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Marketing communications is considered the fourth variable in the
marketing mix. Marketing communication planning usually does not begin
until after planning is well underway for the product, pricing, and
distribution components of the product’s marketing mix. Explain
why.
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An integrated marketing communications (IMC) plan coordinates all
of a product’s promotional activities in order to “provide
clarity, consistency, and maximum communications impact.” Can
using the IMC approach also guarantee that customers will receive
all of the information they think they need to make a purchase decision?
Take a position on this issue and support it with a personal purchase
example.
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Table 18.1 illustrates the steps in the communications process with
three examples of promotional messages. Extend this chart by adding
three more types of promotional messages:
a. Magazine advertising
b. Wall murals
c. Internet advertising
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Marketers who are restricted from using other media, such as companies
that sell tobacco and liquor, have historically been major users of
sponsorships. Laws recently introduced in Canada will now restrict
their use of sponsorships. Some of the organizations being sponsored,
particularly nonprofit arts and culture organizations, are not pleased
with this legislation because the monies provided by the tobacco and
liquor companies have been critical to their survival. Should sponsorship
be a restricted form of marketing communication?
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In situations where both advertising and personal selling are used,
the timing of their use is an important consideration in marketing
communications planning. Figure 18.5 shows the relative importance
of personal selling and advertising at different stages of the consumer
purchase process. It indicates that personal selling is more important
during the transactional phase of the process while advertising is
more important during the pre-transactional and post-transactional
phases. Explain why.
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Figure 18.9 summarizes the elements of advertising planning in terms
of being a sequence of activities. It begins with research inputs
and ultimately results in feedback that becomes research input for
a follow-up set of advertising planning activities. The text states
that there is “a real need to follow a sequential process in
making advertising decisions.” Discuss why sequential decision-making
is needed in advertising planning.
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The task-objective method of developing a marketing communications
budget is generally recognized as being well attuned for modern marketing
practices, especially IMC planning. However, marketing practitioners
seldom use it. Explain why.
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Measurement and quantitative feedback are critical to determining
the effectiveness of a marketing communications plan. However, one
of the major obstacles in achieving this goal is the difficulty of
isolating the effect of the marketing communications variable from
the impact of the other elements of the marketing mix. If you were
the marketing manager of the new Vanilla flavour of Coca-Cola, how
would you go about isolating the impact on your first year’s
sales of the product’s taste versus the impact of your communications
plan to build awareness of the product’s taste and availability?
