Marketing Communications Strategy

Question 1

What is integrated marketing communications?

Answer 1

• the strategic, coordinated use of promotion to create one consistent message across multiple channels to ensure maximum persuasive impact on the firms current and potential consumers
• through promotional mix: advertising, pr, personal selling, and sales promotion

Question 2

Why is integrated marketing communications important?

Answer 2

• fosters long term relationships
• reduces or eliminates promotional redundancies
• technology allows better targeting of customers
• takes a 360 degree view of the customer that considers every contact that a customer has with the firm

Question 3

What are marketing communications objectives?

Answer 3

-Differentiate products and services
- remind and reassure customers
- inform existing and potential customers
- persuade targets to think or act in a particular way
(DRIP)
- attract consumers attention
- create build an image

Question 4

What are some points that need to be considered in marketing communications?

Answer 4

• it should be relevant to target market
• should be understandable
• should be legal
• reinforce brand message and positioning
• identify USP
• be measured

Question 5

What are the three strategic uses in IMC?

Answer 5

• must have clear promotional goals and objectives
• the AIDA model: attention, interest, desire and action
• promotional strategies:
  pull strategy: focus promotional efforts towards consumers
  Push strategy: focus promotional efforts towards the supply chain

Question 6

What is the promotional strategy over the PLC different stages?

Answer 6

Introduction:

• heavy advertising and pr to build brand awareness and inform customers.
• personal selling to ensure distribution converge and supply chain cooperation.
• consumer sales promotion stimulates product trial
• trade sales promotion facilitates distribution activities, obtain shelf space or display

Growth:

• heavy spending on advertising and pr to build and maintain brand loyalty.
• personal selling maintains distribution and supply chain cooperation
• sales promotion activities decline in importance

Maturity:

• shifts to reminding customers of the firms products
• sales promotion efforts encourage brand switching for both consumers and the trade
• personal selling remains important to ensure supply chain support and distribution coverage

Decline:

• drastically reduce advertising and pr in attempt to reduce expenses
• sales promotion and personal selling drop to levels enough to maintain product support

Question 7

Distinguish between above and below the line communications?

Answer 7

Above the line communications: promotions that make use of commission paying mass media (TV, press,cinema, radio and posters)

Below the line communications: non- commission paying media promotions , all forms other than advertising.

Question 8

What is Pull advertising?

Answer 8

• get the customers to come to you (pulling them in)
• attempts to create brand loyalty and keep customers coming back
• can be used to reach a mass audience or a precisely defined market segment
• very cost efficient when reaching mass audience
• traditional mass audiences are fragmenting due to increasing media options
• digital communication (Internet, mobile) is the fastest growing form of advertising

Question 9

What are types of digital IMC?

Answer 9

• forums
• mobile phone
• social media
• blogs
• website
• email

Question 10

What is buzz marketing?

Answer 10

• a viral marketing technique that is focused in maximizing the WOM potential of a particular campaign or product
• through conversations amongst consumers an Family and friends on large scale, discussion on social media blogs

Question 11

What is advertising?

Answer 11

• paid, non personal communication transmitted through media,(TV, radio, magazines, newspapers, direct mail, intended and movie, devices)
• one of the most viable and key components of promotion
• rapidly expanding online, due to consumers spending less time with traditional media
• hard to measure in effectiveness of increasing sales

Question 12

What are the types of advertising?

Answer 12

1. Institutional advertising: promote firms image, ideas and culture
2. Product advertising: used to promote the image, features, uses and benefits and attributed if products

Question 13

How do you determine the advertising budget?

Answer 13

• objectives and task approach
• percentage of sales approach
• competitive matching approach
• arbitrary approach

Question 14

What are some Advertising appeals that marketers try and convey?

Answer 14

• positive and negative appeals
• fear
• guilt/shame
• humor
• love
• pride
• joy

Question 15

How do you evaluate advertising effectiveness?

Answer 15

• it can be measured before, during, or after the campaign has been executed. Consumer panels, surveys, or experiment designs may be used to evaluate a campaign based on communication objectives.
• can evaluate the achievement of advertising objectives
• assessing the effectiveness of advertising copy, illustrations and layouts
• evaluating the effectiveness of various media
• time of evaluations: pre test, during and post test

Question 16

What is public relations? And what is its goals?

Answer 16

• one of the firms corporate affair activities
• is an element in IMC that track public attitudes,
• identify issues that may elicit public concern,
• develop programs to create and maintain positive relationships between a firm and its stakeholders.

Question 17

What are the use of public relations?

Answer 17

• to promote the firm, it’s people, ideas, image
• to create an integral shared understanding among employees.
• can improve the public general awareness of s company and can create specific images such as quality, innovativeness, value or concern for social issues.

Question 18

What are some public relations methods?

Answer 18

• news releases
• features articles
• white papers
• press conferences
• event sponsorship
• product placement
• employees relations

Question 19

What is important for negative public relations?

Answer 19

• honesty is the best policy

- open access to information is critical

Question 20

What is personal selling?

Answer 20

• paid, personal communication that attempts to inform customers about products and persuade them to purchase those products
• focuses less on sales and instead in developing personal relationship with buyers
• most precise form of communication, high costs due to cost per contact
• takes on elements of customer service and marketing research
• frontline held by sales force one of the ,out important assets of the firm
• impacted by technological advances

Question 21

What are the typical goals of personal selling?

Answer 21

1. Finding prospects
2. Inform prospects
3. Persuade prospects to buy
4. keep customers satisfied through follow up service after the sale

Question 22

What does the sales management activities include?

Answer 22

1. The development of sales force objectives
2. Determining the size of the sales force
3. Recruiting and training salespeople
4. Controlling and evaluating the sales force

Question 23

What are the different sales force compensation methods?

Answer 23

1. Straight salary:
   Most useful when: new sales people, sales people move in to new territories, products require intense pre and post sale service
2. Straight commission:
   Most useful when: aggressive selling is required, no selling tasks can be minimized, firm outsources some selling functions
3. Combination
   Most useful when: sales territories have similar sales potential, the firm wants to provide incentive and still have some control

Question 24

What is sales promotion?

Answer 24

• involves activities that create buyer incentives to purchase a product or that add value for the buyer or the trade
• accounts for the bulk of promotional spending
• one universal goal: to induce product trial and purchase
• not a stand alone promotion, used to support other promotional activities

Question 25

What does sales promotion in consumer market include?

Answer 25

- coupons, rebates, samples, loyalty programs, point of purchase, premiums, contest, direct mail. - manufacturers and retailers typically offer them - effective way to promote and introduce new products and established brands

Question 26

What does sales promotion in business markets include?

Answer 26

- trade allowances, free merchandise, cooperative advertising, selling incentives, training assistance. - undertaken to push products through the channel by increasing sales and encouraging among channel partners - many similar promotional methods used for consumers. The unique ones are listed above.

Question 27

What is the Importance ranked of the communications mix, for consumer goods vs industrial goods?

Answer 27

Consumer goods: 1. Advertising 2. Sales promotion 3. Personal selling 4. Public relations Industrial goods: 1. Personal selling 2. Sales promotion 3. Advertising 4. Public relations