Catching the Buzz:
Promotional Strategy and
Integrated Marketing
Communication
Chapter Objectives
• Understand the role of marketing communication
• Understand the communications model
• List and describe the traditional elements of the
promotion mix
• Explain how word of mouth marketing, buzz
marketing, viral marketing, and guerrilla
marketing provide effective marketing
communication
2
Chapter Objectives (cont’d)
• Describe integrated marketing
communication and its characteristics
• Explain the important role of database
marketing in integrated marketing
communication
• Explain the stages in developing an IMC
plan
3
Real People, Real Choices
• General Motors R* Works (Vince O’Brien)
• Needed marketing plan supporting
Chevy’s commitment to skiing while
increasing sales at local dealerships
 Option 1: continue ski promotion but better qualify
test-drive traffic
 Option 2: offer season passes to local ski mountain as
purchase incentive for designated SUV
 Option 3: scrap ski relationship and look for another
platform to promote Chevy’s products
4
Tailoring Marketing
Communication to Consumers
• Promotion: the coordination of marketing
communication efforts to influence
attitudes or behavior
• Marketing communication:
 Informs
 Reminds
 Persuades
 Builds relationships
5
Tailoring Marketing Communication
to Consumers (cont’d)
• Integrated marketing communication
(IMC): process that marketers use to plan,
develop, execute, and evaluate
coordinated, measurable, persuasive
brand communication programs over time
to targeted audiences
 Consumers see the variety of messages from a firm
as a whole.
6
Discussion
• With an IMC program, firms need to
coordinate all marketing communication
activities.
 What inherent problems do you see in ensuring this
coordination?
7
Figure 12.2:
The Communication Model
8
The Communication Model
• Encoding: process of translating
an idea into a form of
communication
• Source: organization or individual
sending the message
• Message: the communication in
physical form
• Medium: communication vehicle
used to reach members of a target
audience
FRAM.COM
9
The Communication Model (cont’d)
• Receiver: individual or organization that
intercepts and interprets the message
• Decoding: process whereby a receiver
assigns meaning to a message
• Noise: anything that interferes with
effective communication
• Feedback: receiver’s reactions to the
message
10
Marketing Communication
Strategy and Promotion Mix
• Promotion mix:
communication
elements the marketer
controls
Advertising
Sales promotion
Public relations
Personal selling
Direct marketing
11
Figure 12.3: Control Continuum
12
Mass Appeals
• Advertising:
Nonpersonal
communication from
an identified sponsor
using mass media
13
Mass Appeals (cont’d)
• Sales promotion: contests, coupons, and
other incentives designed to build interest
or encourage product purchase during a
specified period
• Public relations: communication activities
that create/maintain a positive image of a
firm and its products
14
Personal Appeals
• Personal selling: direct interaction
between a company representative and a
customer
• Direct marketing: efforts to gain a direct
response from individual consumers
15
Group Activity/Discussion
• Traditional promotion elements include
advertising, sales promotion, public relations,
personal selling and direct marketing.
• --Which do you feel is most effective for each of
the following clients?




1. a cellular phone service provider
2. a hotel
3. a university
4. the manufacturer of a new soft drink
16
Buzz Appeals
• Buzz: everyday people who help
marketing efforts by talking about a
product or a company to others
• Buzz marketing: high-profile entertainment
or news that gets people to talk about the
brand
• Viral marketing: entertaining or informative
messages designed to be passed along
17
Buzz Appeals (cont’d)
• Word of mouth (WOM) marketing:
activities that give people a reason to talk
about the product
• Guerrilla marketing: activities that
“ambush” consumers with promotional
content where not expected
18
Discussion
• Some say buzz marketing is just a craze
that will fade in a year or two.
--Is it here to stay?
--Do you think buzz is effective? Why or why not?
19
Group Activity
• Your team is a word-of-mouth marketing
department for a sports equipment
company such as Spalding.
• Develop ways to create buzz for your
company’s products.
SPALDING.COM
20
Integrated Marketing Communication
(IMC)
• With IMC, marketing communication
programs create and maintain long-term
relationships with customers by satisfying
their needs.
• IMC unifies all marketing communication
tools to send a consistent, persuasive
message.
21
Characteristics of IMC
• Creates a single unified voice for firm.
• Begins with the customer.
• Seeks to develop relationships with
customers through one-to-one marketing.
• Relies on two-way communication.
22
Characteristics of IMC (cont’d)
• Focuses on stakeholders, not just
customers.
• Generates a continuous stream of
communication.
• Measures results based on actual
feedback.
23
IMC and Database Marketing
• Database marketing: creation of ongoing
relationship with a set of customers who
have identifiable interest in a product
• --Customers’ responses become part of
ongoing communication process.
 Is interactive
 Locates new customers
 Is measurable
Builds relationships
Stimulates cross-selling
Yields trackable
responses
24
Discussion
• Consumers are concerned that databases
invade privacy.
 --Do you feel this is a valid concern?
 --How can marketers use databases effectively and
protect individuals’ rights?
25
Developing the IMC plan (Figure 12.4)
26
Developing the IMC Plan
• Step 1: Identify target audiences
• Step 2: Establish communication
objectives





Create awareness
Inform the market
Create desire
Encourage purchase and trial
Build loyalty
27
Figure 12.5: The Hierarchy of Effects
28
• Step 3: Determine and allocate the
marketing communication budget
 Determine total promotion budget
 Top-down budgeting techniques
 Percentage-of-sales
 Competitive-parity
 Bottom-up
 Objective-task
29
• Step 3: Determine and allocate the
marketing communication budget
(continued)
 Push strategy: move products through the channel by
convincing channel members to offer them
 Pull strategy: move products through the channel by
building desire among consumers, convincing
retailers to respond to demand
30
• Step 3: Determine and allocate the
marketing communication budget
(continued)
 Allocate the budget to a specific promotion mix
 Organizational factors
 Market responsiveness
 Market potential
 Market size
31
• Step 4: Design the promotion mix
 Type of appeal
 AIDA model: communication goals of attention,
interest, desire, and action
 Structure of the appeal
 Communication channel
THEWOMB.COM
32
• Step 5: Evaluate the effectiveness of the
communication program
 Are communication objectives adequately translated
into marketing communication that is reaching the
right target market?
33
Discussion
• Some people argue there’s really nothing
new about IMC.
 What do you think? Why?
 Why is the IMC plan superior to conventional
advertising?
34
Real People, Real Choices
• General Motors R* Works (Vince O’Brien)
• Vince chose option 2: offer season passes
to local ski mountain as purchase
incentive for designated SUV.
• Chevrolet has completed its sixth year of
this Ski Chevy promotional program, and
it’s all smooth going from here!
SKICHEVY.COM
35
Marketing in Action Case:
You Make the Call
• What is the decision facing American
Express?
• What factors are important in
understanding this decision situation?
• What are the alternatives?
• What decision(s) do you recommend?
• What are some ways to implement your
recommendation?
36
Keeping It Real: Fast-Forward to Next
Class, Decision Time at BzzAgent
• Meet Joe Chernov, director of PR at
BzzAgent, Inc.
• Buzz marketers accused of “perpetrating
large scale deception upon consumers”
• The decision: What public relations
strategy to use to respond to the criticism?
37