Download HC communication blok 3 week 2

Cross-media communication and the
creative concept
Hoorcollege marketing communication blok 4
week 2
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Learning goals
 By the end of the colleges and reading you should
 Know what a consumer insight is and why this is important
to marketing communication
 Be able to define integrated marketing communications
 Have a working definition of a “cross media”
communication
 Understand and be in a position to use the steps in
developing effective marketing communication
 Be in a position to develop a creative concept
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Agenda
 Consumer insight and marketing communications
 Integrated marketing communications (IMC)
 What is “cross-media” communication?
 The creative concept - the basis of the campaign
 Summary
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Consumer insight and marketing
communications
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The communications loop
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Important stuff to remember when
developing communications
 Know your audience (target customer)
 Send a clear message
 What do you want to say?
 KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid)
 Understand the communications process
 What are the barriers to communication?
 The question is how do we do this in practice?
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Consumers do not buy products
 A golden rule of marketing is that consumers do not
buy products or services…
 They buy solutions to problems they have
 In marketing jargon: They buy benefits
 For example:
 A person that has just moved house and has to put up
shelves does not buy a drill
 They buy holes in the wall that allow them to put up shelves
 A parent does not buy a game for their children for a long
journey
 They buy peace and quiet during the journey
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However most problems have more
than one solution
???
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Before they buy your solution the
consumer wants to know…
“What’s in it for me?”
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Customer insights
 A consumer insight is a deep understanding of a
problem from the perspective of the consumer
 A unique insight creates a strong competitive
advantage as it differentiates your offer more
effectively
 It helps the customer see “what’s in it for me?”
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Customer insight example:
Wisk USA (Omo)
 USA is P&G’s home market Ariel is the market
leader
 Unilever HQ wanted market growth
 No new product
 No TV
 This can be a brand manager’s nightmare!
 What did the brand manager do?
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What happened?
 The brand manager did what every marketer should
do when faced with a problem…
 Listen to the customer (user):
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The insight
 Their research showed that many mothers were
worried about that their children did not play outside
enough
 This insight was the basis of their communication campaign
Go Ahead. Get Dirty
 This insight allowed them to grow by 12% in a tough
market
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Internet Activity
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Internet Activity
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One global idea…many executions
Brazil
Taiwan
UK
Canada
S.Africa
Ecuador
Turkey
Chile
Thailand
Pakistan
India
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Using consumer insights
 A consumer insight is often be the basis of the
whole marketing mix
 Therefore it can also be the basis of your marketing
communications
 Your campaign ultimately aims to show the customer
“what’s in it for them”
 This can be done by developing integrated
marketing communications
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Integrated marketing
communications (IMC)
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What is Integrated Marketing
Communications?
 Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) is simply the idea
that an organization carefully integrates all its communications
channels to deliver a clear, consistent and compelling
message to its target customer(s)
 By integrating all the elements of it communication it builds a
strong brand identity and consistently shows the target
customer “what’s in it for them”
 Communication here is meant in a broad sense to include




The message
Communication channels
Imagery, visual look and feel and tone of voice
The idea of consumer touch points
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IMC - Kotler’s view
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An alternative view of IMC:
The IMC circle
Consistent, clear and
compelling company and
product messages
Source: Pickton, D. & Broderick, A., 2005. Integrated Marketing
Communications 2nd Ed., Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd.
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What is “cross-media”
communication?
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Cross-media hype or something
different?
 In recent years the term cross-media
communication has become popular within the
marketing communications world
 Some regard it as the solution to the noise in marketing
communication
 Others see it as just a hype and no different from IMC
 However, it is not even clear what cross-media
communication is
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What is cross-media communication?
 “By definition cross-media publishing is the
publishing of a message or communication via
multiple media outlets including printed media,
electronic media and the Internet”
Source: Barb Pellow, Rochester Institute of Technology
(http://shopnews.suiteshoponline.com/tips/200651723435.htm, visited 04/02/2007)
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What is cross-media communication?

“Crossmedia communication is communication where the storyline will
invite the receiver to cross-over from one medium to the next. Making
it possible to transform from one-dimensional communication (sender
-> receiver(s)) to multi-dimensional communication (sender(s) <->
receiver(s)). Good crossmedia communication will enhance the value
of communication: The level and depth of (message) involvement will
be more personal and therefore more relevant and powerful. Financial
profits can be gained through equal or decreasing costs for the same
communication effects with single medium communication. It is
possible to shift costs for communicating from the sender to the
receiver if the story is attractive enough for the receiver to want to
interact with it.”
Source: Monique de Haas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossmedia, visited 04/02/2007)
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What is cross-media communication?
 “Dat de definitie van crossmedia onderdeel vormt
van een actueel debat waarover nog geen
consensus is uitgesproken moge duidelijk zijn. De
pioniers op dit gebied zijn het lang niet eens met
elkaar, maar dat kan ook niet anders want binnen
crossmedia werken verschillende disciplines met
elkaar samen en benaderen zij het fenomeen vanuit
het eigen perspectief.”
Source: Indira Reynaert (http://crossmediaforum.web-log.nl/log/3481353, visited
04/02/2007)
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It isn’t very clear is it?
 The problem is that cross-media communication
seems to be based on an old idea (IMC) but with a
new twist (IAM)
 It is perhaps just IMC with “go-faster stripes”
 For the purposes of this blok I will give you a
working definition
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A working definition of cross-media
communication
 Cross-media communication is a communication
campaign that:
 Is based on a customer insight
 Tries to sell a solution to a problem the customer has by
using “story”
 Uses more than one medium and integrates these media
 Encourages the target group to move between media in a
natural way via the story
 Involves the target group in the campaign (is interactive)
making it more personal and therefore impactful
 The interaction is synchronous (close to real-time) not
asynchronous
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The creative concept - the basis of
the campaign
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The creative concept (a.k.a. big idea,
creative theme, creative idea)
 The creative concept is vehicle you use to show
your target customer “what’s in it for them”
 It is the message or the underlying idea you use for a
specific campaign
 A creative concept should be “media neutral”
 A creative concept should “have legs”
 It should be flexible enough to use across different media
 It should be usable across more than one campaign
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Creative concept: One view
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Executing the creative concept
 This usually involves developing a creative appeal
(often the slogan)
 This is about phrasing the message in a way that appeals
to the target audience
 Let them see what’s in it for them
 Two main dimensions to this phrasing
 Rational / emotional appeals
 Product / customer orientated appeals
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Rational / emotional appeals
 Rational appeals
 Logical argument that tries to persuade the customer to act
in a certain way
 On their own rational appeals do not usually hold attention
in consumer markets
 But they may work in some B2B markets
 Emotional appeals
 Appealing to the emotions of the customer to reinforce the
rational appeal
 Not just concerned with facts, but also feelings
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Types of emotional appeal
 Negative
 Fear is the main one
 E.g. Toilet cleaners
 Need to be used carefully
 Positive
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Happiness
Enjoyment
Freedom
Love
Self-fulfilment
Humour
Sex
Etc., etc…
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Product / customer orientated
appeals
 Product appeals
 Focus on product features and/or attributes and stress why
they are important to the target audience
 Customer orientated appeals
 Stress on personal gains through the use of the product
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Most creative appeals combine
dimensions
 Rational / Product
 Rational / Consumer
 Emotional / Product
 Emotional / Consumer
 Important to ensure the message is not made too
complex
 Always refer back to your knowledge of the target audience
when trying to decide which way you want to appeal to
them
 Choose the approach that works best for them
 E.g. Do not use humour if it is inappropriate (this happens a
lot with British agencies)
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Creative appeal dimensions
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Example of creative concept: Amstel
Bier
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Summary
 Marketing communication is about showing the
target customer “what’s in it for them”
 To be effective it should be created as an integrated
marketing communication campaign to deliver a
clear, consistent and compelling message
 Cross-media communication is a form of IMC with a
stronger emphasis on story and interaction
 A good campaign should be based on a creative
concept that appeals to the target group and shows
them “what’s in it for them”
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