Deck 14: Marketing Communications and Advertising

Question 1

In Part 3, you began the process of defining the marketing mix, starting with the components of product and distribution. The next stage of the strategic planning process continues defining the elements of the marketing mix, and this section- Part 4-focuses on promotion and communication decisions for the promotion mix, including advertising, public relations, sales promotion, and personal selling. Use the following exercises to guide you through the promotions part of your strategic marketing plan:
1. Define your promotional objectives. What specific results do you hope to accomplish, and which promotional tools will be responsible? How will you use promotions to differentiate yourself from your competition? Remember that promotions cannot be directly tied with sales because there are too many other factors (competition, environment, price, distribution, product, customer service, company reputation, and so on) that affect sales. State specific objectives that can be tied directly to the result of promotional activities-for example, number of people redeeming a coupon, share of audience during a commercial, percent attitude change before and after a telemarketing campaign, or number of people calling a toll-free information hotline. Remember to have offline promotions drive online traffic.
2. Design a promotional message or theme. Does this message inform, remind, persuade, or educate the target market? Make sure this message will work across both traditional and electronic media. How is your promotional message consistent with your branding? Is this message or slogan unique and important enough to be copyrighted? Check with the U.S. Copyright Office at http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright.
3. Will you be designing and producing all your promotion tools in-house, or do you need to find an agency? What are the advantages of designing promotional tools in-house? Disadvantages? Try http://www.agencyfinder.com to assist in your decision.

Answer 1

not answer

Question 2

Discuss the effects of advertising on market share and consumers. Advertising helps marketers increase or maintain brand awareness as well as market share. Typically, more is spent to advertise new brands with a small market share than to advertise older brands. Brands with a large market share use advertising mainly to maintain their share of the market. Advertising affects consumers' daily lives as well as their purchases. Although advertising can seldom change strongly held consumer attitudes and values, it may transform a consumer's negative attitude toward a product into a positive one. Additionally, when consumers are highly loyal to a brand, they may buy more of that brand when advertising is increased. Lastly, advertising can also change the importance of a brand's attributes to consumers. By emphasizing different brand attributes, advertisers can change their appeal in response to consumers' changing needs or try to achieve an advantage over competing brands.
8.1 Discuss the reasons why new brands with a smaller market share spend proportionately more on advertising than brands with a larger market share.
8.2 Form a three-person team. Divide the responsibility for getting newspaper advertisements and menus for several local restaurants. While you are at the restaurants to obtain copies of their menus, observe the atmosphere and interview the manager to determine what he or she believes are the primary reasons people choose to dine there. Pool your information and develop a table comparing the restaurants in terms of convenience of location, value for the money, food variety and quality, atmosphere, and so on. Rank the restaurants in terms of their appeal to college students. Explain the basis of your rankings. What other market segment would be attracted to the restaurants and why? Do the newspaper advertisements emphasize the most effective appeal for a particular restaurant? Explain.

Answer 2

Advertising has a very profound impact on market and consumer as well. A product can well increase its market share up to a certain extent with the help advertising. Advertising slowly but surely affects the tastes, beliefs, and attitudes of most of the consumers though it can seldom change the strongly held beliefs of a person.
It can change the negative attitude of consumer towards a product to positive one. It is perhaps the reason that many governments have made it mandatory to put a warning message on advertisements pertaining to promotion of cigarette-smoking.
1.Though advertisement helps a product in increasing its market share but beyond a point, advertisement does not help and principle of diminishing return sets in. Brands with a large market share has already spent good amount on advertisement which have helped them in capturing a market share which can be called optimum.
If such brands spend anything more on advertisement that will not help in increasing their market share for the simple reason that consumer are already aware of that particular brand and the brand has got the maximum possible loyalty.
And generally market gives space to every brand. But in contrast, a new brand with a smaller market share has to spend heavily on advertisement for making the whole market segment aware of its existence and to highlight its superiority over other competing brands. The new brand has to attract consumers towards it.
This explains the phenomena that new brands with a smaller market share spend proportionately more on advertising than brands with a large market share.
2.The atmosphere and the nature of the restaurants are described below that shows the reasons for attracting the college students.
From the above restaurants, the management of restaurant B focused mainly on attracting the college students. The restaurant C which attracts the people of different countries and different tastes. Finally, the restaurant A focuses on the people who are vegetarians and is famous for its variety of foods.
The restaurant B is considered as the best one, in attracting the teenage and college going people by its appearance, ambience and the kind of foods served and service delivered. As most teenagers are interested in taking non-vegetarian foods, the restaurant management planned to attract with the variety and tasty foods.
Apart, from that the complementary food is also provided especially for the one who stays there. Keeping in mind, the aggressive nature of the teenagers the quick service is provided and tasty food served.
This shows that the restaurant B captures the greater market share of college students when compared to that of the others.
Yes, the newspapers help to reach more number of college students who are in dilemma to choose the best one for their interest and tastes. It is hard to pick the teenager who doesn't go through the newspaper, and this makes the restaurant advertisements to directly reach the potential consumers.

Question 3

Discuss the role of promotion in the marketing mix. Promotion is communication by marketers that informs, persuades, and reminds potential buyers of a product in order to influence an opinion or elicit a response. Promotional strategy is the plan for using the elements of promotion-advertising, public relations, sales promotion, and personal selling-to meet the firm's overall objectives and marketing goals. Based on these objectives, the elements of the promotional strategy become a coordinated promotion plan. The promotion plan then becomes an integral part of the total marketing strategy for reaching the target market along with product, distribution, and price.
1.1 What is a promotional strategy? Explain the concept of a competitive advantage in relation to promotional strategy.

Answer 3

The company's overall marketing objective is to sell the product at the right place and at the right price. This objective is achieved by the company through effective promotion of its products in the market.
Promotion is a way through which companies communicate about its products to the potential buyers in the market. There are various promotional strategies like advertisement, sales promotion etc. which persuades and convince the potential consumers to purchase its product.
Thus, promotion plays a very important role in attaining the marketing objective of the company. All the information about the product and its usage is given by the company through its promotion which influences the potential customers to purchase that product.
1.A promotional strategy is the action plan of the company to communicate information about its product among the target buyers in the market. There are four promotional strategies which are used by the company to achieve its overall marketing goals.
These are advertising, sales promotion, public relations and personal selling.All these strategies are used in an optimum manner to convince the customer about the company's product in the target market.
The concept of competitive advantage is to attain edge over other competitors for its products in the eyes of target consumers. This concept aims at displaying the unique features of the product which makes it superior to that of competitor's product.
Such a concept creates a perception in the target market that the products of the company will provide something extra and better than the products of the competitor. The unique features can relate to the better quality of the product, cheaper prices, faster delivery or something which will provide extra value to the target customer.

Question 4

Identify the major types of advertising. Advertising is any form of impersonal, paid communication in which the sponsor or company is identified. The two major types of advertising are institutional advertising and product advertising. Institutional advertising is not product oriented; rather, its purpose is to foster a positive company image among the general public, investment community, customers, and employees. Product advertising is designed mainly to promote goods and services, and it is classified into three main categories: pioneering, competitive, and comparative. A product's place in the product life cycle is a major determinant of the type of advertising used to promote it.
9.1 At what stage in a product's life cycle are pioneering, competitive, and comparative advertising most likely to occur? Give a current example of each type of advertising.

Question 5

You have undoubtedly heard of Vans. The company has sold footwear, apparel, and extreme sports equipment for over 40 years using the distinct tagline, "Off the Wall." The company's founder wanted to control his own retail channel, so he transformed his manufacturing company into a marketing company. Always carefully protecting its unique brand image, Vans has crafted successful marketing messages and promotions that resonate with the youth culture that represents the company's target market. This video examines the carefully planned strategy that Vans developed to create loyalty in a fickle niche market.
What does Steve mean when he refers to tours and events as "planting seeds?"

Question 6

Discuss the creative decisions in developing an advertising campaign. Before any creative work can begin on an advertising campaign, it is important to determine what goals or objectives the advertising should achieve. The objectives of a specific advertising campaign often depend on the overall corporate objectives and the product being advertised. Once objectives have been defined, creative work can begin on the advertising campaign. Creative decisions include identifying the product's benefits, developing possible advertising appeals, evaluating and selecting the advertising appeals, executing the advertising message, and evaluating the effectiveness of the campaign.
10.1 What is an advertising appeal? Give some examples of advertising appeals you have observed recently in the media.
10.2 Design a full-page magazine advertisement for a new brand of soft drink. The name of the new drink and its package design are at your discretion. On a separate sheet, specify the benefits stressed or appeals made in the advertisement.

Question 7

When prominent occult film bloggers and fans began receiving strange letters written in dead languages and mailed in wax-sealed black envelopes, a shockwave of curiosity and excitement rippled through the horror-film fandom. A legion of bloggers and message-board posters set to work translating the letters from languages like Babylonian and Ugaritic into English, discovering that the missives led them to a mysterious and macabre Web site featuring an image of a seductive lady vampire. The site advertised a beverage called TruBlood-a synthetic blood developed by the Japanese, which vampires could drink as an alternative to feeding on humans. As visitors explored the site, they discovered short webisodes for the then-upcoming HBO television series which incorporates the TruBlood beverage into its storyline.
The letters and Web site were developed as part of a viral marketing campaign by HBO and Campfire Media, an independent agency founded by two of the creators of the successful 1999 film The Blair Witch Project. Viral marketing is the propagation of brand or product awareness through pre existing social networks, using unconventional media, with the hope that the campaign spreads as a cultural phenomenon. In addition to the letters, Campfire established a fictional blog and MySpace pages written by characters from the show, launched a human-vampire dating service, advertised TruBlood on vending machines, and strategically leaked tidbits of information and multimedia about the show. Campfire employees closely monitored popular horror blogs and message boards in order to gauge and encourage public interest, as well as orchestrate the release of new materials.
The campaign was an incredible, if somewhat subversive success-not only did Campfire generate momentous interest in the show, but a number of individuals actually tried to locate a TruBlood distributor. "We didn't mean to dupe people," said Zach Enterlin, HBO's vice president of advertising and promotions. "We just wanted a campaign that breaks through and resonates a little bit. It's a testament to how true to form the ads are. Some people aren't paying close attention." Viral marketing campaigns are ideal for shows like True Blood, whose fans fervently share and discuss ideas within Internet communities. In addition, as it's based on the popular Sookie Stackhouse series of books by Charlaine Harris, True Blood came with an avid built-in fan base of those already familiar with the story.
Viral marketing has been a successful part of many advertising campaigns, such as those of 2008 films Cloverfield and The Dark Knight.
Cloverfield, a film in which gargantuan monsters rampage through New York City, is captured on handheld video cameras. It was introduced to viewers through an untitled, unexplained teaser trailer that played before 2007's Transformers movie. As speculation mounted, Cloverfield marketers unveiled a number of enigmatic Web sites, as well as a tie-in campaign for the fictional Slusho! beverage and a Japanese drilling company, both of which play a part in Cloverfield's mythology.
In May of 2007, 42 Entertainment began a viral campaign for The Dark Knight, a sequel to 2005's Batman Begins. The campaign focused on the film's antagonists: a Web site titled "I believe in Harvey Dent" was created as an advertisement for district attorney candidate Harvey Dent (played by Aaron Eckhart), as was a site titled "I Believe in Harvey Dent Too," a defiled version of the former which slowly revealed the first image of The Joker (played by Heath Ledger) as visitors sent e-mails through the site. The Joker's catchphrase "Why so serious?" spread virally on the Internet, and was used as the URL of a Web site that sent visitors on a Joker-themed scavenger hunt.
As True Blood's premier drew near, HBO and Campfire turned to less obtuse, if still unorthodox, methods of advertisement. A prequel comic book about an elder vampire and the development of True Blood was handed out for free at 2008's San Diego Comic-Con, the largest pop cultural convention in the world. The first episode of True Blood was distributed on DVD for free to thousands of moviegoers at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival, and was made available for rental from Blockbuster Video several days before it aired on television.
True Blood premiered on HBO on September 7, 2008-six months after Campfire's subtle marketing campaign began. According to Nielsen Co., the first three-quarters of 2008 saw HBO's viewership drop by nearly 23 percent compared to the previous year. However, thanks to interest in new shows such as True Blood, HBO saw a 2.4 percent increase in fourth-quarter viewership compared to 2007. Without question, the success of True Blood is due in part to the novel marketing developed by Campfire Media.
Q. What was the initial promotional mix of the True Blood campaign, and how might it suggest an observance of IMC?

Question 8

Describe media evaluation and selection techniques. Media evaluation and selection make up a crucial step in the advertising campaign process. Major types of advertising media include newspapers, magazines, radio, television, outdoor advertising such as billboards and bus panels, and the Internet. Recent trends in advertising media include video shopping carts, computer screen savers, cinema and DVD advertising, cell phones, and videogames. Promotion managers choose the advertising campaign's media mix on the basis of the following variables: cost per contact, reach, frequency, characteristics of the target audience, flexibility of the medium, noise level, and the life span of the medium. After choosing the media mix, a media schedule designates when the advertisement will appear and the specific vehicles it will appear in.
11.1 What are the advantages of radio advertising? Why is radio expanding as an advertising medium?
11.2 You are the advertising manager of a sailing magazine, and one of your biggest potential advertisers has questioned your rates. Write the firm a letter explaining why you believe your audience selectivity is worth the extra expense for advertisers.
11.3 Identify an appropriate media mix for the following products:
a. Chewing tobacco
b. People magazine
c. Weed-Eaters
d. Foot odor killers
e. "Drink responsibly" campaigns by beer brewers
11.4 How easy is it to find out about advertising options on the Internet? Go to LookSmart's and Yahoo!'s advertiser pages ( www.looksmart.com/aboutus/ media and www.yahoo.com/info/advertising ). What kind of information do they require from you? Send an e-mail requesting information and compare what you receive.

Question 9

An important concept in promotion is semiotics, or the study of meaning and meaning-producing events. An understanding of semiotics can help you not only to identify objects (denotation) but also to grasp the utility of images and associations (connotation). By manipulating connotations of objects in advertising, you can create, change, or reinforce images for products. Thus, semiotics is a powerful tool for brand management and promotion.
Activities
1. Make a list of ten images and associations that come to mind for each of the following items: baseball, vinyl record album, spoon, rubber band.
2. Look through magazines and see if you can find print advertisements that include each of the items (baseball, vinyl record album, spoon, rubber band) in a supporting role. What seems to be the message of each ad? How does the item help create or reinforce an image for the product being sold in the ad?
3. Think of an everyday object of your own. What are its likely connotations? For example, a dog in a car might signal a family vehicle, but a dog also connotes loyalty, "man's best friend," and dependability. What images and associations are likely with your item? Make a list of as many as you can.
4. Now use your object and list of associations to create an image for another product. Think of the likely connotations your object will have for a certain target market and how such connotations can support a brand image. For example, if your everyday object is a candle, you might choose lingerie for your product, based on a candle's romantic connotations.

Question 10

Integrated Marketing Solutions is a consumer-products marketing services firm. Currently, the firm is handling the launch of a new book for one of its publishing clients. The campaign includes advance review copies for key book reviewers, "Coming Soon" posters for booksellers, an author book-signing tour, and several television interviews. Everything has been produced and scheduled for release next week. Today, Jane Kershaw, the account executive, has learned that although the book received numerous favorable reviews, the review quoted on all of the promotional materials is fabricated.
What does the AMA Code of Ethics say about accuracy in promotional materials? Go to www.marketingpower.com and review the code. Then, write a brief paragraph describing how the AMA Code of Ethics relates to this issue.

Question 11

Describe the communication process. The communication process has several steps. When an individual or organization has a message it wishes to convey to a target audience, it encodes that message using language and symbols familiar to the intended receiver and sends the message through a channel of communication. Noise in the transmission channel distorts the source's intended message. Reception occurs if the message falls within the receiver's frame of reference. The receiver decodes the message and usually provides feedback to the source. Normally, feedback is direct for interpersonal communication and indirect for mass communication.
2.1 Why is understanding the target market a crucial aspect of the communication process?

Question 12

You have undoubtedly heard of Vans. The company has sold footwear, apparel, and extreme sports equipment for over 40 years using the distinct tagline, "Off the Wall." The company's founder wanted to control his own retail channel, so he transformed his manufacturing company into a marketing company. Always carefully protecting its unique brand image, Vans has crafted successful marketing messages and promotions that resonate with the youth culture that represents the company's target market. This video examines the carefully planned strategy that Vans developed to create loyalty in a fickle niche market.
Describe Vans' pyramid strategy. How does it protect the brand?

Question 13

When prominent occult film bloggers and fans began receiving strange letters written in dead languages and mailed in wax-sealed black envelopes, a shockwave of curiosity and excitement rippled through the horror-film fandom. A legion of bloggers and message-board posters set to work translating the letters from languages like Babylonian and Ugaritic into English, discovering that the missives led them to a mysterious and macabre Web site featuring an image of a seductive lady vampire. The site advertised a beverage called TruBlood-a synthetic blood developed by the Japanese, which vampires could drink as an alternative to feeding on humans. As visitors explored the site, they discovered short webisodes for the then-upcoming HBO television series which incorporates the TruBlood beverage into its storyline.
The letters and Web site were developed as part of a viral marketing campaign by HBO and Campfire Media, an independent agency founded by two of the creators of the successful 1999 film The Blair Witch Project. Viral marketing is the propagation of brand or product awareness through pre existing social networks, using unconventional media, with the hope that the campaign spreads as a cultural phenomenon. In addition to the letters, Campfire established a fictional blog and MySpace pages written by characters from the show, launched a human-vampire dating service, advertised TruBlood on vending machines, and strategically leaked tidbits of information and multimedia about the show. Campfire employees closely monitored popular horror blogs and message boards in order to gauge and encourage public interest, as well as orchestrate the release of new materials.
The campaign was an incredible, if somewhat subversive success-not only did Campfire generate momentous interest in the show, but a number of individuals actually tried to locate a TruBlood distributor. "We didn't mean to dupe people," said Zach Enterlin, HBO's vice president of advertising and promotions. "We just wanted a campaign that breaks through and resonates a little bit. It's a testament to how true to form the ads are. Some people aren't paying close attention." Viral marketing campaigns are ideal for shows like True Blood, whose fans fervently share and discuss ideas within Internet communities. In addition, as it's based on the popular Sookie Stackhouse series of books by Charlaine Harris, True Blood came with an avid built-in fan base of those already familiar with the story.
Viral marketing has been a successful part of many advertising campaigns, such as those of 2008 films Cloverfield and The Dark Knight.
Cloverfield, a film in which gargantuan monsters rampage through New York City, is captured on handheld video cameras. It was introduced to viewers through an untitled, unexplained teaser trailer that played before 2007's Transformers movie. As speculation mounted, Cloverfield marketers unveiled a number of enigmatic Web sites, as well as a tie-in campaign for the fictional Slusho! beverage and a Japanese drilling company, both of which play a part in Cloverfield's mythology.
In May of 2007, 42 Entertainment began a viral campaign for The Dark Knight, a sequel to 2005's Batman Begins. The campaign focused on the film's antagonists: a Web site titled "I believe in Harvey Dent" was created as an advertisement for district attorney candidate Harvey Dent (played by Aaron Eckhart), as was a site titled "I Believe in Harvey Dent Too," a defiled version of the former which slowly revealed the first image of The Joker (played by Heath Ledger) as visitors sent e-mails through the site. The Joker's catchphrase "Why so serious?" spread virally on the Internet, and was used as the URL of a Web site that sent visitors on a Joker-themed scavenger hunt.
As True Blood's premier drew near, HBO and Campfire turned to less obtuse, if still unorthodox, methods of advertisement. A prequel comic book about an elder vampire and the development of True Blood was handed out for free at 2008's San Diego Comic-Con, the largest pop cultural convention in the world. The first episode of True Blood was distributed on DVD for free to thousands of moviegoers at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival, and was made available for rental from Blockbuster Video several days before it aired on television.
True Blood premiered on HBO on September 7, 2008-six months after Campfire's subtle marketing campaign began. According to Nielsen Co., the first three-quarters of 2008 saw HBO's viewership drop by nearly 23 percent compared to the previous year. However, thanks to interest in new shows such as True Blood, HBO saw a 2.4 percent increase in fourth-quarter viewership compared to 2007. Without question, the success of True Blood is due in part to the novel marketing developed by Campfire Media.
Q. Did Cloverfield use a push or pull promotional strategy? What about The Dark Knight ? Explain.

Question 14

Explain the goals of promotion. The fundamental goals of promotion are to induce, modify, or reinforce behavior by informing, persuading, and reminding. Informative promotion explains a good's or service's purpose and benefits. Promotion that informs the consumer is typically used to increase demand for a general product category or to introduce a new good or service. Persuasive promotion is designed to stimulate a purchase or an action. Promotion that persuades the consumer to buy is essential during the growth stage of the product life cycle, when competition becomes fierce. Reminder promotion is used to keep the product and brand name in the public's mind. Promotions that remind are generally used during the maturity stage of the product life cycle.
3.1 Why might a marketing manager choose to promote his or her product using persuasion? Give some current examples of persuasive promotion.
3.2 Choose a partner from class and go together to interview the owners or managers of several small businesses in your city. Ask them what their promotional objectives are and why. Are they trying to inform, persuade, or remind customers to do business with them? Also determine whether they believe they have an awareness problem or whether they need to persuade customers to come to them instead of to competitors. Ask them to list the characteristics of their primary market, the strengths and weaknesses of their direct competitors, and how they are positioning their store to compete. Prepare a report to present in class summarizing your findings.

Question 15

You have undoubtedly heard of Vans. The company has sold footwear, apparel, and extreme sports equipment for over 40 years using the distinct tagline, "Off the Wall." The company's founder wanted to control his own retail channel, so he transformed his manufacturing company into a marketing company. Always carefully protecting its unique brand image, Vans has crafted successful marketing messages and promotions that resonate with the youth culture that represents the company's target market. This video examines the carefully planned strategy that Vans developed to create loyalty in a fickle niche market.
How does Steve's hands-on approach to events and promotion benefit the company?

Question 16

When prominent occult film bloggers and fans began receiving strange letters written in dead languages and mailed in wax-sealed black envelopes, a shockwave of curiosity and excitement rippled through the horror-film fandom. A legion of bloggers and message-board posters set to work translating the letters from languages like Babylonian and Ugaritic into English, discovering that the missives led them to a mysterious and macabre Web site featuring an image of a seductive lady vampire. The site advertised a beverage called TruBlood-a synthetic blood developed by the Japanese, which vampires could drink as an alternative to feeding on humans. As visitors explored the site, they discovered short webisodes for the then-upcoming HBO television series which incorporates the TruBlood beverage into its storyline.
The letters and Web site were developed as part of a viral marketing campaign by HBO and Campfire Media, an independent agency founded by two of the creators of the successful 1999 film The Blair Witch Project. Viral marketing is the propagation of brand or product awareness through pre existing social networks, using unconventional media, with the hope that the campaign spreads as a cultural phenomenon. In addition to the letters, Campfire established a fictional blog and MySpace pages written by characters from the show, launched a human-vampire dating service, advertised TruBlood on vending machines, and strategically leaked tidbits of information and multimedia about the show. Campfire employees closely monitored popular horror blogs and message boards in order to gauge and encourage public interest, as well as orchestrate the release of new materials.
The campaign was an incredible, if somewhat subversive success-not only did Campfire generate momentous interest in the show, but a number of individuals actually tried to locate a TruBlood distributor. "We didn't mean to dupe people," said Zach Enterlin, HBO's vice president of advertising and promotions. "We just wanted a campaign that breaks through and resonates a little bit. It's a testament to how true to form the ads are. Some people aren't paying close attention." Viral marketing campaigns are ideal for shows like True Blood, whose fans fervently share and discuss ideas within Internet communities. In addition, as it's based on the popular Sookie Stackhouse series of books by Charlaine Harris, True Blood came with an avid built-in fan base of those already familiar with the story.
Viral marketing has been a successful part of many advertising campaigns, such as those of 2008 films Cloverfield and The Dark Knight.
Cloverfield, a film in which gargantuan monsters rampage through New York City, is captured on handheld video cameras. It was introduced to viewers through an untitled, unexplained teaser trailer that played before 2007's Transformers movie. As speculation mounted, Cloverfield marketers unveiled a number of enigmatic Web sites, as well as a tie-in campaign for the fictional Slusho! beverage and a Japanese drilling company, both of which play a part in Cloverfield's mythology.
In May of 2007, 42 Entertainment began a viral campaign for The Dark Knight, a sequel to 2005's Batman Begins. The campaign focused on the film's antagonists: a Web site titled "I believe in Harvey Dent" was created as an advertisement for district attorney candidate Harvey Dent (played by Aaron Eckhart), as was a site titled "I Believe in Harvey Dent Too," a defiled version of the former which slowly revealed the first image of The Joker (played by Heath Ledger) as visitors sent e-mails through the site. The Joker's catchphrase "Why so serious?" spread virally on the Internet, and was used as the URL of a Web site that sent visitors on a Joker-themed scavenger hunt.
As True Blood's premier drew near, HBO and Campfire turned to less obtuse, if still unorthodox, methods of advertisement. A prequel comic book about an elder vampire and the development of True Blood was handed out for free at 2008's San Diego Comic-Con, the largest pop cultural convention in the world. The first episode of True Blood was distributed on DVD for free to thousands of moviegoers at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival, and was made available for rental from Blockbuster Video several days before it aired on television.
True Blood premiered on HBO on September 7, 2008-six months after Campfire's subtle marketing campaign began. According to Nielsen Co., the first three-quarters of 2008 saw HBO's viewership drop by nearly 23 percent compared to the previous year. However, thanks to interest in new shows such as True Blood, HBO saw a 2.4 percent increase in fourth-quarter viewership compared to 2007. Without question, the success of True Blood is due in part to the novel marketing developed by Campfire Media.
Q. Why did True Blood shift its promotional mix as its premier neared? Was this a good or a bad strategy? Explain.

Question 17

You have undoubtedly heard of Vans. The company has sold footwear, apparel, and extreme sports equipment for over 40 years using the distinct tagline, "Off the Wall." The company's founder wanted to control his own retail channel, so he transformed his manufacturing company into a marketing company. Always carefully protecting its unique brand image, Vans has crafted successful marketing messages and promotions that resonate with the youth culture that represents the company's target market. This video examines the carefully planned strategy that Vans developed to create loyalty in a fickle niche market.
Does Vans use a push or pull strategy to market its apparel? How does Steve feel about the two strategies?

Question 18

Discuss the elements of the promotional mix. The elements of the promotional mix include advertising, public relations, sales promotion, and personal selling.
Advertising is a form of impersonal, one-way mass communication paid for by the source. Public relations is the function of promotion concerned with a firm's public image. Sales promotion is typically used to back up other components of the promotional mix by stimulating immediate demand. Finally, personal selling typically involves direct communication, in person or by telephone; the seller tries to initiate a purchase by informing and persuading one or more potential buyers.
4.1 As the promotional manager for a new line of cosmetics targeted to preteen girls, you have been assigned the task of deciding which promotional mix elements-advertising, public relations, sales promotion, and personal selling-should be used in promoting it. Your budget for promoting the preteen cosmetics line is limited. Write a promotional plan explaining your choice of promotional mix elements given the nature of the product, the stage in the product life cycle, the target market characteristics, the type of buying decision, available funds, and the use of a pull or push strategy.

Question 19

When prominent occult film bloggers and fans began receiving strange letters written in dead languages and mailed in wax-sealed black envelopes, a shockwave of curiosity and excitement rippled through the horror-film fandom. A legion of bloggers and message-board posters set to work translating the letters from languages like Babylonian and Ugaritic into English, discovering that the missives led them to a mysterious and macabre Web site featuring an image of a seductive lady vampire. The site advertised a beverage called TruBlood-a synthetic blood developed by the Japanese, which vampires could drink as an alternative to feeding on humans. As visitors explored the site, they discovered short webisodes for the then-upcoming HBO television series which incorporates the TruBlood beverage into its storyline.
The letters and Web site were developed as part of a viral marketing campaign by HBO and Campfire Media, an independent agency founded by two of the creators of the successful 1999 film The Blair Witch Project. Viral marketing is the propagation of brand or product awareness through pre existing social networks, using unconventional media, with the hope that the campaign spreads as a cultural phenomenon. In addition to the letters, Campfire established a fictional blog and MySpace pages written by characters from the show, launched a human-vampire dating service, advertised TruBlood on vending machines, and strategically leaked tidbits of information and multimedia about the show. Campfire employees closely monitored popular horror blogs and message boards in order to gauge and encourage public interest, as well as orchestrate the release of new materials.
The campaign was an incredible, if somewhat subversive success-not only did Campfire generate momentous interest in the show, but a number of individuals actually tried to locate a TruBlood distributor. "We didn't mean to dupe people," said Zach Enterlin, HBO's vice president of advertising and promotions. "We just wanted a campaign that breaks through and resonates a little bit. It's a testament to how true to form the ads are. Some people aren't paying close attention." Viral marketing campaigns are ideal for shows like True Blood, whose fans fervently share and discuss ideas within Internet communities. In addition, as it's based on the popular Sookie Stackhouse series of books by Charlaine Harris, True Blood came with an avid built-in fan base of those already familiar with the story.
Viral marketing has been a successful part of many advertising campaigns, such as those of 2008 films Cloverfield and The Dark Knight.
Cloverfield, a film in which gargantuan monsters rampage through New York City, is captured on handheld video cameras. It was introduced to viewers through an untitled, unexplained teaser trailer that played before 2007's Transformers movie. As speculation mounted, Cloverfield marketers unveiled a number of enigmatic Web sites, as well as a tie-in campaign for the fictional Slusho! beverage and a Japanese drilling company, both of which play a part in Cloverfield's mythology.
In May of 2007, 42 Entertainment began a viral campaign for The Dark Knight, a sequel to 2005's Batman Begins. The campaign focused on the film's antagonists: a Web site titled "I believe in Harvey Dent" was created as an advertisement for district attorney candidate Harvey Dent (played by Aaron Eckhart), as was a site titled "I Believe in Harvey Dent Too," a defiled version of the former which slowly revealed the first image of The Joker (played by Heath Ledger) as visitors sent e-mails through the site. The Joker's catchphrase "Why so serious?" spread virally on the Internet, and was used as the URL of a Web site that sent visitors on a Joker-themed scavenger hunt.
As True Blood's premier drew near, HBO and Campfire turned to less obtuse, if still unorthodox, methods of advertisement. A prequel comic book about an elder vampire and the development of True Blood was handed out for free at 2008's San Diego Comic-Con, the largest pop cultural convention in the world. The first episode of True Blood was distributed on DVD for free to thousands of moviegoers at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival, and was made available for rental from Blockbuster Video several days before it aired on television.
True Blood premiered on HBO on September 7, 2008-six months after Campfire's subtle marketing campaign began. According to Nielsen Co., the first three-quarters of 2008 saw HBO's viewership drop by nearly 23 percent compared to the previous year. However, thanks to interest in new shows such as True Blood, HBO saw a 2.4 percent increase in fourth-quarter viewership compared to 2007. Without question, the success of True Blood is due in part to the novel marketing developed by Campfire Media.
Q.What is the communication process for viral marketing? Is it different from conventional marketing? How so?

Question 20

Discuss the AIDA concept and its relationship to the promotional mix. The AIDA model outlines the four basic stages in the purchase decision-making process, which are initiated and propelled by promotional activities: (1) attention, (2) interest, (3) desire, and (4) action. The components of the promotional mix have varying levels of influence at each stage of the AIDA model. Advertising is a good tool for increasing awareness and knowledge of a good or service. Sales promotion is effective when consumers are at the purchase stage of the decisionmaking process. Personal selling is most effective in developing customer interest and desire.
5.1 Discuss the AIDA concept. How do these different stages of consumer involvement affect the promotional mix?
5.2 How does a Web site's ease of use affect its ability to create attention, interest, desire, and action? Visit the kitchen and bath pages of Kohler's Web site (www.kohler.com), and determine how successful the company is at moving consumers through the AIDA process.

Question 21

Many people are not aware of the rationale behind certain advertising messages. "Why do Infiniti ads show rocks and trees instead of automobiles?" "If car safety is so important, why do automobile ads often show cars skidding on wet, shiny surfaces?" "Target's ads are funky, with all the bright colors and product packaging, but what's the message?"
One way to understand the vagaries of the encoding process is to think of the popular board game Taboo by Hasbro. In this game, each team tries to get its members to guess a word without using obvious word clues. For example, to get the team to guess "apple," you may not say such words as red, fruit, pie, cider, or core. Sometimes advertising is like Taboo in that advertisers are not allowed to use certain words or descriptions. For example, pharmaceutical companies are not permitted to make certain claims or to say what a drug treats unless the ad also mentions the potential side effects. Language choices are also limited in advertising. To appreciate this, you can apply the Taboo game rules in an advertising format.
1. Select a product from the list below, and then create a print advertisement or a television storyboard for that product. As part of the exercise, give your product a brand name. Taboo words, visuals, and concepts are given for each product type. Taboo items cannot be present in your work.

2. Now create a second ad or storyboard for your product. This time, however, you must use all the words, visuals, and concepts that are listed in the right column.

Question 22

Discuss the concept of integrated marketing communications. Integrated marketing communications is the careful coordination of all promotional messages for a product or service to ensure the consistency of messages at every contact point where a company meets the consumer-advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, public relations, as well as direct marketing, packaging, and other forms of communication. Marketing managers carefully coordinate all promotional activities to ensure that consumers see and hear one message. Integrated marketing communications has received more attention in recent years due to the proliferation of media choices, the fragmentation of mass markets into more segmented niches, and the decrease in advertising spending in favor of promotional techniques that generate an immediate sales response.
6.1 Discuss the importance of integrated marketing communications. Give some current examples of companies that are and are not practicing IMC.
6.2 What do you think is the role of Hallmark's Web site (www.hallmark.com) in the company's integrated marketing communications plan? What seems to be the marketing function of the site? Do you think the site is effective?

Question 23

Integrated Marketing Solutions is a consumer-products marketing services firm. Currently, the firm is handling the launch of a new book for one of its publishing clients. The campaign includes advance review copies for key book reviewers, "Coming Soon" posters for booksellers, an author book-signing tour, and several television interviews. Everything has been produced and scheduled for release next week. Today, Jane Kershaw, the account executive, has learned that although the book received numerous favorable reviews, the review quoted on all of the promotional materials is fabricated.
What should Jane do? Why?

Question 24

Describe the factors that affect the promotional mix. Promotion managers consider many factors when creating promotional mixes. These factors include the nature of the product, product life-cycle stage, target market characteristics, the type of buying decision involved, availability of funds, and feasibility of push or pull strategies. Because most business products tend to be custom-tailored to the buyer's exact specifications, the marketing manager may choose a promotional mix that relies more heavily on personal selling. On the other hand, consumer products are generally mass produced and lend themselves more to mass promotional efforts such as advertising and sales promotion. As products move through different stages of the product life cycle, marketers will choose to use different promotional elements. For example, advertising is emphasized more in the introductory stage of the product life cycle than in the decline stage. Characteristics of the target market, such as geographic location of potential buyers and brand loyalty, influence the promotional mix as does whether the buying decision is complex or routine. The amount of funds a firm has to allocate to promotion may also help determine the promotional mix. Small firms with limited funds may rely more heavily on public relations, whereas larger firms may be able to afford broadcast or print advertising. Last, if a firm uses a push strategy to promote the product or service, the marketing manager may choose to use aggressive advertising and personal selling to wholesalers and retailers. If a pull strategy is chosen, then the manager often relies on aggressive mass promotion, such as advertising and sales promotion, to stimulate consumer demand.
7.1 Explain the difference between a "pull" and a "push" promotional strategy. Under what conditions should each strategy be used?
7.2 Use Radioguide ( www.radioguide.fm ) to find a listing of radio Web sites in your area. View several of the stations' sites and compare the promotions featured. What conclusions can you draw about the target market of each station based on the types of promotions they are currently running? Would any of the promotions entice you to tune to a station that you normally don't listen to?
7.3 Visit www.teenresearch.com. What research can this company offer about the size and growth of the teen market, the buying power of teenagers, and their buying habits? Why might these statistics be important to a company targeting teenagers in terms of marketing communications and promotion strategy?