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week7discussioninst.docx7.1 Integrated Marketing Communications
The concept of integrated marketing communications is more than just putting together good ad campaigns. It is a fully integrated set of promotion mix tools communicating the same clear, consistent, and compelling message about the offering. For example:
· TV ad campaign to create interest in the product using a celebrity spokesperson (advertising creating awareness)
· Appearance of the celebrity on a TV talk show (public relations to generate interest)
· E-mail from the celebrity endorser offering a promotional price (direct marketing to spark desire to purchase)
· Point-of-purchase display featuring celebrity endorser (sales promotion to remind consumer of product benefits and encourage purchase action)
· Demonstration by sales clerk (personal selling to close the sale bringing consumer to action)
· Facebook page hosted by the celebrity (post-purchase activity to reduce purchase dissonance)
In this case, the celebrity endorser is the common thread communicating the company's message. The company may have decided to use a celebrity endorser who is well respected and highly visible to its target market. This is part of the creative strategy for encoding the message to consumers. In other cases, the common thread (sometimes known as the Big Idea) might be a particular graphics approach, a character created solely for the company (e.g. Flo for Progressive Insurance), or other creative device that carries forth in all communications.
Here is a tongue-in-cheek video demonstrating how advertising and public relations were two tools used in an IMC campaign. The message to communicate was how to pronounce a last name. See how this was done using IMC principles.
Can you think of an IMC campaign? Progressive is one example, but there are plenty out there. Feel free to go back in history and think of campaigns like IBM's launch of the personal computer using the Charlie Chaplin-like character or Coke's I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing campaign, or Apple's IMC campaigns used on every new product launch. Remember, don't just focus on the advertising. Find those other promotion tools they used to convey the selling proposition. You may want to read most of the week's readings before tackling this discussion topic to get a better idea of what all the promotion mix tools are, and how the AIDA model (as noted in the reading highlights in the example above) works.
Required: Post your example in this Week Discussion Forum, Topic 1: IMC Campaigns. You can use the bulleted example above as your format.
7.5 Public Relations Activities and Tools
This section of this Week’s readings highlights the basics of public relations tool and activities. These tools include:
· press releases
· sponsorships
· cause-related marketing
· product placement
Many companies with small budgets mistakenly think they can use "free" advertising as they define public relations. Indeed, some companies do rely only on public relations only if the unique selling proposition is so newsworthy that the news media will be the carriers of the company's message. Apple is a master at this whenever that company launches a new product.
Can you think of any other product that relied solely on public relations? What was it about its unique selling proposition that made this feasible for this company?
Required: Post your example in this Week’s Discussion Forum, Topic 2: Public Relations
Part 2. The first 4 questions are about IMC which we study this Week.
The best approach is to think like a marketer, which includes thinking like a business person. This is the culmination of all that you have learned about marketing. You will consider the micro and macro environments, the characteristics of your target segment and their needs, your product's differentiation, unique selling proposition, and positioning. You will consider whether or not you decided to make any changes to the product, pricing, or channel strategies. Many students consult with family and friends for ideas.
1. Then, you will come up with a "Big Idea" for your 2018 campaign to target your segment with your product. You should be able to articulate your idea in a simple, straightforward sentence. The idea will be at the heart of your IMC. Remember that the IMC delivers a clear, consistent, and compelling message. Be sure that everything you do in the four answers adheres to these three Cs. Your answer should re-state the name of your segment. This is something new that you, the head of marketing, are creating and it should be big enough to be worthy of your big name brand. It should deal specifically with your product and not the parent company. It should be a marketing idea and not an operations or finance or some other department idea. You should describe it just as if you were making a pitch to the CEO and other departments VPs. You want to wow them. It should be challenging but real world. the next three questions separate out various concepts, but it is best to design your whole campaign before tackling each separate question.
2. Avoid the temptation to copy from the course material. The idea is to demonstrate that you can apply this concept to your product. Also, the model in the courseware is not that great. These are objectives so they need to be measurable and to have time frames. These are communications objectives so they should relate to your communications activities. You are asked for three and not all four that make up the AIDA process, but you may combine two of the AIDA process elements into one objective. For example, you might want to run a guerrilla marketing stunt helping it to go viral that will both build awareness/capture attention (A) and create interest (I) and you would launch the stunt on New Year's Eve 2017 with the objective of capturing attention and stimulating interest among 80% of your target segment by February 2018. So, the stunt is the task and the 80% awareness/interest is the objective for that task. Do these as bullet points. Show your task and your objective. Do your math so it makes sense to you. You don't have to present the math just the task, the AIDA element, and the objective will do. For illustrative purposes only: 100 customers - 80% are aware and interested. Of these, you will create desire among another 80%. You now have 64 out of 100 target segment customers desiring your product. If you plan on closing the sale among half of these, 50% Action, you end up with 32 customers buying your product as a result of your IMC campaign.
3. Here you will demonstrate what you learned about the tools in the promotion mix. There are five of them. To the extent you use a good mix of them and apply them creatively and integrate them so they work together or in tandem with each other, you will demonstrate the rigor with which you can apply the tools to your product for your target segment. Avoid the temptation to simply stick with television advertising. Use your critical thinking skills.
4. This answer depends on your previous answer. For each of your ideas for use of your tools, specify the medium you will use. If you use social media, you need to be specific. Which ones and how exactly will you use the tools need to be answered. So the third answer says what you will do and this answer says where you will do it - be specific and don't forget what you know about your target segment. Be creative.
You may have little to no research for this set of questions as it is your own work.
