Ch 14 - Integrated Marketing Communications and Direct Marketing

Question 1

Discuss integrated marketing communications and the communication process.

Answer 1

Integrated marketing communications is the concept of designing marketing communications programs that coordinate all promotional activities—advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations, and direct marketing—to provide a consistent message across all audiences. The communication process conveys messages with six elements: a source, a message, a channel of communication, a receiver, and encoding and decoding. The communication process also includes a feedback loop and can be distorted by noise.

Question 2

Describe the promotional mix and the uniqueness of each component.

Answer 2

There are five promotional alternatives. Advertising, sales promotion, and public relations are mass selling approaches, whereas personal selling and direct marketing use customized messages. Advertising can have high absolute costs but reaches large numbers of people. Personal selling has a high cost per contact but provides immediate feedback. Public relations is often difficult to obtain but is very credible. Sales promotion influences short-term consumer behavior. Direct marketing can help develop customer relationships, although maintaining a database can be very expensive.

Question 3

Select the promotional approach appropriate to a product’s target audience, life-cycle stage, and channel strategy.

Answer 3

The promotional mix depends on the target audience. Programs for consumers, business buyers, and intermediaries might emphasize advertising, personal selling, and sales promotion, respectively. The promotional mix also changes over the product life-cycle stages. During the introduction stage, all promotional mix elements are used. During the growth stage advertising is emphasized, while the maturity stage utilizes sales promotion and direct marketing. Little promotion is used during the decline stage. Finally, the promotional mix can depend on the channel strategy. Push strategies require personal selling and sales promotions directed at channel members, while pull strategies depend on advertising and sales promotions directed at consumers.

Question 4

Describe the elements of the promotion decision process.

Answer 4

The promotion decision process consists of three steps: planning, implementation, and evaluation. The planning step consists of six elements: identify the target audience, specify the objectives, set the budget, select the right promotional elements, design the promotion, and schedule the promotion. The implementation step includes pretesting. The evaluation step includes posttesting.

Question 5

Explain the value of direct marketing for consumers and sellers.

Answer 5

The value of direct marketing for consumers is indicated by its level of use. For example, 49 percent of the U.S. population have made a purchase by mail and 64 percent have shopped online. The value of direct marketing for sellers can be measured in terms of three types of responses: direct orders, lead generation, and traffic generation.

Question 6

advertising

Answer 6

Any paid form of nonpersonal communication about an organization, product, service, or idea by an identified sponsor.

Question 7

communication

Answer 7

The process of conveying a message to others that requires six elements: a source, a message, a channel of communication, a receiver, and the processes of encoding and decoding.

Question 8

direct marketing

Answer 8

A promotion alternative that uses direct communication with consumers to generate a response in the form of an order, a request for further information, or a visit to a retail outlet.

Question 9

direct orders

Answer 9

The result of direct marketing offers that contain all the information necessary for a prospective buyer to make a decision to purchase and complete the transaction.

Question 10

hierarchy of effects

Answer 10

The sequence of stages a prospective buyer goes through from initial awareness of a product to eventual action (either trial or adoption of the product). The stages include awareness, interest, evaluation, trial, and adoption.

Question 11

integrated marketing communications (IMC)

Answer 11

The concept of designing marketing communications programs that coordinate all promotional activities—advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations, and direct marketing—to provide a consistent message across all audiences.

Question 12

lead generation

Answer 12

The result of a direct marketing offer designed to generate interest in a product or service and a request for additional information.

Question 13

personal selling

Answer 13

The two-way flow of communication between a buyer and seller, often in a face-to-face encounter, designed to influence a person’s or group’s purchase decision.

Question 14

promotional mix

Answer 14

The combination of one or more communication tools used to: (1) inform prospective buyers about the benefits of the product, (2) persuade them to try it, and (3) remind them later about the benefits they enjoyed by using the product.

Question 15

public relations

Answer 15

A form of communication management that seeks to influence the feelings, opinions, or beliefs held by customers, prospective customers, stockholders, suppliers, employees, and other publics about a company and its products or services.

Question 16

publicity

Answer 16

A nonpersonal, indirectly paid presentation of an organization, product, or service.

Question 17

pull strategy

Answer 17

Directing the promotional mix at ultimate consumers to encourage them to ask the retailer for a product.

Question 18

sales promotion

Answer 18

A short-term inducement of value offered to arouse interest in buying a product or service.

Question 19

traffic generation

Answer 19

The outcome of a direct marketing offer designed to motivate people to visit a business.

Question 20

What are the six elements required for communication to occur?

Answer 20

The six elements required for communication to occur are: a source, a message, a channel of communication, a receiver, and the processes of encoding and decoding.

Question 21

A difficulty for U.S. companies advertising in international markets is that the audience does not share the same .

Answer 21

field of experience

Question 22

A misprint in a newspaper ad is an example of .

Answer 22

noise

Question 23

Explain the difference between advertising and publicity when both appear on television.

Answer 23

Since advertising space on TV is paid for, a firm can control what it wants to say and to whom and how often the message is sent over a broadcast, cable, satellite, or local TV network. Since publicity is an indirectly paid presentation of a message about a firm or its products or services, the firm has little control over what is said to whom or when. Instead, it can only suggest to the TV medium that it run a favorable story on the firm or its offerings.

Question 24

Cost per contact is high with the element of the promotional mix.

Answer 24

personal selling

Question 25

Which promotional element should be offered only on a short-term basis?

Answer 25

sales promotion

Question 26

Promotional programs can be directed to , , or both.

Answer 26

the ultimate consumer; an intermediary (retailer, wholesaler, or industrial distributor)

Question 27

Describe the promotional objective for each stage of the product life cycle.

Answer 27

Introduction—to inform; Growth—to persuade; Maturity—to remind; and Decline—to phase out.

Question 28

Explain the differences between a push strategy and a pull strategy.

Answer 28

In a push strategy, a firm directs the promotional mix to channel members to gain their cooperation in ordering and stocking the product. In a pull strategy, a firm directs the promotional mix at ultimate consumers to encourage them to ask retailers for the product, who then order it from wholesalers or the firm itself.

Question 29

What are the stages of the hierarchy of effects?

Answer 29

The five stages of the hierarchy of effects are awareness, interest, evaluation, trial, and adoption.

Question 30

What are the four approaches to setting the promotion budget?

Answer 30

The four approaches to setting the promotion budget are percentage of sales, competitive parity, all you can afford, and objective and task.

Question 31

How have advertising agencies changed to facilitate the use of IMC programs?

Answer 31

Some agencies have adopted: (1) a total communications solutions approach that includes all forms of promotion; (2) an IMC audit to analyze the internal communication network of their clients; and (3) the use of both pretesting and posttesting to improve the effectiveness of IMC programs.

Question 32

The ability to design and use direct marketing programs has increased with the availability of and .

Answer 32

customer information databases; new printing technologies

Question 33

What are the three types of responses generated by direct marketing activities?

Answer 33

They are direct orders, lead generation, and traffic generation.