Marketing Mix (MM) and IMC

MM and IMC

• Marketing is a process where organizations create customer value and build strong relationships to capture value in return

• Marketing involves planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, or services

• The goal of marketing is to create value and satisfy individual and organizational objectives

• MM refers to the four tools used to achieve marketing objectives:

  • Product: Consists of three layers: the core product (unique benefit), tangible perception (features), and augmented product (additional services); this helps in positioning the product
  • Price: Generates resources for production and marketing; it must be managed carefully to avoid harming brand value and includes list prices and discounts
  • Place: Ensures efficient product reach to customers, focusing on cooperation with distribution channels
  • Promotion: Includes all communication methods with target groups to promote products or brands

• MCMIX covers:

  • Advertising (adv): The activity of producing advertising for commercial products or services
  • Brand activation: Marketing focused on creating deep and meaningful interactions between a brand and its consumers; its goals are to enhance brand awareness, strengthen consumer loyalty, and drive sales
  • Sales promotion
  • Direct marketing communication: Can be online or offline and can be more personal online due to data gathering
  • Sponsorship
  • Public Relations (PR)
  • Exhibitions

Communication Strategy

• Marketing Communication (MC) engages audiences to convey valuable messages with the goal of informing, persuading, differentiating offerings, and reinforcing relationships
• Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) is a strategic process that develops and implements persuasive communication programs
• IMC focuses on the customer perspective and aims for consistency across all communication channels; It's relationship-based, interactive, customer-oriented and personalized

Key Principles of IMC

• Consistency: All communication tools must deliver a unified message
• Synergy: The effects of communication tools should reinforce one another for greater impact

Global Marketing Communication

• Adaptation: Organizations decide whether to localize (adapt) or globalize (standardize) campaigns based on cultural similarities or differences
• Standardization offers cost savings and a consistent global brand image, while adaptation addresses cultural differences effectively

Corporate Identity and Culture

• Corporate Personality: The organization's distinctive value and shared understanding among its members; It shapes how the organization operates and interacts with stakeholders
• Corporate Culture (CORP CUTL): Deeply rooted beliefs and assumptions that shape operations
• Corporate Identity (CORP ID): How the organization presents itself among its stakeholders through behavior, communication, and visual elements; A strong corporate identity fosters credibility, goodwill, and motivation among employees and stakeholders

Determinants of Corporate Identity

• Strategic Priorities: Long-term objectives shape identity through mission, culture, and positioning
• Corporate Culture: Derived from values, history, and philosophy and evolves over time, but is difficult to change quickly
• Industry Identity: Common traits within industries influence corporate strategy
• Corporate Structure: Organizational and brand structures shape how identity is managed and communicated

Hierarchy of Effect Models

• Traditional Sequence of effects includes: cognitive (awareness) → affective (attitude) → behavioral (purchase)
• Low Involvement Model includes: cognitive → behavioral → affective
• Experiential Model includes: affective → behavioral → cognitive
• FCB and Rossiter-Percy Grids classify consumer decisions based on involvement and decision goals, distinguishing between transformational (pleasure-driven) and informational (problem-solving) decisions
  • High involvement rational
  • High involvement, emotional
  • Low involvement, habitual
  • Low involvement, experiential

Attitude Formation and Change

• Components of attitude include an overall evaluation of an object, product, or brand, measured by favorability
  • Cognitive (knowledge)
  • Affective (feelings)
  • Behavioral (intentions)

Theories of Advertising Effectiveness

• Strong Theory: Advertising informs, persuades, and drives behavior through a step-by-step process
• Weak Theory: Advertising serves to remind and nudge consumers based on past experiences rather than direct persuasion

Roles of Advertising

• Advertising introduces products (awareness), encourages initial use (trial), and reinforces previous decisions (reinforcement)
• Advertising supports brand awareness and customer behavior, rather than radically changing it

Content Marketing

• A long-term strategy that focuses on building a strong relationship with a target audience
• Achieved by providing high-quality content relevant to them, using both online and offline resources

Content Marketing Cycle

• Researching needed information for potential customers
• Deciding on objectives, themes, and approach:
  • Paid media (advertising)
  • Earned media (partner network)
  • Owned media (digital properties)
• Creating content
• Promoting content using seven principles:
  • Authentic
  • Consistent
  • Comprehensible
  • Targeted
  • Interactive
  • Shareable
  • Accessible
• Measuring and evaluating
• Adjusting

Communication in the Digital Age

• The Digital Marketing Communication Funnel entails:
  • Awareness: Knowing about the brand and being interested in visiting their online channel
  • Capture: Convincing people to go to an online platform to buy the product
  • Conversion: Purchasing the product or subscribing to the service
  • Loyalty: Convincing customers to buy the product again

Core Purpose of Marketing Communication

• Awareness: Creating awareness of the brand/product to attract the ideal target audience
• Consideration: Encouraging qualified leads to take action and buy, closing more sales
• Retention: Keeping customers delighted and engaged to encourage repeat purchases

Content Marketing Objectives

• Persuasion: Adapting traditional models for digital settings, emphasizing rational benefits
• Involvement: Engaging consumers through user-generated content
• Salience: Using creative communication that stands out, amplified through social media
• Sales Promotion: Driving immediate behavior with enhanced digital tools

Factors Influencing Online Consumer Responses

• Homophily: Increased influence from similar others, building trust on digital platforms
• Tie Strengths: Stronger interpersonal connections, leading to greater influence and trust in messages
• Source Credibility: Consumers evaluate the expertise and motivation of message sources, which extends credibility to the hosting website

Ethics vs. Moral Marketing

• Morals: Individual beliefs about what is right and wrong
• Ethics: Operational principles guiding behavior

Ethical Issues in Marketing Communication (MC)

• Marketing may conflict with societal values like honesty, virtue, and environmental ethics: Criticisms include the promotion of materialism, stereotypes, emotional manipulation, and creating unrealistic expectations

Unethical Marketing Communication Practices

• Stereotyping: Portrayals reinforce societal biases and perpetuate inequality
• Controversial Advertising: Designed to provoke through norm violations or offensive imagery, harming brand attitude
• Covert Marketing: Disguises persuasive intent, raising ethical concerns about transparency
• Targeting Vulnerable Groups: Targeting children or the elderly, raising ethical issues

Regulation and Self-Regulation in Marketing Communication

• Importance of Regulation: Ensures consumer decisions are not based on false or unethical advertising and improve consumer choice, product quality, and reduced prices
• Self-Regulation in Marketing: Involves industry-created codes or conduct to maintain ethical standards that provides flexibility, quick response, and cost-effectiveness

Regulatory Codes

• ICC Code: Emphasizes legality, honesty, and social responsibility in marketing
• EASA: Promotes responsible advertising through self-regulation across Europe

International Culture

• Culture (CULT): Collective programming of the mind that represents a shared body of beliefs and values which dictate societal norms

Layers of Culture

• Basic Assumptions: Fundamental beliefs that all people are equal
• Norms and Values: Societal expectations for equal rights
• Artifacts of Culture: Visible elements, such as the legal system

Dimensions of National Culture

• Power Distance (PD): The way people in a society relate to each other on a hierarchical scale, indicating the extent to which power is accepted as being distributed unequally

Impact on Consumer Behavior (Power Distance)

• High PD: Leads to trust in authority figures, experts, or established brands
• Low PD: Customers value equality and are less likely to blindly trust authority, seeking transparency and questioning the value/quality of products

Individualism and Collectivism

• The way societies prioritize individual goals vs. group goals

Impact on Consumer Behavior (Individualism vs. Collectivism)

• Individualistic Culture: Focuses on personal goals, independence, and self-expression, with decisions based on personal beliefs, benefits, and preferences

• Collectivist Culture: Centers on group goals, harmony, and interconnectedness, with decisions influenced by family, social networks, or community norms

• Masculinity and Femininity (MAS/FEM):

  • Masculine Culture: Society with distinct emotional gender roles, where assertiveness and achievements are valued
  • Feminine Culture: Society where emotional roles overlap, prioritizing quality of life and relationships

Impact on Consumer Behavior (Masculinity vs. Femininity)

• Masculine Society: Decisions are often made by men, and status purchases are common

• Feminine Society: Decisions are collaborative, with an emphasis on diverse and home products

• Uncertainty Avoidance (UA): Measures how comfortable a society is with ambiguity, risk, and uncertainty

  • The extent to which people feel threatened by unknown situations and how they attempt to avoid those through rules and regulations

Impact on Consumer Behavior (Uncertainty Avoidance)

• High UA: Prefer well-established brands/products/services and require a lot of information before making a purchase, relying on reviews and certifications
• Low UA: More willing to try new products/brands/services and are comfortable with limited information, making quicker decisions