Developing Effective Marketing Communication
A View of the Communication Process
Integrated marketing communications involves identifying the target audience and shaping a well-coordinated promotional program to obtain the desired audience response. Too often, marketing communications focus on immediate awareness, image, or preference goals in the target market. But this approach to communication is too shortsighted. Today, marketers are moving toward viewing communications as managing ongoing customer engagement and relationships with the company and its brands.
Because customers differ, communications programs need to be developed for specific segments, niches, and even individuals. And, given today’s interactive communications technologies, companies must ask not only “How can we engage our customers?” but also “How can we let our customers engage us?”
Thus, the communications process should start with an audit of all the potential touch points that target customers may have with the company and its brands. For example, someone purchasing a new wireless phone plan may talk to others, see television or magazine ads, visit various online sites for prices and reviews, and check out plans at Best Buy, Walmart, or a wireless provider’s kiosk or store. The marketer needs to assess what influence each communication experience will have at different stages of the buying process. This understanding helps marketers allocate their communication dollars more efficiently and effectively.
To communicate effectively, marketers need to understand how communication works. Communication involves the nine elements shown in
Figure 14.2. Two of these elements are the major parties in a communication—the sender and the receiver. Another two are the major communication tools—the message and the media. Four more are major communication functions—encoding, decoding, response, and feedback. The last element is noise in the system. Definitions of these elements follow and are applied to a McDonald’s “i’m lovin’ it” television commercial.
Figure 14.2
Elements in the Communication Process
Sender. The party sending the message to another party—here, McDonald’s.
Encoding. The process of putting thought into symbolic form—for example, McDonald’s ad agency assembles words, sounds, and illustrations into a TV advertisement that will convey the intended message.
Message. The set of symbols that the sender transmits—the actual McDonald’s ad.
Media. The communication channels through which the message moves from the sender to the receiver—in this case, television and the specific television programs that McDonald’s selects.
Decoding. The process by which the receiver assigns meaning to the symbols encoded by the sender—a consumer watches the McDonald’s commercial and interprets the words and images it contains.
Receiver. The party receiving the message sent by another party—the customer who watches the McDonald’s ad.
Response. The reactions of the receiver after being exposed to the message—any of hundreds of possible responses, such as the consumer likes McDonald’s better, is more likely to eat at McDonald’s next time, hums the “i’m lovin’ it” jingle, or does nothing.
Feedback. The part of the receiver’s response communicated back to the sender—McDonald’s research shows that consumers are either struck by and remember the ad or they email or call McDonald’s, praising or criticizing the ad or its products.
Noise. The unplanned static or distortion during the communication process, which results in the receiver getting a different message than the one the sender sent—the consumer is distracted while watching the commercial and misses its key points.
For a message to be effective, the sender’s encoding process must mesh with the receiver’s decoding process. The best messages consist of words and other symbols that are familiar to the receiver. The more the sender’s field of experience overlaps with that of the receiver, the more effective the message is likely to be. Marketing communicators may not always share the customer’s field of experience. For example, an advertising copywriter from one socioeconomic level might create ads for customers from another level—say, wealthy business owners. However, to communicate effectively, the marketing communicator must understand the customer’s field of experience.
This model points out several key factors in good communication. Senders need to know what audiences they wish to reach and what responses they want. They must be good at encoding messages that take into account how the target audience decodes them. They must send messages through media that reach target audiences, and they must develop feedback channels so that they can assess an audience’s response to the message. Also, in today’s interactive media environment, companies must be prepared to “flip” the communications process—to become good receivers of and responders to messages sent by consumers.
Steps in Developing Effective Marketing Communication
We now examine the steps in developing an effective integrated communications and promotion program. Marketers must do the following: identify the target audience, determine the communication objectives, design a message, choose the media through which to send the message, select the message source, and collect feedback.
Identifying the Target Audience
A marketing communicator starts with a clear target audience in mind. The audience may be current users or potential buyers, those who make the buying decision or those who influence it. The audience may be individuals, groups, special publics, or the general public. The target audience will heavily affect the communicator’s decisions on what will be said, how it will be said, when it will be said, where it will be said, and who will say it.
Determining the Communication Objectives
Once the target audience has been defined, marketers must determine the desired response. Of course, in many cases, they will seek a purchase response. But purchase may result only after a lengthy consumer decision-making process. The marketing communicator needs to know where the target audience now stands and to what stage it needs to be moved. The target audience may be in any of six buyer-readiness stages, the stages consumers normally pass through on their way to making a purchase. These stages are awareness, knowledge, liking, preference, conviction, and purchase (see
Figure 14.3).
Figure 14.3
Buyer-Readiness Stages
The marketing communicator’s target market may be totally unaware of the product, know only its name, or know only a few things about it. Thus, the marketer must first build awareness and knowledge. For example, General Mills recently announced that it was removing artificial flavors and colors from its popular BigG cereals—such as Trix, Cocoa Puffs, Cap’n Crunch, and Golden Grahams. To make consumers aware of these and other changes, General Mills launched a major “Love Cereal Again” campaign:
Moving customers through the buyer-readiness stages: To create awareness, knowledge, preference, and purchase for its newly reformulated BigG cereals, General Mills launched a major “Love Cereal Again” campaign.
Used with permission of General Mills Marketing, Inc., Tupelo Penningroth (talent) and Eric Fell (talent).
Although cereal remains the most-consumed in-home breakfast food, cereal sales have flattened recently as consumers have searched for healthier and more convenient alternatives. The “Love Cereal Again” campaign reintroduces the reformulated BigG cereals as something that parents can once again love.
Assuming that target consumers know about a product, how do they feel about it? Almost all American consumers know about Trix, Cocoa Puffs, and other BigG cereals. These brands have been around since the late 1950s. General Mills wants to move buyers through successively stronger stages of feelings toward the revamped cereals. These stages include liking (feeling favorable about BigG cereals), preference (preferring the BigG cereals to competing brands), and conviction (believing that BigG cereals are the best cereals for them).
General Mills marketers use a combination of promotion mix tools to create positive feelings and conviction. Initial TV commercials help build anticipation and an emotional brand connection. Images, text, and videos on General Mills’ social media sites engage, entertain, and educate potential buyers on the reformulation of the cereal products. Press releases and other PR activities help keep the buzz going about the products. A packed microsite (www.generalmills.com/cereal) provides additional information and buying opportunities.
Finally, some members of the target market might be convinced about the product but not quite get around to making the purchase. The communicator must lead these consumers to take the final step. To help reluctant consumers over such hurdles, General Mills might offer buyers special promotional prices (coupons, in-store discounts, and special offers) and support the product with comments and reviews from customers at its web and social media sites and elsewhere.
Of course, marketing communications alone cannot create positive feelings and purchases for BigG cereals. The cereal itself must provide superior value for customers. In fact, outstanding marketing communications can actually speed the demise of a poor product. The more quickly potential buyers learn about a poor product, the more quickly they become aware of its faults. Thus, good marketing communications call for “good deeds followed by good words.” For example, to ensure that the healthier versions of its old BigG favorites would succeed, before introducing the reformulated versions, General Mills researched 69 colors and 86 flavors, did 98 consumer tastings, completed 301 recipe experiments, and spent 140 hours listening to customers about the products.
Designing a Message
Having defined the desired audience response, the communicator then turns to developing an effective message. Ideally, the message should get attention, hold interest, arouse desire, and obtain action (a framework known as the AIDA model). In practice, few messages take the consumer all the way from awareness to purchase, but the AIDA framework suggests the desirable qualities of a good message.
When putting a message together, the marketing communicator must decide what to say (message content) and how to say it (message structure and format).
Message Content
The marketer has to figure out an appeal or theme that will produce the desired response. There are three types of appeals: rational, emotional, and moral. Rational appeals relate to the audience’s self-interest. They show that the product will produce the desired benefits. Examples are messages showing a product’s quality, economy, value, or performance. Thus, an ad for Aleve makes this matter-of-fact claim: “More pills doesn’t mean more pain relief. Aleve has the strength to keep back, body, and arthritis pain away all day with fewer pills than Tylenol.” And a Weight Watchers’ ad states this simple fact: “The diet secret to end all diet secrets is that there is no diet secret.”
Emotional appeals attempt to stir up either negative or positive emotions that can motivate purchase. Communicators may use emotional appeals ranging from love, joy, and humor to fear and guilt. Advocates of emotional messages claim that they attract more attention and create more belief in the sponsor and the brand. The idea is that consumers often feel before they think, and persuasion is emotional in nature.
Good storytelling in a commercial often strikes an emotional chord. For example, rather than focusing only on the nuts and bolts and mileage information found in many car ads, an Audi Super Bowl 50 ad, called “The Commander,” played to consumer’s emotions: 9
“The Commander” draws on nostalgia, sentiment, and father-and-son relationships. It opens with depressed former astronaut whose life has seemingly passed him by. His son drops in to check on him, then takes him outside and offers him the keys to his Audi R8 V10 Plus—Audi’s highest-performing car—which can reach speeds of 205 miles per hour. As he drives the Audi, the father is transported back to the best moments of his life, launching once again into the unknown, all to the soundtrack of David Bowie’s “Starman.” The commercial effectively tugged at the human spirit while reinforcing the Audi’s extreme performance credentials. According to one journalist, the commercial created “the melancholy that comes from watching a man whose best days in life have already passed by, and a resolution in watching him be his younger, courageous self.” By pinging viewer emotions, “The Commander” placed in the top 10 on the USA Today Ad Meter and received more than 8 million views on YouTube in less than one month.
Moral appeals are directed to an audience’s sense of what is “right” and “proper.” They are often used to urge people to support social causes, such as a cleaner environment or aid to the disadvantaged. For example, a Colgate ad campaign urges people to “Close the tap while brushing” their teeth to conserve water. One ad shows a young boy in a developing economy with a water bucket atop his head, noting, “What you waste in two minutes is all his family needs for a day.”
Message Structure
Marketers must also decide how to handle three message structure issues. The first is whether to draw a conclusion or leave it to the audience. Research suggests that, in many cases, rather than drawing a conclusion, the advertiser is better off asking questions and letting buyers come to their own conclusions.
The second message structure issue is whether to present the strongest arguments first or last. Presenting them first gets strong attention but may lead to an anticlimactic ending.
The third message structure issue is whether to present a one-sided argument (mentioning only the product’s strengths) or a two-sided argument (touting the product’s strengths while also admitting its shortcomings). Usually, a one-sided argument is more effective in sales presentations—except when audiences are highly educated or likely to hear opposing claims or when the communicator has a negative association to overcome. In this spirit, Heinz once ran the message “Heinz Ketchup is slow good,” and Listerine ran the message “Listerine tastes bad twice a day.” In such cases, two-sided messages can enhance an advertiser’s credibility and make buyers more resistant to competitor attacks.
Message Format
The marketing communicator also needs a strong format for the message. In a print ad, the communicator has to decide on the headline, copy, illustration, and colors. To attract attention, advertisers can use novelty and contrast; eye-catching pictures and headlines; distinctive formats; message size and position; and color, shape, and movement. For example, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup ads are bold and simple. They feature the brand’s familiar orange, yellow, and brown colors with text overlaying images of the classic candy.
They feature clever headlines that unite the candy’s two distinctive ingredients, such as “Chocolate and peanut butter walked into a bar. The rest is history.” and “Ever since peanut butter hooked up with chocolate, peanut butter still talks to jelly, but the relationship is very strained.”
Message format: To attract attention, advertisers can use novelty and contrast, eye-catching images and headlines, and distinctive formats, as in this Reese’s ad.
The Hershey Company
Presenters plan every detail carefully, from start to finish. If the message is to be communicated by television or video, the communicator must incorporate motion, pace, and sound. If the message is carried on the product or its package, the communicator must watch texture, scent, color, size, and shape. For example, color alone can significantly enhance message recognition for a brand—think about Target (red), McDonald’s (yellow and red), John Deere (green and yellow), Twitter (blue), or UPS (brown). Thus, in designing effective marketing communications, marketers must consider color and other seemingly unimportant details carefully.
Choosing Communication Channels and Media
The communicator must now select the channels of communication. There are two broad types of communication channels: personal and nonpersonal.
Personal Communication Channels
In personal communication channels, two or more people communicate directly with each other. They might communicate face-to-face, on the phone, via mail or email, or even through texting or an internet chat. Personal communication channels are effective because they allow for personal addressing and feedback.
Some personal communication channels are controlled directly by the company. For example, company salespeople contact business buyers. But other personal communications about the product may reach buyers through channels not directly controlled by the company. These channels might include independent experts—consumer advocates, bloggers, and others—making statements to buyers. Or they might be neighbors, friends, family members, associates, or other consumers talking to target buyers, in person or via social media or other interactive media. This last channel, word-of-mouth influence, has considerable effect in many product areas.
Personal influence carries great weight, especially for products that are expensive, risky, or highly visible. One survey found that recommendations from friends and family are far and away the most powerful influence on consumers worldwide: More than 80 percent of consumers said friends and family are the number-one influence on their awareness and purchase. Another study found that 72 percent of consumers cited online reviews and trusted sources of buying information. Trust in ads ran from about 63 percent to only 36 percent, depending on the medium.10 Is it any wonder, then, that few consumers buy a big-ticket item before checking out what existing users have to say about the product at a site such as Amazon.com? Who hasn’t made an Amazon purchase based on another customer’s review or the “Customers who bought this also bought …” section or decided against purchase because of negative customer reviews?
Companies can take steps to put personal communication channels to work for them. For example, as we discussed in Chapter 5, they can create opinion leaders for their brands—people whose opinions are sought by others—by supplying influencers with the product on attractive terms or by educating them so that they can inform others. Buzz marketing involves cultivating opinion leaders and getting them to spread information about a product or a service to others in their communities. For example, Netflix recruits “Grammasters,” influencers who have large Instagram followings. The Grammasters travel around the world taking photos and creating video content of familiar sets and scenes from popular original Netflix shows and posting them to Instagram, letting Netflix bingers engage even more deeply with their favorite Netflix series.11
Buzz marketing: Social marketing firm BzzAgent turns a brand’s actual users into influential brand advocates.
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Social marketing firm BzzAgent takes a different approach to creating buzz. It creates customers for a client brand, then turns them into influential brand advocates:12
BzzAgent has assembled a volunteer army of natural-born buzzers, millions of actual shoppers around the world who are highly active in social media and who love to talk about and recommend products. Once a client signs on, BzzAgent searches its database and selects “agents” that fit the profiles of the product’s target customers. Selected volunteers receive product samples, creating a personal brand experience. BzzAgent then urges the agents to share their honest opinions of the product through face-to-face conversations and via tweets, Facebook posts, online photo and video sharing, blogs, and other social sharing venues. If the product is good, the positive word of mouth spreads quickly. If the product is iffy—well, that’s worth learning quickly as well. BzzAgent advocates have successfully buzzed the brands of hundreds of top marketing companies, from P&G, Nestle, Coca-Cola, and Estee Lauder to Kroger, Disney, and Dunkin’ Donuts. BzzAgent’s appeal is its authenticity. The agents aren’t scripted. Instead, the company tells its advocates, “Here’s the product; if you believe in it, say whatever you think. Bzz is no place for excessive, repetitive, or unauthentic posts.”
Nonpersonal Communication Channels
Nonpersonal communication channels are media that carry messages without personal contact or feedback. They include major media, atmospheres, and events. Major media include print media (newspapers, magazines, direct mail), broadcast media (television, radio), display media (billboards, signs, posters), and online media (email, company websites, and brand mobile and social media sites). Atmospheres are designed environments that create or reinforce the buyer’s leanings toward buying a product. Thus, lawyers’ offices and banks are designed to communicate confidence and other qualities that might be valued by clients. Events are staged occurrences that communicate messages to target audiences. For example, public relations departments arrange grand openings, shows and exhibits, public tours, and other events.
Nonpersonal communication affects buyers directly. In addition, using mass media often affects buyers indirectly by causing more personal communication. For example, communications might first flow from television, magazines, and other mass media to opinion leaders and then from these opinion leaders to others. Thus, opinion leaders step between the mass media and their audiences and carry messages to people who are less exposed to media. Interestingly, marketers often use nonpersonal communication channels to replace or stimulate personal communications by embedding consumer endorsements or word-of-mouth testimonials in their ads and other promotions.
Selecting the Message Source
In either personal or nonpersonal communication, the message’s impact also depends on how the target audience views the communicator. Messages delivered by highly credible or popular sources are more persuasive. Thus, many food companies promote to doctors, dentists, and other health-care providers to motivate these professionals to recommend specific food products to their patients. And marketers hire celebrity endorsers—well-known athletes, actors, musicians, and even cartoon characters—to deliver their messages. A host of NBA superstars lend their images to brands such as Nike, McDonald’s, and Coca-Cola. Actress Sophia Vergara speaks for CoverGirl, State Farm, Comcast, Rooms to Go, and other brands and has her own Kmart clothing line. Actor George Clooney loves his Nestle Nespresso expresso machine, and tennis great Serena Williams endorses Gatorade, Nike, and Beats By Dre.
But companies must be careful when selecting celebrities to represent their brands. Picking the wrong spokesperson can result in embarrassment and a tarnished image. For example, a dozen or more big brands—including Nike, Anheuser-Busch, Radio Shack, Oakley, Trek bikes, and Giro helmets—faced embarrassment when pro cyclist Lance Armstrong was stripped of his Tour de France titles and banned for life from competitive cycling for illegal use of performance-enhancing drugs. Previously considered a model brand spokesman, Armstrong once earned nearly $20 million in endorsement income in a single year. “Arranged marriages between brands and celebrities are inherently risky,” notes one expert. “Ninety-nine percent of celebrities do a strong job for their brand partners,” says another, “and 1 percent goes off the rails.”13 More than ever, it’s important to pick the right celebrity for the brand.
Collecting Feedback
After sending the message or other brand content, the communicator must research its effect on the target audience. This involves asking target audience members whether they remember the content, how many times they saw it, what points they recall, how they felt about the content, and their past and present attitudes toward the brand and company. The communicator would also like to measure behavior resulting from the content—how many people bought the product, talked to others about it, or visited the store.
Feedback on marketing communications may suggest changes in the promotion program or in the product offer itself. For example, Macy’s uses television and newspaper advertising to inform area consumers about its stores, services, and merchandising events. Suppose feedback research shows that 80 percent of all shoppers in an area recall seeing the store’s ads and are aware of its merchandise and sales. Sixty percent of these aware shoppers have visited a Macy’s store in the past month, but only 20 percent of those who visited were satisfied with the shopping experience.
These results suggest that although promotion is creating awareness, Macy’s stores aren’t giving consumers the satisfaction they expect. Therefore, Macy’s needs to improve the shopping experience while staying with the successful communications program. In contrast, suppose research shows that only 40 percent of area consumers are aware of the store’s merchandise and events, only 30 percent of those aware have shopped recently, but 80 percent of those who have shopped return soon to shop again. In this case, Macy’s needs to strengthen its promotion program to take advantage of its power to create customer satisfaction in the store.