Deck 16: Integrated Marketing Communications, Advertising, and Public Relations

Question 1

Differentiate between advertising and product placement. Which do you think is more effective, and why?

Answer 1

Advertising and product placement:
Advertising is non-personal paid communication through number of media about a particular firm, not-for-profit organization, sponsor idea, or product in an intended message to inform or persuade the audience or members.
Product placement is a form of promotion the marketer pays to the owner of moving picture, television program for displaying product significantly in a show or a movie.
Advertisements are more effective as they involve variety of mass media namely newspaper, radio, televisions, billboards, and movie screens. It also includes electronic and web commercials.

Question 2

Identify and describe the different advertising media. Which are on the rise? Which are facing possible decline?

Answer 2

The various types of advertising media used for advertising are television, radio, newspapers, magazines, direct mail, outdoor advertising, and interactive media.
Television: It is medium of channel through which the advertisement would get communicated to the customers. In this era of increased communication networks cable audiences has grown with improved and innovative programs. This resulted in increased revenues through television advertisements. Hence, this media of advertising is on rise.
Radio: Though radio is the traditional source of media, its usage has widely spread these days. Due to the lack of time most of the people local as well as international are engaged in listening to radio while travelling in cars, through internet and other electronic devices. Thus, this media of advertising is also on rise.
Magazines: Though magazine advertising could reach the target markets, it lacks the flexibility of television, radio and newspaper advertising. Hence, before selecting the magazine advertisement, marketers must select the appropriate magazine.
Interactive Media: It is media engaged in communication through internet or social media. The rapid increase in the usage of such media applications prove to be on the rise and considered as one of the powerful tools for advertising.
Outdoor Advertising: It is the traditional media of advertising in which advertisements are communicated out of door through billboards, electronic displays, painting displays. Thus, this advertising is on rise as this media could generate more revenues.
Newspapers: In this era of technology most of news readers have moved on to internet medium. This media faces increased advertisement expenditures for circulating the paper to the wider market and fails to earn more profits. Thus, this media of advertising is on fall.
Direct mail: Though this is an era of technology where individuals are always notified with mails in their inbox. The direct mail of advertising would not be as fruitful as the daily mail box is filled with various advertisers mails individual would through off them without viewing. There is also another disadvantage of higher mail costs through direct mail advertising. Hence this advertising media can also be said as one on fall.
Other advertising Media: Advertising through advertisements on tea shirts, store flooring etc., are included in other advertising media.

Question 3

Identify a corporate sponsorship for a cause or event in your area, or find a local company that sponsors a local charity or other organization. What does the sponsor gain from its actions? Be specific. What does the sponsored organization receive? Is this sponsorship good for your community? Explain.

Answer 3

Corporate sponsorship:
Corporate sponsorship is coupled with nonprofit groups as they cannot operate without external funding.
Benefits of sponsored organization:
• Easy funding
• Comfortable business access
• Supportive environment
• Surplus resources
• Governmental support
• Continued production process
Sponsorship for communal welfare:
• Generation of funds
• Development of technology
• Overall industrial development
• Establishment of economic trade zones

Question 4

Describe how marketers assess promotional effectiveness.

Question 5

Pop-up ads, those unsolicited messages that sometimes pop onto your computer screen and block the site or information you're looking for until you close or respond to them, are inexpensive to produce and cost nearly nothing to send. They are so annoying to some computer users that dozens of special programs have been written to block them from appearing on the screen during Internet use.
Do you consider the use of pop-up ads to be unethical? Why or why not?

Question 6

Not-for-profit advertising. Review the material in the chapter on creating an advertisement and then go to the website listed here. It outlines the basic steps involved in creating an advertisement for a not-for-profit organization. Review the material and prepare a brief report comparing and contrasting the process of creating an advertisement for a for-profit and a not-for-profit organization. http://marketing.about.com/cs/nonprofitmrktg/a/ 8 stepnonprofit. Htm

Question 7

Watch a television show and see how many products you can find placed within the show. Present your findings to the class.

Question 8

Why is sponsorship such an important part of a firm's IMC?

Question 9

Select two different advertisers' TV or print ads for the same product category (cars or soft drinks, for instance) and decide what emotion each appeals to. Which ad is more effective, and why?

Question 10

Public relations. Visit the websites of at least three large, multinational corporations. Examples include Siemens, DuPont, and ExxonMobil. Review the material on the websites and prepare a brief report outlining how each firm includes public relations as part of its promotional strategy. www.siemens.com www.dupont.com www.exxonmobil.com

Question 11

With a classmate, choose a good or service you think could benefit from guerrilla marketing. Imagine you have a limited promotional budget, and come up with a plan for a guerrilla approach. Outline several ideas, and explain how you plan to carry them out. Present your plan to the class.

Question 12

What is the role of integrated marketing communications (IMC) in a firm's overall marketing strategy? When executed well, what are its benefits?

Question 13

For each of the following goods and services, indicate which direct marketing channel or channels you think would be best:
a. Kansas City Royals tickets
b. athletic apparel
c. custom-made earrings d. lawn-care service
e. museum membership

Question 14

The popular image of an advertising agency is of a vibrantly creative place without much corporate structure, where copywriters, artists, and executives enjoy free rein, an anything- goes culture, and freedom to come and go at will. That picture usually doesn't include a list of rules employees must follow, such as punching a time clock, logging work time in precise 15-minute intervals, paying a fine for tardiness, getting closed out of meetings if late, and going home at precisely 6 P.M. But those are some of the strictly enforced practices at The Richards Group, a successful independent Dallas agency in business for more than three decades and recently named one of Advertising Age's Best Places to Work.
If the rules sound repressive, Stan Richards, the company's 80+ year-old founder, admits they aren't for everybody. One of his former writers says, "The genius of the place is completely counterintuitive." But that genius has produced a steady stream of memorable campaigns for clients such as Chick-fil-A, Motel 6, and Corona beer, and it has kept more than 30 creative group heads on board with Richards for an average tenure of 17 years.
Life at the agency isn't all about the rules, either. Richards learned early in his advertising design education at New York's Pratt Institute that creativity comes from any source, but that expressing it requires meticulous hard work and limited shortcuts. Since founding the agency, Richards has relaxed a few rules, such as the dress code, and he no longer personally approves every piece of work. But he still encourages face time with colleagues and clients instead of emails. And there are perks-though fancy titles are not among them. In fact, there are no titles. Instead, every employee is expected to be "a leader in every situation." Those who have the longest tenure get the best parking spots and the desks nearest the windows, but any of Richards' 670 employees can take the company's private plane to client meetings. And after 20 years with the company, they can use the plane to take their families on a free trip anywhere in the world, even as far away as the Galapagos Islands.
Questions for Critical Thinking
1. Stan Richards believes that "the way you treat your people is exactly how they treat clients." Do you agree or disagree? Explain your reasoning.
2. Evaluate Richards' belief that creativity requires hard work. Do you think this is true? Does it apply only to marketing and advertising? Why or why not?

Question 15

Think back to publicity you have heard recently about a company or its products. If it was good publicity, how was it generated, and what media were used? If it was bad publicity, where did you learn about it, and how did the firm try to control or neutralize it?

Question 16

What are some benefits and drawbacks of using celebrity testimonials in advertising? Identify an ad that uses a celebrity's endorsement effectively, and explain why.

Question 17

Cut out a print ad and place it on a poster board. With a marker, identify all the elements of the ad. Then identify what you believe is the ad's objective. Next, identify the strategy used. If the ad has an interactive component, note that as well.

Question 18

Pop-up ads, those unsolicited messages that sometimes pop onto your computer screen and block the site or information you're looking for until you close or respond to them, are inexpensive to produce and cost nearly nothing to send. They are so annoying to some computer users that dozens of special programs have been written to block them from appearing on the screen during Internet use.
Do you think that, because they are unsolicited, pop-up ads are also disruptive? Are they an invasion of privacy? Explain your reasoning.

Question 19

How does the nature of the market for a firm's goods or services affect the choice of a promotion method?

Question 20

Super Bowl advertising. Visit the websites listed here. How many different organizations ran ads during the most recent Super Bowl? Which organizations have run the most ads in Super Bowls? During the most recent Super Bowl, which ads were the highest rated? The lowest rated? How much has the cost of a 30-second Super Bowl ad changed since the first game was played? www.superbowl-commericials.org http://viralvideochart.unrulymedia.com/chart_keyword/ Super_Bowl_2014?interval=week

Question 21

What are the three primary objectives of advertising? Give an example of when each one might be used.

Question 22

On your own or with a classmate, select a print advertisement that catches your attention and analyze it according to the AIDA concept (attention, interest, desire, action). Identify features of the ad that catch your attention, pique your interest, make you desire the product, and spur you toward a purchase. Present your findings to the class.

Question 23

Identify the different types of emotional appeals in advertising. What are the benefits and pitfalls of each?

Question 24

If you're a pizza lover, you'd say that a sizzling hot, fresh pizza sells itself. If you happen to live in southern New England-and be a pizza lover-you'd probably say that everyone knows about Pepe's Pizzeria But Ken Berry, CEO of Pepe's, understands the importance of spreading the word about his company's pizza, even though it's practically got a cult following. Founded by Frank Pepe in New Haven, Connecticut, pizzeria employees still hand-toss every single pizza. "Our pizza really has a heritage," observes Berry. "It goes back 87 years, virtually unchanged during those 87 years." He notes that the company has added refrigerators and air-conditioning, but that's about all. When diners visit the restaurant, they enjoy the sights, sounds, smells, and flavors of this heritage. "It's a way for people to step back in time," Berry says. The pizza dough is still made fresh daily, and the ingredients come from many of the same sources they did decades ago.
Pepe's has built a loyal following through the years. "People have adopted Pepe's as their own through generations," notes Berry. This word-of-mouth advertising is impossible to buy or replicate, and it helps strengthen the brand. It also represents a challenge, in that these loyal customers arrive at the restaurant with high expectations. If they bring friends or family, they expect those guests to be served a top-notch meal, much as if they were entertaining in their own home. "If you don't deliver on your promise, they'll let you know right away," warns Berry.
When Pepe's co-owners decided to expand from its initial location several years ago, their strategy included replicating every aspect of the Pepe's dining experience-right down to the furniture and uniforms of the wait staff. They wanted customers to walk into the new location in Fairfield, Connecticut, and feel right at home. They didn't anticipate a backlash-a small core of regular New Haven customers who objected to the expansion of their beloved Pepe's. These customers staged a protest outside the new restaurant as it opened to the public. But publicity surrounding the opening of a new Pepe's swelled beyond the protestors-and 200 people showed up to wait in line for their own piece of Pepe's pie. If anything, the buzz surrounding the protest likely attracted more customers to the new location.
Pepe's approach to advertising is pretty straightforward. The pizza sells itself-one bite, and pizza lovers are hooked. So the main objective is to make consumers aware of the restaurant, which now has several locations in the tri-state area surrounding New York City. As the Fairfield restaurant neared its opening date, Pepe's alerted current customers with a simple message printed on top of each pizza box (coincidentally, many of Pepe's regular New Haven diners actually lived in Fairfield). The company also published press releases and advertised the grand opening of the new restaurant. Billboards along the interstate highway proved to be effective with travelers, as did some direct-mail efforts. Pepe's recently ventured into social media with a Facebook page and Twitter account, which Berry refers to as "the new word of mouth." Pepe's posts photos, blurbs about menu items, and relives a few proud moments on Facebook. Customers comment about their favorite pizza flavors (such as spinach and gorgonzola), and share experiences (like driving 50 miles each way for a Pepe's pizza). Berry notes that Pepe's presence in social media keeps the relationships with customers going.
Educating consumers about Pepe's is the second advertising objective. With such a tasty product, what better way to attract new customers than to let them discover that the proof really is in the pie? Now when Pepe's launches a new restaurant, they give away free pizza for about a week before the grand opening. That's right: free pizza, for a week. Ken Berry explains that this promotion serves three purposes: It trains the new employees, tests the new ovens, and introduces Pepe's pizza to new customers. The giveaway generates plenty of good buzz about Pepe's pizzas and makes an important statement to the public: Pepe's is so confident about the quality of its food that they're willing to give it away for a week- certain that consumers will become regular customers.
Pepe's also enjoys positive public relations surrounding its charitable giving. The company website has a tab allowing customers to request donations for their particular charities, and the restaurant conducts regular "Good Neighbors Nights," from which it donates 15 percent of its proceeds to a designated not-for-profit group. All of these efforts roll together into cohesive marketing communications with one major goal. "Our challenge is to build our brand and protect it," says Berry, "and to make sure we deliver every day."
Questions for Critical Thinking
1. Describe how the Pepe's pizza giveaway promotion relates to each step in the AIDA concept.
2. How might Pepe's use guerilla marketing to promote its brand among college students?

Question 25

Compare and contrast interactive ads and traditional ads.