10_Hard_Designing an Integrated Marketing Campaign in the Digital Age

• Key principles to manage integrated marketing campaigns involve four levels of integration: horizontal, vertical, internal, and external.

Four Levels of Integration

• Horizontal integration coordinates marketing actions like packaging and pricing with communication campaigns.
• Vertical integration aligns communication objectives with higher-level marketing strategy goals.
• Internal integration shares relevant information among internal departments.
• External integration ensures cohesion between the company's plan and external partners.

Core Principles For Marketing

• Coverage measures the reach and overlap of each channel to the target audience.
• Contribution is the direct impact of a communication tool on consumer responses, without relying on other channels.
• Commonality ensures consistency of shared associations across different messages.
• Complementarity involves different tools that emphasize unique attributes to collectively cover a broader range of benefits.
• Conformability is a communication approach that works for both new and familiar consumers.
• Cost evaluates each communication's effectiveness relative to its expense for an optimal mix.

Advertising

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

Major Advertising Mediums

• Television can persuasively demonstrate product attributes, portray brand personality, and tap a captive audience during major live events.
• Television has weaknesses, including high clutter, fleeting exposure, and being costly.
• Print like magazines/newspapers allows readers to consume information at their own pace and is effective for brand imagery.
• Print lacks dynamism, has a short shelf life, and magazine ads can be missed if not eye-catching.
• Radio is flexible, inexpensive, and has high local targeting potential.
• Radio lacks visuals, involves passive consumption, and relies on sound creativity.
• Online advertising is measurable and allows contextual targeting.
• Online advertising includes text, display, and video.
• Online advertising can be ignored or blocked, and has less control once ads are disseminated.
• Place advertising includes billboards.
• Billboards are quick and visual, but can be in cluttered environments.
• Product placement is paying to appear in movies/TV.
• Point of purchase is in-store ads that influence final brand choice.

Managing Online Communications

• A company website should reflect the company's identity and be aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) optimizes site content using relevant keywords and meta tags. This allows the site to rank higher in organic search results.
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM) pays search engines to feature brand links for specific keyword searches.
• Bidding on keywords helps the brand's link appear above or beside search results.
• With SEM, paying happens only if users click, so choosing high-return keywords is crucial.

SEO Guidelines

• Use broader terms for general brand building.
• Use specific terms for stronger leads and purchase intent.
• Bid on multiple terms as needed, while monitoring cost-effectiveness.

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 improves brand presence and can create communities of followers and advocates.
• Consumer engagement is not guaranteed, the medium is highly dynamic, and companies must react in real-time to emerging news or customer feedback.

Social Media Types

• Online Communities and Forums are created by consumers or sponsored by companies.
• Online Communities and Forums provide two-way information flow, aiding marketers in gathering insights and consumers in sharing experiences.
• Blogs are ongoing online journals that can influence purchase decisions.
• Social Networks offer broad or specialized audiences.
• On social networks, brand content competes with personal communication.
• Viral marketing and brand pulsing on social media can create "shareable" and attention-getting content.
• Customer Reviews impact purchase decisions. Consumers place larger weight on negative than positive reviews.

Engagement

• Only some consumers want to engage with some brands, some of the time.
• Brands should create brand-relevant and interesting content to capture those who do want interaction.

Strategies for Social Media

• Dealing with negative feedback on social media can amplify complaints.
• Harnessing word of mouth encourages sharing and peer recommendations.
• Influencer marketing involves companies paying influencers on social media to promote offerings and products to their audience.

Mobile Communications

• Leverage smartphones' unique attributes, as they are tied to one user, are always on, highly interactive, and support immediate purchases.
• Boost loyalty with location-based offers.
• Provide convenience and value with timely, relevant deals that suit the small screen and fleeting attention spans.
• Ensure opt-in and minimal hassle for coupon redemption or sign-ups.
• Minimize friction by keeping messaging simple and uncluttered.

Events

• Events can convey or reinforce brand personality and core associations shaping how consumers perceive the brand.
• Events create immersive, enjoyable moments so that consumers see how the offering fits into their lives.
• Enhance emotional impact and use events as platforms to evoke feelings.
• Permit tie-ins and promotions to maximize synergy.
• Assess unpredictability to recognize that event outcomes can be partly sponsorship.
• Brands must monitor effectiveness to evaluate whether attendees match the brand's target market, gauge changes in brand image, and measure event consumer response.

Designing Events

• Choose relevant events by aligning the event's audience, image, and expected reach with the brand's objectives.

Managing Events

• Link events to merchandising, sweepstakes, or loyalty programs to maximize synergy.

Measuring Events

• Evaluate whether attendee demographics matched the brand's target market.
• Gauge changes in brand image.
• Survey the consumer response.

Word of Mouth

• Consumers frequently discuss brands, shaping others' opinions and buying decisions.
• Word of mouth can arise naturally or be facilitated by marketers via shareable, buzzworthy content.
• Viral Marketing encourages consumers to share audio/video/written content, creating large-scale word-of-mouth exposure.

Earned Media

• Earned media is positive coverage on social networks, blogs, or personal reviews.
• Product Visibility spur face-to-face discussions.
• Consumers typically share both favorable and negative experiences, so maintain vigilance.

Publicity, Public Relations, Crisis Comms

• Publicity uses editorial space to promote a company or offering, without paying for media time or space.
• Publicity attracts attention at low cost and enhances credibility due to being a third-party outlet.
• Public Relations manages the overall reputation of a company and its offerings, building, maintaining, and protecting corporate image.
• Public Relations department functions include press coverage and corporate communications.
• Public Relations department functions also include Lobbying : Working with legislators/government to influence policies.

Packaging

• Packaging is the first aspect of a product that buyers see, greatly influencing initial perceptions.

Function of a Label

• The function of a label is making the offering recognizable at a glance, highlighting product attributes, enhancing aesthetics,and reinforcing the brand.

Product Packaging

• Effective Packaging helps cut through clutter and distinguish from competitors.
• Effective Packaging communicates the product's value proposition.
• Effective Packaging can influence immediate decisions at the shelf.