Download I. Chapter Overview

Part 4: Communicate the Value Proposition
Chapter 12
Old and New Media: From One-to-Many to Many-to-Many
I. CHAPTER OVERVIEW
Marketing communication can take many forms from creative slogans printed on t-shirts, to
chalk art printed on university sidewalks, to newspaper advertisements. The list can go on and on
and is limited only by imagination.
No matter what form, communication primarily seeks to inform, remind, persuade, and build
relationships with consumers. Chapter 12 focuses on the process of integrated marketing
communication designed to influence target markets and create successful marketing. Students
are introduced to the communication model, study the various elements of the promotion mix,
and learn about various techniques such as guerilla marketing, viral marketing, and hype. In
addition, they begin to explore the stages in developing an integrated marketing communication
plan, find out about current trends of interactive promotion, and discover why database
marketing is increasingly popular.
II. CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
1. Understand the communications process and the traditional promotion mix.
2. Understand how marketers communicate using an updated communications model that
incorporates buzz marketing activities and social media.
3. Describe the steps in traditional and multi-channel promotional planning.
III. CHAPTER OUTLINE
►MARKETING MOMENT INTRODUCTION
Ask students to recall their favorite ad. Call on individual students to describe their ads without
identifying the brand/product. How many other students recall the same ad? How many students
know what brand/product is being advertised? This is a great time to point out the risk of
advertising—it may be unique and are noticed, but the point of the ad might be missed.
p. 349
1. REAL PEOPLE, REAL CHOICES─
HERE’S MY PROBLEM AT CAMPFIRE
Campfire’s work centers around storytelling and experience, and
the marketing programs it develops for clients are not easily put
into the usual traditional/digital silos. Campfire’s expertise is not
in any one particular silo but in developing all these elements as
part of the total integrated project. Since its campaigns cross all
media channels, Campfire has been called, at one time or another,
a digital agency, a branded content agency, a transmedia agency,
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
Chapter 12: Old and New Media: From One-to-Many to Many-to-Many
a social media agency, and simply a creative shop. In 2007,
Advertising Age listed Campfire as one of “The Hottest Digital
Agencies Around.” The company had only really been a full-time
agency for about a year at that point, and it had never identified
itself as a “digital agency.” As a result, Mike and his partners
found themselves crossroads soon after when a potential client
approached them to become their digital agency of record (AOR).
Campfire had only seven employees at the time, and this was both
a big opportunity as well as a significant change in the young
agency’s business model. While it had built websites, banner ads
and other more traditional media, these efforts were always in the
service of a larger project. Campfire’s leaders had to decide if
they were to take the leap to become a full-service digital agency.
Mike considered his options:
1. Become the client’s digital AOR.
2. Partner with a smaller, more traditional agency and split
the work according to capabilities in order to handle all
the client’s needs.
3. Walk away.
The vignette ends by asking the student which option he/she
would choose.
p. 350
Mike and his partners chose option #3 and they declined the
account.
2. ONE-TO-MANY: THE TRADITIONAL
COMMUNICATION MODEL
Promotion is the coordination of marketing communication
efforts to influence attitudes or behavior. Well-informed
marketers should consider that every element of the marketing mix
is actually a form of communication. Today messages assume
many forms: quirky television commercials, innovative Websites,
viral videos, sophisticated magazine ads, funky T-shirts, blimps
blinking messages over football stadiums—even do-it-yourself,
customer-made advertising. Marketing communication in general
performs one or more of four roles:
1. It informs consumers about new goods and services
2. It reminds consumers to continue using certain brands
3. It persuades consumers to choose one brand over others;
and
4. It builds relationships with customers.
Many marketing experts now believe a successful promotional
strategy should blend several diverse forms of marketing
communication. Integrated marketing communication (IMC)
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
German Pen
Company ad
Part 4: Communicate the Value Proposition
is the process that marketers use to plan, develop, execute, and
evaluate coordinated, measurable, persuasive brand
communication programs over time to targeted audiences. The
IMC approach argues that consumers are exposed to a company
or a brand in many different ways before, after and during a
purchase. Consumers see these points of contact or touchpoints-a TV commercial, a company website, a coupon, an opportunity
to win a sweepstakes, or a display in a store—as a whole -- as a
single company that speaks to them in different places and
different ways. IMC marketers understand that to achieve their
marketing communication goals, they must selectively use some
or all of these touchpoints to consistently reach their customers in
a multi-channel promotional strategy where they combine
traditional advertising, sales promotion and public relations
activities with online buzz building activities.
How we as consumers get our information: the first, traditional
communication model is a “ONE-TO-MANY” view in which a
single marketer develops and sends messages to many – perhaps
even millions -- of, consumers at once. The ONE-TO-MANY
approach involves traditional forms of mass media marketing
communication such as advertising, out-of-home (like billboards),
and Internet advertising. This model also benefits from consumer
sales promotion such as coupons, samples, rebates, or contests;
and press releases and special events that public relations
professionals organize.
Figure 12.1
Three Models of
Marketing
Communication
We need to consider an updated communications model where
marketing messages are what we think of as many-to-many. This
newer perspectives recognize the huge impact of word-of-mouth
communication where consumers look to each other for
information and recommendations.
►Marketing Moment In-Class Activity
Ask students to identify examples of ads that serve a reminder purpose (e.g., Coke, Pepsi, Got
Milk? etc.). Do students see a tendency to use reminder advertising in a particular stage of the
product life cycle (i.e., maturity)?
p. 352
Figure 12.2
2.1
The Communication Model
In the communication model, a source transmits a message
Communication
through some medium to a receiver who (we hope) listens and
Model
understands the message. The communications model specifies
the elements necessary for effective communication to occur: a
source, a message, a medium, and a receiver. Regardless of how a
marketer sends messages--her objective is to capture receivers’
attention and relate to their needs.
p. 353
2.1.1
The Source Encodes
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
Colgate
Chapter 12: Old and New Media: From One-to-Many to Many-to-Many
Encoding is the process by which a source translates an idea into
a form of communication that conveys the desired meaning. The
source is the organization or individual that sends the message.
Toothpaste ad
p. 354
Italian Candy ad
2.1.2 The Message
The message is the actual content that goes from the source to a
receiver. It includes information necessary to persuade, inform,
remind, or build a relationship. Advertising messages may include
both verbal and nonverbal elements, such as beautiful background
scenery or funky music.
p. 354
Gillette ad
2.1.3 The Medium
No matter how the source encodes the message, it must then
transmit it via a medium, which is communications vehicle that
reaches members of a target audience. This vehicle can be
television, radio, social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter, a
magazine, a company Web site, an Internet blog, a personal
contact, a billboard, or even a coffee mug that displays a product
logo.
p. 354
2.1.4 The Receiver Decodes
Communication cannot occur unless a receiver is there to get the
message. The receiver is any individual or organization that
intercepts and interprets the message. If the customer is even
paying attention (a big assumption in our overloaded, mediasaturated society), she interprets the message in light of her
unique experiences. Decoding is the process whereby a receiver
assigns meaning to a message; that is, she translates the message
she sees or hears back into an idea that makes sense to her.
Marketers hope that the target consumer will decode the message
the way they intended, but effective communication occurs only
when the source and the receiver share a mutual frame of
reference.
p. 354
2.1.5 Noise
The communication model also acknowledges that noise—
anything that interferes with effective communication—can block
messages. As the many arrows between noise and the other
elements of the communication model in Figure 12.2 indicate,
noise can occur at any stage of communication.
Activity: As you were going through your day you were
exposed to many forms of marketing communication.
However, noise probably interfered with most of the
exposures. List five different instances where noise
interrupted your ability to decode a message. Explain what, if
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
Part 4: Communicate the Value Proposition
anything, a marketer could have done to help limit some of
the noise.
p. 355
p. 355
2.1.6 Feedback
To complete the communication loop, the source gets feedback
from receivers. Feedback is a reaction to the message that helps
marketers gauge the effectiveness of the message so they can finetune it.
2.2
The Traditional Promotion Mix
Marketers use the term promotion mix to refer to the
communication elements that the marketer controls. These
elements of the traditional promotion mix include:
• Advertising
• Sales promotion
• Public relations
• Personal selling
• Direct marketing
Table 12.1
A Comparison of
Elements of the
Traditional
Promotion Mix
Clorox Wipes ad
The challenge is to be sure that the promotion mix works in
harmony with the overall marketing mix to combine elements of
promotion with place, price, and product to position the firm’s
offering in people’s minds.
p. 357
Marketers have a lot more control over some kinds of marketing
communication messages than they do others. As Figure 12.3
shows, mass-media advertising and sales promotion are at one
end of the continuum, where the marketer has total control over
the message she delivers. At the other end is word-of-mouth
(WOM) communication, where everyday people rather than the
company run the show. WOM is a vitally important component of
the brand attitudes consumers form and of their decisions about
what and what not to buy. Sandwiched between the ends we find
personal selling and direct marketing, where marketers have
some but not total control over the message they deliver, and
public relations, where marketers have even less control.
2.2.1 Mass Communication
Mass communications elements of the promotion mix include
messages intended to reach many prospective customers at the
same time.
Advertising is, for many, the most familiar and visible element of
the promotion mix. It is non-personal communication from an
identified sponsor using the mass media. The most important
advantage of advertising is that it reaches large numbers of
consumers at one time.
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
Figure 12.3
Control
Continuum
Heinz Ketchup
ad
Chapter 12: Old and New Media: From One-to-Many to Many-to-Many
Consumer sales promotion includes programs such as contests,
coupons, or other incentives that marketers design to build
interest in or encourage purchase of a product during a specified
period. Unlike other forms of promotion, sales promotion intends
to stimulate immediate action (often in the form of a purchase)
rather than build long-term loyalty.
p. 357
p. 358
p. 359
Public relations describes a variety of communication activities
that seek to create and maintain a positive image of an
organization and its products among various publics, including
customers, government officials, and shareholders.
2.2.2 Personal Communication
Sometimes marketers want to communicate with consumers on a
personal, one-on-one level. The immediate way for a marketer to
make contact with customers is simply to tell them how
wonderful the product is. This is part of the personal selling
element of the promotion mix mentioned previously. It is the
direct interaction between a company representative and a
customer. The interaction can occur in person, by phone, or even
over an interactive computer link.
Salespeople are a valuable source of communication because
customers can ask questions and the salesperson can immediately
address objections and describe product benefits. Marketers also
use direct mail, telemarketing, and other direct marketing
activities to create personal appeals. Like personal selling, direct
marketing provides direct communication with a consumer or
business customer.
3. MANY-TO-MANY: THE UPDATED
COMMUNICATION MODEL
Authors Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff refer to the changing
communication landscape as the groundswell; “a social trend in
which people use technology to get the things they need from
each other, rather than from traditional institutions like
corporations.” Today’s consumers are increasingly getting their
information on running shoes, nightclubs, cars, new bands, or
even lecture notes from one another rather than from the original
source.
Marketers are no longer the only ones who talk about their
products—millions of consumers have the ability and the desire to
spread the good (or bad) news about the goods and services they
buy. That is why we are moving from a one-to-many
communication mode to the new world of many-to-many.
Ripped From the
3.1 Buzz Building
The many-to-many communication model relies on consumers
Headlines:
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Part 4: Communicate the Value Proposition
like you to talk to one another about goods, services and
organizations. Marketers think of buzz as everyday people
helping their marketing efforts when they share their opinions
with their friends and neighbors.
Ethical/
Sustainable
Decisions in the
Real World
Companies today spend millions to create consumer positive
buzz. Firms like Dell have named word-of-mouth (WOM)
marketing managers, and the WOMMA (Word-of-Mouth
Marketing Association). The membership roster includes most of
the top consumer-brand companies. Techniques to encourage
consumers to spread information about companies and their
products come under a variety of names such as word-of-mouth
marketing, viral marketing, buzz marketing and evangelist
marketing.
People like to share their experiences, good or bad, with others.
Truly happy customers will share their excitement about a brand.
Unfortunately, the unhappy ones will be even more eager to tell
their friends about their unpleasant experiences.
p. 360
3.1.1 Ethical Problems in Buzz Marketing
Just as firms are discovering there are a myriad of opportunities
for buzz marketing, there are equally large opportunities for
unethical or at least questionable marketing behavior. Some of
these are as follows:
 Activities designed to deceive consumers.
 Directing buzz marketing at children or teens.
 Buzz marketing activities that damage property.
 Stealth marketing activities that deliberately deceive or lie
on behalf of clients.
p. 360
3.1.2 Viral Marketing
One form of buzz building is viral marketing. This term refers to
marketing activities that aim to increase brand awareness or sales
by consumers passing a message along to other consumers,
hopefully in an exponential fashion--much like your roommate
passes a cold onto you and you pass it along to all your other
friends. Today, most viral marketing tactics are subtler and
consist of marketers’ use of video clips, interactive games, or
other activities that consumers will find so interesting or unique
that they want to share them with their friends using digital
technology. To see a classic viral spot in action, visit
www.subservientchicken.com.
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
Table 12.2
Positive and
Unethical Wordof-Mouth
Marketing
Strategies
Harley
Motorcycles
Brand
Community
Photo
Chapter 12: Old and New Media: From One-to-Many to Many-to-Many
p. 362
p. 362
p. 363
3.1.3 Brand Ambassadors and Evangelists
Many marketers realize that they cannot create buzz by
themselves; they recruit loyal customers as brand ambassadors
or brand evangelists to help them. These zealous consumers can
be the best salespeople a company can ever find. They often work
without pay. They are heavy users, take a product seriously, care
a great deal about it and want it to succeed. In addition, they know
the target audience better than anyone since they are a part of it.
3.2
New Social Media
In addition to buzz-building, social media are an important part
of the Updated Communications Model. This term refers to
internet-based platforms that allow users to create their own
content and share it with others who access these sites. There’s no
doubt that social media is the place to be in marketing
communications now – even if many organizations haven’t quite
figured out just what to do with these platforms.
3.2.1 Social Networks
Social networking sites or social networks are sites used to
connect people with other similar people. Social networks such as
Facebook and LinkedIn are some of the most popular sites on the
Internet with millions of users from around the globe. Once a user
has created a profile, it is easy to connect with old and new
friends. Social networks make it easy for marketers to reach
influential people such a journalists and consumers who are
opinion leaders. However, even more important is the opportunity
social networks provide to create a brand community.
Facebook is the most popular of all social networking sites.
Twitter is a free micro-blogging service that lets users post short
text messages with a maximum of 140 characters. Unlike other
social media, Twitter is a broadcast medium, which means that
marketers can send messages to hundreds of thousands of people
at a time.
p. 363
3.2.2 Virtual Worlds
This term refers to an online, highly engaging digital environment
where avatars -- graphic representations of users -- live and
interact with other avatars in real time. In virtual worlds, residents
can hang out at virtual clubs, shop for clothing and bling for their
avatars, buy furniture to deck out virtual homes, and yes, even go
to college in virtual universities. Some people find it hard to
believe, but it is common for people to spend real money to buy
digital products that do not exist in the real world. Indeed, the
virtual goods market is booming: In the U.S. alone, consumers
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
The Cutting
Edge: Where is
Twitter Going?
Part 4: Communicate the Value Proposition
spend well over $1 billion each year to buy items they use only in
virtual worlds!
p. 365
p. 365
3.2.3 Product Review Sites
Product review sites are social media sites that enable people to
post stories about their experiences with products and services.
Marketers hope that product review sites create a connection
between the consumer and the brand. Product review sites give
users both positive and negative information about companies.
Cars 2 Movie
Photo
3.2.4 Mobile Apps and Geospatial Platforms
Apple lit up this market when it introduced the iPhone and now
everyone is scrambling to “monetize” the mobile market through
sales of ringtones, on-demand video, online coupons, and “apps”
that entertain or educate.
Geospatial platforms integrate sophisticated GPS technology
(like the navigation system you may have in your car) that enables
users to alert friends of their exact whereabouts via their mobile
phones.
Use Websites Here:
http://www.marketingterms.com/dictionary/viral_marketing/. Press articles on viral marketing
http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt5/viral-principles.htm. Information on viral marketing
p. 366
Figure 12. 1
4.
PROMOTIONAL PLANNING IN A WEB 2.0
Steps to Develop
WORLD
Just as with any other strategic decision-making process, the
the Promotional
development of this plan includes several steps
Plan
p. 366
p. 367
4.1
Step 1: Identify the Target Audience(s)
An important part of overall marketing planning is to identify the
target audience(s). Remember, IMC marketers recognize that we
must communicate with a variety of stakeholders who influence
the target market. Of course, the intended customer is the most
important target audience and the one that marketers focus on the
most.
4.2
Step 2: Establish the Communication Objectives
The whole point of communicating with customers and
prospective customers is to let them know in a timely and
affordable way that the organization has a product to meet their
needs. In most cases, it takes a series of messages that move the
consumer through several stages.
The marketer “pushes” the consumer through a series of steps, or
a hierarchy of effects, from initial awareness of a product to
brand loyalty. The task of moving the consumer up the hierarchy
becomes more difficult at each step. The steps are as follows:
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
Figure 12.5
The Hierarchy of
Effects
Chapter 12: Old and New Media: From One-to-Many to Many-to-Many
Fat Hair Product
 Create awareness
ad
 Inform the market
 Create desire
 Encourage purchase and trial
 Build loyalty
►Marketing Moment In-Class Activity
Ask students to imagine they are responsible for launching new fitness water. Then ask how they
would design am IMC plan to take a potential customer through each stage of the hierarchy of
effects (e.g., to create awareness, sponsor a tennis match and show tennis players drinking the
water, etc.).
p. 368
4.3 Step 3: Determine and Allocate the Marketing
Communication Budget
While setting a budget for marketing communication might seem
easy—you just calculate how much you need to accomplish your
objectives—in reality it’s not that simple. We need to make three
distinct decisions to set a budget:
p. 369
4.3.1 Determine the Total Promotion Budget
Most firms rely on two budgeting techniques: top-down and
bottom-up. Top-down budgeting techniques require top
management to establish the overall amount that the organization
allocates for promotion activities. The most common top-down
technique is the percentage-of-sales method in which the
promotion budget is based on last year’s sales or on estimates for
the present year’s sales. The percentage may be an industry
average provided by trade associations that collect objective
information on behalf of member companies. The advantage of
this method is that it ties spending on promotion to sales and
profits. Unfortunately, this method can imply that sales cause
promotional spending rather than viewing sales as the outcome of
promotional efforts.
The competitive-parity method is a fancy way of saying “keep
up with the Joneses.” This method assumes that the same dollars
spent on promotion by two different firms will yield the same
results, but spending a lot of money does not guarantee a
successful promotion. Firms certainly need to monitor their
competitors’ promotion activities, but they must combine this
information with their own objectives and capacities.
The problem with top-down techniques is that budget decisions
are based more on established practices than on promotion
objectives. Another approach is to begin at the beginning: identify
promotion goals and allocate enough money to accomplish them.
That is what bottom-up budgeting techniques attempt.
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
Part 4: Communicate the Value Proposition
p. 369
This bottom-up logic is at the heart of the objective-task method,
which is gaining in popularity. Using this approach, the firm first
defines the specific communication goals it hopes to achieve,
such as increasing by 20 percent the number of consumers who
are aware of the brand. It then tries to figure out what kind of
promotional efforts—how much advertising, sales promotion,
buzz marketing etc. -- it will take to meet that goal.
Food Delivery
4.3.2 Decide on a Push or a Pull Strategy
A push strategy means that the company wants to move its
Company in
products by convincing channel members to offer them and entice Brazil ad
their customers to select these items – it pushes them through the
channel. This approach assumes that if consumers see the product
on store shelves, they will be enticed to make a trial purchase. In
this case, promotion efforts will “push” the products from
producer to consumers by focusing on personal selling, trade
advertising, and trade sales promotion activities such as exhibits
at trade shows.
In contrast, a company that relies on a pull strategy is counting
on consumers to demand its products. This popularity will then
convince retailers to respond by stocking these items. In this case,
efforts focus on media advertising and consumer sales promotion
to stimulate interest among end consumers who will “pull” the
product onto store shelves and then into their shopping carts.
Whether we use a push or a pull strategy, the promotion mix for a
product must vary over time because some elements work better
at different points in the product life cycle than others.
In the introduction phase, the objective is to build awareness of
and encourage the product among consumers, often by relying on
a push strategy.
In the growth stage, promotions must now start stressing product
benefits.
In the maturity phase, many people have already tried the product
and sales stabilize. Strategy shifts to encouraging people to switch
from competitors brands. Usually sales promotions, particularly
coupons, and special price deals, have greater chances of success
than advertising.
In the decline phase, the company dramatically reduces spending
on all elements of the promotion mix.
►Marketing Moment In-Class Activity
Ask students to think about how the pharmaceutical industry might implement a push or a pull
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
Chapter 12: Old and New Media: From One-to-Many to Many-to-Many
strategy. What would each strategy “look” like (e.g., a “push” sells to doctors while a “pull”
advertises to customers)? How would the promotion mix differ using the two strategies?
p. 371
4.3.3 Allocate the Budget to a Specific Promotion Mix
Once the organization decides how much to spend on promotion
and whether to use a push or a pull strategy, it must divide its
budget among the elements in the promotion mix. Although
advertising used to get the lion’s share of the promotion budget,
today sales promotion and digital marketing such as buzz building
and the use of social media we talked about earlier in this chapter
are playing a bigger role in marketing strategies.
p. 371
4.4
Step 4: Design the Promotion Mix
Designing the promotion mix is the most complicated step in
marketing communication planning. It includes determining the
specific communication tools that will be used, what message is
to be communicated, and the communication channel(s) to be
employed.
The message should ideally accomplish four objectives (though a
single message can rarely do all of these): It should get attention,
hold interest, create desire, and produce action. These
communication goals are known as the AIDA model.
p. 372
Activity: Illustrate how the AIDA model works using an
example. Explain your answer.
4.5
Step 5: Evaluate the Effectiveness of the
Communication Program
The final step to manage marketing communications is to decide
whether the plan is working. It is not so easy. There are many
random factors in the marketing environment.
As a rule, various types of sales promotion are the easiest to
evaluate because they occur over a fixed, usually short period,
making it easier to link to sales volume. Advertising researchers
measure brand awareness, recall of product benefits
communicated through advertising and even the image of the
brand before and after an advertising campaign. The firm can
analyze and compare the performance of salespeople in different
territories, although again it is difficult to rule out other factors
that make one salesperson more effective than another does.
Public relations activities are more difficult to assess because their
objectives relate more often to image building than sales volume.
p. 372
4.6
Multi-channel Promotional Strategies
Many marketers opt for multi-channel promotional strategies
where they combine traditional advertising, sales promotion and
public relations activities with online buzz building activities.
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
Turkish ad for
Bird Seed
Ad Educating
Consumers
About Potatoes
Part 4: Communicate the Value Proposition
p. 373
Multi-channel strategies boost the effectiveness of either online or
offline strategies used alone. In addition, multi-channel strategies
allow marketers to repeat their messages across various channels;
this lets them strengthen brand awareness and it provides more
opportunities to convert customers.
Real People, Real Choices: Here’s My Choice at Campfire
Mike and his partners chose option #3 and they declined the
account.
Brand You: Get the word out about your brand...to all the right
people. Create an integrated marketing communication plan for
your personal brand. It is easy to increase your chances of getting
interviews when you use all the available “media” to get your
cover letter and resume to your target audiences. Plan your
personal brand marketing communication plan in Chapter 12 of
the Brand You supplement.
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
Exhibit 12. 1
Campfire TK
Chapter 12: Old and New Media: From One-to-Many to Many-to-Many
IV. END–OF-CHAPTER ANSWER GUIDE
CHAPTER QUESTIONAS AND ACTIVITIES
 QUESTIONS: TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE
1. What is integrated marketing communication? What are multi-channel promotional
strategies? Why is word-of-mouth communication so important?
Many marketing experts now believe a successful promotional strategy should blend several
diverse forms of marketing communication. Integrated marketing communication (IMC) is
the process that marketers use to plan, develop, execute, and evaluate coordinated,
measurable, persuasive brand communication programs over time to targeted audiences. The
IMC approach argues that consumers encounter a company or a brand in many different
ways before, after and during a purchase. Consumers see these points of contact or
touchpoints--a TV commercial, a company Website, a coupon, an opportunity to win a
sweepstakes, or a display in a store—as a whole -- as a single company that speaks to them in
different places and different ways. IMC marketers understand that to achieve their
marketing communication goals, they must selectively use some or all of these touchpoints to
deliver a consistent message to their customers in a multi-channel promotional strategy
where they combine traditional advertising, sales promotion, and public relations activities
with online buzz-building activities. That is a lot different from most traditional marketing
communication programs of the past that made little effort to coordinate the varying
messages consumers received. Today, these traditional methods still work in some
circumstances. However, many other options are available that often mesh better with our
“wired” 24/7 cultures. When you take a break from posting to your friends on Facebook,
you’ll recognize that you also learn about products and services from your own social
network in addition to ads, billboards, or coupons. For this reason we need to consider an
updated communication model where marketing messages are what we think of as many-tomany. This newer perspective recognizes the huge impact of word-of-mouth communication
where consumers look to each other for information and recommendations.
2. Describe the traditional communication model.
The traditional communication model includes a message source that encodes an idea into a
message and transmits the message through some medium. Marketing messages exploit a
variety of appeals and message structures. The message is transmitted using one of several
different communication media and is finally delivered to a receiver, who decodes the
message and may provide feedback to the source. Anything that interferes with the
communication is called noise.
3. List the elements of the promotion mix and describe how they are used to deliver personal
and mass appeals.
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall
Part 4: Communicate the Value Proposition





Advertising is non-personal communication from an identified sponsor using the mass
media.
Sales promotions are marketing activities that are used to stimulate immediate sales by
providing extra value or generating interest in a product.
Public relations consists of marketing efforts or activities to portray an organization and
its products positively by influencing the perceptions of various publics, including
customers, government officials, and shareholders.
Personal selling is direct interaction between a company representative and a customer
that can occur in person, by phone, or even by interactive computer link.
Direct marketing: Marketers also use direct mail, telemarketing, and other direct
marketing activities to create personal appeals. Like personal selling, direct marketing
provides direct communication with a consumer or business customer. Because direct
marketing activities seek to gain a direct response from individual consumers, as we saw
in Chapter 7 the source can target a communication to market segments of a few or—
with today’s technology—even segments of one.
4. Explain the many-to-many communication model and why it is important for marketers
today.
Today, these traditional methods still work in some circumstances. However, many other
options are available that often mesh better with our “wired” 24/7 cultures. When you take a
break from posting to your friends on Facebook, you’ll recognize that you also learn about
products and services from your own social network in addition to ads, billboards or
coupons. For this reason we need to consider an updated communications model where
marketing messages are what we think of as many-to-many. It seems as if most of us are
“on” 24/7 these days, whether we are checking our email while on vacation or Tweeting
about the fabulous new restaurant we just discovered. Authors Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff
refer to the changing communication landscape as the groundswell; “a social trend in which
people use technology to get the things they need from each other, rather than from
traditional institutions like corporations.” In other words, today’s consumers are increasingly
getting their information on running shoes, nightclubs, cars, new bands, or even lecture notes
from one another rather than from the original source. What has led to this new
communication model and how is it changing marketing? Much of the answer lies in
changing technology. Everyone is online now. Millions of people around the globe surf the
Web, talk with their friends, watch TV and purchase products from traditional marketers,
from Internet-only marketers and from each other on their computers or their mobile phones
with broadband Internet connections. These users all have the potential to connect with each
other and to share feedback – whether it’s about how hard that statistics test was this morning
or where they bought a great new swimsuit for summer and how much they paid for it.
Marketers are no longer the only ones who talk about their products—millions of consumers
have the ability and the desire to spread the good (or bad) news about the goods and services
they buy. That is why we are moving from a one-to-many communication mode to the new
world of many-to-many.
5. What is buzz? How do marketers practice buzz building?
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Chapter 12: Old and New Media: From One-to-Many to Many-to-Many
The many-to-many communication model relies on consumers like you to talk to one another
about goods, services and organizations. Marketers think of buzz as everyday people helping
their marketing efforts when they share their opinions with their friends and neighbors. The
idea is nothing new; it is the so-called “office water-cooler effect” where coworkers dish
about the latest TV sitcom on Monday morning. Companies today spend millions to create
consumer positive buzz. Firms like Dell have named word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing
managers, and the WOMMA (Word-of-Mouth Marketing Association) membership roster
includes most of the top consumer-brand companies. According to advertising agency JWT
Worldwide, over 85 percent of top 1,000 marketing firms now use word-of-mouth tactics.i
Techniques to encourage consumers to spread information about companies and their
products come under a variety of names such as word-of-mouth marketing, viral marketing,
buzz marketing and evangelist marketing.
6. What are some ethical problems in buzz marketing?
Just as firms are discovering there are a myriad of opportunities for buzz marketing, there are
equally large opportunities for unethical or at least questionable marketing behavior. Some of
these are as follows:
 Activities designed to deceive consumers.
 Directing buzz marketing at children or teens.
 Buzz marketing activities that damage property.
 Stealth marketing activities that deliberately deceive or lie on behalf of clients.
7. What is viral marketing? How do marketers use brand ambassador or brand evangelists?
One form of buzz building is viral marketing. This term refers to marketing activities that
aim to increase brand awareness or sales by consumers passing a message along to other
consumers, hopefully in an exponential fashion--much like your roommate passes a cold onto
you and you pass it along to all your other friends. Today, most viral marketing tactics are
subtler and consist of marketers’ use of video clips, interactive games, or other activities that
consumers will find so interesting or unique that they want to share them with their friends
using digital technology.
Many marketers realize that they cannot create buzz by themselves; they recruit loyal
customers as brand ambassadors or brand evangelists to help them. These zealous consumers
can be the best salespeople a company can ever find. They often work for no pay.. They are
heavy users, take a product seriously, care a great deal about it and want it to succeed. In
addition, they know the target audience better than anyone since they are a part of it. So how
do marketers identify and motivate these loyal customers to be brand ambassadors?
Sometimes they seek out customers who already blog about the product and share what they
love about the brand. One way to motivate brand ambassadors is to give them special access
or privileges to the company and its marketing strategies. Some might be recruited and
featured through a brand contest.
8. What is social media? What are social networks? Describe Facebook, Twitter, virtual worlds,
product review sites, mobile apps, and geospatial platforms.
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Part 4: Communicate the Value Proposition
This term refers to internet-based platforms that allow users to create their own content and
share it with others who access these sites. Social media include blogs, forums, picture-and
video-sharing sites, wikis and podcasts to name a few. Social networking sites or social
networks are sites used to connect people with other similar people. Successful networking
sites ask users to develop profiles of themselves so that those with similar backgrounds,
interests, hobbies, religious beliefs, racial identities or political views can “meet” online.
Social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn are some of the most popular sites on the
Internet with millions of users from around the globe. Once a user has created a profile, it is
easy to connect with old and new friends.
Facebook is the most popular of all social networking sites with over 400 million users as we
write this book -- and no doubt many more as you are reading it. Users of Facebook first
develop a profile that remains private unless they choose to connect with a “friend.” Twitter
is a free micro-blogging service that lets users post short text messages with a maximum of
140 characters. People who subscribe to an individual’s Twitter feed are called “followers.”
Users can follow anyone they like, unlike Facebook where you have to be recognized and
accepted as a “friend.” Unlike other social media, Twitter is a broadcast medium, which
means that marketers can send messages to hundreds of thousands of people at a time. A
virtual world refers to an online, highly engaging digital environment where avatars --graphic
representations of users -- live and interact with other avatars in real time. Product review
sites are social media sites that enable people to post stories about their experiences with
products and services. It is obvious to almost anyone who is conscious today that the future
of marketing communications lies in that magic little device you practically sleep with –
whether it is a smartphone or perhaps a computer/phone hybrid like Apple’s iPad. Combine
web browsing capability with built-in cameras and the race is on to bring to the world to your
belt or purse. Apple lit up this market when it introduced the iPhone and now everyone is
scrambling to “monetize” the mobile market through sales of ringtones, on-demand video,
online coupons, and “apps” that entertain or educate. Geospatial platforms integrate
sophisticated GPS technology (like the navigation system you may have in your car) that
enables users to alert friends of their exact whereabouts via their mobile phones.
9. List and explain the steps in promotion planning.
A. Step 1: Identify the Target Audience(s)
An important part of overall marketing planning is to identify the target audience(s).
Remember, IMC marketers recognize that we must communicate with a variety of
stakeholders who influence the target market. Of course, the intended customer is the most
important target audience and the one that marketers focus on the most.
B. Step 2: Establish the Communication Objectives
The whole point of communicating with customers and prospective customers is to let them
know in a timely and affordable way that the organization has a product to meet their needs.
In most cases, it takes a series of messages that move the consumer through several stages.
The marketer “pushes” the consumer through a series of steps, or a hierarchy of effects, from
initial awareness of a product to brand loyalty. The task of moving the consumer up the
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Chapter 12: Old and New Media: From One-to-Many to Many-to-Many
hierarchy becomes more difficult at each step. The steps are as follows: Create awareness,
inform the market, create desire, encourage purchase and trial, and build loyalty
C. Step 3: Determine and Allocate the Marketing Communication Budget
While setting a budget for marketing communication might seem easy—you just calculate
how much you need to accomplish your objectives—in reality it’s not that simple. We need
to make three distinct decisions to set a budget: Determine the Total Promotion Budget,
Decide on a Push or a Pull Strategy, Allocate the Budget to a Specific Promotion Mix
D. Step 4: Design the Promotion Mix
Designing the promotion mix is the most complicated step in marketing communication
planning. It includes determining the specific communication tools that will be used, what
message is to be communicated, and the communication channel(s) to be employed. The
message should ideally accomplish four objectives (though a single message can rarely do all
of these): It should get attention, hold interest, create desire, and produce action. These
communication goals are known as the AIDA model.
E. Step 5: Evaluate the Effectiveness of the Communication Program
The final step to manage marketing communications is to decide whether the plan is
working. It is not so easy. There are many random factors in the marketing environment.
10. Explain the hierarchy of effects and how it is used in communication objectives.
The marketer “pushes” the consumer through a series of steps, or a hierarchy of effects, from
initial awareness of a product to brand loyalty. The task of moving the consumer up the
hierarchy becomes more difficult at each step. Many potential buyers may drop out along the
way, leaving fewer of the target group inclined to go the distance and become loyal
customers. Each part of this path entails different communication objectives to “push” people
to the next level:
A. Create awareness: The first step is to make members of the target market aware that there
is a new brand of cologne on the market.
B. Inform the Market: The next step is to provide prospective users with knowledge about the
benefits the new product has to offer—to position it relative other colognes.
C. Create Desire: The next task is to create favorable feelings toward the product and to
convince at least some members of this group that they would rather splash on some Hunk
instead of other colognes.
D. Encourage Purchase and Trial: As the expression goes, “How do ya know ’til ya try it?”
The company now needs to get some of the men who have become interested in the cologne
to try it.
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Part 4: Communicate the Value Proposition
E. Build Loyalty: Of course, the real test is loyalty: To convince customers to stay with Hunk
after they have gone through the first bottle. Promotion efforts must maintain ongoing
communications with current users to reinforce the bond they feel with the product.
11. Describe the major ways in which firms develop marketing communication budgets.
Top-down budgeting requires top management to establish the overall amount that the
organization allocates for promotion activities. This amount is divided among advertising,
public relations, and other promotion departments. Percentage-of-sales and competitive
parity are two examples:
 Percentage-of-sales—the promotion budget is based either on last year’s sales or on
estimates for this year’s sales. The percentage is often based on an industry average.
 Competitive-parity method—matches whatever competitors are spending.
Bottom-up budgeting means identifying promotion goals and allocating enough money to
accomplish them. One example is objective and task.
 Objective-task—the firm first defines the specific communication goals it hopes to
achieve and then figures out how much and what kinds of promotion efforts it will
take to meet the goal.
12. Describe push versus pull strategies. How are push and pull strategies useful in different
stages of the product life cycle?
A push strategy means that the company wants to move its products by convincing channel
members to offer them and entice their customers to select these items. Promotion efforts
will “push” the products from producers to consumer by focusing on personal selling, trade
advertising, and sales promotions.
A pull strategy means counting on consumers to desire its products and thus convince
retailers to respond to this demand by stocking them. Efforts will focus on media advertising
and consumer sales promotion to stimulate interest among end consumers who will “pull” the
product onto store shelves and then into their shopping carts.
Whether we use a push or a pull strategy and how the promotion mix for a product is
designed must vary over time because some elements work better at different points in the
product life cycle than others. In the introduction phase, the objective is to build awareness
of and encourage the product among consumers, often by relying on a push strategy. In the
growth stage, promotions must now start stressing product benefits. In the maturity phase,
many people have already tried the product and sales stabilize. Strategy shifts to encouraging
people to switch from competitors brands. Usually sales promotions, particularly coupons,
and special price deals, have greater chances of success than advertising. In the decline
phase, the company dramatically reduces spending on all elements of the promotion mix.
ACTIVITIES: APPLY WHAT YOU’VE LEARNED
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Chapter 12: Old and New Media: From One-to-Many to Many-to-Many
1. Assume you are the director of marketing for a firm that markets one of the following
products:
i.
Environmentally friendly household cleaning supplies
ii.
Hand-made wooden toys for 2 to 5-year old children
iii.
A line of designer book bags for students
You are developing a promotional plan. Develop suggestions for each of the following items:
a.
Marketing communication objectives
b.
A method for determining the communication budget
c.
The use of a push strategy or a pull strategy
d.
Elements of the traditional promotion mix you will use
e.
Use of buzz-building and social media activities
Then, in a role-playing situation, present your recommendations to your boss.
This activity is especially good for teams. In fact, you might even want to create a “pitch”
type of atmosphere in class, with some students playing the role of the client/executives and
other students playing roles of the marketing team pitching the promotional plan. The
client/executives team can hear the pitch, meet separately in private to discuss whether or not
to accept or reject the pitch, and come back to announce their decisions and reasons for
acceptance/rejection.
2. Many firms today are using a variety of buzz-building activities to encourage word-of-mouth
communications about their products. Select a product that you and your classmates might
purchase. You might, for example, think about (1) a specialty coffee shop, (2) a nightspot
where you and your friends might hang out on the weekends, or (3) a local theme or
amusement park. For your selected product, develop ideas for at least three different buzzbuilding activities. Outline the details as to exactly how these activities would be
implemented. Next, rank-order the activities , which you feel is the best, second, etc. and tell
why you feel that way. Develop a report for your class on your ideas.
The chapter nicely lists several different buzz-building activities. These word of mouth
(WOM) marketing messages are more credible and thus more valuable when unpaid
consumers create their own messages. Using the various examples of buzz-building activities
in the chapter, have the students brainstorm how they could develop ideas that would create
the buzz.
3. As a marketing consultant, you are frequently asked by clients to develop recommendations
for marketing communication strategies. The traditional elements used include advertising,
sales promotion, public relations, and personal selling. Which of these do you feel would be
most effective for each of the following clients?
a. A company that provides cellular phone service
b. A hotel
c. A university
d. A new soft drink
e. A sports equipment company
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Part 4: Communicate the Value Proposition
To begin this discussion, first choose one of the clients suggested in the question. Next, apply
the evaluations of the various items found in the traditional promotion mix. Last, present
findings to the class. One interesting way to make this discussion project more visible is to
find an existing product or service that matches the chosen client (the existing product or
service should have a real Web site). Compare what the real client does with respect to
promotion versus what students have recommended for the fictional client.
4. Assume that you are a marketing consultant for one of the clients in question 3 above. You
believe that the client would benefit from non-traditional marketing. Develop several ideas
for buzz building and social-media tactics that you feel would be successful for the client.
Students will have fun with this exercise as they create “out-of-the-traditional box” buzz and
social-media examples of marketing techniques. Students should be encouraged to share their
ideas with classmates and then vote on the best ideas.
5. First, schedule an appointment with your university’s marketing communications or
university relations department to discuss their communications program. You will probably
want to ask them about:
a. The target audiences for their communication program
b. The objectives of their communications program
c. The different types of traditional and non-traditional communication methods they use
d. Their use of social media
e. How they evaluate the effectiveness of their communication program(s)
Based on your discussions, develop a report that (1) provides a critique of the university’s
communication program and (2) makes recommendations for improvement.
Students will especially take interest in this activity, as it is such a high-involvement task for
them!
6.
More and more firms are engaged in multi-channel promotional programs. You can learn
about many of these by searching library or Internet sources. Some sources which may be
useful are:
Brandchannel.com
Adweek.com (Adweek magazine)
NYTimes.com (The New York Times)
Adage.com (Advertising Age magazine)
Gather information on one or more multi-channel promotional programs. Develop a report
that describes the program(s) and makes suggestions for how it/they might be improved.
Students should discuss whether they believe that such multi-channel promotional programs
serve the company well and increase their brand strength/equity in the marketplace. That is,
are the bigger global firms relative to smaller companies using multi-channel promotional
programs more?
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Chapter 12: Old and New Media: From One-to-Many to Many-to-Many
MARKETING METRICS EXERCISE
One of the important benefits of social media such as Facebook and Twitter is that they allow
marketers to learn what consumers are saying about their brand—and about the competition. To
better understand that process, you can research what consumers are saying about a brand on
Twitter.
1. Select a brand or a product category to study. If you are doing a marketing plan project
for your marketing course, you may use that product. If not, choose a brand or product
that you use—or one that you dislike.
2. Go to Twitter.com. Search for the product. Keep a record of the results. You might want
to categorize the results in some way such as the categories listed below. Of course, you
may be able to develop even better categories based on your product and the specific
characteristics of the product.
a. Number of tweets that are positive (and negative) about the benefits of the
product
b. Number of tweets that are positive (and negative) about the style or looks of the
product
c. Number of tweets that are positive (and negative) about the quality of the product
d. Number of tweets that are positive (and negative) about using the product
e. Number of tweets that ask questions
Students should discuss whether the data they collect speak to the brand’s equity/strength in
the marketplace. For example, do bigger, global firms have more positive tweets than smaller
companies for any or all of the distinct categories listed above?
CHOICES: WHAT DO YOU THINK?
1. Some buzz marketing activities engage buzz “agents” to tell their friends about a product, ask
store managers to stock the product, and in other ways purposefully create word of mouth.
Are these activities ethical?
The student’s responses will vary on whether these activities are ethical; ask them to explain
their position.
2. There is increasing concern about consumer privacy on social networking sites such as
Facebook. How do you feel about privacy on social networks? Is allowing personal
information to be available to others without a user’s specific permission unethical? Should
the network owners do more to protect users’ privacy? Should there be greater government
regulation or should the sites be free to develop as they might to meet the needs of users?
How much responsibility should the user accept in protecting their private information?
This would seem to be a very thought-provoking and somewhat controversial set of questions
as all of these issues has come up against Facebook and its founder.
3. Marketing seems to be moving at breakneck speed toward greater use of the Internet. Where
do you think this is headed? Will social media become even more important in the future?
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Part 4: Communicate the Value Proposition
Will some types of social media grow in popularity and usefulness to marketers while others
decline? What are the major factors in the growth or decline of an individual social media
site?
It would be an interesting exercise for students to depict the future uses/characteristics of
social media and perhaps generate ideas for the next and greatest form of social networking.
4. Many companies are using brand ambassadors or brand evangelists to spread the word about
their product. For what types of products do you think brand ambassadors are likely to be
most useful? When would they be less useful? Would you be willing to be a brand
ambassador for a product? If so, which product(s)? If not, why not?
Student opinions will vary—it might be useful to try to come to consensus about the
commonalities and differences between brands and their use of such advocates.
5. Recently Twitter has joined other Internet sites in selling preferred positions on the site to
generate revenue. Do you feel that such revenue generating activities make sites such Twitter
less attractive? If you know that the top comments on a site have their positions because
firms paid for them, are you likely to change your use of sites? Are there other ways that an
Internet site such as Twitter can generate revenue?
Because Twitter can be considered a “buzz-building” tactic, the element of sincerity becomes
paramount. One way to think about these questions is to consider the ethical implications for
companies using Twitter in potentially harmful ways:




Activities designed to deceive consumers.
Directing buzz marketing at children or teens.
Buzz marketing activities that damage property.
Stealth marketing activities that deliberately deceive or lie on behalf of clients.
6. While marketers are spending less in mass media advertising today than in previous times,
TV, radio, magazine and newspaper advertising remains an important means of
communicating with customers for many products. What products do you think most benefit
from mass media advertising? Why is this so? Do you feel advertising will continue to
decline in importance as a means for marketing communication or will it rebound in the
future?
Students will obviously have different opinions on this subject—one way to engage initial
discussion would be to ask students the frequency with which they watch TV, notice
traditional forms of promotions (e.g., advertising), use consumer sales promotions, engage in
salespersons’ marketing attempts, listen to public relations statements, etc.
MINI-PROJECT: LEARN BY DOING
This mini-project is designed to help you understand how important word-of-mouth marketing is
to consumers like yourself.
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Chapter 12: Old and New Media: From One-to-Many to Many-to-Many
1. Ask several of your classmates to participate in a focus group discussion about how they
communicate with others about products. Some questions you might ask are the following:
a. What products that you buy do you discuss with others at least from time to time?
b. What experiences have you had discussing products face-to-face with others?
c. What experiences have you had discussing products or reading comments of others about
products on blogs, social networks, or other Internet sites?
d. What are your experiences with product-related websites? Do you participate in games
and entertainment opportunities on product-related websites?
e. How do you think firms could improve their Websites to provide more information for
you?
2. Make a presentation of your findings to your class.
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Part 4: Communicate the Value Proposition
V. MARKETING IN ACTION CASE: AMERICAN EXPRESS
Summary of Case
By using famous and recognizable people in their ads, American Express is trying to capture the
attention of current and potential consumers. Each of the AMEX ads includes brief biographical
information on the celebrity such as where they live, profession, greatest triumphs or greatest
disappointments, and basic philosophy on life. The final point of each ad is how the American
Express card helps enable the individual to pursue what is important to him or her. Each ad ends
with the slogan “My Life, My Card.” In Mexico, AMEX uses sales promotion to offer one free
airline ticket for each ticket purchased with the American Express card. In Europe, they have set
up “AMEX Travelcast” hubs in tourist areas such as train stations. AMEX uses personal selling
to attract restaurant owners to its Restaurant Partnership Program, which provides savings and
benefits to owners that accept the American Express card. Unfortunately for American Express,
their “My Life, My Card” advertising campaign is not without competition. Visa has been
running ads for some time now with the slogan of “Life takes Visa,” which is a clever variation
on the same theme communicated by the American Express ads. American Express’s other main
competitor, MasterCard, uses its “Priceless” line of commercials that are aimed at encouraging
customers to use the card to create priceless moments. In the end, however, the “My Life, My
Card” campaign, while well liked, really was not working. Measures of customer loyalty showed
that American Express was first in its product category in 1997, but by 2007, the American
Express card was fifth, trailing Discover, Capital One, Visa, and MasterCard.So in 2007,
American Express replaced its “My Life, My Card” ads with a campaign that that presented a
product-oriented approach rather than the general image-oriented approach. New ads asked
consumers the question, “Are you a cardmember?”
Suggestions for Presentation
This case could be assigned for various out-of-class or in-class discussion activities.
Out of class
Compare and contrast the American Express advertising campaign against the campaigns of both
Visa and Master Card.
What are the benefits offered by American Express that make them stand out against competitors
Visa and Master Card?
Evaluate the annual fees charged by American Express, Visa and Master Card, and determine if
this will influence your decision to use one over another.
In class
Discuss the new American Express campaign and determine how long you believe people will
stay connected to the “Are you a cardmember?” message.
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Chapter 12: Old and New Media: From One-to-Many to Many-to-Many
Discuss the impression that students have on the use of celebrities in advertising campaigns.
Explain how word of mouth marketing, buzz marketing, viral marketing, and guerrilla marketing
could provide effective marketing communication for American Express.
Suggested Answers for Discussion Questions
1. What is the decision facing American Express?
Students may come up with a number of different decisions that American Express might make
such as:


American Express must decide whether its current advertising campaign will achieve its
long-term communication goals or are other creative ways to use marketing
communication needed.
Should American Express move quickly to develop still another new campaign or stick
with the current one?
2. What factors are important in understanding this decision situation?
The following factors are important in understand this decision situation:




The American Express campaign, “American Express card, don’t leave home without it,”
had a long run of popularity and is still a well-known advertising saying.
More recently, American Express has used celebrities in their advertising aimed at
current and potential consumer in their “My Life, My Card” campaign.
American Express has also used other forms of communication including a sales
promotion Web communications.
Visa’s “Life takes Visa” and MasterCard’s “Priceless” campaigns are similar to the “My
Life, My Card” campaign, diminish the impact of the American Express ads, and may
even confuse consumers.
3. What are the alternatives?
Students might recommend a variety of different alternatives. Some possibilities are:





American Express can continue its advertising-only communication program.
American Express can reduce the dependence on advertising and develop a strong sales
promotion program.
American Express can develop an innovative buzz marketing program to enhance its
advertising campaign.
Because of the similarity of the current American Express campaign with the advertising
being done by Visa and MasterCard, American Express can go back to its previous
“don’t leave home without it” campaign.
American Express can ask its ad agency to develop a very new campaign.
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Part 4: Communicate the Value Proposition
4. What decision(s) do you recommend?
Students may focus on several of the alternatives developed. They should be encouraged to
discuss which alternative actions are more critical.
5. What are some ways to implement your recommendations?
Students may make a variety of suggestions for implementation depending on their
recommendations. These may include specific promotion activities, specific pricing, research
activities and many others.
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Chapter 12: Old and New Media: From One-to-Many to Many-to-Many
WEB RESOURCES
The Buzz Index Weekly: http://buzz.yahoo.com
Business Week: http://www.businessweek.com
The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com
Advertising Age: http://adage.com
Newsweek: http://www.newsweek.com
American Stock Exchange: http://www.amex.com
A Burger King website for buzz marketing: http://www.subservientchicken.com
Wells Fargo’s Stagecoach Island website: http://blog.wellsfargo.com/StagecoachIsland
YouTube website: http://www.youtube.com
Campfire’s website (Real People, Real Choices): http://campfirenyc.com/#hello
Facebook’s website: www.facebook.com
LinkedIn’s website: www.linkedin.com
Twitter’s website: www.twitter.com
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