Digital Strategy and

Corporate Strategy
Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC)
Gábor NAGY – Karine BARAKAT
Session 03

1
Plan

1. 360-degree Marketing Campaigns

2. Marketing Communication Platforms
3. Customers’ Decision-Making Journey
4. Mixing & Matching Communication Options
5. Creating an Integrated Marketing Communication Program
6. The SOSTRAC® Model

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 1.1. What is a 360-marketing campaign? I.
TV ad

Online banner

Social newsfeed
Store banner

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 1.1. What is a 360-marketing campaign? II.

• Providing a 360 experience is about synergies of messaging, through

 Print,
 In-store,
 Digital and social media.
• “The customer will experience communication no matter where they are,
so you have to think about leading them through the journey”.
Marina Karassellos, Digital Creative Director, Ulta Beauty
• An integrated campaign covers the entire buying cycle: discovery 
purchase  repeat purchase.
• Every medium is utilized – television, mobile, digital and social – in an
integrated, consistent marketing and branding strategy.
• The brand is presented at all points of consumer contact.
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 1.1 What is a 360-marketing campaign? III.

• Successful 360 campaigns consider the main messages people are

interested in and how they want to receive those messages.
• “All communications and strategy will go into effectively communicating
to these audiences”.
• “When targeting your personas, you need to be resourceful and smart.”

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 Coca-Cola’s Legendary Enjoy Everything Campaign

• The campaign encompassed mobile, experiential, product, digital,

television and social.
• Using the camaraderie and bonding over sports, gaming, entertainment
and humor, the company ran
 A series of television ads,
 Held a strong presence in the March Madness Live mobile app and
 Encouraged conversation on social media with a hashtag.

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 1. 2. Unlocking the Power of Integrated Marketing
Communications I.
• Assume that the marketers of a well-known brand have carefully
conducted a series of research activities to gain a deeper understanding of
their target consumer, the marketplace, competition,...
• They have crafted a thoughtful, imaginative marketing strategy,
uncovering a potentially powerful new brand positioning in the process.
• The marketers use this new strategy to write a communications brief that
goes to the full-service communications agency with the mandate to
develop a thoroughly integrated marketing communications (IMC)
program to help the brand achieve the desired new positioning.
• Their agency unveils its proposed IMC program with a display of video,
color, and graphics in a tour de force presentation.

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1.2. Unlocking the Power of Integrated Marketing Communications
II.

• How do the marketers of the brand judge the communication program as

to whether it actually is well integrated and offers the most effective and
efficient solution to their communications challenge?
• How do marketers make the right decisions to at least improve their odds
and increase their likelihood of marketplace success?

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1.2. Unlocking the Power of Integrated Marketing Communications
II.

• What marketers need is a set of well-grounded, comprehensive criteria

by which any proposed IMC program can be systematically and
thoroughly judged.
• There is much more to a well-designed IMC program than just
communicating the same message in different ways.
• There should be a clear understanding of the different platforms that
can be used along the successive stages of the consumer journey.

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2.1. Eight Major (Owned and Payed) Marketing Communication
Platforms I.

Platform Components Defining Characteristics

Advertising • Print and broadcast ads • Pervasive
• Packaging, outer • Amplified
• Packaging inserts expressiveness
• Cinema • Control
• Brochures and
• Booklets
• Posters and leaflets

Sales promotion • Contests, games,

sweepstakes, lotteries • Ability to be attention
• Premiums and gifts getting
• Sampling • Incentive
• Fairs and trade shows • Invitation
• Exhibits

Keller (2016): 288

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2.1. Eight Major (Owned and Payed) Marketing Communication
Platforms II.

Platform Components Defining Characteristics

Events and experiences • Sports • Relevant
• Entertainment festivals • Engaging
• Arts • Implicit
• Causes
• Factory tours
• Company museums
• Street activities

Public relations and • Press kits • High credibility

publicity • Speeches • Ability to find hard-to-
• Seminars reach buyers
• Annual reports • Dramatization
• Charitable donations
• Publications

Keller (2016): 291

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2.1. Eight Major (Owned and Payed) Marketing Communication
Platforms III.

Platform Components Defining Characteristics

Online and social media • Websites • Rich
marketing • E-mail • Interactive
• Search ads • Up to date
• Display ads
• Company blogs
• Third-party chatrooms,
forums, and blogs
etc.
Mobile marketing • Text messages
• Online marketing • Timely
• Social media marketing • Influential
• Apps • Pervasive
etc.

Keller (2016): 288

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2.1. Eight Major (Owned and Payed) Marketing Communication
Platforms IV.

Platform Components Defining Characteristics

Direct and database • Catalogs • Personal
marketing • Mailings • Proactive
• Telemarketing • Complementary
• Electronic shopping
• TV shopping
• Fax
etc.
Personal selling • Sales presentations
• Sales meetings • Customized
• Incentive programs • Relationship oriented
• Samples • Results oriented
• Fairs and trade shows
etc.

Keller (2016): 288

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2.2. Some Key Communication Objectives

Objectives
1 Create awareness and salience
2 Convey detailed information
3 Create imagery and personality
4 Build trust
5 Elicit emotions
6 Inspire action
7 Instill loyalty
8 Connect people
Keller (2016): 289

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 2.3. Brand Engagement Pyramid

Keller (2016): 289

• How many are at the top?
• How many are at the base?
• Who do marketers usually address?

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 3.1. Information Processing Models in Marketing

• Information processing models of communication consider:

 Antecedent factors related to characteristics of the consumer,
 Content of the communication itself,
 Surrounding context of message reception,
 How those factors influence consumers’ motivation, ability, and opportunity to
process a communication.

• Three key questions arise:

 (1) How much do consumers want to process a communication?
 (2) Do they also have the right kind of knowledge to be able to process it?
 (3) Will they even have a chance to do so, or are there factors preventing or
inhibiting what they can do?

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3.2. Understanding Consumers’ Buying Decisions

Engel, Blackwell, and Kollat (1968)

Source: Julie Askew
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3.3. Potential Stages in an Expanded Consumer-Decision Journey

Stage Description of Stage

1 Recognizes a need or want for a product or service
2 Knows about the brand
3 Actively considers the brand
4 Searches and learns more about the brand
5 Evaluates the brand and forms favorable attitudes
6 Arrives at a positive value judgment and willingness to pay for the brand
7 Develops concrete plans to try the brand
8 Consumes the brand
9 Is satisfied with the brand experience
10 Becomes loyal repeat buyer of the brand
11 Is engaged and interacts with the brand
12 Advocates for the brand actively
Keller (2016): 290
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3.4. Understanding Consumers’ Buying Decisions

Source: B2Bstories.com 19
 4.1. Mixing and Matching Communication Options I.

• In assembling an IMC program to build brand equity, marketers should

“mix and match” communication options.
• By doing this, they choose a variety of different communication options
which may share some common meaning and content, but which may
also offer different, complementary advantages or be designed with
other communication options in mind (Naik, Raman, and Winer 2005).
• By properly mixing and matching communication options, collectively the
“whole may be greater than the sum of the parts”.

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4.2. Mixing and Matching Communication Options II. (Mixing)

• In developing the optimal IMC program, marketers should essentially be

“media neutral” and evaluate all communication options based on
 Effectiveness:
 E.g., How many desired effects does a communication create and what communication
objectives does it help the brand achieve?

 Efficiency:
 E.g., At what cost are those outcomes created and objectives achieved?

• Marketers ultimately care only about achieving their communication

objectives and moving consumers along in their decision journey.
 That is, any means of communications that will effectively and efficiently facilitate
those goals should therefore be considered.

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4.2. Mixing and Matching Communication Options III. (Mixing)

TV ad that shows
young people who The impact in terms of Moutain
“Do the Dew” to Dew’s brand equity should be
fuel their interests identical unless the associations
or passions created are materially different
in some way.

Strong, favorable, and unique brand

associations for Mountain Dew to
“intense,” “active,” or “high energy”.

Mountain Dew sponsors

its own action sports Marketers should consider all possible communication options
Dew Tour events in terms of effectiveness and efficiency to achieve communication
objectives. 22
4.3. Different communication options are likely to create inherently
different effects
“Direct experience” communications (e.g., event-created ones) can
create potentially stronger associations than can mass-mediated
communications (e.g., through TV ads) (Smith and Swinyard 1983).

TV advertising may be better able to show certain

product features or express brand-created emotions.

Social media may be stronger at eliciting brand engagement than

TV advertising, but TV ads may be designed more easily to create
broader brand awareness across target market consumers.

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4.4. Mixing and Matching Communication Options IV. (Matching)

• By virtue of using multiple communication options, the opportunity for

“interaction effects” exist beyond the direct “main effects” derived from
each individual communication option.
• Any one communication option can have a number of different
relationships with any other communication options which are also being
used, for example:
 reinforce the meaning conveyed by other communication options,
 complement that meaning,
 enhance their communication effects in various ways.
• Matching thus requires strategically choosing and designing
communication options with other communication options in mind.

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4.4. Mixing and Matching Communication Options V. (Matching)

Maintain a strong social

+ media presence to engage
their loyal buyers

Get an attention-getting scene from the TV ad and place it

in youth-oriented magazines and online banner ads to drive
people to their website to learn more about the brand

Reinforce their
“high-energy”
message
Engage in extensive PR activities to
convert skeptics concerned about
health and product ingredients

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4.4. Mixing and Matching Communication Options VI. (Matching)

• There is an enormous and diverse variety of touchpoints and

communication options to help marketers create
 memorable,
 enjoyable, and
 persuasive experiences with consumers.

“Paint a picture” of their

brands in the minds and
hearts of consumers.

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 5. Developing the Optimal IMC Program

• In designing and impactful IMC program, the marketer’s overriding goal is to

create the most effective and efficient communication program possible to
maximize short-term sales and long-term brand equity by mixing and
matching communication options (Keller 2007; Madhavaram,
Badrinarayanan, and McDonald 2005; Reid, Luxton, and Mavondo 2005).
• The seven IMC choice criteria to be considered:
Marketing criteria related to the efficiency of an IMC program in terms of reaching as
 Coverage
many members of the target audience as possible at the lowest possible cost.
 Cost
 Contribution Criteria that focus more on communication effectiveness and the ability of the
 Commonality communication program to achieve the desired communication objectives to drive
sales and/ or improve brand equity.
 Complementarity
 Cross-effects Singular qualities of communications and how they work in isolation.
 Conformability
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 5.1. Definitions and a Representative Set of Questions to
Evaluate the IMC Choice Criteria I.

Criteria Definition Representative questions

Coverage Proportion of the target market reached by each • How many target market consumers are
communication option, as well as how much reached by the communication options?
overlap exists among communication options. • How much overlap exists among
communication options across target market
consumers?
Cost The financial efficiency associated with the • How much is the total financial cost of
communication options and program. communication options?
• What is the relevant cost per thousand and
other efficiency metrics?
• Are there any relevant nonfinancial costs?

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 5.1. Definitions and a Representative Set of Questions to
Evaluate the IMC Choice Criteria II.
Criteria Definition Representative questions
Contribution The inherent ability of a communication • What are the likely effects of the communication
option to create the desired communication options and how they will impact communication
effects and achieve the desired objectives?
communication objectives, independent of • What is the likely impact of the communication options
prior or subsequent exposure to any other on sales?
communication options for the brand. • What is the likely impact of the communication options
on brand equity?
Commonality The extent to which a communication option • How much overlap in meaning exists among
is designed to create communication effects communication options?
and achieve communication objectives that • How much overlap in creative strategy exists among
are also the focus of other communication communication options?
options.
Complementarity The extent to which a communication option • How much of the consumer-decision journey is covered
addresses communication effects and by the communication options?
objectives not addressed by other • How many of the communication objectives are
communication options. covered by the communication options?
• How much of the desired positioning of the brand is
covered by the communication options?

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 5.1. Definitions and a Representative Set of Questions to
Evaluate the IMC Choice Criteria III.
Criteria Definition Representative questions
Cross-effects The extent to which communication options • How many synergies exist among communication
are designed to explicitly work together such options?
that interaction or synergy occurs and • How does the coordination of the meaning of
enhanced communication effects emerge as communication options appropriately leverage brand
the result of exposure by consumers to both knowledge at different stages of the consumer-decision
options. journey?
• How does the coordination of the creative strategies of
communication options improve the attention to and
processing of communication options?
Conformability The extent to which communication works • How well do the communication options work across
across target market consumers regardless consumers with different communication histories?
of their communications history or other • How well do the communication options work across
characteristics. different types of target market consumers?

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 5.2. Developing the Optimal IMC Program (Coverage)

• Coverage captures the proportion of the target market reached by each

communication option, as well as how much overlap exists among
communication options.
• The relationship of the overlapping communication options becomes
critical in terms of commonality, complementarity, and cross-effects.
• The sequencing of communications becomes critical too.

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 5.2. Developing the Optimal IMC Program (Cost)

• Marketers must evaluate marketing communications on all of the other six

criteria against their cost to arrive at the most effective and most
efficient communications program.
• Quantitative analysis is essential here in terms of estimating the various
response functions and elasticities that may characterize different
communication options employed by marketers.
• All kinds of techniques can be employed, for example,
 Experimental A-B comparisons with test-control panels,
 Markets with different levels of communication,
 Detailed multivariate modeling of large databases.
 For example, advertising elasticities were estimated to be higher for new (0.3) than for established
products (0.1) (Allenby and Hanssens 2005; see also Van Heerde et al. 2013; and Sethuraman, Tellis,
and Briesch 2011).

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5.2. Developing the Optimal IMC Program (Contribution)

• Contribution needs to consider a number of different factors, for example:

 The content of the communication option and the context in which it is seen, heard,
or experienced, for example, are both critically important.
 The information processing model of communication effectiveness, described
previously, can be helpful in identifying and interpreting the relevant motivation,
ability, and opportunity factors that affect how consumers process any proposed
communication option.

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5.2. Developing the Optimal IMC Program (Comminality)

• In general, information that is consistent in meaning is more easily

learned and recalled than unrelated information.
• Though the unexpectedness of inconsistent information sometimes
can lead to more elaborate processing and stronger associations than
consistent information.
• Nevertheless, with inconsistent associations and a diffuse brand
image, consumers may overlook some associations or, because they are
confused about the meaning of the brand, form less strong and/ or less
favorable new associations.

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5.2. Developing the Optimal IMC Program (Complementarity)

• Brands are rarely singular entities.

• To effectively communicate the full brand positioning it is often
necessary for the communications program to convey multiple messages
and create multiple effects.
• Moreover, different consumers at different stages of the consumer
journey may also require different messages and effects.
• However, there is only so much that can be said or conveyed in any one
communication.
 Less is often more, especially when it comes to mass media.

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 5.2. Comminality vs. complementarity
 A commonality leveraging strategy makes sense when consumers have
associations to another entity that are congruent with desired brand
associations.
 New Zealand is known for having more sheep than people  a New Zealand sweater
manufacturer that positioned its product on the basis of its “New Zealand wool”
presumably could more easily establish strong and favorable brand associations
because New Zealand may already mean “wool” to many people.

 Complementarity branding strategies  there may be times when entities

are chosen that represent a departure from the brand because there are
few if any common or similar associations.
 The marketer’s challenge here is to ensure that the less congruent knowledge for the
entity has either a direct or an indirect effect on existing brand knowledge.
 e.g., Tiger Woods endorsing Buick
Assoc1  Assoc2
Assoc1_and_Assoc2
Complementarity
„fuzzy and” 36
5.2. Developing the Optimal IMC Program (Cross-effects)

• The basic idea behind cross-effects is to strategically boost communication

effects with consumers as a result of exposure to one communication
option that also creates enhanced communication effects for different
communication options after their subsequent exposure.
 “1 + 1 = 3”
• Meaning-based cross-effects
• The brand knowledge or communication effect created or emphasized by one
communication option increases the likelihood that another communication option
achieves its communication objectives as consumers move along their decision
journey.
• Execution-based cross-effects
• Attempt to coordinate the creative strategy of communication options to ensure
executional consistency such that greater attention or processing results with
subsequent communication exposure.

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5.2. Meaning-Based Cross-Effects: Examples

Communication Brand
objective positioning

Neslin (2002)
or

Chang and Thorson (2004); Pfeiffer and Zinnbauer (2010)

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 5.2. Execution-Based Cross-Effects: Examples

• Coordinated executional information can serve as a retrieval cue in

memory to other prior-established communication effects (Keller 1987,
1991).

Communication
option no. 1
A symbol (e.g., feather) is
established in one
Communication Communication
communication option for a
option no. 2 option no. 3
deodorant to convey mildness
(Offline) (Online)
and softness

Trigger the knowledge, thoughts,

feelings, and images stored in
memory from exposure to those other
previous communications
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5.2. Developing the Optimal IMC Program (Conformability)

• With any IMC program, consumers will encounter communications in

different orders or sequences.
• Certain target consumers may not be exposed to one of the other
intended communication options or be exposed to a communication
option not expressly intended for them.
• We consider a marketing communication option conformable or versatile
when it achieves its desired communication effects and objectives across
target market consumers regardless of the particular nature of the
consumers involved and their past and future communication
sequences, as described next.

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 6. What is SOSTAC?

• SOSTAC® is a planning model, originally developed in the 1990s to help

with marketing planning by PR Smith.
• SOSTAC® stands for:
 Situation – where are we now?
 Objectives – where do we want to be?
 Strategy – how do we get there?
 Tactics – how exactly do we get there?
 Action – what is our plan?
 Control – did we get there?

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6. An infographic applying SOSTAC® to digital marketing

• SOSTAC® infographic which

summarizes the key issues to
consider at each stage when
developing digital marketing plans.

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 6.1. Stage 1. Situation analysis

• The situation should provide an overview of your organization – who you

are, what you do, and how you interact and trade online by addressing
internal and external factors impacting the business.
• Consider using some of the following methods:
 Who your digital customers currently are (i.e., how do they interact with the brand,
the platform(s) used, demographic breakdown)
 SWOT analysis (i.e., what are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats
to the whole organization)
 Competitor analysis (Who are your competitors? How do they compete (e.g., price,
product, customer service, and/ or reputation)? What are their key differentiators?)
 Digital channels landscape
 List out all the various digital channels used and the success of each for your organization – what’s
performing well or not?

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 6.1. Define your buyer persona I.
• Creating a Buyer Persona figure will help you understand what kind of
customers you have, what you want to capture, and what their
motivations are.
• That is to say, you will give life to the profiles of your clients.
• To create a series of characters, most of this work can be completed by
extracting existing data through your CRM system, e.g.,
• Male/ female split
• Age profiling (i.e., average age, categories of age groupings)
• Location/ address details
• Purchase history (i.e., historical purchases, average order value, trends in brand loyalty,
products ordered by size etc.)
• Method of purchase (e.g. credit card, debit card, cheque)
• Route to purchase (e.g., search engine, email newsletter, affiliate website, direct from the site
or through the call center, i.e. mixed-mode)
• Frequency, recency and monetary value – Frequency of purchase?

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6.1. Define your buyer persona II.
• You’ll get a better understanding of who
your customer is and what their real needs
are. And, more importantly, the needs you can
satisfy through your products or services.
• It’s ideal for focusing a strategy on a
specific customer.
• It will allow you to generate personalized
messages and strategies.
• You will achieve greater effectiveness in
your campaigns. The more you know your
users and the more focused your strategy is,
the logic says that you will increase your
results.

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 6.2. Stage 2. Objectives

• This stage of your digital marketing planning framework should focus on

the objective(s) of your strategy.

SMART objectives:
• Specific (Are you focusing enough on a specific issue or challenge within the organization?)
• Measurable (Will it be monitored through quantitative or qualitative analysis for example?)
• Actionable (Will it assist in improving performance if achieved?)
• Relevant (Is the issue to be addressed within the domain of the digital marketing team?)
• Time-related (Have you set a specific time period?)

• Objective 1. Engagement: Achieve 50% of existing customers to service their online accounts by July 2015.
• Objective 2. Acquisition: Increase brand visibility from April 2015 through to July 2015. To be measured
through Google analytics.
• Objective 3. Engagement: Increase email frequency from one email per quarter to one email per week from
May 2015 through to July 2015.
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 6.3. Stage 3. Strategy

• Strategy refers to the path you plan to follow until you achieve the
established objectives.
• Once you have an objective and know how to get there, creating a strategy
consists of drawing a road map that indicates the path you will follow.

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 6.4. Stage 4. Tactics

• Tactics cover the specific tools of the digital mix that you plan to use to
realize the objectives of your digital marketing plan.
• To help achieve these objectives, the 7Ps of the Marketing Mix can be
used.

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 6.5. Stage 5. Action

• The fifth step is to bring your plan to life and take proper action. Here,
you will start the campaign and all the hard work.

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 6.6. Stage 6. Control
• This phase focuses on analysis and KPIs.
• Indicators are usually chosen based on the type of campaign you launch.

No LEAD GENERATION No WEBSITE No SEO (SEARCH ENGINE

OPTIMIZATION)
1 Monthly new leads/ prospects 1 Monthly website traffic
1 Inbound links to a website
2 Qualified leads per month 2 Returning vs. new visitors
2 Traffic from organic search
3 Cost per lead generated 3 Visits per channel
3 New leads from organic search
4 Cost per conversion 4 Average time on page
4 Conversions from organic search
5 Average time of conversion 5 Website conversion rate
5 Page authority
6 Retention rate 6 The conversion rate for call-
to-action content 6 Google PageRank
7 Attrition rate
7 Click-through rate on web 7 Keywords in top 10 SERP
8 Net promoter score pages
8 Conversion rate per keyword
8 Pages per visit
9 Number of unique keywords that
drive traffic
10 The volume of traffic from video
content 50