Chapter-11.

Integrated Marketing Communication.

Chapter -11.

INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION (PROMOTION).

- In addition to:
 Developing a good product.
 Pricing it attractively.
 Making it accessible to target customer.
Companies need to communicate with:
 Present/ Potential customer.
 Retailer/ Distributor/ Suppliers.
 Other Stakeholders.
 General Public.
- For this, companies need to determine:
 What to say?
 Whom to say?
 How often to say?
- To communicate effectively, marketers create/ use the marketing communication mix/
promotion mix.
- Promotion mix made up of:
o Advertising:
 Paid form of non-personal presentation & promotion of ideas/ goods/
services by an identified sponsor.
o Sales Promotion:
 Variety of short term incentives to encourage trial/ purchase of product/
service.
o Public Relations & Publicity.
 Variety of programs designed to promote/ protect company’s image/
individual product.
o Personal Selling:
 Face to face interaction with one/ more prospective purchasers for the
purpose of making presentation/ answering questions/ procuring order.
o Direct Marketing:
 Use of mail/ phone/ fax/ e-mail/ other non-personal contact tools to
communicate directly with/ solicit direct response from specific
customer & prospectors.

Communication Process:
• To communicate effectively, market need to understand the fundamental elements
underlying effective communication.
• Elements could be:

Sender Encoding Message Decoding Receiver

Media

Noise

Feedback Response

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• Communication occurs between two parties: Sender/ Receiver.

• Communication tools are:
 Message
 Medium of message
• Communication function is:
 Encoding.
 Decoding.
 Response.
 Feedback.

• Noise made up of random/competing messages that may interfere with intended

communications.
• For effective communications to happen:
 Sender must know what audience is to be reached.
 Sender must know what response is required.
 Sender must encode message in a way that takes into account receiver’s
decoding process.
 Message should be transmitted through efficient media.
 Feedback channels should be developed to monitor receiver’s response
to message.
 Example:-
• Humans smile when they are happy.
• Chimpanzees smile when angry/ before attacking.

• Each communications should be filtered by receivers

 Selective Attention.
 Selective Distortion. This needs to be noted by sender.
 Selective Recall.

Developing Effective Communication:

• To develop effective communication, procedure could be:
 Identify target audiences.
 Determine communication objective.
 Design the message.
 Select the communication channel.
 Establish total promotion budget.
 Decide on promotion mix.
 Message promotions results.
 Message / co-ordinate integrated marketing communication process.

Identifying Target Audience:

• Marketing communication must start with a clear target audience in mind.
• Audiences could be :
 Potential Buyers.
 Current Users.

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 Deciders.
 Influencers.

• Audiences could be:

 Individuals.
 Groups.
 Particular public/group.
 General public.

• Audiences influences decision on message.

• Audiences may be analysed using image analysis.
• Image:
o Set of beliefs/ ideas / impression that a person regarding an object.
o People’s attitude/ actions towards an object are highly conditioned by the object
image.
o Image of a company analysed / using semantic differential scale are:-
 Familiarity
 Favorability
o Based on analysis, F-F may be created.

Favourable Attitude

Low High
Familiarity Familiarity

Unfaurable Attitude

• Basic communication task determined as per above for relevant audiences.

Determining Communication Objective:

• Once target market and its characteristic are identified, we need to decide on the
desired audience response.
• Ultimate response are:
 High satisfaction.
 Favorable word of mouth.
 Purchase.

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• However, purchase behaviour is the end result of a process of constant decision
making.
• Task pf communication is to move target audiences into higher states / limits of
readiness to buy.

• Typically, response could be (sought though communication):

 Cognitive.
 Affective.
 Behavioral.

• Cognitive = knowledge (Learn)

• Affective = like / dislike (Feed)
• Behavioral = action tendency (Do)
• Hence, marketing communication could be aimed at:
 More knowledge (Having target audience).
 Changing audience feeling.
 Getting audience to act.

• Above indicate different stage of consumers response.

• Communication objective may be determined through Response Hierarchy Models
(Many Models Exists).
• Model most widely used is Hierarchy of Effect Model.
• Hierarchy of Effects is as shown below:
Awareness.
Cognitive Stage.
Knowledge.

Liking.

Preference. Affective Stage.

Conviction.

Purchase. Behavioural Stage.

- Communication objectives could be:

- Awareness:
o If majority of audience is unaware of object, the communicator’s task is to build
awareness (would be even name recognition).
 Example: Cello:
• During 80s selected 11 cities across India to promotional launch
its product.
• Selected 100 telephone numbers from the directory and called
them.
• They advertised that if the wished “Cello” instead of “Hello”,
they would receive 500/- worth of household items free.

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• Advertised through word of mouth.
• It was very successful.
- Knowledge:
o Target audience may have company/product awareness, but not much use.
o Task is then to select product knowledge as the communication objective.
 Example: Hyundai Santro.
• Compared Santro/ Zen/ Indica for its promotion.
- Liking:
o If target audience knows about product, we need to know how he feels about it.
o If feeling is negative/ unfamiliar, marketer has to find out reasons for the
feelings.
o Then communication objective is to enhance/ convert feeling to a positive/
favourable feeling.

- Preference:
o Target audience may like the product, but may not prefer it to others/ over
others.
o Hence, communication objective is to build constant preference.
o Could be done by promoting differentiators.
 Example: Heinze Tomato Ketchup.
• Smily on a plate compared with other ketchup differentiating
with thickness/ colour/ price.
• “Ziyada Ghada, Ziyada Laal, sirf 48 rupaye main”.

- Conviction:
o Target audience may prefer a product, but may not develop a conviction about
buying it.
o Communicator’s task is to build conviction among interested audience.
 Example: “Yehi Hai Right Choice Baby, Aha”.

- Purchase:
o Some members of target audience may have conviction but may not purchase
due to various reasons such as:
 Need for more information.
 Plan to buy later.
o Communicator’s task is to lead audiences to take the final step.
 Could be through:
 Limited trial period.
 Price benefit for limited period.
 Limited additional benefit.
 Example: “Britannia Khao, World Cup Jao”.

Designing Communication:
- Once desired consumer response is clear, the communicator need to develop/ design an
effective message.
- Ideal message should be as per AIDA model.
 Message should gain attention (A).
 It should hold interest (I).
 Arouse desire (D).

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 Elicit Action (A).
- However, in practice, few messages take consumers all the way from attention to
action. But the AIDA model suggests desirable qualities of any communication.
- To design the message, communicator needs to decide:
 What to say? (Message Content).
 How to say it logically? (Message Structure).
 How to say it symbolically? (Message Format).
 Who should say it? (Message Source).

- Message Content:
o Communicator has to determine what to say to target audience to get desired
response.
o Different customer group may perceive a product in different ways. Hence, the
challenge is to create message that will get the attention of specific customer
groups.
o To determine best message content, communicator may search for:
 Appeal.
 Theme.
 Idea.
 Unique Selling Proposition.
o This amounts to formulating:
 Benefit.
 Motivation.
 Identification.
 Reason.
So that audience thinks about/ investigates product.

o Appeal could be:

 Rational Appeal:
• Appeal to the audience self interest such as a message would
typically show product benefit/ value/ performance/ quality.
• Example: “Aaya Naya Ujala, Char Boondo wala”.

 Emotional Appeal:
• Stirs up positive/ negative emotions that would motivate
purchase.
• Search for right ESP (Emotional Selling Proposition).
• Product may be similar to competition but may have unique
association for consumer.
• Negative appeals such as fear/ guilt/ shame may also be used.
 Example: Tooth Brush.
• Positive appeal could be through humour/ love/ pride/ joy.
 Example:
• Chloromint (Homour).
• Bajaj (Pride).

 Moral Appeal:
• Directed to audience’s sense of what is right & proper.

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o Example: CRY Cards.
• Ideal for promotion of social causes.
o Example: Pulse Polio campaign by Amitabh
Bachchan & Hema Malini.
• Message should ideally be moderately discrepant with audiences
belief. This is challenging task.
o If it is same as audience belief, it would only re-enforce
belief.
o If it is too discrepant, message would be counter argued
and disbelieved.

o Example:
 Mountain Dew: Let’s do something interesting.
 Bournvita : Its milk that makes healthy, but
bournvita advertises as if it helps a child grow
healthier.

- Message Structure:
o Effectiveness of message depends on contact as well as structure.
o Decision in message structure are:
 Stimulus Ambiguity:
• Does the message draw an explicit conclusion for the audience?
• Does the message allow the audience to come to its own
conclusions?
• Conclusion drawing may not be a good idea if:
o Communication is perceived as being untrustworthy.
o Issue is simple (Audience may feel annoyed).
o Issue is highly personal.

• Conclusion drawing is recommended if:

o Product is complex/ Specialised.
o Single/ clear use is intended.

• Stimulus ambiguity may lead to broader market definition &

more spontaneous use of many products.
o Example: Asian Paints- “Sunil Babu, Badhiya Hai”.
o The paint talks of durability even without mentioning it.

 One Sided Presentation Verses Two Sided Presentation:

• One sided presentation work best if audience is initially
predisposed to communicator’s position.
• Two sided is recommended if:
o Audience is opposed to communicator’s position.
o Audience is educated better.
o Audience is exposed to counter advertising.

 Sequence/ Order:
• Sequence of communication is important.

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• If audience is captive (TV), the strongest argument may come at
the end.
• If audience is not captive (Newspaper), the strongest argument
should come first (Headline) to establish attention & interest.
o Example:
 “Dhara Mustard Oil”- Jalebi Ad.
 “Dare to think beyond IIM”- IIPM Ad.

- Message Format:
o Communicator must develop a strong format for the message.
o Decision on format could be:
 Print Advertisement:
• Headline. Newspaper Name
• Copy.
• Visual/ Illustrative. Ear Panels
• Colour.
• Tail Piece/ Sign Off.
Eight Columns
 Radio Advertisement:
• Choice of words.
• Voice durability. Total Area = 400 sq cms.
 Speech Rate.
50 Cms. Front Page
 Rhythm. Solas
 Pitch. Black & White Ads
 Articulation. Have different shades
Of black toned.
• Vocalization.
 Pauses.
 Signs.
 Yawns.

 Television/ Person:
• All as in radio advertisement.
• Body Language.
 Facial expressions.
 Gestures.
 Dress.
 Posture.
 Main Style.

o Product/ Packaging is required to carry messages.

 Colour.
 Texture.
 Scent.

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 Size.
 Shape.
 Packaging Readability.
- Message Source:
o Messages delivered by attractive/ popular sources achieve higher attention/
recall.
o Communicator may use a celebrity as spokes-person.
o Spokes-person is more effective when:
 They personify a key product attribute.
• Example: Tooth paste – Dentist may be shown.
 They are credible.

o Credibility of spokes-person may depend upon:

 Spokes-person’s Expertise:
• Specialised knowledge that person possesses (Doctor/ Professor).
• Example: For Medical advertisement, doctor comes in and
likewise.
 Trust worthiness:
• Now objective/ honest the source is perceived to be (Friends are
more trustworthy).
• Example: Vicks Action 500 (Kuch lete kyon nahi).
 Likeability:
• Spoke-person’s attractiveness to the audience. (Spokes-person
should be natural/ humorous/ candid).
• Example: Cadbury’s Advertisement (Priety Zinta).

o If Audience has:
 Positive attitude towards source/ spokes-person, and
 Positive attitude towards message.
Then a state of congruity exists. This makes congruity more
effective.
 Example:
• Dharmendra for Rajdoot.
• Vishwanathan Anand for NIIT.
o If congruity does not exist, then audience will move towards increasing the
congruity between the two opposite evaluations.
o Hence, popular spokesperson may be utilized to reduce negative attitude
towards message/ product.

Selecting Communication Channel:

- Communicator needs to select efficient channel of communication to carry message.
- Communication channel could be:
 Personal.
 Non-Personal.

- Personal Communication Channel:

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o Personal communication channel involve two/ more persons communicating
directly with each other.
o They may communicate:
 Face to face.
 Person to audience.
 Over telephone.
 Through mail.
o Personal communication channel derive their effectiveness through the
opportunity for:
 Customized.
 Feed back.

o Further, personal communications could be:

 Advocate Channel:
• Company sales-person contacting buyer.
 Expert Channel:
• Independent experts making statements to target buyers.
 Social Channel:
• Neighbours/ Friends/ Family/ Associates talking to target buyers.

o Expert channel & social channel lead to word of mouth.

o Communicator may try to stimulate these channels to provide recommendations
for their products.
o For this purpose, communicator may:
 Identify opinion leaders & communicate to them.
 Work through influential persons for testimonials/ referrals.
 Develop advertisements with higher conversation value.
 Develop word of mouth referral channel to build business (Doctors/
Software).

- Non-Personal Communication Channel:

o Non-personal communication channel carry messages without personal contact/
interactions.
o Channel include:
• Media.
• Atmosphere.
• Events.

 Media consists of:

• Broadcast Media:
 Television/ Radio/ Internet Advertisement.
• Print Media:
 Newspaper/ Magazines/ Direct mail.

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• Electronic Media:
 Audio/ Video Tapes/ CD’s.
• Display Media:
 Hoardings.
 Banners.
 Kiosks (Small Hoardings- on the divider).
 Posters.
 Gantry (Hoardings across the road).

 Atmosphere is basically a packaged environment that create/ reinforce

buyer’s leaning towards product purchase.
• Example:
o World of titan showrooms.
o Multiplex.

 Events are occurrences designed to communicate particular messages to

target audience.
• Example:
o Press conference.
o Inauguration/ First day-first show.
o Sports Sponsorships.

o Non-personal communication may be aimed at opinion leaders who may further

influence target audience through personal communication.

Establishing Total Promotional Budget:

- One of the trickiest/ most difficult marketing decision facing companies is how much to
spend on promotion.
- Budgeting methods could be:
 Affordable method.
 Percentage of sales method.
 Competitive Parity method.
 Objective-and-task method.

- Affordable Method:
o Based on what companies think they can afford.
o Ignores role of promotion as an investment.

- Percentage of Sales Method:

o Budget set at specified percentage of current/ anticipated sales or sales price.
o Specified percentage decided based on past experience or perception of industry
standard.

- Competitive Parity Method:

o Budget set based on competitor’s budgets in previous years.

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o May get pro-rated as per sales volume/ market share.

- Objective-And-Task Method:
o Budget decided by:
 Defining specific objectives of promotion/ communication.
 Determining tasks that are to be performed to fulfill objectives.
 Estimating cost of performing each task.
 Summing up costs to create total budget.
o Example: Dove Soap.
 Sales target : 150 crores.
 Market share : 5%.
 Target audience : 3 crores.
 Awareness objective : 60% of target audience (1.8 crores).
 Induced trial : 60 Lakhs.
 Adoption : 25% of trial (15 Lakhs).
• Sales : 15*2 = 30 Lakhs per month.
• Price per unit : 40/-.
• Sales per year : 40 * 30 * 12 = 144 crores.

- Typical procedure implementation could be:

o Establish market share goal:
 Example:
• Customer segment size : 3 crores.
• Market share objective : 5% (15 Lakhs users).
o Determine % of market share that should be reached by promotion
communication.
 Example:
• Communicator desires to reach 60% of market (180 Lakhs
prospects/ product users).
• Of this, 25% may become loyal/ regular users (15 Lakhs).

- Based on above, create budget for:

o Creating awareness.
o Inducing trials.
o Retaining/ reinforcement of communication.

- Sum up individual costs for total budget.

- This is the basic plan/ budget. This may be received in subsequent stages once
promotion mix/ tools are finalized.

Deciding on the Promotion Mix:

- Companies/ communicators needs to distribute the total promotion budget over the five
promotion tools.
 Advertising.
 Sales Promotion.
 Public Relations & Publicity.
 Sales Force (for personal selling).

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 Direct Marketing.

- Companies search for high communication efficiency by substituting one tool for
another.
- Each communication tool has its own characteristic & cost.
- Factors/ Characteristics that influence communicators choice of promotion tools are:

o Advertising:
 Distinctive characteristic of advertising are:
• Public Presentation:
o Highly public mode of communication.
o Public nature gives product some legitimacy & suggests a
standardised offering.
o Since many people receive same message, buyers know
that their motive for buying would be publicly
understood.

• Pervasiveness:
o It is a pervasive medium & permits seller to repeat a
message many times.
o Buyer can compare messages to competitors.
o Large scale advertising suggests positive things about
seller’s size/ power/ success.
• Amplified Expressions:
o Advertising is impersonal. Audience may not feel
obligated to pay attention or respond.
o It can only carry out a monologue with the audience, not
a dialogue.
o Hence, not as compelling as a sales representative.

 Advertising can be used to:

• Build long term image.
• Trigger quick sales by advertising a sales promotion.
• Build customer traffic at outlets by arousing curiosity.

 Innovative advertising strategies include:

• Advertorial:
o Print advertisement that offers editorial control & are
designed in a way that makes it difficult to distinguish
tem from a newspaper/ magazine contents.
• Infomercial:
o TV commercials that appear to be TV shows but are
really advertisements for products.

o Sales Promotion:
 Sales promotion tools are highly diverse in nature.
• Example:
 Contests.
 Gifts on purchase.

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 Price rebates.

 Sales promotion tools offer them distinctive benefits.

• Communication:
o They gain attention.
o Usually provide information that lead consumers to
product purchase.
• Incentives:
o They incorporate some concessions/ inducement/
contribution that give value to consumer.
• Invitation:
o They include a distinct invitation to engage in transaction
now/ within specified period.

 Effects last for short run to induce trial.

 Help in creating stronger/ greater customer response.

o Public Relations & Publicity:

 Appeal of PR & Publicity based on:
• High credibility:
o News stories/ features are inherently more authentic/
credible to readers than advertisement.

 Ability to catch buyer’s off guard:

• PR can reach prospects that prefer to avoid sales people/
advertisement.
• Message gets through to buyers as news.

 Dramatization:
• Like advertisement, PR can also be used to dramatise a
company/ product.

o Personal Selling:
 Personal selling helps in building up buyers:
• Preference.
• Conviction.
• Action.

 Personal selling has some advantage over advertising. These are:

• Personal Interaction:
o Personal selling involves alive/ immediate/ interactive
relationships between two/ more persons.

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Integrated Marketing Communication.
o Each party is able to observe the other & make
immediate adjustments.

• Cultivation:
o Personal interaction permits relations building of a long
term nature.

• Response:
o Personal selling creates a greater need in buyer to attend/
respond to seller’s offerings.

 However, personal sales force involves a long term commitment. It

cannot be switched on/off like advertising.

o Direct Marketing:
 Characteristic of direct marketing are:
• Non-Public : Message normally addressed to special person.
• Customized : Message can be tailor made.
• Up-to-Date : Message can be prepared quickly for delivery.
• Interactive : Message can be altered based on response.

Factors Involved in Promotion Mix Decisions are:

- Companies must consider several factors in developing their promotion mix strategy
(which tool to use to what extent).
- These factors are:
o Types of Product Markets.
o Push/ Pull Strategy.
o Buyer’s Readiness Stage.
o Product Stage in Product Life Cycle.
o Company’s Market Rank.

- Types of Product Markets:

o Use of promotional tools varies (normally) depending whether product is in:
 Consumer Market.
 Business Market.
o In consumer markets, promotion spending hierarchy normally is:
 Advertising. Sales Promotion.
 Sales Promotion. Advertising.
 Personal Selling. OR Personal Selling.
 Public Relations & Publicity. PR & Publicity.
 Direct Marketing. Direct Marketing.

o In business markets, promotional spending hierarchy could be:

 Personal Selling.
 Sales Promotion.

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 Direct marketing.
 Advertising.
 PR & Publicity.

o In consumer goods, personal selling may help in:

 Increased stock position.
 Enthusiasm building for new products.
 Missionary selling.

o Even if direct customer contact is limited as in channel management.

- Push Vs Pull Strategy:

o Promotion Mix is dependent on whether company chooses a push strategy or
pull strategy to create sales (Major Focus).

o Push Strategy Involves:

 Company’s marketing activities directed primarily at channel
intermediaries (Sales force + Trade promotion).
 Goal is to induce channel intermediaries to order/ carry product &
promote it to end users.
 Suitable when:
• Brand loyalty is low in product category.
• Brand choice is made in the store.
• Product is an impulse item.
• Product benefits are well understood.

o Pull Strategy Involves:

 Marketing activities directed at end users (advertising & sales
promotion).
 Goal is to induce end users to ask channel intermediaries for the product
so that they in turn (channel intermediaries) are induced to order for
product from manufacturer.
 Suitable when:
• Brand loyalty is high in product strategy.
• Purchase decision requires high customer involvement.
• Customers perceive brand differences.
• Customer choose brand before they go to store.
Sales Promotion
- Buyer Readiness Stage:
o Promotion tools vary in their cost effectiveness at different stagesSelling
Personal of buyer
readiness.
o In the early stages of buyer decision process, advertising & publicity are most
Promotion
Cost cost effective.
o In the later stages, sales promotion & personal selling are most effective.
effectiveness
o Cost effectiveness given by graph below: Advertising + Publicity

Awareness Comprehension Conviction

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Integrated Marketing Communication.

o Awareness:
 Advertising and publicity plays most important role.
o Customer comprehension:
 Influenced primarily by advertising & personal selling.
o Ordering/ closing sale:
 Influenced by personal selling & sales promotion.
o Reordering:
 Influenced by personal selling & sales promotion and to some extent by
reminder advertising.

- Product Life Cycle Stage:

o Promotion tools may vary in their cost effectiveness at different stages of
product life cycle.

Sales Promotion

Promotion Advertising + Publicity

Cost
Effectiveness

Personal Selling

Introduction Growth Maturity Decline

o Introduction:

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Integrated Marketing Communication.
 Advertising & publicity has maximum cost effectiveness.
 Followed by personal selling to gain distribution coverage.
 Followed by sales promotion to induce trial.

o Growth:
 All tools are toned down because demand has its own momentum
through word of mouth.

o Maturity:
 Sales promotion grows in importance.
 Followed by advertising & personal selling.

o Decline:
 Sales promotion is most important.
 Advertising & publicity is reduced.
 Personal selling is reduced considerably.

- Company Market Rank:

o If company/ product are one of top 3 in the market, then advertising gives
greater returns than sales promotion.
o However, if a company/ product is not in top 3, sales promotion gives greater
return than advertising.

Measuring Promotion Results:

- After implementing promotion plans, communicator needs to measure its impact on the
target audience.
- This is done through market research techniques.
- Respondents are asked on:
 Brand recognition/ message recall.
 Number of times message was seen.
 What points they could recall.
 How they felt about the message.
 Previous/ current attitude towards company/ product.
 Behavioral response.
 Product purchase.
 Product liking.
 Advocating product.

- Based on research findings, effectiveness of promotion tools is analysed. Corrective

action taken as per the requirement & long term objective/ outlook.

Managing/ Coordinating Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC):

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Integrated Marketing Communication.
- In most organization with multiple product line/ brands, different people handle
different products. Customers segment also vary from product to product.
- Given this background, many companies rely on primarily on one/ two promotion tools
to achieve their communication objectives.
- Further, separate product/ brand managers may act as per their own analysis resulting
in multiple communications going out from same organization.
- This may be confusing to the end users/ distribution network.

- Integrated marketing communication recognizes the added value of a comprehensive

plan to:
 Evaluate role of each communication tool for each product/ brand.
 Combine the tools to provide clarity/ consistency/ maximum
communication impact through seamless integration of discrete
messages.

- Integrated Marketing Communication achieved through:

 Training product/ brand managers on various forms of marketing
communication.
 Working as one integrated team rather than as individual through shared
performance measures.
 Linking IMC with fulfillment of corporate objectives.

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