MKT358 Exam Preparation PDF

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Summary

SU1 – Strategic Brand Communicaion and Adverising  What is IMC? - It is the process of coordinaing messages from every communicaion tool together with messages from markeing mix decisions. The main objecive of IMC is to convey a consistent message about the brand with the help of the 2 key principl...

Description

SU1 – Strategic Brand Communication and Advertising 

What is IMC? -

It is the process of coordinating messages from every communication tool together with messages from marketing mix decisions. The main objective of IMC is to convey a consistent message about the brand with the help of the 2 key principles.

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What are the 2 key Concept / Principle of IMC? 1. Integration: where every message implemented works together, and there is a multiplier effect to enhance the brand image. 2. Synergy: where all the message flows and works as a whole. Messages need to be integrated internally and externally.

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What is the Branding? 

Branding is the use of communication to develop intangible elements of a brand making it memorable and meaningful. It is a perception that involves emotion resulted from experiences and information about a company or its products and services.

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Brand Elements: 1. Brand identity: 

This is the visible elements of a brand that allows consumers to identify the brand. For instance, brand name, logo and colour. Brand elements that are easily recognizable, helps a company create brand awareness. It also makes it makes it easily recognizable by customer which encourages them to repurchase which results in brand loyalty. Hence all these elements contribute to stronger brand value and brand equity.

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A good brand name should have these characteristics: -

Distinctive: A distinctive brand name helps a brand stand out from competitors. For instance, “Apple” for a technology retailer.

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Association: A name that relates to the product or service can also allow customers to identify what the brand is offering. For instance, “Apple” such a simple name allows consumers to also associate that their products are simple and minimalistic.

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Benefits: A brand name that relates to their promise helps customers identify the benefits they can get for using a particular brand, allowing them to buy

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with more confidence. For instance, a customer may choose “head and shoulders” over “Dove” if they are looking for a shampoo that controls dandruff. -

Heritage: A brand name that reflects its original makers allows for credibility since they are proud to put their names on it. This works well especially for international brands. This allows consumer to perceive the brand as reliable which helps to build a stronger brand equity and brand value.

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Simplicity: Having a short and easy to pronounce brand name is vital as it allows consumer to recognize and remember. It is also essential for the brand name to be easily translatable into other languages so that there is still brand consistency.

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Based on distinctive logo, trademark, character or other visual cues: Other than logos and names, some brands have created an association of their identity with an iconic figure (e.g. McDonald’s Ronald McDonald) This is essential as it serves as a familiar reminder of a company or its products and service in the minds of consumers. It brings some information, impression or experiences consumers have with the brand.

2. Brand Position: 

Brand positioning is a way for companies to identify the conceptual place of their brand or products in the minds of consumers, relative to their competitors. It is related to its brand promise where the value of the brand lies in the brand promise made to consumers. In other words, the positioning of the brand helps companies to identify if they are at the ideal positioning they want to be in the mind of consumers. The closer their offering is to their promise, the higher their value.

3. Brand Image: 

Brand image is a mental idea or image consumers have about a brand. This includes qualities such as luxury, quality, price, durability, emotions or past experiences consumers think of when they think of the brand. For instance, consumers would think that the Fiji Water is more premium than other mineral water like Dasani since it comes from Fiji. This premium aspect helps to generate a positive brand image, increases the brand value and equity.

4. Brand Personality: 2

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The brand image affects to the brand personality. A brand personality helps to humanize a company or brand. It symbolizes personal qualities like bold, adventurous, charming, exciting, wholesome. By having a consistent personality trait that its target audience relate to helps a brand to increase its brand equity.

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Strategies to leverage on Brand Equity: 1. Brand Extension: 

By using already established, recognized and respected names on a related product line or on new products launched. Since a brand is known and has a good reputation, it already established trust, positive associations and feelings with customers. By leveraging on the existing brand equity, companies do not have to spend more money on marketing. However, by doing so, consumers may have a high expectation and if it does not perform on par with the original brand, it may have negative impact on the brand as a whole. E.g. Apple extending its product offerings from MacBook to Apple TV and Appel watches.

2. Co-branding: 

This is the partnership of using two brand names owned by two separate companies. This allows brands to value-add to their offerings by offering values from both brands to customers. E.g. UOB and Singapore Airlines on their cobranded KrisFlyer Card or Apple and Nike on their cobranded Apple Nike Watch.

3. Brand Licensing: 

Where a partner company pays royalty fees to rent the brand name which transfers some brand equity to its products. E.g. McDonalds renting Hello Kitty’s brand name and character to produce the limited-edition Hello Kitty carrier. This allows McDonalds to touch on Hello Kitty’s wide range of target audience, even allowing the company to reach the middle-age office ladies who normally do not patron them.

4. Ingredient Branding: 

This refers to the use of a brand name of a manufacturing component in another product’s advertising and promotion.

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E.g. the use of “Intel Inside” phrase and logo used by other computer makers to show that they are using quality chips in manufacturing their own products. Advertising 

4 Main Role of Advertising: 1. Marketing Role: to convey the value and benefits of products or services to cater to the needs of target market. 2. Communication Role: to communicate the brand message to customers, instilling a distinctive image or perception in the minds of existing or potential consumers. 3. Economy Role: to create a demand for products so as to generate sales from the advertisements. 4. Society Role: to generate a trend within a society or to shape a certain desirable selfimage and sense of style that a brand offers, to more effectively target the different consumer needs.

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Functions of Advertising: 1. Identification: to identify a product and where it is sold 2. Information: to provide details on the products 3. Persuasion: to encourage and persuade people to purchase

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Components of Advertising: 1. Strategy: 

the reasoning and objective behind an advertisement. E.g. Toyota’s goal was to position their hybrid car as an eco-friendly, green choice that is not harmful to the environment. Thus, in their advertisement, they placed the car on a field of green grass with a clear blue sky.

2. Message: 

The concept of message to be conveyed based on consumer insights. A good message is one that is clear and concise to effectively translate the objective.

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Adoption Life Cycle:

3. Media: 

The choice of media chosen to display the advertisement need to match media used by the target audience. E.g. When targeting Millennials, Facebook should be an advertising platform since most millennials are on this social media platform.

4. Evaluation: 

There should be criteria to evaluate the success of advertisements. E.g. To measure the engagement rate, they can look at the number of likes and shares on the post.

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Changing Practices of Advertising: 1. Brand relationship strategies: 

Focuses on the one-time purchase so that the good consumer experience can encourage repeated purchases, translating to long-term brand loyalty. The brand relationship also involves all the stakeholders like employees, suppliers and customers. All the stakeholders should delivery positive messages about the brand. Today, it is important to generate an advertisement that has multiaudience interactions and something that entices loyal fans to talk about it with their friends.

2. Word-of-mouth-marketing: 

WOM marketing has emerged because it is persuasive and reliable since we tend to believe what we hear especially when it comes from a friend, family member or someone important. Also, WOM marketing is found to be more credible than planned marketing messages like advertising as it may be seemed as self-serving to consumers. Hence, the goal of advertising today is to get the right people to talk

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about positive things related to the brand. The power of WOM marketing not only allows face-to-face conversations but also encourages online discussions which increases exposure for the brand when it becomes viral. However, a brand can only instigate the viral process but cannot control it to be positive or negative which can be risky. 3. Global Marketing: 

Marketers are moving to global markets now. This marketing strategy is different from national marketing as it requires the marketers to develop messages that are not only standardized by it should also adapt to the accommodate the cultural differences of the different countries.

4. Convergence: 

There is an increase in variety of media platforms and the way advertisements can be presented to consumers. Today, many media forms are becoming blurred. For instance, the content published on the newspaper can also appear on the TV, cellphones, online and even on watches.

5. Diversity: 

With the society being more opened and acknowledging equality in gender and race, and the LGBT community, it makes it more challenging to ensure inclusivity in the advertisements.

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Major Players / Key Players in Advertising: 1. The Advertiser 

The advertiser is the number one key player. Some examples are Verizon, Johnson & Johnsons and Loreal. Most advertisers have a department that identifies a marketing problem that needs to be solved. The marketing executives would hire advertising agencies. The main responsibility of the advertise is to monitor the work and pay agencies for their work. Then, the client’s marketing team makes the final decisions about the strategies, target market and the budget allocation. The clients will then give the final approval the advertising or communication plan.

2. The Agency: 

The agency is the second key player that develops, produce and distribute the messages. Successful agencies usually have creative expertise, media knowledge, the right workforce talents and the ability to negotiate good deals.

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3. The Media: 

The third player is the media which is the system that is used to deliver the messages for engagement. Traditionally, media refers to the channels of communication that carries the message from the advertiser to the audience and then from the audience back to the companies.

4. Professional suppliers and consultants: 

The fourth player are professional supplier and consultants which includes writers, photographers, producers, directors, artists and song writers etc. These suppliers are in charged on generating actual content that will put together an ad.

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Types of Agency: 1. Full-service Agency: 

This type of agency includes the staff functions of accounting management, creative planning, media planning and research.

2. In-house Agency: 

This type of agency produces ads and places them in the media and is part of the advertiser’s company rather than sourced from outside the company.

3. Agency Networks: 

Large conglomerates of agencies under one central ownership.

4. Holding Companies: 

Includes one or more than one advertising agency networks.

5. Specialised Agency: a. Creative boutiques: usually small agencies that concentrates specifically on preparing the creative execution of the idea. b. Media-buying services: these specializes in the purchase of media for clients. They are high in demand as the media environment is complex, staffing cost is expensive and it is more cost efficient to bulk purchase. 

Pricing Strategies of Ad Agency / Agency Payment Methods: 1. Commission: a percentage of the media billing 2. Fees: hourly fee or rate, charge by per project 3. Retainers: charge based on the amount of work and hourly rate 4. Performance compensation: receiving incentives such as a percentage of client’s sales or profit

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Value billing: agency is paid for its creative idea rather than the executions

Types of Advertisements / Types of Advertising: 1. Brand advertising: the most visible type of advertising. Focuses on the long-term building of brand identity and image. 2. Retail or local advertising: focused on selling the products in a certain geographic area. The main focus is to stimulate store traffic in a certain area. (e.g. coupons) 3. Direct- response advertising: to entice customers to have an immediate response. (e.g. hosting a Twitter Chat) 4. Business-to-business advertising: advertising from one business to another. It includes messaging, calling or sending personnel down to the company to sell something to the. 5. Institutional / Corporate advertising: establishing a corporate identity or winning the public over. (e.g. an ad that shows a pharmaceutical company showcasing leukemia treatment) 6. Nonprofit advertising: used by non-profit organizations to reach consumers. (e.g. Charities, foundations) 7. Public service advertising: usually produced and ran pro bono (free) for a good cause. (e.g. Mothers against drunk driving)

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SU2 – Public Relations (PR), Direct Response and Promotions 

What is Public Relation (PR)? 

PR is a fundamental communication discipline that touches on a wide range of functions like publicity issue management and advertising, enabling the organization to connect with people. It is often used to generate goodwill and focuses on the relationships a company has with is stakeholders.

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Stakeholders: employees, members of the community, shareholders, customers and society at large.

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Why is PR Important? 

It generates goodwill which helps to create a positive attitude among consumers towards the organization.

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PR Tools: 1. Advertising: a. House Ads: used in a company’s own publication. E.g. a local television station may run a house ad within its evening program announcing its new fall programming. b. Public Service Announcements (PSAs): these ads know as PSAs, are for charity and ran free of charge on television, radios or print media. However, it may be challenging to get donated time and space for these. It is also not guaranteed that these advertisements are exposed to the right target audience. (Disadvantage) E.g. Television advertisement on “Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Drunk” campaign. Other PSAs can include reducing food wastage or teen bullying prevention. c. Corporate Advertising: these advertisement focuses on the company’s image or viewpoint rather than on selling its product or service. E.g. Target’s commitment to communities it serves by donating more than $4 million weekly to causes that are important to its customers. d. Advocacy advertising: to deliver point-of-view messages. E.g. General Electric’s “Ecomagination” campaign was to show its audience that the company value the environment and that its products offers that value proposition.

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2. Publicity: a. New release: where PR messages are released to the various external media. It is important for the company is write its messages differently for each medium. The more carefully written, the higher the chance of getting published. However, the company have little control over the original form of content that will be published on the news as this is ultimately decided by the media. (Disadvantage) b. Pitch Letters: an engaging letter of feature story ideas that are “sold” to editors, hoping that they would cover the topic. Some topics include feature research findings, employees or corporate causes, hoping to receive positive coverage in their stories. c. Press Conference: where a spokesperson makes a statement to media representatives. This is one of the riskiest PR as medias may not see it as real news. Questions asked during these events are often flexible and unpredictable making it hard to answer. (Disadvantage) To encourage reporters to cover press conferences, media kits can be issued out with all the important background information either before or when they arrive at the event. Giving out media kits also has its risks. Since all necessary details are already shared to reporters before commencement

may

make

the

press

conference

itself

unnecessary.

(Disadvantage) d. Media Tours: This is a press conference on wheels. The travelling spokesman makes the announcements and speeches, hold press conferences and offers interview.

3. Publications: 

Companies may provide resources such as pamphlets, booklets, annual reports, collateral materials, books, newsletters. E.g. Annual reports may be published online to target potential investors. E.g. High-quality brochures and booklets that displays the car models and information given out at car dealerships.

4. Online Communications: 10

a. Intranets: emails that connect people within the organisation b. Extranets: Connects people in one business with its business partners c. External Communications: company websites, email contact which allows for communication directly between the audience and the company. These sites also show organization information and acts as a platform for interactivity between stakeholders to contact the company.

5. Other Tools: a. DVDs, CDs, Videos and Books: these tools can provide in-depth information about the company or program. b. Speakers and Photos: Speakers can present and articulate on what the public requests. c. Displays and exhibits: Special events and displays like signages and booths can display information to the audiences. Exhibits are bigger and more flexible than displays which allows for sounds and live demonstrations. This is important as it allows customers to have personal interaction with the brand. d. Special Events and Tours: Events may be set up by companies to celebrate milestones with their stakeholders to gain publicity and positive attitudes.

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Role and Function of Public Relation: 

Advertisements and PRs are integrated and aimed at specific target markets with different but complementary messages.

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PR can promote goodwill

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Corporate reputation management

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Crisis management

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Marketing E.g. increase company reputation, improve company image, strengthen br...