10_Easy_Designing an Integrated Marketing Campaign in the Digital Age

• Key principles in managing an integrated marketing campaign involve four levels of integration and core principles.

Four Levels of Integration:

• Horizontal integration coordinates marketing activities (packaging, pricing, sales promos, distribution) with the communication campaign for a unified impression.
• Vertical integration aligns communication objectives with higher-level marketing strategy goals.
• Internal integration shares relevant information among internal departments (e.g., product development, market research) so communication efforts reflect company-wide insights.
• External integration ensures cohesion between the company's plan and external partners (ad agencies, PR firms, co-sponsors).

Core Principles:

• Coverage refers to how much of the target audience each channel reaches, plus how much overlap exists among channels.
• Contribution is the direct impact each communication tool has on consumer responses (awareness, preference, sales) without relying on other channels.
• Commonality involves the consistency of shared associations across different messages, ensuring each medium reinforces the same brand meaning.
• Complementarity means having different tools emphasize unique attributes so they collectively cover a broader range of brand benefits (e.g., event sponsorship for trust + TV ads for performance).
• Conformability is the ability of a communication approach to work for both new consumers (no prior exposure) and those already familiar with other messages.
• Cost involves evaluating each communication's effectiveness relative to its expense to ensure an optimal mix.

Key Aspects of Managing an Effective Advertising Campaign

• Advertising is any paid form of nonpersonal presentation to promote ideas, goods, services, or brands.
• Advertisers typically purchase media time/space (TV, print, etc.) to convey a specific message to a target audience.

Major Advertising Media:

• Television's strengths include demonstrating product attributes persuasively and portraying brand personality, and can tap a captive audience during major live events.
• Television's weaknesses are high clutter, fleeting exposure, often costly. Viewers can skip commercials, and streaming alternatives (Netflix, etc.) limit its ad reach.
• Print (Magazines/Newspapers) strengths are that readers consume at their own pace, allowing more detailed info and is effective for brand imagery.
• Print weaknesses are that it is static, less dynamic than broadcast. Short shelf life for many newspapers; magazine ads can be missed if not eye-catching.
• Radio strengths are that it is flexible, relatively inexpensive, and good for short lead times with high local targeting potential.
• Radio weaknesses are that it has no visuals, passive consumption and must rely heavily on sound creativity.
• Online Advertising strengths include being measurable (clicks, impressions), and contextual targeting (search ads, relevant websites) and includes text, display, video.
• Online Advertising weaknesses are that consumers may ignore or block ads, “bogus clicks,” less control once ads are disseminated.
• Place Advertising through Billboards which offer quick "15-second sell" with visuals, can be a cluttered environment.
• Place Advertising can take place in Public Spaces like ads in elevators, arenas, buses, transit stations.
• Place Advertising also includes Product Placement: Paying to appear in movies/TV which may allow potential integration in story arcs.
• Place Advertising also happens Point of Purchase: In-store ads (displays, cart straps, live demos) which may influence the final brand choice.

Designing and Managing Online Communications

• A Company Website should reflect the company's identity (purpose, history, products, vision) and must be aesthetically pleasing and easy for users to navigate.

Driving Online Traffic:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) optimizes the site's content (using relevant keywords, meta tags) so it ranks higher in organic (nonpaid) search results.
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM) involves paying search engines to feature brand links for specific keyword searches.
• Bidding on keywords helps the brand's link appear above or beside search results.
• One pays only if users click, so choosing high-return keywords is crucial.

Guidelines For KeyWord Bidding

• Use broader search terms (e.g., "burger,” “iPhone”) for general brand building.
• Use specific terms (e.g., “iPhone XS Max") for stronger leads and purchase intent.
• Bid on multiple terms as needed, monitoring cost-effectiveness.

Key Aspects of Managing Social Media

• Social Media enables two-way interaction where consumers share text, images, audio, and video, and marketers can engage with them.
• Social Media has the potential to improves brand presence and can create communities of followers and advocates.
• Social Media challenges include that consumer engagement is not guaranteed, the medium is highly dynamic, and companies must react in real-time to emerging news or customer feedback.

Types of Social Media:

• Online Communities and Forums are created by consumers or sponsored by companies (e.g., Apple discussion boards) and provide two-way information flow.
• Blogs can be described as ongoing online journals that can influence purchase decisions and companies launch corporate blogs but also monitor consumer blogs for feedback or criticisms.
• Social Networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, WeChat) offer broad or specialized audiences.
• Brand content competes with personal communication, viral marketing and brand pulsing can help create "shareable" and attention-getting content.
• Customer Reviews/ online ratings and reviews (e.g., Yelp, Amazon) affect purchase decisions.
• Negative reviews often carry more weight than positive ones, and authenticity and trust matter.

Social Media Strategies and Considerations:

• Engagement Level: Only some consumers want to engage with some brands, some of the time, so create brand-relevant and interesting content to capture those who do want interaction.
• Speed and Real-Time Response/ Social media is "always-on" , so companies must respond swiftly (e.g., dealing with product issues, negative word of mouth).
• Influencer Marketing occurs when companies pay influencers on social media to promote offerings.
• When using influencers, beware of inflated follower counts and verify authenticity to avoid social media fraud.
• To deal with negative feedback, companies can proactively address issues, providing alternative viewpoints and resolving problems fast.
• Word of Mouth harnesses encourage "likes,” sharing, and peer recommendations, but keep in mind that true virality is unpredictable

Managing Mobile Communications

• Leverage smartphones' unique attributes: tied to one user, always on, highly interactive, and supporting immediate purchase.
• Boost loyalty with location-based offers, provide convenience and value, balance personalization with user privacy, and minimize friction.

Designing Meaningful Events and Experiences

• Choose relevant events to align the event's audience, image, and expected reach with the brand's objectives ensuring the event resonates with the target market's lifestyle and attitudes.
• Build brand associations by reinforcing brand personality and core associations, create experiences that are immersive and create an enjoyable environment.
• Enhance the emotional impact, permit tie-ins and promotions, assess unpredictability and monitor the effectiveness.

Key Aspects of Word of Mouth in Marketing Communications

• Consumers frequently discuss brands (from TV shows to everyday goods), shaping others' opinions and buying decisions.
• Word of mouth can arise naturally (eg., Starbucks, Red Bull) or be facilitated by marketers via shareable, buzzworthy content.
• Encourage consumers to share audio/video/written content which is often online, creating large-scale word-of-mouth exposure.

Earned, Paid and Owned Media

• Positive coverage on social networks, blogs, or personal reviews complements paid and owned media, multiplying campaign impact.
• Brands that are memorable, salient, or public in use are more likely to spur face-to-face discussions.
• Consumers typically share their own favorable experiences but often relay others' negative stories, requiring vigilance from marketers.

Managing Publicity and Public Relations

• Publicity uses editorial space (news stories, articles, editorials) to promote a company or offering, without paying for media time or space, which may attract attention at low cost and enhance credibility.
• Public Relations manages the overall reputation of a company and its offerings by building, maintaining, and protecting corporate image among various stakeholders.
• Public Relations departments handle press coverage, corporate communications, and lobbying.
• Typical PR Media Formats include publications, events, news generation, speeches, and public service activities which maintains consistent branding.

The Role of Product Packaging as a Communication Tool

• Packaging is typically the first aspect of a product that buyers see, greatly influencing initial perceptions and a well-designed package can pique consumer interest and encourage further evaluation.
• A Label is any written, electronic, or graphical communication on or attached to the packaging and is key for functions of identification, description, enhancing aesthetics, and reinforcing brand.

Core Principles of Effective Packaging

• Visibility to cut through clutter by grabbing attention in a crowded environment.
• Differentiation helps consumers quickly distinguish one brand from competitors, especially in time-pressured or overloaded shopping contexts and consistent packaging design boosts brand recognition.
• Transparency clearly communicates the product's value proposition (benefits, virtues) at the point of purchase.
• Product Packaging similarities to advertising include informing buyers about salient product aspects.
• Product Packaging differences to advertising include that it influences immediate decisions at the shelf; shoppers often rely on visual cues for familiar or low-cost items.

Explore integrated marketing communications and its key concepts. Learn about aligning objectives, commonality, coverage, and complementarity in marketing. Understand advertising, events, viral marketing, and the role of PR.