Role of Marketing -

Activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering and
exchanging offerings that have value for: Customers, clients, partners, and society at large.

Marketing Mix -
4 P’s : Product, Place, Price, Promotion

Integrated Marketing Communication -

A planning process designed to assure that all brand contacts received by a customer or
prospect for a product, service, or organisation are relevant to that person and consistent
over time.

Role of IMC -
❖ Coordinate various promotional elements and other marketing activities that
communicate with the firm's customers.
❖ Recognize added value of a comprehensive plan that:
● Evaluates the strategic roles of a variety of communication disciplines.
● Combines the disciplines to provide clarity, consistency, and maximum
communications impact.
❖ Ensures all marketing and promotional activities project a consistent, unified image.
The primary role of IMC is to systematically evaluate the communication needs and wants of
the buyer and, based on that information, design a communication strategy that will (a)
provide answers to primary questions of the target audience, (b) facilitate the custom ability
to make correct decisions, and (c) increase the probability that the choice they make most
often will be the brand of the information provider, i.e. the sponsor or marketer.Marketers
know that if they learn to fulfil this role, a lasting relationship with the customer can be
established.

Why is IMC getting more important than before?

● Strategically integrates various communications functions.
● Develops more efficient and effective marketing communications programs.
● Avoids duplication and takes advantage of synergy among promotional tools.
● Adapts to changing environment:
➔ Evolution to micromarketing.
➔ Consumers’ unresponsiveness to traditional advertising.
➔ Changing rules of marketing.

Promotional Mix -
Elements of Promotional Mix include advertising, public relations, sales promotion,
personal selling, direct marketing, and online marketing/social media.

- Advertising is any paid form of non-personal communication of ideas, goods, or services

by an identified sponsor.
● Advertising is a marketing strategy by paying for space to promote ideas, goods, or
services.
● This includes traditional mass media outlets such as television, magazines,
newspapers, out-of-home (billboards), etc. or modern methods such as mobile
advertising or web advertising.

℗
- Public Relations (PR) is an organisational activity that encourages goodwill between a
company and its various publics (e.g., employees, suppliers, consumers, government
agencies, stockholders, etc.).
● The main focus of PR is publicity, product releases, handling rumours, tampering.

*Advertising and public relations/publicity usually are designed to accomplish other

objectives, such as developing brand awareness or influencing consumer attitudes*

- Sales promotion consists of all promotional activities that attempt to stimulate short-term
buyer behaviour.
● Sales promotions are directed at the trade (wholesalers/ distributors and retailers),
consumers, and at times toward the company’s own sales force.
● Trade sales promotion includes using display allowances, quantity discounts, and
merchandise assistance to activate wholesale and retailer responses.
● Consumer sales promotion includes the use of coupons, premiums, free samples,
contests/sweepstakes, and rebates.

- Personal selling is paid, person-to-person communication in which a seller determines the

needs and wants of prospective buyers and attempts to persuade these buyers to purchase
the company’s products or services. It can be done by telephone sales to online contacts.

- Direct marketing means communicating directly with target customers to generate a

response and/or transaction at any location.
● The business of selling products or services directly to the public,
● e.g. by mail order or telephone selling, rather than through retailers.
● Primary methods of direct marketing include direct response advertising, direct
selling, telemarketing, and the use of database marketing techniques.
● Direct-response advertising involve the use of several medias (TV, direct mail) to
transmit messages in order to encourage buyers to purchase directly from the
advertiser.

- Online marketing is the promotion of product and services over the Internet (e.g., search
engine marketing, banner ads, mobile advertising, and location-based apps),
Whereas,
Social media marketing represents forms of electronic communication through which
user-generated content (information, ideas, and videos) can be shared within the user’s
social network.

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IMC Planning Process -
https://www.srj.net/6-steps-in-the-imc-planning-process/ (as on Google)

Marketing Plan
❖ Describes overall marketing strategy and programs for organisation
❖ Elements include:
● Detailed situation analysis.
● Specific marketing objectives with time frame and mechanism for measuring
performance.
● Selection of target market(s) and plans for each element of the marketing mix.
● Program for implementing the marketing strategy.
● Process for monitoring and evaluating performance and providing feedback.
❖ Review of the Marketing Plan:
● Examining overall marketing plan and objectives.
● Identifying the role of advertising and promotion.
● Performing competitive analysis.
● Assessing environmental influences.

Internal Analysis
❖ Assesses relevant areas involving the product/service offering and the firm itself.
❖ Assessment of:
➢ Capability to develop and implement promotional programs in-house.
➢ Brand image and implications for promotion.
➢ A product’s relative strengths and weaknesses.
Reviews previous promotional programs and results.

℗
External Analysis
● Assesses characteristics of firm’s customers, market segments, positioning
strategies, and competitors, through:
○ Customer analysis.
○ Competitive analysis.
○ Environmental analysis.

Analysis of the Communication Process

● Involves analysing:
○ Receiver’s response processes.
○ Source, message, and channel factors.
● Establishes communication goals and objectives
● Marketing objectives:
○ Determine what is to be accomplished by overall marketing program in terms
of sales, market share, or profitability.
● Communication objectives:
○ Determine what the firm seeks to accomplish with its promotional program.
■ Nature of the message to be communicated.
■ Specific communication effects to be achieved.

Budget Determination
● Set tentative marketing communications budget.
● Allocate a tentative budget across different media, geographic markets, and time
periods.
● Budget may not be finalised until specific promotional-mix strategies are developed.

Developing the IMC Program

● Involves deciding the role and importance of each promotional-mix element.
● Aspects of an advertising program include:
○ Creative strategy: Determining the basic appeal and message to be conveyed
to the target audience.
○ Media strategy: Determining which communication channels to use to deliver
the message.

Monitoring, Evaluation & Control

● Determining how well program is:
○ Meeting communication objectives.
○ Helping the firm accomplish its overall marketing goals and objectives.
● Evaluating promotional program results/effectiveness.
● Taking measures to control and adjust promotional strategies.

℗
Target Marketing Process -

Identifying Markets:
● Marketer identifies specific needs of groups of people (or segments).
● Selects one or more of these segments as a target.
● Isolates consumers with similar lifestyles, needs, and the like.
● Increases marketer’s knowledge of consumers’ specific requirements.

Market Segmentation:
● Dividing a market into distinct groups with common needs, who respond similarly to a
marketing situation.
● Bases for segmentation:
○ Geographic: Dividing market on basis of region, city size, metropolitan area,
and/or density.
○ Demographic: Dividing market on basis of age, sex, family size, marital
status, etc.
○ Psychographic: Dividing market on basis of personality, lifecycles, and/or
lifestyles.
○ Behavioristic segmentation: Dividing consumers into groups according to
usage, loyalties, or buying responses to a product.
○ Benefit segmentation: Grouping of consumers on the basis of attributes
sought in a product.
● The process of segmenting a market.
○ Marketers determine as much as they can about the segment.
○ Companies offer research services to define markets and develop strategies
targeting them.
○ Clusters consumer households into distinct “microgeographic” segments.
○ Similarly, there can be even more specific segments that a marketer may
target to:

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Selecting a Target market:
● Determine how many segments to enter.
○ Undifferentiated marketing: Offering just one product or service to the entire
market.
○ Differentiated marketing: Developing separate marketing strategies for
different segments.
○ Concentrated marketing: Attempting to capture a large share of one market
segment.
● Determine which segments offer potential.
○ Select most attractive segment through:
○ Sales potential of segment.
○ Opportunities for growth.
○ Competition analysis.
○ Ability to compete.
○ Ability to market to this group.

Market Positioning -
● Positioning: Fitting product or service to one or more segments of a broad market to
make it unique within the marketplace.
● Approaches:
○ Focus on consumer: Linking products with benefits consumers will derive.
○ Focus on competition: Positioning products by comparing the benefits it offers
to the competition.
○ Positioning by Product Attributes and Benefits: Sets brands apart from
competitors on the basis of specific characteristics or benefits offered.
Salient attributes: Important to consumers and are the basis for making a
purchase decision.
○ Positioning by Price/Quality
Cost is secondary to quality.
Quality or value at a very competitive price.
○ Positioning by Use or Application: Used to enter the market or expand usage.
○ Positioning by Product Class
○ Positioning by Product User
○ Positioning by Competitor
○ Positioning by Cultural Symbols: Makes the brand easily identifiable and
differentiated from others.

Repositioning -
● Altering a product’s or brand’s position due to:
○ Declining or stagnant sales.
○ Anticipated opportunities in other market positions.
● Difficult to accomplish because of entrenched perceptions and attitudes
toward the product or brand.

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Developing the Marketing Planning Program -

Product Decisions
● Product planning involves decisions not only about the item itself, such as design and
quality, but also about aspects such as service and warranties as well as brand name
and package design.
● Consumers look beyond the reality of the product and its ingredients.
● The product’s quality, branding, packaging, and even the company standing behind it
all contribute to consumers’ perceptions.

Branding
One important role of advertising in respect to branding strategies is creating and
maintaining brand equity, which can be thought of as an intangible asset of added
value or goodwill that results from the favourable image, impressions of differentiation and/or
the strength of consumer attachment to a company name, brand name, or trademark.

Packaging
● Packaging is another aspect of product strategy that has become increasingly
important.
● The package is often the consumer’s first exposure to the product, so it must make a
favourable first impression.

Pricing
● The price variable refers to what the consumer must give up to purchase a product or
service.
● While price is discussed in terms of the dollar amount exchanged for an item, the
cost of a product to the consumer includes time, mental activity, and behavioural
effort.
● A firm must consider a number of factors in determining the price it charges for its
product or service, including costs, demand factors, competition, and perceived
value.

Distribution Channel
● Marketing channels, the place element of the marketing mix, are “sets of
interdependent organisations involved in the process of making a product or service
available for use or consumption.
● Direct channels: Directly deal with customers.
○ Driven by direct-response ads, telemarketing, Internet.
○ Used when selling expensive and complex products.
● Indirect channels: Network of wholesalers and/or retailers.

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Participants in the Integrated Marketing Communications Process: An Overview

Advertisers or Clients
● Have the products, services, or causes to be marketed.
● Provide the funds that pay for advertising and promotions.
● Responsible for developing marketing programs.
Advertising Agency
● Specialises in creation, production, and/or placement of communications messages.
● May facilitate integrated marketing communications processes.
Media Organisations
● Provide information, entertainment, or environment for the firm's marketing
communications message.
Specialized Marketing Communication Organisations
● Direct-marketing agencies.
● Sales promotion agencies.
● Digital/interactive agencies.
● Public relations firms.
Collateral Service Organisations
● Support functions used by advertisers, agencies, media organisations, and
specialised marketing communication firms.
● e.g. National Geographic promotes the various ways marketers can use its media
platforms to connect with consumers.

Types of Organisational Systems -

Organisational Advantages Disadvantages

System
Centralised • Facilitated communications • Less involvement with and
• Fewer personnel required understanding of overall marketing goals
• Continuity in staff • Longer response time
• Allows for more • Inability to handle multiple product lines
top-management involvement
Decentralised • Concentrated managerial • Ineffective decision making
attention • Internal conflicts
• Rapid response to problems • Misallocation of funds
and opportunities • Lack of authority
• Increased flexibility • Internal rather than external focus
In-house • Cost savings • Less experience
agencies • More control • Less objectivity
• Increased coordination • Less flexibility
• Stability • Less access to top creative talent
• Access to top management

Ad Agencies -
1. https://www.slideshare.net/amitabhmishra54/advertising-agencies-integrated-marketi
ng-communication
2. https://www.slideshare.net/MonikaGaur1/advertising-agency-role-and-types

℗
How agencies add value to a client’s business -
1. Developing and producing creative ideas that are fresh and appropriate.
2. Ensuring that agency disciplines and functions are integrated and that agency teams
and divisions collaborate well on behalf of the client.
3. Working in a collaborative way with the client by creating an environment of low egos
and high mutual respect.
4. Developing ideas & programs that can be integrated into multiple comm. channels.
5. Assigning its best people to the client’s business and making its top executives
available when needed.
6. Evaluating brand drivers like awareness, consideration, and purchase intent.
7. Providing guidance and solutions in new media and technologies.

Foundations of the Modern Agency -

Accountability • Responsibility for outcomes, not just outputs

• Attention to success metrics vs. just cost of service
• Measuring what matters: results for clients instead of agency time
Agility • Agile philosophy applied to work flow
• Prototyping and minimum viable products
• Interdisciplinary teams vs. departments
Collaboration • Culture that values collaboration over managing hours
• Teams of givers, not just takers
• Agency partners as peaceful competitors
Digital Fitness • Individuals with high digital IQ
• Digital as competency across agency, not just a department
• Deep understanding of data and personalization
Effectiveness • Provider of solutions, not just services
• True project management vs. tracking of hours
• Focus on effectiveness for clients, not just efficiency for agency

Expertise • Knowledge of specific markets or audiences

• Best-in-class business model vs. full service
• Centres of excellence and best practices
Innovation • Revenue streams from intellectual property, not just work for hire
• Labs as independent business units
• Marketing invention business, not just service business
Pricing • Pricing as a core competency versus costing
• Aligning the economic incentives of both client and agency
• Professional sellers negotiating with professional buyers

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Consumer Decision Making Process -
https://neostrom.in/consumer-decision-making-process/

Psychological Factors influencing Consumer Behaviour -

https://businessjargons.com/psychological-factors-influencing-consumer-behavior.html

Consumer Learning - (alternative ref:https://www.slideshare.net/eyad-gh/learning-and-memory-251116008)

● A process by which individuals acquire the purchase and consumption knowledge
and experience that they apply to future related behaviour.
● Learning refers to a relatively permanent change in behaviour that is caused by
experience.
● Learning is an ongoing process and we can learn:
○ Vicariously by observing events that affect others,
○ By incidental learning which is unintentional.
○ Incidental: learning acquired by accident or without much effort
○ Intentional: learning acquired as a result of a careful search for information
● Importance of learning
○ Marketers must teach consumers:
■ where to buy
■ how to use
■ how to maintain
■ how to dispose of products

Behaviour Learning Theories: Theories based on the premise that learning takes place as
the result of observable responses to external stimuli. Also known as stimulus response
theory.
Stimulus -> Consumer -> Response {Consumer’s Black Box}
Types:
● Classical Conditioning:
https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/classical-conditioning-how-it-works
● Instrumental Conditioning:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/role-instrumental-conditioning-marketing-jashanpreet-
singh/
Cognitive Learning theories: Learning through problem solving, which enables individuals
to gain some control over their environment.
Types:
● Observational Learning: https://www.britannica.com/science/observational-learning
● Rote Learning: Learning through Repetition

Environmental Influences in Consumer Behaviour:

https://www.studocu.com/in/document/apj-abdul-kalam-technological-university/consumer-be
haviour/unit-2-notes/23606301/download/unit-2-notes.pdf

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Nature of Communication -

● Passing of information.
● Exchange of ideas.
● Process of establishing a commonness of thought between sender and receiver.
● Success depends on many factors.
○ Nature of message, audience’s interpretation, environment, receiver’s
perception of source and medium used to transmit message, etc.
● Language is a major barrier.

The Communication Process -

The process of communication involves the following steps:

1. Sender: The person who conveys his thoughts, message or ideas to the receiver is
known as the sender. He is at the starting point of the communication system and represents
the source of communication.
E.g., In a classroom, a teacher is a sender.

2. Message: The subject matter of communication is termed as messages. It includes ideas,

feelings, suggestions, order, etc., which a sender wants to convey to the receiver.

3. Encoding: The process of converting messages into communication symbols, which may
be understood by the receiver. It includes words, pictures, gestures, symbols, etc. Encoding
translates the internal thought of the sender into a language which can be understandable.

4. Media: The path, channel or medium through which encoded message is transmitted to
the receiver is known as media. It is the carrier of the message. It can be in written form,
face to face, through telephone, letter, internet, etc.

5. Decoding: The process of translating the encoded message into an effective language,
which can be understood by the receiver is known as decoding. In this, the encoded symbols
of the sender are converted.

6. Receiver: The person who receives the message of the sender is known as the receiver.
E.g., Students are receivers in the classroom.

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The Social Consumer Decision Journey

Through social networking, consumers can access and retrieve information, connect with
one another, discuss products/services, and interact with marketers.

Consumer decision journey framework:

● Four basic stages: Consider, evaluate, buy, and enjoy-advocate-bond.
● Marketers should:
○ Target stages in the decision journey.
○ Consider the role of owned media and earned media.

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Cognitive Processing of Communications
The Cognitive Response Approach

Cognitive responses:
● Thoughts that occur to individuals while reading, viewing, and/or hearing a
communication

Product/message thoughts
● Counter Arguments:
○ Thoughts the recipient has that are opposed to the position taken in the
message.
○ Relate negatively to message acceptance.
● Support arguments:
○ Thoughts recipient has that affirm information or claims the source hopes to
convey.
○ Relate positively to message acceptance.
● Brand Attitudes:
○ Thoughts or views or reviews about the brand that determine the perception
of the brand upon communication

Source-oriented thoughts
● Source derogations:
○ Negative thoughts about a spokesperson or organisation making the claims.
○ Leads to lower message acceptance.
● Source bolsters:
○ Positive thoughts about the spokesperson or organisation making the claims.
○ Leads to higher message acceptance.

Ad execution thoughts
● Ad execution-related thoughts:
○ Contains the information or meaning the source hopes to convey.
● Attitude toward the ad:
○ Represents receivers’ feelings of favorability or unfavorability toward the ad.

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The Elaboration Likelihood Model -
● The elaboration likelihood model, first devised by Richard E. Petty and John T.
Cacioppo, is a general theory of persuasion that attempts to explain how people
process stimuli differently — and how these processes change attitudes and
consequently behaviour.
● According to the elaboration likelihood model, people can have either high or low
levels of elaboration — the extent to which they are willing and able to scrutinise an
argument.

~Attitude change occurs in two

ways according to the scholars who
proposed the model. They are
known as the two routes of
persuasion.
~The two routes apply to and differ
according to all the groups of people
mentioned above. The two routes
show that messages take one of the
two routes during the process of
sending and receiving messages.

● Those with high levels of elaboration are more likely to process information via a
central route, and those with low levels of elaboration are more apt to process
information via a peripheral route, where they are more prone to distraction.
● Central route of persuasion tells that if a person gets to think about a message
received for a longer duration of time, then the person has a greater chance of being
persuaded. The process of thinking for a longer duration is known as elaboration.
● Peripheral route: If a message given by a person does not elaborate on the
meaning of the message, the message can still be persuasive even if the content is
not persuasive enough. It can be due to direct relationship with the content, familiarity
with the topic, positive attitude towards the sender, positive thoughts (sex, money),
etc. This kind of persuasion or attitude change might not last for a long time. This
also happens if the recipient is unable to process the message/the content is weak.
○ For example, if an energy drink is advertised by your favourite footballer, then
you would like to buy that brand product rather than others.

Applications in IMC:
● Advertising and Communication Strategies: The ELM helps marketers design
persuasive campaigns based on the target audience's motivation and ability to
process information. Messages can engage consumers through central or peripheral
routes, depending on the product's involvement level.
● Branding and Consumer Attitudes: Marketers can shape and manage brand
attitudes by utilising the ELM. Central route processing provides detailed brand
information, while peripheral cues influence attitudes through attractiveness or
endorsements.
● Decision-Making and Product Design: The ELM guides marketers in tailoring
products and decision-making processes. Detailed information suits central route
processors, while simplified options cater to peripheral route processors.

℗
Comparison of Peripheral and Central Route:

Overall, the ELM model is as follows:

℗
Persuasion Matrix -
Helps marketers see how each controllable element interacts with the consumer's response
process.
Two sets of variables:
● Independent variables: Controllable components of the communication process.
● Dependent variables: Steps receiver goes through in being persuaded.

Decisions Evaluated with the Persuasion Matrix

● Receiver/comprehension:
○ Can the receiver comprehend the ad?
● Channel/presentation:
○ Which media vehicles should be used to present the advertising message?
● Message/yielding:
○ What type of message will create favourable attitudes or feelings?
● Source/attention:
○ Who will be effective in getting consumers’ attention?

Source Factors
● Sources
○ Person involved in communicating a marketing message.
○ Direct source:
■ Delivers messages and/or endorses product or service.
○ Indirect source:
■ Draws attention to and enhances the appearance of ad.
Source Credibility
● Credibility:
○ Expertise: Recipient sees source as having relevant knowledge, skill,
or experience.
○ Trustworthiness: Recipient trusts source to give unbiased, objective
information.
● Enhanced by: Applying expertise, Applying trustworthiness.
○ Using corporate leaders as spokespeople/Influential celebrities

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Limitations of credible sources:
● High- and low-credibility sources are equally effective when arguing for a position
opposing their own best interest.
● Sleeper effect: Persuasiveness of a message increases with passage of time.

Source Attractiveness:
● Attractiveness: Characteristic that encompasses similarity, familiarity, and
likability.
● Identification: Receiver motivated to seek some type of relationship with
source.
○ Adopts similar beliefs, attitudes, preferences, or behaviour.

Source characteristics:
● Applying similarity:
○ Communicator and receiver with similar needs, goals, interests, and lifestyles.
○ Regular-looking, everyday people that customers can easily identify with.
● Applying likability:
○ Using celebrities; Movie stars, athletes, musicians, public figures.
○ Enhance customer’s view of product or service image or performance.
E.g: NIKE has endorsement deals with a number of top athletes. They are hoping that a well-known
athlete may convince potential buyers that the product will enhance their own performance.
But, celebrities can often overshadow the product & might be too costly resulting in a bad
ROI.

Message Factors:

Message Structure

● Order of presentation:
○ Strongest arguments presented early or late in message but not in the middle.
○ Primacy effect: Information presented first is most effective.
○ Recency effect: Arguments presented last are most persuasive.
● Where to place depends on:
○ Target audience’s receptivity to message.
○ Length of message.
○ Medium used to communicate messages.
● Conclusion drawing:
○ Messages should either explicitly draw a firm conclusion or allow receivers to
draw their own conclusions.
○ Messages with explicit conclusions are more easily understood and effective
in influencing attitudes.
○ Depends on:
■ Target audience.
■ Type of issue or topic.
■ Nature of the situation.

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 ● Message sidedness:
○ One-sided message: Mentions only positive attributes or benefits, effective if
target audience:
■ Already holds a favourable opinion about the topic.
■ Is less educated.
○ Two-sided message: Presents both good and bad points, effective when
target audience:
■ Holds an opposing opinion.
■ Is highly educated.
● Refutation:
○ Refutational appeal: Communicator presents both sides of issue and then
refutes opposing viewpoint.
● Verbal versus visual messages:
○ Pictures commonly used to convey information or reinforce copy or message
claims.
Message Appeals

● Comparative advertising:
○ Directly or indirectly naming competitors in an ad and comparing one or more
attributes.
○ Often used to:
■ Position new brands against market leaders.
■ Differentiate high-profile brands in a competitive marketplace.
■ Show candidate differences in political advertising.
■ So common, their attention-getting value has declined.
● Fear appeals:
○ Evoke emotional response to a threat and arouse individuals to take steps to
remove the threat.
○ Stress physical danger.
○ Threaten disapproval or social rejection.
● Protection motivation model:
○ Both cognitive appraisal of the information and emotional response mediate
persuasion.
○ More effective when recipient is:
■ Self-confident and prefers to cope with dangers.
■ A nonuser.
■ Monotonic and positive: Higher levels of fear result in greater
persuasion.
● Humour appeals:
○ Attract and hold consumers’ attention.
○ Put consumers in a positive mood.
○ Increase liking of ads and feelings toward products.
○ Distract consumers from counterarguing against the message.
○ May distract from the brand and its attributes.
○ Difficult to produce and may be too subtle.
○ Tendency to lose effectiveness when seen or heard repeatedly.
○ Must consider type of product or service and audience characteristics.
○ More effective when involvement is relatively low.

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Channel Factors

● Personal versus Non Personal Channels

○ Information received from personal channels is more persuasive than from
mass media.
● Effects of Alternative Mass Media
○ Differences in information processing:
■ Self-paced—Readers process ads at their own rate and study it as
long as they desire. E.g: Newspapers, magazines, direct mail, and the
Internet.
■ Externally paced—Transmission rate is controlled by the medium.
E.g. Radio and television.
● Effects of Context and Environment
● Qualitative media effect:
○ Influence medium has on message.
○ Media vehicles can affect reactions to messages.
E.g. a travel magazine like Nat Geo Traveller can create an excellent
reception environment for travel-related ads targeting the travelling
enthusiasts’ niche.
● Clutter
○ Amount of advertising in a medium.
○ All the nonprogram material that appears in the broadcast environment.
○ Major concern among television advertisers.
○ Difficult for commercials to attract and hold viewers’ attention and to
communicate effectively.
○ Increases in nonprogram time and trend toward shorter commercials.
○ To deal with it, some networks reduce advertising time.

℗
The Creative Process -

Young’s Model of the Creative Process (IDIIR)

1. Immersion: Gathering raw material and data; immersing oneself in the problem.
2. Digestion: Analysing the information.
3. Incubation: Letting the subconscious do the work.
4. Illumination: Birth of an idea.
5. Reality or verification: Studying the idea and reshaping it for practical usefulness.

Wallas’s Model of the Creative Process (PIIV)

1. Preparation: Gathering background information needed to solve problems through

research and study.
2. Incubation: Letting ideas develop.
3. Illumination: Finding the solution.
4. Verification: Refining idea and analysing whether it is an appropriate solution.

Creative Process - Planning -

Account Planning
● Conducting research and gathering relevant information about the client’s:
○ Product/service and brand.
○ Consumers in the target audience.

Background research
● Fact-finding techniques:
○ Read everything related to the product or market.
○ Ask everyone involved with the product for information.
○ Listen to what people are talking about, particularly the client.
○ Use the product or service and become familiar with it.
○ Learn about the client's business.
● General preplanning input:
○ Gather and organise information on product, market, and competition.
○ Analyse trends, developments, and happenings in the marketplace
● Problem detection:
○ Asking consumers familiar with products to list aspects they do not
like.
○ Provides:
■ Input for product improvements or new product development.
■ Ideas regarding which features to emphasise.
■ Guidelines for positioning brands.
● Branding research:
○ Helps gain better insight into consumers and develop more effective
campaigns.

℗
Qualitative research input
● Provides valuable insight at early stages of the creative process.
○ Focus groups: Consumers from the target market are led through a
discussion regarding a topic.
■ Give a better idea of:
● Who the target audience is
● What the audience is like
● Who creatives need to write, design, or direct to
● Which creative approach to use
○ Ethnographic research: Observing consumers in their natural environment.
■ Expensive to conduct and difficult to administer.

Creative Strategy Development -

Advertising Campaigns:
● Set of interrelated, coordinated marketing communications activities that
centre on a single theme or idea.
● Appear in different media across specified time periods.
● Campaign theme:
○ Central message communicated in all advertising & promotional
activities.
○ Expressed through a slogan or tagline.
○ Summation line that briefly expresses company or brand’s positioning
and the message it is trying to deliver to the target audience.
○ Attempt to develop campaign themes that last many years.
○ Guided by specific goals and objectives.
● Slogans:
○ Should be simple, catchy, and predictable.
○ Should connect with consumers emotionally.
○ Many companies are not using them.
Creative Brief:
● Document that specifies key elements of the creative strategy and serves as basis
for communication between client and advertising agency.
● Association of National Advertisers (ANA) provides guidelines for developing
effective briefs.
○ Two-step process: Client creates assignment brief and then ad agency
develops creative brief.
○ One collaborative brief: Client takes lead and develops brief with ad agency.
● Often gaps in information.
● Key Elements of a creative brief:
○ Basic problem or issue the communication must address or solve.
○ Communication objectives.
○ Target audience.
○ Insights to drive creative work.
○ Key benefits or major selling ideas to communicate.
○ Reason to believe/supporting information.
○ Tone and manner/brand personality.
○ Deliverables (what is needed and when).
○ Measures of success (should be tied back to objectives).

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The Search for the Major Selling Idea:
● Strongest singular thing a company can say about its product or service.
● Has the broadest and most meaningful appeal to the target audience.
● Basis of many creative, successful advertising campaigns.
● Most creative ideas try to dramatically and effectively convey the key benefit claim.
● Approaches:
○ Using a unique selling proposition(How you are a better choice/only choice)
○ Creating a brand image.
■ Image advertising: Strategy used to develop a strong, memorable
identity for a brand.
■ To be successful:
● Associate brand with symbols or artefacts that have cultural
meaning.
● Use visual appeals that convey psychosocial associations and
feelings.
○ Finding the inherent drama(purchase driving characteristic)
○ Positioning:
■ Establishes a product or service in a particular place in the consumer's
mind.
■ Done on the basis of distinctive attributes.
■ Basis of the firm's creative strategy when it has multiple brands
competing in the same market.
Contemporary Approaches to the Big Idea
● Many creative styles and strategies are available.
● Must:
○ Capture consumer attention.
○ Be adaptable to be used across various media.
○ Engage consumers and enter into a dialogue with them.

Client Evaluation and Approval of Creative Work

Client-side approvals include:
● Advertising or communications manager.
● Product or brand managers.
● Marketing director or vice president.
● Legal department.
● President or CEO.
● Board of directors.

Guidelines for Evaluating Creative Output

Creative approach must:
● Be consistent with the brand's marketing and advertising objectives.
● Be consistent with the creative strategy and objectives.
● Be appropriate for the target audience.
● Communicate a clear and convincing message to customers.
● Keep from overwhelming the message.
● Be appropriate for the media environment in which it will be seen.
● Be truthful and tasteful.

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Media Planning -

The Media Plan

● Guides media selection.
● Aims to find combination of media to communicate message:
○ In the most effective manner.
○ To the largest number of potential customers.
○ At lowest cost.

Problems in Media Planning

● Insufficient information.
● Inconsistent terminologies.
● Time pressures.
● Difficulty measuring effectiveness.

Developing the Media Plan

Market Analysis and Target Market Identification:

To Whom Will We Advertise?

● Primary research and/or secondary sources help determine which specific groups to
target.
What Internal and External Factors Are Operating?
● Internal factors:
○ Size of media budget.
○ Managerial and administrative capabilities.
○ Organization of the agency.
● External factors:
○ The economy (rising costs of media).
○ Changes in technology.
○ Competitive factors.
Where to Promote?
● Using indexes to determine where to promote.
● Buying Power Index(BPI):
○ Charts potential of a metro area, county, or city relative to the U.S. as a
whole.
○ Gives media planners insight into the relative value of a market.
● Brand development index (BDI):
○ Factors rate of product usage by geographic area into decision process.
● Category development index (CDI):
○ Provides information on potential for development of total product category
and not specific brands.

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Establishing Media Objectives:
Media Objectives
● Media situation analysis should lead to determining specific media objectives.
● Designed to lead to attainment of communications and marketing objectives.
● Limited to goals that can be accomplished through media strategies.
Criteria Considered in the Development of Media Plans
● The media mix
● Target market coverage
● Geographic coverage
● Scheduling
● Reach and frequency
● Recency
● Creative aspects and mood
● Flexibility
● Budget considerations
Developing and Implementing Media Strategies:
● The media mix
○ Adds more versatility to media strategies.
○ Increases coverage, reach, and frequency levels.
○ Improves likelihood of achieving overall communications and marketing goals.
● Target market coverage
○ Covers target audience
● Geographic coverage
○ Covering specific areas based on consumption metrics
● Scheduling
○ Timing promotional efforts so they coincide with highest potential buying
times.
○ Methods:
■ Continuity: Regular pattern of advertising without gaps or non
advertising periods.
■ Flighting: Intermittent periods of advertising and non advertising.
■ Pulsing: Maintains continuity, but promotional efforts upped at times.
● Reach and frequency
○ Number of times(Frequency) exposing potential buyers to the
message(Reach).
● Recency
○ Frequent exposure in short term to the buying interest
● Creative aspects and mood
○ Reliance on mood and trends
● Flexibility
○ Shall be untouched of market ups and downs
● Budget considerations
○ Running through the actual cost and relative costs
Evaluation & Follow-Up:
Factors to Consider:
● Effectiveness of the strategies in achieving media objectives.
● Media plan’s contribution in attaining overall marketing and communications
objectives.

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