Lecture 7 section 1

Integrated Marketing
Communications (Promotion)
BMM601 Marketing Management
Module Leader: Wendy Tabrizi
w.tabrizi@aston.ac.uk
Section 1 Learning Outcomes

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Outline the role and purpose of integrated marketing communications
(IMC) in the digital world
• Describe marketing communications models and the traditional
promotional mix 
 What is integrated marketing communications (IMC)?

• Marketing communications is the P that stands for the Promotion

element in the marketing mix.
• Integration with the other six Ps (Product, Price, Place, Processes,
Physical Evidence and People) is critical for its success.
• Marketing communications are a vital part of integrated marketing
communications (IMC) which involves the planning, execution and
evaluation of coordinated, brand communication programs over
time to targeted audiences.
What is the purpose of marketing communications?

• Used to persuade people to do business with a firm

• Check effectiveness of messages using the DRIP model:
AIDA model

• Another useful model is the AIDA model:

– Build Awareness of products
– Generate Interest in the products
– Create Desire for the products
– Encourage Action to go and buy!
IMC in a digital world

• Integrated marketing communications (IMC)

– Aim is to deliver consistent messaging across platforms
– Must use a multichannel promotion strategy which
combines traditional marketing communication with
social media and other online activities
Three models of marketing communications
The Communications Model
The Source Encodes

• Process begins with a source with an idea that they want to communicate
to a receiver.
• Encoding is the process by which the idea is translated into a physically
perceivable form that conveys meaning.
 Words, music, and images
 Spokespeople
 Animated characters
The Message

• The message is the actual content of communication that goes from the
source to a receiver.
• May be in the form of:
 Advertising
 Sales promotion
 A salesperson’s pitch
 Infomercial
 Websites, social media, blogs, search engines
 Word of mouth
The Medium

• The medium is the communication vehicle that reaches

members of the target audience.
• Marketers face two major challenges :
 Target market exposure to medium

 Product characteristics are not in conflict with the medium .

The Receiver Decodes

• For effective decoding to occur, the source and the receiver

must share a frame of reference.
• In this ad, the receiver needs to understand the meaning of
the “white flag” in order for the message to make sense.
Noise and Feedback

• The communication model also acknowledges that noise—anything that

interferes with effective communication—can block messages.
• To complete the communication loop, the source gets feedback from
receivers.
Mass Communications: The One-to-Many Model

• Some elements of the promotion mix include messages

intended to reach many prospective customers at the same
time.
– Advertising
– Consumer sales promotion
– Public relations
Personal Communications: The One-to-One Model

• Marketers may sometimes prefer to communicate on a

personal level.
– Personal selling
– Direct mail
– Telemarketing
– Direct marketing
A Comparison of Elements of the Traditional Promotion Mix
Promotion Pros
Element
• The marketer has control over what
Advertising the message will say, when it will
appear, and who is likely to see it.
• Provides incentives to retailers to
support one’s products.
• Builds excitement for retailers and
Sales promotion
consumers.
• Price-oriented promotions cater to
price-sensitive consumers.
Cons
• Because of the high cost to produce and distribute, it may
not be an efficient means of communicating with some
target audiences.
• Some ads may have low credibility or be ignored by the
audience.
• Short-term emphasis on immediate sales rather than a
focus on building brand loyalty.
• The number of competing promotions may make it hard to
break through the promotion clutter.
• If marketers use too many price-related sales promotion
activities, consumers’ perception of a fair price for the
brand may be lowered.
A Comparison of Elements of the Traditional Promotion Mix
• Relatively low cost.
Public relations
• High credibility.
• Direct contact with the customer gives the salesperson the
opportunity to be flexible and modify the sales message to
Personal selling coincide with the customer’s needs.
• The salesperson can get immediate feedback from the
customer.
• Targets specific groups of potential customers with different
offers.
• Marketers can easily measure the results.
Direct marketing • Provides extensive product information and multiple offers
within a single appeal.
• Provides a way for a company to collect feedback about the
effectiveness of its messages in an internal database.
• Lack of control over the message that is eventually transmitted and no
guarantee that the message will ever reach the target.
• It is difficult to measure the effectiveness of public relations efforts.
• High cost per contact with customer.
• Difficult to ensure consistency of message when it is delivered by many
different company representatives.
• The credibility of salespeople often depends on the quality of their
company’s image, which has been created by other promotion strategies.
• Consumers may have a negative opinion of some types of direct
marketing.
• Costs more per contact than mass appeals.
Control Continuum

Marketers face inherent trade-offs between the extent of message control

and the perceived credibility of the message.
Recap of section 1

At the end of this section you are now able to:

• Outline the role and purpose of integrated marketing communications

(IMC) in the digital world
• Describe marketing communications models and the traditional
promotional mix