concerned with percentage
of sales or competitive parity techniques. Each decision should be made independently, allowing for interaction among the various programs being planned and
executed. Inherent in this approach has to be the idea of media neutrality: decisions
will be based on what will provide the best return to the organization, not on which
communication tool/medium is most attractive to the planner or what might be considered the “sexiest” allocation decision. Nowadays, it has become a norm to see
firms engaging celebrities to endorse their brands in an attempt to stimulate customers to patronize their offerings. Although some research shows that celebrity endorsers produce an increase in readership of print ads, stock prices have been shown to
rise when companies announce celebrity endorsement contacts (Agrawal &
Kamakura, 1995). However, this is not guaranteed; a study investigated 148 conventional athlete endorsement contract announcements and reported no significant
effects on stock returns (Fizel et al., 2008). Also, many companies have reconsidered their investment decisions in endorsers due to different reasons, including the
high cost, lack of credibility, negative publicity, and overexposure of celebrities. For
example, Iceland, the British frozen supermarket, has abandoned celebrities and
attempted to win back shoppers with adverts that feature “real mums” (Plunkett,
2010). The move came months after Iceland boss Malcolm Walker was quoted as
saying the supermarket’s association with former pop singer Kerry Katona had been
“brand damaging.”
We are dealing with the finite resources of the organization and must recognize
that resources are invested in developing the best customers and prospects in hopes
of the greatest returns. After all, this is why we have gone through this entire process
in the first place.
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Step 8. Marketplace Measurement
Once the investment and allocation decisions have been made, the final step is to set
up systems of measurement to determine what really happened in the marketplace.
Of course, most of those decisions—what customers, what messages, what investments, and the like—were made earlier in our eight-step process. The marketplace
results, however, are what actually happened, what the organization got back for its
investment in various customers, and how long it took to achieve those returns. We
will spend considerable time on this marketplace measurement step in later chapters, but for now, it must be recognized that this is the actual summation of the
marketing communication program, forming the basis for all our evaluations.
Of critical importance, here is the understanding that while the marketplace measurement really sums up the results of our IGMC program, this is not the end of the
process. In fact, it is really the beginning. We will input the marketplace results of
our global marketing communication programs into our customer/prospect database. The data enhanced by our results will provide the base from which we can
start the process all over again. It is this closed-loop, circular system that really differentiates the IGMC approach from other, generally ad hoc approaches. Only by
using actual marketplace results as the basis for our next planning cycle can we truly
become a learning organization and for that matter learning managers—really
knowing what worked and what didn’t work, knowing what performed up to expectations, and knowing what didn’t enable us to become better, more effective, integrated global marketing communication managers. It’s not possible to succeed
without closing the loop, and the loop depends on each stage in the planning process
outlined here, and to be expanded in the next chapter.
Conclusions
• Internal and external standardization is mandatory in the global arena.
• It is critical to identify and assign value to customers of different types potentially to assess the worth of your communication efforts.
• Horizontal organizational structures will eventually triumph as the 2020s unfold.
Some vertical ones such as oil, gas, pharmaceuticals, and diamonds will continue
to exist. Others will struggle, and some may perish as their modus operandi or
operational base begins to become irrelevant.
• Brands and branded businesses will survive and thrive based on their perceived
proximity, relevance, and value to customers.
• We reiterate, customers will be the driving force behind successful branded
businesses.
References
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Discussion Question
Using the core text, online resources, and/or the cases at the end of the book, assess
the value and significance of ONE crucial competency in the success (or otherwise)
relative to a company or brand of your choice.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Create global processes and standardization
Start with customers, not products or geographies
Identify and value customers and prospects
Identification of customer and prospect contact points
Alignment of the organizations’ interactive response capabilities
Manage multiple systems
Value the brand
Focus on financial measures
Create horizontal organizational structures
References
Agrawal, J., & Kamakura, W. A. (1995). The economic worth of celebrity endorsers: An event
study analysis. Journal of Marketing, 59(3), 56–62.
Andrews, C., & Shimp, T. A. (2018). Advertising, promotion, and supplemental aspects of integrated marketing communications (10th ed.). Cengage.
Casanova, M. (2013). Rated ranking: Anholt GfK Roper Nation Brands Index 2013. Branding
Institute. Retrieved May 10, 2020, from https://www.branding-institute.com/rated-rankings/
anholt-gfk-roper-nation-brands-index
Deming, S. (2019, 24 January). The power of keeping promises: How to create customers for life.
American Marketing Association. Retrieved January 1, 2020, from https://www.amanet.org/
articles/the-power-of-keeping-promises-how-to-createcustomers-for-life/
Duffy, E. N. (2017). Benetton’s most controversial campaigns. Vogue. Retrieved May 30, 2020,
from https://www.vogue.co.uk/gallery/benettons-best-advertising-campaigns
Fizel, J., McNeil, C. R., & Smaby, T. (2008). Athlete endorsement contracts: The impact of conventional stars. International Advances in Economic Research, 14(2), 247–256.
Government & Public Sector Practice. (2015). VisitBritain: Great Chinese names for Great Britain
[video file]. Retrieved May 10, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4
4&v=KNVnFwDb02E&feature=emb_title
Government Practice WPP. (2020). Retrieved May 10, from https://www.govtpracticewpp.com/
storage/ourwork/casestudies/o/ogilvy-visitbritain/
Hill, A. (2018, October 29). From visionary to old-hat: How Benetton fell out of fashion. Financial Times. Retrieved May 30, 2020 from, https://www.ft.com/content/
ae196bec-d863-11e8-ab8e-6be0dcf18713
History West Midlands. (2017, May 10). Two titans, one city – Joseph Chamberlain, George
Cadbury and Birmingham [video file]. Retrieved June 1, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=VPC5fZdPQy8
Just-Style. (2003). UK: French Connection logo “offensive” – Police. Retrieved May 30, 2020, from
https://www.juststyle.com/news/french-connection-logo-offensive-police_id68641.aspx#
Malala Boutique. (2020). Retrieved May 30, 2020, from https://www.facebook.com/
Malala-Boutique-189947731400242/
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National Audit Office. (2015). Exploiting the UK Brand overseas. Retrieved May 10, 2020, from
https://www.nao.org.uk/wpcontent/uploads/2015/06/Exploiting-UK-brand-overseas.pdf
Prevent Gun Violence. (2015, March 17). Guns with history. Retrieved May 31, 2020, from https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nAfWfF4TjM&t=1s
Plunkett, J. (2010). Iceland dumps celebs from TV ads. The Guardian. Retrieved 15 October 2021
from https://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/feb/08/iceland-dumps-celebs-tv-ads.
Ranking the Brands. (2019). Rankings per brand. Retrieved May 30, 2020, from https://www.
rankingthebrands.com/Branddetail.aspx?brandID=2652
Robinson, T. N., Borzekowski, D. L., Matheson, D. M., & Kraemer, H. C. (2007). Effects of
fast food branding on young children’s taste preferences. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent
Medicine, 161(8), 792–797.
Schultz, D. E., & Kitchen, P. J. (2000). Communicating globally: An integrated marketing
approach. Palgrave Macmillan.
Taylor, C. R., Kitchen, P. J., Sarkees, M. E., & Lolk, C. O. (2020). Addressing the Janus face of
customer service: a typology of new age service failures. European Journal of Marketing,
54(10), 2295–2316.
7
Implementing the IGMC Strategy
Using the nine elements or overview from the previous chapter on the process for
developing an integrated global marketing communication (IGMC) strategy, we
now “put some meat on the bones” of the eight-step planning process. In this chapter, we work through the process using a template that provides the necessary detail
to develop an effective strategy and, more important, a method of generating all the
material needed to implement a specific plan.
Figure 7.1 illustrates the eight-step IGMC process, recast as a flowchart that
provides a step-by-step methodology for developing an effective and market-­
efficient communication approach. As noted in the first edition of this book (Schultz
& Kitchen, 2000), this methodology can be adapted for use by most if not all
marketing-­oriented organizations.
Step 1. Global Databases for Developing Customer Definitions
As discussed in Chap. 6, any useful IGMC program has to begin with a basic understanding and identification of customers and prospects. Without this information,
communication planners—no matter how creative—are simply shooting in the
dark, developing messages or incentives, buying and delivering media with little or
no understanding with whom they are communicating, how to communicate,
through which media modalities, or indeed how to know what results are being
obtained. The customer/prospect database provides the underpinning base and
structure for the development of an integrated communication program.
In the third decade of the twenty-first century, data is almost everywhere.
Therefore, almost every organization has some type of database, whether it be a
formal, organized electronic resource structured and managed as a corporate asset
or simply an aggregation of bits and pieces of data about the relationship the organization has with customers and prospects. The critical ingredient is whether marketing and communication managers have access to that data and can use it for
planning purposes.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
P. J. Kitchen, M. E. Tourky, Integrated Marketing Communications,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76416-6_7
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Fig. 7.1 The IGMC eight-step planning process. (Source: Adapted from first edition)
In spite of many protestations, almost all organizations have all the customer,
market, and channel data inside the organization that they need to develop effective
communication programs. So the problem isn’t data per se; it’s organization. Thus,
the challenge is to organize data in a way so it provides useful and usable information, not simply customer records or lists or files of data. The key to 2020 plus data
and database management is bringing all relevant data together in such a form so the
organizational management at each level truly knows and understands its customers. Figure 7.2 illustrates some of the areas where customer data might be found
in a firm.
As illustrated in Fig. 7.2, data exists in the marketing department, in sales, in
customer service, in technology support, in research—in short, everywhere. Unless
it is brought together, however, it is often useless. While marketing and communication managers generally have only marginal responsibility for the development,
structure, and use of organizational databases, they are often the prime beneficiaries. Therefore, communication managers must be at least knowledgeable about
data, data handling, and data access. Indeed, in the Best Practices IMC study mentioned in Chap. 6, one of the primary differences in leading firms was that they had
created and regularly updated and maintained global, integrated customer databases and made them available to marketing and communication managers around
the world as needed. The “wannabe” or imitator firms were then struggling with
data that was held or managed by individual units, geographies, SBUs, or the like,
which did not necessarily work in a coordinated or integrated manner. Moreover,
in the leading branded firms, network research was carried out more widely and at
regular intervals as needed to maintain the requirements of the database system.
There are three major issues that most organizations face when they attempt to
develop a customer marketing and communication database: (1) level of data needed
Step 1. Global Databases for Developing Customer Definitions
115
Fig. 7.1 (continued)
Fig. 7.2 Building a customer/channel relationship database. (Source: Adapted from first edition)
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and costs of capture and maintenance, (2) types of data needed for marketing and
communication planning, and (3) methods used to analyze and understand the data.
Since marketing and communication people generally are data users, rather than
data developers or managers, each of these three issues is discussed from a marketing and communication standpoint, not a technical one. This is done to provide
background on the type of database the organization likely will need for marketing
and communication planning, implementation, and measurement.
Level of Data Needed and Database Costs
In too many instances, organizations have not put much time into planning or developing a database. Generally, there are two notable extremes. One is where the firm
or organization takes what is available or easy to obtain and then attempts to massage and manipulate that data into something usable. The other extreme is to attempt
to capture, store, and manage everything the firm can get its hands on and then try
to make some sense out of it. Neither is generally practical nor useful from a managerial standpoint.
The best approach to developing and using a marketing and communication
database is (1) to understand what the data will be used for, (2) to understand how it
will be used to develop communication programs, and (3) then to match up the costs
with the needs and benefits.
Figure 7.3 shows the relationship. The two axes of the chart in Fig. 7.3 are
“Customer Value” and “Sophistication of Database Technology,” each progressing
from low to high. At the low end, if customer value is low, and the relationship
Fig. 7.3 What kind of database do you need? (Source: Targetbase, 1998)
Step 1. Global Databases for Developing Customer Definitions
117
consists primarily of mailing unsolicited promotional material, database investment
can be relatively modest. As customer value increases, and the need to communicate
with customers and prospects develops into dialogue and ultimately to personal
service, database requirements will be relatively high. Costs increase as the value
rises as well, since these communication programs require fairly sophisticated
methods of handling inputs and outputs. From an internal planning standpoint,
Fig. 7.3 can be helpful in explaining the level of detail needed in the database to the
technology managers responsible for actually managing and developing the activity.
Targetbase (2020) went on to say recently that:
More than data and far greater than insights alone, intelligence will differentiate you from
the competition. Stemming from multiple sources, we analyze and shape these inputs into
actionable knowledge that becomes a beacon for where brands can win and a tool for how
to get there. (Targetbase.com, 2020)
Types of Data Needed
The data types listed are straightforward:
• Demographics: hard consumer data such as age, gender, income, and education;
similar information about business-to-business customers such as the SIC code
for type of business, number of employees, annual turnover, geography served,
and the like.
• Geography: a critical element in any global marketing communication analysis
that commonly influences the types of products people use; whether they congregate in towns, villages, or cities, nations, internationally and even globally; how
laws, culture, and commerce have developed; and so on. For some firms, this will
involve where products or services are produced, marketed, and distributed.
• Psychographics: lifestyle aspects of the consumer such as hobbies, interests,
activities, and so on. In business situations, these generally include how the organization buys, its level of commitment to suppliers, and the like.
• Behavior/Usage: This is, by far, the most important information an organization
can have about its customers, whether they be consumers or business to business.
The real value of customers or prospects is in what they do, not in how they feel
or where they are located or even the hard facts about them. Behaviors generally
equate to sales, and sales at a profit are the ultimate goal of any IGMC program
at any level. Building sustainable relationships that underpin ongoing profitable
performance is generally the goal at the corporate level. We will say a great deal
more about behavior in the next sections, but it is the ability to observe and
understand customer, prospect, and publics behaviors that is critical in the global
marketing and communication arena.
Generally speaking, on the one hand, demographic data is relatively easy to
obtain but is considered the least predictive of consumer choice behavior. On the
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other hand, behavioral data are relatively more difficult and/or expensive to procure,
but are highly predictive of choice behavior. Geographic and psychographic data
fall between these two extremes.
Analyzing and Understanding the Data
Most markets are typically analyzed through some type of segmentation process—
that is, breaking the general market down into smaller groups so that marketing and
communication programs can be directed at them. Often marketing managers spend
great amounts of time and money trying to understand and explain how markets are
organized and what the specific groups in those segments do and how they respond
to marketing and communication programs. In the IGMC approach, we do not use
segmentation. Instead, we base our understanding of the market on aggregation, or
bringing together similarly behaving customers and prospects. In other words, we
aggregate naturally occurring groups of consumers and customers based on how
they behave in the marketplace. Figure 7.4 illustrates the difference between the two
approaches.
The premise underpinning aggregation is that behaviors are the most important
variable in understanding customers and prospects. What people or firms actually
do reflects how they feel, how they prioritize their time and money, and how they
manage their lives and businesses. These are much better predictors of future customer behavior than traditional demographic, geographic, or even psychographic
data. This type of behavioral data is critical in new and emerging countries where
behavioral observations may be more plentiful and easier to come by than the demographic data found in more developed marketplaces. This aggregation approach
forms the basis for the analysis of customers and prospects.
Fig. 7.4 Market segmentation/aggregation. (Source: Adapted from first edition)
Step 1. Global Databases for Developing Customer Definitions
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Behavioral Aggregation of Customers
As shown in Fig. 7.1, the first activity in the IGMC process is to identify various
types of customer or prospect groups for marketing and communication purposes.
Characteristics of these groups are generally aggregated from behavioral data. In
the figure or flowchart, three groups are shown: present customers, competitive customers, and emerging users. While these are merely placeholders to illustrate the
process, these are common groups aggregated in global marketing communication
plans since these groups generally require different types of communication. For
example, a business or communicator would not say the same things to present
customers as they would to competitive customers. Emerging users normally have
very different needs and requirements for information about your brands, products,
and services. These three groupings are used primarily as illustrations of the process; they are also used in developing the balance of the IGMC program. In the
development of specific IGMC program (relative to current target market), these
can be expanded as classifications based upon the specific business.
Let’s examine the rationale behind the behavioral classifications of present, competitive, and new users. In most product and service categories, there are very few
“loyal to a single brand” customers. That is, most customers are also competitor’s
customers as well. We use the term present customers simply to indicate that these
people or firms generally buy more from us than they do from our competitors. Our
rule of thumb is if the customer buys 60% or more of his or her product category
requirements from us, we call them “our” present customers. If they buy 60% or
more of their category requirements from our competitors, we consider them to be
competitive customers. This identification of customers and their values is dealt
with in more detail in the next step.
The True Value of the Database
To this point the database has appeared somewhat mechanical, that is, a collection
of bits and pieces of data about customers and prospects that we are trying to weave
into a pattern that will help us understand the multitude of cultures, societies, languages, customs, and beliefs that make up a global marketplace. But, as stated
before, the real purpose of a database is to enable the organization to understand its
current relationship with customers and to develop relationships with prospects and
influential publics. The reality is, however, that the database has an even more
important function. That is, the information contained in the database, if used properly in the appropriate form, should allow marketers and communicators to become
more relevant to those customers, prospects, and the publics. For the most part,
marketing and communication in today’s global marketplace fail not because the
messages and incentives aren’t creative or clever or well produced. They fail because
they are irrelevant to customers and prospects, that is, perceived as unrelated to their
needs and concerns. Irrelevant messages are the result of the organization not recognizing, understanding, or focusing on the needs and concerns of customers and
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prospects in markets and areas different from where the marketing communicator
lives or works. The worst transgression, and the greatest waste of marketing communication resources today, is being irrelevant, or not taking the time or investing
the energy needed to understand the dynamics of the served market or markets.
Such ineptitude is a form of marketing myopia.
Todd Bradley, Executive Vice President, Personal Systems Group, at HP, in
October 2007, succinctly commented on the continued growth rate of the HP personal computing business, which reached a pace more than twice the global average
in the third calendar quarter of 2007 (HP, 2007):
We’ve listened to what our customers have told us makes a computer personal to them—
from the way it looks and it’s used, to how they buy it and are supported after the sale. That
PC buyers young and old, consumer and professional, around the world continue to choose
HP in growing numbers is proof that we’re succeeding in providing that best customer
experience.
According to analysts, some of the growth in the Personal Systems Group’s revenues could be attributed to HP’s innovative advertising campaign, “The Computer
is Personal Again” originally launched in May 2006. The Computer is Personal
Again was considered the first-ever global marketing campaign, created by Goodby,
Silverstein & Partners (GSP), to cover North America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific
by 2006 end, and was targeted at PC users aged between 18 and 34 and small to
mid-sized companies.
The integrated marketing communications campaign was designed to focus on
the personal relationship people had with their computers and show consumers all
the different tasks they can accomplish with an HP personal computer. The campaign featured celebrities explaining how their HP personal computer (PC) was a
relevant and an integral part of their lives—talking about what’s on their computer,
what they do in their spare time, and they also tell why the PC is personal to them.
Breaking from tradition, the advertisements, for the most part, did not show the
celebrities’ faces; instead, the camera focused on their bodies and hands. The advertisements relied heavily on animation, with the hands making gestures, while the
celebrities explained how they used their HP PCs. According to Luciana Broggi,
Vice President of Marketing in the HP PSG for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa
region, the images of hands “are seen as a powerful symbol of communication
around the world” (Pfanner, 2006).
The award-winning campaign helped HP beat Dell Inc. (Dell) in PC sales in the
second half of 2006 as well as in 2007. The company’s worldwide PC shipments
grew at a rate of 33% year over year, more than twice the overall global PC market
growth rate of 15.5% for the period. HP’s US shipments grew at a rate of 16.9%,
more than tripling the regional market growth in the third quarter to capture 24.3%
market share, up from 21.8% for the same period in 2006.
In February 2007, HP launched its next phase of the campaign during the Super
Bowl, which had attracted approximately 90 million viewers in 2006. HP’s decision
of airing its advertisements (on television as well as on the Internet) during the game
Step 2. Valuing Customers and Prospects
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followed the company’s marketing strategy of advertising beyond a specific product
or a specific buying season (Source: Microsoft Officer, User, May 27, 2020).
In February 2008, HP announced financial results for its first fiscal quarter ending January 31, 2008. HP recorded net revenue of US$28.5 billion—an increase of
13% compared to the corresponding period of the previous year. In this, the revenues of the Personal Systems Group (PSG) accounted for $10.8 billion, a year-­on-­
year increase of 24%.
Thus, with a deep understanding of customers and prospects around the world
and a solid database of information, relevance is the first and most critical task for
marketing communicators to accomplish. While many other issues are involved in
creating and maintaining a database, the preceding section should give global marketing and communication managers a clear enough understanding of the use and
needs of a database to discuss the subject intelligently with the technology experts
who actually operate the database.
Step 2. Valuing Customers and Prospects
In our approach to customer and prospect valuation, we deal primarily with the most
important return to the organization—sales and, ultimately, profits. That is, we try
to identify those customers who are the most financially valuable to the organization
today and those that might be worth the most to the firm tomorrow. Thus, we focus
on both short-term and long-term returns to the organization. The difference between
these two groups, their potential returns, and the time frame of those returns will
become important when we start to measure the returns on marketing and communication investments. Thus, this marketing communication approach is based on a
financial model; that is, how much to invest, against whom, and with what
expected return.
The General Approach to Customer Valuation
As shown in Fig. 7.5, the basic approach to valuing customers is based on four elements. First, what is the total penetration in the product category?
That is, how many customers consume a particular product or service or how
many businesses purchase the product or service? In the earlier example shown in
the database section, this figure would represent the aggregated total of all customers who purchase in a product category in which a business is interested—people
who eat hamburgers at fast-food restaurants, companies who buy ethyl chloride,
fraternal groups who attend rock concerts, and so on. In other words, they have
demonstrated some type of behavioral purchase or use in a specific product category.
Among that group of users, the first interest is how many of the total consumers
in that product category purchase our specific brand or brands. In other words, what
share of total consumers in the category do we have? Once we know that, we need
to know the buying rate of those customers compared to the rate of the total market.
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Fig. 7.5 Calculating customer value. (Source: Targetbase, 1998)
Are our customers heavier or lighter buyers or users than our competitor’s customers? That gives us an understanding of how our customers fit into the overall product
category.
Once we have established the buying rate of our customers, the next step is to
determine what share of their total category requirements their purchases of our
brand represent, that is what share of their purchases do we enjoy compared to competitors? This share of requirements or purchases (SOP) percentage is important, for
it gives some idea of the revenue potential represented by each customer now and
into the future. Among some customers, we will have a high share of purchases or
requirements, meaning there is little opportunity for growth. Among others, a low
SOP often points to substantial future potential.
Finally, we need to develop a measure of margin contribution for each customer.
Not all customers are equally profitable. Some buy large amounts of our products;
others buy only a few. Some customers require a great deal of services; others
require a minimal amount. Some customers buy at full price; others buy only during
promotions or when the product or service is on sale. This contribution margin figure is critical if we are to evaluate the actual profitability of customers and customer
groups and not just total sales and volume.
The Three Elements in Valuing Customers and Prospects
As shown in step 2 of Fig. 7.6 (enlarged from Fig. 7.1), there are three elements in
valuing customers and prospects: (1) purchase dynamics and share of purchases or
requirements, (2) valuation, and (3) behavioral objectives.
Step 2. Valuing Customers and Prospects
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Fig. 7.6 Valuing customers and prospects. (Source: Adapted from first edition)
Product-Use/Product Potential
The first step toward understanding the value of customers is to understand their
level of use of our products or services. What is the total number of customers who
buy from us, and what is their buying rate? (See Fig. 7.5.) This yields our total current volume. The critical question, however, is what potential, or maximum amount
of their requirements, we might capture. From some customers, gaining this additional business will be easy; from others, difficult. Thus, our estimate of total potential must be based on some solid evidence that we can capture additional sales from
customers rather than just some “hoped for” increase.
This analysis must be done not only for present customers but also for competitive customers and emerging users. Based on the template in Fig. 7.1, that would
mean at least three separate analyses and perhaps more depending on how customers have been aggregated from the behavioral database. Again, recall that we are
dealing only with volume. We have not yet converted this volume into dollars,
euros, pounds sterling, or other currency.
Income Flows
Calculating income flows for each group simply means including the additional
calculations from our general model, that is, product margin. That will give us the
current total value of each customer. From that, we can also estimate or calculate
their potential future dollar value. That will provide a basis for setting the behavioral
objectives that are the third element in valuation. First, however, we must deal with
what the real value of a customer or prospect might be.
Customers generate current income for the firm through their purchases and
other dealings with the company. They also represent future potential in terms of
continuing or increased purchases. Prospects represent future potential. But customers of all types and prospects come with costs attached. Thus, we must balance
income potential with costs to determine the true value of a customer or prospect.
We do that by estimating the value of a customer or prospect at the contribution
margin (CM) line. That means we take gross sales and then deduct various costs of
doing business, such as cost of the product or service, general overheads, service
support, ongoing costs, and other relevant expenses. Working at the CM line, we are
able to understand how valuable customers are in terms of their purchase volume, as
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well as the costs to serve them that together yield the net returns to the company or
brand. In our experience, valuing customers or prospects at any level other than the
contribution margin line is generally misleading. Often the customers or prospects
that represent large sales in units and dollar volume are expensive to do business
with because of the prices they are paying, the cost to service them, and the like.
Therefore, these high-yield customers are sometimes substantially less profitable
than they would appear when viewed simply in terms of their gross unit total
purchases.
Using the contribution margin, we can now generate what we call income flows
at the contribution margin line. We calculate income flows from activities with each
customer or with aggregated customer groups that allow us to rank customers in
terms of their current income flow to the firm or their potential future income flows.
This analysis enables us to determine the next stage of the process, the setting of
behavioral objectives.
Behavioral Objectives
Behavioral objectives are the most critical element for the IGMC planner, for they
define what is to be accomplished with the marketing communication program.
Objectives provide standards against which results can be measured. That is, if the
behavioral objective is to retain the present income flow from a customer, then the
communication program must be focused on that goal. So, we are setting communication objectives that will be measured by behavioral results. While this will indeed
be a substantial change for many communication managers, it is necessary to assure
that we are properly investing our finite resources to generate the greatest returns on
those investments.
In the chart in Fig. 7.6, we show only two alternatives for present customers,
three for competitive users, and two for emerging users. Of course, there may well
be more objectives for each of these groups, depending on how customer groups
have been aggregated. These do, however, generally represent the most common
behavioral goals.
For example, with present customers, our primary goal is to retain their present
income flows or to grow them in some way. Of course, if we have a portfolio of
products or services, then it might be possible to migrate customers to more useful
and perhaps more lucrative products and services than those they are purchasing now.
For competitive customers, we will illustrate three behavioral objectives,
although there could logically be more. Competitive users might well be purchasing
our products or services as a part of their total purchases in the category, and we
would normally be pleased with the result if we could convince them to increase our
share of their purchases or requirements. Alternatively, we might attempt to get
some competitive users to migrate to some of our products or services. Similarly, we
might convince competitive customers to use our products or services on special
occasions, as a possible prelude to making a total switch to our brand. The behavioral objectives for emerging users follow the same line of thought.
Setting objectives is considered one of the fundamental decisions that need to be
taken prior to making the all-important implementation decisions regarding media
Step 3. Contact Points/Preferences
125
determination, message selection, and so on. Now that our behavioral objectives
have been set, we are ready to develop the marketing communication programs that
will help achieve those goals. Those start with step 3—contact points/preferences.
Step 3. Contact Points/Preferences
Step 3 in the process chart lists two areas for planning: contact points and contact
preferences. Contact points are all the ways customers and prospects come into
contact with our organization, the brand or brands, channel members, or any other
persons or activities that are related directly to the brand and that can be or are used
to influence either present or future consideration of the brand. Contact preferences
are the ways customers and prospects would prefer to receive information or material from the company or the brand. This is probably a relatively new concept for
marketing communication managers, for it recognizes the interactive nature of the
relationship between the company and its customers and prospects. This new idea is
discussed in more detail later in this section.
Understand Brand Contacts
It is becoming more evident over time that integrated global marketing communication is based not just on what the organization sends out or delivers to customers and
prospects. Communication also occurs through the brand contacts or experiences
customers and prospects have with the brand and the organization in the general
marketplace. For example, customers and prospects of a global organization such as
Coca-Cola have numerous experiences and brand contacts with the multinational
beverage corporation as a result of doing business with it. These consumer sources
of information include news stories, signage, product, personal experience, advertising, word of mouth, employees, sponsored events, and even litter in the street.
The Coke Studio, an ongoing musical platform that was established with a main
focus on socializing by mixing music, was another important brand contact which
Coca-Cola has used to nurture customers’ experience in the last ten years and create
positive and lasting impressions. The main aim of Coke Studio was to help Coca-­
Cola appeal more to teems by making Coca-Cola more cool, aspirational, and
shareable. The idea spread across continents to countries including Brazil, Pakistan,
India, the Middle East, and Kenya. In the Middle East, for example, Coke Studio
brought the best Arab and Western music together in harmony to create fusion
songs. From hip-hop to pop rock, the Coca-Cola brand has embarked on countless
journeys to create and preserve not only music of different genres but also the
sounds of different nations to build on their heritage and create something beautiful.
Through music, which is the passion point for youth all over the world, teems were
inspired to open up to other cultures and share more of their own culture (Javed, 2017).
Paid or controllable media messages or incentives in reality despite their ubiquity only make up a small portion of the messages and contacts customers and
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prospects alike have with Coca-Cola. In truth, it is the total sum of the brand contacts a customer or prospect has over time that determines the consumer’s response
to planned and controlled communication programs. Therefore, to plan effective
programs, the communication manager must have some idea of the totality of consumer brand experience and contact points that currently exist in a m
­ arketplace/
space. The goal of an IGMC program is not just to manage the contacts per se, but
also to manage the process. Understanding the venues in which customers and prospects come into contact with the brand is one of the key steps.
One of the best ways to understand brand contacts is through a brand contact
audit, an analysis by the marketing and communication group intended to identify
all the ways in which the organization touches customers and prospects. This can be
a formal or informal process, in which representatives from various areas of the firm
list how and when and in what ways the firm or brand comes into contact with customers and prospects. For example, one of the IMC Best Practice organizations,
Attorney’s Title Insurance Company (APQC, 1998a, 1998b), conducted a brand
contact audit with customers and prospects. It found more than 200 ways in which
it came into contact with its customers and prospects in the normal course of doing
business. These ranged from billing statements to telephone inquiries to electronic
information downloads to speeches at local business club luncheons. All of these
were additional to the planned marketing communication programs. It is worth considering what type of communication is conveyed by these additional contact
sources.
A standardized chart used to assist in the identification of brand contacts by an
organization is provided in Fig. 7.7. As shown, questions about the brand contacts
include where the contact occurred, what the customer or prospect’s expectation
was at that time, and how that contact might be improved. This basic approach to
understanding when and where and how customers already experience the brand is
particularly important in a global program. For example, it has often been the case
that contacts assumed to be positive were not positive at all. Knowing the types of
Fig. 7.7 Brand contact audit. (Source: Adapted from first edition)
Step 3. Contact Points/Preferences
127
existing brand contacts will significantly aid communication planners in developing
effective programs, especially in cultures perceived to be foreign. We reiterate
again, however, that markets (by definition) need to be understood before targeting
them with promotional campaigns that may be inappropriate.
Contact Preferences
It may be recalled that the emergence of information technology has created an
interactive (potentially consumer-empowered) marketplace/space, this moving on
from traditional outbound or linear approaches of the past. In the arena of contact
points/preferences, managers must also learn and understand how customers want
to communicate with us and how they prefer to access information. The earlier discussion of the shift of marketplace power and control in the twenty-first-century
marketplace is germane here.
To learn how customers want to communicate, we adopt a simple process: we
ask them how they would like to receive information, materials, or background on
our brands, products, and services. And then we try to comply with their wishes.
Figure 7.8 illustrates what we call a back-flow communication model.
As this figure shows, the process is quite simple. Surveys, questionnaires, or
interviews are conducted with customers and prospects. We ask them to rate the
various ways they would like to receive information from our company about products, services, offers, promotions, and the like. Once we have that data, we connect
it to the customers and attempt to use their preferences when we want to communicate with them. In many instances, because there are multiple alternative ways for
Fig. 7.8 The back-flow model of brand contacts. (Source: The authors)
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customers to access information from us or for us to communicate with them, we
ask them to rate the types of communication that they prefer in some sort of pre-­
agreed order. This gives us, as communicators, a broader range of choices but still
stays within the preferences of our customers and prospects.
Often, when this type of back-flow model approach is suggested to marketing
and communication managers, they reject the idea. “What if they say ‘none of the
above’? Or, what if they don’t want to hear from us at all?” In this case, the organization has learned something important—that previous marketing and communication programs have not been very relevant and, in some cases, not at all relevant to
the people to whom they were directed. If you conduct a back-flow research project
and customers and prospects tell you they don’t want to hear from you in any manner or mode, then please do not keep using those types of programs in the future.
They simply won’t work, no matter how much is invested in them.
Once customer contact points and customer contact preferences are known and
understood, we’re ready to move to step 4—brand relationships.
Step 4. Brand Relationships
As discussed throughout this book, the brand increasingly will be one of the most
valuable assets the organization controls. Given the lack of other sustainable competitive advantages in the current world, the brand becomes the primary relationship
vehicle between the organization and its customers and prospects. This makes brand
knowledge, or the understanding of current brand meanings by customers and prospects, most important in identifying and developing new brand communication programs in either local, international, or global marketing situations.
As stated in Chap. 4, our definition of a brand is based primarily on the idea that
it is some form of relationship between buyers and sellers. Relationships have history, meaning, shared understandings, and prospects for the future. All four of these
elements are important in understanding the relationship a customer has formed
with the brand and how that relationship might be improved, enhanced, or even
changed if necessary. Notice we said the relationship the customer forms with the
brand, not the relationship the brand forms with the customer. Brands are inevitably
non-sentient and meaning lies in the minds of receivers and users. Thus, while there
is little question that both parties must be involved to assure mutual benefit, it is
always the customer who decides to create a relationship with a brand, not the other
way around. Customers will have a broad array of choices of products and services
from all around the world. It will be the customer who picks and chooses which
brands to use and how to relate to those brands. While the marketing communication activities of the organization will have much to do with the development and
maintenance of brand relationships, the customer or prospect will drive them.
Part of this view comes from the increasing understanding of how brands are
developed and created. While the firm owns the elements of the brand—the product
or service, the icons, the symbols, the messages, and the colors—the consumer
assembles them into a whole and develops the brand meaning for himself or herself
Step 4. Brand Relationships
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Fig. 7.9 The consumer builds the brand in memory. (Source: Adapted from first edition)
which may or may not correspond to the meaning communicated by the company,
source, or communicator. Thus, while Coca-Cola uses many of the same elements
in marketing, communication, packaging, and messaging, every consumer, no matter where located, assembles those elements to create the Coca-Cola brand for them,
as illustrated in Fig. 7.9.
As shown in Fig. 7.9, the mind is made up of relatively unknown quantities of
what are called nodes where memory is stored. Neurons or electrical impulses flow
through and connect these nodes. When two neurons meet or collide, they form a
loop or another node. Thus, memory is formed when the brain takes two known elements, puts them together, and creates a third or a new relationship. For example,
thirst and liquids occur as separate elements in the brain. When we bring them
together with the elements and symbols of Coca-Cola, a third or brand relationship
is formed, hopefully positively. Every person who connects thirst, liquids, and
Coca-Cola will not create the same image of Coca-Cola. Each person uniquely creates a brand for himself or herself. So, while Coca-Cola and thirst and liquids are all
basic relationships, it is the other personal elements that the consumer adds to the
mix that really create the brand and the relationship.
All of this is contained within what is labeled “Brand Network” in the process
chart (Fig. 7.1). From an IGMC view, for Coca-Cola, there are literally billions of
brand networks in the world. Everyone who knows Coca-Cola has put the elements
together differently, creating a unique view of Coca-Cola and his or her own relationship to the product. But there are, of course, commonalities and correspondences where meaning is concerned; otherwise, 7 billion disparate views would
ensure Coca-Cola’s also-ran status as a global icon.
Does this description make the management of brand networks sound like a
hopeless task, with millions or sometimes billions of customers all over the world,
each with a unique view of the brand and its relationship to her or him or the firm?
How can any company or firm possibly understand these relationships or meanings?
Fortunately, humans, simply to survive all the activities, impressions, meanings, and
messages that impact them daily, have learned to do two things. One survival
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Fig. 7.10 The Volkswagen
example: an embedded
brand symbol. (Source:
Adapted from first edition)
technique is to screen out or focus on the things that are important. The second
technique is to group or aggregate things together. We operate in the world using
chunks of information or relationships that allow us to operate easily and quickly.
The same is true of a brand. Customers connect certain ideas or concepts to a brand.
One such brand is illustrated in Fig. 7.10.
Over the last 15 years, the brand symbol for Volkswagen (VW) has been used in
seminars and conferences all over the world and participants asked what it means.
In almost every country, we get the same answers: “Bug” or “Beetle” or “small car”:
In many of the countries, Volkswagen has not marketed the small, rounded Beetle
automobile for a decade or more, yet the image and the meaning endure. While
Volkswagen has introduced a new version of this car, for a number of years the
meaning of the Volkswagen name and symbol created images of a product that was
not available or, worse yet, that didn’t really represent what the organization was
trying to communicate to its customers and prospects. It is critical to understand the
brand networks customers and prospects have created for your brand before trying
to develop brand communication programs to enhance, change, or reinforce those
networks. And certainly, as Volkswagen has been learning to its chagrin, honesty as
to the emissions or outputs from the cars is always the best policy if the company is
to rebuild or enhance its reputation particularly after the corporate scandal in 2015,
when the company had “broken the trust” of its customers and the public, as mentioned by the Group’s Chief Executive, Martin Winterkorn. The environmental protection agency (EPA) found that many VW cars being sold in America had devices
in diesel engines that could detect when they were being tested, changing the performance accordingly to improve results. The German car giant has since admitted
to cheating emissions tests in the USA (Hotten, 2015). VW launched an internal
inquiry. In response to this incident, the company recalled almost 500,000 cars in
the USA alone and had set aside €6.5 billion (£4.7 billion) to cover costs. The carmaker has said it will begin recalling cars in January. Other aggressive corrective
actions taken by the company involved the suspension of anyone who could have
been involved in the scam—from high-level decision-makers to ordinary
Step 5. Message/Incentive Development and Delivery
131
engineers—to prevent possible perpetrators from tampering with the investigation
(Boston, 2015). Although the corrective actions and the reactive PR campaign done
by the company, buyers might still wonder if they could believe VW claims for
emissions levels, given that brands can carry their past! (Hotten, 2015).
Fortunately, a number of research techniques are available today to help communication managers identify current brand networks among consumers and prospects. These techniques commonly fall under the heading of attitudinal research and
have to do with the awareness, knowledge, and feelings that customers and prospects have about brands and organizations. Since this is not a research text per se,
we leave the identification of these methodologies to the research manager and to
students of marketing communication alike. Certainly, there are sufficient market
research techniques that one or several can provide the necessary information.
Inherent in the question of brand networks is how those networks were created.
What type of brand experience did the customer or prospect have that encouraged
or stimulated them to create the brand network currently used? The form and
strength of the customer’s brand experiences have much to do with the ability of
marketing communication either to change or to enhance the customer’s brand network. For example, if a customer has tried a brand and had a bad experience with it,
then marketing communication, no matter how interesting or entertaining or relevant, will not likely have much impact on that customer’s view of the brand. If,
however, the experience of the customer comes primarily from forms of competitive
marketing communication or marketplace hearsay or other, less intensely personal
sources, then it may be possible for marketing communication to provide new or
more relevant information about the product or service that might encourage trial.
Similarly, if the customer or consumer has had a good experience with the brand
and has simply not used it for some time, then marketing communication can bring
them back into the marketplace or perhaps change the perception of how the brand
can or should or might be used. Only by knowing the brand relationship that exists—
that is, the brand knowledge that comes from the previously developed brand network brought about by the brand experience—can marketing communication
managers develop effective integrated messages or incentives.
Step 5. Message/Incentive Development and Delivery
Traditionally, the heart of any marketing or communication program has been “the
message” to be delivered to customers and prospects. We have seen the almost
maniacal emphasis on “creativity” among message delivery organizations such as
advertising agencies. Messages will continue to be important in the global marketplace, but they vary in importance depending on the type of marketplace in which
the organization operates. As shown in Chaps. 1 and 2, and as the basis for the
development of marketing communication messages and strategies, the three basic
types of marketers are reviewed here and illustrated again in Fig. 7.11.
There are three types of marketers in the world today. The product-driven marketer focuses on product superiority and continuous product improvement. The
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Fig. 7.11 Marketplace evolution and revolution. (Source: Adapted from first edition)
distribution-driven marketer focuses on better and more relevant channels and product/service sourcing and delivery. The customer-driven marketer focuses on understanding customers and prospects and seeking to respond via marketing to their
needs and wants.
For the product-driven marketer, the message has high importance, since emphasis is on differentiating the product from its competitors. Commonly these organizations consider anyone who could be interested in their product or service a customer
or prospect.
Distribution-driven marketers often focus on a semi–mass marketing approach.
They want to inform all relevant customers and prospects about the ease of acquisition or customer service provided with their products or services. While message
distribution is an important part of that strategy, it is still the message of availability
or ease of acquisition that is important.
For the customer-driven marketer, the message itself is often secondary to the
message or incentive delivery system. If the marketer knows its customers and prospects well, especially the ways in which they prefer to acquire information from the
organization, then the distribution of messages is often the most important factor in
the process. In a complex and increasingly cluttered media and message delivery
world, if the marketer can’t get the message to the customer, then it really makes
little difference what the message is or says. Message delivery is now the key issue
in the post-2021 marketing communication structure.
Step 5. Message/Incentive Development and Delivery
133
Media Selection
This first decision regarding a media or distribution system creates many challenges
for the communication planner. When message decisions come first, they drive the
form or context in which the message is developed. For example, in sophisticated
media markets such as North America and Europe, many consumer-marketing managers automatically think first about delivering messages through the medium of
television. Television works well in those markets, but not so well in areas where
television broadcasts are limited or where large segments of the population have
limited access to television. Often these communication planners rely on radio or
exhibits or even street corner peddlers to distribute brand information.
Nowadays, the use of apps in promoting a brand or product became necessary
when mobile technology exploded a few years ago, with more people using mobile
devices to access the Internet than desktop, as it provides seamless access to vital
information that a particular website, portal, or channel offers.
In the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, Nike, Inc., the American multinational
corporation and world’s leading designer, marketer, and distributor of athletic
apparel, became the most-viewed brand of the tournament with the help of an innovative mobile and social campaign that combined influencer and content marketing
with product placement. The campaign which was called “Risk Everything” aimed
to ensure that the company, despite not being an official sponsor, would still prevail
as the number one global football brand and dominate the football conversation
before, during, and after the final tournament match. Nike’s campaign created a
globally integrated entertainment experience that inspired and engaged soccer players, soccer fans, and the broader sports audience to Risk Everything when they
played soccer. The campaign was operational 24 hours a day for 30 days across 22
languages. It created 203 original real-time animations and stills that provided a
POV on all of the Nike athletes and teams competing throughout the tournament.
There were written puppeteered, produced, and created real-time messaging which
were deployed at the moment through social media on Twitter, Facebook, Weibo
and Televisa, Xbox, and Google (Wieden + Kennedy, 2016).
This was Nike’s strongest social campaign; with over 400 million views on digital video platforms and 23 million people engaged with the content by liking. Nike
was solidified as the #1 football brand in the world in 2015 achieving $2.3 billion in
revenue for the brand (21% YOY increase), and overall footwear sales were up 25%
across key football markets.
Therefore, for the global marketing communication manager, considering how
messages can be delivered is as important as thinking about the messages themselves. In this book, we start with the customer or prospect and work back to the
organization. This naturally puts delivery ahead of or at least on a par with the
message.
If delivery is to be a key element, the question thus becomes how those delivery
decisions are made. Traditionally marketing communication managers have chosen
delivery systems on the basis of the message content or the cost of delivery. Those
concerns still drive the forms in which communication appears. For example, some
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products or services need to be demonstrated. That requires certain types of media.
Or maybe an incentive needs to be delivered at a specific time. That generally drives
the use of online communications, magazines, newspapers, or in-store promotions.
In our IGMC approach, the issues are more generalized, for demonstrably not all
media are available in all markets around the globe. Thus, we use two different planning considerations in making delivery decisions—relevance and receptivity.
Relevance
Relevance simply means determining when the message might be most relevant to
the customers: When do they use the service? When do they make purchase decisions? Or at what point are they considering what they have done in the past with a
thought of changing? When the customer wants to buy or consider buying becomes
the guiding principle.
Receptivity
The second element is receptivity. When would the customer or prospect be most
receptive to the message or incentive? Again, the decision is not when we as the
marketing communication organization want to deliver it but when the customer or
prospect would most like to receive it. This is related directly to the discussion in
step 3 of brand contact preferences.
The general principles of relevance and receptivity are illustrated in Fig. 7.12:
We have cross-linked the decisions about relevance and receptivity with messages and incentives in our process chart because the two elements generally have
separate realms of interest for the customer or prospect. As shown in Fig. 7.12, the
decision process starts with the relevance and receptivity of either a message or an
incentive and then proceeds to identify various alternative delivery systems that
Fig. 7.12 Relevance and receptivity. (Source: Adapted from first edition)
Step 5. Message/Incentive Development and Delivery
135
might be employed. The illustration shows examples of traditional media, channels,
and online social systems. The communication planner will need to review alternative delivery systems that might be available for each communication program. This
is sure to differ by market (including the factors listed previously) and geography.
Thus, in the IGMC process, the delivery of a message or an incentive on behalf of
the product or service often drives the content of the message rather than the other
way around.
At this point, it may well be asked: “What messages and incentives are being
referred to? How do they fit into the process?”
Messages or Incentives?
In our experience, customers and prospects, certainly those in many of the less-­
developed areas of the world, have little knowledge of or regard for the various
approaches to marketing communication that practitioners have developed. Instead,
most consumers aggregate all the information they have about a brand or company
and put it into a single, cohesive element they generally refer to as “the brand” or
“the company.” This consolidation process (described in some detail in steps 3 and
4) simply means that the customer takes all of his or her information and material
about the brand and puts it into a convenient node or concept. For example, the
customer or prospect generally consolidates all the information about a brand or
company as shown in Fig. 7.13.
As illustrated, the consumer or user or prospect puts all their brand experiences
together and summarizes them as “That’s Shell Oil,” “That’s McDonald’s,” or
“That’s Mercedes.” They don’t particularly differentiate between the various activities or actions or elements of the brand or organization. Thus, we believe a consolidated view of the brand and organization is in order, particularly in a global
marketing situation.
Fig. 7.13 How customers
receive marketing
communications. (Source:
Adapted from first edition)
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From this consolidated view of the brand or company comes our next concept.
That is, we have found that most customers and prospects don’t differentiate
between various types of communication. For example, consumers don’t say “The
advertising is good but the sales promotion doesn’t support and reinforce the brand
image being created!” Nor do they evaluate the various promotional approaches
such as direct marketing and public relations. Those are forms and functions that the
organization and the communication industry have created and that have little or no
meaning or value to customers and prospects.
Therefore, adopting that consumer perspective, we consider all forms of marketing communication to be either messages or incentives. Messages are things the
marketing organization wants the customers or prospects to remember and store
away in their minds. Incentives, however, are those things offered to spur immediate
action. Simply put, messages are things for the mind, incentives for the hand. Thus,
we avoid the internal power struggles over how budgets are developed and whether
advertising is being increased or direct marketing is being reduced. We focus on
how customers and prospects consider our marketing communication materials,
that is, as messages or incentives.
If we start to use the concepts of messages and incentives, then a different method
of developing communication approaches can be devised. The initial stages of our
planning matrix are shown in Fig. 7.14.
In reality, the communication planning process has been simplified. Most marketing communication managers, if they have some knowledge of customers or
prospects, know whether they want to deliver messages—things they want the customer or prospect to remember and that they want to affect their behavior now or in
the future—or incentives designed mainly to immediately change those behaviors.
Thus, this process of planning of messages or incentives ties back to the behavioral
objectives discussed in step 2.
It should be noted that in actual practice the line between messages and incentives is not quite so clearly defined. Often messages and incentives will be combined
or coordinated or delivered together. We separate them here to make the point that
one of the primary decisions an IGMC planner must make is to determine whether
Fig. 7.14 The brand
communication planning
matrix. (Source: Adapted
from first edition)
Step 5. Message/Incentive Development and Delivery
137
the results of the communication program will be determined by short-term results,
commonly attributed to the delivery of an incentive, or long-term, more often related
to message response. This differentiation will become clearer when we move to the
measurement or evaluation of the results of the IGMC program.
The decision to deliver a message or an incentive has a major impact on all marketing activities, particularly the use of traditional marketing tools. Obviously, if the
decision is made to deliver an incentive to customers or prospects, the marketing
mix must be developed to support that incentive decision. An incentive generally
has something to do with some type of adjustment of the price-value relationship—
a price cut, the offering of an extra amount of the product, a two-for-one combination, or a short-term promotion with an ending date for example. These types of
incentives must be delivered in some way in terms of product or place (distribution)
and so on. The same is true of a pricing decision. While we do not delve into the
intricacies of marketing mix management here, it is evident that communication
and actual marketing mix elements must be coordinated to assure marketplace
success.
Coordination
In the final stage of step 5, we focus on how to involve and unite all the internal and
external parts of the organization that come into contact, either directly or indirectly,
with customers and prospects. It is vital that these stakeholders understand the messages or incentives to be developed and be able to expand the reach and value of
their respective marketing communication programs. The challenge is that, in most
cases, internal communication falls outside the purvey of the communication planner. It is often the responsibility of the human resources, employee benefits, corporate communication, or public relations departments. The marketing communication
manager has to work closely with these groups to make sure that all internal audiences are involved and supportive of the marketing communication programs being
delivered to external audiences. Without internal support, any marketing communication program is doomed to failure. This is particularly true of a global program. In
many cases, global programs are planned in a central location, and only a synchronized effort can sustain the communication across different languages, cultures, and
geographies. Getting all parts of the organization focused on the external marketing
communication program is one of the most important tasks for the IGMC planner.
Indeed, we hazarded in 2000 (Schultz and Kitchen) that up to 40% of an organization’s marketing and communication budget may be wasted or misused if the internal support does not follow and support external communication activities and that
percentage has not changed over the intervening period. The alignment of the organization behind the marketing communication program is illustrated in Fig. 7.15. As
shown, the entire process of IGMC focuses on the customer. Internal groups such as
sales, marketing, and production must also be focused on the customer. External
suppliers must be aligned to support the organization’s communication programs.
The same is true for internal operations, from production to shipping to customer
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Fig. 7.15 External/internal alignment. (Source: Adapted from first edition)
service. Everything and everyone must be focused on the end customer if the IGMC
program is to succeed. This will not happen unless there is concerted and consistent
effort, led by marketing, to ensure that it does.
Step 6. Estimating ROCI
Estimating returns on customer investment (ROCI) may be a relatively new concept
for many communication planners, so it is explained and illustrated here. More will
follow in subsequent chapters we detail measurement approaches that could be used
in the IGMC planning process.
Historically, measurement of brand or marketing communication has focused on
the delivery of communication activities. Were the messages sent out or delivered
by the media organization, and were they received and remembered by the intended
audience? By measuring only message development and delivery—the “output” of
the communication group—and not marketplace results, it has been difficult if not
impossible to measure the actual “outcomes” of marketing communication
programs.
In today’s global marketplace, establishing the financial impact of marketing
communication programs is mandatory. Almost every other functional group in the
organization can either estimate or measure the returns on its investments. The
inability of communication groups to tie financial expenditures to financial returns
makes the entire process suspect. The use of surrogate measures such as awareness,
attitude change, intent to buy, and other “soft” measures often is no longer acceptable in most marketing organizations in 2020 and beyond.
Step 6. Estimating ROCI
139
The Measurement Process
In this section, we describe the measurement process in the IGMC approach, leaving the actual step-by-step procedures for measuring and evaluating the effects of
our communication programs for later chapters.
hat Is the Difference Between ROI and ROCI?
W
In the business arena, one of the major measures of success is a financial calculation, return on investment, or ROI. ROI is simply the relationship between what was
invested in an activity and what was returned to the organization as a result of that
expenditure. Expressed as a ratio, ROI is a common measure in all types of financial
transactions. For years marketing and communication managers have tried to measure the return on their marketing and communication investments using ROI with
little or no success. This measure eluded managers for many reasons, chief among
them being the complicated nature of most marketing systems with uncontrollable
variables and the long-term diffusion of messages making it difficult to know who
received the communication. As a result, starting in the early 1960s, marketing and
communication managers moved away from attempting to measure financial effects
and began measuring communication effects, that is, changes in awareness, attitudes, knowledge, and so on, based on the “Hierarchy of Effects” models that
hypothesized that consumers or prospects pass through several stages of attitudinal
change on the way to purchase behavior. Therefore, emphasis moved from measurement of the end result to measurement of movement in the hypothesized process.
By attempting to measure the interim steps on the way to purchase and relating
them to marketing and communication investments, managers hoped that some type
of relationship would emerge that was equivalent in relevance to ROI.
In most attempts to establish a communication ROI measure, focus has been
placed on the delivery system. For example, “We bought so much television time [or
magazine pages]; what did the organization get back from that investment?” Trying
to measure the delivery systems instead of the impact of the communication program on customers or prospects makes it easy to understand why marketing and
communication measurement has been so difficult.
In the IGMC process, we focus on the things that can return pounds, euros, and
dollars to the organization—customers. And we measure the returns from those
customers based on the marketing or communication investments made in them. For
example, television advertising is at the bottom, simply a delivery system by which
messages or incentives are delivered to customers and prospects. We are, in effect,
making an investment in those customers by purchasing television time to expose
our message or encourage them to accept our incentive. Therefore, measurement of
IGMC returns should be made on the basis of what customers returned, not what the
delivery systems return. Delivery systems do not provide any return. Only customers can. Therefore, we measure return on customer investment or ROCI, not ROI.
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he Importance of Measurement Time Frames
T
Marketing and communication managers, because they have been focused on the
development and delivery of messages, have tended to view the returns on their
efforts in terms of when the communication program was originated and when
responses occurred. Thus, the argument has traditionally raged in the organization
as to whether or not, and in which ways, the communication program was working.
Financial and management people, wanting the measurement of hard returns, opted
for a clear-cut, short-term decision. Communication people argued that their programs took time and therefore often couldn’t be measured in the short term. These
differing views on what time frame communication programs could or should be
measured in caused considerable difficulty in many organizations. The difficulty of
relating communication programs to the fiscal or financial year of the organization
has often been the chief culprit.
In truth, the only time frame that matters to an organization is the fiscal time
frame. Company books are opened on a certain date and closed on a certain date.
The importance and value of the organization to managers, shareholders, and the
business community is what occurs during that time period. Therefore, in the IGMC
process, we use the financial time frames that drive the organization and its management, not the communication time frames that marketing and communication managers have traditionally relied on. The adoption of the organization’s financial time
frame allows the completion of our communication planning matrix.
ompleting the Communication Planning Matrix
C
In step 5, message and incentive development and delivery, we presented the first
stage of the communication planning matrix. As you’ll recall, we separated our
marketing and communication programs into messages and incentives. Using the
financial time frames of the organization as the y-axis, we can now complete that
matrix, as shown in Fig. 7.16.
Fig. 7.16 The brand communication planning matrix. (Source: Adapted from first edition)
Step 6. Estimating ROCI
141
This system places the two types of communication delivered in a time frame in
which we expect consumers to respond. Short-term returns are those that will be
returned to the organization in the current fiscal year. Long-term returns will come
back over several fiscal years. The goal, of course, is to get to some type of financial
measurement of the return on our financial investments in various customers, consumers, and firms and then have a way to determine what we got back.
eparating Short-Term and Long-Term Returns
S
Using the communication planning matrix with its short-term and long-term time
frames, the matrix provides us with a clearly defined approach to communication
planning based on customer or consumer response (ROCI). To put the entire process
into communication management terms, we will define short-term responses as
business building and long-term responses as brand building. With these two terms
defined, we can move forward to measuring the short-term and long-term financial
returns on our marketing communication investments.
Estimating Returns
At this stage, there is only one more activity in step 6, estimating the return we
might expect to receive on the investments we are making in our customers and
prospects. While that is a critical ingredient in any type of measurement system, we
will leave this till later chapters when the process will be described in more detail.
For the moment, recall that we have valued customers and prospects as income
flows to the organization. Thus, we know the current value of each customer or
group of customers or can estimate with some accuracy the value of various prospects or groups of prospects. If we put that value into some type of income flow,
then we should be able to estimate the change in the income flow that our marketing
communication program might create. Interestingly, in some cases, our marketing
communication program might be designed simply to maintain or continue the
income flow from a customer or group of customers. Thus, our estimate revolves
around what it would be worth to the organization to maintain a set of income flows.
(Please recall the discussion of behavioral objectives in step 2 of the process.) In
other cases, the estimate is based on what it would be worth to generate new flows
of income from new customers or increased flows of income from present or competitive customers. Through this methodology, we can determine current value and
make educated investment decisions in customers and prospects that can then be
translated into marketing communication investment programs.
The final two steps in the eight-step planning process are basic but important, for
they really start to deal with the critical measurement ingredients of a global marketing communication program—implementation and measurement.
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Step 7. Investment and Allocation
At this point, a planner should be ready to execute the IGMC program in the marketplace. That is what step 7 is all about.
To this point, we have not discussed the most common question in every global
marketing communication planning approach: should the communication program
be developed locally, internationally, or—is there a reason or opportunity to develop
a truly global marketing communication program? Most global marketing communication questions start here. In our process we end here and for a very good reason.
In the IGMC approach we always commence with customers and prospects, not
markets and countries. When we start with customers, particularly when we aggregate them rather than segment them, it becomes clear very quickly whether or not
there is enough commonality to combine various customer groups when we start to
cross borders and cultures. Thus, the aggregation of people or firms who behave in
certain ways gives them a commonality that tends to make global communication
practical and possible. True, there may need to be changes in language or illustrations, but basically, it is behavior we are trying to influence, and behaviors tend to
be driven by common, underlying decisions people or firms make. Research suggests that there are horizontal bands of customers and prospects around the world
with similar tastes, interests, needs, and values. One band is the world’s elite—
people who, by reason of their economically privileged position, can pursue a lifestyle that includes fine jewelry, expensive clothing, quality automobiles, and so on.
Marketers of high-quality products such as Cartier jewelry, Godiva chocolates, and
Louis Vuitton luggage can use global advertising to appeal to the elite market segment around the world. Well-known international brands competing in the luxury
goods marketplace often present a singular image of prestige and style to the entire
world. Another group of global consumers who have similar needs and interests and
seek similar features and benefits from products and services is teenagers—intense
exposure to television, magazines, movies, music, travel, and global advertising
from companies such as Levi Strauss, Benetton, Nike, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and
many others.
It is important to note that IGMC approach could be more feasible with some
products, than others, for example, high-tech consumer products such as personal
computers, calculators, VCRs, TVs, and audio equipment, as well as various types
of business-to-business products and services such as computer systems. Products
with a national reputation for quality can be the basis for a global advertising campaign. This includes, for example, Swiss watches, French wine, and German beer or
automobiles. Companies whose products appeal to universal needs, values, and
emotions also advertise their brands with global campaigns. For example, Gillette
used global advertising to launch its new Mach3 triple-bladed shaving system. The
global campaign built around the high-tech theme of the product retains the same
tagline (Belch & Belch, 2021).
The real question for the global marketing communication planner is the commonality among the groups of customers or prospects that are to be served. In the
Appendices, several cases illustrate how starting with customers, rather than with
Step 8. Marketplace Measurement
143
products or services, simplifies marketing communication decisions. While the
Oral-B approach illustrated in Schultz and Kitchen (2000) had worked very well in
North America and Europe, the dramatically different way in which Indians behave
toward oral hygiene and dentists quickly showed that the previously developed
“global approach” needed to be adapted and adjusted to succeed in India.
Inherent in step 7 is the need to build on previous decisions. For example, we will
need to use the valuation of the various customer groups from step 2 to determine
how much we would be willing to invest in an IGMC program. That, of course, will
depend on the present value of customers and what their potential for future returns
might be. We will need to use the information from step 5 to decide on whether we
need to deliver messages or incentives. Likewise, we will need to use the information also from step 5 on when the messages or incentives might be most relevant to
the customers and prospects we have selected.
Step 8. Marketplace Measurement
In most marketing communication processes, once the planning and development
have been done and the program placed in the market, the communication manager
may believe the job has been done. True, there may be some details to address, but
for the most part, the manager’s job is over until the next program is developed and
executed. Hmmm! But, in the IGMC approach, the job is just starting. The measurement of results and the interpretation of those results are the most critical elements
in the process. It is here that the actual learning for the organization occurs. It is also
here that the determination is made about whether or not all the preceding steps
have been developed accurately and returns generated. The process chart in Fig. 7.11
lists two items, actual ROCI and recycle.
Actual ROCI
In step 6, the communication manager estimated the return on proposed customer
investments. In this step, we measure actual marketplace results and compare them
to the estimates. That tells the manager how effective their planning has been.
Remember, in all cases, we are measuring returns through income flows. In step 6,
we estimated what level of income flow our program might generate. Here we measure any changes in the actual results of the program. Of course, to do that we need
methods to capture current income flows so we can then measure compared to past
income flows to find the differences.
In some cases we may not be able to measure immediate income flow changes,
which is why we divide communication investments into business building and
brand building. We will deal with how these measures can actually be conducted
later in the book. For the moment, however, recognize that the ability to measure our
estimated ROCI compared to what was actually achieved is one of the key features
of the IGMC process.
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Recycle
This final step in the process is exactly what it says. We take the results we achieved
in the marketplace from our communication program and, after evaluation, add
them to our database, ideally connecting the results to each individual customer. If
that is not possible, we then link them to each customer group. It is this ability to test
and measure that really differentiates the IGMC process from others. By taking
results from current programs and using them as input to the database, we have created a closed-loop system that allows the organization continuously to learn and
improve on previous results. The concept of a closed-loop system is illustrated in
Fig. 7.17.
The key element in an IGMC process is the ability to learn from experience. As
illustrated in Fig. 7.17, we generally start with some information about customers
and prospects with whom we want to communicate. We should have some way to
value those customers or estimate the value of a prospect (see step 2). Knowing the
value of a customer—that is, the income flow the customer represents—we can then
make a managerially relevant decision on what we would be willing to invest in
marketing communication to these customers with some idea of the expected return
and develop the marketer-controlled or interactive social media mechanisms to
reach out and influence customers and prospects.
Once we have made our communication investment, we can measure the results;
that is, we can look at a continuation or increase in the income flow to the organization. That can be evaluated against the cost of generating that income flow. Those
Fig. 7.17 Closed-loop systems. (Source: Adapted from first edition)
References
145
results are then put back into the database and attached to the customer, creating the
closed-loop system.
Conclusions
• All the data needed may already reside in the organization. The skill lies in how
it is organized and made useful.
• The highest-volume customer is not always the most profitable customer.
• Any company communicates with everything it does. Make sure it is known
what your company’s actions are saying.
• The company does not own its brands; customers do.
Discussion Questions
Rather than evaluate questions relative to this chapter, you may wish to access the
following media presentations:
1. Relating to Dow Chemical, the first reference is to “The Human Element”
Campaign and Dow leaders’ justification and explanation.
https://www.csrwire.com/press_releases/25916-­Dow-­Chemical-­Launches-­
The-­Human-­Element-­Campaign (accessed September 2020)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3byt7xMSCA
(accessed
September 2020)
2. However, there is always an alternative view. Please see:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kePiQ0PGvzU
(accessed
September 2020)
In the context of this chapter… how can these alternate views be reconciled?
References
American Productivity & Quality Center. (1998a). Brand building & communication: Power strategies for the 21st century. American Productivity & Quality Center International Benchmarking
Clearinghouse.
American Productivity & Quality Center. (1998b). Integrated marketing communications.
American Productivity & Quality Center International Benchmarking Clearinghouse.
Belch, G., & Belch, M. (2021). Advertising and promotion: An integrated marketing communications perspective (12th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.
Boston, W. (2015, October 26). Volkswagen suspends more employees. Law firm
Jones Day urges the action to prevent tampering with emissions probe. Wall
Street Journal. Retrieved May 28, 2020, from https://www.wsj.com/articles/
volkswagen-­widens-­suspensions-­in-­emissions-­scandal-­1445791586
Hotten, R. (2015, December 10). Volkswagen: The scandal explained. BBC News. Retrieved May
28, 2020, from https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-­34324772
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HP. (2007, October 17). HP’s PC market growth outpaces industry’s. HP Press Release, Palo Alto,
California. Retrieved June 13, 2020, from https://www8.hp.com/us/en/hp-­news/press-­release.
html?id=170067
Javed, F. (2017, August 7). Coke studio on the international front. The Nation. Retrieved May 20,
2020, from https://nation.com.pk/07-­Aug-­2017/coke-­studio-­on-­the-­international-­front
Pfanner, E. (2006, July 23). On advertising: HP gets personal – Technology – International Herald
Tribune. New York Times. Retrieved May 23, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/23/
technology/23iht-­ad24.2269321.html
Schultz, D. E., & Kitchen, P. J. (2000). Communicating globally; An integrated marketing
approach. Palgrave Macmillan.
Targetbase Marketing. (1998). Presentation Deck. Irving, TX8.
Targetbase Marketing. (2020). Retrieved June 13, 2020, from https://www.targetbase.com/
Wieden + Kennedy. (2016). Nike: Risk everything. Retrieved May 10, 2020, from https://www.
wk.com/work/nike-­risk-­everything/
8
Creative Execution: Gaining
and Retaining Customers
and Influencing Stakeholders
In Chaps. 6 and 7, we discussed developing integrated global marketing communication (IGMC) strategies and then implementing those as programs. To develop a
strategy and then create communication messages and incentives requires the nine
competencies for seeking to master IGMC as well as a comprehensive understanding of the eight-step IGMC planning process. To be frank, the IGMC process is not
and never can be simply a template that can be used to develop and implement
programs. Instead, it is far more concerned with logical, customer-driven processes
that lead to sustainable and successful outcomes. And, these processes are dynamic
and flexible. Thus, continuous monitoring and gathering and analysis of all pertinent data are essential. This by no means does away with managerial judgment, but
the bases of such judgments have to be soundly based.
Strategic Thinking in the IGMC Mode
There is nothing particularly new to say about strategy, which can be defined as “the
art of the general.” Note, not the art of the spreadsheet! And, not the art of the online
algorithm! Just as an army general or leader must work with the resources under his/
her control and within the conditions of risk and uncertainty, so must corporate
executives, marketing managers, and brand managers decide how best to marshal
limited marketing resources to achieve satisfactory exchanges that help grow brands
annually and over the longer term. And, environments for armies and businesses and
even governments bear a resemblance, for opposing forces or competitors will
develop counterstrategies. As Peter Drucker once said, “the business that keeps on
doing what it’s doing now, will fail!”
From a corporate and brand perspective, the competitive domain is not just
national in scope such as the USA, the UK, China, or Japan, but increasingly the
entire world. Admittedly, for a while, that world was divided somewhat into economic blocks or zones of economic activity, such as the European Union, NAFTA,
and the like, and these zones still exist and exert a powerful sway over the fortunes
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
P. J. Kitchen, M. E. Tourky, Integrated Marketing Communications,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76416-6_8
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of multinationals. But fractures and fissures and, in some cases, complete breakages
are evident, such as Donald Trump’s twittering about Mexican incursions to US territories and his once-planned and aborted construction of a nine-meter high 2000
mile wall partitioning of the two countries (Rogers & Bailey, 2019). Sniggers among
political opponents aside, it is no laughing matter as the EU and the UK squared for
what became a good old economic and political bust-up in 2020, and complete
divorce which is becoming rancorous in 2021 (Global Justice, 2020). Moreover,
other governments continue to interfere in other spheres of interest, for example, the
current political situation in Belarus, and the debacle over democratic and citizen
rights in Hong Kong.
Moreover, entering and competing well in the much-vaunted global marketplace
is no easy task. From our perspective, introducing IGMC is not easy either; it
implies change, potentially knocking down or reshaping sacred marketing shibboleths (such as a hierarchy of effect models, and mass marketing) and even the old
debate of standardization/adaptation that has held sway for decades.
When communicating with any audience or stakeholder, it becomes evident that
the same strategy cannot be deployed to all potential customers or prospects. In
other words, strategy itself is of necessity, pluralistic. Strategic outcomes are, however, extremely general in nature. There is, for example, the ancient analogy of the
product life cycle strategy, which suggests the most appropriate strategies to be
taken at each stage of the life cycle, if one only identifies the current stage your
product or brand is in. Then there is or was the Boston box, the famous four-cell
matrix that suggests what to do for businesses or products if they fall within high-/
low-growth competitive scenarios. A final example—though there are many others—is the GE McKinsey business screen, which suggests what to do if your strategic business unit falls into any cell of a nine-cell matrix based on market attractiveness
and business strength.
The problem with all these time-worn models or processes is that the strategies
they suggest are incomplete; they are not prescriptive but descriptive. If taken as
prescriptive, they can spell disaster for a company or brand. For example, most businesses are located in low-growth/low-market-share positions, against highly
entrenched competitors. The strategic prescription for these “dog” businesses is to
divest them or milk them for cash. Plainly, such strategies can be a recipe for disaster. Many so-called dog businesses are successful in returns of profitability simply
because of the skills or strategies employed by the managers of the business. While
this is simply illustrative here, we still find that many businesses develop their marketing communication strategy on the basis of ancien regime mass market techniques. These techniques may still work in some markets, but be careful as the
international marketing communication literature is littered with examples of mass
marketing techniques or campaigns developed in one country that have been misapplied in new or different contexts that were not configured culturally to receive them
or deemed relevant to the intended audience. The concept of a global marketplace
or place acting upon globalized generalizations is already shifting into the sedimentary strata of days gone by. Note, we are not saying that campaigns cannot be developed and used on a country-by-country basis. Indeed, they can, but only when and
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where a clear understanding of market dynamics precedes campaign development
and implementation and allows adaptation where necessary to suit particular culturally contextual circumstances.
And yet, in nation after nation, year after year, the same banal, unappealing,
unexciting messages are deployed through broadcast, broadscale media. And as if
this isn’t enough, often the world of online is inundated with the same repetitive
banality. The promulgators are not consumer-oriented or even geographically oriented but company-oriented. Instead of such approaches building brands or even
companies, they tend to switch consumers and potential customers off. Instead of
reinforcing, rebuilding, or strengthening memory organization structures, such
campaigns and messages do not pass the second stage of information processing,
attention, except perhaps a swift glance and simultaneous “same-old,” “same-old.”
What’s important in 2020 and beyond is not what the product/brand means to the
company but what the product/brand means to the consumer, consumers, potential
customers, and future and lapsed customers.
Thus, our attempt at strategically rethinking the IGMC approach involves developing or understanding the mind-set or behavior of target markets within which a
company competes. In our view such understanding is based on tracking customer
income flows (see previous chapters and Chap. 10) and seeing the product, brand,
or communication from their—not just our—perspective. Invariably this way of
seeing depends on the quality of the material available in the database concerning
customers and their needs. Increasingly, most companies producing brands or offering services are adding qualitative data (usually based on focus group, panel, or
survey data) to try to establish levels of customer motivation and need to the high
levels of quantitative data already available.
ustomer and Consumer Mind-Sets Are
C
the Strategic Imperative
Customers want to be taken seriously, to be valued on their own terms. This implies
that they are actively seeking some type of relationship. What companies can do is
find out as much as possible about each customer or market and then craft marketing
communications to appeal to clearly identifiable needs that in turn eventually result
in behavioral outcomes. Today’s computerized technologies and market research
techniques, if used wisely, do in fact allow customers to be known and appealed to
directly (assuming this is what they want or indicate they want). Therefore, and
though this seems self-evident, no single strategy can be deployed to all potential or
extant customers.
If we combine customer mind-sets with the previous consideration of strategic
thinking, then the outcomes may resemble the nexus of marketing strategy as developed originally by William Cohen and illustrated in Fig. 8.1. Working through this
diagram means the marketing concept is being followed via reorientation toward
customers, consumers, and publics and adopting a mode of strategic thinking that
requires every strategy to be associated with the ten elements listed.
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Fig. 8.1 The Nexus of marketing communication strategy. (Source: The authors)
Campaign objectives are usually associated with strategies (broad statement
about how we are to achieve objectives) and tactics (fine detail of the strategies
showing how they can be implemented). They are most often associated with the
individual elements of the marketing communication mix, which thus become the
implementation detail. A proposed global campaign can be spearheaded by advertising or for that matter by social media, public relations, celebrity endorsements
and social influencers, outdoors posters, and print media. The mix may be tactical
in terms of the overall plan of the campaign, but each element can have a strategic
role. Thus, one talks of PR strategies, advertising strategies, and so on. This is
because—there is a hierarchy of levels at which objectives and strategies exist.
Does the strategy drive objectives, or do objectives drive the strategy? The
answer is that the two are inextricably interrelated and closely juxtaposed to company needs in relation to an understanding of marketplace dynamics and behavior.
The objective, at any organizational level, has to be communicated clearly to marketers, distributors, and agencies—all those persons or organizations involved in
accomplishment. The driving force behind IGMC is the corporation that has mined
the database and understood the market. Those involved in implementation must
clearly understand this and work in unison to minimize waste in terms of capital and
other resources, including management time.
Initiative
Initiative primarily means taking a proactive position. As illustrated, for example,
by Louis Vuitton, Dior, Prada, and other luxury brands, they are forging ahead in
response to the COVID-19 outbreak which is threatening the luxury industry, as its
most important clientele—Chinese consumers—are mostly staying home (Wang,
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2020). Forrester estimated that Chinese consumers spent $104.44 billion on luxury
in 2019, or one-third of global luxury retail sales. At the outset of the pandemic,
many luxury brands temporarily closed some of their retail stores or shortened operating hours and halted marketing spending in China altogether. However, despite
the difficulties, leading luxury brands have responded quickly to the crisis and taken
positive initiatives in brand communication, customer engagement, and digital marketing (Wang, 2020). For example, on February 18, 2021, Louis Vuitton in an initiative to create brand affinity by supporting the cause of combating the COVID-19
outbreak launched a cause marketing campaign, “Love has no fear,” on Chinese
social media platform Weibo. Multiple Chinese celebrity brand ambassadors
recorded videos to encourage residents in Wuhan and support frontline medical
workers. The campaign topic generated 4.2 billion views in its first week (Wang,
2020). That said, the recent rejection of Huawei 5G technology by the USA and the
UK, not to mention the rancor created by events in Hong Kong, seems set to stir the
muddy waters of Western/SINO relations. Put another way, “there will be consequences” (Adedokun, 2020).
In all instances of success, the attitude or mind-set of management is to control
the time, the place, and the pace of action while simultaneously seeking to or attempt
to apparently pass control of access to customers. IGMC-oriented companies will
never wait for competitors to take the initiative; they are not waiting to retaliate to
offensive attacks. Instead, they are continually assessing the ways they do things,
changing what can be changed, adapting, altering, and flexing in new ways to meet
the needs of today’s and tomorrow’s customers.
Concentration
This principle allocates marketing and corporate communication resources to
achieve exchanges at the decisive point. It means concentrating marketing and corporate communication resources where they will achieve the greatest potential
return on investment.
Major luxury brands regularly engage with empowered Chinese consumers
across top digital marketing and commerce platforms such as JD’s TopLife, Tmall
Luxury Pavilion, WeChat, and Weibo. Forrester estimates that online accounts for
14% of luxury spending in China. During the COVID-19 outbreak, leading luxury
brands have continued to engage customers via digital initiatives. For example,
Dior, on February 25, live-streamed on Weibo the catwalk show for its 2020 autumn/
winter women’s collection in Paris. Louis Vuitton launched a Valentine’s Day exclusive pop-up store via a WeChat mini-program that allowed customers to place orders
online. Store associates were able to share exclusive offline promotions to customers via QR code. The brand moved pre-sale consultations and post-sale customer
services online and partnered with SF Express to ensure smooth delivery. Despite
the outbreak, Louis Vuitton doubled its online sales compared to last year’s
Valentine’s season (Wang, 2020).
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From a longer-term brand-building perspective, corporations need to build corporate image (via corporate identity programs) to amortize costs effectively across
the entire brand portfolio.
Economy of Resources
Recent decades have seen the wave of takeovers, amalgamations, and mergers of the
end of the twentieth and beginning of the twenty-first centuries reined back in favor
of concentrating on core businesses. No firm or brand can be successful in all fields
of endeavor, as Coca-Cola found out when it took over one of the world’s largest
wine manufacturers in the 1980s. Marketing wine is simply not the same as marketing cola. BMW’s trumpeted takeover of Rover Cars in the early 1990s resulted in
unfavorable comparison of corporate and brand imagery and identity. Throughout
the world, marketing organizations are being squeezed, becoming flattered and
more horizontal. Put another way, fewer resources are being allocated to maintain
market performance. And the pace of mergers and acquisitions is accelerating, as
globalization and internationalization continue apace (Wikipedia, 2020a).
It is the marketing executive’s job to concentrate resources in the most appropriate ways to clearly defined segments, groups of customers, and consumers, even
individuals. Clearly, whatever creates exchanges and builds brands will gain marketing communication resource allocation—but return on investment will have to be
shown as well. Hence, our argument for IGMC and IGMC measurement as opposed
to the hit-and-miss approaches is currently being used. Adopting IGMC, at least at
the customer mind-set level, is essential, for few resources, if any, will be allocated
for secondary efforts.
Maneuver
Maneuver implies a willingness to change, to alter, to adapt where and when necessary, especially in the marketing and corporate communication arena, and to make
those changes. Admittedly, this ties into flexibility which is much more of a mind-set
and willingness to embrace change. Maneuver suggests acting upon that mind-set.
The IGMC approach can be applied anywhere in the world, but it relies or depends
on a sound understanding of the dynamics of served customers or markets. And in
the global marketplace, maneuverable dynamics may well vary on a market-by-­
market basis. They may, for example, differentiate on a geographic, economic,
political, or social and cultural basis. There is no doubt that great campaigns can and
do cross geographic boundaries, but can they cross psychographic and cultural
boundaries as well? The number 4, for example, is regarded as unlucky in Hong
Kong; two 4’s are extremely unlucky. These factors were not considered to be
important by Volvo, but the Volvo 440, despite extensive promotional effort, did not
sell well in Hong Kong. There is an exception to every rule, however, as the Volvo
440 Bus did sell well there in 2010, that is, no marketplace reaction (Volvo, 2010).
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When Lancia launched its “Dedra” car in the UK, it was asked, did they not consider that a car name containing the word dead might have unfortunate connotations? Their response was that the word dedra (pronounced “deed rha”) was
associated with speed and panache. The exact pronunciation did not work well in
the UK setting. And, sales flatlined. Kellogg’s transplanted ad for Cornflakes featuring foot-stompin’, banjo-strummin’ hillbillies, developed for the American market,
found little resonance of a positive nature elsewhere, even in cultures apparently
similar to that of the USA. Few can fail to be aware of US voice-overs for American
ads shown on UK media. The overall effect seems to be “irritability,” then “stop
listening.” Perhaps the former is intentional. The same seems to be true of the persistent and annoying barrage of publicity for ex-royals Harry and Meghan. Most UK
consumers find this barrage needless and insulting. However, it continues to be
broadcast, irrespective of a lowering of respect for “royals” everywhere.
Unity of Command
For every campaign, based on the IGMC process, there has to be one overall leader
or locus of control. At the marketing level, this could be the product or brand manager; at SBU level, the marketing director; at corporate level, the marketing executive working closely with the person or team responsible for corporate
communication. Alternatively, control can be delegated (but not abdicated) to
responsible executives in advertising or other agencies or even to an executive in an
integrated agency. Our experience indicates that the best examples of delegation of
IGMC programs to agencies occur only where there is a long-standing relationship
of trust between client and agency as was the case at one time between Levi and
Bartle Bogle Hegarty (see Stone, 2013). Where the relationship is short term, generally the locus of control is with the client. Where there is more than one locus of
control or command, deployment of resource allocation in an integrated approach
tends to be dispersed and less effective than if such command is unified under one
marketing communication leader.
Coordination
Coordination supports and sustains unity of command, resource concentration,
maneuver, and initiative. All marketing communication efforts must be fully coordinated to achieve organizational objectives. Thus, from a global perspective, all
geographic units, if not using the same message, would still communicate the same
inherent values. Geographic units, communication tasks, the IGMC planning process, implementation, and evaluation are made similar if not identical; and behavioral and attitudinal outcomes are made available to all who need to know. Such
coordination reduces the potential for other geographic units to operate in a solitary
or unitary manner.
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Surprise
Often this is the key to competitive advantage. Web retailer Amazon.com generated
much of its brand momentum by using the proceeds from its public share offer to
aggressively extend the company’s customer base and brand image. It was not just
as an online retailer of books that Amazon.com has generated surprise. It has transformed marketing communication into an integrated process. Amazon.com features
a user-friendly browse and search facility by author, subject, or ISBN; Web-based
credit card payment; direct shipping to clients; a book review section; a readers’
comments section; and an ongoing automated search agent titled Eyes. No wonder
traditional book retailers originally cast envious eyes at Amazon’s performance.
Amazon.com simply acted with surprise, speed, concentration of resource, audacity, and creativity to come up with a global business in an old business sector but one
with new dynamics emerging in the high-growth technological sector. It compensated for inferior resources (unknown brand name, no retail distribution, no mass
advertising). In 2020, Amazon is a titan of e-commerce, logistics, payments, hardware, data storage, and media. It dabbles in plenty more industries. It’s the go-to site
for online shoppers and merchants alike, a modern necessity that independent sellers love to hate (Gershgorn et al., 2020). Yes, it started in the old-fashioned book
business. But its mode of doing business transformed the book market. Naturally, by
using the power of the Internet and e-commerce, Amazon is one of the best-known
businesses and most valuable brands in the world. Amazon made the Internet work
for it, but its approach is consumer-driven and consumer-oriented. Today, Amazon
is the fifth highest-ranked business in the world (Fortune 500, 2020).
Simplicity
Simple direct marketing communication that promises and delivers significant benefits is always best. Someone once said, “We succeed according to the simplicity of
our efforts” (Anon). One example of simplicity was the 1994 launch of the “Orange”
mobile phone in Great Britain. Owned by Hutchison Telecom, which had previously failed with “Rabbit,” the Orange team developed an integrated proposition
announcing the advent of “wire-free communication.” One hallmark of this program was the heavy degree of dependence on integrated marketing communication
admittedly of stage 1 necessitated by the small size of the in-house marketing team
at Hutchison. Wolff Olins, a major international agency headquartered in London,
created and has continued to develop and supervise Orange’s corporate identity.
WCRS, a major UK-based advertising agency, is responsible for all above-the-line
advertising and helps coordinate activity with other agencies as new campaigns are
launched. Dutton Merrifield (UK) ensures that all copies and terms are consistent
and provides customer communication leaflets such as bill inserts. Option One provides point of sale, and until recently, WWAV (UK) worked on direct marketing.
All activities are managed between the agencies and the Orange campaign and
design team. Postlaunch, the Orange team, based on clear market evidence,
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developed a multimedia mix to ensure synergy across all sectors. While new companies are renowned for innovation, Orange succeeded in a marketplace where it
was the latest entrant back in 1994. It was its view that the integrated marketing
communication approach, in which images of mobile phones are noticeably absent,
proved to be a significant key to success, moreover a key that is being replicated in
other international markets, most recently Israel, to the chagrin of already established competitors. Again, the integrated approach, while innovative in 1994, was
not unknown to competitors. We use this example deliberately to illustrate how one
market failure, that is Rabbit, led to product withdrawal and complete renewal in the
form of Orange and—admittedly early stage IMC, to bring about an international
business, similar to a phoenix rising from the ashes of its former self. In 2000,
France Telecom SA acquired Orange, and in 2013, the company was rebranded as
Orange SA (Wikipedia, 2020b). It is the tenth largest mobile telecom operator in the
world and the fourth largest in Europe. In 2015, the group had a revenue of €40 billion. And, even though it took France Telecom to build it to its current level, let’s
face it, Orange SA seems a far more modern company. The case development has to
be a classic in telecoms history (Orange, 2019). Remember, however, that the original purpose of market penetration and presence was fulfilled.
In the international marketplace, simplicity of effort in marketing communication is even more desirable. But, this does not and cannot mean wholesale replication of whatever may have worked elsewhere. Introducing off-the-shelf
ready-packaged marketing communication programs may work only where no creative alternative based on underlying customer dynamics is readily available. It is,
however, a poor strategy. Simplicity also needs to be allied closely to flexibility.
Flexibility
Flexibility is necessary at the planning and implementation stages of IGMC. Core
values associated with the brand or corporation stand at the center of the IGMC
process. The vehicle for delivery of these values is the message. Messages and
media may change, but the values, so long as they reflect deeply felt consumer
needs, remain the same. However, radical changes in these values need to be
watched for, and adaptations made. For example, Black Lives Matter (following the
unjust killing of unarmed black man, George Floyd, after being arrested and killed
by a white police officer on May 25, 2020, outside a shop in Minneapolis, Minnesota)
has prompted a branding crisis. Many companies around the world reconsider their
use of racist stereotypes in different marketing practices in response to protests
which popped up all across the country, with millions of Americans demanding the
abolishment of racism in all its forms.
For example, Colgate has announced a review of its toothpaste brand Darlie,
which once featured a smiling white man in blackface. The popular brand, which is
sold in Asian countries including the Philippines and Thailand and is considered the
top brand by market share in China, according to Colgate-Palmolive (CL), had long
been criticized for using racist imagery. The brand is marketed in Chinese as “Black
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Person Toothpaste” and was sold using the racial epithet Darkie until its name was
changed to Darlie in 1989 (Pham, 2020).
Quaker Oats announced by mid-June 2020 that it will change the logo of its Aunt
Jemima brand, which for decades has been widely criticized as a racist caricature of
a Black maid stemming from slavery. The Aunt Jemima decision has prompted
more companies to take action (Cramer, 2020). Mars Food, the owner of the brand
Uncle Ben’s rice, which features an older black man smiling on the box, released a
statement saying that it is “the right time to evolve” after talks with consumers and
employees. “Uncle” has historically been used in reference to slaves, and before
2007, he appeared as a waiter in the logo. Also, ConAgra Brands, the maker of Mrs.
Butterworth’s pancake syrup, quickly released a statement saying the company had
begun a “complete brand and package review” (Conagra, 2020). Critics have long
associated the shape of the Mrs. Butterworth’s bottle with the mammy, a caricature
of black women as subservient to white people.
B&G Foods Inc., the parent company of Cream of Wheat, announced that it too
was conducting a review of its packaging (Pham, 2020). The porridge box, which
depicts a beaming black man in a white chef’s uniform, has not been altered much
since its debut in the late nineteenth century. The character was named “Rastus,” a
pejorative term for black men, and he was once depicted as a barely literate cook
who did not know what vitamins were (Cramer, 2020)
Flexibility implies a willingness to change, to adapt marketing communication
programs in the light of behavioral evidence from the marketplace. The recent widespread anti-racism protests have renewed the focus on companies that for decades
have used racial images to sell rice, breakfast foods, dairy products, and snacks,
among other products and services.
Communication Strategy: The Need
for Organizational Reengineering
The drive to understand consumer mind-sets, coupled with the strategic imperative,
means that corporations that wish to compete in the global marketplaces of today
and tomorrow will almost inevitably need to undergo a process analogous to organizational reengineering. As seen in Chaps. 4 and 5, changes taking place in the
communication environment mean that all companies everywhere need to radically
rethink their marketing communication activities. As early as 1991, the argument
was already being made that technology was creating feedback loops connecting
customers and companies, which in turn created opportunity for firms to act more
quickly in response to dynamic response patterns. Figure 8.2 indicates that global/
multinational firms can now potentially use IGMC to further synergize marketing
strategy and tactics. This potential depends on several factors.
• the domestic, international, regional, and global environment
• the stages of life cycle in which brands are positioned on a country-by-­
country basis
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157
Fig. 8.2 Global developments and IGMC. (Source: Adapted from first edition)
Fig. 8.3 IGMC or global
potentialities. (Source:
Adapted from first edition)
• the extent to which such brands are directed globally
• the corporate culture with respect to globalization or IGMC processes
• the extent to which IGMC prevails in each contextual environment
Reality for many corporations lies along a continuum of global and communication possibilities, as shown in Fig. 8.3. Few corporations would disagree with continuum A in the figure. Likewise, few firms would argue that their communication
programs are unintegrated from a domestic or global perspective. But, as has been
argued in Chaps. 3 and 4, integration goes well beyond making communication look
or sound the same. As a pencil-and-paper experiment, you may like to indicate
where on continuum A your company is positioned in relation to integration
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(following a brief review of Fig. 5.3). We expect that relatively few firms, probably
with narrow product or service lines or in business-to-business sectors or original
equipment manufacturers (OEM)—such as Dow Chemical, Coca-Cola, Levi
Strauss, Oxford Instruments, and De Beers—would be positioned to the far right.
Firms such as McDonald’s Corporation, while coherently integrated as a global
brand in its own right, have nonetheless chosen to follow a quasi-domestic orientation in terms of communication via its policy of selecting and briefing agency personnel on a local basis. For example, Leo Burnett, a major international advertising
agency with headquarters in Chicago, London, and Europe, handles the brand in 18
countries, while DDB handles 45, which results in fragmented and uneven work
across the world. McDonald’s approach is thus different on a market-by-market
basis and perhaps, from the corporate management perspective at this time, has to
be this way. The objective for those taking IGMC seriously is to move from left to
right along both continuums. However, for non-international readers, the aim is to
move along continuum A.
Forces shaping how global firms approach the competitive challenge at the organizational level have been conceptualized elsewhere. Radical re-conceptualizations
such as reengineering the corporation indicate the extent and need for organizational change. IGMC, likewise, is founded on the need for organizational change, in
order to become more, not less, consumer-oriented or, as we put it, consumer-­
driven. The main problem is that virtually any change requiring restructuring
encounters organizational resistance or inertia. IGMC requires radical new
approaches in the organization and conceptualization of communication. It is worth
remembering that how business was done yesterday is not as important as how business is done today and how it will be done tomorrow.
Given that firms face a competitive scenario in which restructuring may be
demanded, how can firms proceed with creative and innovative marketing communication programs? Marketing communication may be tackled from a domestic perspective through the following stages:
This process is a useful overview of how to proceed in markets where market
research or database evidence strongly indicates that a global brand-building
approach would be unsuitable. IGMC strategy then indicates that an appropriate
global approach would be developed as shown in Fig. 8.5:
Four variables will constantly impact IGMC strategies in the international context: (1) consumers, (2) competition, (3) environmental circumstances, and (4) levels of brand development. Thus, the underpinning databases must be configured to
gather material and information on these elements as they will flex and change over
time. The next step will be to develop creative messages to targeted customers or
potential customers to create satisfactory and sustainable exchanges.
Creativity and IGMC
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Fig. 8.4 Stages of marketing communication program. (Source: The authors)
Fig. 8.5 The IGMC company context: four forces model. (Source: The authors)
Creativity and IGMC
Creativity or what is perceived to be creative may vary significantly from country to
country or from consumer to consumer. For example, creativity can be viewed as
being unique, different, novel, or effective in achieving specific tasks or accomplishing objectives, in other words, creative with a purpose.
What do consumers seek from creative ideas? Let’s assume that the creative
drive for IGMC is spearheaded or led by advertising. Consumers seek information
from advertisements much as they might seek information from a fairy tale or
play—they know it isn’t real, but they believe its message to be useful in their real
lives. The question for the marketer is how this belief can be created and sustained.
Advertising and associated marketing communication techniques have to reach the
sense organs of those who are to be communicated with (be seen or heard), have to
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gain attention (or the allocation of cognitive or emotive capacity), have to be seen as
the path to a goal (must stipulate a meaningful and real benefit or value), and have
to be retained in long-term memory to lead to a behavioral outcome. Accordingly,
creative advertising needs to reflect empathy and create bond, using a fresh, unexpected, and appropriate idea to deliver the brand’s positioning strategy and capture
the brand’s relative strengths and weaknesses vis-à-vis competitive brands. When
these factors occur, the ad provides the kinds of extraordinary results that many
agencies and clients seek. Failing to offer an appropriate idea unnecessarily may
risk brand equity and brand image.
For example, the clothing company Benetton has long been criticized for its
advertising which uses controversial images to send a message of “social concern.”
The UNHATE campaign, launched in November 2011, tried to promote closeness
between peoples, faiths, cultures, and the peaceful understanding of each other’s
motivations using computer-altered photographs of world leaders, often seen as
adversaries, kissing one another on the lips. Some of the people in the lip-lock campaign are Barack Obama and Chinese leader Hu Jintao, Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Pope Benedict
XVI and a prominent Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmed Mohamed el-Tayeb, Imam of
the Al-Azhar institute in Cairo, Egypt, which generated the most reactions and legal
threats by the Vatican, that led Benetton made the decision to pull the ad (Murray,
2011; Anand, 2011). From the perspective of the Vatican, the spokesman Federico
Lombardi said: “This shows a grave lack of respect for the pope, an offence to the
feelings of believers.” In an official statement, Benetton apologized for the use of
the image of the Pope and the Imam, as a way of managing the crisis.
In terms of raising brand awareness and knowledge, the campaign generated
great buzz on an international level, with more than 3000 articles and 600 TV reports
in 60 nations’ reactions through traditional media. In the online environment, the
campaign became in only a few weeks one of the top five Google and Twitter topic
trends and generated an increase of 60% in the number of fans on the brand’s
Facebook page. In addition, the UNHATE campaign received the Press Grand Prix
at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in June 2012.
Although the ads won the best international print campaign, the amount of controversy showed that the audience carried mixed feelings about the brand (Incze
et al., 2018) resulting in net income fall of 33% to $42.3 million.
Most critics feel that Benetton “missed the boat” with the UNHATE campaign,
and losing all sight of their main goal. Although Benetton’s intention was to promote unity and fight hate and discrimination, the morality behind the campaign was
questioned. Portraying two men sharing a “fake” intimate kiss is still not seen as a
norm, and in the case of the religious leaders, they are portrayed as doing something
contrary to what their religions teach. In addition to morals, legal issues were raised.
The legality of the campaign was questioned first of all since it uses individuals who
have not given their permission to appear in the campaign, which appear doing
something they most definitely did not do, in computer-altered pictures. The ads
have been criticized for being altered in a material way without any written warning,
violating the principle of truth in advertising (Del Rosario, 2013)
Creativity and IGMC
161
By comparison, Amazon, in 2016, launched a TV advert, ahead of Black Friday
and Christmas, featuring an imam and a vicar exchanging gifts. The campaign
aimed to send a message of inter-faith friendship at a divisive time in the UK and the
USA. In the UK, anti-Muslim incidents increased following the vote to leave the
EU. Meanwhile, during his presidential campaign, US President-elect Donald
Trump said he plans to ban all Muslims from entering the USA.
The advertisement tells a story of a Christian vicar and a Muslim imam who are
lifelong friends but who aren’t as sprightly as they were in their youth, as their religious duties give them sore knees. One day, the vicar has a moment of inspiration
and decides to do something (buy knee pads) to make the imam’s life and work a
little easier. What the vicar doesn’t know is that the imam also has the same idea as
the vicar. The advert featured a real vicar from Paddington Green church in west
London, and the imam is the principal of the Muslim School Oadby in Leicester,
using an actual church and mosque for the scenes within the places of worship
(Sweney, 2016).
To avoid controversy with their promotion, the director of advertising at Amazon,
Simon Morris, has worked with representatives of faiths across the globe, in the UK
that includes the Christian and Muslim Forum, the Church of England, and the
Muslim Council of Britain, to ensure the advert portrays the figures both accurately
and sensitively (Rodionova, 2016). The campaign was launched in the USA, the
UK, and Germany and has touched many people including those not keen on
religion.
From the view of the director of advertising at Amazon, Simon Morris, the
“authenticity,” “legitimacy,” and “charming” of the story about “selflessness and
thinking of other people” were success factors, among others such as “preparation
and research and testing,” the idea with a number of people given its sensitivity,
made them did “the right thing” (Sweney, 2016).
Effective creativity, at least from an advertising perspective, can be seen as incorporating at least six key elements, as shown in Fig. 8.6.
Figure 8.5 emphasizes that creating an effective advertising extends from sound
marketing strategy which requires compatibility between all elements of an integrated and well-orchestrated marketing communication strategy: speaking with a
single voice. Importantly, the creative idea must not overwhelm the strategy; the
purpose is not to be creative merely for the sake of being clever, though the purpose
is to inform, inspire, and ultimately sell the products. For example, the iconic long-­
running Milk Mustache campaign, which was created by the advertising agency
Goodby Silverstein & Partners for the California Milk Processor Board in 1993
encouraging the consumption of milk, used well-recognized celebrities, yet the creative use of these celebrities did not overshadow the main advertising little question
of “Got Milk?” Over 25 years with some 350 milk mustache ads running nationally
in print and on TV, the success of Got Milk? remains unmatched in the ad world
(Daddone, 2018).
Also, consumer orientation drives the integrated approach. We emphasize not
just advertising but all the elements of the integrated campaign. Marketing communication has to speak the language of the market, and it has to bring real benefit.
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Fig. 8.6 Effectiveness and creativity in advertising. (Source: Adapted from Andrews &
Shimp, 2018)
Marketing communication is invariably competitive in nature. Indeed, consumers
abhor and tend to discount “me too” campaigns.
Creativity is perceived to lie at the core of effective marketing communication,
and there certainly is a need for creativity to help deal with IGMC issues. One could
use any of a variety of techniques:
• considering how creative ideas are conceived and developed
• using structured approaches—brainstorming and other relevant creativity inducing techniques
• understanding the consumer decision-making process—issues of high- and low-­
involvement products/marketing communication campaigns
• potential use of stereotyping in a positive way
• development of core benefits and focus on unique selling proposition (USP)
• creative use of endorsements
• types of message appeals and their appropriateness
• creative approaches in practice—space advertising, merchandising, events, and
activities that create news (marketing, public relations, and sponsorships)
Creativity and IGMC
163
Each of these techniques and approaches may, however, soon be supplanted or
replaced by the creativity template approach.
Creativity Templates
The four forces model depicted in Fig. 8.4 drives creativity in advertising or in an
IGMC approach. Generally, the use of templates involves the generation of a large
number of concepts. The assumption is that generating a large number of ideas outweighs the costs. However, such ideation (or idea generation) tends to be highly
informal and unsystematic. Often these methods are based on the divergent thinking
approach, whereby judgment is suspended and ideas emerge in a limitation-free
environment.
However, even in such an environment certain patterns of creativity may emerge
and be applied. Creative teams often seek ways to become more productive as they
progress through an iterative series of creativity tasks. Common patterns relevant to
different domains are sometimes identified. These may then be applied to marketing
communication in a given cultural context or even transplanted or transported to
other cultural contexts. Such patterns tend to be more stable and less transient than
the abundance of random ideas that emerge in the process of associative thinking.
Patterns will also assist in “organizing” the creative process by developing routes
that have been proved to lead to productive creative ideas that are meaningful and
memorable RI customers and consumers and lead to mutually beneficial outcomes.
Simultaneously, unproductive ideas can be sidestepped or avoided.
Studies which in themselves are inherently creative such as that by Goldenberg
et al. (1999a, 1999b) presented a new framework for creativity in marketing communication. The premise of their study was that certain patterns are identifiable,
objectively verifiable, universal, and learnable and that these patterns, termed templates, can serve as a facilitative mechanism that channels the ideation process,
enabling those responsible for creative development of marketing communication
to be more productive and focused. This study indicated that a small number of
templates can accurately predict more than 50% of creative outcomes.
From a marketing communication perspective, successful advertisements (crucial in spearheading many global campaigns) share and are characterized by certain
abstract patterns, which the study terms creativity templates. Six major templates
were derived from a sample of 200 ads in the first study by Goldenberg et al. (ibid.).
Expert judges found that six creativity templates explained 89% of these ads.
Following a formalized description of the templates, a second study comparing 200
award-winning and 200 nonwinning ads indicated that the two groups differ systematically in the number and distribution of creativity templates. The templates
could explain 50% of the award-winning ads as opposed to only 2.5% of the nonwinning ads. In a further study designed to examine the robustness of the template
approach, individuals were trained in the template approach, in an association technique, or not trained at all, prior to an ad ideation task. A group of experts subsequently rated the ideas. Findings showed that template knowledge was associated
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with creating high-quality ads in terms of creativity, brand attitude judgments, and
recall, although templates were found to vary in triggering emotive responses such
as humor. While we cannot produce the templates, their robustness and application
seem assured and we encourage readers to access the full paper (Goldenberg
et al., 1999b).
The template approach implies a means to achieve greater expertise in creativity.
Moreover, unlike the divergent thinking approaches in which the required expertise
(such as group moderating) is not related to the creativity process itself, the creativity template approach is trainable and has the capacity to improve creativity outcomes. In fact, training in creativity templates may result in higher levels of
creativity. The template approach serves to focus cognitive efforts involved in ideation, enhances the capacity to access relevant information, and increases the memorability of the reduced sets of information for task performance.
The Template in Action
Given the nature of the template approach, finished ads resulting from the use of
creativity templates are not yet available. However, let’s take some illustrative albeit
historical examples from the pages of one of the world’s leading newspapers—the
Financial Times (March 18, 1999). Among the many advertisements in the newspaper appeared the two ads for computer-related technologies reproduced here. The
primary message of the Siemens ad, shown in Fig. 8.7, promoting the Scenic Mobile
750, is “Hundreds of Brains in a Well Designed Box.” Accompanying pictures show
the Siemens model with various in-built technologies—screen, CD-ROM, floppy
port, removable display, and so on. The accompanying text emphasizes the unique
functional features of this model. The ad describes product benefits and features in
a creative yet functionally oriented, highly visual way.
By comparison, the headline of the ad for Unisys, shown in Fig. 8.7, is “Sure we
go on vacation. But we never quite get away from it all.” The accompanying visual
display shows two pictures. In each, the head of the relaxed individual (shown on
skis or in casual clothing) has been replaced by a computer screen. The accompanying text does not concern functional benefits as such but rather focuses on client
needs, in this case for Amadeus, a global travel reservations system. The first ad
focused on functional product benefits in a traditional format with a highly innovative headline. The second focused on creative display, with an emphasis on consumer orientation. One could argue that in the second example a major cultural
driver or symbol (the head or face of a consumer) has been replaced by another
visual symbol (computer screen), which, rather than suggesting cultural drivers,
suggests global needs (Fig. 8.8).
The creativity template approach, at the simplest level, could work by replacing
a cultural driver—in this case, a symbol—with another symbol. If one adopts the
creativity template approach, the communicator needs to find out what has served
successfully as a consumer-oriented driver for a specific campaign, say in the
Creativity and IGMC
165
Fig. 8.7 Siemens historical ad. (Source: Adapted from first edition)
USA. Such an approach can then be developed in other cultural contexts, without
necessarily searching for new creative ideas. For example, a new location could be
Japan or Germany rather than the UK. In each case, product space remains the same
but the symbols set would vary. Creatives can then work inside the symbols set and
have a constrained ideation approach governed by the cultural circumstance in
which the approach is to be deployed. However, replacing symbols via a replacement template can be extended to other products. The authors of the studies described
earlier are also working on developing a taxonomy of templates for application in
new product development. These templates have significant resonance for IGMC
processes, particularly when adapting, altering, or using successful marketing campaigns in new or different cultural circumstances.
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Creative Execution: Gaining and Retaining Customers and Influencing Stakeholders
Fig. 8.8 Unisys historical ad. (Source: Stated in text, was in first edition/Schultz & Kitchen, 2000)
The Three-Step Typology for Application of IGMC Processes
We have already differentiated between those activities that build returns in the
short term (business building) and those that build returns in the longer term (brand
building). In this chapter we translate these two types of activities into marketing
communication concepts. However, there is a third type of building activity for
those corporations with a multiplicity of brands. In these situations, the corporation
may act as a brand in its own right. We call this corporate branding or raising the
corporate umbrella (Kitchen & Schultz, 2001). Admittedly, for some firms, there
may be little or no differentiation between brands that are purchased and consumed
and the corporate brand. These building mechanisms reflect the dual effects of interaction and synergy and are conceptualized in Fig. 8.9.
The Three-Step Typology for Application of IGMC Processes
167
Fig. 8.9 The IGMC
triangle. (Source: The
authors)
Fig. 8.10 Annual marketing plan. (Source: The authors)
Business Building
All those activities that stimulate sales for a given product or brand within an annual
marketing planning period are business building. The annual marketing plan for a
brand usually contains the following elements: situational analysis, clear description of the target market, marketing objectives and goals, overview of marketing
strategy, delineation of marketing tactics, control and implementation criteria (see
Chap. 10), and finally summary and appendix information. Under the heading of
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Creative Execution: Gaining and Retaining Customers and Influencing Stakeholders
marketing tactics appear the promotional planning processes, and usually, there are
separate plans for each promotional element. However, from our perspective, the
following annual elements can be identified (Fig. 8.10):
What we are attempting to do with this mixture of promotional elements is to
manage as many of the contact points for consumer or customer messages as possible. We wish to measure behavioral outcomes. For personal selling, sales promotion, and direct mail, this is straightforward. Advertising, marketing public relations,
and Internet communication are more problematic and usually contain what could
be termed weak effects over an annual time period. Nonetheless, two authors
(Vakratsas & Ambler, 1999) distinguished between econometric studies that focus
on objective marketing mix and purchase behavior outcomes to provide reliable
estimates of the size of behavioral effects. The second range of “conceptual” studies
focuses on prepurchase and subjective measures of knowledge or cognition (beliefs,
recall, and awareness) and affect (feelings or emotions). It is our view that these
second groups of conceptual criteria are associated with business and brand building and thus extend beyond the annual planning period.
Brand Building
The building of brands is partly tied up with the annual planning period but extends
significantly beyond this period. Brand purchase, and indeed brand loyalty, is not
just an expression of current promotional or IGMC campaigns. Such behaviors are
a function of past brand usage and current intent. What this means from an IGMC
perspective is that brand building should be part of a continuous process of development. Thus advertising, which is regarded as the ultimate mechanism for creating
warm, nonrational feelings for a product or brand, needs to be part of consistent and
ongoing development that delivers core values in new and creative ways. Marketing
communication for a brand, combined with the ongoing search for associated marketing public relations (MPR) techniques, cannot be seen as an annual cost on sales.
Instead, it should be seen as an ongoing investment, producing year-on-year measurable returns. However, such communication programs may or may not be replicated in every country; whether they are replicated depends on product category,
stage of product life cycle, the competitive environment, other marketing mix components, and so forth. Inevitably, long-term investment in IGMC, and indeed
shorter-term execution, relies on the quality of information contained with the database concerning different customer typologies.
Corporate Communication
As discussed in Chap. 5, in some cases, the identity of the company is readily apparent—Shell, IBM, and De Beers are examples. In others, subsidiary companies have
their own identity, but the parent company is also visible in the background—
General Motors, L’Oreal. A further range of companies can be described as
The Three-Step Typology for Application of IGMC Processes
169
“branded”—Unilever, Procter & Gamble—where subsidiary companies have their
own style and brands and the corporate entity may not be known to the uninitiated.
Differences between the different corporate typologies have been ably tackled in the
literature. In the twenty-first century, firms will be unable to maintain the third
option. Consumers want to know about the companies behind the brands. While
expenditure on corporate communication is dwarfed by expenditures on product or
brand marketing communication programs, such expenditures are nonetheless necessary in today’s world. To complete this task properly, corporations are starting to
appoint corporate communication executives who in turn engage specialists in the
field of marketing or corporate communication to develop programs for internal and
external publics in a manner consistent with the corporate identity. The gap between
identity (corporation) and image (publics) that needs to be bridged constitutes the
planning framework using such mechanisms as public relations, public affairs,
investor relations, government relations, labor market communication, social
responsibility, corporate advertising, and media relations.
There are at least three other senses in which corporate communication is necessary and desirable. The first stems from the need to build not just the individual
brands in a corporate portfolio but the corporate brand as well. Corporate entities
play an increasingly important role in the global economy. They exert significant
economic and political influence and form a significant aspect of news in their own
right. If BMW seeks millions of dollars in resources from the British government to
bolster a flagging Rover brand, it is an important media, social, political, and economic issue. If genetically modified food products are proven or suspected to cause
health problems, then this will lead to the need for proven long-term testing and
subsequent retail action and legislative influence throughout the world. Brands are
being globalized, corporations are becoming globalized, but news has been global
for some time. Corporations need to protect, nurture, and strengthen themselves by
building interactive and synergistic relationships with all publics that can impact
corporate performance.
The second reason corporate communication is necessary is to protect and nurture strategic business units and brands to enable them to grow. Inevitably, brands
are powerful corporate assets in their own right, often reflected in balance sheet
accounting and reporting. But brands need a powerful business backing them.
Increasingly, these businesses are global in scope and scale.
The third sense in which corporate communication is necessary lies in the sense
that primarily marketing and corporate executives are spearheading the drive for
IMC and IGMC. It is our contention that IGMC has to be driven by senior management. Note from Exhibits 8.1, 8.2, and 8.3 that 1GMC is driven by both sectors of
management. At yet another level, all resources are allocated to SBUs and their
brands by corporate management. Thus, for customer-driven IGMC programs to
work, and for the organization to learn continually, requires strong top-down corporate commitment.
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Creative Execution: Gaining and Retaining Customers and Influencing Stakeholders
Conclusions
• There are ten factors at the nexus of marketing strategy: objective, initiative,
concentration, economy of resources, maneuver, unity of command, coordination, surprise, simplicity, and flexibility. All can be used to plan and initiate IMC
campaigns.
• The corporate reengineering you will need to effect must be a top-down effort.
• Make creativity be effective, not merely unique.
• Apply IGMC processes to building your business, brand, and corporate identity.
Discussion Questions
1. Analyze three magazine advertisements in terms of which elements of
Effectiveness and Creativity elements each ad satisfies.
2. One requirement for effective advertising is that it needs to extend from sound
marketing strategy. Explain what this means, and provide several examples of
advertisements and/or campaigns that have successfully accomplished this.
3. In your view, which of the Effectiveness and Creativity elements are the most
important? Offer an explanation.
4. Using a campaign of your choice, illustrate how environmental forces trigger
new and exciting initiatives.
5. As social factors change, so must communications. Discuss in the context of
ideas in this chapter.
6. Why is so much advertising “banal and uninteresting”?
7. Can creativity be developed by computers? Do we really need the human element? Does this take away one of the hallmarks of successful agencies?
8. Choose a current environmental issue. Assess how and in what ways it may
impact communications?
9. Is globalization itself fragmenting and splintering? How and in what ways is
globalization beneficial to customers and consumers?
10. Should politicians also be brands or branded? Explore the communication strategies of two or three current self-styled global leaders?
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Orange_S.A
9
IGMC Drivers and Agency Interaction
As illustrated throughout this book, the need for organizations to adopt and utilize
new models and processes is inescapable and will continue into the future. In this
chapter, primary drivers of integrated global marketing communication (IGMC) are
illustrated and we show how these drivers operate from an agency perspective.
Agencies servicing client needs are commonly an integral part of developing meaningful marketing communications that lead to success. While we use the term
advertising agency, we prefer the term branding, communication, or integrated
agency, for major corporations in today’s world do not seek just advertising solutions to marketing or business problems. Instead, they seek effective branding and
marketing communication solutions that increase market share and expand brand,
business, and ultimately corporate performance in terms of sales, profits, enhanced
relationships and behaviors, and more positive mind-sets from all stakeholders,
including the all-important customers and consumers. Many of these solutions are
evidenced in the case studies.
Change Drivers
The marketing scene continues to be faced with a veritable tsunami of change in a
technological sense over the past 30 years, not to mention the problems engendered
by coronavirus in 2020. Communication in all forms has been rocked by the revolutionary impact of new media. As indicated elsewhere, the amalgamation of these
technologies has the potential to result in the passing of control from marketers into
the hands of consumers and customers. Market segmentation heralded or ushered in
the era of narrowcasting amplified by the new (and in some cases old) media explosion just about everywhere. Both segmentation and narrowcasting signify the
growth of one-to-one communication opportunities; hence, the reference to marketspace as opposed to marketplace in earlier chapters. To be correct, a market can
indeed be a space or a place. The market itself—consisting of customers of different
types—is the major driving force, and always the foci of marketing attention. The
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
P. J. Kitchen, M. E. Tourky, Integrated Marketing Communications,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76416-6_9
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bridge or connecting link between companies and customers in terms of current
acceptability is the brand which—as discussed in Chaps. 4 and 5—has become
central, most importantly given the ways consumers interact with brands. The image
of brands, in the mind-sets of customers and consumers, is central to IGMC. Because
mind-sets may vary from country to country and between corporate and individual
brands, corporations that wish to grow brands globally still need to know where
brands “exist” in terms of individual country performance. Underpinning all this is
the driving imperative or ever greater accelerating pressure for marketers to show or
prove return on investment for marketing activities (see cases provided by permission of the IPA and integrated agencies). And since marketing communication
forms by far the greatest bulk of brand investment (not expenditure), this chapter
addresses the issue of ROI or, as we describe it, ROCI. Change drivers are illustrated
in Fig. 9.1.
Cultural Drivers
Cultural dimensions (including language, customs, tastes, attitudes, lifestyles, values, and ethical/moral standards) are other important aspects of the international
marketing environment which affect not just the needs and wants of consumers but
how they go about satisfying them.
With this in mind, IGMC would be considered a difficult task, nevertheless,
experience from previous campaigns highlights some products and services which
are suited to worldwide appeals. For example, companies whose products appeal to
Fig. 9.1 The change scenario. (Source: The authors)
Cultural Drivers
175
universal needs, values, and emotions, as well as high-tech consumer products such
as personal computers, smartphones, calculators, TVs, and audio equipment, as are
various types of business-to-business products and services such as computer systems—can advertise their brands utilizing global campaigns. Business-to-business
marketers like Xerox have begun using global advertising campaigns, as have
Hewlett-Packard and IBM (Campaign, 2020; Christie, 2020; Zook, 2015).
Micro- and niche markets and one-to-one markets do not necessarily exhibit different behavioral characteristics. Such markets include, for example, the world’s
so-called elite—people who, due to their economically privileged positions, can
pursue a lifestyle that includes multiple homes, fine jewelry, expensive clothing,
quality automobiles, and so on. Marketers of high-quality products such as Rolls
Royce, Cartier jewelry, Godiva chocolates, and Louis Vuitton luggage can use
global communications to appeal to the elite market segment around the world.
Well-known international brands competing in the luxury goods marketplace often
present a singular image of prestige and style to the entire world.
Yet, in an age where IGMC mechanisms proliferate, corporations need to access
and use multiple tools to reach and influence consumers. But appealing to their
needs, wants, and desires may need to be approached differentially because of cultural criteria, and thus marketing strategy for different consumers may need to be
differentiated on this basis. And, taking this to the corporate brand level, publics,
including internal staff, require different types of communication.
Yet culture is not new to marketers. The major characteristics of culture from an
IGMC perspective are illustrated in Fig. 9.2.
Taking these characteristics and the above dimensions as given means that marketers constantly have to revisit and adjust marketing communication strategies to
ensure they meet the needs of target audiences or stakeholders. An old but still relevant example of how strategy can be similar but differ in terms of a potential IGMC
Fig. 9.2 Cultural
characteristics. (Source:
The authors)
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IGMC Drivers and Agency Interaction
format was found when Renault launched the Renault 5 throughout Europe—one of
the world’s major small-car markets. The basic elements of cultural factors, admittedly drawn from a rather arbitrary selection of European countries, are shown in
Fig. 9.3.
Admittedly, this cannot truly be labeled as an IGMC strategy. But it does illustrate the point in that what is telling about the Renault example is that only once (in
the case of Holland) did the company decide to alter product line policy. In every
other case, the same car was being marketed, but differentially, apparently determined by company awareness of market cultural factors.
And today, in 2021 and beyond, customization for IGMC is not impossible. But
it is improbable in our view that such customization will work everywhere, in all
cultures, for all brands. Figure 9.4 indicates why adaptation may be required.
The terms high- and low-context cultures connote receptivity of a culture to in-­
depth background information. Thus, for example in Japan, Spain, and Italy, communication tends to be indirect rather than direct. The words used do not necessarily
convey messages accurately. Instead, the sender’s position, social status, and values
convey the major part of the message. Personal relationship-building approaches,
therefore, are likely to work well in these cultural contexts. On the other hand, in
low-context cultures such as Germany and the USA, words are used to convey the
majority of information. What is said, not the way it is said or who is saying it, conveys most of the information.
Fig. 9.3 The Renault 5: a culturally adjusted IGMC approach. (Source: Adapted from Douglas &
Dubois, 1997)
Cultural Drivers
177
Fig. 9.4 Communication influencers. (Source: Adapted from first edition)
The second information-processing continuum also indicates a potential need for
adaptation. Polychronic information-processing cultures work on several fronts
simultaneously. Direct eye contact, superficial friendships, and moving with immediacy to “close the sale” are seen in some cultures as confrontational and potentially
aggressive. Monochronic cultures, on the other hand, are permeated by a sense of
time, and these characteristics are seen as standard business practice. In these cultures, wasting time would be perceived as annoying and irritating by certain types
of businesspeople. On the other hand, pushing for schedule completion or contract
closure may be seen by Japanese or Hispanic cultures as “pushy” or impatient.
These influences, well known to international marketers, may be sidestepped or
deemed unimportant in the drive for some aspect of globalization, so long as this is
perceived to be desirable by businesses and end users. Admittedly, there are—as
alluded to before—signs of fracturing and disunity in the global village. For example, coronavirus formed a virtual retreat behind national barriers, the latest issues in
the Hong Kong/China/UK dispute led to inevitable market fracturing and splintering; and who is to help in the Beirut disaster amid claims of governmental incompetence looms large on some company agendas (see Sharma, 2020). These are not just
cultural issues but environmental also. But the cultural issues particularly reveal
political and often business responses. Ignoring cultural factors or not taking them
into consideration is prelude and postlude to potentially fatal blunders, leading to
lost sales, market share, ROI, and the swirlatory presence of revolving executive and
CEO doors.
Re-energizing its global marketing efforts, HSBC Holdings PLC launched a
memorable campaign highlighting important differences in cultural norms and
practices in communication, in an attempt to rebrand itself in 2002 as “The World’s
Local Bank.” The campaign, including a series of TV, online, and print integrated
adverts, demonstrated how the same gestures or symbols mean different things in
different cultures. For example, one of the adverts, in the beginning, illustrated that
some American managers prefer to have a meeting standing to save time while the
Japanese chairmen who like to take the time to have a dinner first before business
discussion. It also presented a gesture or behavior which was normal in one country
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might have different meaning in another country. Then the last scene implicated a
successful deal between Japan and UK chairmen because both of them have acquired
the cultural customs from HSBC before this meeting (Chiu, 2013). The campaign
used the positioning statement “At HSBC, we never underestimate the importance
of local knowledge” which was regularly repeated at the end of each ad, and included
in prints.
Through this campaign, HSBC, one of the world’s largest banks with operations
in dozens of countries around the world, wanted to send a message that they understood the nuances involved in operating across markets. Having offices in 77 countries and territories; Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Americas, the Middle East, and Africa,
each staffed by local people, meant that customers would get the kind of local
knowledge and personal service that they would expect of a local brand, while benefiting from HSBC knowledge, as a global player, in banking and financial services.
However, years later, the bank felt it could no longer live up to this title. From
2011 and onward, due to the financial crisis, HSBC shut a number of its branches in
several countries, and withdrew from some emerging markets, including the sale of
its Brazilian business (Gibbs, 2016), which made the brand no longer “the world’s
local bank” and “(the motto) became something that didn’t position [the brand] in
the way in which was truthful about the nature of [its] business,” as stated by Chris
Clark, HSBC’s outgoing global head of marketing.
Thus, in its most recent adverts, there’s been a shift in sentiment, with the brand
taking a more serious note at times, presenting itself as resilient, and dependable to
its customers. What however has remained a key part of HSBC’s marketing throughout the years is the story-telling aspect, as mentioned by Clark; with its 2015 campaign–which included posters found in international airports—applying the theme
of ambition, to show the audience how it can come in various shapes and sizes.
he Marketing Communication Paradox: Divergence
T
and Integration
Marketers are faced with a paradox. At the same time of divergence of consumer
and public behavior and accelerating multidimensionality in media alternatives, the
organization is under pressure to integrate. But the impetus to integrate is a reflection of many factors, as conceptualized throughout this text and depicted in Fig. 9.5.
The forces affecting a corporation are many and varied. For example, Fig. 9.5
can be considered from either an individual or corporate brand perspective. The
brand structure may be multiplied by many hundreds in the case of, say, Procter &
Gamble or Unilever, or Amazon or Apple. The stakeholder set will vary brand by
brand but would probably be unitary at the corporate level. Channels would vary
based on consumer custom and practice and the messages to be deployed. Thus, the
question of what to integrate must be addressed from a consumer audience or stakeholder perspective and may include messages, tonality media, teams, planning processes, database requirements, and ROCI analyses to deliver the benefits of
coherency and efficiency leading to behavioral outcomes. So, the answer to the
IMC Study Findings: The Beginnings
179
Fig. 9.5 Paradoxical mirroring. (Source: The authors)
questions of how and what to integrate is driven by marketers’ proactivity with
respect to consumer needs. We use the words “with respect” cautiously …. as there
seems to be a growing trend of businesses using the Internet and websites as firewalls, almost seeking to avoid interaction with customers, once the all-important
transaction has taken place (Kitchen & Taylor, 2020).
With these factors in mind, how is IMC developing in advertising/branding/communication/integrated agencies around the world? First, we will look at agencies in
five countries; then we’ll examine how one global agency historically responded to
its client’s desires for integrated approaches. Finally, we discuss issues that impact
media systems and distribution of messages and incentives needed by agencies to
service client needs with new integrated approaches.
IMC Study Findings: The Beginnings
Looking at the development of IMC from an agency perspective in the 1990s, a
series of studies were carried out in the USA, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and
India. The research was reported in the Journal of Advertising Research in 1999.
The study found a remarkable degree of unanimity concerning what IMC was
and how it had developed over time. The study suggested that IMC was developing
as a response to, and in conjunction with, changes affecting the field of marketing
communication worldwide. We have already indicated developmental paths along
which firms could go in developing IMC and IGMC. However, the extent to which
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IGMC or IMC can be implemented depends on what firms decide to do, given
potential differing contextual circumstances and perhaps cultural constraints.
From the international perspective, however, there was little to suggest that firms
had progressed beyond the first stage of IGMC, namely tactical integration. The
definition of IGMC used in the study found acceptance of, but not wholehearted
agreement with, our executive respondents. Based on responses, executives
expressed the need for a revised definition, together with a series of methods to
evaluate or measure the effects of IGMC programs. Both of these have been provided in this book. However, as we have argued throughout, in a world of multiplied
product and message options and unique cultural circumstances, corporations have
to choose whether and how to reorganize communication from an IGMC
perspective.
Despite the fact that the study showed widespread agreement concerning the
benefits of using IGMC approaches in the five countries in terms of standardization
of meaning, it was virtually impossible to assess standardization of practice.
Figure 9.6 summarizes the other major findings of the five-country IMC study.
The problem really is that IMC—and its international equivalent IGMC—seems
for some companies (perhaps the majority) to have stayed at a very early stage of
development from a company or agency perspective. Put another way, it is possible
to practice something called “IMC” or “IGMC” and for this to mean nothing more
than bundling promotional mix elements together, online and offline, so they look
or sound the same. As we have stated earlier, this is not saying very much and is in
fact a form of sales orientation, where everything is controlled by the corporation
Fig. 9.6 Early stage IMC study outcomes. (Source: The authors)
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The Integrated Agency Perspective
and/or its agencies, without necessarily taking into consideration customers, prospects, and their needs, and without fully evaluating or seeking to adopt a more outside-­in approach. Moreover, the weakness of this early type of integration defeats
the logic and inevitably of developing and implementing much better modes of IMC
or IGMC. This book is really about the better modalities, but we observe the caveat
here. In each case, the actual implementation of IMC or IGMC in company, or on
behalf of a company by an agency, has to be analyzed, evaluated, and—if necessary—redesigned to a more suitable approach, inexorably based on customer group,
whose needs and communication preferences are well understood.
Let’s now see how agencies may need to restructure to respond to these new
initiatives on behalf of client-based organizations in Europe.
The Integrated Agency Perspective
Corporations wishing to compete globally require the assistance of agencies. Put
another way, they need access to the creative, planning, and media skills major
agencies provide to develop integrated campaigns. They can use one large international agency whose approach generally mirrors corporate requirements. This
allows for communication centralization and control. Such an approach can be used
for larger divisions, strategic business units, and global brands (both existent and
wannabes). Or it can be used for managing and directing the corporate image on a
worldwide basis, while saving money, since it reduces the need for staff and administration at the local subsidiary level. Quite a number of global companies have
consolidated marketing communication with one global communication group. The
following are the major global marketing communication groups that have in effect
mirrored global firm requirements and sought to service all client communication
needs (Table 9.1):
Note, that in 2017, these agencies were denoted as “advertising” agencies, where
many services encompass all promotion and indeed corporate communication mix
variables. Alternatively, a company may go with an independent agency or, for
Table 9.1 Top ten Ad agencies by gross income
Company name
1 McCann Worldgroup UK
2 Ogilvy & Mather Group (Holdings) Limited
3 Young & Rubicam Group Limited
4 DDB UK Investments Limited
5 Engine Acquisition Limited
6 The & Partners Group Limited
7 TBWA UK Group Ltd
8 Abbott Mead Vickers, BBDO Limited
9 Saatchi & Saatchi Group Ltd
10 VCCP Group LLP
Source: Magee (2018)
Year end
31/12/2017
31/12/2017
31/12/2017
31/12/2017
31/12/2017
31/12/2017
31/12/2017
31/12/2017
31/12/2017
31/12/2017
Latest
£000s
182,543
121,735
119,478
91,206
91,856
70,277
61,356
60,153
59,163
57.182
Previous
£000s
158,887
120,591
110,299
94,780
89,479
52,331
59,355
59,918
57,208
54,048
Change
%
14.89
0.95
8.32
2.56
2.66
34.29
(12.79)
0.39
3.42
5.80
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IGMC Drivers and Agency Interaction
reasons associated with product/service mix or customer base, choose direct marketing and sales promotion agencies. These are by no means “small” in scope or
scale (Magee, 2018, ibid.).
An alternative to a global or international agency is to have the lead agency or
client hire local agencies, which can often be better informed about a national consumer culture and would also know about national media constraints. The decentralization of communication seems to work well in small or unique markets where
advertising needs to be tailored to the local market. In 2021, however, often local
agencies are subsidiaries of international groups. They also possess a significant
depth of national knowledge. Hiring a leading public relations or public affairs firm
to tackle corporate brand issues could also access this local knowledge.
Intermediate solutions attempt to effectively balance worldwide coordination
and localization of marketing and corporate communication efforts. These strategies are sometimes referred to via the ugly word “glocalization.” Global or Glocal
are not mutually exclusive alternatives but rather service arrangements that firms
can choose to use as strategic partners in developing standardized or differentiated
or semi-differentiated IGMC campaigns.
Each or any of these approaches needs then to be translated, first into a creative
brief and planning process and then into a media brief and planning process. The
following elements were originally developed in conjunction with Keith Crosier,
who worked as an advertising manager for a major multinational and served as a
professor at Strathclyde University in the UK and is now an Honorary Research
Fellow there. His creative brief involved several steps (see Fig. 9.7).
Fig. 9.7 Creative brief and creative planning processes. (Source: The authors)
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The Integrated Agency Perspective
This list assumes the client has delegated the creative planning process to a communication agency. The sequence depicted is, however, not rigid, nor are the steps
necessarily sequential. The aim of the creative team, which includes account planners and managers, creatives, and a media representative, is to produce marketing
communication that will achieve client objectives and simultaneously outmaneuver
the competition. (See Chap. 8 for more detail on the creative process.) The creative
planning process may then proceed as follows:
The creative process has to be matched with the media brief and media planning
process. Note that at these levels there is a significant opportunity for every element
of marketing communication to be focused on behavioral outcomes.
The media planning process as depicted originally by Crosier (2011) includes
the following steps, as shown in Table 9.2:
The activity of media planning has changed and will continue to change. While
Crosier (2011) focus on account and media planning, the following is purely focused
on media itself. As the old adage goes, however, “you can’t have one without the
other.” The media planning process includes these steps (Fig. 9.8):
The media brief and media planning process represent procedural principles that
can apply in any culture from an IMC or IGMC perspective. Let’s now consider
what happens when this process is translated into an international context as
depicted in Fig. 9.9:
This marketing communication planning framework can be adapted in conjunction with creative and media briefs and planning processes for use in any culture.
However, whether the actual campaign or promotional element is adapted is always
contingent upon the given contextual circumstances of a product, service, or brand.
Let’s consider how one agency in London, Saatchi & Saatchi, originally tackled
the twin issues of IGMC (international) and IMC (national focus). The older amalgamated company had dropped advertising from its title as early as 1993, when it
became known as a “through-the-line” communication company. By 1997, Saatchi
& Saatchi had become a hothouse for worldwide change in creative ideas. Back in
Table 9.2 Account and media planning process
Media requirements
• Client?
• Product/service/brand/corporation?
• Objectives?
• End users?
• Decision influencers of promotional message?
(needs adaptation?)
• IGMC period?
• Budget?
• National/international/global?
• Season/timing/sequence?
• Space/size/IGMC approach integrality?
• Constraints?
• Other agencies/interactions?
Source: Crosier (2011)
Background data
• Consumer database scenario
• Competitive scenario
• Current/past Marcom approaches
• Sales/market share
• Creative brief
• Marketing or CORPCOM
strategy/strategies
• Any mandatory requirements
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Fig. 9.8 The media
planning process. (Source:
The authors)
1997, all of its major clients were ranked in the top five in terms of market share in
the countries in which they competed. Studying a selective sample of these client
companies then revealed a wide disparity of use in terms of marketing communication elements deployed (Table 9.3):
What is interesting about these examples is the large span of marketing communication activities created and managed by the agency at that time. Both the span
and mechanisms deployed are all different. Thus, while Saatchi & Saatchi had some
specialists—database marketing, marketing public relations, sales promotion, and
so on, as well as advertising—the specializations are deployed according to client
needs for an integrated solution. This supports our oft-repeated statement that if
IGMC is to work effectively, it depends on the will and influence of senior executives in global organizations. Agencies, in other words, are not the driving force
behind IMC or IGMC; clients are. Today (2020), Saatchi & Saatchi is a full-service,
integrated communications network, with 114 offices in 67 countries, headquartered in London. It is still ranked ninth in the world in terms of global revenue.
Saatchi & Saatchi is part of the Publicis Groupe, the world’s third largest communications group (Saatchi & Saatchi, 2020).
Increasingly clients see their role as that of integrator. Sylvia Meli, formerly with
Saatchi & Saatchi and Grey Advertising, said, “For many clients integration is not
just a philosophical issue, but has become an economic necessity.” Demonstrably,
from an agency perspective, clients have moved and are moving toward IMC and
IGMC. Some of the underlying reasons are illustrated in Fig. 9.10.
Communication agencies are always concerned with revenue generation as evidenced in the prize winners for effectiveness in 2016, 2018, and 2019 (IPA, 2020).
The worldwide move toward below-the-line activities, as compared to above-the-­
line advertising, means that every agency has to widen its ability to provide
Fig. 9.9 The corporate communication/marketing communication plan. (Source: The authors)
The Integrated Agency Perspective
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IGMC Drivers and Agency Interaction
Table 9.3 Saatchi “integrated” innovations in communications
Industry
National Lottery (UK)
Electrical retailer
(UK)
Computer-related
hardware (Europe)
Health and beauty
(Europe)
Motor vehicle
(Europe)
Business stationery
(UK)
Marketing communication
Television, posters, radio, trade point-of-sale, game design
Direct marketing, sales promotion
Television, press, retail promotion, point-of sale materials, trade
communication, loyalty schemes, CD-ROMs, internet, screen savers
Television, press, mail inserts, door drops, point-of-sale
Television, press, posters, test drive phone-ins, promotions, radio
Press, direct mail, internet
Source: The authors
Fig. 9.10 The agency
imperatives. (Source: The
authors)
non-advertising services. Moreover, a strategy emphasizing consumer loyalty and
curriculum marketing has overtaken conquest marketing as the number-one priority.
The old adage that five times as much money is spent on attracting each new customer as on retaining existing ones has finally come home to businesses of all kinds
and in all industries. Figure 9.11 indicates how marketers believe communication works.
The reality is that media of all types and forms have expanded exponentially all
through the last three decades. They are far more than hype. They amount—at
times—to a new type of interactive, consumer-controlled communication in their
own right. Clients expect agency planners not only to know about new media developments but also to be able to recommend them as part of integrated campaign
development. But integration, as we have seen, is also about branding, and one key
Media Scenario
187
Fig. 9.11 Paradigm shift in how marketing communication works. (Source: Adapted from first
edition)
question is how to extend the brand franchise. Another question is: What about corporate branding and all the brands within the corporate portfolio? Figure 8.9 indicates the broad-ranging parameters of these issues.
Figure 9.12 does not show all potential brand franchise publics and customers,
nor does it indicate all delivery mechanisms. Nor can it! What it does indicate is that
IGMC has more targets to aim for and more delivery mechanisms to use—which
could be perceived as contact points for consumers and customers. In the emerging
IGMC world, managerial attitudes, even within an agency scenario, will have
to change.
Media Scenario
Although some international markets may be homogenizing or globalizing, the ability of firms to standardize approaches may be forestalled in practice by media infrastructures in given cultural contexts. Most media expenditure is still concentrated in
the triad areas (North America, Europe, and the Pacific Rim dominated by Japan).
Availability of press, radio, television, and electronic and other forms of mailing
systems varies from country to country. As a comparison of the USA and the Pacific
Rim shows, the potential volume of media messages—a reflection of media availability—varies widely both between the USA and these countries and between the
countries themselves. But this is not all. In terms of TV broadcast stations, one
estimate is close to 30,000 globally. Fifty-six million newspapers are sold daily
around the world, a figure which rises to 60 million on Sundays. Magazines, though
declining, still reach a half billion people, while annual growth is −3.9% per year,
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Fig. 9.12 Expanding brand integration: broadening influences. (Source: Adapted from first
edition)
and numbers employed have been in decline for two decades. Radio, meanwhile, is
broadcast to 5 billion people every day or 70% of the world’s population (Source:
authors). Naturally, media distribution varies country by country, including the
USA, Russia, China, EU, India, the UK, Ukraine, Turkey, France … the list goes on.
Naturally, issues of fragmentation and consumer choice are prefigured in the
tables and figures presented earlier. There are relatively few global media save those
available by cable systems (e.g., MTV, BBC, and CNN) and regionalized newspapers such as the Financial Times or the Wall Street Journal. The Internet is a global
medium on its own. But it can be positioned as an intermediate medium that is
neither personal nor mass and it undoubtedly has to be integrated with other forms
of communication, yet it has the potential to reach most, if not all, consumer sets
worldwide, provided of course that they are online and have access to all the media
modalities taken for granted, that is, smartphone, iPad, laptop, and so on. That said,
all positive predictions of global Internet usage, though relevant, do not imply that
the old established modes of communication will disappear. As Alan Rosenshine
once said in an Advertising Age article:
Traditional advertising and new media will co-exist and, increasingly, complement one
another … In any event, it will be quite some time, if ever, before the new media replace the
old. Films didn’t doom books. TV didn’t doom radio, magazines or newspapers. Cable
didn’t doom the networks.
In other words, new and old medias will continue to exist contemporaneously into
the foreseeable future.
Message Incentives
189
Development of the Internet does, however, provide even more impetus for the
methods by which a company builds relations with its stakeholders and customers
and for the company’s organizational structure. The Web does change customer
participation in the marketing communication process. As interactive media evolve
further, other media and the creative processes will have to change to Web-oriented
customers and stakeholders.
As argued repeatedly, however, the availability of media is not an overriding
issue from an IGMC perspective. The approach for a given set of customers has to
be driven by an understanding in a given cultural context. We have also indicated
that the only significantly globalized form of media is advertising, closely followed
in some cases by sponsorship or public relations. This means that, when successful,
campaigns that use television in one country (e.g., the USA) would potentially have
to be adapted to other cultures (e.g., China or Taiwan).
Message Incentives
Sales promotion activities in the form of incentives are usually indigenous.
Nonetheless, such incentives are significant in building strategically integrated marketing communication. The following issues are relevant here:
• Repeated price promotions weaken the added value produced by advertising and
can lead from promotion to commotion and demotion of brands to
commodities.
• Price promotions lower consumer reference price levels.
• Consumers attribute low quality to frequently promoted brands.
• Consumers may become accustomed to and plan purchases based on discount
availability.
• Trade promotions, which receive the lion’s share of budgetary appropriations,
produce the weakest long-term sales effects.
• Non-price-related sales promotions have much more potential to further
strengthen and enhance brand image.
• Sales promotions generally do not change the attitudes or behavior of consumers
who are already strongly loyal or strongly negative.
Price promotions will remain a complicated aspect of current marketplaces and
marketspaces. Retailers in many parts of the world form such a huge proportion of
distribution capacity that they can demand price reductions. However, repeated
price promotion tends to result in the demotion of brands to commodities. There
may always be a need for some price promotion, but we prefer to see such promotions being driven by strategic brand-building issues rather than just masking current weakness associated with other marketing or promotional mix elements.
Nonetheless, sales promotion can provide an important mechanism for attainment
of a brand’s long-term objectives. Both price- and non-price-related promotions
have to be deployed in such a way as to be consistent with the overall IGMC
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strategy. Too much emphasis on price-related promotions can, and often does, produce negative returns to the brand image. Non-price-related promotions might not
produce equal short-term effects but reinforce and enhance brand image in the longer term.
As with the media scenario, deployment of price- and non-price-related sales
promotion depends on the contextual circumstances of consumers in a given cultural setting. Very few sales promotions (save perhaps for credit cards or financial
services) have crossed international boundaries. Yet incentives may need to be given
to achieve annual national or local sales objectives. In the longer term, however, we
suggest promotions be considered from a brand-building perspective and the use of
non-price promotions clearly linked to core brand values that enhance the planned
brand image.
Implications for International Media Research
Few can doubt that many global communicators are keen to integrate their marketing communication activities, but perhaps not as keen to engage in the substantial
investment in database systems and information gathering modalities. In our view,
media research provides ongoing and salient research data gathered from syndicated and audited research services to aid in the media planning and buying processes. The difficulty is that about 95% of all media is still negotiated and placed
locally. There are very few genuinely international media, and this complicates the
global media buyer’s task. Moreover, several problems are facing international
media research and researchers that have resonance for the continued development
of integrated approaches to communication:
• Sustained technological innovation and economic development appear to underpin the trend of marketing and marketing communication moving from a national
focus to a global perspective. Despite emergence of what was increasingly geographically borderless world, the boundaries of consumers’ minds are not
crossed as easily, resulting in the glocalization of marketing communication
strategy, spearheaded in many instances by advertising, while message incentives vary country by country. We again draw readers’ attention to the reality that
globalization does not seem to offer many benefits to customers, especially when
buying online reverts back to national website (i.e., Levi, Apple, etc.).
• Despite the numbers and depth of a range of media research vehicles in developed economies, few media purchases are underpinned by sound understanding
of the dynamics of to-be-served markets. Far too many multinational media buys
are driven by statistics, and statistics do not necessarily equate to understanding.
These surveys, and many others, while currently underpinning many marketing
communication strategies and very useful at identifying broad macroeconomic
trends, don’t really serve to adequately identify consumer attitudes toward companies, products, services, brands, or marketing communication activities, and
certainly don’t reflect consumer behaviors. This in turn may result in
Implications for International Media Research
191
implementation of integrated approaches (led by advertising) without really
understanding how and in what way(s) markets may respond, that is, a simplistic
stage 1 IMC selling orientation. For example, a global advertising strategy
deployed by American Express used the theme “places you want to go, people
you want to meet,” with the proviso that the ads developed would give cardholders the same campaign they see at home but look like a domestic effort to locals.
Meanwhile, Colgate Palmolive, having attempted a global approach across
Europe during the 1980s, switched to local country autonomy in the 1990s, even
though it uses a global marketing communication company to operationalize the
strategy. Today, Colgate Palmolive Colgate Palmolive promotes its brands to a
very large global target audience through diverse channels. Its brands are advertised via TV, billboards, and hoardings and via newspapers and magazines. As
one would expect, Colgate Palmolive also focuses on Internet marketing through
Facebook and YouTube advertisements. The overarching brand Colgate
Palmolive also advertises via celebrity endorsements. It continues to attract a
huge customer base by launching creative marketing campaigns that not only
attract consumers but also educate them.
• Building an international brand image is often painfully slow because of different product life cycle stages and different levels of understanding about what a
brand conceptually and emotionally represents among different cultures. Another
barrier may be company organizational structures that though they increasingly
are internationalized, they are by no means integrated. Developments in either
direction have to be driven by a strong center, and yet in many interviews carried
out with ten FMCG multinationals, eight of ten corporations adopted a devolved
international managerial structure. Thus integration, from an international perspective, is unlikely to develop without preceding organizational change. For
these companies, international media research will continue as currently offered,
but again with a need for more qualitative research.
• It is, however, possible to plan global campaigns centrally. Information about
many markets is available, and media operations are becoming more standardized worldwide. Budget allocation, relative media efficiency, and media weight
can all be taken into consideration. The difficulty is that at the very same time
increasing amounts of data are being generated internationally, other issues are
coming to the fore.
• In the global market, media vehicles are proliferating. Cable TV, satellite TV,
pay-per-view TV, and other forms of television delivery mechanisms are rapidly
taking away share from broadcast channels. Yet lack of standardized quantitative
media research is retarding the growth of global campaigns. In the USA, multiplication of media alternatives has resulted in audience shrinkage while simultaneously costs of advertising to smaller audiences have expanded significantly
from year to year. The best option for media planners is to plan internationally
using data extrapolated from national television research (e.g., Barb in the UK,
GFK in Germany, and Intomart in the Netherlands). Print media do not fare
much better. In Europe, international planners access data from non-standardized
and often incompatible national readership surveys and extrapolate accordingly.
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Purely numerical evaluations, it has been claimed, will never be enough to ensure
development of truly integrated international/global campaigns.
• There is evidence to suggest that media fragmentation will further accelerate by
the convergence of computer, communication, and information technologies.
Direct selling, underpinned by database technology, may further subvert micromarkets to units of one.
• The idea of the world being bound together by mass media, speaking one language, sporting similar brands, is already defunct. Consumers and would-be customers throughout the world are fragmenting, diversifying, and splintering in
their media consumption. We have moved irreconcilably from mass to micromarkets, from marketplace to marketspace. Tomorrow’s consumers may be individualized in their consumption of television, a further phase of development
from marketspace to mindspace.
The dilemma for global communicators is simple: how to reach across the globe
while at the same time coping with its immense diversity. An answer to this question
may be difficult, but is worth attempting:
• Communicators must speak the language of the listeners. Marketing communication must be integrated, not from an outbound, outmoded sender mentality but
from an inbound, interactive, consumer-driven perspective. The control of information technology is passing from senders via channels to receivers.
• Advertising, and the whole range of other communication variants, must in an
integrated fashion convey the same values country by country but be far more
personalized. In other words, quantitative data must be a starting point for
research but be underpinned by qualitative data gathered by international media
research organizations or by companies themselves. For example, in two recent
studies research findings by means of focus groups suggested that for the same
subject areas (brands, product categories, social activities in Europe and the
USA) attitudes of consumers varied significantly. The implication was that marketing communication copy needed to be recrafted to take advantage of conceptual relevance amid cultural diversity.
As media continue to fragment and consumers exercise choice diversity, implications for international media research seem to crystallize. To produce IGMC that
effectively crosses geographical and psychological boundaries, homogenization
must be supplanted and replaced by approaches that take into account cultural and
linguistic diversity. Such diversity can be understood, in our view, only through a
sound understanding of the dynamics of markets. In other words, international
media providers and international media research face tremendous growth
opportunities.
References
193
Conclusions
• The cultures into which you wish to send your communication—are they high
context or low context?—adapt where necessary.
• In general, you will require the assistance of a communication agency to
compete globally. Try to choose one whose competencies mirror your
requirements.
• If one approach won’t cross all borders, consider glocalizing where necessary.
• Non-price-related promotions are preferable to price promotions—cutting the
price too often commodifies the brand.
Discussion Questions
1. What cultural dimensions must marketers consider in IGMC campaigns? Choose
one of these dimensions and discuss how it has created an opportunity or challenge for a company in developing an advertising and promotional program in a
specific country.
2. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of global marketing and advertising.
What types of products and services are best suited for global advertising?
3. What may be best suited for local, that is, national communications?
4. What are the steps of media planning? Discuss how the planning and promotional program would differ for a global brand versus a national brand?
5. Is IGMC possible in the world of 2020 and beyond? Justify your response
either way.
6. Using case material of your choice, justify the importance of data—and understanding it, for media planning and implementation.
7. Surely, in global markets, advertising will always be “king” in campaigns?
Assess the relevance of this statement for a brand of your choice.
8. Is “speaking the language of the listeners” merely just a polite nod to customers
or stakeholders or is there more to this than meets the eye?
References
Campaign. (2020). Xerox advertising, marketing campaigns and videos. Retrieved August 8, 2020,
from https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/the-­work/advertiser/xerox/8116
Chiu, K. (2013). HSBC—The world’s local bank—The importance of local knowledge. Big 4
Marketing Solutions. Retrieved August 8, 2020, from https://big4marketingsolutions.wordpress.com/2013/12/10/hsbc-­the-­worlds-­local-­bank-­the-­importance-­of-­local-­knowledge
Christie, D. (2020, July 23). HP eyes WFH creatives with 1st global campaign for Z computers. Marketingdive. Retrieved August 8, 2020, from https://www.marketingdive.com/news/
hp-­eyes-­wfh-­creatives-­with-­1st-­global-­campaign-­for-­z-­computers/582165/
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IGMC Drivers and Agency Interaction
Crosier, K. (2011). Adapted from an earlier argument in 1999: “Advertising” and “The argument
for advertising agency remuneration.” Chapters 26 and 27 in P. J. Kitchen (Ed.), Marketing
communication: Principles and practice (pp. 276–82, 442–58). International Thomson
Business Press.
Douglas, S., & Dubois, B. (1997). Looking at the cultural environment for international marketing
opportunities! Columbia Journal of World Business, 12(Winter), 102–109.
Gibbs, A. (2016, August 17). Why HSBC chose to move on from being ‘the world’s local bank’.
CNBC. Retrieved August 8, 2020, from https://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/17/why-­hsbc-­chose-­
to-­move-­on-­from-­being-­the-­worlds-­local-­bank.html
IPA (Institute of Advertising Practitioners). (2020). Effectiveness awards. Retrieved August 8,
2020, from https://ipa.co.uk/awards-­events/effectiveness-­awards
Kitchen, P. J., & Taylor, C. R. (2020). The Janus face of customer service. European Journal of
Marketing, 54(10), 2295–2316.
Magee, K. (2018, November 29). Which ad agency makes the most money? Campaign.
Retrieved March 2020, from https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/ad-­agency-­makes-­
money/1519713
Saatchi & Saatchi. (2020). Retrieved March 2020, from http://saatchi.co.uk/en-­gb/network/about/
Sharma, P. (2020, August 7). How years of dysfunction, corruption and incompetence led to Beirut
Explosion. WION News. Retrieved August 8, 2020, from https://www.wionews.com/world/
how-­years-­of-­dysfunction-­corruption-­and-­incompetence-­l-­to-­beirut-­explosion-­318906
Zook, C. (2015, December 2). Case study: 2 B2B marketing campaigns by IBM. WebFX. Retrieved
August 8, 2020, from https://www.webfx.com/blog/marketing/case-­study-­3-­b2b-­marketing-­
campaigns-­by-­ibm/
Investments and Measurements:
The Quest for the Holy Grail
10
In today’s increasingly competitive and dynamic and crowded global marketplaces
and spaces, companies are under continual pressure to produce profits and improve
the ways budgets and investments are managed, especially in the areas of marketing
and marketing communications. In this regard, both academics (e.g., Porcu et al.,
2017b, 2020) and practitioners (e.g., American Productivity & Quality Center,
1998; Association of National Advertisers, ANA, 2011) have highlighted the relevance of developing a comprehensive measurement of Integrated Marketing
Communications (IMC) performance. Likewise, the Institute of Advertising
Practitioners (IPA, UK) have focused attention on measuring returns in their bi-­
annual Effectiveness Awards.
On the global stage, the Marketing Science Institute (MSI) (2018, 2020) includes
measurement among the top 5 priorities in marketing research for the 2018–2020
and the 2020–2022 periods. The MSI emphasises that availability of a wide range
of data can lead to potential clutter and distraction in managing the business and
further that identifying “key information” will enable guidance and we hazard evaluation of the marketing and/or campaign strategy. This has become paramount.
More specifically, recent reports posited questions regarding investments and measurement, such as “What is the ideal way to measure customer equity and customer
return on investment (ROI)? […] How can new sources and types of data improve
the measurements of customer equity and customer ROI? […] How can one measure long-term branding effects?” (MSI, 2018, p. 12). In their recently published
report (MSI, 2020, p. 6), one of the top 6 priorities in marketing research for
2020–2022 is looking into the “tools for capturing information to fuel growth,”
where the need for identification of key performance indices (KPIs) and metrics
used to guide marketing strategy and measurement approaches and methodologies
to drive marketing insights are highlighted as elements of this broad research
priority.
Thus, there is a need to explain how marketing can link to finance, including
measuring marketing return on investment (ROI), as suggested by MSI (2018, 2020)
and noted in the recent IPA Effectiveness Award Cases (2016/2018). Measurement
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
P. J. Kitchen, M. E. Tourky, Integrated Marketing Communications,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76416-6_10
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of the profitability of IMC programmes enables the achievement of several benefits,
such as a standardised procedure to assess investment returns for a more efficient
decision-making process, improvement in terms of shareholder value, and more
opportunities to generate growth.
Undoubtedly, understanding how investments and measurements of marketing
communication performance should be managed and evaluated remains a key issue
in the field, almost a quest for the holy grail of marketing, and thus this chapter aims
to augment the body of knowledge regarding investments and measurements of
marketing communication performance and in providing both conceptual clarification and valuable instruments. In pursuing this goal, this chapter examines the traditional approach to marketing communication management and then discusses the
approaches for budget allocation, so that the roots of some current practices in the
development of communication budgets and in the way the impact of communication activities on performance is assessed can be revealed.
Traditional Approach to Marketing
A
Communication Management
Traditionally management of the marketing communication area has fallen to a
functional specialist (a marketing communication manager or an advertising director). In some cases, communication-related responsibilities were added to a sales
manager’s or director’s portfolio. In other words, communication has been managed
as an organisational activity or element based on functional objectives. This condition implies that communication goals were often set by senior managers responsible for broad organisational areas, leading to determination of communication
budgets based on requests made by functional managers or the result of allocations
made during annual budgeting.
In marketing communication programme development and support, the marketing communication manager relied on either an internal department, commonly
staffed by media, creative, or visual specialists, or an external organisation such as
an advertising agency or communication development and placement organisation.
Compensation of the external groups was often based on some type of media commission for space or time purchased, markups on purchased supplies or materials,
and perhaps fees for time invested in the development of plans and programmes.
In both managing and financing various marketing communication programmes,
the amount spent by the marketing organisation was taken as a fixed expense by the
firm. That is, it was budgeted at the beginning of the accounting period, and withdrawals were made from a reserve set up for the purpose as the programmes were
executed. Thus, senior management tended to assume that marketing and communication expenditures were a sunk cost or an accrual account that could be “raided”
near the end of the accounting period if expenses needed to be reduced or funds
moved to shore up the bottom line. This misconception is especially risky in times
of economic stringency such as in 2020, which has led to slashing communication
budgets, even when there is strong empirical proof, suggesting that it would be
Organisational Factors: Enablers of an IGMC-Friendly Environment
197
wiser to maintain and even increase the budget amount during a recession (WARC,
2020). In fact, many firms tend to reduce their investments on advertising, thus
reducing the competitive noise and, consequently, increasing the effectiveness of
communication efforts made by companies that decide to keep or even increase
their communication budgets.
Due to the above caveats and others, the role of marketing communications in
most organisations has merited little or no senior managerial attention. Indeed, the
difficulties in measuring the outcomes deriving from communications and the scarcity or lack of immediate business impact of adjusting the level of investment in
communication led the systems used to manage, fund, and measure communication
programmes to attract little attention outside the immediate areas of the functional
activity. More interestingly, while many organisations do not consider marketing
and communication as crucial elements for their success, the most successful companies (such as Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, and in other cases cited in
this book) know that marketing communication works and demonstrate their trust
by increasing their investments in communication. For example, Coca-Cola had a
double-digit increase of advertising spending that led to great revenues during a
period of fierce and negative publicity for the whole industry. Likewise, in 2010,
during the last recession, the increase of investments in advertising by one billion
dollar led Procter & Gamble (P&G) to substantial market share and sales growth.
On the contrary, a survey conducted by the Association of National Advertisers
(ANA, 2013) noted that “a vast majority of marketers (82%) continue to push for
cost savings and marketing budget reductions.”
For the most part, marketing communication has been designated as a function
or a department in organisations, thus under the auspices of the traditional approaches
of command and control management (Schultz and Kitchen, 2000) and top-down
internal communication. Each is or was a separate department and a functional
activity reporting upwards to the senior management of the firm. Accordingly, stability and the norm tended to be preeminent in how communication is or was managed and funded, and taking a customer-centric approach to IGMC often was
reserved for future potentiality. Thus, in the next section we address organisational
factors that influence IGMC application.
rganisational Factors: Enablers
O
of an IGMC-Friendly Environment
Among organisational factors, corporate culture and structure play a key role in the
implementation of IMC principles and customer-centric focus. With regard to the
first, in a recent study by Porcu et al. (2017a), the authors compared the effect of the
adoption of adhocracy (innovation-oriented) culture and the market (competitive)
culture types on the implementation of IMC. Adhocracy culture is primarily focused
on adaptability and creativity where risk-taking behaviour and responsiveness are
valued, while market culture is based on stability and control and is oriented towards
cost-effectiveness, concentrating on the achievement of goals via high productivity
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and internal competitiveness. The findings of the studies provided evidence of the
fact that the dominance of adhocracy (innovation-oriented) cultural values contribute to building a more IMC-friendly organisational environment, while there was no
impact for market/competitive-oriented culture on the level of IMC
implementation.
Likewise, the results of the recent study conducted by Porcu et al. (2020) gave
empirical support to the strong relationship between collaborative culture and the
implementation of IMC. More interestingly, this study demonstrates that the adoption of a collaborative culture affects the level of IMC implementation to a greater
extent than a controlling (hierarchy) culture. In other words, those firms with a high
degree of horizontal and vertical internal coordination, internal trust, and support
from top management and a strong focus on relationships and collaboration are
expected to achieve a higher level of integration than those adopting a hierarchical
culture, characterised by lack of flexibility, rigid organisational structures (silos),
and command and control systems. This might be due to the fact that coordination
mechanisms enable aligning tasks and information around customers’ needs, though
not effective enough to encourage members of competing functional silos to fully
cooperate, making time-consuming adjustments in favour of customer’s interest.
Thus, a cooperative environment in which organisational members are rewarded for
busting through silos is key.
Another organisational factor is structure where, in most organisational structures, few functional groups interact with each other or indeed with their sibling
groups. For example, if the marketing communication manager intends to interact
with another department, he or she should ascend the chain of command and then
go down the same chain to the desired department or group. This phenomenon
emphasises that primary coordination occurs at the top of the organisation, where
decisions that impact the actual daily activities of the organisation are actually
made. As a result, little or no integration within the whole organisation takes place
and each functional element has—in the past—been completely separate in terms of
management and rewards, thus missing the claimed core of the organisational mission, that is, satisfying or attempting to satisfy customer needs. Nevertheless, while
internally each member of the organisation feels that they have specific responsibilities, customers and consumers see the organisation holistically and not as a set of
individual functions. More importantly, several problems lie in marketing and communication given such basic dichotomisation.
The lack of connection or knowledge or understanding not only among countries
and regions but also among departments and divisions makes global programmes
difficult if not impossible in these firms. The IGMC approach takes exactly the
opposite track from that of traditional management thinking: we start with a customer view of the organisation or brand and work back. That develops management
approaches that fit customer needs, rather than organisational structures and flowcharts that fit managerial goals. Along the way, of course, we must bring the customer needs and organisational structure and capability together, but the concept of
a customer-centric organisation is key to our approach. We have hammered this
theme repeatedly in this book. Customers, not products, services, brands, or
Organisational Factors: Enablers of an IGMC-Friendly Environment
199
personalities, lie at the core of organisational success. Businesses who forget this
simple rubric will have to pay the price, now or later.
To illustrate the role of organisational structure, in the article titled “Silo Busting:
How to Execute on the Promise of Customer Focus”, Gulati (2007) highlighted that
knowledge and expertise are stored within organisational silos, whose internal
boundaries may and often do prevent them from flowing as resources for the whole
organisation and generate value for the organisation and its customers. Gulati (2007)
identified four sets of activities which were common features of the most successful
companies that enable transcending product-based, departmental, functional, or
geographic silos to enhance the value of customer solutions:
• coordination (by harmonising information and activities across units),
• cooperation (by encouraging—via cultural means, incentives, and the allocation
of power—the members of the organisation to collaborate to meet customer needs),
• capability development (by ensuring that the organisational members have the
skills to develop customer-focused solutions), and
• connection (by establishing and nourishing relationships to increase the value of
solutions cost-effectively).
While the first three sets enable the customer to be placed at the core of the
organisation, the fourth is especially ambitious because it increases the reach of
solutions beyond organisational boundaries.
To sum, in pursuing the aim of finding the right balance in terms of organisational structure and culture, we need to know what needs to be managed to satisfy
customers—not what needs to be structured for management control. The inside-­
out approach (recall our discussion in Chap. 2), the management of the communication function, will equate to managing the communication output of the firm. On
this basis, there would likely be myopic management centred on developing advertising campaigns or other promotional activities and accomplishing the tasks
required—instead of being focused on the impact of the communication programmes implemented. While this perspective is output-oriented, the IGMC
approach is an outside-in and outcome-oriented approach which implies major differences in how a marketing communication group views, implements, and evaluates its roles and responsibilities.
Putting customers and consumers at the core of the communication management
over time can transform the structures, focus, and activities of the marketing communication group, as shown in Fig. 10.1.
In this regard, we clarify that the real task for the marketing communication team
and managers is not media planning per se but to formulate solutions that enable the
organisation to attract new customers, retain present customers, and manage them,
each task requiring a differentiated set of tools, skills, and tactics. Indeed, the
approach of managing customers and customer communication requirements is
much more complex than the management of traditional communication delivery
vehicles, and managerial issues are totally different, as are the activities in which the
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Fig. 10.1 Customer management structure. (Source: Adapted from first edition)
organisation invests its resources. Inherent in this view of IGMC management is the
structure in which managers operate.
What Type of Management Structure Makes IGMC Work?
Following the above premises, there are some structures that are likely to enable
IGMC implementation.
A Revised Brand Management Structure
Figure 10.2 shows a revised brand management structure, where the organisation is
focused on customers and market segments instead of being centred on products or
brands. According to this, specific teams would be in charge of various segments
that have been identified (e.g., heavy or light users). This design also includes two
support groups: marketing services—who provide expertise in the marketing communication areas—and sales—that is, face-to-face or other personal contacts that
occur with customers and prospects.
Centralised Marketing Communication Activities
Another structural approach is to control all marketing and brand communication
through a central office or marketing communication manager, as illustrated in
Fig. 10.2. This structure is typically adopted by organisations that are moving from
What Type of Management Structure Makes IGMC Work?
201
Fig. 10.2 Market-focused organisation. (Source: Adapted from first edition)
a sales-oriented to a marketing- or brand-oriented approach to marketing and communication. The corporate communication director, who could be termed “the communication czar,” is designated to consolidate control and responsibility for all
forms and types of corporate and product brand communication in a central location, such as the office of the CEO, where brand and communication standards are
set and conformity is ensured. While this structure seems to make sense in terms of
guaranteeing integration, the lack of flexibility and the rigid top-down hierarchy do
not enable the adoption of collaborative or innovative organisational culture types,
which are the ones that generate more IGMC-friendly environments (Fig. 10.3).
The Market Segment Design
A third model, namely, the market segment design, is illustrated in Fig. 10.4 and is
based on the concept of being totally customer-oriented and developing and delivering services to satisfy customer needs through a focused approach and is in line with
the concept of the “flat organisation.” This market team design is the most appropriate for a global marketing organisation, the goal being managing customers, not
geographies or products or services. According to this structure, a unique team of
functional specialists could manage a group of customers.
Based on the above rationale regarding the need of structures that enhance horizontal integration and cooperation, which are paramount in the collaborative and
adhocratic corporate cultures, the main challenge for companies is to redesign their
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10 Investments and Measurements: The Quest for the Holy Grail
Fig. 10.3 Marketing communication management structure. (Source: Adapted from first edition)
Fig. 10.4 Market team structure. (Source: Adapted from first edition)
charts, power, and rewarding systems in order to create horizontally aligned organisations for more effective and successful implementation of IGMC.
Finally, we still need to refer also to what resources should be obtained outside
the organisation and how external partners should be remunerated.
Traditionally, the compensation system was focused on the output of marketing
communication programmes and based either on how much the client invests in
various forms of media or on the amount of time required to develop and administer
a communication programme by an agency. In fact, since external resources (i.e.,
advertising agencies) were not compensated on the basis of marketplace results,
What Type of Management Structure Makes IGMC Work?
203
views of what is practical and useful compensation to them have long been a major
point of discussion and disagreement between the agency and the client organisation. Instead, we recommend viewing the purchase of these resources on the basis
of expected returns. Inherent in this approach is the idea that the organisation will
buy what it needs and pay for that value if it will enhance or improve its returns from
customers. Purchases then should be made on the basis of what is valuable and
helps improve the overall process and returns to the organisation, not on how much
the organisation invests in various types or forms of marketing communication and
certainly not in how much it invests in various forms of media.
Understanding the Marketing Communication Process
To contextualise the budgeting, allocation, and measurement tasks, a review of marketing communication process is provided. Figure 10.4 illustrates the eight steps
involved in the development of marketing communications, and each step will be
described in detail. Admittedly, this has already been discussed in Chap. 8 but we
add to and augment that process here.
The first step deals with information or data gathering, which is a key task in the
current communication environment. This stage responds to the need of adopting an
outside-in approach by listening to the environment and gathering information,
knowledge, and records about customers and consumers, markets, and the marketing systems in each marketplace. Interestingly, the third priority suggested by the
MSI (2020, p. 6) is identifying the tools that enable to capture information to
enhance growth. In this regard, the MSI (2020, p. 6) points out that “emerging technologies, data sources and analytical techniques offer marketers new ways to
observe and understand consumer behavior, enhance customer experience and sustain profitable growth.” While companies specialised in research and database management are commonly in charge of these tasks, sometimes they are accomplished
by an internal information technology (IT) team. The compensation for this task is
generally on a project-by-project basis, although there are also subscription
approaches whereby the researcher provides the services for a set monthly or annual
fee to client and agency organisations (Fig. 10.5).
The second step regards data consolidation and analysis, which is a prominent
part of the process that organises and analyses the whole information captured in the
first stage. As highlighted by the Marketing Science Institute (2020) in their report
on marketing research priorities for the 2020–2022 period, technology has exerted
an extraordinary impact on marketing and communications, especially on the tools
and modus operandi implemented for gathering information. Commonly, the organisations that compile data provide the data set to specialised organisations
(A. C. Nielsen, Information Resources, National Family Opinion, SMRB, and TGI)
for analysis. Project fees or subscription fees charge periodically are the most common compensation for these groups. Commonly, there is some base fee arranged
and then additional activities are billed in addition. The results obtained in this step
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10 Investments and Measurements: The Quest for the Holy Grail
Fig. 10.5 Marketing communications process. (Source: Adapted from first edition; Schultz and
Kitchen (2000))
do not enable managers to make sense of the whole set of data via detailed analysis
or understanding. This occurs in the next step.
The third step is devoted to market analysis to develop market understanding.
These tasks are accomplished by firms that take the gathered and consolidated information on markets and customers and analyse and attempt to understand the characteristics of the market, customers’ preferences, purchase behaviour, and so forth.
Organisations that provide this service might include Claritas, Market Metrics,
EDS, Epsilon, and Targetbase Marketing and also some management consulting
organisations, such as Ernst &Young, Andersen Consulting, and Booze, Allen and
Bain & Company. Also in this case, payment is generally made on the basis of a
project or ongoing service fee.
The fourth step is focused on market strategy development. This task has traditionally been attributed to the marketing organisation and the brand or product manager. However, nowadays it is accomplished by consulting organisations and market
research database firms. When this is managed internally, it is considered as an
organisational cost, while when it is outsourced, the common approach is a fee for
the services that may or may not be tied to the amount of time involved in the task.
The fifth step is dedicated to message or incentive development. When it comes
to the creativity needed for the development of communication messages, which
can be an ad, a promotional incentive, an event, and so forth, the advertising or communication agency has provided this service. To do so, the agency takes the strategy
the organisation developed and creatively expands this into communication messages ready to be distributed. Traditionally, advertising agencies have offset the
costs for message or incentive development through the commissions gained based
on the placement of time or space that has been allowed by the media organisations.
However, if media commissions were not sufficient, the agency charges an additional fee to the client organisation. In the last decades, many advertising agencies,
such as Ogilvy, have transformed their structure to become more comprehensive
and include all communication activities and tools. In other words, it is not just
advertising per se under consideration.
The sixth step deals with message or incentive preparation or production. As in
the case of the previous step, communication agencies are in charge of this task,
Setting the Budget
205
traditionally relying on production organisations, such as television producers, type
and film houses, and consolidating these services to craft a unified package to the
client organisation. Compensations for these services are commonly made on a
project basis that may or may not be tied to the amount of time and effort involved
in the task.
The seventh step is focused on message or incentive distribution. The distribution of marketing and communication messages and incentives usually occurs
through various forms of media organisations. The media generally base their time
or space costs on audience achieved, their delivery cycle, and their production costs.
While there are some fixed charges by medium, often prices and programmes are
negotiated. Thus, it is often difficult to determine what the actual costs of a marketing communication programme might be until the agency or client actually enters
the media-purchasing marketplace.
Finally, the eighth step is dedicated to message or incentive response analysis.
In other words, the final step deals with the measurement of the impact of marketing
communication programmes. As mentioned earlier in this book and in this chapter,
this is still a Gordian knot in the field and has not been well developed in any specific market and certainly not in global terms. Measurement has been mostly focused
on marketing communication output, in terms of measures assuring clients and
agencies that the media delivered what they agreed to deliver or that the audience
exposed to the medium was of the size and geographic location promised or
expected. Specialised consulting organisations are oriented to the measurement of
marketing communication operating on some type of fee or project basis. Examples
of these organisations include Interbrand, Financial Analysts, and Agora, Inc.
It is important to note that the marketing communications process is not linear
but a circular process. So the feedback drawn from the last step is used as part of the
information gathered in the first step. Moreover, while the organisations involved in
each step have become specialised in a specific area or task, the fierce competition
within the communications environment and the increasing need for more integrated solutions have led many organisations (including the traditional advertising
agencies like Ogilvy) to broaden their action spectrum and offer a comprehensive
(often termed “360 degrees communication”) service to their clients. This shift
complicates the understanding of “who does what” but facilitates the communication management on the client side.
With the above-presented overview of how the different functions work within
the marketing communication process, we can proceed with the examination of
budgeting and investment management.
Setting the Budget
Undoubtedly, budgeting is a crucial decision. There is a two-way connection
between communication analysis and budget development, since budgets need to be
developed considering the objectives and, accordingly, objectives need to be set
with the budget in mind.
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Traditionally, funds for a global marketing communication programme have
been budgeted following an inside-out approach, where the organisation starts with
a projected level of sales or volume it expects during the coming year. From that,
costs of operation are deducted, leaving a contribution margin (CM). From that
contribution margin the marketing budget is derived, from which marketing communication is then allocated. Marketing communication decisions are then made,
and activities and tactics are devised based on available funds. In this approach,
marketing communication investment is derived from the level of sales achieved or
expected, which means that if sales don’t reach expected levels, the marketing communication investment must be reduced, being a function of sales volume. The basic
premise of the inside-out approach is “Marketing and marketing communication do
not contribute to sales. In fact, they are a drag on profits from sales”: Little or no
regard is given to the communication needs of customers and prospects or of the
organisation. It’s a simple, mechanistic approach that ignores any contribution marketing communication might make to the enhancement of sales and profits.
From Inside-Out to Outside-In
The approach we take in IGMC is outside-in, starting with customers and their
value and working back towards strategy and allocation, as illustrated in Fig. 10.6.
Outside-in budgeting recognises that each customer group creates some flow of
income for the organisation. That income flow is used as the basis for developing
marketing communication plans. Recall from Chap. 6 the discussion of valuing
customers and prospects and the income flows they generated or potentially could
generate for the organisation.
Each customer, no matter what his or her status, has either current or potential
value for the firm. Those income flows directly determine the amount the organisation should invest to maintain, increase, or enhance those income flows. Assume
Fig. 10.6 Outside-in budgeting. (Source: Adapted from first edition)
The Closed-Loop System
207
Sally has been purchasing products from our company for three years, providing us
approximately £1000 in contribution margin each year. The question for the marketing communication manager is “How much should we invest in marketing communication directed toward Sally to maintain that £1000 income flow at the contribution
margin line?” When posed this way, the answer is fairly simple. We could invest up
to £1000 in marketing communication programmes towards Sally to maintain her
income flow, and the firm would still break even. If we spent less, we would develop
more profit. In other words, the less we spend or invest in marketing communication, the more profit we make. This is not a welcome thought for most marketing
communication managers. Generally, the goal of the marketing communication
manager has been to obtain larger and larger budgets and expand the marketing
communication programme every year. Yet, when viewed as outlined here, the truly
successful communication manager always tries to drive spending down and
profits up.
The preceding example is not a very common way of looking at how an organisation should develop a marketing communication investment plan. Very seldom do
we think of customers or prospects and their income flows as being the basis for
investments. Instead, marketing communication managers tend to think about
advertising campaigns or direct mail drops or public relations events as investments
in marketing communication programmes not in customers or prospects. So, when
we start to think about customers and prospects and income flows and returns to the
organisation, it becomes clear that we need a new way to think about marketing
communication investments and returns.
The Closed-Loop System
With this example of income flows from customers as the driving force in the development of marketing communication investment plans, we can now summarise the
approach we propose with the closed-loop system described in Chap. 7 and illustrated in Fig. 10.7.
In our closed-loop approach, we identify the value of customers and prospects
now and into the future. By knowing the customer value, we are able to make managerial decisions about how much we would be willing to invest to retain Sally’s
£1000 income flow at the contribution margin (CM) line. If we know the CM of
Sally is £1000 per year, we can make a managerial decision that we might be willing
to invest 10% of that income flow, or £100, to attempt to grow Sally’s purchases in
the coming six months. By making this decision, we have determined the marketing
communication budget, we have set a target return on our investment, and we have
set up a process whereby we can measure the impact and effect of our marketing
communication spend.
What we have also done is set in motion a process that defines what type of
return we must get on our marketing communication investment in Sally to determine whether or not it was a success. Recall that Sally presently generates a £1000
CM return to the company each year, which, for the purposes of this discussion, we
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10 Investments and Measurements: The Quest for the Holy Grail
Fig. 10.7 Closed-loop systems. (Source: Adapted from first edition)
can break down to about £500 every six months. If we invest £100 in Sally over the
next six months, we must generate income flows of £600 from Sally at the CM line
to break even (the $500 we would have expected based on past experience, plus the
£1.00 invested in marketing communication). Anything over the $600 return from
Sally is a positive return on our investment. If we got back £700 in contribution
margin, we would have generated an ROCI of 100% (£100 invested, £1.00 in
increased response over and above our communication investment, or a l00% return
on our investment in Sally as a customer).
Inherent in this approach is the idea of incremental return. That is, we had an
ongoing income flow from Sally that we could estimate in advance. Thus, to demonstrate that our marketing communication investment was valuable for the organisation, we had to maintain Sally’s income flow (£1000 total or assumed £500 for
six months), and we had to recover our marketing communication investment of
£1.00 simply to get back to where we started. The fact that we got back an additional £100 (£700 total) means we got back £100 over our expected return and our
communication investment. In other words, we achieved incremental revenue as a
result of our marketing communication investment. This concept of incremental
revenue is critical to our measurement process.
Budgeting Approaches in Practice
Traditionally, the five most frequently used budgeting methods in practice by both
B2C and B2B companies are Arbitrary, Affordability, Objective-and-Task,
Percentage of Sales, and Competitive Parity Belch and Belch (2021). Table 10.1
Budgeting Approaches in Practice
209
Table 10.1 Traditional budgeting methods
How it works
Arbitrary allocation
The management establishes the amount according to
what is felt to be needed. Common for large
corporations, small firms and nonprofit organisations.
Affordable
The company first establishes the amount to be
invested in different functional areas, then it allocates
what is left to communication. Commonly used by
small firms.
Also adopted in product-oriented large firms.
Objectives and task
Budget decision is taken based on what marketing
communications activities need to be achieved.
The focus is on: (1) determining objectives; (2)
deciding on the marketing communications tasks that
are needed to achieve those objectives; (3) calculating
the costs of those tasks.
Percentage of sales
Communication investments are calculated by
management as in terms of a percentage of the sales
amount or allocating a fixed amount of the unit
product cost to communication and multiplying the
amount by the number of units sold.
In case future sales are used as a reference, the results
would be more appropriate. Commonly used by large
firms.
Advantages and disadvantages
(−) Under- or over-spending, due to the
lack of focus on communication goals.
(−) The effects of the communication
efforts can be hardly measured.
(−) Lack of objective criteria in the
procedures.
(+) High control on the amount
invested.
(−) Under- or over-spending, due to the
lack of focus on communication goals.
(−) The effects of the communication
efforts can be hardly measured.
(−) In times of economic stringency, it
leads to budget cuts, instead of
increasing the amount invested to
aenhance competitiveness.
(+) Bottom-up approach with emphasis
on objectives setting.
(−) Difficult to implement due to the
need for well-defined objectives.
(−) It assumes the relationship between
the objectives and tasks are well
understood.
(−) In case the budget requested is too
big, it might not be financed by the
organisation.
(+) Financially safe, straightforward,
stable and easy to apply.
(−) It treats communication as an
expense linked to sales, rather than an
investment.
(−) When sales decrease,
communication budgets are cut when
they should be incremented to address
the problem.
(-) Lack of flexibility hinders
adaptation to environmental changes.
(-) Difficult to implement for new
products.
(-) Problems with forecasting growth
and uncontrollable factors limit its
implementation.
(continued)
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10 Investments and Measurements: The Quest for the Holy Grail
Table 10.1 (continued)
How it works
Competitive parity
Managers determine the budget by matching the
investments made by competitors.
This method is typically used together with other
methods.
Advantages and disadvantages
(+) It minimises unrealistic
investments.
(−) Taking into account the
competitors’ actions lead to stability in
the marketplace.
(−) It does not consider that
communication has specific goals.
(−) It assumes that similar spending
will lead to similar effectiveness,
omitting the role of media planning and
creativity.
(−) It is based on the previous year
competitors’ expenditures and there is
no guarantee that competitors will not
increase their spending in the future.
Source: Derived from multiple sources and amalgamated by the authors
summarises how each approach works and the positives and negatives of each. We
discuss two of these immediately below.
One of the traditional methods, the Percentage of Sales technique, suggests calculating the communication budget in terms of a fixed percentage of total sales.
However, several situational factors influence the relationship between communication efforts and sales. Thus, this method is poor because in some cases (such as in
case of products that are going through a maturity or decline stage in their product
life cycle) the relationship between communication investments and sales may be
reversed. It is also extremely difficult for managers to determine the exact stage of
the life cycle a product or brand may be in. Often, managerial decisions determine
the depth, length, and shape of the product life cycle. Also such an approach would
ensure that budgets follow sales, rather than preceding them as would be expected
in an IGMC approach. We can think of stories—for example, Timex, where this
approach was adopted and worked for a while. But as sales tapered off, so budgets
were reduced, and in the end all that was left was a hollowed-out hulk of what was
once a great company.
The Objective and Task method undoubtedly demands a higher level of management involvement during the process, since managers need to monitor the process
and change strategies depending on whether defined goals are being attained.
Nevertheless, this method is also nor stable nor easy to apply, due to the difficulty
in the identification of the tasks needed and the associated costs, especially when
there is no background from which guidelines can be drawn (e.g., when a new product is launched). This is probably the main reason discouraging marketers from
implementing the task-based approach and leading them to keep using the
The Measurement of the IGMC Performance
211
traditional methods. It is straightforward enough to implement… set communication objectives—determine tasks to accomplish them—estimate the cost—implement the programme—evaluate whether objectives are accomplished. Objectives
are related to market dynamics, that is, external determinants, unlike the previous
model which offers little to recommend it.
Despite their limitations, these methods have long been and are still among the
most largely used by marketers. This might be due to the difficulty in changing the
status quo of traditional practices or the chance these methods give to managers of
achieving the desired degree of control.
Another traditional method, ROI (return on investment), considers the money
allocated in communication as an investment that should lead to a return. The ROI
method has gained momentum over the last years, but there is still certain disagreement on how it should be assessed, and it is hard to determine the real impact of
investments on effectiveness, as explained below.
The Measurement of the IGMC Performance
The measurement of the impact of IGMC on performance emerges as an unresolved
issue in both academia and professional arena. It is this area that has constantly
bedevilled executive and managers in the modern era.
The Marketing Science Institute (2020, pp. 6–7) highlights some measurement
issues among the recently updated marketing research priorities. More specifically,
three out of the four sections of the third priority (tools for capturing information to
fuel growth) deal with measurement of communication effectiveness. In fact, the
second section regards the need for the identification of key performance indices/
metrics to be used for marketing guidance, including ways to measure customer
equity and customer ROI; the third is entitled “assessing causality” and includes the
following research questions: “How can a marketer attribute and apportion outcomes to various causal factors?” and “What is the ideal approach to integrating
marketing mix?”; and the fourth section is focused on measurement approaches and
methodologies to drive marketing insights, posing questions such as “What advances
exist in using neuroscience and biomarkers to understand customers?” and “When
should insights from neuro supplement or replace traditional approaches?”.
Likewise, a late joiner to the IMC party—Keller (2016) addressed similar issues in
his paper entitled “unlocking the power of your Integrated Marketing
Communications: how integrated is your IMC program?”
On the professional side, in 2011 the Making Measurement Make Sense (4MS)
was founded by the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s), the
Association of American Advertisers (ANA), and the Interactive Advertising Bureau
(IAB) to work on how digital media are planned for and evaluated or measured. It
works closely with the Media Rating Council (MRC), which is in charge of setting
and applying measurement standards. In addition, the ANA periodically organises
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10 Investments and Measurements: The Quest for the Holy Grail
an event named “Data and Measurement Conference,” and in 2019, it created a new
unit, called “measurement for marketers (MFM),” to level the measurement playing
in the field and hold the industry accountable. In this regard, the ANA CEO, Bob
Liodice, pointed out that this division is needed because the marketplace demanded
it and cited the 2019 survey conducted by Integral Ad Science, which emphasised
that 47% of respondents indicated that the second more important priority (behind
data privacy) regards the need for consistent media measurement.
In fact, as noted earlier in this chapter, marketers are not confident in available
metrics and organisations (including agencies) and are still striving for determining
a way or ways to objectively determine whether their communication is working
and how well it is doing. In other words, it is a type of grail search which may one
day be achieved. Measuring effectiveness is paramount as it allows evaluating alternative strategies, increasing the efficiency of communication, and, more importantly, assessing whether the defined goals are achieved, while avoiding costly
mistakes.
To address the need for IMC performance measures, Keller (2016) identified
seven IMC choice criteria (named by the author “7 Cs”) that marketers should apply
to assess how effectively and efficiently they have developed their IMC programmes.
These 7 Cs refer to coverage, cost, contribution, commonality, complementarity,
cross-effects, and conformability. Further, the results of a major study on the effectiveness of IMC conducted by Hurman and Field (2020) identified seven key principles to follow in order to climb the creative effectiveness ladder. These principles
include setting the right objectives; budgeting realistically; resisting the pressure to
carve the brand’s marketing budget up into tiny increments; planning robustly; creating insightful strategy; choosing highly creative work; maximising creative output; and landing and expanding. The study was conducted on behalf of Cannes
Liones and WARC, published in a whitepaper entitled “The effectiveness code”,
and based on a total of 4863 effectiveness award entrants and winners from 2011 to
2019 from all major worldwide markets. It is worth reading.
However, there is still a need for developing more precise models for analysing
ROI on communication investment and improving criteria to enhance the effectiveness of IMC programmes, accounting for the short-term and long-term effects of
any communication option on sales and brand equity.
he Concept and Practical Application of Incremental Revenue
T
to the Firm
When it comes to measurement, the concept of incremental returns is notably absent
in many traditional marketing communication measurement systems. Often total
sales or unit volume are taken as evidence of the impact of the marketing communication programme, with no view of incremental returns.
Incremental revenue is based on the simple concept that the return must be
greater than the cost and greater than what would have been expected without the
expenditure, as illustrated in Fig. 10.8.
The Concept and Practical Application of Incremental Revenue to the Firm
213
Fig. 10.8 The concept of incremental returns
Line A in Fig. 10.8 represents the current income of the firm. That income is
assumed to continue whether or not the organisation invests any additional resources.
While we show the income flow as a flat line, most organisations have some sort of
peaks and valleys in sales and income. We use the flat line for illustration only.
Line B is the maximum output of the firm—the total amount of revenue the
organisation could generate if all its resources were put to use: the total production
of a manufacturing plant, the total number of hotel rooms available in a building, or
the total number of seats on an airplane, for instance. Incremental revenue occurs
when the organisation invests some of its resources to drive current sales higher than
would be expected in the period but to less than full capacity. That is what marketing communication fundamentally is all about. The firm assumes it is able to achieve
a certain level of business with no marketing communication investment, due to the
nature of the product, the location, or inherent demand that exists in the marketplace
and so on. For a marketing communication investment to be profitable, returns must
exceed the amount invested. This is a key element in the IGMC approach, for it suggests that marketing communication must not only recover the investment made in
the activity but provide additional returns as well.
However, by using such measures there is no assurance that the marketing communication investment was even recovered, much less any incremental return
achieved. More troublesome, when communication effects are used as the measurement yardstick, incremental financial returns cannot be measured at all since there
is no way to relate product or communication awareness or attitude changes to the
amount invested or returned.
Calculating Return on Customer Investment
From a customer-centric perspective and taking the concept of incremental returns
into consideration, we consider the return on customer investment (ROCI) as an
appropriate approach for measuring the effects of IGMC, which is supported by
several academics, such as Peppers and Rogers (2011, p. 14), who suggested that at
the organisational level, the ROCI is mathematically equivalent to total shareholder
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10 Investments and Measurements: The Quest for the Holy Grail
return (TSR), based on the premise that all value created by any organisation come
from its customers. In this case, ROCI can enable a company to know whether the
company is “creating, harvesting, or destroying value” from the only profit-­
generating asset it has: its customers. Based on this approach, the ROCI can be used
to increase the robustness of decisions on investments in customer relationships,
experiences, and programmes or the value of mergers and acquisitions and can
become the basis for rewards for employees and managers and the balance between
short- and long-term goals.
To illustrate how ROCI is calculated, Table 10.2 provides a basic spreadsheet
that estimates ROCI for three groups of customers or prospects: present customers,
competitive customers, and emerging customers.
As shown in the spreadsheet, the current value to the firm for each customer
group is first estimated, then the value of a marketing communication programme is
estimated. The spreadsheet is structured in four parts reflecting the various steps in
the process:
1. In the first section (lines 1–5), we estimate the value of each of the customer
groups. This comes from the analysis and valuation of customer groups discussed in Chap. 6. In other words, we determine the total CM for each of
the groups.
2. Once we know the expected CM for the customer group, we estimate what the
income flow would be if no investment were made in marketing communication.
In other words, relating this to our incremental revenue concept chart, what
would be the expected income to the organisation at line A if we invested
Table 10.2 ROCI process
Present
customers
Product/service type
1. Present income flow in category
£
2. Share of requirements
%
3. Customer income flow to brand
£
4. Contribution margin %
%
5. Contribution margin £
£
6. Income flow with a brand
£
communication program
7. Gross contribution margin with a brand £
communication program
8. Income flow with a brand
£
communication £ program
9. Gross contribution margin with a brand £
communication program
10. Brand communication investment
£
11. Net contribution margin
£
12. Difference in contribution margins
£
with and without brand communication
13. Incremental gain or loss
£
14. Return on investment
%
Source: Adapted from first edition; Schultz and Kitchen (2000)
Competitive
customers
£
%
£
%
£
£
Emerging
customers
£
%
£
%
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
%
£
%
Measuring Short-Term and Long-Term Returns on Marketing
215
nothing? That provides the baseline. Again, note that we start with total income
flow and then convert that to a contribution margin for each of the groups (see
lines 6–7).
3. The third section requests that we estimate the income flow from each group if a
brand communication investment is made (line 8). That income flow is then
converted into a contribution margin in line 9. From that we deduct the investment in the marketing communication programme to convert this to incremental
revenue and incremental contribution margin at line 11 is the net contribution
margin, that is, the CM expected from the customer once the marketing communication investment has been made. That investment is then deducted from
the overall return (line 11).
4. The fourth section compares the return from customers with and without the
marketing communication investment for each of the three groups. That is, we
calculate the difference between the contribution margins with and without a
brand communication investment (line 12) with the result being an incremental
gain or loss (line 13). If the return with a marketing communication investment
is greater than without, our ROCI will show a positive return. If the return is less
than the cost of the marketing communication investment, the number will be
negative. As long as we get back more for investing in marketing communication, less the cost of that investment, than we would have gotten without the
investment, marketing communication is producing a positive ROCI. Of course,
a key element is the percentage of return that is being obtained. Generally, if the
return is greater than the return that could be obtained on other forms of investment, the communication planner is on solid ground. Often organisations set
“hurdle rates” for investments—minimum percentage returns that must be
achieved for any investment—which must be considered in the final evaluation
of the value of the marketing communication investment.
At the end of the book, Appendix B, we provide a full example of how the ROCI
investment and measurement process works along with a hypothetical example.
Measuring Short-Term and Long-Term Returns on Marketing
The above-presented example of ROCI process provides a useful and managerially
acceptable approach for measuring the returns on a marketing communication
investment in the short term, that is, during the current fiscal year. Recall, however,
from Chap. 6, that some marketing communication programmes provide returns in
the short term, that is, the current fiscal year (those termed business building), and
some communication programmes are designed to generate long-term returns, that
is, returns over several fiscal years. Those are called brand building. The process
with the spreadsheet provides an excellent way of estimating or calculating returns
in the current time period, that is, the current fiscal year. The question then is “How
can we measure the return on longer-term communication investments?”
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10 Investments and Measurements: The Quest for the Holy Grail
Fig. 10.9 IGMC communication planning matrix—Level two. (Source: Adapted from first edition; Schultz and Kitchen (2000))
The communication planning matrix from Chap. 6 provides a solution, illustrated in Fig. 10.9.
While the decision as to whether we are delivering messages or incentives is
important in the planning process, for measurement we are interested only in the
financial returns achieved. Thus, the planning chart provides an excellent reminder,
but our emphasis will on when the returns are obtained, not on what type of program
or activity was delivered.
For short-term returns, current income flows from customers and prospects can
be measured in terms of contribution margins, translating those income flows not
only into incremental returns but also into marginal returns to the organisation. The
concept of marginal investments and marginal returns is based on the economic
concept that as long as the organisation gains a greater return from the activity than
the cost of the activity itself, it would theoretically continue to invest in the activity.
With this in mind, as long as communication investments generate greater returns
than the cost of the investment, no limit will be placed on the investment level. Thus,
as long as we can generate a greater return than the cost of our investment, the
organisation should continue to invest in communication. That, of course, demands
that the marketing communication manager be able to demonstrate those financial
returns in the short term.
On the other hand, when it comes to long-term returns, since the organisation has
no way to recognise such except as brand value, and returns on brand-building
activities commonly occur over several fiscal years, the use of marginal returns and
incremental revenue becomes less relevant. As mentioned before, customers are the
true assets of the firm and are the primary elements for the generation of income.
Tangible assets (plants, equipment, land, inventory, or cash), unless they help generate income flows from customers, have little cash flow generating value to the
organisation. If we start to consider customers and the income flows they create as
the real assets of the organisation, we can start to treat them as assets the same way
Measuring Short-Term and Long-Term Returns on Marketing
217
tangible assets are valued and maintained. In other words, we would start to manage
customers and customer income flows as assets that have value and generate returns.
For tangible assets, the organisation is likely to invest in some way to maintain
the value of those assets. Accordingly, the same should be done with customers. If
there are no regular investments in customer via marketing and communication programmes, they would decline in value and stop providing the same level of income
flow. The only problem with this approach is that at the present time there are no
accounting procedures that recognise future income flows. That is, the income flow
from a customer can be measured only during the current fiscal year. Accordingly,
other ways should be considered to determine the value of customers over multiple
fiscal years. Thus, the need for a measure of brand building.
In brand building we move from calculating income flows to measuring brand
equity among customers and prospects that have been generated by communication
programmes. In other words, since we can cannot measure the financial returns, we
must measure the surrogate for those values, that is, how customers and consumers
in general value the brand or the relationships that exist between them and the
company.
In this line, Keller (1993) opened the avenue for research in the field of customer-­
based brand equity (CBBE), which is defined as the differential effect of brand
knowledge on consumer response to the marketing of the brand. In his highly cited
work, Keller proposed a robust and broadly applied measurement of brand equity
taking the customer’s perspective. The argument behind the CBBE model is that if
the aim is building strong brands, the organisation needs to shape how customers
think and feel about the product via the right experiences around the brand to generate positive attitudes, thoughts, feelings, and perceptions about the brand. In a more
recent publication, Keller (2016) identified four steps of a pyramid showing the key
questions customers will ask (even subconsciously) about the brand regarding identity (who the brand is and what it stands for?), meaning (what the brand means?),
responses (what about the brand?), and relationships (what about the brand
and me?).
As explained in Chap. 2, the brand equity approach is also taken in the professional arena. For example, each year the Fortune US ranking of top 100 (Fortune,
2020) companies in terms of brand performance is released, emphasising some
shifts in the position of brands, that are strongly influenced by the effectiveness of
their communication efforts. For example, while Walmart is leading the ranking
since 2013, other brands have lost or gained several positions over a relatively short
time period. For example, Chevron ranked as 3rd in 2015 and as 14th in 2016 or
19th in 2017, while Apple ranked 35th in 2011 and 5th in 2014. These data are very
interesting and show how brands can improve their positioning in the consumer’s
mind to boost their performance. While the Fortune top 100 ranking is based in the
US, to adopt a global standpoint we can rely on the annual ranking developed by
Interbrand (2020a) on best global brands. The different methodologies applied in
such rankings lead to different positioning for some brands. For example, Apple
leads the Interbrand ranking and Coca-Cola ranks fifth, being the exception in a top
5 that includes four technology-based brands (Apple, Google, Amazon, and
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10 Investments and Measurements: The Quest for the Holy Grail
Microsoft). Interbrand (2020b) also proposes a ranking of breakthrough brands, that
is, brands that are challenging categories and cultural norms, leading the innovation
in the sector. In virtually every case, it is not just about innovation per se, but the
effectiveness of communications through all touch points, online and offline.
Perhaps the easiest and most convenient way to measure long-term brand returns
is to connect attitudinal data to behavioural data. That is, if we know the ongoing
value of a customer to the brand or company (we can measure the financial value of
the customer in the form of income flows), by connecting this data to attitudinal
change we may be able to understand the relationship between attitudinal change
and marketplace success. Attitudinal data is most commonly used to predict marketplace actions by consumers. In the IGMC approach, we are using it to explain why
certain marketplace actions occur. By using attitudinal variables to explain behavioural observations, we might well be able to determine the long-term returns from
communication investments.
What Is a Good ROI or ROCI and What Is a Bad ROI or ROCI?
The question often raised in this type of brand communication return on customer
investment calculation is “What is a good or bad ROI or ROCI?” Obviously, brand
communication managers want not only to evaluate their own performance but also
some comparative data relative to like organisations or competitors.
We believe that the only “good” or “bad” ROI or ROCI number is one that fits the
financial requirements of the organisation at the time since all organisations are different, managers are different, all have different strategies, and different sets of
expectations from management and stockholders.
We have worked with clients who have set hurdle rates for brand communication
programmes in the 200–300% range, for this is the return they believe they can get
with other uses of the organisation’s finite resources. Other organisations are pleased
with returns in the 20–40% range, and still others have much more modest goals.
The true determination of whether the ROI or ROCI is good or bad is what return
could be expected from investing those funds in other corporate and promotional
activities. If R&D is expected to return 40%, then that is a relevant comparison
number. If new plant investments will return 18%, that is the relevant ROT to use in
comparing communication ROI or ROC. It is within this framework that brand communication must function now and in the future.
Conclusions
• Organisational structure and culture will continue to play a key role in how
resources on marketing communication are managed. Thus, the enhancement of
horizontal structure and collaborative culture contribute to building an IGMC-­
friendly environment.
References
219
• Despite their limitations, traditional inside-out methods are still used by marketers, mainly due to the appearance of control and stability they apparently provide
and leaving aside misgivings and questions (at least for a while).
• Undoubtedly, however, outside-in will be the preferred method in the future.
• Top management needs to acknowledge the importance of taking a customer-­
centric approach to budget and allocate investments accordingly in
communications.
• Outside-in budgeting and the closed-loop system sensibly tie marketing communication expenditures to the revenue generated by customers.
• Adopting a consumer-centric approach in measurement implies that the return
on customer investment is to be applied to evaluate IGMC programmes and
campaigns.
• Short-term (business building) and long-term (brand building) objectives are set
and the measurement of results needs to take both into account.
Discussion Questions
1. In what way do budgeting and the attempt to measure return on investment constitute a “search for the holy grail” in marketing communications?
2. Isn’t a simple solution to marcoms measurement simply to integrate or own and
manage all phases of the supply chain? Is this possible, desirable or feasible?
3. Figure 9.2 focussed a revised brand management structure. Is there an argument
that this structure should be focussed upon customers and market segments
instead or in conjunction with brand management structure?
4. Why is it important to assess the effectiveness of marketing communications
from a budget setting point of view?
5. The percentage-of-sales method of budgeting is criticised for treating advertising as an expense rather than an investment, thus reversing the communication
and sales relationship. Explain what this means.
6. IMC originally commenced by simply bundling promotional mix elements
together so they looked or sounded the same. Why not just stay there? What has
happened to change this simplistic approach?
7. Taking any one of the cases in the appendices, establish how successful or otherwise companies or brands have been in assessing ROI or ROCI relative to
specific campaigns over time?
References
American Productivity & Quality Center. (1998). Integrated marketing communications. American
Productivity & Quality Center International Benchmarking Clearinghouse.
Association of National Advertisers (ANA). (2011). Integrated marketing. Survey research report
(4th ed.). ANA. https://www.ana.net/miccontent/show/id/rr-­integrated-­marketing-­2011
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Association of National Advertisers (ANA). (2013). Recession survey report (7th ed.). ANA. https://
www.ana.net/content/show/id/25385
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The Way Forward: Overcoming Barriers
with IGMC Solutions
11
This final chapter describes and identifies the barriers that could prevent the development of both IMC and the IGMC approach and offers some clues and pointers
toward the future. These barriers cannot be sidestepped, minimized, or dismissed as
inconsequential for they are real. They can, however, be overcome by new ways of
thinking, acting, and managing organizations and communication groups in the
twenty-first century. Thus, in the following sections, we accentuate the positive
though evidently there is always the possibility of non-acceptance or slipping back
away from the adoption of new processes and ways of thinking and acting.
Barrier 1: The Transitioning Metaphor
In 2000, the world of business was transitioning from domestically focused economies to a world that was global in scope and activities. That globalization process
was damaged in 2008 and 2009 by the global financial crisis (GFC) which revealed
economies were like a set of interconnected dominoes. When one economy stumbled or fell, the whole world caught a severe cold. However, what was revealed as
that much of corporate social responsibility initiatives, especially in the financial
services sector, did not enable the companies concerned to behave in ways that
could be regarded as morally acceptable. Practically, every bank and financial services institution leaped upon the back of cheap credit and debt, notably aided and
abetted—and certainly not restrained—by the governments of the day (Lund et al.,
2018). Today, debt is King for governments, businesses, and customers and consumers. Yet, with fiscal acuity or perhaps just luck, the economy recovered somewhat to business-as-usual by 2019 end. Yet the same unresolved structural problems
manifest in 2008 are still evident today.
Then, in 2020, coronavirus or COVID-19 almost closed the global economy
down. Nations retreated into their tortoise-like shells of protective national consideration. Air traffic slowed to a trickle. Governmental ineptitude and poor management made the USA and UK into near-perfect examples of how not to respond to a
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
P. J. Kitchen, M. E. Tourky, Integrated Marketing Communications,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76416-6_11
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global pandemic. Many governmental strategies were revealed as inadequate and
poor and preparations for such a pandemic as at best inadequate. As of June 2020,
there were nearly half a million dead, and the UK was revealed at that time as having the highest percentage death rate (in terms of deaths divided by those officially
diagnosed) in the world followed by the USA and Brazil (Elliott, 2020). By March
2021, the death rate from COVID has risen globally to 2.4 million, and in the
UK—128,000 (source: Kitchen, 2021 research notes).
An example of what this means for the tourist industry is depicted by Kitchen
et al. (2020). Meanwhile the Brexit battle with the European Union, and China’s
wish to assimilate a recalcitrant Hong Kong, has brought even more turbulence to
the so-called global village (Indian Express, 2020).
In today’s world, business “leadership” is a convoluted, complex process. There
are no “higher examples” to look up to. Indeed, whether a globalizing or globalized
world can be described as a “brave new world” is both dubious and debatable, but it
is a world that demands new developmental paths for marketers at all organizational levels. Over the years, so many firms who have participated in research seem
to be anchored in the very first stage of IMC development—the one-sight, one-­
sound tactical approach. Admittedly, this is a starting point, but it is far more to do
with selling than marketing, and in that context is an indictment upon the marketing
profession, which has trumpeted customer orientation for at least 60 years, that so
many communication programs are still developed from an inside-out rather than an
outside-in viewpoint. Yet, without continuous data collection and ongoing analysis
and incorporation into sound communications, firms will stay where they are, or
where they were.
Following the GFC and COVID-19, and amid a welter of political ineptitude and
incompetence, manager and executives also have to continually transition in the
ways they plan and operationalize marketing and corporate communication activities to achieve sustainable exchanges and relationships at a profit. Indeed, this need
for change is a fundamental managerial axiom. Can managers make these transitional changes? The answer is, of course, a qualified affirmative. But this positive
reply is dependent on absorbing lessons from the new circumstances and new paradigms, and acting and behaving in ways that reflect the changing realities associated
with the world of 2020 and beyond.
The question may arise that if IMC and its international equivalent—IGMC—is
such a powerful and provocative process, why doesn’t every corporation, marketing
communication agency, corporate communication department and public relations
agency, and business school simply bow to the new received wisdom and embrace
it wholeheartedly? It is difficult for cultures to transition to accepting a new paradigm, process, or system as legitimate, particularly when the old models and processes are still in operation and in many cases still producing successful results.
Organizational heritages cannot be overtaken easily, and new ideas may percolate
slowly. Cultural responsiveness does not necessarily have to act as a barrier to integrative processes. Perhaps a key starting point in overcoming managerial and organizational inertia vis-à-vis globalization, and IGMC is to evaluate where the
organization or brand is today and where it needs to be in the future with the needs
Barrier 2: From Marketplace to Marketspace
223
of the market continually in mind. Notably, if the organization is fixed on products,
processes, systems, and procedures, executives will need to ask the question, “How
can these products, processes, systems, and procedures be reconfigured so they are
focused on exchanges with customers or publics?” Or, put another way, “How can
we reconfigure the way we communicate with customers and publics to move this
corporation as brand, and individual brands, forward?”
Barrier 2: From Marketplace to Marketspace
Worldwide demand for and acceptance of products or brands are underpinned by
consonance with cultural norms and values. Today cultural factors are still as important, if not more so, and the drive for an IGMC strategy implies tactical adaptation
as necessary. IGMC is as much about branding as it is about consumers. And consumers, their needs and wants, stand at the heart of brand loyalty. This suggests that
all marketing communication tools have to be focused on the customer or consumer
as the central hub, around which exchanges take place—not just advertising, but
also sales promotion, direct marketing, point of sale, personal selling, package
design, poster sites, and the Internet. All fit into the new marketspaces where consumers control what marketing communication messages they access and respond
to. That said, everywhere now we see the aegis and [apparent] dominance of digital
marketing and communications. However, a more nuanced approach is requisite.
The new forms of online communications have not suddenly relegated offline communication to become part of the fossilized social strata of the past. Instead, both
co-exist side by side. One does not trump or dominate the other. Please remember,
customers and consumers drive the marketplaces and marketspaces of today and
tomorrow. It is not—and perhaps never has been—the businesses like sheepdogs
driving buyers into some heavenly online sheepfold.
One recent example of how control has passed into the hands of the consumer is
the UK car market. Prices in the UK used to average thousands of pounds higher
than those in the rest of Europe. Via television car programs, the Internet, and personal visits, British consumers gradually realized they could save money by buying
their cars on mainland Europe, especially in the Netherlands or Italy. Yet in 2020,
consumers in France enjoy some of the highest car prices in the world. And, they
cannot quid pro quo save by traveling to the UK, as UK cars are right-hand drive,
compared to left-hand drive throughout Europe. Notice though that customers now
have a much wider range of online options to trawl the market for their next vehicle
purchase. All car manufacturers and distributors need to adapt and are adapting to
changing economic and social changes, but the pace of change is painfully slow.
Organizational Constraints
Firms will not rush lemminglike over the cliff of one-sight one-sound communication programs. Nor will they stumble upward through the stages toward financial
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and strategic integration. Instead, some corporations may already be well advanced
in all four stages; others may be at stage 1 (tactical integration); still others may be
considering adopting an outside-in as opposed to an inside-out perspective. Many
businesses will not change until forced to do by environmental exigency. Even,
some communications such as CSR will be marketing- not need-driven.
Adaptation Versus Standardization
The old chestnut of adaptation versus standardization keeps on cropping up. While
commentators on either side of this debate keep up their respective ends, the only
lucid approach is for communication to standardize where possible in relation to
clearly defined markets and adapt where necessary. In fact, focusing upon different
customer groups necessitates differentiation in communication. Loyals do not need
or require the same types of communication as switchers, and both do not need the
same type of communication as potentials or ex-customers. The idea of one campaign fits all, hearkens back to the golden days of the 1960s and 1970s when just a
few television channels could reach 95% of audiences. Those halcyon days of being
mesmerized by soap operas and adverts via a cathode-ray tube will never recur, barring some environmental disaster that turns the marketing clock back.
Barrier 3: Internal Organizational Structure
At a global marketing conference someone asked, “What is the greatest challenge to
creating a global marketing and communication program?” The answer: “organizational structure.” The reason for this is that many “global firms” are in fact not
global at all but simply multidomestic. That is, they have simply replicated the
domestic structure from the home country and created in effect semiautonomous
strategic business units. These functionally oriented, vertically integrated, geographically focused organizational structures are simply too inflexible to deal with
IGMC or marketing communication programs that work across many cultures with
customers in mind. The solution is to redesign organizational structures around customers and customer groups, not around products, services, or strategic business
units. Just as much as organizations need to refocus and integrate marketing and
corporate communication activities on key customer groups, organizational managers need to think along the following lines:
• Stage 1: Start with customers and aggregate them into groups that are similar in
behavior, attitude, needs, and wants.
• Stage 2: Make someone responsible for the welfare of that group of customers.
• Stage 3: The managerial task becomes to manage income flows for that group,
not just manage brands, products, services, units, or geographies.
Barrier 4: A Research-Poor Consumer Environment
225
Managing such customer groups requires four capabilities, each of which needs
support from manufacturing, logistics, systems, finance, and accounting:
• Capability 1: someone or some group responsible for new customer acquisition
(switchers, nonpurchasers, or ex-customers)
• Capability 2: someone or some group responsible for the care, nurture, and retention of existing customers (curriculum marketing)
• Capability 3: a third group responsible for managing the customers the acquisition group brings in. In other words, managing the customers through the organization’s product or service portfolio, bringing new products online, ensuring
that these new customers become loyal, and perhaps eventually even organizational advocates.
• Capability 4: a fourth group concerned with building relationships with key publics that could impact organizational performance anywhere in the world. For the
sake of argument, we have termed this activity corporate communication and the
output integrated communication to differentiate it from those communication
programs focused on quid-pro-quo exchanges and relationships (see Kitchen &
Schultz, 2001). However, where the corporation is a service or business-to-­
business organization or one with a unitary product line, then IGMC can be
applied in both a corporate and marketing communication sense without the distinguishing application. One caveat to be added here that corporate reputation
may differ from market-to-market, and therefore as we have recommended differential IGMC strategies based on customer grouping, at the corporate communication level, different communications may be needed in different markets (see
Harvey et al., 2017).
Undoubtedly, changing to a customer-focused organization creates significant
challenges for marketing management, at both the corporate and brand level.
However, following from Chap. 10, we are concerned not just with promotional elements but with developing, maintaining, and increasing income flows from customer groups as well. Throughout, we have emphasized the strategic role of IGMC,
not just tactical juxtaposition, even though we recognize and applaud organizations
that are moving through the stages.
Barrier 4: A Research-Poor Consumer Environment
Throughout the book we have noted that many corporations are starting to pay
attention to cultural differences that correspond to what we have termed glocalization that ties into the IGMC process. Even here, however, the process of IGMC has
not been driven entirely by customer needs but more by organizational edict. We
believe that firms need to access more and better information concerning the different customer groups they seek to serve. Businesses of all types need to build and
derive information from the databases that capture behavioral and attitudinal information. To develop IGMC, firms need strategies that work. Such strategies can
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indeed be driven by organizational criteria, but there is also the necessity for firms
to recognize and appeal to homogeneous segments among heterogeneous global
markets. Likewise, recognizing homogeneity (along some variables) does not
equate to similarity of decoding by consumers to similar global messages.
The recent past has shown that many multidomestic or global firms are keen to
capitalize on new marketing communication developments. The difficulty continues
to be that about 90% of all media is still negotiated and placed locally, and the
majority of media available to marketing communicators in the international sphere
with the exception of advertising and sponsorship tends to be national or at best
regional. With few exceptions there are still relatively few genuinely international media.
Despite the numbers and depth of range of media research vehicles across Europe
and Asia, for example, very few media purchases are underpinned by sound understanding of the market or customer dynamics. Far too many multinational media
buys are driven by statistics, and statistics do not necessarily equate to understanding. These statistical reports and surveys do, however, currently underpin many
marketing communication strategies and are indeed useful at identifying broad
macroeconomic trends. But the broad trends are not really a substitute for behavioral and attitudinal evidence gathered from real exchanges and qualitative research
data. However, purely numerical evaluations will never be enough to ensure development of truly international/global campaigns. What is needed, as we suggested
before, is to focus on customers and the ways in which they come into contact with
brands or the corporation and then to manage communications at these contact
points. At best, quantitative overviews of market factors are useful but no more than
a supplementary resource to the database material that is required for IGMC.
To this we need to add a caveat. There is no doubt that all communication budgetary expenditure—ala investment—and campaigns will be subject to significant
decline in 2020 and 2021 compared to 2019 (CNBC, 2020; see also Digiday, 2020).
About the only budgets where an increase may be anticipated will be from the burgeoning charity sector, and every media modality will be deployed here to maintain
or grow market share and donations. At the same time, governments in perhaps all
developed nations will be implementing communications campaigns perhaps propaganda as a communication strategy, and the sheer level of expenditure will rise
substantially.
Barrier 5: Corporate/Marketing Brand Interface
While we agree that communication is marketing and marketing is communication,
we are convinced that two types of communication are required in a world where
corporate business is news or can be made to sound or seem like news. Just as consumers buy, consume, and derive satisfaction from brands, they also subscribe or
log onto information networks that report on organizational developments. Who or
what a corporation is, how it behaves, its image, and its persona are crucial to the
various publics with which it interfaces and that allow it to continue to operate in
Barrier 6: The Training Investment
227
today’s world. Corporations must take very seriously the need to build relationships
with publics—internal staff, business analysts, capital markets, the press and other
forms of media, the communities in which they operate, and the markets they claim
to serve. Areas such as social responsibility, community involvement, issues management, lobbying, and corporate advertising are very real support mechanisms for
every business and have to be managed just as rigorously, and as proactively, as the
management of IGMC with customers. The corporation should be marketed as a
brand in its own right. The identity programs developed by management should
bear correspondence to the images before publics involved with and interested in
corporate activities. The corporate brand has to be seen as the central core or hub
that gives an overall sense of identity, meaning, strategic overview, and dynamic
thrust to individual brands within the corporate portfolio.
Moreover, each individual brand needs to be protected and nurtured by the corporations in which it is located and managed, hence the umbrella metaphor (see
Kitchen & Schultz, 2001). These brands are powerful irreplaceable corporate assets.
However, as we have shown elsewhere, such brands may encounter different meanings and different competitive positions in each market. This means that IGMC
cannot yet be a singular process in terms of tactics throughout the world but may for
now be pluralistic to some degree. Communication deployed will have to be altered
in accord with customer needs, wants, and desires. But, as understanding of needs
and behavior is transmitted continuously via the global database, IGMC messages
and modes of delivery we anticipate may become more uniform at least in form
and style.
We have discovered in many corporations that the corporate and marketing communication functions are separate and managed differentially. Both communication
functions, however, can and do learn from each other and should be allied with each
other so the values and identity associated with brands and the corporation (and vice
versa) become interrelated and synergistic for there is no doubt that damage to an
individual brand can damage the corporation itself. Likewise, negative messages
about the corporation impact sales, market share, and of course turnover and profitability. These areas are mutually intertwined.
Barrier 6: The Training Investment
Corporations need to invest not only in developing the relevant infrastructure but
also in developing the communication staff who are to move forward with the IGMC
approach. However, we suspect and repeat our assertion that businesses will not
change unless made to do so by market forces—falling sales, declining customer
retention, reduced profits, loss of market share. These factors may be the hard evidence that the models, tools, techniques, and processes that worked before do not
work so well in the new information-intensive, globally oriented, choice-­proliferating
markets of 2021 and beyond.
New competencies will not be developed overnight or even rapidly. Instead,
knowledge will be gained in the usual school of hard knocks, by developing brands,
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battling against competitors, and communicating and interacting with publics and
customers throughout the world. But training can also be developed by studying and
applying the latest information. The greatest informational interface lies between
world-class business schools, leading-edge corporations, leading business executives, and top-notch research journals. Every leader in tomorrow’s business needs
access to these materials. But training costs money. It is not just a matter of allocating resources; it is a matter of investment in the people who will build and maintain
brands and business in the future (see WARC, 2020).
Barrier 7: Mind Maps: Strategy and Creativity
We use the term mind maps as a metaphor for the ways in which managers and
executives view the world (Kitchen, 2004). A simple analogy will suffice. Let’s suppose we are visiting a new locality in some part of the world. Let’s also suppose that
the map we have is out of date and does not provide up-to-date information that
enables us to progress easily to our destination. The probability of arriving at a destination on time is significantly reduced. Sometimes people unwittingly operate
from out-of-date mind maps. The problem with such maps is that they influence
perception. Perception is not necessarily about reality but what reality is perceived
to be. This can act as a significant barrier to the many new ideas, concepts, and processes of what IGMC is and why it is necessary in today’s world.
The first part of the mind map we wish to redraw is to create for all managers and
executives a customer-driven mode of thinking. Strategic imperatives cannot be
driven by what worked in the past, for what worked yesterday may not work today,
and what works today may be outdated or irrelevant or not suited for tomorrow
(Kitchen, 2004). Moving forward means taking or adopting the customer perspective. As we have said before, products and services are simply means of delivering
satisfaction. Satisfied customers come back. Dissatisfied ones do not, and they may
exercise negative WOM or eWOM.
The second part of perception that needs changing is creativity. Much of IMC or
IGMC strategy, once applied, is highly creative. We have also suggested using the
new template method that has led to some very pertinent findings associated with
creativity. Rather than using one of the unsystematic and informal creativity
approaches, we have suggested following a more rigorous and structured process
using patterns of thought and action that have proven successful elsewhere. We have
suggested that these ideas and ways of successfully communicating be considered—not for wholesale adoption, but for potential adaptation in cultures that
require differentiation beyond simple transliteration (see also WARC, 2020).
Corporate and brand marketing people need to work together to communicate
what the business stands for and its concomitant brand positions. Most companies
tend to be paranoid about releasing information, and the concept of empowering
employees at different levels has been observed more in the breach than in the
observance. Bill Gates, founder and CEO of Microsoft Corporation, recently advocated in his new book Business @ the Speed of Thought that all employees be given
Barrier 9: Investments and Measurement
229
access to all company information. We agree with Gates. All employees, in every
company, are involved with marketing, whatever their job title may be. Marketing is
simply too important to be left to the marketing department.
Barrier 8: The Agency Interactive Perspective
Strictly speaking change, in and of itself, is not a barrier to adoption of IGMC processes. The twenty-first century is about nonstop change. The world we live in now
would be scarcely recognizable to someone from 1900 or with difficulty with someone from the 1960s. The 1990s alone saw changes in technology and marketing
communication that revolutionized the marketing world. The age of the mass market, on which so many marketing models were based, has rapidly declined in most
developed markets. The age of the micro, niche, and even unitary market is now
upon us. In these new markets, like it or not—communication control is passing into
the hands of customers and consumers. Change, meanwhile, continues at an accelerated pace. Even as we write, the marketing communication experience curve is
moving on. Many years ago Omar Khayyam commented: “The moving finger
writes; and, having writ, moves on: (nor can we) lure it back to cancel half a Line
(italics and brackets insert).”
Leaving aside our inability to change the past, there are those organizations that
can assist in the process of managerial learning that needs to take place to implement IGMC. We know this process has to be client-led and client-driven. Nonetheless
we believe that significant strides have been made by marketing communication
agencies. Some have restructured to mirror client corporate requirements. These
agencies are now in a position to move beyond the role of tactical marketing communication implementers or media buyers to being full strategic partners. Most successful IGMC implementation comes about when clients and agencies work hand in
hand to develop, implement, and evaluate integrated campaigns. Moreover, such
agencies are an important disseminator of workable practice. For the near or immediate future there may be no way around working with these “strategic partners.”
But agency practitioners should not be too tied to one marketing communication
mechanism or discipline. Rather they should consider client needs from a customer
perspective. Just as we suggested earlier that all staff need access to organizational
information, so agency personnel will need answers to the many issues or questions
raised in Chaps. 9 and 10.
Barrier 9: Investments and Measurement
The main problem encountered in terms of the continued development of IMC
(rather than IGMC) was the failure to provide a set of methods and procedures to
determine how much to invest in which customer groups, plus the added inability to
measure outcomes from each set of investments in a robust manner. Managers and
executives as found in empirical investigations of IMC recounted this barrier to the
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continued and accelerated diffusion of IMC. In this book we have provided a
straightforward spreadsheet-based approach to measuring return on customer
investments. We admit that there are some anomalies overlapping between brandand business-building investments and measurements and will continue to work on
these for the future. However, the planning and evaluation processes, once implemented by organizations, should rapidly lead to case materials; that is, where the
organizations that have learned via marketplace realities are willing to share the
outcomes of IGMC or IMC in practice. We append some exciting and interesting
cases at the back of this book.
The Way Forward
The barriers we have discussed can be overcome by managers and executives in
possession of the skills, tools, knowledge, processes, and systems in this book. We
believe those communication programs, whether at corporate brand or individual
brand level, must be orchestrated in such a way as to appeal to clearly defined customer groups or relevant publics/stakeholders. We believe that such communication
cannot be delegated to individual country levels or even left to the trained hands and
minds of brand or marketing managers. Instead there has to be someone with clear
authority and the necessary power to develop and implement integrated communication programs that result in mutually beneficial behaviors at the customer end. We
believe that agencies can and do form powerful strategic partners in the development of these programs. We believe that as we move further into the twenty-first
century the essence of marketing as a means of creating exchanges that satisfy individual and corporate objectives will be communication.
Conclusions
• Out-of-date mind maps and inflexible organizational structures may be the greatest barriers to be overcome in moving toward a fully realized IMC or IGMC
strategy.
• In the long run managing customer contact points may yield greater benefits than
buying loads of number-heavy research.
• Get customers involved in the communication process.
• Remember that so far as good ethical management examples are concerned,
these are few and far between.
Discussion Question
In groups of N students, choose any one of the barriers depicted in Fig. 11.1. Then,
drawing upon the relevant discussion in this chapter, and other materials accessed
online, explore how this barrier is manifest in practice in an organization or business
References
231
Fig. 11.1 Barriers to IGMC development and implementation. (Source: The authors)
of your choice, and how and in what ways, it has been overcome or is being
overcome.
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WARC. (2020, September 4). Retrieved September 5, 2020, from https://www.warc.com/newsandopinion/news/majority-­of-­multinationals-­have-­in-­housed-­creative/44051?utm_source=daily-­
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Case Studies
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The Duality of Boris Johnson’s Political Brand Identity
By Dr. Christopher Pich
Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University, UK
This article was originally published on “The Conversation” June 26, 2020.
Political Brand Identity
Boris Johnson has had a tricky time as UK prime minister of late. He faces criticism
that he has mishandled the national response to the coronavirus crisis, leading to
public confusion and a very high death toll. I would argue that part of Johnson’s
struggle stems from his political brand. He has been successful as a politician by
projecting a certain image to the public. But now, in a moment of extreme pressure,
that image does not provide the reassurances the public needs. Johnson has spent
recent months attempting to pivot towards a new political brand, but he hasn’t made
it all the way there. Now, what is left is a confusing mixture of brands—leaving the
British public uncertain of what to expect from the prime minister, and perhaps even
the prime minister himself uncertain of how to act. Every politician has a political
brand identity. They may not care to accept this proposition or agree with the terminology, but they do. For centuries, they have attempted to create, develop, and manage a desired position that represents “what they stand for.” The hope is that this will
then resonate with the electorate and win them office.
The Boris Brand
The prime minister actually seems to have two “Boris” brands. Before taking the top
job, “Boris” was positioned as “Boris the comic”—confident, humorous, entertaining,
admirable. He was a maverick who often strayed from the party line and was, most
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
P. J. Kitchen, M. E. Tourky, Integrated Marketing Communications,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76416-6_12
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importantly, relatable to a wide spectrum of voters. Dishevelled blonde hair, theatrical
one-liners and optimistic energy were tools that set him apart from his rivals as a nontraditional politician. In many ways, “Boris the comic” was an example of a politician
who built an identity around style over substance, focusing more on soundbites, photo
opportunities, stunts, and imagery. The second Boris emerged just prior to Johnson’s
elevation to Downing Street. He seemed to recognise that extra characteristics needed
to be added to his brand at this point in his career. Johnson and his team attempted to
position him as “Boris the commander”—a strong, decisive leader, eye-for-detail, intouch, prime ministerial, honest, and accountable.
However, these characteristics were, arguably, contradictory to the original “Boris
the comic” brand. Indeed, “Boris the commander” seems paradoxical to “Boris the
comic.” The aim now seems to be to build identity around substance over style. But
for the public, that leaves the crucial question: which is the real Boris? Johnson needs
to be careful and take stock. Successful political brands need to be clear, consistent,
authentic, and believable; otherwise, they can alienate, confuse, and disengage the
voting public. If people lose trust, faith, and respect with political brands, then loyalty
can diminish and support can fade away. While a general election in the UK is unlikely
before 2024, it can be difficult to recover and regain trust and support once lost.
Get Brexit Done
On the first day as prime minister, Boris proclaimed on the steps of Downing Street
that the British people “have had enough of waiting” and his job was to “get Brexit
Done”—a slogan that defined his premiership campaign and the election that followed. Back then, it was clear that the team behind Johnson was in firm control of
the brand. Fast-forward six months and the world is very different. The public are
losing confidence and trust in Johnson’s ability to manage the coronavirus crisis.
Voters are questioning his credibility, trustworthiness, decisiveness, and leadership.
Johnson has faced calls to sack his chief political adviser Dominic Cummings after
he broke UK lockdown rules during the pandemic. Johnson’s government was also
forced into a series of u-turns, such as the decision to end funding for free school
meals for England’s poorest families over the summer holidays. And above all, people want to know why so many have died from COVID-19.
Boris the “Comic” or Boris the “Commander”?
All this switching around, changes of mind, carelessness for the rules are more in
line with the brand of Boris the joker. Johnson has become attached to this brand
over the years—and it has been successful for him, so perhaps it’s no surprise to see
the old brand seeping in. Unfortunately, though, this brand is wholly unsuited to this
moment of global crisis, when the public is looking for a steady hand. The last six
The Duality of Boris Johnson’s Political Brand Identity
235
months may have given the public first-hand experience of “Boris the commander”
and it seems to have delivered him lower levels of approval and confidence. And yet
the original Boris brand won’t work now either. Team Johnson could still have time
to reposition his political brand, address the confusion of two distinct identifies and
could create a new identity for voters to fall in love with again. After all, Johnson is
still perceived as “likeable” and “best placed to get things done.” This suggests the
brand can be salvaged.
But a hybrid approach, blending joker with commander, would merely add to the
confusion and chaos. Johnson needs to reflect on his current brand and vision for the
nation. Johnson needs to commit to either the “comic,” “commander,” or a completely
new brand identity rather than flit between the two. And he must do this sooner rather
than later. The longer the confusion festers, the longer it will damage his electability.
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Case Studies
acmillan Cancer Support: Making Sure No One Faces Cancer
M
Alone, Today or Tomorrow
Source: IPA (UK), Entrant: VCCP, Gold, IPA Effectiveness Awards, 2016
This case study shows how Macmillan Cancer Support, a charity, managed to
achieve record fundraising income using a highly emotional and engaging
campaign in the UK.
• With recession biting, Macmillan was finding it harder to grow at anything
like the rate required, as 900 people a day were being diagnosed with cancer but fundraising growth income had only reached 1.6%.
• The brand’s campaign was centred on the idea of loneliness and how
Macmillan can provide the support to fight this feeling through its myriad
of services.
• The campaign featured several films, depicting scenarios of loneliness and
the support provided, which were featured on TV and supported by out of
home (OOH), digital, social, PR events, and fundraising campaigns.
Macmillan achieved £96.7 m additional income at a return on marketing
investment (ROMI) of 2.6:1.
Principal author: Andrew Perkins, VCCP
Contributing authors: Henry Bilson and Matt Butler, VCCP; Carly Wilson,
Macmillan Cancer Support
Summary
This paper tells the story of how Macmillan Cancer Support achieved record fundraising income at a new level of efficiency. The “Not alone” campaign helped
Macmillan achieve £96.7 m of additional income from fundraising alone, even
before adding in the financial benefits of the improvement in Macmillan’s brand
metrics and in its influence as an organisation. The profit ROMI was estimated to be
about £2.40 for every £1 invested. “Not alone” also helped more people access
Macmillan services and informed corporate partnership and government policy.
This was all achieved by launching a simple, striking, and irrefutable idea that no
one should face cancer alone, a thought which encouraged those living with cancer
to get support, and others to give support.
Editor’s Comment
The task faced was complex with a number of different audiences needing to be
appealed to. The judges admired how a single insight had pulled all these audiences
together to produce a campaign with exceptionally strong results.
Macmillan Cancer Support: Making Sure No One Faces Cancer Alone, Today...
237
Client Comment Carly Wilson, Head of Brand Advertising
and Campaign Integration, Macmillan Cancer Support
“Not alone” enabled Macmillan to achieve a new level of integration, not only in our
brand communications but also across fundraising, services, and partnerships. In a
complex organisation like Macmillan, that meant the brand team working more
closely with the wider organisation to educate on the idea behind the campaign, and
demonstrate its value.
The campaign also increased the level of emotional intensity in our communications. This meant working with virtual channel command program (VCCP) closely
to ensure we always did this in a way that was sympathetic and never gratuitous. We
had to be ruthless guardians of the Macmillan brand and ensure that we always kept
the interests of people living with, and affected by, cancer at the heart of our behaviour. The increased impact our advertising delivered also meant we needed to be
prepared for an increased scale and intensity in feedback from the public.
“Not alone” opened up new opportunities to communicate: we created new experiential campaigns like our “Isolation box,” new calls to action like our “Reach out”
campaign, and new tools, such as The Source, to help people overcome issues of
isolation.
These innovations involved working with teams across Macmillan and helped us
become better prepared for a future in which our support is delivered in more
diverse, and often more indirect ways.
And finally, “Not alone” required more complex comms planning than previous
campaigns, and so meant that we worked in a more integrated way with our colleagues and agencies, involving VCCP, PHD, and our research partners like The
Nursery in more collaborative up-front planning, campaign development, and campaign evaluation.
Introduction
Previous IPA Effectiveness Awards papers from the world of not-for-profit have
tended to demonstrate payback either in terms of fundraising or the financial benefits (usually to the taxpayer) of a social behavioural change.
This paper attempts, we think for the first time, to do both: to demonstrate how a
single idea, brought to life in advertising and far beyond, has driven record improvements in fundraising income, while at the same time creating behaviour changes at
individual right up to government level that will deliver lasting benefits to society as
a whole.
This attempt is undertaken not to make life hard for the authors (or indeed readers) of this paper, but simply because this properly reflects the objectives of the
campaign as they were originally set: to inspire millions of people to get involved—
either by giving the help they can or if they are affected by cancer, to get the help
they need.
We’ll start with the story behind that brief.
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The Story Behind the Brief
In 2010, there were two million people in the UK living with cancer. That figure is
expected to double by 2030.1
This presents an enormous challenge as to how cancer care will be delivered: it
won’t just happen in hospitals, clinics, and surgeries, but in homes, high streets, and
online. We will all need to get more active in helping each other live with cancer.
And it’s Macmillan that occupies what you might call the “living with cancer”
space. Cancer Research UK and others research cures and treatments, while Marie
Curie and local hospices focus on palliative care (looking after people who
are dying).
Macmillan deals with everything in between. Nurses of course, but also other
medical professionals,2 a helpline, information services, grants and benefits advice,
an online community, public policy and research, and acting as a critical friend of
the NHS, working with multiple services partners to redesign and radically improve
the way cancer care is delivered across the UK. They are there for people with a
cancer diagnosis, and everyone who loves them. And all of this is 99% funded
through voluntary contributions. Unlike many large national charities, Macmillan
neither runs high street shops nor receives any significant government funding.
It’s a diverse, nuanced response to the highly varied challenges facing people
living with cancer. And as those lives change, Macmillan needs to change too. For
over 100 years, it has provided care and support for people living with cancer and
their loved ones. It’s testament to the extraordinary commitment of its people that it
has become one of the UK’s most loved and dependable charities.
But by 2010, with recession biting, Macmillan was finding it harder to grow at
anything like the rate required. Nine hundred people a day were being diagnosed
with cancer, but after three years of strong fundraising growth, income grew just
1.6% in 2009.
Nowhere near enough to fund the services required.
A refresh in 2008 had given the brand a new appeal and consistency, as evidenced in campaigns like “Good day” in 2010, that brought to life the challenges of
living with cancer daily across print, TV, and digital (Fig. 1).
In 2011 and 2012 “Every step of the way” highlighted the range of services
Macmillan offer (Fig. 2).
But at the end of 2012 Macmillan made the decision to take a new approach.
While recent campaigns had been more successful, it was felt that a step change was
required for the organisation to continue to meet the demands of people affected by
cancer today and tomorrow.
That meant
• increasing the number of people who get support from Macmillan when they
need it, from calling one of the specialists on the support line, going online, or
walking into information services;
• increasing the number who give support and increase the value of their donations3;
Macmillan Cancer Support: Making Sure No One Faces Cancer Alone, Today...
239
Fig. 1 Good day campaign 2010
Fig. 2 Every step campaign 2011–2012
• but also expanding what giving can mean: volunteering, campaigning for change,
sharing your experience with someone who needs it, being there for someone in
your life.4
This was encapsulated by the phrase at the core of the brief Macmillan gave to
agencies in a competitive pitch: inspire millions to get involved.
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Responding to the Brief
VCCP was lucky enough to be chosen as one of those agencies to pitch and identified five major challenges to answering the brief:
1. Macmillan is diverse. The brand has never had an equivalent of “Together we’ll
beat cancer” to succinctly capture why it exists, why you should give.
2. Unlike other charity brands, such as Cancer Research UK, the majority of
Macmillan’s ad spend has focused on get support, rather than give support messages. And because Macmillan is seen as such a rock, particularly thanks to its
nurses, this risked leaving the brand lacking the perceived urgency needed for
fundraising.
3. To increase urgency, the obvious response is to increase emotional intensity. But
we could never let the drive for income result in us frightening or demeaning
anyone, or preventing anyone seeking our help. A harrowing ad might raise
money in the short term, but at what cost to people living with a diagnosis today?
There is a balancing act between touching hearts while not gratuitously playing
on emotions.
4. To spend effectively, we needed a single campaign to work for both audiences,
and both calls to action. It must make people give support. But it must also
encourage people to get support.
5. It couldn’t be just advertising. Macmillan is active in so many ways, from fundraising events to social research, from working with corporate partners to influencing government and NHS policy. We needed, if possible, an idea that would
have a positive effect on this broader world.
This was a new approach in the charity sector, and it required us to be completely
authentic in what we said: a superficial advertising conceit would not be enough.
We needed an insight that would ring true in four ways (Fig. 3):
Fig. 3 Four ways the insight needed to ring true
Macmillan Cancer Support: Making Sure No One Faces Cancer Alone, Today...
241
1. People living with cancer, or caring for someone who is, would have to see
something of themselves in the work we created.
2. Equally, people unaffected by cancer would have to be moved to do something.
3. Macmillan would have to be able to show how they could help tackle the issues
we dramatised.
4. To really inspire millions, everyone would have to see how they could contribute
to the cause and the charity: we would need to help everyone feel a part of the
We in We Are Macmillan.
Finding the Insight
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
A grandfather refusing help with pain relief.*
His step-daughter caught between anguish and frustration.
A single mum trying to shield her child from what she’s going through.
An old lady who goes to gruelling chemotherapy sessions alone.
A husband who doesn’t know how to touch his wife any more.
A teenager who can’t sleep.
A friend who doesn’t know the right words to say, and so says nothing.
Nine hundred people a day diagnosed with cancer. The thousands who love them.
Every story intensely personal, refracted through different families, different
friends. How do we find a single thought to, not just express, but dignify and
empathise that spread of human emotion and experience?
We read and re-read the research. We did our own focus groups with people living with cancer. (Unforgettable. The most moving, of course, would you believe
also the most joyful, the funniest?)
We talked about our own experiences. And one thing kept coming back
(Figs. 4 and 5):
Despite the fact that cancer will directly or indirectly affect most of us, too often it can feel
like you’re facing it alone, whether you are living with caring for someone who is.
It can be the physical effects of treatment; friends and family finding it hard to
talk; missing work or school; having less money to do things you normally would.
It can come from feeling treated as a condition rather than a person, or just not
knowing where to turn.
•
•
•
•
•
•
Untold stories of feeling alone.
And this is the one thing Macmillan can do, and that you can do.
We can’t take away pain.
We can’t take away the fear, the sadness, the tiredness, the anger.
We can’t make it go away, or ever promise we can.
But, we can all help someone feel less alone.
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Fig. 4 Quotes around loneliness from those diagnosed with or affected by cancer. (Source:
Macmillan and VCCP Qualitative Research)
Macmillan Cancer Support: Making Sure No One Faces Cancer Alone, Today...
Fig. 5 Print advertising, February 2013
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Research showed that the idea of being alone was universal, was moving, but,
crucially, uplifting too. Because it implied that you didn’t need to be a superhero to
help someone. You just needed to be you.
Bringing the Idea to Life
Broadcast
We launched in February 2013 with PR around a new research report, Facing the
Fight Alone that brought widespread news coverage. Our above-the-line (ATL)
campaign broke nationally on TV with the ad “Falling,” out of home, and digital,
with two calls to action, to “Give help” by donating, or “Get help” by contacting us
(Fig. 6).
In 2014 we ran “Thank you,” to inspire millions by showing how their support
felt to someone living with cancer, and educate on the wider services Macmillan
offer (Fig. 7).
And in 2015 we launched Loneliest Place with two executions: “Blizzard”
focused on the support our nurses provide, while “Mist” encouraged people to be
there for loved ones who needed them (Figs. 8 and 9).
Fundraising
In fundraising, we reorganised around what the customer wants and needs, ensuring
we had clear understanding of who our current and prospective supporters are and
how they behave.
In individual marketing, “Not alone” messaging was integrated into our direct marketing (DM) and has proved our most effective pack to date. Our Christmas appeal
told a family’s story that really resonated with our supporters, and we launched the
UK’s first text to enter raffle, and now have 100,000 playing the weekly lottery.
In events, “World’s biggest coffee morning” continues to go from strength to
strength, while we’ve launched successful new events for a new, younger audience:
Night In, Go Sober, Brave the Shave. Challenge events were helped by redesigned
pages on the website, and a new Regional Challenge Events Team. And “Not alone”
messaging translated across merchandising (Fig. 12).
“ Falling” TV ad, February 2013 (see https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=KdWfk_xAMgU)
“ Your Not Alone” (see https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=5dOBCFCXmJE)
“ Thank You” TV Ad, 2015 (see https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=qp8fmJu1gcU)
Our outdoor mixed impactful brand advertising with more detailed service advice,
particularly around our financial support.
Macmillan Cancer Support: Making Sure No One Faces Cancer Alone, Today...
Fig. 6 Outdoor activity 2015
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Fig. 7 Sample of fundraising activity 2013–2015
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Macmillan Cancer Support: Making Sure No One Faces Cancer Alone, Today...
247
Engagement
Every campaign is now deepened online through powerful case studies, research,
and information on how to get involved (Fig. 8).
Social media enables us to share the campaign and encourage people to talk
about their experiences (Fig. 9).
In December 2014, we create a new way to give help, when “Not alone” was
translated into a new digital service—The Source where everyone can share simple
tips and advice on helping people affected by cancer (Fig. 10).
Fig. 8 Sample of “Not alone” content 2015. (Source: http://www.macmillan.org.uk/about-­us/
what-­we-­do/our-­ambition/not-­alone-­campaign.html? origin=homepagecarousel)
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Fig. 9 Sample of social activity 2013
Fig. 10 The Source, https://source.macmillan.org.uk
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Macmillan Cancer Support: Making Sure No One Faces Cancer Alone, Today...
249
Fig. 11 Coverage of “Isolation box” in Time Out, February 2015
In Spring 2015 we toured an isolation box around major train stations, giving
people the chance to experience the sensation of isolation in a crowded place
(Fig. 11).
Partnerships
Our partnership with Boots gives us presence across 2500 high streets, a new opportunity to make sure that no one faces cancer alone but giving Macmillan high street
presence for the first time.
As well as 2000 specially trained pharmacists, there are now 300 trained Boots
Macmillan beauty advisors, who can help to boost the confidence of those living
with cancer, crucial in helping reduce the social isolation effects of cancer diagnosis
and treatment (Fig. 12).
The Results
In this section we will show that Macmillan Cancer Support has, in recent years,
achieved unprecedented success: helping record numbers of people, greatly extending its influence, and enjoying a growth in fundraising income unequalled among
the large UK charities. And we will show how the “Not alone” campaign contributed to those results. Large charities inhabit complex ecosystems, and health
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Fig. 12 Boots and Macmillan partnership
charities in particular create interesting relationships between individuals and
organisations. In Macmillan’s case, while it’s voluntary income that enables people
to be supported, very often those who have been helped by Macmillan who go on to
become fundraisers, volunteers, and in some cases influencers of corporate charity
partnerships. In addition, Macmillan’s ability to support people affected by cancer
is crucially dependent on its relationship with other healthcare professionals, and
with policy makers.
If advertising is to truly deliver value for an organisation, it must go beyond the
obvious direct effects of support and income, to exert a wider influence through
creating greater brand equity.
The model in Fig. 18 attempts to capture this complex web of influences. So, in
this section we will measure payback in three ways:
First, and most conventionally, we will show how the campaign directly and
indirectly grew fundraising income.
Second, we will show how the campaign meant more people living with or
affected by cancer were helped by Macmillan.
Finally, we will attempt to draw out some of the wider ways in which “Not
alone” paid back to society as a whole, from creating informal networks of support,
to improving relationships with other healthcare professionals, to influencing government policy.
But to start with, we will show how Not Alone set a new level of sustained advertising impact in the category, and improved brand equity (Fig. 13).
1. A More Impactful Advertising Campaign
TV Advertising Recognition
Our TV advertising recognition end-of-year target in our first year was 40%.5 We hit
52% in our first wave, and 63% by year-end, significantly outperforming any previous Macmillan adverts (Fig. 14).
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251
Fig. 13 The wider impact of the “Not alone” campaign
Fig. 14 TV advertising peak recognition: “Falling” versus previous Macmillan ads 2010–2012.
(Source: Nursery tracking, 2012–2013)
Over the last three years, we have consistently achieved the highest recognition
scores among major cancer charity advertisers (Fig. 15).6
We are increasingly getting significant impact from our outdoor advertising
(Fig. 16).
We consistently find that our advertising is moving, powerful, and memorable,
regularly getting more than two-thirds of our “Affected” to “strongly” or “very
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Fig. 15 TV advertising peak recognition: “Falling” versus competitor ads 2013–2016. (Source:
Nursery tracking 2013–2016)
Fig. 16 Print advertising peak recognition 2013–2016. (Source: Nursery tracking 2013–2016
Advertising diagnostics)
strongly agree” to the following statements and, on the occasions we have tracked
it, outscoring other cancer charity advertising (Table 1).
Crucially, we don’t gratuitously generate impact, but authentically capture the
emotions of living with cancer. This can be seen in the extent to which those
“Affected,” and particularly “Diagnosed,” feel they can relate to our ads (Fig. 17).
We also see this qualitatively, in the very often moving response we see on our
social channels (Fig. 18).
One of the less obvious advantages of a strong and admired advertising campaign is that it allows us to generate additional free media space. A number of outdoor media owners kindly donate excess inventory, and as the campaign has built
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Table 1 Top 2 box agreements
Top 2 box
Thank
(6–7/7)
Falling you
agreement
It’s a moving ad 67
69
It’s a powerful
77
69
ad
It’s a memorable 62
n/a
ad
CRUK
Blizzard Mist 2014
64
67
51
75
69
59
CRUK
2015–
2016
n/a
59
Average difference
Macmillan vs
CRUK
+16
+13
59
48
+11
57
n/a
Source: Nursery tracking 2013–2016
Fig. 17 Very strongly agreeing or strongly agreeing with the statement “I can relate to the ad”
(Source: Nursery tracking 2013–2016)
Fig. 18 YouTube comments on “Falling” ad
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Table 2 Value of free media space
Value of free outdoor media space (NB. This is market
rate, not rate card)
2013
2014
2015
£3,600,792 £4,368,681 £7,013,368
Source: Macmillan
Fig. 19 Coverage of free media space. (Source: http://www.signatureoutdoor.co.uk/news/
signature-­outdoor-­supports-­macmillans-­2015-­not-­alone-­campaign/)
momentum and fame, we’ve been able to increase the equivalent media value of the
spaces we receive (Table 2 and Fig. 19).
2. A More Powerful Brand
Since the launch of the campaign in February 2013, Macmillan has become a
more visible, more talked about brand.
The not for profit (NFP) Charity Awareness Monitor shows that, against a broad
trend of declining awareness of big national charities, Macmillan grew (Fig. 20).
Of the top five brands by the end of the period, Macmillan was the only one to
show significant growth (Fig. 21).
Indeed, of the top ten brands tracked in the Charity Awareness Monitor,
Macmillan is the only brand to have improved its ranking, from eighth to joint
fourth (Table 3).
This momentum behind the brand can be seen in the fact that Macmillan was
YouGov Charity Index charity brand of the year 2013, 2014, and 2015, based on
buzz scores: the public’s positive perceptions of charities across impression, value,
quality, reputation, satisfaction, and recommendation metrics. We were also Third
Sector’s Brand Index Brand of the Year in 2013, and second placed in 2015, and
Marketing Society’s Brand of the Year in 2014. Finally, in 2015 we were placed
no.5 in the Guardian Influential Brands poll.7
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Fig. 20 Changes in brand awareness 2012–2015—Macmillan versus all major UK charities.
(Source: Charity Awareness Monitor/NFPSynergy 2012–2015)
Fig. 21 Changes in brand awareness 2012–2015 (indexed vs 2012). (Source: Charity Awareness
Monitor/NFPSynergy 2012–2015)
A Stronger Brand Among Healthcare Professionals
The public sentiment around Macmillan is reflected in improved perceptions among
healthcare professionals. This is a crucial audience for the brand to ensure that those
who need our help are more likely to be recommended our services (Figs. 22 and 23,
Table 4).
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Table 3 Charity Awareness Monitor ranking
2012
1 Oxfam
2 Cancer Research
UK
3 RSPCA
4 British Red
Cross
5 British Heart
Foundation
6 NSPCC
2013
Oxfam
Cancer Research
UK
RSPCA
British Red
Cross
British Heart
Foundation
NSPCC
7
8
9
Macmillan
2014
2015
Oxfam
Oxfam
Cancer Research Cancer Research
UK
UK
RSPCA
RSPCA
British Red
Macmillan (=4)
Cross
Macmillan
British Red
Cross (+4)
British Heat
British Heart
Foundation
Foundation
NSPCC
NSPCC
Save the
Children
Marie Curie
Save the
Children
Marie Curie
Barnados
Macmillan
Save the
Children
10 Marie Curie
Save the
Children
Marie Curie
Change in rank
2012–2015
=
=
=
+4
−1
−1
−1
=
=
Source: Charity Awareness Monitor/NFPSynergy 2012–2015
Fig. 22 Awareness of Macmillan in the area of cancer care has increased significantly amongst
general practitioners (GPs). (Source: Nursery healthcare professionals tracking 2011–2015)
3. Unprecedented Income Growth
Since the launch of the campaign, Macmillan has seen a growth in voluntary
income unprecedented either in its own history or among other major UK charities.
For the period 2013–2014 for which audited data is available for the 12 biggest UK
charities by voluntary income, Macmillan saw both the largest absolute growth and
the biggest percentage change in income (Table 5).
When we include the 2015 figures (where published data is available at time of
writing), the picture is even more striking.
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Fig. 23 Likelihood to recommend has increased since 2011 amongst GPs and pharmacists.
(Source: Nursery Healthcare professionals tracking 2011–2015)
Table 4 GP associations with Macmillan
Among GPs, associations with Macmillan by statement
They offer support at all stages from diagnosis to beyond treatment
They are easy to contact
Macmillan is a brand name that would reassure patients
They offer services that no other charity does
2011
46%
37%
39%
20%
2015
56%
46%
44%
23%
Shift
+10%
+9%
+5%
+3%
Source: Nursery healthcare professionals tracking 2011–2015
Table 5 Fundraising income 2012–2014
Macmillan
Great Ormond Street
British Red Cross
RNLI
Marie Curie
Cancer Research UK
Salvation Army
BHF
Save the Children
NSPCC
Comic Relief
Oxfam
ALL (excluding Macmillan)
2012
152.0
58.9
109.6
153.3
76.2
364.3
101.8
92.6
121.4
120.5
75.2
129.7
Source: Cited charities’ annual reports
2013
185.7
62.2
128.3
170.1
83.6
388.8
100.3
95.4
144.0
117.3
96.4
111.5
2014
215.2
81.2
140.5
190.1
91.1
415.6
114.6
102.3
128.9
117.7
73.0
118.3
Growth 2012–2014
63.2
22.3
30.9
39.8
14.9
51.3
12.9
9.7
7.5
−2.8
−2.2
−11.4
15.5
Change 2012–2014
41.6%
38.0%
28.2%
24.0%
19.6%
14.1%
12.6%
10.5%
6.2%
−2.3%
−2.9%
−8.8%
16%
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Macmillan’s growth in income is by some margin the greatest: more than double
that of any other individual charity and more than four times the average of the other
brands (Table 6).
And “Not alone” has proved more efficient than previous campaigns. Over the
period of the campaign, our share of voluntary income has grown, while our share
of voice has slightly fallen (Table 7).
The strength of the Macmillan brand has enabled it to improve fundraising across
a range of audiences, and from both traditional and new sources.
Corporate partnerships have more than doubled in value since 2013, after a dip
in 2012. They include the likes of Home Retail Group, which has raised £1.5 m for
Macmillan since the start of our partnership in March 2015, almost all of which is
employee fundraising (Fig. 24).
Table 6 Fundraising income 2012–2015
2012 2013 2014 2015 Growth 2012–2015 Change 2012–2015
Macmillan
152.0 185.7 215.2 226.0 74.0
48.7%
BHF
92.6 95.4 102.3 114.0 21.4
23.1%
Marie Curie
76.2 83.6 91.1 92.1 15.9
20.9%
Cancer Research UK
364.3 388.8 415.6 430.6 66.3
18.2%
Great Ormond Street
58.9 62.2 81.2 67.4 8.5
14.5%
NSPCC
120.2 117.3 117.7 119.2 −1.3
−1.0%
Oxfam
129.7 111.5 118.3 124.8 −4.9
−3.8%
ALL (EXC. Macmillan)
17.6
0.12
Source: Cited charities’ annual reports
Table 7 Share of income versus share of voice 2012–2014
2012
Share of voice (top 10 brands) 18.80%
Share of income
11.50%
2013–2014
18.20%
13.60%
Source: Cited charities’ annual reports, Nielsen
Fig. 24 Income from corporate partnerships 2011–2015. (Source: Macmillan)
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“World’s biggest coffee morning” enjoyed a spectacular 25th birthday in 2015,
raising a record £26.9 m, while the newer “Brave the shave” campaign generated
£4.4 m against a target of £740 k.
So the strongest advertising in category and in the brand’s history has driven
unprecedented brand momentum and enabled the organisation to generate
record income.
And this has been achieved with a more efficient spend on fundraising, with the
proportion of costs to income lower since the campaign launched (Table 8).
So in the first two years since the launch of “Not alone,” we have generated
£96.7 m incremental income from an additional investment of £27.6 m.
This equates to a ROMI for fundraising alone of 2.4:1.
But as discussed above, fundraising is only part of the picture.
4. More People Helped in More Ways
As fundraising grows, so does support. Macmillan is reaching more people than
ever before, a record 5.8 m in 2015, of a record spend on services of £144 million,
enabled by the sustained growth in income. Most of these people used multiple
sources of Macmillan support.
Visitors to macmillan.org.uk have grown strongly since the campaign launched
in February 2013, after a dip in H2 2012.8 There were almost 5.4 m unique users to
the site in 2015 (Fig. 25).
Table 8 Income versus fundraising costs 2012–2014
Income
Fundraising costs
Costs as % of income
2012
152.7
50.307
32.9
2013
186.9
58.07
31.4
2014
215.2
68.4
31.7
This is the figure for total fundraising costs, everything from DM to merchandising and the administration of events and partnerships
a
Fig. 25 Macmillan.org.uk users 2012–2015. (Source: Google Analytics)
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Social metrics for Macmillan are not a vanity metric, but genuine delivery on our
promise that no one should face cancer alone.
Facebook followers have grown to 602 k, and our main Twitter account has 460 k
followers. Our Online Community helped 75,000 people a month in 2015, while the
campaign platform The Source received 98,000 visits.9
The number of Macmillan Professionals posts increased by 12% to over 8000.
In 2015 our nurses reached over 590 k people, and in total we had 6265 healthcare professional posts.
The value of these interactions, while of course immense to the individuals concerned, is not possible to quantify financially.
But our financial support is.
Over the period of the campaign, Macmillan Financial Support grew annually:
• Benefits advice schemes reached over 68 k people, 5% more than 2014. These
helped people to gain over £211 m in benefits, up £20 m from before “Not alone”
launched.
• The Welfare Rights Team reached 22 k people, 7% more than 2014, and helped
people to access £55.98 m in benefits. That is up £17.4 m from before “Not
alone,” and a cumulative £35.88 m since the campaign launched (Table 9).10
5. The Wider Impact of “Not alone” on Society
Finally, the increased status of the brand has enabled Macmillan to make a wider
impact on society.
As we have shown, our partnerships have increased their levels of fundraising.
But more than that, from our idea of “Not alone,” partnerships are starting to change
the face of cancer support.
Our Boots partnership has given cancer support a new place on the high street,
with both pharmacy and beauty support, and was recently voted the second most
admired charity-corporate partnership. Most importantly, it means every Boots is
able to help us fulfil the promise that no one should face cancer alone (Fig. 26).
What other corporate-NGO partnerships do you admire and why? [Respondents
could list up to three starting with their most admired]. Source: http://www.candeadvisory.com/barometer
Our partnership with Nationwide will mean fewer people face the financial costs
of cancer alone. A pilot rolled out nationally in 2015 to help prevent financial problems for customers who are affected by cancer, with an end-to-end service to support existing customers with their finances after a cancer diagnosis. We helped
Nationwide set up a specialist team who have been trained and empowered to make
decisions.
Table 9 Welfare Rights Team performance
£m accessed
Welfare Rights Team help
2012
38.6
Source: Macmillan internal data
2013
44
2014
51.7
2015
55.98
Total incremental value delivered
£35.88
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261
Fig. 26 C&E Corporate NGO Partnerships Barometer 2015
Our stronger voice in society has strengthened our ability to influence major
government policy.
Macmillan successfully campaigned for personal independence payment waiting
times to fall to the recommended 11 weeks and to 7 days for those with a terminal
illness, down from lengthy delays in 2014–2015. Before this, some people with
cancer had even died before receiving their payment.
Macmillan influenced cancer strategy for England to include their priorities
(improving patient experience, workforce, five-year living with and beyond cancer
programme, funded cancer alliances—bringing key partners to drive improvement
at a local level).
The Macmillan at Work service continued to help employers provide the right
support for employees affected by cancer, keeping them in work, or getting them
back as soon as possible. The programme engaged 1900 new organisations. Over
3000 are now signed up.
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End of Life Care: Progressing well. Macmillan Specialist Care at home cited as
best practice in the Choice Review, and both the Choice Review and the Health
Select Committee strongly recommended Macmillan’s call to provide free social
care at end of life.
The General Election campaign—“Time to choose”—managed to get all three of
Macmillan’s campaign calls into the main parties’ manifestos.
There is the impact to society of tackling isolation among those living with cancer. Evidence cited in Facing the Fight Alone report of 2013 drew attention to the
fact that feelings of isolation can have a clinical impact11 which ultimately affects
the costs to the NHS and society as a whole of cancer:
• In 2006, a study by US epidemiologist Candyce Kroenke and her colleagues suggested that women who were most socially isolated before they were diagnosed
with breast cancer were twice as likely to die from the disease as women with the
strongest social network.
• In 2012, research by another team of US scientists suggested that women with
ovarian cancer who had the most supportive social relationships lived for at least
a year longer on average than those without support.
Conclusion
Over the last three years, Macmillan has delivered outstanding income growth and
helped more people than ever before, in a greater variety of ways. It has become a
more influential brand and used that influence to change the way governments and
businesses are operating to help people living with and affected by cancer.
No one should face cancer alone, as a creative idea and a strategic platform has
enabled Macmillan to better prepare the UK for the challenges nearly all of us will
have to encounter at some point in our lives.
In a world where one-off viral fundraising campaigns get the lion’s share of publicity, it’s still vital for charities to build long-term, predictable revenue to properly
invest in the services that people truly need. So that, whatever happens, we will be
able to say that no one will face cancer alone.
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“We’re Gonna Get Ourselves (Re-) Connected!”—How Can
Major Events Such as Euro 2020 Bring Societies Back Together
in the Wake of Covid-19—Or—Is the Writing on the Wall?
12
David Cook and Christopher Pich
The Enduring Power of Brands
As modern science has shown, humans are not as rational as was first thought and
we rely on subtle, unconscious stimuli in order to make evaluations and choices
(Dijksterhuis, 2004). In this sense, the ability of brands to not only shape and influence consumer decisions, but also more widely impact on society, is considerable.
As the impact of Covid-19 has unfolded across the globe, organisations have
faced extraordinary challenges, and the importance of strong, well-defined, and consistent brands has come sharply into focus (He & Harris, 2020). The pandemic’s
dubious ability to help reduce a brand from “hero to zero” has also become apparent
during this time with the decision-making of several high-profile brands coming
under the spotlight, often resulting in negative media reactions (The Drum, 2020).
However, alongside challenge comes opportunity, and many brands have been seen
to rise to the occasion during this crisis. Brands with technical capabilities such as
Barbour, BrewDog, and Mercedes F1 have switched production to manufacture PPE,
sanitiser, and ventilation equipment, enabling them to fortify their brand identities
and positively engage with different stakeholders (Dickinson, 2020; NHS, 2020;
Walsh, 2020). In addition, the NHS, previously a major source of national criticism,
has gained widespread coverage for the heroism and sacrifices made by its healthcare
workers, becoming synonymous with the display of children’s drawings in households, daily media briefings, and weekly rounds of applause (NHS 2020) (Image 1).
What are Major Sport Event (MSE) Brands?
Branding is not a new phenomenon. Branding has been extended beyond products
and services, and the context of sports is no exception. Brands also play a hugely
significant role in the organisation and management of large-scale sport events. At
the heart of MSEs is the creation and development of a clear brand identity, involving tangible and intangible cues, with the aim of communicating a desired image
and resonation with fans. Indeed, MSE brands have the potential to generate a feel-­
good-­factor among the audience by impacting on peoples’ perceptions and expectations about current and future situations. This can represent a means of escapism
and gratification, enabling the formation of emotional relationships with fans and
the strengthening of communities in an increasingly disconnected society, providing common symbols, a collective identity and a reason for solidarity.
MSEs such as the 2020 UEFA European 2020 Football Championship are
designed to encourage participation, improve good governance, and enhance
engagement for football fans around the world. For example, the previous iteration
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Image 1 Example of NHS rainbows produced by children across the UK—illustrated by Libby
Jones and Hodie Jones, and used with permission
of the tournament, in 2016, generated 298 million visits to all UEFA digital platforms (www.uefa.com). Further, football has the power to unify people from different walks of life and break down social and cultural barriers, which can often prove
difficult. In this regard, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) created and developed the European Championship (the “Euros”) in line with a simple
vision to promote.
‘togetherness for the future of football’ and designed to align with its core strategy ‘for all
football stakeholders to work together in a spirit of cooperation and togetherness—with the
overall well-being of the European game always in mind’ (www.uefa.com).
However, relatively little is known about MSE brands, which is supported by
explicit calls for more understanding into this area of study (Parent, Eskerud, &
Hanstad, 2012; Su & Kunkel, 2020). More specifically, there is limited insight into
how MSE brands create and manage distinct, competitive, and clear identities often
designed to communicate via many media modalities in an integrated manner to
appeal to multiple stakeholders in national and international contexts.
UEFA “Euro 2020”
To celebrate the tournament’s 60th anniversary, the event is to be staged on a one-off
basis by 12 different host cities (Amsterdam, Baku, Bilbao, Bucharest, Budapest,
Copenhagen, Dublin, Glasgow, London, Munich, Rome, and St Petersburg) spread
across Europe. It is unprecedented that such a number of hosts were tasked with
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facilitating such a prestigious event and were to consequently develop related yet
distinct identities, or sub-brands. Yet, for now, this MSE has been stopped in its
tracks by Covid-19. Indeed, many of the host nations have been seriously affected
by the pandemic, and the notion of supporter-filled stadiums with electric atmospheres has been replaced by eerie emptiness and cardboard cut outs in many countries where football has hesitantly re-started. Therefore, UEFA decided to postpone
the tournament for 12 months until the following summer. Some would argue that it
would be logical to rename the competition UEFA “Euro 2021,” yet the UEFA
Executive Committee decided the tournament would still be known as UEFA “Euro
2020” despite now being scheduled to take place in summer 2021 (Image 2).
Several reasons were mooted by UEFA to justify retaining the original name:
Firstly, UEFA did not want to detract attention away from the tournament’s 60th
anniversary. Secondly, they wanted to remind fans that the whole football family
could come together to respond to the extraordinary circumstances of the Covid-19
pandemic and the difficult times that Europe, and the wider world, has had to endure
in 2020. Finally, UEFA wanted to remain consistent with their commitment to make
Euro 2020 sustainable and not to generate additional amounts of waste. Therefore,
as branded content, materials, and memorabilia had already been produced by the
time of the tournament’s postponement, it would be contradictory to one of their
core commitments to destroy and reproduce such items (www.uefa.com). This
Image 2 Tweet communicated by UEFA to rationalise the retention of the Euro 2020 sports brand for
the UEFA tournament—reproduced from https://twitter.com/UEFA/status/1253321170872438788.
(Date Accessed July 29, 2020)
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highlights that changing the name of a competition or sports brand should not be
taken lightly and the implications of rebranding should be considered otherwise the
brand’s identity and core vision could be undermined.
Interconnected Brand Identities and an International Ecosystem
MSE brands are complex entities made up of multiple inter-related identities. Take
UEFA for example. UEFA is a corporate brand, which sets the guidelines and develops a distinct identity known as the competition MSE brand and this is materialised
by the host cities (sub-brands). The competition brand devolves power to the host
cities (Fig. 1).
Each host city has a localised identity, which they co-create with UEFA; however, UEFA have ultimate control of the ecosystem of brands. Yet, there are localised differences (programmes, events, etc.), but overall, there needs to be consistency
with the competition brand. For example, logo, signage, sponsorship, mascots, positioning, volunteers, delivery of the brand in terms of fan experiences need to be
consistent with the branding guidelines developed and governed by the competition
MSE brand. Host cities have to tread carefully as they want to differentiate from
competitors (other host cities) but not undermine/contradict the competition brand
with inconsistency. Therefore, alignment of MSE brands is tricky, and this can create tension and conflict within MSE brands especially if multiple stakeholders are
involved (Pich et al. 2020).
But there’s more. This all shows that multiple related yet distinct brands are part of
the MSE and represent an international ecosystem. Further, this international ecosystem or portfolio of brands is made up of competitive and collaborative relationships
between many stakeholders such as UEFA, host city authorities, national football
associations, and sponsors. So the tricky has just got trickier and the expression “too
many cooks, spoil the broth” springs to mind. Therefore, with so many stakeholders,
Fig. 1 The Interconnected International MSE Brand Ecosystem. (Source: The Authors)
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267
organisations, and brands across international settings interconnected with the MSE
brand then surely, this makes MSE brands incredibly challenging to manage. Fear not,
irrespective of their size, industry and setting brands need to be clear, simple, consistent, and prepared to manage unforeseen crises to succeed in dynamic markets
(Besharet & Langan 2014). Successful brand managers continuously review and manage their brand identities and ensure all stakeholders are united around the brand’s
values and stay “on message” directed by top-down communication strategies (Pich
et al. 2020, Shepherd 2005). This is not to say that managing the alignment of the
complex ecosystem of MSE brands is unproblematic, but adopting this long-term
pragmatic approach should increase the chance of success in an ever-competitive
landscape (Thompson-Whiteside et al. 2017). Therefore, MSE brands are much more
than 52 games of football but relate to experiences, interactions, unity, and legacy.
However, it’s too soon for UEFA to assess whether the MSE brand can or will be successful and such evaluation can and should be done during and after the tournament,
subject of course to coronavirus and COVID-19 fading from the spotlight of history.
Complexity of MSE Brands
Sport, as with most other aspects of life, has been put on hold. Related industries
have been decimated and many may find themselves suddenly out of work. Yet,
eventually studies could shed light on an under-developed and under-researched
topic area, as the unparalleled and widespread branding and cultural circumstances
of the tournament offer an invaluable opportunity to assess the development of city-­
based sub-brands, and an exploration of the relationships between the different
hosts. The driving usage of many forms of integrated marketing and corporate communications will eventually provide a broad platform to assess key stakeholders.
Moreover, would planned communication have worked as intended? For example,
does the MSE brand represent a more symbolic image of hope in the minds of citizens and fans as the world continues its battle with Covid-19? Will Euro 2020 truly
inspire togetherness not only for the future of football and more widely sport in
general, but also encourage greater unity, co-operation, togetherness, and well-­
being during and beyond these dark times? What lessons can be drawn from the
planning of the event, the event itself, the communications involved, and the anticipated and eventual actual outcomes?
The “Goal” of the Event?
There we have it: Euro 2020 can be seen as a beacon of hope, positivity, and an
aspirational MSE brand for life beyond Covid-19. As bleak as things may seem during and in the aftermath of a global pandemic, MSEs seem to have the nascent
power to bring people together and re-connect societies, thus helping to restore
some element of normality to a turbulent planet and national economies within an
international context. Notable events, such as Live Aid, have helped bring people
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together in the past. Organisers, managers, and restrained communicators should
use this postponement, where possible, as an opportunity to reflect, refocus, reassess, and adapt, forming a long-term, sustainable approach whereby sporting events
can be utilised as important strategic vehicles for creating much-needed value in
society. Such events represent something to be looked forward to, even longed-­
for—instrumental in helping to raise morale, re-unite people, and re-build communities. If UEFA does indeed envisage such a role for Euro 2020, what do the public
think? What do you think?
• Do fans and citizens buy-in to this positive vision?
• Can Euro “2020,” and indeed other MSEs, be among the tonics to get us through
these turbulent times?
• More specifically, is football a panacea for turning attention away from underlying economic performances, or the poor political management of a country in the
face of a devastating pandemic?
• Does football encourage nationalist ideology or should it?
• Or, does it encourage/facilitate internationalism/globalism?
We don’t know the answers, but we can speculate within an integrated global
marketing communications (IGMC) context.
This case represents a complex international MSE brand ecosystem and shows
that MSE brands need to ensure they keep control of the core brand and ensure
consistency is present throughout all key aspects including physical elements and
intangible elements. It is worth remembering that all brands (no matter their size,
context, or industry), whether local, national, international, or global, need to ensure
they are coherent, clearly differentiated, adhere to clear guidelines, and are guided
by clear goals (pardon the pun!)—united by a shared vision and connecting all
stakeholders with an understandable identity and a common sense of purpose. Don’t
forget that all brands need to be routinely monitored to ensure they don’t take their
eyes off the ball (second and last pun, but forgivable).
References
Besharat, A., & Langan, R. (2014). Towards the formation of consensus in the
domain of co-branding: current findings and future priorities. Journal of Brand
Management, 21(2), 112–132.
Dickinson, K. (2020, April 18). Barbour is making 23,000 medical gowns in the next
three weeks for coronavirus-hit hospitals. Retrieved Accessed July 29, 2020, from
https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-­east-­news/barbour-­making-­23000-­
medical-­gowns-­18110679
Dijksterhuis, A. (2004). Think different: the merits of unconscious thought in preference development and decision making. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 87(5), 586–598. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-­3514.87.5.586
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Harvey, W., Tourky, M. E. A., Kitchen, P. J., & Knight, P. J. (2017). Lens or prism?
How organisations sustain multiple and competing reputations. European Journal
of Marketing, 51(4), 821–844. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJM-­03-­2016-­0122
He, H., & Harris, L. (2020). The impact of covid-19 pandemic on corporate social
responsibility and marketing philosophy. Journal of Business Research,
116(2020), 176–182. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJM-­03-­2016-­0122
NHS. (2020, April 08). NHS Heroes welcome first batch of Brewdog Hand Sanitiser.
Retrieved July 29, 2020, from http://www.nhsgrampian.org/nhsgrampian/gra_
display_simple_index.jsp;jsessionid=43338CA0915050FADA6C47C9216047C
4?pContentID=10307&p_applic=CCC&p_service=Content.show&.
Parent, M. M., Eskerud, L., & Hanstad, D. V. (2012). Brand creation in international
recurring sports events. Sport Management Review, 15(2), 145–159. https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.smr.2011.08.005
Pich, C., Armannsdottir, G. Dean, D. Spry, L., & Jain, V. (2020). Problematizing the
presentation and reception of political brands: The strategic and operational
nature of the political brand alignment model. European Journal of Marketing.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smr.2011.08.005
Shepherd, I. D. H. (2005). From cattle and coke to Charlie: Meeting the challenge
of self-marketing and personal branding’, Journal of Marketing Management,
21(5–6), 589–606.
Su, Y., & Kunkel, T. (2020). The significance of a sponsored event on lesser-known
brands in a competitive environment. Journal of Product & Brand Management.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smr.2011.08.005
The Drum. (2020, April 9). Times like these: The good and the bad of Covid-19
responses. https://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2020/04/09/times-­these-­the-­good-­
and-­the-­bad-­covid-­19-­responses
Thompson-Whiteside, H. Turnbull, S., & Howe-Walsh, L. (2017). Developing
an authentic personal brand using impression management behaviours:
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Walsh, F. (2020, 30 March). Coronavirus: Mercedes F1 to make breathing aid.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-­52087002
David Cook is Senior Lecturer in Marketing at
Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent
University, UK. He is an active researcher currently focusing on branding and the creation of
shared value in different contexts, such as major
sport events, professional sports teams, and sponsorship. He has published in a range of ABS journals
such as European Sport Management Quarterly,
International Journal of Sports Marketing and
Sponsorship, and VOLUNTAS: International Journal
of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations.
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We are grateful to Christopher Pich,
Ph.D.—Senior Lecturer in Marketing and
Branding at Nottingham Business School,
UK, who also wrote the Boris Johnson case.
His PhD centred upon political brand identity and image of the UK Conservative Party
from an internal and external perspective. He
is an active researcher currently focusing on
different types of political brands including
new-established parties, leaders, nations, politicians, and campaigns in different contexts.
He is interested in the application and analysis
of qualitative projective techniques. He has
published in a wide range of journals such as
the European Journal of Marketing, Journal
of Business Research, Journal of Marketing
Management, International Journal of Market
Research, among others. Since Jan 2016, he
is the Editor for Europe for the Journal of
Political Marketing. He continues to frame
political marketing research through different conceptualisations of branding such as
brand identity, brand image, brand reputation,
co-creation, brand equity, personal branding,
and co-­branding within politics.
De Beers
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Background
• Diamonds are mined in Botswana, Russia, Namibia, Angola, Canada with
smaller mines located elsewhere in the world.
• Ninety-eight million carats were produced in 2016 by the largest mines 954,000
with an estimated worth of $24.5 billion (Ziminsky, 2017).
• Two hundred fifty tons of ore typically produce one carat of polished gem
diamond.
• Gem diamonds have no functional value, and demand can be erratic. During the
Great Depression, the diamond market shrank markedly. Thousands of miners in
southern Africa lost their jobs.
• To combat market volatility, De Beers founded the Central Selling Organisation
(CSO), contracting with the major diamond-producing nations (which represented 80% of world production) to purchase and value all annual output of
rough diamonds at controlled prices, thus providing greater financial stability to
underpin the cost of mining.
• Just under 100 years ago (1938), De Beers created the pioneering advertising
slogan “A Diamond Is Forever.” The phrase has now passed into common usage
throughout the world and still forms the basis of the company’s widely acclaimed
marketing communication, which promotes diamonds as the “ultimate gift of
love” (De Beers Group, 2020).
• De Beers promotes diamond jewellery globally to generate consumer demand or
“pull.” But, as the boom of the 1980s came to an end, investors, producers, and
consumers strove to reduce their liabilities. In 1993, as rough-stone sales fell,
retail jewellers continued to sell while simultaneously destocking to reduce
liability.
• De Beers had to take significant steps to prevent the potential erosion of diamond
jewellery sales and avert the long-term damage of the pipeline filling up, an ensuing oversupply and price drop, which in turn would impact stock prices, the mining and cutting industries, retail jewellers around the world, and the image
saliency of diamonds.
• Remarkably, De Beers has remained in safe hands throughout its history. In
2011, Anglo American took control of De Beers increased its stake to 85%, ending the 80-year Oppenheimer control of the company.
• In 2018, De Beers became the first diamond company to announce that it would
track its diamonds using blockchain technology, though this technology has not
yet been rolled out.
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Overview
Power in marketing communications is derived not just from creativity but from the
magnification and multiplication of the message through all forms of media and
exploitation at potential customer points. Here we describe one creative idea, which
adopted an IGMC approach by using a multiplicity of media vehicles but concentrated mainly on worldwide advertising developed by Wunderman Thompson versus
JWT in conjunction with De Beers, though it was initially a different agency. It is
important to note, and we state this in the text (Chap. 8), that delegation of IGMC to
agencies is usually predicated on a long-standing relationship of trust between client
and agency. Wunderman Thompson versus JWT is regarded as De Beers’ global partner from an IGMC perspective. This relationship began in the early 1970s in Japan
and then grew throughout the world to include 26 major countries (Kolowich, 2020).
Marketing Objectives
The 1992–1993 business objective for De Beers Consumer Marketing Division was
to protect sales related to “core occasions” business segments in the face of deepening worldwide recession. Advertising was perceived to be the major IGMC mechanism. The role for CSO advertising was to manage effectively the esteem (and
value) with which diamonds are perceived around the world.
Marketing Communication Objectives
1. to strengthen diamond jewellery’s position as the ultimate gift of love in the face
of a continued recession and increased competition
2. to translate those positive attitudes into purchase behaviour
Strategy
Advertising was used as the primary IGMC driver, coupled with other below-the-­
line media, to present the core values of diamonds (beauty, rarity, uniqueness, brilliance, purity, etc.) via their emotional resonance as a gift of love. The challenge
was for diamonds to “own” special occasions to the extent that consumers believe
the cash investment to be emotionally, rather than financially, rewarding. This could
be achieved by one of two methods according to market development:
• By maximising the return from the mature markets by customers’ “trading up”
to more expensive pieces of diamond jewellery. These markets include the UK,
United States, and Italy, where diamond ownership is around 70%.
• By growing developing markets via increased penetration of diamond jewellery
ownership resulting in growth of the numbers of pieces sold. This “acquisition”
segment includes markets such as Thailand, Mexico, and Arab countries, where
gold is strong, but diamond traditions are less well established. In Thailand, for
instance, penetration is a mere 5% and is concentrated in cities.
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273
Contextual Circumstances
Engagement
Within Europe practices differ widely; 70% of UK couples currently buy diamond
engagement rings. In Germany there is no engagement ring tradition; couples simply get married.
Marriage
In Islamic circles bridal sets (necklace, earrings, bracelet, and ring) symbolise
parental care and are given by both sets of parents as a nest egg for the bride.
Other Occasions
American traditions include the “Sweet Sixteen” diamond for fathers to give to their
daughters in recognition of their transition to womanhood. The birth of a child is
often commemorated with diamond jewellery.
Other Jewels
Japan has historically had a pearl-based jewel tradition. There was no Japanese
word for diamond until the 1960s. Japan now forms the second-largest consumer
diamond jewellery market in the world, after the United States.
ther Precious Metals
O
In Eastern cultures, from Turkey to the Far East, everything revolves around gold as
a form of security or portable wealth.
Social Changes
Diamond sales have historical links to the social traditions of marriage and celebrations, which not only vary in their significance between countries and cultures but
are themselves undergoing change. In the West family structures have loosened,
marriage rates are falling, and divorce rates are increasing. Marriage at later ages
delays childbirth. In 1970 there were seven to ten marriages per 1000 population,
and the mean age at first marriage was 23. By 1993 the number of marriages per
1000 population had dropped from four to seven, and the mean age at first marriage
was 25. Additionally, the divorce rate increased by 50% between 1970 and 1993.
Summary of Marketing Communication Strategic Challenges
• to unify all the important mature and developing countries under a single
approach flexible enough to recognise local needs
• to identify a single powerful consumer motivation out of a turmoil of national
differences among markets as culturally, religiously, historically, and economically diverse as Europe and Asia, the Gulf States and the United States, Australia,
and South America
• to provide guidance to enhance the creative idea rather than change it as it traversed those boundaries
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Tactics
Change in Media
A
Historically De Beers ran predominantly women’s print campaigns displaying a
variety of jewellery to suit different markets’ needs and budgets. The recession
demanded more aggressive consumer media to successfully ratchet the emotional
response to the “ultimate gift of love” message. Television and cinema were chosen
as the major advertising media, together with deployment of retail point-of-sales
support for diamond retailers. The public relations function supported the advertising strategy by accessorising “stars” and leading models in fashion shoots and holding events in each country that supported the ultimate image.
Television advertising allowed De Beers to reach a broader target audience, consumers watching as couples and evoking a strong emotional response between them
simultaneously. The media target audience was primarily adults over age 25, although
engagement ring cinema audiences were slightly younger. Due to the length of the
purchase cycle, a policy of quality programming was deployed, where joint viewing
was anticipated. This would enable high saliency levels to be reached and maintained.
Added Production Value
Each market historically had produced its own print campaigns of between two and
ten different executions. Photographing diamonds, especially against skin, is notoriously difficult. They’re relatively small and technically difficult to light. Each diamond is individual and reacts to light in its own way. Print production quality was
always an expensive challenge.
• The estimated annual worldwide print production budget for De Beers was in
excess of $1.5 million.
• For the switch to television, the use of new techniques with lasers and fibre-optic
lighting combined with stark contrast of shadows provided the ideal backdrop to
display the scintillation of each individual stone. The production costs for the
first three TV executions, which ran for over three years, were $700,000.
• Not only was the advertising more effective in communicating the appeal of diamond
jewellery to a wide audience, it was also more cost effective to produce, enabling
markets that wouldn’t normally warrant TV advertising to share its benefits.
• Usage of point-of-sale and accompanying marketing public relations enhanced
and supplemented the imagery.
he Brilliant Creative Idea—Intimate Anonymity
T
The power of the resultant “Shadows” campaign idea lies in the anonymity of the
people and the setting and the prominent showcasing of the jewellery at the musically
climactic moment of giving. This apparently simple device carries a complex raft of
messages and associations. Consumer feedback about the worth, desirability, and suitability of diamond jewellery emanated from a breadth of elements within the campaign, building to a whole greater than the sum of the parts—in other words, synergy.
A powerful music track captured the attention, communicated drama, emotion,
and romance. It had all the sophistication to which all diamond advertising must
De Beers
275
aspire. The visual intrigue of the shadows was involving, providing something to
decipher and imagine. The sophistication of black and white images stood out amid
colour commercials.
The anonymity of the shadows, while evidently human in form, was also mysterious, romantic, and allowed consumers to see themselves in the images. Race,
colour, class, and age become irrelevant in the shadow play—key to the cross-­
cultural acceptance of the message.
The story encapsulated a relationship. It was simultaneously involving and inspirational. And the production technique was a dramatic showcase for the product:
big, beautiful, and highly desirable.
Action
The “Shadows” campaign ran in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada,
France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Mexico, Netherlands, Oman,
Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, United
Arab Emirates, and the United States.
Advertising spending was roughly 0.4% of sales, with a worldwide marketing
budget of US$558 million, significantly dwarfing the previous magazine budget.
Control
For several years De Beers has commissioned regular brand tracking surveys to
investigate advertising awareness and diamond jewellery imagery and desirability
among adult consumers in key markets.
The timing of these studies varies by market, and the questionnaires are not precisely comparable. Image parameters measured in one market may differ from
another. The perfect continuous tracking study worldwide is an unaffordable option.
Nevertheless, advertising awareness, advertising “likability,” and attitudes
towards diamond jewellery and its desirability were measured.
Results
The advertising and the promotional elements proved to be successful on a global
basis. Tracking studies in major markets showed that consumers saw, remembered,
and liked the campaign. Their positive attitudes towards diamond jewellery held
strong, as did their “intention to purchase in the next 12 months.”
These attitudes were reflected in steady value growth. The campaign helped bolster confidence among the conservative jewellery trade, who were happy to recognise the business contribution made by the advertising in their markets. As a result
they stopped destocking and continued to offer the customer a good choice of
jewellery.
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American retailers reported an 8% increase in retail sales ($2715 million). Since
the United States is the world’s biggest diamond market and received about 31% of
De Beers’ US$558 million worldwide campaign budget, this result alone represents
a significant return on investment.
In short, mass media advertising, coupled with below-the-line elements, using a
single campaign around the world, worked to build shareholder and trade confidence and maintained a healthy balance between short-term volume sales and long-­
term image exclusivity among consumers, in spite of the deep recession.
Sales Performance
Sales of rough gem diamonds by the CSO in 1998 were $3.35 billion, 28% below
the previous year’s sales of $4.64 billion. Sales in the second half of 1998 were
$1.65 billion, 7% lower than in the same period in 1997. Trading conditions were
difficult throughout the year, and anticipation that second-half sales would be higher
than first-half sales failed to materialise as a result of the global economic uncertainties. Good levels of retail sales of diamond jewellery in the United States and to a
lesser extent in Europe failed to compensate for lower sales in Japan and East Asia.
Sales performance in terms of rough diamond sales by the CSO is given in Table 1,
followed by some income data in Table 2.
Table 1 CSO sales of rough diamonds 1988–1998
Year
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
Total sales
US$ billion (rounded)
4.2
4.1
4.2
3.9
3.4
4.4
4.3
4.5
4.8
4.6
3.6
Table 2 Combined income statement for De Beers (for latest figures see De Beers Financial
Results, 2020)
Turnover
Headline earnings
1997
US$M
6418
1044
1998
US$M
4492
639
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277
Consideration of the share price over the period 1994–1999 shows significant growth from 1994 to 1997, followed by a precipitous decline from late
1997 through all of 1998 and some growth in early 1999. In the two decades
since, the fortunes of De Beers have fluctuated (see Ziminsky, 2019).
The latest goals or aims of De Beers from a marketing and communication perspective are as follows:
• Developing their brand proposition and expanding their retail presence
• Refining their rough diamond approach to better meet different customer needs,
led by data-driven insights
• Ensuring long-term sustainable supply
• Creating a positive impact on the world and leaving a meaningful legacy wherever
they operate (adapted from De Beers Financial Results, 2019)
References
De Beers Group. (2020). Retrieved June 18, from https://www.debeersgroup.com/
the-­group/about-­debeers-­group/brands/a-­diamond-­is-­forever
De Beers Group Financial Results. (2020). Retrieved July 17, from https://www.
debeersgroup.com/media/company-­n ews/2020/interim-­financial-­r esults-­
for-­02020
Kolowich, L. (2020). Retrieved June 18, 2020, from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/diamond-­de-­beers-­marketing-­campaign
Ziminsky, P. (2017). Retrieved June 18, 2020, from https://www.mining.com/
top-­producing-­diamond-­mines-­2016/
Ziminsky, P. (2019). Retrieved June 20, 2020, from http://www.paulzimnisky.
com/a-­brief-­history-­of-­de-­beers/
Questions
1. Explore the relevance of information processing to the De Beers case
2. Explore the relevance of semiotics to the De Beers case
3. Explore the relevance of elaboration likelihood to the case
4. Is there evidence of De Beers adopting an integrated marketing communications
(IMC) approach (historically? now?)?
5. Why should diamonds be the “ultimate gift of love”? Using any or all of the
three theoretical perspectives explore what this might mean from a consumer
perspective.
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Case Studies
Speeding (New Zealand Transport Agency): Mistakes14
(Source: IPA (UK), Entrant: Clemenger BBDO Wellington, Gold, Best International
(The Tim Broadbent Prize), IPA Effectiveness Awards, 2016.
Principal author: Linda Major, Clemenger BBDO Wellington; Contributing
authors: Matt Barnes, Clemenger BBDO Wellington; Paul Graham, New Zealand
Transport Agency; Matt McNeil, OMD Wellington; Rachel Prince, New Zealand
Transport Agency
This case study shows how the New Zealand Transport Authority, a transport
regulation body, reframed an undesirable behaviour to successfully cut moderate speed motor accidents.
• In the last decade, the organisation’s anti-speeding campaign had struggled
to make further progress.
• With the number of crashes steadily on the rise and a lack of acknowledgement by the audience to see moderate speeding as an issue.
The core idea of the campaign was to show “good” drivers not to show them
doing wrong, but what might happen when someone else makes a mistake—
through a campaign film depicting a conversation between two speeding drivers just split-­seconds before impact.
• The integrated campaign launched across television and the web, later
being featured across cinema, print, digital, OOH, and radio.
• The campaign achieved 75% relevance with its core target group and
started to influence behaviour on the road, with mean speeds falling to their
lowest levels in 20 years.
Summary
Most speeding drivers believe they’re skilled enough to exceed the limit; everyone
else is the problem. This New Zealand anti-speeding case relied on this assumption
for its impact, gaining international fame. More importantly, it created a conversation about speed amongst people who had stopped listening. In the first year after
the campaign launched, average speeds on New Zealand roads fell by an average of
0.4 km per hour, projected to reduce NZD $46 m from the cost of accidents. Using
a conservative estimate that 10% of this saving was attributable to communications,
the campaign is estimated to have returned NZD 1.6 for every NZD 1 invested.
Editor’s Comment: This case united a brilliant insight with a strong use of
channels. The judges were particularly excited by the breadth and scale of this campaign, and its ability to ignite a national debate around the subject of speeding.
Speeding (New Zealand Transport Agency): Mistakes
279
The major lesson learnt was to find something we can agree with our audience
on, rather than fight against people’s beliefs and blame them as we’d previously
done. “Mistakes” has only heightened our belief in the power of storytelling and
using strong emotions to resonate with people. The emotional core of the story transcended many audiences, cultures and even languages—it was a universally recognised truth. Our campaigns have always been research-led with thorough testing
throughout the process. The success of “Mistakes” has cemented our use of research
in formulating briefs and rigorous audience testing at multiple stages of the creative
process. We will continue to follow this approach. Speeding is the number one road
safety problem and its reduction potential the most effective road safety strategy—
global research models show that lowering mean speeds by just 1 km/h will result
in 4–5% fewer road injuries and deaths.15 The problem we faced was that most
speeders believe they’re skilled enough to drive over the speed limit. And that it’s
everyone else who’s the problem. Instead of resisting that belief, we launched a
campaign that supported it. And, it had an unprecedented effect.
The world shared it. Other countries asked to use it. The Gunn Report ranked it
the third most-awarded film campaign in the world. TED Talks chose it as one of ten
“Ads Worth Spreading” in 2014.
More importantly, it created a new conversation about speed amongst people
who had stopped listening.
By changing the discourse around speeding—agreeing for the first time with an
audience we had blamed for almost 20 years—we reframed an undesirable behaviour. While entrenched behaviour takes time to change, there is strong evidence that
“Mistakes” has started to influence behaviour on the road, with mean speeds falling
to the lowest levels in 20 years in the two years following the launch of the campaign.
Speeding Campaign History and Challenges
The speed campaign was introduced in 1995 in New Zealand. For two decades it has
followed a proven “blueprint” for road safety advertising: high-impact ads that point
the finger squarely at the speeding driver, leaving a disturbing image of what could go
wrong. This has often been the most graphic and unpleasant advertising on our screens.
Contrast this with the unadulterated sexiness of car advertising—which is in essence
our competition, promising the thrill of speed, saluting the man alone in his car, and
feeding a very human craving to drive fast. Car manufacturers typically outspend our
investment in anti-speed advertising by 60 to I.16 Add to this the weight of video games,
motoring shows, and films like The Fast and the Furious, all that glorify speed.
Despite such strong and direct competition to our “slow down” message, historically, the speed campaign has been highly effective. In the early years of the speed
campaign, it was unexpected and shocking, and the message was new. Average
speeds dropped and speed-related crashes fell 37% in the first five years (Fig. 1).17
But, in the last decade, the speed campaign has struggled to make further progress—with the number of crashes in 2013 on par with where we were in 2000.
Simply put, the “easy wins” have been achieved. We’ve successfully focused on
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Fig. 1 Speed-related crashes per 100,000 population
high-level speeding—people travelling 15–20 km/h over the speed limit. Mean
speeds have dropped a massive 6 km/h since the campaign began.18
It’s now rare to see people driving at extreme speeds on our roads; speeds that
most people agree are dangerous. On the open road only 4% of cars exceed the limit
by more than 10 km/h.19 As mean speeds drop, we’re focusing more on “moderate”
speeding which, as the research models show, is still a serious cause of unnecessary
crashes and casualties.
Making further progress is difficult because
• moderate speeding is a lot more common and normal.
–– One in four drivers travel up to 10 km/h over the speed limit on the open road
and over half travel this fast in urban areas.20
• moderate speeding is a lot tougher to shift
–– Because people don’t see the risk of their speed.
–– Because the perceptual gap between problem and desired behaviour is small.
To make matters worse, in New Zealand, moderate speeders are travelling within
a generally accepted “tolerance” level for speed. New Zealand police generally
apply a 10 km/h speed tolerance, which means drivers can escape a ticket if they’re
driving up to 10 km/h over the limit. This is much higher than the 0 or 4 km/h
thresholds that many other countries enforce. In fact, the speed tolerance is often
seen as tacit endorsement for low-level speeding. As shown by the fact over half of
road users define “speeding” as “10 km/h or more” over the speed limit.21 In other
words, their own behaviour (moderate speeding) isn’t really considered speeding.
Whilst still delivering results, the speed campaign was becoming less effective as
people were becoming more immune to advertising, evidenced in the steady decline
in free recall (Fig. 2).22
Whereas previously people saw it as a message for them, our research showed
that people were opting out, arguing speed isn’t the problem that it really is, or
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281
Fig. 2 Audience recall—all speed television commercials (TVCs)
Fig. 3 Percentage of crashes with speed as a factor
assuming the message was for someone else. Tragically, crash statistics tell a different story. Inappropriate speed is a factor in nearly a third of fatal crashes in New
Zealand (Fig. 3).23
Campaign Objectives
Our work, ultimately, has a single goal: getting people to slow down. Because—
irrespective of the cause of a crash—it’s speed that determines the outcome—
whether someone is killed or walks away. As already indicated, global evidence
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shows if we can reduce mean speeds by just 1 km/h, the result will be 4–5% fewer
deaths.24 This is a long-term game. Increases or decreases in mean speeds each year
are usually in the 0.1–0.2 km/h range.25
Over the two-year period (2014–2015), our specific objectives were to
1. increase compliance with the right speeds on urban streets and the open road
(behaviour change) leading to fewer crashes.
2. increase public intolerance of speeding (reframe societal norms).
To drive these key metrics, specific advertising efficiency objectives were set,
based on strongly performing speed ads26:
• Unprompted recall of >15% within six months: Unprompted recall is critical for
road safety. Drivers need to freely recall the message when they’re on the road,
not just when prompted by a researcher.
• Personal relevance of advertising of 50%: This target is high for a product we
would consider a “grudge purchase.”
• Correct message outtake: The three highest messages relate to speed and its risks.
We also had an ambitious engagement and attitudinal goal: to change the conversation around speed. To do so we needed to
• facilitate broader ownership of the problem (measured through social
monitoring).
• disarm conventional counter-arguments (measured through social and news
media monitoring).
• shift attitudes towards speed (measured through ad tracking and attitudinal
surveys).
Our Core Challenge
Twenty years of road safety advertising targeting “perpetrators” had conditioned
people to believe bad drivers cause road carnage—young, inexperienced “hoons,”
and risk-takers who deserve to be targeted by the police.
Experienced drivers, on the other hand, believe they should be left alone. They
rate their driving skills and believe they can speed safely. They argue it’s everyone
else who’s the problem. They don’t self-identify as “bad drivers.”
We had to completely rethink how we had been talking about speed for 20 years
to get skilled drivers to take notice and accept that this message is still for them.
Speeding (New Zealand Transport Agency): Mistakes
283
The Strategy
We’re telling an old story.
For years we’ve crafted arguments to persuade people to slow down. We’ve used
every tool in the trade: victims’ stories, enforcement threats, and irrefutable laws of
physics. Speeding drivers are well-versed in the idea that “the faster you go, the bigger the mess.” They get that speed affects time and distance needed to stop. They
agree you need to adjust your speed for the conditions. They buy that the sudden
stop will hurt.
ut Our Greatest Competition Is the Drivers’ Own Experience
B
Most of the time when we speed, nothing happens. Consequently, our advertising
has invited fierce argument from speeders and motoring commentators (Fig. 4).
We studied media reports and social commentary over many years of speed
advertising and they revealed the insight, in the audience’s mind: Speed isn’t the
problem; it’s bad driving (and “I’m not a bad driver”).27 Although the audience disagreed, the crash statistics are clear: speed is our biggest problem. But we had nothing to gain by arguing with speeders’ own experience.
So we looked for a truth all drivers can relate to, to start to reframe an undesirable
behaviour.
Fig. 4 Example of motoring commentary
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eople Make Mistakes
P
In life, mistakes are made often. Usually, we get to learn from them. But not when
driving—the road is an exception. Even the smallest of mistakes on the road can
cost us our life, or someone else’s. We had previously put the speeder front and
centre in regard to blame. What if we used the speeding driver’s own bias—that it’s
all those idiot drivers out there who cause the problems on the road—and turned it
back on them? Because despite how good a driver you are, there is another irrefutable truth: You can’t control other people’s mistakes. When someone makes a mistake, your speed determines whether you can stop in time. Whether someone is
killed or walks away.
he Big Idea
T
Help people see that when they speed, other people’s mistakes suddenly become
their problem.
The Creative and Media Approach
The core idea is to show “good” drivers not what they’re doing wrong but what
might happen when someone else makes a mistake, to get them to reassess their
belief that they can speed safely (Fig. 5).
The creative story is an eye-opening depiction of the “if only” moment for two
drivers. They have both done something wrong. In the split-second before impact,
the drivers get out of their cars and have a conversation. They realise with mounting
horror that there is nothing they can do. Because of his speed, the outcome has
already been determined. They walk back to their cars, and we share their sense of
anguish and helplessness. The ad ends with a simple message: Other people make
mistakes. Slow down. The result is a harrowing and powerful commercial. All
Fig. 5 “Mistakes” billboard
Speeding (New Zealand Transport Agency): Mistakes
285
without the need for blood and broken bodies. Without casting the speeding driver
as the villain … And, leaving no room for denial.
Media Approach
We needed to appeal broadly to New Zealanders and urge them to slow down
because moderate speeding behaviour is widespread. High reach and impact were
important considerations. Television remains the dominant channel to deliver video
content to broad audiences in New Zealand. “Mistakes” launched across television
and the web in early January 2014 when the roads were busy following public holidays. Our objective was also to change conversations about speed. We wanted our
audience to consider their speeding through the eyes of others, so we selected channels that people consumed with others. Cinema provided a high-impact, targeted
environment for reflection and a special 90-second version was created for the
medium. “Mistakes” was also placed, with appropriate editorial framing, into online
environments where discussion is a regular feature. This enabled us to gain a deeper
understanding of message interpretation and helped to fuel new conversations
around the issue (Fig. 6).
To view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvLaTupw-­hk.
It allowed the public to do our work for us—arguing it out amongst themselves
and quickly jumping in to shut down counter-arguments.
Tactical placement of billboards and radio reached drivers on the road, a successful method for prompting recall of the emotive story at “point of use” (Table 1).28
Fig. 6 “Mistakes” TVC storyboard
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Table 1 Media spend by channel
Results
Behavioural Impact
Our overarching objective was to get people to slow down, leading to a reduction in
crashes. As the major component of the 2014 speed campaign, “Mistakes” contributed to a reduction in mean speeds and in the proportions of drivers exceeding the
limits on both open and urban roads in 2014 (Fig. 7). These were the lowest levels
achieved in 20 years.29
As noted previously, increases or decreases in mean speeds each year are usually
in the 0.1–0.2 km/h range. Mean speeds dropped by 0.4 km/h on the open road and
0.6 km/h in urban areas in 2014 alone.
Total crashes fell by 5% over the same period—roughly double the decrease
achieved in the preceding years (Fig. 8).30
Against a backdrop of 4% population growth and 279,000 more vehicles on the
road compared to the previous year, and more kilometres travelled in 2014 than any
other year (which the above graph isn’t adjusted for)—we could reasonably expect
an increase in total crashes in 2014.31,32
Communication Efficiency
Independent tracking33 shows the campaign was highly efficient in communications
terms, giving us confidence the advertising has contributed to the desired behaviour:
people slowing down.
Speeding (New Zealand Transport Agency): Mistakes
287
Fig. 7 Percentage of cars exceeding speed limit (2011–2015)
Fig. 8 Total fatal and injury crashes per year (2011–2014). (Note: 2015 data on total crashes not
yet reported)
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bjective 1: Advertising Recall of >15% Within Six
O
Months (Unprompted)
At six months, unprompted recall reached 55% and averaged 52% for the rest of
2014. “Mistakes” is the first speed ad in 20 years to achieve 50% free recall (Fig. 9).
bjective 2: Advertising Relevance of >50%
O
“Mistakes” achieved 75% relevance with its core target group, well above the 50%
benchmark for what we would consider a “grudge purchase” (Fig. 10).
Fig. 9 Speed ads unprompted recall (2005–2015)
Fig. 10 Advertising relevance to target audience (2010–2015)
Speeding (New Zealand Transport Agency): Mistakes
289
bjective 3: Top Three Messages Are on Brief
O
“Mistakes” achieved correct message interpretation: of the three message outtakes,
“Slow down” was the most important, as that’s the action we want people to take,
and is the behavioural “product” we want our audience to “buy.” The two next highest messages attributed are the substantiation of why the audience should slow down
(Fig. 11).
Engagement and Attitudinal Results
More than this, the campaign created exceptional levels of engagement, advocacy,
and strong indications of attitudinal shifts.
bjective 4: Create New Conversations About Speed, Facilitating
O
Broader Ownership of the Problem
“Mistakes” gave people a new reason to slow down and the conversation it generated was unprecedented. The ad went viral on Day 1—something no other social
marketing ad in New Zealand had done.34 Within just one week, there were over
10 million views of “Mistakes” across the world. On YouTube, over 6000 comments
have been posted and the video has a 98% “like” rate (Fig. 12).
A single post on a local police Facebook page attracted over 250,000 likes and
shares, reaching 7 million people.
But what really makes its impact impressive is how “Mistakes” has given a
voice to a side of this argument that has been quiet for so long. By side-stepping
blame and, for the first time, inviting speeders to be part of the conversation,
“Mistakes” has given people a reason to ask others to slow down—and to defend
this position.
Fig. 11 “Mistakes” main message interpretation
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Fig. 12 “Mistakes” on YouTube
bjective 5: Disarm Conventional Counter-Arguments
O
Previous speed campaigns—even those designed to stir up community concern and
intolerance for speed—resulted often in speeders becoming more defensive and
angry. But by acknowledging that they are good drivers and asking them to allow
for other people’s mistakes, we won over and gained a new group of advocates who
had previously been highly critical of our speed advertising.
For the first time, the motoring community praised the campaign and supported
the message, writing about it and sharing it in their own communities (Fig. 13).
Mainstream media also picked up the message to advocate for slower speeds
(Fig. 14):
The simple truth is that even though there are good drivers with modern cars -who in an
ideal world could cruise safely at higher speeds with relative impunity—they can’t and
shouldn’t in New Zealand. That’s because you simply can’t trust people around you to do
what they should, or for their cars to react the way a modern one can.
bjective 6: Shift Attitudes Towards Speed
O
Attitude shifts are critical in helping to influence behaviour and public policy—
tougher enforcement interventions are generally introduced with majority public
support behind them.
After just three months of advertising, 73% of people said “Mistakes” had
changed their attitude, demonstrating we were indeed persuading people to look at
Speeding (New Zealand Transport Agency): Mistakes
291
Fig. 13 Examples of motoring community support
Fig. 14 Example of shift in media discourse
this old problem through a new lens. This is the first time a highly recalled ad also
shifted attitudes at a very high level—which is critical for widespread behaviour
change (Fig. 15).35
Online conversations also indicate attitudes are shifting. For the first time in the
history of the speed campaign, people were openly accepting the message for themselves (Fig. 14).
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Fig. 15 Likelihood to change attitude after seeing ads (2005–2015)
The thousands of comments posted have given us clear insight into what society
thinks about speeding. The sentiment is overwhelmingly positive and on-message,
with people readily jumping in to defend the “slow down” outtake if someone tries
to argue speed isn’t the problem (Fig. 15).
Calculating the Value of Speed Reductions to Society
The cost of road casualties is very high, both in economic and human terms, with thousands of families and communities affected every year. Before the launch of “Mistakes,”
the average casualty rate during 2011–2013 was 282 deaths and 12,300 injuries, with
an average social cost of $3997 billion per year.36 Research shows that lowering mean
speeds on the open road by 1 km/h results in 4–5% fewer deaths and 3% fewer injuries
each year across the network. We can therefore monetise a reduction in speed: each
1 km/h reduction in New Zealand is worth $45–56 million in reduced fatalities and
$71 million in reduced injuries, a total of $116–127 million in reduced social costs.
Following the first year of “Mistakes,” our surveys showed average open road speeds
had dropped by 0.4 km/h. Therefore, in the first year of “Mistakes,” the advertising
campaign has contributed to a reduction in social costs of at least 0.4 × $116 million = $46 million. Even if the campaign takes credit for just a tenth of this reduction
(to allow for some contribution from enforcement and engineering), the financial return
is $4.6 million for an outlay of $2.8 million, in the first year alone. That may be too
conservative, however. There was little difference in policing in 2014 and 2015 compared to previous years (202,000 tickets per year during 2011–2013, 209,000 in
2014–201537), so we could reasonably attribute a higher return from the advertising.
Speeding (New Zealand Transport Agency): Mistakes
293
Discounting Other Factors
We can identify the impact “Mistakes” clearly had on people in shifting entrenched
attitudes towards speeding—through which we’ve also seen an impact on behaviour.
• We can confidently attribute awareness, social “buzz,” and cultural influence to
the advertising campaign. “Mistakes” was the only new speed marketing activity
introduced in 2014. News media coverage was in response to the popularity of
the campaign and massive viral reach (as outlined in the results section above).
• In terms of influencing behaviour change, as noted there was no significant
change in the levels of police enforcement from previous years. Over holiday
periods, the enforcement threshold was lowered to 4 km/h over the limit, which
is consistent with previous years.
• No other widespread speed initiatives were introduced in this period. The police did
not blitz enforcement in response to the popularity of “Mistakes.” This was a deliberate strategy to start to change long-held beliefs about speed and enforcement: from
drivers being forced to comply with the law (slowing down temporarily to avoid a
ticket) to voluntary, sustained compliance (slowing down for the sake of others).
• The impact of engineering (improvements in the road and vehicle infrastructure)
is important but in its nature very gradualist and slow burn—impacts over a year
or two are likely to be small.
• Economic factors also clearly have an impact on road crashes. Record high fuel
prices saw a steady decline starting in early 2013, resulting in average kilometres
travelled in New Zealand increasing by 68 km per capita in 2014.38 With more
vehicles spending more time on the road, the collective risk increases so we
could reasonably expect crashes to increase in the last two years. As we have
seen, the opposite has been the case.
Summary
We broke the mould and in doing so gained unprecedented levels of public support
for an issue people had stopped wanting to own. For the first time, we agreed with
speeders and used their own argument to convince them to slow down. By inviting
a moment of self-reflection and by not pointing the finger, we helped New Zealanders
understand that the speed message was a message for them.
For everyone.
Leading the World
We didn’t set out to change the world—just New Zealanders’ behaviour and attitude
towards speeding—but “Mistakes” is now considered a breakthrough in speed
advertising on a global scale, selected by the TED Foundation as one of ten “Ads
Worth Spreading” in 201439 and attracting the attention of international road safety
organisations (Figs. 16 and 17).
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Fig. 16 “Mistakes” at TED
Fig. 17 Examples of attention from international transport agencies
I am writing to say a huge congratulations on your new ‘Mistakes’ advertisement. It is
really a landmark in global road safety …. We have long grappled with how to communicate
the safe system and speeding message but your ad delivers that message in such a powerful
and moving way. This ad will truly make a difference to road safety around the world.
(Transport for New South Wales)
The “Mistakes” story was picked up and discussed widely by news organisations
around the world (Fig. 18).
It is impossible to accurately track and value this coverage, but we can estimate
a further US$20 million was invested in paid media in France, Italy, Australia, and
Iran, where “Mistakes” was borrowed, re-made, and run (Figs. 19 and 20).
People from other countries have independently translated “Mistakes” into
numerous languages, from Portuguese to Russian to Arabic, and re-posted it on
YouTube. One translated version alone attracted over 2 million views (Fig. 21).
Although not the direct objective of this campaign, the core thought of “Mistakes”
has been shared and used to inspire speed campaigns all around the
Speeding (New Zealand Transport Agency): Mistakes
295
Fig. 18 Examples of international media coverage
globe—arguably contributing to reductions in mean speeds outside of New Zealand
as well as the powerful results here.
Behaviour Change Learning
This case presents a powerful approach for shifting entrenched attitudes and driving
behaviour:
1. Reframe an undesirable behaviour, find a universal truth that all drivers can
relate to.
2. Avoid fighting people’s belief that they’re a good driver.
3. Bypass blame to invite self-reflection.
4. Invoke a strong emotional response.
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Fig. 19 Storyboard of French “Mistakes” remake
Fig. 20 Storyboard of Iranian “Mistakes” remake
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Speeding (New Zealand Transport Agency): Mistakes
Fig. 21 “Mistakes” in various languages
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Tiffany: The Global Way
40
Prof. Varsha Jain, Professor of Marketing, Co-Chair, Doctoral Program,
MICA, India
About Tiffany
Tiffany, Young and Ellis was founded in 1837 by Charles Lewis Tiffany and John
Young. Like many “to-be” giants, they started small and sold stationery items in
lower Manhattan, New York. In 1853, when Charles started managing the firm and
focused on jewellery, the name was changed and it became “Tiffany.” And the rest
is history. Not only did they make history, they even changed the game. Tiffany was
the only store to place the price tag over products during that time. All of these revolutions originated in their headquarters in New York City, USA. Today, Tiffany’s
product range is a cornucopia of luxury. Jewellery, sunglasses, bags, writing instruments, and watches all find of pride of place in Tiffany. Despite this, 90% of the
sales are generated from jewellery. Therefore, the company mainly offers jewellery.
Particularly, they specialise in diamond jewellery and silver ornaments. Tiffany’s
product range also includes sterling silver, crystal, accessories, and leather goods.
Tiffany has always preferred to keep their offerings close to their bosom. Thus, they
offer their products through self-owned stores and direct contact. Their products
have the aura of tradition in their design and products which are older than a century. This tradition is propelled further by 326 stores they own worldwide, which
has increased their sales many times over (“About Tiffany & Co,” n.d.) (Table 1).
What more, Tiffany’s world famous flagship store on 5th Avenue New York has
been seen in numerous films such as Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Sweet Home Alabama
and many others. Also, Tiffany & Co. has always been innovative in terms of advertising and communication. As early as 1845, Tiffany published a catalogue named
the “Blue Book” and used it as a part of their advertisement strategy. This particular
catalogue was distributed gratis until 1972. It was one of the first catalogues to be
printed in full colour. In 1994 its mail-order catalogues reached 15 million people
and can be ordered online. Now, the advertising strategy of Tiffany does not restrict
itself to catalogues, but has a multi-faceted integrated approach in the luxury sectors
in which it competes (Cowley-Cunningham, 2016).
Table 1 Tiffany stores locations
USA
Asia Pacific
Japan
Europe
Canada and Latin America
Emerging Markets
94
91
58
48
30
5
Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/857587/number-­of-­tiffany-­and-­co-­stores-­by-­region-­
worldwide/, accessed July 28th, 2020
Tiffany: The Global Way
299
The New York Times, Money, Vanity Fair, Architectural Digest, Texas Monthly,
Black Enterprise, Conde Nast Traveler are newspaper and magazines where advertisements and other communications have been placed. With the evolution in technology,
Tiffany has also become tech savvy. Thus, they have introduced new mobile marketing
campaigns. It has a latest banner advertisement in New York Times. Tiffany’s has also
introduced a mobile app for iphone users for free download so they may shop through
it. When it comes to the digital space, Tiffany meticulously develops content for publishing. The images are perfect and of high quality, usually accompanied by poetic
content. The company has also been meticulous in using their trademarked signature
robin’s egg blue (known a Tiffany blue) colours in their mobile app and webpage, to
highlight their uniqueness (“Tiffany & Co. was just acquired by LVMH in a massive,
$16.2 billion deal. Here’s how the iconic jewelry chain became one of America’s most
beloved luxury brands,” nd 2019) (see also Sommerville, 2016).
Tiffany in USA
Tiffany is the second largest player in the US jewellery market. Moreover, the brand
is expanding its presence by engaging in e-commerce and the digital platforms. They
have opened more stores simultaneously. The prices of the various products range
from $125 to $20,000. It never offers discounts to customers. They get away with it
as they would like to maintain their luxury status and exclusivity. However, recently
a few third party websites offered discounts on and free shipping of Tiffany products
on online platforms. Interestingly, the brand has no command over the sales policy of
this particular website (www.tradesy.com). Yet, the company has maintained their
traditional design and heritage by hiring world renowned jewellery designers such as
Elsa Peretti, Paloma Picasso, Frank Gehry, and Jean Schlumberger for their product
range in the USA. This helped Tiffany cope up with the latest trends and offered
contemporary design and heritage to the consumer. To summarise, there are certain
situations that can be managed easily by companies. But some situations need close
supervision. Tiffany was able to develop extensively in the USA. Eventually, it
moved to an emerging market, now marketing colossus, that is China.
Lately, the brand has been investing heavily on the men’s range as well, supported by online as well as offline integrated campaigns. For instance, In October
2019, the Los Angeles shopping centre displayed four prominent sports winner trophies, including that of NBA and NFL for the fans to get a close look (Tiffany & Co.
Official | Luxury Jewelry, Gifts & Accessories Since 1837, n.d.).
Tiffany in China
Tiffany realised that Chinese consumers are significantly influenced by price, availability, quality or performance of the products, brand value, social acceptance of the
brand relative to purchase decision. These parameters are mentioned in accordance
with priorities listed by Chinese consumers. Tiffany considered these traits. In order
to capitalise, Tiffany follows centralised strategies. They hired a famous artist, Yu
Hong in China—to design their products more aesthetically for Chinese consumers.
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This artist is a well-known and renowned celebrity in China. He was so good that he
had developed a portrait of the Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi and received great
acclaim from Chinese society. Tiffany leveraged this connection and engagement of
this celebrity artist with consumers. Recently, they arranged one of the largest exhibitions in China displaying their products and history in an eye-catching and unique
way through extensive use of technology. However, in 2019, Tiffany ran into trouble
in China, when one of their campaigns was misinterpreted as a message apparently
supporting Hong Kong protestors. The brand responded gracefully, by withdrawing
the campaign and removing all associated posts rapidly, while offering apologies to
their Chinese stakeholders (“Tiffany store locations,” n.d.).
Tiffany in India
Tiffany began its journey in India with the franchise from the UAE which is Damas.
They opened their first store at the DLF Emporia Mall in Delhi and UB City,
Bangalore. They started their stores in smaller spaces, that is less than 1000 sq. ft.
These stores were opened simultaneously in India (managing partner). The company had undertaken the official launch in India. But, initial launch failed. Thus,
they attempted a second launch in India. Their earlier launch was carried out by
franchisee arrangement with a local jeweller. This time the brand opened a store at
the Oberoi Hotel, Mumbai. However, this store also did not succeed. No surprises,
the company had to close down operations in India. Why? There was a reason for
this. It was a lack of suitable space for the luxury brands in the retail set up in India.
The one available and suitable place were the 5* hotels in India. This feedback was
considered. Having figured out the issues of logistics, Tiffany concentrated on optimising the advantages that the Indian market offered. First, there are many young
consumers with high spending capacity in India as there are three million people
who earn more than US$100,000 a year. These consumers highly prefer international brands, and therefore, they are the key target customers of the company.
These consumers help the luxury market to grow at US$ 5.8 billion with a growth
rate of 20%. However, Tiffany’s journey has not been a walk in the park. The company has had high competition with the domestic players in the Indian market such
as Gili and Tanishq. This competition is managed by Tiffany by focusing on gifts.
This is because Indian consumers believe very high in the concept of gifting. They
focus on the trendier designs and the signature blue box for the gifting markets. The
company also believes in appealing to students in the Indian market as they are
operating in the nascent stage and may well become future brand loyal buyers.
Thus, they made their second launch in India in collaboration with the actress turned
entrepreneur, Reema Wadhwa. She also has joint ventures for other luxury brands
such as Gucci. Collaborating with Reliance Brand Limited (RBL), Tiffany is planning a relaunch in India with a store at Delhi in 2020 (“Tiffany & Co enters India,
opens first store in Delhi,” n.d.). However, given the COVID-19 pandemic, any type
of assessment would be considered premature.
Tiffany: The Global Way
301
Way Ahead
Tiffany has to innovate further and see beyond the blue box. They have already
brought Lady Gaga on board for their HardWear collections. This approach helped
the company moved further from the wrist watch to the jewellery business. However,
the company had issues in merchandising and designing as they could not yet create
the right appeal to the customers. To work on these issues, company took on three
new board members. This helped the company grow in the Chinese market by 7%
and Europe by 9%. Thus, they concentrated on digital shoppers who were looking
out for less expensive products. The focus was initially upon engagement rings and
family heirlooms. In the future, that is by 2025, this brand will be featured more
online due to digitally savvy consumers.
The competitors including Blue Nile and Pandora are also fighting hard in the
digital space. Pandora maintains one of the most active blogs in the luxury jewellery
space. On the other hand, Blue Nile focuses more educating the customer through
the right content (Tiffany & Co. Official | Luxury Jewelry, Gifts & Accessories Since
1837, n.d.).
References
About Tiffany & Co. (2019) (n.d.). Retrieved July 20, 2020, from https://press.tiffany.com/ViewBackgrounder.aspx?backgrounderId=33
Cowley-Cunningham, M. B. (2016). How marketing communication has changed
in the digital age: A brief study of tiffany & co.’s iconic marketing formula.
Retrieved
July
28,
2020,
from
https://www.researchgate.net/
publication/315487878_How_Marketing_Communication_Has_Changed_in_
t h e _ D i g i t a l _ A g e _ A _ B r i e f _ S t u d y _ o f _ Ti ff a n y _ C o % 2 7 s _ I c o n i c _
Marketing_Formula
Sommerfeld, K. (2016). Tiffany & Co.: A digital marketing gem’ Feb 18th, originally Published in May 2014. It Has Been Updated As Needed. Retrieved July
20, 2020, from https://www.paceco.com/insights/strategy/tiffany-­co-­digital­marketing-­gem/
Tiffany & Co enters India, opens first store in Delhi. (n.d.). http://www.retail4growth.
com/; https://www.retail4growth.com/news/tiffany-­co-­enters-­india-­opens-­first­store-­in-­delhi-­4808
(n.d.). Tiffany & Co. Official | Luxury Jewelry, Gifts & Accessories Since 1837.
https://www.tiffany.com/
Tiffany & Co. was just acquired by LVMH in a massive, $16.2 billion deal. Here’s
how the iconic jewelry chain became one of America’s most beloved luxury
brands. (2019, November 26). Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.in/
retail/news/tiffany-­co-­was-­just-­acquired-­by-­lvmh-­in-­a-­massive-­16-­2-­billion-­
deal-­h eres-­h ow-­t he-­i conic-­j ewelry-­c hain-­b ecame-­o ne-­o f-­a mericas-­m ost-­
beloved-­luxury-­brands-­/articleshow/72247675.cms
Tiffany store locations. (n.d.). https://www.tiffany.com/jewelry-­stores/store-­list/
mainland-­china/
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Professor Varsha Jain, PhD, is Professor in
Integrated
Marketing
Communications
and
Co-Chairperson, of the FPM (Doctoral Level
Program), at MICA, India. She has over 17 years of
experience in teaching and research, and has authored
over 100 publications, including papers in European
Journal of Marketing, International Journal of
Information Management, Journal of Business
Research, Journal of Product and Brand Management,
Journal of Consumer Marketing. She is recipient of
more than 20 national and international awards and
gold medals in research and scholarship. In her
research, she has been Invited Visiting Guest at
Emory Business School, Atlanta, since April 2017
and a Visiting Scholar and guest at The Medill
School, Northwestern University. She has worked
closely with Prof. Don Schultz, USA; Prof. Philip
Kitchen, France; and Prof. Jagdish Sheth, USA. Her
research interests are in digital marketing, advertising, branding, consumer behaviour, and digital
natives.
Narellan Pools: Diving into Big Data for Narellan Pools
303
Narellan Pools: Diving into Big Data for Narellan Pools
Source: IPA (UK), Entrant: AFFINITY, Gold, Best Small Budget, IPA Effectiveness
Awards, 2016.
This case study shows how Narellan Pools, a pool-building brand, used indepth data mining to source the main drivers for pool purchasing in Australia
and increase its sales.
• Swimming pool buying was facing a decline in sales due to demographic
shifts, competition, and housing in general becoming less affordable.
• Through in-depth data compiling and mining, the brand discovered a correlation between periods of two days or longer of higher-than-average temperatures and an increase in purchase queries.
• Using a weather-polling app to feed forecast and real-live temperature data
into its buying platform, brand management was able to assess conditions
that could match the data collected for the busier purchase periods and
activate its media spend for the creative campaign, which included pre-roll
films, banners, search, and social ads.
• The campaign increased leads by 11%, and sales by 23%, whilst decreasing its media spend by 30%—delivering an incremental ROI of 54:1.
Principal author: Luke Brown, AFFINITY.
Contributing authors: Adam Shar and Angela Smith, AFFINITY
Summary
Narellan Pools is an Australian pool builder. In a market experiencing declining
home affordability, increased debt, and a shift towards higher density urban living,
company sales were in long-term decline. A shift towards digital helped reverse this
decline. This case outlines how the business then accelerated its growth by exploiting a “big data” insight about the exact time when prospective pool buyers were
most likely to convert into sales. A strategy activated marketing whenever this window of opportunity opened and turned it off at less propitious times. The approach
increased leads by 11% and sales by 23% on a media budget cut by a third. The
incremental revenue ROI was $54 for every $1 invested.41
Editor’s Comment: On a tiny budget, the judges applauded the clever use of
data and analytics married with strong creative to ensure minimum media wastage
and maximum ROI.
Client Comment Chris Meyer, Managing Director, Narellan Pools: To be honest, I don’t really understand everything that AFFINITY do, but I understand the
results. The results delivered by AFFINITY for Narellan Pools created a significant
increase on our enquiries, a radical increase on our sales and a record-breaking
increase on our profitability.
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What AFFINITY managed to do was become a strong partner with Narellan
Pools—by diving deep into our business activities and getting a true understanding
of how our potential customers tick. AFFINITY showed that it all comes down to
building trust for your agency through a strong partnership over time. As the icing
on the cake, I can’t believe AFFINITY couldn’t even spend our entire budget to create the results they delivered.
I can’t remember a time as a client when we were handed back 30% of our media
budget by an agency to create ground-breaking results. It just goes to show, if you’re
brave enough to trust your agency with new and innovative digital and data strategies, you can really stand out from the pack and reap the rewards.
Introduction
If you’ve read many earlier Institute of Advertising Practitioners (IPA) papers (and
indeed this book) you may have been left with a sense that to be effective, you need
to spend millions of $dollars, £pounds, or Euros on both marketing and measurement to first achieve and then prove effectiveness.
The majority of papers use measures such as awareness, brand consideration
tracking research, and econometric modelling. But due to their expense, these methodologies are way beyond the reach of many businesses. Whilst all these measures
can be important, they’re not always necessary to create and demonstrate effectiveness from a marketing investment.
This paper sets out a case that you don’t need millions of dollars, pounds, or
euros to create truly effective communications. We argue that the most important
thing required to deliver effectiveness is smarter, relevant marketing thinking which
should be accessible on any budget, in any category.
Here, we won’t dazzle you with a big name car brand, bank or chocolate bar.
We’ll be detailing our approach and success with a swimming pool brand, yes, a pool
brand. And chances are you’ve never read an effectiveness paper in this category and
we’re certain you’ve not heard of the brand. Irrespective, the results should speak for
themselves. Lessons can be learned to apply to all brands, irrespective of size.
Narellan Pools (Narellan) is one of Australia’s largest pool builders. By mining their
first-party and third-party data, we unearthed a consumer-targeting nirvana: identification of the exact moment of tipping-point from consideration to sale. As a result of our
activity in 2015, we increased leads by 11% and increased sales by 23% whilst decreasing media spend by 30%. Overall, delivering an incremental ROI of 54:1.
This paper demonstrates that often it’s not just what you say or how you say it,
but when you say it that’s important. Our aim is to demonstrate to other smaller
businesses with commensurately smaller budgets that you don’t need to spend
$£millions to make your business thrive. Relevance and context will always trump
the size of investment.
Background
Australia is the driest continent on earth,42 so once the “Australian Dream”43 of
home ownership has been realised, for many Australians buying a pool has traditionally been high on the priority list of what to achieve next.
Narellan Pools: Diving into Big Data for Narellan Pools
305
Narellan is one of Australia’s largest pool builders. It’s a franchisee-based business that operates in 49 different defined regional and metro centres. Collectively,
they sell thousands of pools every year and the average sale price is approximately
$50,000.1
Unfortunately, there have been strong headwinds for the pool industry in the last
few years making selling a pool harder. These include demographic shifts, housing
affordability, and a big rise in competition.44
Demographic Shifts
As for many countries around the world, in Australia there’s a significant trend
towards higher density living as people strive to live closer to cities. Twenty years
ago there were nearly 3.5 houses for every apartment, but the last Australian census
in 2012 found there were just 1.6 houses to every apartment.45 Experts believe this
ratio is likely to be 1:1 in the census carried out in 2016. This trend means the pool-­
buying market has literally halved from 1992 to 2011 (Fig. 1).
Housing Affordability
The second trend is that home rental versus home ownership is increasing not only
due to lifestyle choices but because of housing lack of affordability.
Recent growth in housing prices is greatly exceeding the growth of household
income and is the worst it has been in decades.46
In 2014 the IMF Global Housing Index showed Australia was the third most
expensive country globally in which to buy a house47 (Fig. 2). So with more
Australians renting their homes than ever before in our history, the opportunity for
major household improvement vendors is increasingly diminishing.
Fig. 1 Denser living—ratio of detached house to medium and high density dwellings
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Fig. 2 Australia real housing sector indices 1986–2014
Fig. 3 Household debt (% of GDP)
Household Debt
For those able to purchase a home however, with more income going to purchase
their house and service the debt, there’s less money left over to improve their homes.
This is demonstrated by the proportion of Australian household debt to GDP reaching an all-time high (Fig. 3).48
The culmination of demographic shifts in housing, affordability, and household
debt means that we started our journey with Narellan with a pool market in serious
decline.
eclining Interest in Pool Ownership
D
These trends are borne out with behavioural data reflecting a declining interest in
pools. Using Google Trends Data we found fewer people in Australia are searching
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307
for the keyword term “pool builder” based on an aggregated year-on-year view for
the past three years.49
Increased Competition
In addition to a shrinking pool-buyer market, the cost of entry to being a pool builder
has substantially dropped thanks to the effect of Google.
The accessibility of Google AdWords has been a great leveller for many small
businesses. Accordingly, we’ve seen a 100% increase in pool builder keywords in
cost per click (CPC) per region since 2011. Many new, small solo operators have
found it lucrative to promote themselves as pool providers with many generalist
builders turning to pools to supplement their incomes.
In regional areas, Narellan have gone from being one of only one or two pool
builders in their territory to now competing with as many as 28 different providers
in just under five years. As solo operators these providers are in a position to further
increase competition by easily undercutting Narellan’s pricing.
To put the element of competitive hyper-fragmentation in perspective, by 2015
there were 247 different pool builder providers competing with 70% of all sales
across Narellan’s 49 regions.50
Stagnating Market
A
IBIS World estimates that the pool industry revenue has only grown by an annualised 1.3% over the last five years.4 This growth rate is nearly half that of inflation
over the same period, meaning that the market has been stagnating and tending
towards a slight decline.51
Business in Decline
A
As a result of these factors, Narellan’s sales have essentially declined year-on-year
for the last seven years (Fig. 4).
Fig. 4 Narellan Pools index of total sales 2007–2013
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Objectives
We (the agency) were initially appointed in 2013 to help Narellan turn sales around
for 2014. Our brief was to arrest the decline and over time bring sales back to 2008
levels. Narellan’s 2008 media spend was in excess of $900,000. In 2014 only
$495,000 was allocated to media in response to the pressure of declining sales. Prior
to our appointment, Narellan had deployed a traditional media strategy focused
around mass awareness channels of TV and print with search rounding out the rest.
We started our engagement by implementing a digitally led media strategy
focused on performance media. With less people in the market we realised we had
to make Narellan’s investment count.
Leads, not just awareness, are the lifeblood for a company such as Narellan, and
during this period we increased these to the highest level in seven years—up 21% yearon-year, with sales increasing by 35%. Based on feedback from franchisees, we knew
the leads we drove in 2014 were better qualified than those of previous years. Over the
course of 2014 we helped deliver one of the highest ever sales results for Narellan and
certainly reversed their downward sales performance. The results of 2014 are not the
focus of this paper but help set the scene for the challenge that came next.
It was on the basis of the strong results of the previous year that Narellan set us
an ambitious target in 2015 to increase leads by a further 10% and conversion to
sales by 5%. We succeeded in smashing both.
We knew that after a year of optimisation, the digital strategy from 2014 had
reached maximum usefulness and would not deliver on our new increased objectives. We calculated there was a possibility of no more than a 2–3% additional efficiency gain in leads over and above our 2014 performance through digital
optimisation.
Despite being a highly seasonal market, with more pools sold during summer
than winter, a substantial media budget would be required to establish a constant
presence during the key selling period. To give perspective, spreading Narellan’s
$495,000 media spend over 49 different territories translates to just over $10,000,
per territory, per annum, that is peanuts in real terms.
We needed to radically change things up to deliver on our client’s challenging
objectives.
Strategy
Our first step in developing our strategy was to talk to pool buyers to gain a deeper
understanding of drivers of pool purchase coupled with an aim to identify a tipping
point to sale using Narellan’s first-party data.
Creativity and Innovation
After conducting qualitative research52 with recent Narellan pool buyers, we found
that the aspiration of their first “dive-in moment” in their own pool is one of the
most powerful motivators for buying. So we crafted creative around this insight,
celebrating the moment of the first dive on a shoestring budget.
Meanwhile, our data team went to work to find insights that would best utilise
Narellan Pools’ limited media spend. Understanding this was a lead-generation
driven category, our focus was on maximising conversion. So, our goal was to
Narellan Pools: Diving into Big Data for Narellan Pools
309
identify the all-important tipping point for when people shift from wanting a pool to
actually purchasing a pool—and we unearthed something amazing.
Our first task was to do a full audit where we identified the average path to sale
was between three to nine months.
Whilst there we saw the expected seasonal uplift in leads in warmer months, we
also found that there were some interesting and unexplained changes in behaviour.
On some days within the focus months there were pronounced increases in leads,
as well as massive spikes in conversion of those leads with no clear causation for
either (Fig. 5).
So we’d discovered an unexplained anomaly—conversion rates were spiking up
to 800% on certain days in each month for a period of up to four days. We had to
find out why.
We started by overlaying Narellan’s first-party data including leads, sales, conversion rates, marketing, and promotional plans, along with website analytics such
as traffic, time on site, and visit to enquiry conversion rates. We then further compared this with third-party data including consumer confidence, interest rates, consumer price index (CPI), building approvals, search volumes for pool quotes and
related keywords and weather.
This data was mapped over a five-year period. We undertook an intensive process
to gather and compile the data into a structured format ready to analyse. In total this
amounted to over seven terabytes of data and resulted in data tables with over
100 million rows.
We analysed the data across all 49 territories where we found that temperature
was the important determinant in successful lead generations and conversion to
sales. But the eureka moment was in the detail. Temperature being higher on a given
day or across a month did not in itself affect leads and conversions.
We discovered that if the temperature was higher than the mean monthly rolling
average for more than two consecutive days, we saw a spike in sales conversion
rates (Fig. 6).
Fig. 5 Narellan leads versus conversion rates
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Fig. 6 Narellan conversion rates overlaid with weather
To be clear, the temperature effect wasn’t creating pool buyers that hadn’t been
thinking of buying a pool previously. It simply acted as the tipping point for taking
the next critical step in their path to purchase: picking up the phone or making a web
enquiry for a quote.
Not only were we seeing more leads, the quality of these leads were significantly
higher. When we analysed the Narellan customer relationship management (CRM)
data, we found that leads coming through under these conditions were up to 800%
more likely to buy a pool from Narellan, a factor undiscovered and unknown to their
competitors. We also found that these leads had a considerably shorter buying path
or latency. Finally, we observed the increase in quality and conversion phenomenon
lasted for a total period of four days, inclusive of the second day over the mean average temperature. Our findings support what most sales people already intuitively
know—that all leads are not created equal.
Through our intensive analytical approach, we’d found our advertising nirvana
and could deliver true context marketing. We had defined the exact tipping point for
highly qualified intending pool purchasers. Now we had to action this data insight.
Execution
Knowing that qualified potential pool purchasers were more likely to act every time
these specific temperature conditions occurred, we delivered our “dive-in moment”
creative message. If the specific temperature conditions were met in any of our 49
targeted regions, we activated the media spend for our creative integrated campaign
which included pre-roll video, banners, search, and social. How did we do this?
We created rules in our programmatic buying tools to set the campaign live (see
Fig. 7) based on the following:
• If the temperature yesterday was higher than the mean monthly rolling average
temperature.
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311
Fig. 7 Narellan conversion rates, temperature, and campaign activation overlay
• And the forecast/real-time temperature for today is higher than the mean monthly
rolling temperature. Set campaign live and turn off after four days, unless the
conditions were met again in that period.
To deliver this, we built an innovative and intricate weather-polling app to seamlessly feed forecast real-time temperature data from 49 different regions into our
real-time buying platforms. We then hacked programmatic buying tools to activate
spend, only when our specific conditions were met.
Turning the campaign on and off in real-time based on specific weather conditions—so that we only ran campaign advertising when we’d have the greatest
effect—is, to our knowledge, a world first.
By spending only when these conditions were met, we delivered unprecedented
results for Narellan.
Results
Despite being asked to deliver a 10% increase in target in the context of a diminished market size, less media spend, and increased competition, these goals were
smashed.
We increased direct leads by 11% and increased sales by 23% year-on-year (a
whopping 360% of our goal). In 2015, we helped Narellan deliver its highest sales
result in over a decade (Fig. 8).
Not only that but by spending only when the conditions were met meant that we
couldn’t spend all of Narellan’s media budget—we were able to reduce the overall
media spend by 30% (Table 1). Yes, this seems unlikely but actually happened.
This campaign generated a ROI of 54:1 in incremental sales. Yes, that’s a $54
return for every $1 spent.
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Case Studies
Fig. 8 Narellan pools index of total sales 2007–2015
Table 1 Objectives and results
Increase leads
Increase sales
Media spend
Objectives for 2015
10%
5%
0%
Result for 2015
11%
23%
−30%
Discounting Other Factors
Promotion
There were no price reductions in 2015. Across 2014 and 2015 similar incentives
and tactics were used with identical finance offers running November–December in
both periods.
Distribution
There was also no increase or change within the franchisee base or coverage for
Narellan.
Media Spend
The effectiveness of our insight was not due to an increase in media budget. Rather,
our insight was able to deliver a reduction in budget spend. Overall media spend53
decreased 30% year-on-year and was nearly three times less than invested four
years ago (Table 2).
Market Growth
Market growth was not a factor. As we’ve demonstrated earlier, the market was
actually in decline in real terms.4
Product
There were no new product innovations, extensions, or other changes to the Narellan
product during the period in question.
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Narellan Pools: Diving into Big Data for Narellan Pools
Table 2 Narellan pools media spend
Year
Index
2011
100
2012
97
2013
91
2014
57
2015
40
Table 3 ROI results from previous IPA papers
Brand
Narellan Pools
Fosters
Morrisons
Virgin Atlantic
Travelocity
Waitrose
Swinton
KFC
Dacia
BT: Broadband
Cadbury Wispa
British Gas
Mercedes-Benz
Category
Swimming pools
Beer
Grocery
Travel
Travel
Grocery
Insurance
Food
Automotive
Telecommunications
Confectionary
Utility
Automotive
IPA year
2016
2014
2009
2012
2005
2007
2010
2008
2014
2010
2010
2012
2014
Revenue generated per $/£/€
54
32
21.57
15.66
5.6
5.57
4.31
4.3
4
3.36
3.32
1.82
1.1
Competition
As outlined in the “background” section, there was a significant increase in direct
competition for leads and sales over the period as well as commensurate clutter and
confusion in an increasingly fragmented market.
How Does This Compare to Other IPA Winners?
Looking through other recent winning IPA papers, we couldn’t find a direct comparison in this category, so we included a broad range of categories to draw comparison with. They’re ranked by return and range from 32 to 1.1, which puts into
perspective how spectacular the performance of providing a return of 54:1 in incremental revenue actually is (Table 3).
Conclusion
With so much against us, we had to dig into and mine the data to find a smarter solution. Defining our intent to action tipping point meant we could spend at and around
the optimal moment in time. We were able to speak to fewer, but more qualified,
people and in turn spend less of our client’s money and sell more product.
With this paper we hope to have demonstrated you don’t need millions of dollars
to deliver remarkable results and that a different approach to thinking and finding
actionable insights is available to brands big, small, famous, and obscure.
Acknowledgement
We’d like to thank the team at Narellan Pools for their courage to allow us to try
something so new and different and for trusting us to deliver when the stakes for a
smaller business are always so high.
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Its All About “Co-Opness”
The Co-operative Group, which trades as the “Co-op,” is a British consumer co-­
operative organisation with a distinct variety of businesses within its portfolio ranging from food (wholesale and retail), pharmacy, insurance, legal, funeral services,
and even politics and education. Further, it’s the largest consumer co-operative in
the UK with a presence in over 3700 locations and apparently “owned” by more
than 4.6 million active members (www.co-­operative.coop). The Co-op places its
values at the heart of every business, every initiative, and every campaign.
Take the farmers versus supermarkets debate and waving the British flag for
British meat, despite the likes of Waitrose selling imported lamb’s mince under the
very “British” Duchy label (Farmers Weekly, May 2017). Yet, it is the Co-op that
continues to deliver on brand promises by ensuring that all its meat, even in pies,
ready-meals, and sandwiches, are British. So how does the Co-op make such bold
moves and compete with its giant counterparts? It’s not only down to its roots and
historic associations with farming but the fact it’s owned by its members, not shareholders, and underpinned by specific Principles from a far bigger, global movement.
These Principles have become known as “Co-opness” at the Co-op and these are not
a set of abstract principles, designed to grab positive headlines, they are believed,
embraced, and applied on a daily basis across their businesses (Fig. 1).
Values with “Heritage”
The Co-op has its origins in Rochdale, Lancashire. In 1844 the Rochdale Pioneers
Society was famously established, by a group of 28 working people, who wanted to
set up a shop that would buy “Honest food at Honest prices,” based on the notion of
ethical trading and a belief that profits of the business should be shared amongst
members according to their purchases. Importantly, they established values: self-­
help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity, and solidarity. These were
inspired from Robert Owen, a Welsh textile manufacturer, philanthropist, and social
reformer, and founder of utopian socialism and the cooperative movement (Fig. 2).
For just UK£1 anyone could join the Co-op and one vote for both men and
women was allowed. Their first delivery of natural food came by wheelbarrow from
Manchester and profits shared with all members. By 1860 the Co-op had 3450
members and 6 new stores and in 1863 the Cooperative Wholesale, which bought
goods in bulk to supply the growing number of stores, became the Cooperative
Group producing products to sell in hundreds of Co-op stores.
By 1900 there were over 1400 separate independent co-operative businesses in the
UK, all members of a wider Co-operative Movement. During the 1900s, many of these
independent societies began to merge. One of the most significant in recent times was
in 2000, when the Co-operative Group was formed following the merger of the
Co-operative Wholesale Society and Co-operative Retail Services. This was followed
in 2007 by the merger of United Co-operatives with The Co-operative Group (Fig. 3).
Its All About “Co-Opness”
315
Fig. 1 Co-op values sourced from https://www.coopfoundation.org.uk/about-­us/values/
Fig. 2 Everyone says “cheese,” the Rochdale Pioneers sourced from https://www.councils.coop/
co-­operative-­roots-­gateway-­future-­prosperity/rochdale-­pioneers-­high-­res/
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Fig. 3 International impact of Co-op values sourced from Joe Dundas
Values in “Action”
The Co-op is well known for looking after its members and views education as
most important. A room was provided above one of the stores and a reading group
set up for members to use. In 1907 a minimum wage was introduced, 90 years
before it was introduced by the UK Government. Similarly, pensions and working
conditions were way ahead of their time before it became law in the UK. In their
Crumpsall biscuit factory, there was a piano, library, and even a football club, and
they were the first biscuit makers in the UK to introduce an eight-hour working
day. Employees even got a wedding cake when they married and soldiers’ salaries
given to their families while they were at war, with assurance of jobs when they
returned home (Fig. 4).
The Co-op Group believes in open and voluntary membership, democracy, and
member economic participation, not forgetting the divi! The Co-op transformed
food retailing with the dividend, or “divi,” and it became a part of British life. The
dividend was a financial reward for Co-op customers. As the number of customers
and their purchases increased, the Co-op issued stamps to customers who collected
them on a savings card. Then, when the card was complete, the customer would use
it as payment for goods or deposit into their share account. The divi is still around
in 2020, different format, same Principles (Fig. 5).
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317
Fig. 4 Co-op values in action sourced from https://www.coop.co.uk/our-­suppliers/ethical-­trading/
human-­rights
Fig. 5 The Co-op “Divi”
sourced from https://www.
co-­operative.coop/
about-­us/history
Global Values
How pleased the Rochdale Pioneers would have been had they known their values
had inspired an international movement and made global impact for a generation of
businesses and workers. It’s true, the Coop has spread worldwide extending across
the globe and encompassing many sectors (https://www.ica.coop/en). More specifically, the Co-op’s original values inspired the creation of the International
Co-operative Alliance [ICA]. Indeed, the ICA has developed into a “credible global
organisation,” home to 312 organisations from 109 countries, and is one of the oldest non-governmental organisations that aims to “unite,” “represent,” and “serve”
cooperatives worldwide (https://www.co-­operative.coop/about-­us/values). Only
recently both Korean and Japanese representatives, wanting to set up their own
Co-op, visited the UK to learn from the Principles and see how they apply (Fig. 6).
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Fig. 6 The International Co-op Alliance sourced from https://www.eurocoop.coop/coop-­page/co-­
operative-­movement.html
It’s the Corporate Values of Course!
So, what does all this mean? To all you branding “cynics” it’s important to mention
that a strong corporate brand has a strong brand identity that comprises company’s
qualities, trustworthiness, and distinctiveness which, if shared with employees, can
encourage them to become advocates of the brand. This helps build loyalty and trust
with external stakeholders. From their inception, the strong, meaningful Co-op values have lived on through their employees and members. They still apply today, the
only difference is they’ve become Co-operative Principles. Alongside is their commitment to ecological sustainability and social responsibility (since the Fairtrade
Mark was introduced in 1994 cooperatives have been committed to stocking
Fairtrade products supporting millions of food growers in developing countries).
These long-established values have allowed the Co-op to transfer operations seamlessly, to different sectors across the globe. Each sector is a brand that takes on the
same purpose “doing the right thing,” within its own unique setting. For example,
Funeralcare, offers free funerals for under-16 s while their school academies provide free school meals vouchers for the summer holidays.
Commercialism with a Heart—A Clear Conscience
Today, the Co-op is one of the world’s largest consumer co-operatives, owned by
more than 5 million members. It’s the UK’s fifth biggest food retailer with more
than 2500 local convenience and medium-sized stores. The Co-operative Movement
was founded to serve a social purpose, as well as a commercial one. One in five
people is a member of a co-operative in the UK from housing to food and schools to
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319
transport. The Co-op still leads the way on votes for women, and employees are
paid the national living wage (includes apprentices). At its head office there is an
executive team made up of five women and two men and the Board of Directors is
seven men and six women. There are no ifs, no buts, and rather than virtue signalling and talking about what’s right, they actually campaign and put into action, for
example the Co-op advised the footballer Marcus Rashford on his campaign. The
actions of the original Rochdale Pioneers have had a huge impact on society today
as it has influenced a global movement and a new way of living and working. Long
may it continue!
Stay “True” to Your Values
It’s as simple as that! We’ve shown how values created decades ago can inspire
international movements and have global appeal. It’s important to show that values are more than vague conceptions and buzzwords; they need to be brought to
life by the actions and practices of organisations. Whatever the company, values
need to be clear, believable, and authentic with a strong sense of social justice, an
established heritage, and a track record that has the ability to inspire and connect
individuals and groups. For the Co-op it’s all about values in action. It’s all about
self-help, self-­responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity, and ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility, and caring for others. It’s all
about “Co-opness.”
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Guinness: Made of More, 2012–2018
Principal author: Lisa Stoney, AMV BBDO
Contributing authors: Craig Mawdsley, David Edwards, Lilian Sor and Rory
Gallery, AMV
BBDO; Alison Falconer and Nanda Griffioen, Diageo; David Hartley,
Data2Decisions Source: IPA (UK), IPA Effectiveness Awards, 2018
Guinness, an alcoholic beverage brand, increased its market share in the UK
by launching a TV campaign that created a cultural connection that reinforced
its Made of More message.
• Guinness needed to combat a stagnating economy, as well as fending off
tougher competition, by creating a stronger connection to culture.
• Guinness found that, more than ever, people are feeling as though their
future is out of their hands and is something they can’t control. Guinness
released a TVC, Compton Cowboys, which saw a group of young men
carve out their own path by choosing to ride horses and inspire those
around them, instead of joining a gang, reinforcing its brand message—
Made of More.
• Guinness achieved a revenue ROI of $22.06 per every $1 spent, maintain a
32% market share in Ireland and growing its market share in the UK by 8%.
Campaign Details
Brand: Guinness
Advertiser: Diageo
Entrant: AMV BBDO
Summary
Guinness has a high bar for creativity and effectiveness, but by 2015 the challenge
heightened: distribution was tight, the economy continued to stagnate, and competition was tougher. Guinness doubled down on its “Made of more” positioning with
every iteration, creating stronger connections to culture that brought the platform to
life in new and bold ways across the media mix, and genuinely resonated with its
audience (from the story of Gareth Thomas to the cowboys of Compton). Ultimately,
bolder work paid dividends with on-trade value share growing 8% in Great Britain
and an estimated £4.13 profit returned for every £1 invested.
Editor’s Comment
The consistency of the commitment by Guinness to keep its brand culturally relevant and its rigorous measurement of both beautifully executed advertising and
channel innovations won the admiration of the judges.
Guinness: Made of More, 2012–2018
321
Client Comment
This paper is a tale of iterative learning—of how magic and measurement create
work that not only works, but endures. It’s the story of how Guinness never settles—
and the success of this strategy is indicative in this being our second “Made of more”
IPA paper. Again, we’ve proved iterative creative development helped us build market share and claim the highest profit ROI ever reported in the IPA beer category.
As we stated, it is a bold claim to be “Made of more”—you have to live up to it,
to be prepared to never settle for ordinary, to push from good to great to best ever.
This doesn’t mean repeating a formula. It’s about consistency of spirit and meaning,
but never being afraid to question whether we could have done better. If we could
have reached more people. If we hit all the right notes.
But with the right tools in place, the right people and the right learnings we will
continue to adapt “Made of more,” making it more effective every time.
Creativity has more power with the wisdom of measurement: by using data and
cultural/audience learnings to get to the nub of what has worked in the past in order
to optimise for the future. For us, measurement isn’t about right and wrong, it’s
about finding opportunities to help all of our teams make future decisions. This is
why our work gets bolder, and why we’ve sought to embed our brand in culture.
This is evidenced across our IPA papers, starting with “Clock” and “Cloud,” and
through to planning our next campaign after “Compton cowboys.” In 2016, Guinness
won a Gold IPA Effectiveness Award for “Made of more” and the effect it had in
market between 2012 and 2015.
It was the story of iterative executional development to build market share and
the highest profit ROI ever reported in any IPA paper in the beer category.
But Guinness is a brand that never settles. Brands grow through consistency.
Sticking to ideas and building over time. But this shouldn’t mean repeating a formula. Success can be a trap.
This paper is about absolute consistency of spirit and meaning, committing to an
idea over time. But it’s also a paper about avoiding the traps of success, of never
standing still.
We have reaped further rewards from consistency, taking success and beating it.
Taking the best beer category profit ROI ever reported in an IPA paper and beating it.
As a result, Guinness has regained its place as the third favourite draft beer in
Britain.
Alison Falconer, Global Consumer Planning Director, Guinness and Beer, Diageo
The Origins of “Made of More”
Guinness is the most distinctive beer in the world: which is both a blessing and a
curse. It originated in 1759 in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at St. James’ Gate,
Dublin. It’s now brewed in 60 countries and available in over 150. As a dark stout,
its distinctive black liquid is set in contrast to the creamy white head. Guinness isn’t
served in the same way as a regular beer: you get the perfect pint when poured in
two parts over 119.5 seconds.
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Fig. 1 Past Guinness advertising
Fig. 2 Guinness formats
across the world
Because of this, Guinness had traditionally focused on dramatising product
truths (Fig. 1).
(Left) Guinness’ first-ever ad which focused on perceived medicinal benefits;
(centre) Guinness’ famous Gilroy work claiming “goodness” in the drink; and
(right) our “Good things come to those who wait” campaign which celebrated
the 119.5 seconds it takes to pour the perfect pint. Our communications often
differed by market as Guinness has different products and formats across the
world. In Europe and America it is mainly Guinness Draught (the famous pint
with the creamy head), in Africa and Southeast Asia, Guinness is bottles of
Foreign Extra Stout—stronger-tasting stout, originally created to survive long
shipping (Fig. 2).
By 2011 we were supporting five different positioning statements globally: an
approach that was no longer viable. Our core markets of Great Britain and Ireland
would now be treated as one, with shared communications working to one idea.
The Move to One Global Brand Positioning
We needed to increase effectiveness and efficiency of communications. One global
platform would allow us to create communication of greater quality. Our new
approach would move away from the drink and instead focus on the shared attitude
between brand, product, and drinker. We built on three truths: Guinness is a beer
made of more, for people made of more, and we tell stories of how unexpected
character in people and beer enrich the world around us.
Guinness: Made of More, 2012–2018
323
Purpose Pays
“Made of more” is a platform with purpose that triggers competitive advantage. In
our 2016 IPA Effectiveness Awards paper, we showed how Guinness built on the
success of our early iterations of “Made of more” in GB and Ireland to develop
campaigns which more effectively communicated the brand’s distinctiveness and
salience. The progression of “Made of more” (see appendix for video links) (Fig. 3).
Fig. 3 “Made of more” progression
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Fig. 4 Pre versus post “Made of more” profit ROI. (Source: Data2Decisions econometric
modelling)
Through continual dedication to this strategy, we delivered improving returns,
with an overall profit ROI of £3.88 for every £1 invested: almost twice the category
norm (Fig. 4).54
“Made of more” enabled us to achieve great success, because we committed to
constant improvement, never settling for average.
Settling wasn’t an option as the landscape (culturally, economically, and politically) became even more challenging after 2015.
hallenge 1: The Beer Market Was Declining in GB and Ireland
C
In the run up to 2015, the beer market had been continuing downwards (Fig. 5).
This was keenly felt by Guinness, as stout sales were declining ahead of the rest
of the beer market (Fig. 6).
hallenge 2: The Market Was Shifting to Off-Trade
C
The recession and the collapse of the “Celtic Tiger”55 changed drinking habits.
People were going out less, so more inclined to drink at home. This contributed to
significant pub closures across GB and Ireland (Figs. 7 and 8).
This was a significant problem given Guinness sales are skewed to on-trade, with
our signature draft considered best enjoyed in the pub (Fig. 9).
hallenge 3: The Market Was Increasingly Competitive
C
A typical pub now has 36 brands to choose from (though it can be as high as
50–6056). This is partially due to the rise of premium lagers (Fig. 10).
But also craft: mainstream drinkers experimenting with more interesting, better
tasting beer. By 2016 craft beer penetration would be higher than stout57 and by
2017 worth almost £lbn (Fig. 11).58
As a more robust-tasting beer, this was a threat to Guinness.
We needed to keep “Made of more” fresh and relevant, evolving to suit the new
context.
Guinness: Made of More, 2012–2018
325
Fig. 5 Beer sales GB and Ireland 2012–2014. (Source: British Beer and Pub Association)
Fig. 6 Beer versus stout sales decline (Source: USA Today and Daily Telegraph)
Fig. 7 Numbers of pubs in GB 2008–2017. (Source: Camra. Data comes from: “Euro Crisis Even
Staggers
Irish
Pubs,”
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2012/09/25/ireland-­
economypubs/1588187/ and “British Beer Sales Plummet.” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/
newsbysector/retailandconsumer/9626126/Britishbeer-­sales-­plummet.html)
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Fig. 8 Numbers of pubs in Ireland 2007–2017. (Source: Irish Revenue Commission. Source:
http://www.drinksindustry.ie/assets/Documents/The%20Economic%20Contribution%20of%20
the%20Drinks%20Industry%202013x.pdf)
Fig. 9 Guinness pub/in-home (on-trade vs. off-trade) split. (Source: Nielsen & Data2Decisions
Econometric Modelling)
Our Objectives
Guinness couldn’t rely on category growth to reach targets.
We had bucked the trend through commercially successfully communications in
the few years prior to 2015, but things were getting tougher.
• Communication objective: Drive brand fame through highly creative, more
culturally relevant communications.
• Marketing objective: Use brand affinity to remain competitive and resonant:
see improved saliency and ensure our key affinity statements.
• Commercial objective: Increase the efficiency of our ROI (vs. pre-“Made of
more” and vs. competitors), and maintain revenue growth and value share in the
face of rising costs.
Guinness: Made of More, 2012–2018
327
Fig. 10 Beer market: actual volume change (hectolitres). (Source: CGA Brandlndex MAT data to
P06 [June 13, 2015])
Fig. 11 Craft beer growth 2015–2017. (Source: Nielsen)
Finding Our Edge
In true Guinness tradition, we sought to isolate what had worked to make the next
better. By 2015, we were four years into “Made of more” and “Sapeurs”59 had been
our best yet (Fig. 12).
Post-testing revealed our life lesson, encapsulated in the Invictus quote, “I am the
Master of my fate, I am the Captain of my soul,” is what resonated most. A relevant
cultural tension: in tough economic times we reminded people they control their
own destiny.
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Fig. 12 The Sapeurs celebrating in our 2014 Guinness advert
Fig. 13 Coupled with our Sapeurs learnings this formed the basis of the next ‘Made of more’
We Needed to Liberate “Made of More” to Play a Role in Culture
“Made of more” has never been about jumping on a cultural bandwagon: but it
could be a tool to remind people that you can always carve your own path in life. For
our next iteration, we identified the connection between “Made of more,” audience,
and culture (Fig. 13).
Coupled with our Sapeurs learnings this formed the basis of the next “Made
of more.”
Guinness: Made of More, 2012–2018
329
The Next Chapter—“Made of More” 2015–2018
“ Made of More” 2015 The Rugby World Cup
In the Autumn of 2015, Guinness faced a direct challenge to brand and business in
GB and Ireland. Heineken had sponsorship of the Rugby World Cup, banning any
sight of Guinness from the stadiums (Fig. 14).
The connection between Guinness and rugby runs deep, built on shared values:
it is always a big sales moment. But we had something Heineken didn’t: “Made of
more.” Most rugby marketing focuses on shallow truths of rugby: physicality and
masculinity. We decided to be bold, to go against the grain and uncover rugby stories that went beyond mere rugby physicality—stories that would be culturally resonant and timely. We challenged conventional views of men and masculinity, in two
“Made of more” stories.
“ Never Alone,” Featuring Gareth Thomas
In addition to the Rugby World Cup, 2015 was the year Ireland chose to legalise gay
marriage. Despite this, homosexuality is still far from an easy topic for many in the
world of sport. In the teeth of our biggest competitive showdown yet, we told the
story of rugby’s first openly gay player who kept his sexuality secret for years. He
found the courage to confront his demons and “come out,” with the encouragement
of his team mates.
See Never Alone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFeo2epi-­Lw&t=37s.
“ The Right Path,” Featuring Ashwin Willemse
Research had revealed our target audience felt powerless against the forces that
conspired to hold them back: lack of employment opportunities caused by the economic downturn.60 It was (and is) a crisis that has marked an entire generation. We
found common ground between this and the little known story of Springbok Ashwin
Willemse who had to choose between two paths: a notorious Cape Town gang, and
rugby. Our story celebrates his choice to defy his circumstances.
Fig. 14 Heineken advertising their sponsorship of the 2015 Rugby World Cup
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See: The Right Path: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eU1FhiroNE
This activity was accompanied by out-of-home (Fig. 15).
To be relevant in culture, it had to be timely. Heineken may have been closer to
the pitch, we were closer to the game with reactive social content that solidified the
link between rugby and Guinness, examples of great character “Made of more.”
ur Final Battleground Was the Physical World
O
If we couldn’t win on the pitch, we would win in the pub. The first drink set the tone
for match day so we launched the Guinness Lineout: a shared sampling mechanic
for groups of four friends watching the match together in 10,000 sport-watching
pubs. For example, the Guiness LineOut. Our resolve to tell stories that elevated and
played a role in culture paid off with revenue and profit ROI increasing (Figs. 16
and 17).
The continuity of “Made of more” enabled us to refresh the rich brand associations established in the previous few years and enhance ROI as a result. We had
Fig. 15 Guinness OOH ads “Socks” and “Mouth guard”
Fig. 16 GB “Made of more” ROI. (Source: Data2Decisions Econometric Modelling)
Guinness: Made of More, 2012–2018
331
Fig. 17 Ireland “Made of more” ROI. (Source: Data2Decisions Econometric Modelling)
learned the value of continuing to be bold, using the stories of individuals who had
the courage to challenge accepted norms, and linking those to debates in culture.
The value lay in a story with a bigger, broader, more powerful truth that applied to
any one of our drinkers. Now we needed to go further.
“ Made of More” 2016
It was time to beat “Sapeurs” as our most successful brand film (Fig. 18). See also
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66HuFrMZWMo.
After scouring the globe, one story beat the rest.
“ Intolerant Champion,” Featuring John Hammond
Tapping into the spirit of “Made of more” and celebrating those who decide to carve
their own path, we found a story to inspire people with the sentiment that It’s what
you do in life that truly defines who you are. This spirit was encapsulated by John
Hammond: one man with passion for music of black origin so he toured the bars and
clubs of Harlem, seeking undiscovered talent for his radio show.61 He stood up to
prejudice in the 1930s, championing the potential of black and white artists working
together: he opened ears to jazz and eyes to prejudice (Fig. 19).62
Our story of Hammond (told through TV and an online documentary) launched
against racial turmoil in the US: 2016 was the year of the Oscar’s Whitewash. For the
second year in a row, every actor nominated was white. This backdrop demonstrated
Guinness’ belief in character, integrity, and communion: a reminder that a single person can contribute to a more colourful world. To bring our message directly to our
audience, we live streamed two “Creative Bravery” Summits63 via Periscope, sharing
perspectives of the creatively brave in music, art, dance, and, of course, brewing a
60-second film exclusively on Instagram in GB and Ireland (Fig. 20).
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Fig. 18 After scouring the globe, one story beat the rest
Fig. 19 “John Hammond”
It worked. ROI continued to grow across both markets (Figs. 21 and 22).
The “John Hammond” campaign unlocked the power of engaging our audience
in deeper stories and finding lateral connections to culture. It was a story that resonated with our audience because it reminded them we can all play our part in creating a more vibrant world, regardless of how much society pushes back. We would
take this depth of storytelling even further in our next idea.
Guinness: Made of More, 2012–2018
Fig. 20 Guinness first to launch 60-second film on Instagram
Fig. 21 GB “Made of more” ROI. (Source: Data2Decisions Econometric Modelling)
Fig. 22 Ireland “Made of more” ROI. (Source: Data2Decisions Econometric Modelling)
333
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“ Made of More” 2017
We wanted to bring the story closer and make it more relevant to our audience, invigorating “Made of more” through a real-time story that could directly inspire drinkers.
Compton Cowboys
Refreshing our audience insight confirmed that, more than ever, we’re feeling as
though our future is out of our hands and out of our control.64 Enter “The Compton
cowboys”: young men whose passion is to ride horses in South Central LA, a region
better known for its tales of crime and violence. These Compton natives carved out
their own path—instead of joining a gang, they chose to ride horses and inspire
those around them. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HWnO5XZf2M
Making difficult choices in challenging circumstances, supporting one another
and providing hope to a community are universal themes. “Made of more” in every
way: the cowboys’ sense of positivity, spirit of fun, and camaraderie make for uplifting characters.
ringing the Cowboys to Our Audience
B
We wanted our audience to feel this was their story and so it was the most integrated
communications plan we had launched. We applied two principles:
1. Deep and wide: Mobile and social allowed us to reach a large number of people;
content and stories enabled people to dig deeper into these stories
2. Multiplatform = Multiformat: Use a range of formats in interesting and engaging
ways to surprise and cut through the online noise. Everyone could experience the
story behind Compton through mini-documentaries (Fig. 23).
Fig. 23 Compton mini-documentaries
Guinness: Made of More, 2012–2018
335
Fig. 24 Bespoke social content
Fig. 25 The “Compton cowboys” campaign ecosystem
Our four in-depth stories behind the Compton cowboys were housed on YouTube.
And bespoke social content. This content lived across Facebook, Instagram, and
Snapchat (Fig. 24).
It has become a best-practice case study used by both Google and Facebook
(Fig. 25).
ll Signs Indicate Our Upward ROI Trajectory Will Continue
A
The “Compton cowboys” campaign is too recent for us to have full econometric
analysis and ROI.65 But we believe it will at least be in line with the enhanced ROI
performance reported elsewhere in the paper, because66
• media share of voice for Guinness remained the same for “Cowboys” as it had
been for previous campaigns;
• our Kantar Millward Brown post-testing showed that the campaign was highly
regarded by drinkers;
• our equity scores have remained strong.
And perhaps most significantly, in GB, Guinness has now regained third position
in draft beer for the first time in ten years.67
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A Return on Investment “Made of More”
The econometrics show that commitment to long-term strategy and creative bravery
has paid off over time. We see a steady build in ROIs, now our work is up to 1.9
times as effective in GB and 1.7 times as effective in Ireland as pre-“Made of more”
campaigns.
Revisiting Our Objectives
ur Communications Objective
O
Did we drive brand fame through highly creative, culturally relevant communications that would resonate with drinkers?
eople Loved the Work
P
Qualitative research demonstrated the popularity of our work (Fig. 26).
“ Made of More” Made (More) Waves in Culture
“Gareth” and “Ashwin” clocked over 38 million video views across GB and
Ireland.68 The “bravery” of the campaigns drove coverage across the world. In a
moment backing the Irish gay marriage vote, Gareth Thomas was a guest on
Ireland’s iconic The Late Late Show reaching 650,000 viewers in a single night.
Host Ryan Tubridy: “The ad has completely struck a chord with the nation.”69 We
defeated the official sponsor, Heineken, in winning the Rugby World Cup.70 A
YouGov study showed we were the brand most associated with the event (Fig. 27).71
Fig. 26 Kantar Millward Brown post-test evaluation
Guinness: Made of More, 2012–2018
337
Fig. 27 No. 1 brand associated with Rugby World Cup
Fig. 28 Events from the Brit Awards to the Manchester Film Festival used it as part of their own
communications
John Hammond’s story was picked up by contemporary artists, told and retold
across scores of media sources, most notably through Lianne La Havas (our
LoveLive partner) (Fig. 28).
Events from the Brit Awards to the Manchester Film Festival used it as part of
their own communications.
The “Cowboys” triggered an outpouring of positivity from the public, the news
and industry, all sharing our ad (Fig. 29).
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Fig. 29 Social media
Fig. 30 Cowboys
The public was so interested in their story and characters that they sought the
“Cowboys” out on social media (Fig. 30).
It wasn’t just another ad, it was a “Made of more” story (source:LBB Online72).
“Made of more” had brought unique, culturally relevant stories to the fore, and they
were picked up, retold, and elevated in culture. Gareth went on to create a BBC
Guinness: Made of More, 2012–2018
339
Fig. 31 Gareth versus homophobia: Hate in the beautiful game
show. In 2017, “Gareth vs. Homophobia: Hate in the Beautiful Game” discussed the
lack of openly gay professional sportsmen. John Hammond’s story has become
more relevant every year, as the “Whitewash” debate spread from the Oscars to the
Grammys (Fig. 31).73
In April 2017 (seven months after our campaign launched) “The Compton cowboys” featured in The New York Times in an article shining a light on African-­
Americans battling racial stereotypes (Fig. 32).74
People were genuinely interested in the backstory behind “Made of more.”
Gareth and Ashwin’s self-narrated five-minute online documentaries generated over
3.1 million unique views, with 400,000 organic views of Gareth’s story.75 Our
Hammond ad brought viewers into a wider ecosystem, where more than 80% of
visitors went on to explore our documentary and LoveLive content.76 In-depth stories behind the Compton cowboys held viewers’ attention for up to 2.07 mins,77 and
our highest performing content “Cowboys of Compton” had no paid support
(Fig. 33).
“ Made of More” Gives Guinness Permission to Entertain
“Compton cowboys” revealed that our branded videos significantly outperformed
non-branded versions. This proved the strength of the Guinness brand as a content
creator (Fig. 34). The “Made of more” work detailed in this paper received 148
creative awards including wins at all major international award festivals. It has won
13 Cannes Lions, including Gold in the illustrious Glass Lions for Gareth’s
“Never alone.”
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Fig. 32 The Compton cowboys
Fig. 33 Average YouTube view time (in-depth content). (Source: YouTube, Carat)
Our Marketing Objective
Did we see an increase in brand fame and affinity to the Guinness brand? We did.
It’s worth noting we have not shown pre-“Made of more” metrics, unlike in our
2016 paper, as Kantar Millward Brown slightly tweaked the metrics, meaning comparing 2017–2012 is not like-for-like. As with our 2015 metrics, our 2017 metrics
will undoubtedly have surpassed this, hence we have used 2015 as our benchmark
Guinness: Made of More, 2012–2018
341
Fig. 34 Guinness is a distinctive brand. (Source: Kantar Millward Brown. Note these figures are
measured as indices rather than percentages and are benchmarked against the category average)
Fig. 35 Salience. (Source: Kantar Millward Brown. Note these figures are measured as indices
rather than percentages and are benchmarked against the category average)
to ensure the veracity of this paper and our data. In order to stave off the threat posed
by competitors, it was important to be seen as more distinctive than the rest of the
category. Both markets saw an uplift (Fig. 35).
Our cultural traction and creative success enabled us to achieve this objective. In
a more competitive environment, saliency was key. Brand fame can be evidenced in
improvements between pre and post campaign dips (Fig. 35).
A significant increase in pre and post dips in both markets across the metric
“Guinness is a brand that is leading the way” (Fig. 36).
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Fig. 36 Guinness is a brand that is leading the way. (Source: Kantar Millward Brown. Note these
figures are measured as percentages)
Fig. 37 Pre versus post “Made of more” revenue ROI. (Source: Data2Decisions econometric
modelling)
Our Commercial Objective
Did we see an improved ROI in addition to maintaining revenue growth and value
share in the face of rising costs? Data2Decisions has conducted econometric modelling on the effect of the campaign.
Revenue ROI
Our revenue ROI is £22.06 per £1 spent. Much higher than pre-“Made of more”
campaign average revenue ROI (£12.01).
We increased our return on investment versus pre-“Made of more” work with a
more profitable return than our competitors, growing sales, and share (Fig. 37).
This is now the second-highest recorded revenue ROI for a beer brand in the IPA
awards—behind only Foster’s 2014 Grand-Prix-winning campaign (Table 1).
343
Guinness: Made of More, 2012–2018
Table 1 Beer category IPA Awards by revenue ROI
Brand
Fosters
Guinness
Guinness
Coors Light
Stella Artois
Budweiser
Bud Ice
Stella Artois
Marston’s Pedigree
Stella Artois
Year
2014
2018
2016
2016
2000
2002
1998
1996
1994
1992
Revenue ROI
£32
£22.06
£19.90
£17
£12
£6
£5
£5
£4
£2
Fig. 38 Pre versus post “Made of more” profit ROI. (Source: Data2Decisions econometric
modelling)
Profit ROI
The total profit ROI is £4.30 per £1 spent.
Overall, “Made of more” has now delivered a profit ROI 85% higher than campaigns prior to its introduction (Fig. 38).
This is also higher than the £3.88 profit ROI reported in the 2016 IPA paper
(Fig. 39).
This campaign outperforms profit ROIs from other beer brands in the
Data2Decisions database, with a profit ROI 1.8 times the category norm (Fig. 40).78
This remains the most profitable beer campaign in the history of the IPA awards.
In another illustration of the tougher competitive context since 2015, VCCP’s excellent Coors Light work had shown a profit ROI of £4.13 in the 2016 IPA Effectiveness
Awards, but our latest work for “Made of more” has edged ahead of that (Table 2).
Compared to work before “Made of more,” ROI has now almost doubled.
12
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Case Studies
Fig. 39 Percentage
growth in ROI 2015–2018.
(Source: Data2Decisions
econometric modelling)
Fig. 40 Guinness profit ROI versus category. (Source: Data2Decisions econometric modelling)
Table 2 Beer category IPA Awards by profit ROI
Brand
Guinness
Coors Light
Guinness
Carlling
Stella Artois
Marston’s Pedigree
Year
2018
2016
2016
1996
1992
1994
Revenue ROI
£4.33
£4.13
£3.88
£2.08
£1.92
£1.64
Market Share
Our on-trade value share in Ireland has remained steady at 32% (it’s tough to grow
from such a high share), but has grown by 8% in GB (Fig. 41).
Also in GB at this period, we saw a marked decrease in price elasticity (Fig. 42).
Guinness: Made of More, 2012–2018
345
Fig. 41 Guinness value share (%) GB. (Source: Nielsen)
Fig. 42 GB Guinness Draught price elasticity. (Source: Data2Decisions)
Discounting Other Factors
Econometric modelling conducted by Data2Decisions has isolated the effect of the
communications when calculating the ROI. This section demonstrates how none of
the other key sale drivers could have been responsible for the continued success in
commercial results for Guinness.
Price
There has been little change in the price index of Guinness versus the rest of the
market since the start of “Made of more” in both markets. The average price of a
pint of Guinness has increased slightly versus the market average putting downward
pressure on sales (Fig. 43).
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Fig. 43 Guinness Draught price index versus market average. (Source: Nielsen/CGA)
Price Promotions
In this paper we have focused on the impact of our campaign on draught Guinness
sold in pubs and bars (the on-trade) as this channel accounts for at least 80% of
Guinness sales. We have excluded a detailed examination of the off-trade in this
paper in part due to the complexity of the range of products and pack sizes sold
through this channel and the vast array of price promotions that inevitably increases
the complexity. Due to alcohol restrictions, price promotion in the on-trade in alcohol is minimal.
In-Outlet Activations
Guinness has invested in a number of in-outlet activations in the on-trade (pubs and
bars) over the analysed period with marketing materials distributed to pubs around
key events including major rugby tournaments and matches. The impact of these
activations on sales has been captured in the econometric models.
Product
Guinness launched a range of new products over the period including a range of new
porters, a golden ale and a new lager. We have not included sales from these products as part of our volume sales, value share, or ROI calculations, even though
“Made of more” campaign will have driven additional sales for these products.
Distribution
Distribution in Ireland has remained steady at a very high level, but declined in GB
(Fig. 44).
Guinness: Made of More, 2012–2018
347
Fig. 44 Guinness Draught on-trade distribution
Number of Pubs
Success cannot be attributed to a growth in the number of pubs. As mentioned earlier in this paper, pub numbers continued to decline in both markets.
Economy
The effect of economic growth has been captured in the econometric models. We
have also shown that market share has turned around for Guinness in both markets
since the start of “Made of more,” which accounts for any change in overall beer
consumption driven by macroeconomic factors.
Spend Level/Share of Voice (SOV)
Media-spend levels for Guinness have remained consistent across “Made of more”
with no sustained share of voice advantage for Guinness during the campaign
(Fig. 45).
Weather does influence Guinness sales over time. The effect of this is measured
in the econometric models. Colder weather increases Guinness sales, warmer
weather dampens them. Average temperatures were slightly higher in GB and flat in
Ireland.
Conclusions
It’s a bold claim to be “Made of more.” A claim you can only make if you’re willing
to live up to it. To never settle for ordinary, to push from good to great and from
great to best ever. Guinness is not the only brand that can do this. The lessons are
there for all to see in the IPA Effectiveness Awards over the years. Invest in emotion.
Invest in consistency. Keep it fresh. One of Byron Sharp’s rules in How Brands
Grow is “be consistent whilst keeping the brand fresh and interesting.” Knowing it
is one thing. Doing it is quite another.
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Fig. 45 Guinness share of voice. (Source: Carat/Nielsen Addynamix Weather)
“Made of more” is an example of the business benefits that come from creativity,
from daring to be bold—because boldness is what sits at the heart of this: our bravery and willingness to share our point of view on subjects from sexuality to gang
violence and disability. All because we believe in celebrating that which makes the
world more characterful and more vibrant.
Here’s to the next five years.
“ Made of More” Work to Date
Basketball
Sapeurs
David and Goliath
Mind over Matter
Compton Cowboys
About the author
Lisa Stoney
AMV BBDO
Notes
Through a combination of an ageing population, improved diagnosis and treatment, and changing
lifestyles. Indeed today, the figure already stands at 2.5 m.
2
Including doctors, radiographers, dietitians, occupational therapists, and more.
3
Through individual spontaneous giving, direct debits, legacy giving, and participation in fundraising events like “World’s biggest coffee morning,” as well as through corporate fundraising.
4
This isn’t just nice to have. In the changing care world outlined above, cancer support needs to be
something provided by friends, neighbours, colleagues, family, and concerned strangers, as much
as by healthcare professionals.
5
Our target for most metrics is against those “Affected” by cancer. We also track among those
“Unaffected” and “Diagnosed.”
As a broad rule, most measures broadly follow the same pattern, with lower scores for
“Unaffected,” and higher scores for “Diagnosed.” The “Affected” audience is judged to be the best
1
Guinness: Made of More, 2012–2018
349
proxy for overall success, since it is a reasonably broad target (there are around 17 m people in the
UK affected by cancer in some way).
6
Due to budget restrictions we don’t track every single competitor TV ad, but we believe we have
covered a reflective spread.
7
http://theguardianinfluentialbrands.com/.
8
The spike in H2 2014 was driven by Tee bucket challenge.
9
All data source: Macmillan internal data.
10
All financial support data: Macmillan annual reports and internal data.
11
http://www.macmillan.org.uk/documents/aboutus/macl3970_isolated_cancer_patients_media_
reportfinal.pdf.
12
“This material is provided by permission of the author or authors as stated in the case
and in the acknowledgement to the front of the book.”
13
This material has been reproduced and adapted with the kind permission of the IPA (1999)
and De Beers (2020). The original material was part of the IPA’s Advertising Effectiveness
Databank, which contains over 650 papers. Anyone can access any paper for a small fee; the IPA
can also run searches on defined criteria. For further information about the IPA please contact IPA,
44 Belgrave Square, London SW1X 8Q5. Tel: 0171 2,357,020; Fax: 0171 2,459,904. De Beers
website: http://www.edata.co.za/debeers/.
14
This material has been reproduced and adapted with kind permission of the IPA (2020). The original material was part of the IPA’s Advertising Effectiveness Databank, which contains over 1500
cases and was a Gold category winner in the 2016 IPA Advertising Effectiveness Awards. Anyone
can access any paper for a small fee; the IPA can also run searches on defined criteria. For further
information please contact IPA, 44 Belgrave Square, London SW1X 8Q5. Tel: +44 207,235 7020.
15
Source: World Health Organisation http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2004/9241562
609.pdf.
16
Source: Nielsen ratecard data 2014.
17
Source: Fatal and serious injury speed-related crashes. Source: Ministry of Transport road crash
statistics.
18
Source: Ministry of Transport Speed Survey, open road car speeds 1996–2013.
19
Source: Ministry of Transport speed survey.
20
Source: Ministry of Transport speed survey.
21
Source: IPSOS Road Tracking survey.
22
Source: Glasshouse Road Tracking survey 2000–2013.
23
Source: http://www.transport.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/Research/Documents/Speed-­2014.pdf.
24
Source: World Health Organisation http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2004/9241562
609.pdf.
25
Source: Ministry of Transport speed survey.
26
Source: Glasshouse Consulting roadtrack reports and Agency/Client KPI reports: 2005–2015.
27
Source: Safer Journeys consultation report, Agency qualitative research and Media monitoring.
28
Source: Glasshouse Consulting: Historic correlation between free recall of message and exposure via billboards when run in parallel to TV.
29
Source: Ministry of Transport speed survey.
30
Source: Ministry of Transport: reported injury crashes 2014.
31
Source: Statistics NZ.
32
Source: NZ Transport Agency vehicle volume.
33
Source: Glasshouse Consulting road safety tracking reports, 2014. This is a weekly monitor.
34
Source: One News report, January 9, 2014.
35
Source: Glasshouse Consulting road safety tracking, Ql 2014.
36
Source: Ministry of Transport—Social Cost of Road Crashes.
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Source: NZ Police enforcement statistics.
Source: http://www.transport.govt.nz/ourwork/tmif/transport-­volume/tv003/.
39
Source: http://www.ted.com/watch/ads-­worth-­spreading/mistakes.
40
“This material is provided by permission of the author or authors as stated in the case
and in the acknowledgement to the front of the book.”
41
All amounts are expressed in Australian dollars.
42
http://www.australia.gov.au/about-­australia/our-­country/our-­natural-­environment.
43
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Dream.
44
Swimming Pool and Spa Equipment Stores Market Research Report, IBIS World—July 2015.
45
http://www.afr.com/real-­estate/residential/the-­new-­australian-­dream-­own-­an-­apartment-­201106
15-­iccwe.
46
Australian real housing indices 2Q86-2Q15—Variant Perception.
47
IMF Global Housing Index 2014.
48
Australian household debt 1980–2015—Variant Perception.
49
Google Trends Data—2013–2015 Key Word: Pool Builder.
50
Count of competitors per Narellan’s 49 regions aggregated into brands and estimated market share.
51
Consumer Price Index 2012–2015, Reserve Bank of Australia, January 2016.
52
Agency Research.
53
Media spend excluding GST.
54
Source: Data2Decisions econometrics, cited in IPA 2016, “An Effectiveness Story Made
of More.”
55
The Celtic Tiger was a period of unprecedented economic growth in Ireland. It began around
1995 and ensured Ireland at one point became one of the wealthiest countries in Europe. This came
to a dramatic end in 2008 and the effects are still being felt today.
56
Source: Diageo.
57
Source: Kantar Millward Brown; Nielsen, 2016.
58
Source: Nielsen, 2016.
59
The Sapeurs, “The Society of the Elegant Persons of the Congo,” are a real group of men who are
ordinary people by day, but by night dress to the nines in flamboyant suits, coming together to
bring joy to their community.
60
Source: http://www.thejournal.ie/esri-­report-­great-­recession-­1919516-­Feb2015/.
61
John Hammond stood alone in New York against the practice of segregating black and white
musicians and audiences. He discovered and brought the likes of Billie Holiday, Count Basie, and
Benny Goodman to world attention—names that went on to help write the history of twentieth-­
century music.
62
That’s 20 best actor, actress, supporting actor, and supporting actress candidates in Sunday’s
telecast, with zero people of colour.
63
The Creative Summits provided an interactive platform to tell the Hammond story and drive
depth and relevancy, with authentic representations of creative bravery in popular culture.
64
This has been magnified by social, political, and continued economic unrest in western countries,
and particularly GB and Ireland.
65
Our econometric analysis is completed by Data2Decisions at the end of our financial year, every
year, which runs from June to July. We will receive the next wave of data in August 2018.
66
All of these statements are backed by Nielsen data, Kantar Millward Brown data, and
Data2Decisions.
67
Source: Diageo.
68
Of the nine million on YouTube, 700,000 were purely organic. Source: Carat Media Agency.
37
38
Guinness: Made of More, 2012–2018
351
Source: Freuds PR & WH PR.
http://www.thedrum.com/news/2015/10/30/heineken-­rubbishes-­report-­which-­shows-­guinness-­
outgunned-­it-­rugby-­world-­cup.
71
The second independent research source is Millward Brown who reported that 77% of people felt
that the campaign demonstrated that “Guinness really understand rugby.”
72
Source:
https://lbbonline.com/news/guinness-­compton-­cowboys-­campaign-­challenges­stereotypes-­to-­enrich-­all-­of-­our-­lives/.
73
https://edition.cnn.com/2016/02/12/entertainment/grammys-­race-­feat/index.html https://www.
nytimes.com/2017/02/13/arts/music/grammys-­adele-­beyonce-­black-­artists-­race.html http://time.
com/4671779/grammyspresident-­no-­race-­problem/
http://ew.com/music/2017/02/16/
grammys-­race-­issue/.
74
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/31/us/compton-­c owboys-­h orseback-­r iding-­a frican-­
americans.html.
75
Source: Carat Media Agency.
76
Source: Carat Media Agency.
77
Carat Media Agency.
78
Our pre-“Made of more” ROI was only £0.01 higher than the category average.
69
70
ROCI Investment and Measurement
Process: A Worked Example
13
Here, we provide a full example of how the ROCI investment and measurement
process works along with a hypothetical example. We illustrate our measurement
process through a basic spreadsheet approach. An important part of this process is
that it can be used either to calculate the actual return or to estimate in advance what
the return might be using various “what if” scenarios. The approach is illustrated in
Tables 1 and 2.
Complete Spreadsheet on ROCI*
As discussed in Chap. 9, the key element required to effectively measure the return
on brand communication investment, or the return on customer investment, is the
ability to separate business-building brand communication from brand-building
brand communication. While the line between the two will not be sharp and distinct
all the time, the basic separation between short-term returns (within the organisation’s fiscal year) and long-term returns (over periods longer than the fiscal year) is
critical because of current accounting standards.
The premise of the proposed ROI measurement system is that all business-­
building brand communication programmes will contribute incremental returns to
the organisation. In other words, our goal is to account for additional revenue generated by the brand communication programme or estimated expected revenue. This
distinction is important. Almost all organisations have some form of income flow
from present customers, or they expect income flow from prospects. Therefore,
additional investments in brand communication programmes should either enhance
or protect that revenue stream or, in some cases, alter the income flow to create more
*The following information is provided courtesy of the Association of National Advertisers, Inc.
Copyright 1997, Association of National Advertisers, Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission. The ANA book Measuring Brand Communication ROI, from which the rest of this chapter is taken, may be purchased online at www.ana.net.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
P. J. Kitchen, M. E. Tourky, Integrated Marketing Communications,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76416-6_13
353
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ROCI Investment and Measurement Process: A Worked Example
Table 1 Business-building return on brand communication investment or return on customer
investment
Aggregated customer
group: Behavioural Goal:
Category requirement assumptions
1. Estimated category demand base
Historical data/estimate
income flow assumptions
2. Base share of requirement
Historical data/estimate
3. Base income flow to US
Line 1 X Line 2 =
4. Non-communication costs(product, Opening estimate
fixed, G&A, etc.)
5. Contribution margin %
100% − Line 4
6. Contribution margin £
Line 3 X Line 5 =
Scenario A: No communication investment
7. Change in share of requirement
Estimate
8. Resulting share of requirement
Line 2 + (Line 7 X Line 2)
9. Resulting customer income flow to Line 8 X Line 1 =
US
10. Less: Noncommunication costs
− (Line 9 X Line 4)
(product, fixed, G&A, etc.)
11. Less: Brand communication cost
£0
12. Net Contribution
Line 9 + (Line 10 X Line
11)
Scenario B: No communication investment
13. Brand communication efforts
Estimate
(A-m)
14. Brand contact points (n)
Estimate
15. Total communication investment
Estimate
16. Change in share of reequipment
Estimate
17. Resulting customer income
Line 2 + (Line 16 X Line
2)
18. Resulting customer income flow to Line 17 X Line 1 =
US
19. Less: Noncommunication costs
−(Line 18 X Line 4)
(product, fixed, G&A, etc.)
20. Less: Brand communication cost
−Line 15
21. Net contribution
Line 18 + (Line 19 X Line
20)
22. ROCI calculation
23. Incremental gain/loss vs. “No
Line 21 – Line 21
Investment”
24. Incremental ROCI
Line 22 = Line 15
Group
A
Group
B
Group
C
£
£
£
%
£
%
%
£
%
%
£
%
%
£
%
£
%
£
%
%
£
%
%
£
%
%
£
-£
-£
-£
£
£
£
£
±%
%
£
±%
%
£
±%
%
£
£
£
-£
-£
-£
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
profitability for the organisation. This incremental revenue approach helps the
organisation truly understand the return it is receiving from brand communication
investment.
Our proposed incremental revenue approach is possible because technology
enables us to have some measure of income flow from customers or knowledge of
the value of a customer group prior to executing the brand communication programme. Thus, the goal of the brand communication calculation or estimation is to
determine the incremental financial returns rather than the determination of total
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Complete Spreadsheet on ROCI
Table 2 Consumer product ROCI example
Aggregated Customer group:
Behavioural goal:
Category requirement assumptions
1. Historical category demand
2. Environmental changes in demand
3. Demand adjusted for environmental
change
4. Impact of competitive activities
5. Demand adjusted for competitive
activities
Base income flow assumptions
7. Base income flow to us
8. Noncommunication costs (product, fixed,
G&A, etc.)
9. Contribution margin %
10. Contribution margin $
Scenario A: No communication investment
11. Change in share of requirement
12. Resulting share of requirement
13. Resulting customer income flow to us
14. Less: Noncommunication costs
(product, fixed, G&A, etc.)
15. Less: Marketing communication
16. Net contribution
Scenario B: No communication investment
17. Brand communication effort A
18. Brand contact points N
19. Brand communication effort B
20. Brand contact points N
21. Brand communication effort C
22. Brand contact points N
23. Brand communication effort D
24. Brand contact points N
25. Brand communication effort E
26. Brand contact points N
27. Total brand communication investment
28. Change of share of requirements
29. Resulting Share of Requirements
30. Customer income flow to US
31. Less: Noncommunication costs
(product, fixed, G&A, etc.)
32. Less: Marketing communications cost
33. Net contribution
ROCI calculation
34. Total brand communication investment
35. Incremental ROCI
Loyals
Retain
Switchers
Grow
Share
New or
Emerging
Acquire
Problem
Divest
£1,000,000 £1,000,000 £1,000,000 £1,000,000
2%
5%
20%
−20%
£1020.00 £1050.00 £1200.00 £800.00
−1%
£1009.80
−5%
£997.50
−5%
£1140.00
−5%
£760.00
60%
£605
75%
40%
£399.00
80%
19%
£114.00
80%
15%
£114.00
90%
25%
£151.47
20%
£79.80
20%
£22.80
10%
£11.40
−20%
48%
£484.70
£(363.53)
−20%
32%
£319.20
£(255.36)
−30%
7%
£79.80
£(63.84)
−20%
12%
£91.20
£(82.08)
££121.18
££63.84
££15.96
££9.12
£3.00
2
2.5
2
2.00
2
1.50
2
1.00
0
18.00
0%
60%
£605.88
£(454.41)
£4.00
2
2.5
1
2.50
2
1.75
2
1.00
1
15.50
10%
44%
£438.90
£(351.12)
£4.00
1
3.5
2
2.75
1
2.00
1
1.00
1
16.75
40%
14%
£159.60
£(127.68)
£5.00
0
4.00
0
1.00
1
3.50
1
1.00
1
4.50
1%
15%
£115.14
£(103.63)
£(18.00)
£133.47
£(15.50)
£72.28
£(16.75)
£15.17
£(4.50)
£7.01
£(12.29)
68%
£(8.44)
54%
£(0.79)
−5%
£(2.11)
−74%
sales volume generated or total profits, as commonly are measured by traditional
approaches. This incremental value approach works just as well for a customer
retention strategy because we can estimate what it costs or will cost to retain a customer’s income flow, and from that the ROCI can be determined.
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Similarly, we can estimate or calculate the cost to acquire a new customer since
his or her initial income flow to the organisation will be zero until he or she makes
a brand purchase. Thus, the proposed process works equally well with almost all
types of customer or prospect marketing strategies. This is critically important in a
very dynamic marketing environment.
A key element of the process, which will be explained in more detail in the following examples, is that it is designed to work primarily with customer or prospect
groups. While it would be wonderful if we could estimate or calculate the return on
brand communication for each and every individual customer, that capability is still
a future dream for most organisations. So while our approach can accommodate
one-to-one brand communication calculations, we focus on customer groups in this
chapter since that is what the majority of all marketing organisations will be using
in the foreseeable future.
We illustrate our measurement process through a basic spreadsheet approach. An
important part of this process is that it can be used either to calculate the actual
return or to estimate in advance what the return might be using various “what if”
scenarios. The approach is illustrated in Tables 1 and 2.
The Basic Concept
Before leaping into an explanation of the spreadsheet, it is useful to review the basic
concepts of the process. This is illustrated in the basic business-building ROI
spreadsheet shown in Table 1. As we have stressed before, the spreadsheet can be
changed or adapted by the organisation. It simply provides a standardised framework for the process of calculating a return on customer investment that can be used
across the organisation.
As can be seen in the column across the top of Table 1, customers or groups have
been aggregated by their behaviour. For the brand or organisation to be analysed,
these groups can be as broad or as narrow, and as many or as few as needed. Along
with each customer group, we have specified the behavioural objective we hope to
achieve or have achieved in the measurement period. Examples of behavioural
objectives would be to acquire new customers, retain the business of existing customers, or grow the share of business we are obtaining from our existing group.
There are even times when we may want to divest ourselves of certain high-­
maintenance, low-profit customers, but that needs to be done in such a way that it
does not damage our reputation among our broader base of customers and prospects
or reduce our volume level, which might impact economies of scale in our operations.
Down the side, there are five major sections that provide the basis for the ROCI
calculation. In the first two sections we calculate or estimate the customer’s total
category requirement in dollars spent at the factory level. Next, we determine our
share of that requirement and then our baseline income flow and contribution margin. The next two sections adjust our share and contribution margin estimates under
alternative levels of communication investment. From this comparison we isolate
the incremental change in revenue attributed to the brand communication efforts.
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357
From that we calculate our ROCI, or return on customer investment. As mentioned
before, this is based on the incremental gain or, in some cases, loss on our
investments.
Category Requirement Assumptions. This section estimates the customer’s
entire demand, or requirement, within a given category, spread across all available
vendors.
Line 1: Estimated Category Demand is based on historical or “what if” data
about customer purchase behaviour. In this figure we show it only as a single line
entry, but this estimate can become quite sophisticated and complex. Later in this
chapter we discuss how historical data can be adjusted up or down to take into
account changes in demand due to environmental factors, competitive activity, and
so on. For now the point is that potential total demand for the current period is the
basis for our calculation, and it is expressed in dollars, not units, shipments, or other
nonfinancial measures.
Base Income Flow Assumptions. This section combines basic assumptions
about the brand’s share of customer requirements and brand cost dynamics. These
are factors that are then applied under alternative scenarios calling for differing
levels of communication spending.
Line 2: Base Share of Requirement represents the proportion of the customer’s
total category requirements that our brand provided in the past, or we might estimate for a future time period. Again, the base is, in most cases, the firm’s fiscal year.
These base numbers are supported by historical or scenario data. As with all other
measures in the process, this reflects dollars, not units. So, our share of requirements
reflects the proportion of the customers’ dollar spending that comes to our brand,
not the proportion of units they acquire. In categories with wide variances in prices
between competitors, this could be an important distinction.
Line 3: Base Income Flow to Us is the customer’s total category demand multiplied by the percentage of that demand that comes to our brand. In other words, this
is the income flow in dollars to our brand that the customer or group represents.
Line 4: Noncommunication Costs is a cost factor subtracted from the base income
flow. This covers all fixed and variable costs of running the business excluding
brand marketing communication costs or dollars taken as profit. For the sake of
simplicity, we have shown this as a simple percentage of the income flow. While this
single percentage approach will be adequate for many organisations, it should be
acknowledged that the dynamics of fixed and variable expenses in some companies
may require a more complex, volume-sensitive calculation. However, a company
factors its expenses, we want to isolate all costs other than brand communication
and profit to develop the contribution margin line.
Line 5: Contribution Margin Percentage is equal to 100% minus the percentage
used in line 4 to account for non-brand communication costs. Recall from Chap. 6
that we defined contribution margin as only profits and brand communication funds.
Here we are estimating that margin as a percentage of the income flow from each
customer or customer group.
Line 6: Contribution Margin is the brand contribution margin expressed in dollars. It is obtained by multiplying line 5, contribution margin percentage, by line 3,
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base income flow. In other words, it is what is left over after all fixed and variable
costs (other than those for brand communication and profit) have been removed
from the customer income flow. If there were no communication efforts against the
customer, this figure would equal our net contribution to the organisation’s bottom
line for the period. However, to the extent funds were or might be spent on brand
communication programmes during the period, this line reflects the combined total
of those expenditures plus the organisation’s profit. At this point we do not need to
specify just how much was spent on communication in the past. The key question
is: will the brand be better off by making an investment in communicating with its
customers? That question is addressed in the next two sections.
Scenario A: No Communication Investment. This section establishes a baseline
of profitability if the brand made no further communication investment. If there
were no communication efforts, how much business would the brand receive from
each of its customers or customer groups? It is, of course, unlikely the brand would
lose too percent of its customer base support without brand communication in the
fiscal year. However, chances are that some change in demand or share would occur.
In this section we calculate or estimate just what that impact might be—that is
somewhere between 0% and 2%—and then reproject the brand’s income flow, costs,
and net contribution based on the factors established in the previous section.
Line 7: Change in Share of Requirement represents the estimated or actual results
of what would or did happen to the brand’s share of requirement in the measurement
period (if there were no brand communication investment). How much would the
brand decline from what it presently receives from each customer or customer
group? For the sake of simplicity, we assume that even though we are not communicating actively, the customer will be likely to maintain the same overall category
requirement. A mother with an infant will still need approximately the same number
of disposable diapers each day whether or not the brand is actively communicating
to her. What will likely change is the share of requirement the brand receives,
expressed as a percentage decrease or increase in customer share of requirement. In
most cases this will result in a negative number, such as a 15% decrease in the share
of requirement (SOR).
The key question for many organisations will be how to develop an accurate
estimate of its change in requirements. Companies with a great deal of historical
data probably can extrapolate from past experiences. Others may have done split-­
market tests that could provide a starting point. And, in many cases, there may be
nothing other than the manager’s own best professional judgement and insight. In
truth assumptions about what would happen if there were no communication are
made everyday, albeit indirectly. Managers often maintain levels of communication
spending because they are afraid to change them. Or they underspend because they
have never closely examined the impact of additional communication investment.
Our process forces the manager to make viable and supportable decisions, not just
maintain the status quo, or the traditional spending patterns.
Line 8: Resulting Share of Requirement is the result of adjusting the initial share
of requirement in line 2 by the factor increase or decrease specified in line 7. For
example, if the brand’s initial share of requirement was 50%, but we felt that our
Complete Spreadsheet on ROCI
359
share would decrease by 25% without communication support, our resulting share
of requirement would be 0.50 + (0.50 × −0.25) = 37%.
Line 9: Resulting Customer Income Flow to Us multiplies the adjusted share of
requirement from line 8 by the customer total category demand on line 1. Recall that
we did not alter the customer’s overall need for products in the category; we just
estimated or calculated how much of that business we expected to get or got. This
line, then, represents what would happen to our income flow for the period if we
made no brand communication expenditures.
Line 10: Less: Noncommunication Costs (Product, Fixed, G&A, etc.) applies the
percentage allocated to cover all noncommunication costs and profits from line 4 to
the adjusted income estimate in line 9. Remember, this should include all costs with
the exception of brand communication and expected/required profit.
Line 11 Less: Brand Communication Cost is £0 in this scenario since there are or
will be no communication expenditures.
Line 12: Net Contribution is what remains after the costs associated with lines 10
and 11 are subtracted from the income flow estimate in line 9. This is our calculation
or estimate of the brand contribution level under a scenario where no funds are
invested in brand communication. It is this figure that is the basis for estimating the
incremental gain—if any—that is to be achieved from an investment in brand communication programmes, as follows in Scenario B.
Scenario B: Communication Investment. The next step is to estimate how the
value of each customer group would change if we conducted a brand communication programme directed towards it.
Line 13: Brand Communication Efforts (A-m) are identifiable and generally controllable programmes that the organisation can direct to specific groups of customers or prospects. There can be as many or as few efforts directed to each group as
needed or required.
Line 14: Brand Contact Points (n) are simply the number of times each of the
brand communication efforts we use are expected to result in brand contacts with
the target segment.
As was discussed in Chap. 4, the real value of brand communication is in creating brand contacts with customers or prospects. These can come in any number of
ways. Brand contacts need not be just media delivered, which is how we have traditionally tried to measure advertising results. They can be delivered via direct mail,
via telemarketing, or even through the organisation’s sales force. We want to be able
to accommodate any and all forms of brand communication activities. These can be
either brand messages or brand incentives for the customer or prospect.
It is important to know that business-building brand contacts can occur multiple
times within the context of a customer relationship or time period. Thus, we talk
about brand contact points, not just a brand contact point. This allows us to accommodate communication activities that may create multiple impressions or that may
occur multiple times with no additional cost or investment by the organisation. For
example, a point-of-purchase display may deliver multiple brand contacts to the
same customer once it is erected in a retail store. There is an initial cost of
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development and installation, but from then on the cost has been absorbed although
the brand contacts continue.
Line 15: Total Brand Communication Investment represents the total investment
in brand communication through all brand contacts with this group of customers. As
was discussed earlier, this process is not an attempt to determine the ROI of the
individual communication effort, such as one advertising insertion versus another,
or a direct mail campaign against a public relations programme. In a robust communication environment, there is too much synergy between efforts and activities to
measure accurately the impact of each with any accuracy. However, using the process described here, we can measure our total investment against a specific group of
customers and compare that to the resulting change in the income flow to the brand.
Line 16: Change in Share of Requirement estimates what percentage increase (or
decrease) we can expect in our share of requirement as a result of the brand communication programme.
Lines 17, 18, and 19 recalculate our revised share of requirement, income flow,
and noncommunication costs based on the factor used in line 16.
Line 20: Less: Brand Communication Cost is equal to the total brand communication investment figure in line 15. It is repeated here as a negative so that it can be
subtracted from income flow along with the noncommunication costs.
Line 21: Net Contribution is the net income after all communication and noncommunication expenses have been deducted.
Calculation. The next two steps complete the calculation.
Line 22: Incremental Gain/Loss versus “No Investment” Scenario compares the
two net contribution estimates developed in lines 12 and 21. Note that these are
incremental gains (or losses) to the brand as a result of the brand communication
programme. In addition, we can use this process to estimate or calculate the return
to the organisation from a customer income flow retention programme.
Line 23: Incremental ROCI is the total incremental gain/loss (line 22) divided by
the investment made in line 15.
orking Through the Return on Customer Investment
W
Spreadsheet: Consumer Product Goods Example
Table 2 illustrates the actual process of developing a return on customer investment
on a brand communication programme, using a consumer product example. We also
expand upon the basic ROI model used earlier to incorporate more real-world
situations.
The product illustrated in the example is sold through retailers. It is generally
purchased three to four times per year by a household and has a high rate of penetration. There is limited brand loyalty in the category and substantial price promotion
and discounting by competing organisations occurs.
We have divided customers into four groups based on their relationship with the
brand. The specific behavioural objectives we have to achieve with our brand communication are shown.
Complete Spreadsheet on ROCI
361
The first group consists of loyal, long-term customers who give the brand 60% of
their category business. We know that demand from this group is not growing significantly, but we obviously need to maintain what we have. Our goal is to retain
their income flow at the same level as in the past.
The second group is switchers, a set of customers who switch between our brand
and our competitor quite often. While the 40% SOR they currently purchase from
us is significant, we feel we can strengthen our brand relationship and capture a
greater proportion of their share of requirement.
Group three is an emerging group of customers just now coming into the market.
This group is expected to expand rapidly, and even though our brand currently
receives only 10% of their business, the goal is to acquire more of their income flow.
The last group of customers is our problem group. In some cases they give our
brand only a small percentage of their business. In others their requirements are
very low, and still others they continuously shop on price only. In addition, this
group requires a great deal of support, and customer service costs to maintain them
are quite high. Demand from this group is expected to decline in the coming period.
We would like to reduce our brand communication investment in this group and
actually divest some of these customers. But we can’t afford to alienate them,
because it could damage our reputation with other, more valuable customers, and in
some instances we need their purchase volume to maintain our economies of scale
in manufacturing.
On line 1, we have arbitrarily set dollar volume income flows at the factory level
for each group at the same rate during the measurement period, that is $1000. Most
likely this would never be the case in the marketplace, but it is done to illustrate the
dynamics of the process so that comparisons can be made.
Since this is a retail-driven consumer product, we ignore retail pricing. We are
not interested in how much the customer actually spent to buy the product; we want
to know the potential income that each group of customers can, or did, generate for
our brand at the factory level.
Lines 2 through 5 are used to explain and adjust the value of each of the groups
as a result of observations of activities in the marketplace during the measurement
period (the fiscal year of the organisation). Line 2 reflects changes in demand driven
by environmental factors. Within some groups customers are purchasing increasing
amounts of the product or service simply because they are interested or have increasing needs. An example might be computer software. Category revenue is growing at
a rate of approximately 5% per year while unit sales are growing at approximately
12% per year. But even as consumer or customer consumption or usage increases,
product prices are generally falling. Thus, customers are buying more but paying less.
In our example our group of loyal customers is expected to grow by only 2%,
while the projected growth rates for the other groups are 5% and 20%. Our problem
group is declining by 20%. Thus, after growth factors are taken into account, our
initial demand or available income flow of $1000 becomes $1020 for the loyals,
$1050 for our switchers, $1200 for our emerging group, and $800 for our problem
segment.
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ROCI Investment and Measurement Process: A Worked Example
Having provided a way to deal with broad category or environmental changes
during the measurement period, we also must provide some way to deal with competitive activities. Commonly competitors will attack certain segments or customer
groups in the category. Normally they do this through price cuts or other forms of
sales promotion or discounting, often offered at the retail level. Alternatively they
simply may focus their efforts against various segments and drive the value of those
groups down (or, in very limited cases, up) in terms of returns through various forms
of promotion. This is what commonly happens in a price war: the price is driven
down, promotional costs soar, margins are reduced, yet volume goes up. The recent
customer acquisition programmes of telecommunication organisations in the United
States are prime examples of this phenomenon.
In our example, line 4 shows that competitive activities have only a slight negative impact on the income flow of the loyal group. It might be that those customers
are very brand loyal or have some other reason not to react to competitive pricing
tactics. However, competitive activities do have an impact on each of the other
groups. As shown, each of the other groups’ income flow is driven down by 5% as
a result of competitive price discounting or other income-flow-reducing activity.
Line 5, therefore, is simply an adjusted income flow for each of the groups after
taking into account environmental factors and competitive activities that will either
increase or decrease each group’s income flow. In effect it is the actual amount spent
by each of the groups in our product category once the adjustments have been made
(i.e., the available income flow from each group at the factory income level). Thus,
our adjusted estimated requirement for loyal customers becomes £1009.80, £997.50
for the switchers, £1140.00 for the emerging group, and £760.00 for the problem
segment.
With overall category demand established, we can move on to determining the
base value each customer group represents to our brand.
Line 6 details our share of requirement. In this case we have been receiving 60%
of the income flow our loyal group spent or will spend in the category. This results
in an income flow of £605.88. The switchers give our brand 40% of their business,
so we receive £399.00 from them. The group of emerging customers’ income flow
of 10% SOR is £114.00. And the problem segment is using our brand for 15% of
their requirement, which results in £114.00 income flow.
Next, we must estimate our costs other than those for brand communication and
profit. This is our allocation for all fixed and variable costs such as those related to
product manufacturing and distribution, staff salaries, general and administrative
costs, and so on. Typically, there will be some justifiable variation in costs attributed
to different groups. For example, new customers generally incur greater administrative costs as accounts are established, promotional offers extended, and so on.
Established customers, on the other hand, are often the easiest and most efficient to
serve. They understand the product, require less hand-holding, are acquainted with
our products and services, can explain easily and quickly what they want or need,
and are commonly receptive to our communication efforts.
In our example, we determined that 75% of the total income flow will be needed
to cover all these noncommunication costs for our loyal group. As shown on line 8,
Complete Spreadsheet on ROCI
363
they cost somewhat less to service than the switchers and the emerging group, both
of which have more churn and therefore greater ongoing administration expenses.
Finally, as explained earlier, the problem group requires an even higher level of
customer service.
These cost factors give us the contribution margin available for each customer
group in line 9. This is obtained by subtracting the percentage factor in line 8 from
100%. Line 10 expresses the contribution margin in terms of dollars. (Recall that
contribution margin in this approach includes funds available for brand communication and profit only.) It ranges from £151.47 for the loyal group to £79.80 for the
switchers to £22.80 for the emerging group and £11.40 for the problem customers.
At this point it is time to regroup. What we have just done is determine the value
of the four groups of customers at the contribution margin line based on their income
flows to the organisation. If we could generate these income flows without investing
any funds in brand communication, we might be able to justify serving each of
them. However, even if we were able to drive our share of their requirements up
substantially—getting, say, 70–80% of the switchers or emerging category—we
still would have limited funds available for brand communication programmes. This
is the challenge that every brand communication manager faces when using this
type of return on customer investment analysis. There are some customers against
which finite resources simply can’t be invested, or if the investment is made, it must
be through some type of very efficient, low-cost communication activity, which
commonly limits its power and impact. This is not to say that these types of brand
communication programmes are not possible or useful, but it does suggest that targeting and focusing on best customers or at least on those that provide the greatest
opportunity for returned income flows is the first requirement of any brand communication programme.
With this analysis of customer value, we can move to the next step in the process:
identifying the incremental value created by brand communication programmes.
We do this by first estimating the impact on income flows if no brand communication investment was made. This is then compared with the results achieved when we
develop and implement various brand communication programmes. The results are
often surprising.
First, we create the “No Investment” scenario. This is done by estimating or calculating how much the customer group would decline or how much our share of its
requirements would fall if we suspended communication activity during the measurement period. In our example we stated earlier that this is a competitive category
with low loyalty and much competitive brand communication activity. On line 2 we
estimate or calculate that we would lose 20% of the share we receive from our loyals, switchers, and problem groups if no brand communication programmes were
conducted. Even though loyals are familiar with our products, they have many alternatives and need to hear our brand messages to remind them of their value and to
distinguish us from the crowd. Switchers and problems, without messages or incentives to encourage them, have little reason to consider our brand. The market tests
that gave us that data indicated the emerging group is even more vulnerable. We
could expect our SOR there to decrease by 30% during the measurement period.
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ROCI Investment and Measurement Process: A Worked Example
You may recall from the earlier discussion that the customer’s total demand or
income flow in the category does not change as a result of our diminished communication activity. Just the proportion that we receive is impacted.
Lines 12 through 16 are a recalculation of all the components that lead to the net
contribution:
• Since the share of requirement among loyals falls by 20%, the resulting SOR
goes from 60% to 48%. Multiplying this by the group’s category demand of
£1009.80 produces an income flow of £484.70. From this we subtract £363.53 to
cover the 75% provision for product, administrative, and other noncommunication costs. This generates a net contribution from the group of £121.18.
• The share of requirement among switchers falls 20% as well, to an adjusted share
of 32%. Given their category demand of £997.50 and the expected decline without brand communication, we now have an income flow of £319.20, 80%, of
which (£255.36) is for allocated noncommunication expenses. This generates a
net contribution of £63.84.
• As was noted earlier, the emerging group was impacted more by the lack of communication. They are newer to the category, have little previous experience with
our products, and in some cases are still experimenting with products and brands.
Without brand communication, their share of requirement drops by 30%. We can
expect to receive only 7% of their income flow dollars, or £79.80. Subtracting
allocated costs of £63.84 provides a net contribution of £15.96 to our brand.
• Finally, we expect a 20% decrease in share from the problem group. Thus, our
adjusted share of requirement is 12%. This produces an income flow of £91.20.
When allocated noncommunication costs of £82.08 are deducted, we find a net
contribution of £9.12.
The net contribution income flow shown for each group becomes the basis
against which we will measure the incremental gain or loss resulting from brand
communication.
The next step in our analysis is to estimate or calculate the alternative scenario
using one or more brand communication efforts against each group. Again, this
example is for illustrative purposes only but will provide a view of the process.
Those conducting an analysis within their own organisation will have to adjust and
adapt this particular chart to accommodate either more or fewer brand communication elements and activities than shown here.
In this illustration, we have five brand communication efforts, lines 17 through 26.
Some of these efforts have been targeted to each group, although messages and delivery systems may be different. Others we sent to only one or two groups. As part of our
analysis we must determine the cost of each of these brand communication efforts.
As can be seen, we have two lines for each brand communication effort. One is
the identification of the programme and the cost, and the second is the number of
times the activity was used. For example, as shown on line 17, brand communication effort A costs £3.00 to implement against the loyal group. However, it costs
£4.00 to implement against the switchers and emerging customers, and had it been
Complete Spreadsheet on ROCI
365
used to reach the problem segment, it would have cost £5.00. The costs of delivery
are based on message delivery systems that differ based on the ease or difficulty of
reaching each group.
Line 18 shows the number of times brand communication effort A was used
against each group. It was used twice against the loyals, once against the switchers
and emerging groups, and not used with the problem group.
Lines 19 through 26 repeat this process for brand communication efforts B
through E. As can be seen, there is a mix of communication efforts going against all
of the four groups, with varying levels of intensity, based on the planned brand communication programme.
Line 27 is a summary of investment against each customer group during the
measurement period. This is simply an addition of the cost of each brand communication effort A multiplied by the number of times it was used. For example, for the
loyal group we used brand communication effort A twice at a cost of $3.00 each or
a total of $6.00. We used the same communication effort once with switchers at a
cost of $4.00.
If we total all the brand communication efforts and the number of times they
were used, we arrive at line 27. For example, we invested $18.00 against loyals,
$15.50 against switchers, $16.75 against emerging customers, and $4.50 against the
problem group.
In the previous section we dealt with the question “What if we made no communication investment whatsoever; what would happen to our share of requirement? And what would happen to our brand?” In this section we turn the question
around to ask “What happens to our share of requirement and our brand if we invest
all this money in these customers and prospects? How much—if any—will our business increase? And will our profits increase as a result?”
Just as in the “No Communication Investment” scenario, the key is to estimate or
calculate the change in share of requirement that results from a planned brand communication effort. This estimate uses historical behavioural data, such as the responsiveness of customers and prospects to messages, incentives, and delivery
programmes. As was discussed in an earlier section, we are not trying to evaluate
each individual, functionally specific communication effort. Instead, we are attempting to determine the synergistic effort produced by all elements of a brand communication programme.
Once we determine how much, if any, our share of requirement will change as a
direct result of our brand communication programme, we can recalculate all of the
income, costs, and net contribution for each group.
• Even though we invested £18.00 in communicating with the loyals, there was no
impact on share of requirement. However, since our original intention had been
to maintain our current SOR level, our objective has been achieved. Our income
flow remains at £605.88, with 75% (£454.41) of this allocated to noncommunication costs. However, we must now deduct our £18.00 communication expenditure to arrive at our net contribution of £133.47.
366
13
ROCI Investment and Measurement Process: A Worked Example
• We estimate that our share of requirement among switchers will increase by
10%, using our brand communication programme, giving us a total share of their
income flow of 44%. This would produce an income flow of £438.90. While
income has increased, so have our costs; 80% (£351.12) of the income is allocated to noncommunication costs. After we subtract our brand communication
investment of £15.50, we have a net contribution of £72.28.
• Emerging customers are very receptive to our messages, and we are able to
increase our share of requirement by 40%, giving us a new share of 14% of their
income flow. This produces an adjusted income flow of £159.60, 80%, of which
(£127.68) is required for noncommunication expenses. When we subtract the
£16.75 brand communication investment, we are left with a net contribution
of £15.17.
• The problem segment unfortunately had a very slight change in share of requirement as a result of the brand communication programme. The £4.50 we invested
in this group produced an 1% increase in our share of requirement. Our income
flow becomes £115.14, with £103.63 in noncommunication costs. After deducting our £4.50 communication investment, we are left with a net contribution
of £7.01.
We now can develop the actual calculation of the return on brand communication
investment or, better said, the return on customer investment. Only three lines are
used in that calculation:
• Line 16, our net contribution under the “No Communication Investment”
scenario.
• Line 33, our net contribution under a communication investment scenario.
• Line 27, the total amount of communication spending occurring under the communication investment scenario.
For each group we look at the incremental gain or loss in net contribution under
the two scenarios. This is simply line 33 minus line 16. Because we are comparing
net contribution values after all communication spending has been deducted, we are
looking at the change in profitability that each group of customers or prospects can
contribute. The return on investment is calculated by taking the incremental gain/
loss (the “return”) in line 34 and dividing it by line 27, total brand communication
investment.
• Our loyal group received the largest portion of our communication spending,
$18.00. That investment created no impact on our share of requirement versus
our historical level. However, the alternative was to suspend communication, and
in that event we likely would have lost 20% of our share among this key group.
By spending the $18.00, we maintained our share and added to our profitability
in the amount of $12.29 ($133.47 vs $121.18). Our return on investment is 68%
($133.47—$121.18) ÷ $18.00.
Complete Spreadsheet on ROCI
367
• Switchers increased their net contribution from $63.84 under the “No
Communication Investment” scenario to $72.28. This is an incremental gain of
$8.44, which, when divided by the communication investment of $15.50, produces an ROCI of 54%.
• Communication dollars against the emerging customer groups did not have as
much impact. The net contribution actually fell from $15.96 to $15.17. While we
were able to increase our share of requirement, the additional income was not
sufficient to offset the communication costs. There is a loss of $0.79 and an
ROCI of −5%. This illustrates why it is often true that new customers are expensive to acquire and their value often occurs over time and not immediately. In
many cases organisations are better off trying to nurture the business they have
established from existing customer relationships before investing significant
amounts to acquire new customers. The true value of customer acquisition usually cannot be reflected in a business-building model such as this since the time
frame is limited. There is, however, long-term value in acquiring new customers.
• Communication to the problem group also produced a negative impact on the
bottom line. While share of requirement has a modest increase, net contribution
went from $9.12 to $7.01, an incremental loss of $2.11, and an ROCI of −47%.
While this illustration is based on a real-world example, it has been adapted to
illustrate the process. In other industries where this process has been used, similar
results have been found.
Index
Numbers and Symbols
#StopTheWedding, 58
A
Above-the-line communication, 93
Account and media planning process, 183
Actual ROCI, 143
Adaptation vs. standardisation, 224
Administrative, 41
Ad nauseam, 66
Agency imperatives, 186
Agency interactive perspective, 229
Aging population, 17
AIDA, 96
Amazon.com, 154
Analysing and understanding the data, 118
Annual marketing plan, 167
Application of information technology, 83
Brand building, 168, 215
Brand communication planning matrix,
136, 140
Brand contact audit, 126
Branded, 78
Branded strategy, 10
Brand equity, 9, 98
Branding, communication, 173
Brand Network, 129
Brand or organisation relationships, 105–106
Brand relationships, 128–131
Brands, 10, 227
and branding, 9
Brand structure, 74
Broadening influences, 188
Budgeting approaches in practice, 208–211
Building a customer/channel relationship
database, 115
Business building, 167–168
B
Back-flow communication model, 127
The back-flow model of brand contacts, 127
Banal, unappealing, unexciting messages, 149
B&G Foods Inc., 156
Barriers to IGMC development and implementation, 231
Bartle Bogle Hegarty, 153
Behavioural aggregation of customers, 119
Behavioural objectives, 124–125
Beirut disaster, 177
Below-the-line activities, 51
Benetton, 160
Best Practices IMC, 114
Blogs, 57
BMW, 169
The Body Shop, 76
Boston box, 148
C
Calculating customer value, 122
Calculating return on customer investment, 213–215
Capabilities, 225
Capability development, 199
Capital flows, 70
Centralised marketing communication
activities, 200
Central theory of IMC, 4
Change drivers, 173–174
Change scenario, 174
Changing role of communication, 50–59
Changing role of consumers, 59–66
Chinese, 92
Closed-loop, 83
Closed-loop systems, 144, 207–208
Coca-Cola, 53, 152
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
P. J. Kitchen, M. E. Tourky, Integrated Marketing Communications,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76416-6
369
370
The Coke Studio, 125
Colgate, 155
Colgate Palmolive, 191
Command and control management, 197
Communication control, 229
Communication influencers, 177
Communication planning matrix, 140–141
Communication strategy, 156–158
Communication systems, 13, 16–17
Communication transition to a global
brand-oriented approach, 72–76
Compensation system, 202
Competing internationally, 70
ConAgra Brands, 156
Concentration, 151–152
Concept of incremental returns, 213
Connection, 199
The consumer builds the brand in
memory, 129
Consumer-controlled electronic environment, 57
Consumer information processing, 63
Consumer orientation, 161
Contact points and preferences,
104–105, 125–128
Contact preferences, 127–128
Cooperation, 199
Coordination, 137–138, 153, 199
Coordination and control, 59
Core capability, 42
Corporate brands, 10
Corporate communication, 78, 79, 168–169
Corporate communication and marketing
communication: an integrated
approach, 81
The corporate communication/marketing
communication plan, 185
Corporate identity, 78–79
Corporate image, 79–80
Corporate/marketing brand interface, 226–227
COVID-19, 221
Creative brief, 182
Creative execution
gaining and retaining customers and
influencing stakeholders, 147–170
Creative planning processes, 182
Creativity, 228–229
Creativity and IGMC, 159–163
Creativity templates, 163–164
Critical requirements for IGMC programs, 89–90
Cross-border trade, 70
Cultural characteristics, 175
Cultural context, 38
Index
Cultural drivers, 174–178
Current or potential value, 206
Customer and consumer mind-sets are the
strategic imperative, 149–150
Customer-centric organisation, 198
Customer-driven, 25
Customer management structure, 200
Customer marketing and communication
database, 114
Customer/prospect valuation, 103–104
D
Database costs, 116–117
Database marketing, 56
Data consolidation and analysis, 203
Decode, 64
Decoded, 65
Dedra, 153
Development and importance of integrated
approaches, 53–55
DewMocracy, 77
Difference between ROI and ROCI, 139
Digitalization, 13–14, 18, 26, 60
Dior, 151
Direct marketing, 55–56
Distribution channels, 24
Distribution-driven marketers, 98
Distribution-driven marketplaces, 21–25, 45
Distribution-driven system, 44
Does the strategy drive objectives, 150
Do objectives drive the strategy, 150
Dow Chemical, 42, 75
Drive for integrated approaches in a global
context, 66–67
E
Early stage IMC study outcomes, 180
Economy of resources, 152
Effectiveness and creativity in advertising, 162
Eight-step integrated global marketing
communication planning process, 101–110
Eight-step planning process, 113
Elements of the organization, 75
An embedded brand symbol, 130
Emergence of the global consumer, 52–53
Emotional impressions, 61
Enablers of an IGMC-friendly environment, 197–200
Encode, 62
Endorsed, 78
Endorsed strategy, 10
Index
Entry context, 38
Environmental turbulence, 2
Equity, 9
Estimate of return on customer investment, 107–108
Estimating returns, 141
Estimating ROCI, 138–141
Ethics and moral judgement, 5
Expanding brand integration, 188
External/internal alignment, 138
Exxon, 94
F
Facebook, 57
Factors impacting consumer behavior, 60
Fields of experience, 65
Financial and strategic integration, 83–84
Financial measures, 99–100
Flexibility, 155–156
4Ps, 72
France Telecom SA, 155
From inside-out to outside-in, 206–207
From marketplace to marketspace, 223
G
General approach to customer valuation, 121–122
Generation of income, 216
Gillette, 142
Global advertising campaigns, 32
Global building blocks, 50
Global customer/prospect databases, 102–103
Global databases for developing customer
definitions, 113–121
Global developments and IGMC, 157
Global financial crisis (GFC), 221
Global growth in advertising and promotion, 51–52
Global integration, 40, 42
Globalization, 70
Globalization of markets, 69
Globalized marketing communication agency
capabilities, 59
Globalizing businesses, 71
Globally standardised products, 52
Global managers, 32
Global marketplace, 29, 32–36
Global marketplace drivers, 36–40
Global marketplace story, 33–36
Global perspective, 49
Global processes, 90
Goldenberg, J., 163
371
Golden days, 224
Grey Advertising, 184
H
Heretical view, 83
High-and low-context cultures, 176
Hong Kong, 148
Horizontal organization, 100
Horizontal organizsational structures, 100–101
How communication works, 62–66
How customers receive marketing communications, 135
How marketing communication works,
49–67, 187
HP beat Dell Inc., 120
HSBC Holdings PLC, 177
Huawei 5G, 151
Hyper-globalistic view, 33
I
Identify and value customers and prospects, 92–93
IGMC, 89
IGMC communication planning matrix—level
two, 216
IGMC company context: four forces
model, 159
IGMC drivers and agency
Interaction, 173–193
IGMC eight-step planning process, 114
IGMC or global potentialities, 157
IGMC triangle, 167
Image, 80
IMC defined, 84–85
IMC study findings, 179–181
Imperialism, 38
Implementing the IGMC strategy, 113–145
Implications for international media
research, 190–192
Inc., 133
Income flows, 104, 123–124
Incremental return, 208
Individual brands, 10
Information, 13
Informational tool, 56–59
Information or data gathering, 203
Information technology, 14–15, 18
Information technology building blocks, 18
Initiative, 150–151
Inside-out approach, 91
Inside-out methods, 219
Instagram, 57
372
Integrated agency, 173
Integrated agency perspective, 181–188
Integrated approaches, 50
Integrated communication, 76–78, 80
Integrated marketing communications
campaign, 120
Intellectual property, 13, 15–16, 18
Interactive customer-driven marketplace, 25–29
Interactive model, 29
Interactive response capabilities, 95–96
Internal organizational structure, 224–225
Investment and allocation, 142–143
Investments and measurement, 229
K
Kellogg’s, 153
Kotler, Philip, 72
L
Lancia, 153
Leadership, 222
Levi, 64, 153
Localized, 89
Long-term memory (LTM), 63
L’Oreal, 76
Louis Vuitton, 151
M
Making Measurement Make Sense, 211
Management structure, 200–205
Manage multiple systems, 96–97
Maneuver, 152–153
Manufacturer-driven, 45
Manufacturer-driven system, 45
Market analysis, 204
Marketer-driven organizations, 98
Market-focused organisation, 201
Marketing communication, 71
Marketing communication changes, 50
Marketing communication management
structure, 202
Marketing communication paradox
divergence and integration, 178–179
Marketing communication transitions, 17–29
Marketing communications process, 203–205
Marketing organizations, 45
Marketing Science Institute (MSI), 195, 211
Marketplace evolution and revolution, 132
Marketplace measurement, 110, 143–145
Marketplaces, 223
Marketplace transition, 13
Market segmentation/aggregation, 118
Index
Market segment design, 201–203
Marketspaces, 223
and marketplaces, 1–3, 6
Marketspace to mindspace, 192
Market strategy development, 204
Market team structure, 202
Market understanding, 204
Mars Food, 156
Marvel Products, 33–36, 40, 43
Mass market, 51
McDonald’s, 98
McKinsey business screen, 148
Measurement of Integrated Marketing
Communications (IMC) performance, 195
Measurement of the IGMC performance, 211–212
Measurement process, 139–141
Measuring marketing return on investment
(ROI), 195
Measuring short-term and long-term returns
on marketing, 215–218
Media planning process, 184
Media research vehicles, 226
Media revolutions, 73
Media scenario, 187–189
Media selection, 133–135
Message and incentive development and
delivery, 106–107, 131–138
Message incentives, 189–190
Message or incentive development, 204
Message or incentive distribution, 205
Message or incentive preparation or production, 204
Message or incentive response analysis, 205
Messages or incentives, 135–137
Micro-and niche markets, 175
Micromarkets, 51
Mind maps, 228–229
Monolithic, 78
Monolithic strategy, 10
Morris, Simon, 161
Mountain Dew, 77
Mrs. Butterworth’s pancake syrup, 156
Multidomestic organizations, 36
Multinational companies, 41
Multinationalization, 81
N
Neuroscience, 61
New media, 188
Nexus of marketing communication strategy, 150
NGO, 58
Nike, 133
Index
373
O
Objective and Task method, 210
Omar Khayyam, 229
One Brand, 54
One sight, one sound, 82
One-sight, one-sound integration complete and
insufficient, 3
One-to-one markets, 175
One-way communication, 80
Operational context, 38
Orange, 154
Orange SA, 155
Organizational constraints, 223–224
Organizational reengineering, 156–158
Original equipment manufacturers
(OEM), 158
Outside-in, 219
Outside-in approach, 32, 77
Outside-in budgeting, 206
Redefining the scope of marketing
communication, 83
Redesign organizational structures, 224
Regionalized, 59
Relevance, 134
and receptivity, 134
Renault, 176
Renault 5, 176
The Renault 5: a culturally adjusted IGMC
approach, 176
Requirements of a global marketing organization, 40–43
Research-poor consumer environment, 225–226
Responsiveness to national environments, 40
Return on customer investment (ROCI), 213
Return on investment (ROI), 99, 211
Revised brand management structure, 200
ROCI process, 214
P
P&G, 73
Paradigm shift, 187
Paradoxical mirroring, 179
Pepsodent toothpaste, 52
Perceived identity, 79
Percentage of sales technique, 210
Plan global campaigns centrally, 191
Plan Norway, 58
Playboy magazine, 97
Point-of-sale displays, 50
Polycentralism, 36
Polychronic information-processing, 177
Practical application of incremental revenue to
the firm, 212–215
Price-and non-price-related sales promotion, 190
Process vs. output, 59
Product-driven marketplace, 18–21
Product life cycle, 38
Promotional mix elements, 82
Promotional tool, 56–59
Publicis Groupe, 184
Q
Quaker Oats, 156
Quasi or fake relationships, 66
S
Saatchi & Saatchi, 183
Saatchi “integrated” innovations in communications, 186
Satisfied customers, 228
Separating short-term and long-term
returns, 141
Setting the budget, 205–206
Short-term memory (STM), 63
Siemens, 164
Silo Busting: How to Execute on the Promise
of Customer Focus, 199
Simplicity, 154–155
Stages in IMC development, 82
Stages of marketing communication program, 159
Standard industrial code (SIC), 103
Standardise, 52
Standardization, 59, 90, 180
Starbucks, 62
Start with customers, 91
States United to Prevent Gun Violence
(SUPGV), 93
Strategic business units (SBUs), 103
Strategic thinking in the IGMC
mode, 147–149
Surprise, 154
System 2 thinking, 61
R
Receptivity, 134–135
Recycle, 144–145
T
Tactical coordination, 82
Targetbase (2020), 117
Index
374
Technological change, 16
Technology, 13
The template in action, 164–165
Three elements in valuing customers and
prospects, 122–125
Three-step typology for application of IGMC
processes, 166–169
Time-worn models or processes, 148
Tmall Luxury Pavilion, 151
Top-down internal communication, 197
Top ten ad agencies by gross income, 181
Touch and feel, 45
Traditional advertising, 188
Traditional approach to marketing communication management, 196–197
Traditional budgeting methods, 209–210
Traditional communication, 12
Traditional communication systems, 29
Traditional planning approaches, 97
Traditional view, 84
Training investment, 227–228
Transitional challenge, 12
The transitioning metaphor, 221–223
True assets of the firm, 216
True value of the database, 119–121
Trump, Donald, 161
Twitter, 57
Two-way—interactive, 80
Types of data needed, 117–118
U
Uncle Ben’s, 156
Understand brand contacts, 125–127
The UNHATE campaign, 160
Unification, 54
Unisys, 164
Unisys historical ad, 166
Unity of command, 153
(Universal) appeals, 52
Universal Product Codes (UPCs), 23
Urbanization, 16
V
Value the brand, 98–99
Valuing customers and prospects,
116–117, 123
Volkswagen, 130
The Volkswagen example, 130
Volvo, 152
W
Way forward, 230
WeChat, 151
Weibo, 151
What is a good ROI or ROCI
and what is a bad ROI
or ROCI, 218
What kind of database do you need, 116
Whiz-Bang, 40
Whiz-Bang Stores, 33–36, 43
Wolff Olins, 154
Z
Zero-based budgeting approach, 109