Marketing Communication trend

Problem: What are the future trend in marketing communication
Learning Objectives:
1. What are the current trends?
2. What are the future trends?
3. How does technology affect marketing communication?

Answers:
1. What are the current trends?

David Meerman Scott explained in the book "The new rules of marketing and PR" how the marketing has changed and the new ways of communication has been applied by the marketers that reach the buyers directly.
According to the author, the marketing nowadays is not just a one-way communication but the interaction between the advertiser and the audience. People want more participation in the company's campaigns. They require more information. The marketers must think about driving the audience into the purchase process via the online content such as blogs, online videos, press releases and others where customer's needs can be found.
The web-based communications are now the popular tools for the marketers to reach buyers directly.
People use the web for conducting detailed research on products and services, joining music fan club, reviewing products, discussing hobbies and trading goods on online markets. This is the age of online marketing so the necessity to the marketers is to have as much as possible the online audience, followers and subscribers.

2. What are the future trends?

Live Streaming Videos 
Video is a must-have marketing tactic to engage the audience. They prefer to find entertainment and education on YouTube over conventional channels like television. Snapchat, YouTube, gifs, Vine, and more are being consumed at a rapid rate. Streaming video takes this to the next level, and platforms like Periscope and Blab have put interactive live video into the hands of anyone with a smartphone. 
Content marketing
Storytelling will be the key role to draw the attention of the audience and with the influencers on board, there will be more organic marketing.
Omni Channels

This will create the integrated shopping experience for the consumers from the online shopping on desktop and mobile device to physical store.

Virtual reality and 3D commerceWith virtual reality technology, the customers can have the on-ground preview of the products or services while they are watching their favorite TV shows.

Bibliography

Scott, D. (2015) The new rules of marketing and PR, John Wiley & Son Inc, Canada.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielnewman/2015/11/03/the-top-10-marketing-trends-that-will-define-2016/#21ac431c7d58
https://medium.com/disrupting-the-world-one-innovation-at-a-time/the-wizards-of-omni-how-disney-and-uber-transformed-omnichannel-from-fantasy-into-reality-88206665cf02#.wqnr9yp7r

Creative process

Problem: How can the creative process lead to an effective message?Learning objectives:_What does a creative process consist of?_How to generate appealing messages for the target audience?_Case examples
Answers:

What does a creative process consist of?

According to Adrian R. Mackay, there are 4 stages of the creative process:

_Creative brief and Key message: Written by the account manager, with the support of the planner and signed off by the client. This document includes the advertising objectives:
Why are we advertising?

What are we selling?

Who are we talking to?

What we must say?

Why should consumer believe it?

What are the values of the brand?

_Creative proposition: Key message is developed by the planner and account manager then finally agreed on by the creative team.

_Creative idea: creative team start brainstorming and develop alternative ideas then present the scripts to the client.

_Execution: once an idea is accepted by the client, the team continues to finish the advertisement..

How to generate appealing messages for the target audience?

The first step of the plan is researching. The marketers make several types of researches for defining the marketing tasks:
_Define the target audience
_Identify the features and benefits
_ Clarify the current position
_Align wants and needs with the product
_Determine call to action
The research can be divided in to 2 categories: Primary research and secondary research

Primary research:-Checkout the competitors. Review the ads, promotional materials for the product.( visual structure, symbolism and statements).
-Talk to the customers who buy, or might buy the product and ask them why they bought it or not.
-Talk to the customers who considered but did not buy the product.
-Provide the image or words related to the products and ask consumers to make associations.
-Show the storyboard and ask about their feeling toward the main character.

Secondary research:
Find the information about the markets, products, and consumers on the internet or written materials.
(studies, researches)
Promote the strength of the company:-From the inside: features
The features help the customers to figure out the importance of the product
-From the outside: benefits
Benefits leads to the satisfaction of a consumer's wants and needs.

Copy platform:
-Identify the one thing that's most important: use a position statement about the product.
-Support that one thing with believable information: include the features and benefits and visual supports.
-Connect people with the product

Tone: Finding the voice:
Figure out how to say in an appropriate way.

Brand image:

Use simple, unique, and easily recognized visuals to stick in customer's mind.

Social Media

How social media works?

There are different platforms of social media:

• Social bookmarking (delicious.com)
• Social media submission sites (Reddit.com)
• Forums and discussions sites (Yahoo Groups, Google groups)
• Media sharing sites (Flickr)
• Reviews and rating sites (Amazon.com, Tripadvisor.com)
• Social network sites (Facebook, Myspace)
• Blogs (blogger.com)
• Podcasts (Apple’s ITunes)
• Micro blogging (Twitter)
• Wikis (Wikipedia)

The forms of social media are diverse in working process but still have some primary functions which are engaging to the potential customers, increasing traffic of the website and raising brand awareness from many sources.

For the marketers, the social media provide the ability to build up the company’s profile and strengthen the existing reputation. Based on the interaction with the customer, the webmasters can measure the acknowledgement of the customer about the brand, the factors that create the satisfaction as well future trend forecast. Additionally, the consumer now are able to find the product of the firm via the social media components integrated with the websites of the firms. By this way the relationship between the organization and the stakeholders is closer than ever. The customer become company’s associate who can offer the suggestion for further innovation or development to gain better outcome. At the same time, there are supports from the reverse direction when the customer receive the quick responses for their questions. The outcome of this is to develop an excellent customer support service. (Jones & Ryan 2012, 157-171).

 Likewise, the function of the social media is not limited at promoting the brand sites, it is about enabling conversation between the advertiser and the audience which include 4 engagements: Communication, collaboration, education and entertainment. The nature of social media is to enable interaction among users and the audience expect receiving other values from the company rather the product. (Brake & Safko 2009, 675). Godin (2009) described the value of the business is the relationship between the companies and the audience. The point of using social media is not to have numerous of followers but the amount of users that interact with the sites. Author also stated that networking is effective when there is “right” conversation and “real” relationship with whom we really interact with through variety of actions and becomes worthless when there are only “fake” relationship.

How to implement the social media to the business strategy?

The ACCESS model:

Brake and Sako (2009, 717-733) explained ACCESS model as a guideline for setting up and implementing a social media strategy. The main outcome of this model is to assist the marketers justify the content to deliver to the audience in an interactive environment. The word ACCESS stands for:

Audience: this is the most crucial factor that affects the whole process. If the marketer can identify the right audience, they will be able to transmit successfully the message to the audience. In addition, reacting quickly to any changes. In order to that, the marketer need to recognize the main characteristics of the audience:

• Demonstrated behaviors
• Self-reported behaviors
• Attitudes, values, and beliefs
• Needs and preferences
• Demographic data
• Professional, social, and service organizations
• Influencers and promoters

Concept: the audience gain the information about the features, functions and benefits of a product through the concept of that product. Moreover, the concept as well defines the characteristics of the users. The successful concept is applied for the right target audience so the first thing marketer need to consider focusing on specific segment rather than a broad community. The next move is to determine the concept by understanding the needs of the engaging market that can be achieved from the company’s expertise and deliver the right information that the audience want to get. Finally, testing the effectiveness of the concept.

Competition: the other rivals are big obstacle to retrain the company to access the audience due to the existence of many concepts in the same market. Therefore, there is a need for understanding and evaluating the competitors to extract the prior advantages of our own concept. Analyzing the differences in quality, the target audience’ characteristic and the context as an audience is a good way to determine what the competitors trying to achieve.

Execution: after going through all the above factors, the final step is delivering the message to the audience via social media platforms. In the message, the marketers point out the core value and the highlight of the product that are differentiated to the other ones. To minimize the risk, it’s important to review the audience’s feedback before launching.

Social media: recognize the available tools for the target audience and select the appropriate ones.

Sales viability: ROI is the most challenging factor of the social media strategy. How to measure the ROI at the end? What method need to be used to measure?

Bibliography:

Brake, D, Safko, L 2009 The social media bible: Tactics, tools & strategies for business, John Wiley & Sons Inc., New Jersey.

Jones, C, Ryan, D 2012 Understand Digital marketing, Kogan Page Limited, United Kingdom and USA.

Brand Architecture Strategies

1. Problem: How company create brand strategy?
2. Learning objectives:

-What are different brand architecture strategies?
-When and why to use different brand architecture models?
-Examples

   3.Answers:

What are different brand architecture strategies?

Aaker, D and Joachimsthaler, E. ( 2000) states that there are 4 types of brand architecture strategy:

• House of brands: contains independent, unconnected brands. An enterprise launches different brands in different segments.
• Endorsed brands: contains independent brands which are endorsed by an organizational brand.
• Subbrands: brands are controlled by a master brand
• Branded House: the master brand takes under control of the whole operation. All brands bear the parent brand's name.

When and Why to use different brand architecture models?

House of brands: 

• Each independent brands maximizes it's impact on a market.
• Targeting niche markets with functional benefit positions.
• Avoiding a brand association that would be incompatible with an offering. ( Volkswagen group includes variety of brands such as Bentley (luxury), Bugatti (racing), Lamborghini (luxury, sport), Audi (luxury), Porsche (sport) for car product and Ducati for motorbike.
• Signaling breakthrough advantages of new offering (Lexus: Toyota)
• Owning a new product class association by using a powerful name that reflects a key benefit (Unilever: Home care: OMO, Food: Knorr, Drink: Lipton, Personal care: Dove, AXE)
• Avoiding or minimizing channel conflicts.

Endorsed brands:

 Token endorser: the endorsed brand has more influence than the endorser.

• helpful for new or not yet established brands. The endorser provide credibility and assurance.
• give the endorsed brands more freedom
• Ex: Maggi ( Nestle)

Linked name: brands's name have common elements related to the endorser but still have their own personality.

• allow more ownership.
• Ex: Nestle: Nestea, Nescafe, Neslac. McDonalds: Mc Muffin, Mc Pizza, BigMac

Strong endorser: bold, prominent presentation of endorsers: Polo Jeans by Ralph Lauren, Geisha by Fazer.

Sub brands: 

• Add associations that are relevant to the customer.
• Stretch the master brand to new market
• Signal new offerings (Apple: IPhone, IPod, IPad, IMac, ITunes)
• Implement additional values to master brands (Microsoft : Microsoft office )

Branded House:

• Minimizing investment
• Maximize clarity
• Synergy communication across products.

Examples:

Coca Cola case: The Shift to Branded House

In May, 2015, Coca Cola launched the "One Brand" strategy across 11 markets. The strategy calls for a unification of marketing under the Coca-Cola master brand for all its product sub-brands, including Diet Coke, Coca-Cola Life, Coca-Cola Zero and regular Coke. (Forbes, 2015)

The purpose of this strategy is to have greater clarify, synergy and leverage in the marketing communication strategy. Coca-Cola brand  wants to communicate the breadth of offerings from full-calorie to low-calorie or zero-sugar versions and helps clarify consumer choices.

It also creates brand-building synergies by bundling all marketing spend on a single brand, while driving greater penetration and trial of the product sub-brands. Finally, it creates leverage, with major initiatives such as the new multimedia platform Coca-Cola Journey benefiting the overall portfolio.

Bibliography

Aaker, D. , Joachimsthaler, E. (2002), Brand leadership, Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, London.

Ostendorf, J. Types of brand architecture. Source: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54cbf6eee4b010d9a097c673/t/54d26f89e4b0526a6667a737/1423077257866/FORGE-BrandArchitecture.pdf

http://www.forbes.com/sites/onmarketing/2015/06/01/coca-cola-and-the-shift-to-the-branded-house-should-other-marketers-consider-a-similar-move/#7140f9b42b6a

Visual brand identity

Problems: How to build and maintain brand identity across multiple channels?
Learning objectives:
-How to communicate brand identity through visual elements?
-How culture affect customers?
-How to design and implement visual brands?
Answers:
How to communicate brand identity through visual elements?
Color: evoke emotion, express personality, stimulate brand association and accelerate differentiation.
Unify an identity, clarify the brand architecture ( colors across packaging, signage and electric media)
Typography: support information hierarchy, unify the image.
Sound: memory triggers, generate emotion.
Animation: make brand alive, tell stories, meaning.

How culture affect customers?
There are 4 aspects that provide good insights into the characteristics of a culture:
-Time:
+The view of history (myths, epics, legends)
+The use of time is different -> different lifestyles
-Food
-Religion
-Family

How to design and implement visual brands?

Steps to design visual identity:

Research

Clarify vision, goals, strategies and values

Research stakeholder’s needs and perceptions

Conduct marketing, competitive, technology, and legal and language audits

Interview key management

Evaluate existing brands and brand architecture

Present audit readout

Clarify strategy

Synthesize learnings

Clarify brand strategy

Develop a positioning platform

Co create brand attributes

Write a brand brief

Achieve agreement

Create a naming strategy

Develop key messages

Write a creative brief

Designing brand identity

Visualize the future

Brainstorm big idea

Design brand identity

Explore applications

Finalize brand architecture

Present visual strategy

Achieve agreement

Creating touch points

Finalize identity design

Develop look and feel

Initiate trademark protection

Prioritize and design applications

Design program

Apply brand architecture

Managing assets

Build synergy around the new brand

Develop launch strategy and plan

Launch internally first

Launch externally

                            Develop standards and guidelines

Bibliography:
Wheeler, A. ( 2013), Design brand identity, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. , Canada

Dabner, D. , Stewart, S. , Zempol, E. (2014) Graphic design school : the principles and practice of graphic design, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Canada

Brand identity and Brand image

Problem:
How to develop brand identity and brand image?
Learning objectives:
What is the difference between brand identity and brand image?
Compare the different brand identity models
How do brand identity and brand image affect business?
Answers:

What is the difference between brand identity and brand image?

According to Johansson and Carlson (2015), the branding process start from building brand identity by the seller and transcript it through messages then perceived by the audience.

Brand identity -> Messages -> Brand image

Brand identity: 
-On the sender's side
-Describe the company itself ( company's vision, core values, brand's meaning, self-image)
-Brand identity is expressed through brand's name, picture, logo, sound, music, slogan...

Brand image:
-On the receiver's side
-Brand image what consumers perceive the brand on their own experience.
-The cognitive elements in the customer's mind that are associated with the brand (product's characteristics or unique aspects)

To match the brand image with the brand identity => deliver the value proposition that emphasizes the brand's strengths.

How do brand identity and brand image affect business?

Johansson and Carlson also mentioned that the brand identity and brand image have huge influence on positioning the brand in consumer's mind.

Brand identity:

-A road map for company's employees to understand the company and it's products. (company's vision and product's characteristics and features) to increase the transparency and consistency in the organization.

-Make the position statement more credible- Country-Of-Origin. (auto engines made in Germany: BMW, Audi; Swiss watches)

Brand image:

-Navigate the customers

-Provide the memory triggers

-Reassure the products/services

PBL task 2: Integrated Marketing Communication System

Problem:

How can companies create an integrated marketing communication system?

Learning Objectives:

1.      What is IMC about and how does it work in practice? Name a few examples.
Who is in charge of, what do you coordinate in, IMC and how?2.      How can a company synchronize communication tools/channels to give a consistent message?
3.      What are common mistakes in IMC? Give a few examples.

Answers:

What is IMC about and how does it work in practice?

IMC approach is defined as a combination of traditional communication instruments that have been used independently.  In the IMC system, the marketers learn about:

-Customer’s media usage

-Relevance of the message

-When customers/ prospects receive the message the most (when to deliver the message)

=> Building and maintaining brand equity through a united focus on stakeholder’s loyalty. (Arens, Weigold, Arens, 2013, 248-249)

In reality, IMC application is affected by several factors which are:

·         Effectiveness of each communication tools

In marketing, the AIDA model (Awareness -> Interest -> Desire -> Action) is used for understanding the customer’s engagement to the product/service for better targeting audience.

Different communication tools have different levels of effectiveness at each stage.

For examples:

To attract the customers to a product, advertising and PR seem to be more effective than the others because they have better visual effects.

When come to the conviction stage, personal selling can persuade the customers to proceed to the purchase and sales promotion push them to the action stage quickly.

§       Type of purchase

There are 2 kinds of purchase: Low-involvement purchase and High-involvement purchase

Low-involvement purchase

Inexpensive

Easy to make the decision

Ex: drink, food…

The consumers do not take much time to make the choices between the products especially they are equivalent. They quickly choose the one that has more influence due to their frequent appearances, pictures, colors, or the story of the brand. For example, Pepsi and Coca-Cola have created great impact on the consumer’s mind by establish advertising in many channels that make their products available everywhere.

ð  Heavy advertising + PR

High-involvement purchase

Expensive

Risky

Careful consideration

Ex: car, house…

Before making the purchase, the consumers do some research about the products for details about the features, characteristics and functions of them to compare them.

ð  In this case, personal selling or directing can exchange a great amount of information to the customers.

§        Product life-cycle stages 

Introduction

At this stage, the sales of the product might be slow and the companies need to gain more awareness of the consumers.

Advertising: raise awareness

Personal selling: gain distribution coverage

Sales promotion/ direct marketing: induce trial

Growth

Interactive marketing and word of mouth create momentum for the products.

Maturity

Advertising, events and experiences and personal selling are applied for this stage to maintain the sales.

Decline

Sales promotion
Reduce other communication tools

Who is in charge of, what do you coordinate in, IMC and how?

Arens, Weigold and Arens (2013) explained the IMC plan is mainly coordinated by the brand manager.
Firstly, the brand manager review the marketing plan includes the actions such as summarize the situation, establish SWOT analysis and review the target markets to understand the company’s vision.

Then setting the communication objectives:

§Create awareness

§Develop comprehension: deliver information about the product => recognize the purpose, image, position and features.

§

§Develop the conviction: deliver information to persuade customers to believe in product’s value.

Thirdly, setting up the strategies:

§ 

§Targeting the audience: Identify the end users, who make the purchase, who influence the purchasing decision.  Ex: children have strong influence in family eats.

§Product concept: Develop a simple statement to describe product’s concept (considering consumer’s perception then comparing with the company’s marketing strategy).

§Deciding communication media

§

§Establishing the message: combine copy, art and production elements.

In addition, Arens, Weigold and Arens also emphasized the important of customer that the IMC approach starts with the customer then work back to the brand. The figure below illustrates the 7-step IMC planning model.

Database

1.Segment the customers/prospects

2.Find the best time, place and situation to build and maintain the relationships

(Consumer’s attitudes, buying history, how they find and interact)

3.Identify brand contacts, changes of the purchase behavior

4.Set communication objectives and strategies

5.Determine communication tactics/ tools

(Advertising, direct marketing …)

Figure 1. Wang-Schultz 7-step IMC planning model (Arens, Weigold and Arens, 2013, 251)

 

How can a company synchronize communication tools/channels to give a consistent message?

One of the elements that makes the IMC plan integrated is complementarity that is mentioned by Kotler. The author explained that different associations and linkages are emphasized across the communication options. A communication option which is best suited to eliciting other options.

Ex:

_Flyers with attached discount code

_TV advertisement leads to the event

Bibliography 

Smith, PR, Taylor, J. (2004) Marketing Communications: an integrated approach, UK & US, Kogan Page Limited.
Kotler, K. (2012), Marketing Management, England, Pearson Education.

Arens, C., Arens, W., Weigold, M., (2013), Contemporary Advertising & Integrated Marketing Communication, New York, McGraw-Hill International Education