How promotion is different from communication and integrated marketing communication?

Introduction

Marketing is a fundamental element that is incorporated as a means of communication between customers and an organisation. The objective of advertisement is to manipulate changes in the behavioural characteristics exhibited by clients. Vital promotion campaigns allow institutions to establish processes through efficient communication that is skewed towards attaining the satisfaction requirements of customers.

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Market analyses, product alternations, business research and other methods are included in policies that aim at improving and sustaining the customers’ utility. More clients reciprocate to increased sales thereby raising the returns on investment of the company. This paper discusses the levels to which emotions are integrated into marketing communication campaigns to drive customers when making decisions on what to purchase.

Integrated marketing communication

Lusch and Vargo (2014) assert that integrated marketing communication entails a holistic approach that aims at ensuring that marketing messages are consistent, and the media is used as a complementary tool. Online channels such as e-marketing programs, podcasts, blogs, search engine optimisation, emails, and pay-per-click among other tools are used when persuading the targeted customers to purchase certain goods and services. On the other hand, Thorson and Moore (2013) note that offline channels, which are deployed in the integrated marketing communication, comprise the traditional print media like magazines and newspapers, billboards, public and industrial relations, and radios.

The four classical elements of marketing mix entail the price, product, promotion, and place. Companies involve a conglomeration of advertising tools, resources, and approaches that align towards an optimum impact of the customers’ emotion and mind-sets while increasing profits and minimising the expenses that accrue from the production process (Yu & Dean 2001). Corporations aim at gaining a competitive edge in the market by presenting their products as the most desirable to cater for the customers’ utility at the best price.

Due to the evolution of the contemporary modern marketing, the role of integrated marketing communication has become essential when attaining the set organisational objectives. O’Shaughnessy and O’Shaughnessy (2004) argue that the communication tools guide the organisation in the identification of viable opportunities that influence the customers’ behaviours directly. As companies thrive in the current economic system, there is a need to gather accurate and detailed information concerning the customers to promote development.

LaTour (2006) posits that accurate and reliable data regarding the customers’ felt needs, attitudes, and motivations are essential elements of integrated marketing communication. Effective customer orientation depends on the establishment of communication pathways using channels that emotionally manipulate the views and opinions of customers towards a given product or service.

Kemp, Kennett-Hensel, and Kees (2013) agree that communication affects customers at different levels of the purchase process as organisations build their image by initiating and maintaining dialogues that nurture healthy customer relationships. Marketing campaigns establish a bond of loyalty among clients thus alienating them from possible onslaughts of competition. Through the efforts of stretching information across multiple delivery tools, the customers get an avenue to become emotionally manipulated when making purchase decisions (Du Plessis 2005). Eventually, skilful linking of messages creates timely updates, thus arousing the customers to buy certain products as promoted in the integrated marketing communication campaign.

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Product characteristics

The perceptions of different clients emanate from the features of a given product. The customers’ mind-sets towards a given product bear a relation to the attributes of the goods and physical appearances. Binet and Carter (2014) note that the product aspects incorporated in the integrated marketing campaign include brand differentiation and images. The customers’ emotions are swayed towards the preference of a given product when the concerned corporation invests more resources in developing the brand image of the same. Since the main aim of business campaigns is to increase sales, branding is essential in creating the confidence that clients trust a given product.

Brand image

The brand image of the organisation helps in attracting more buyers because it arouses as a sense of uniqueness in a particular product or service. Lusch and Vargo (2014) hold that the inner convictions that provoke prospective customers towards purchasing goods and services are borne from the distinction in the logo that different companies choose to define their products. Yeshin (2012) adds that effective marketing campaigns ensure that brand image resonates with the target audience through communicating to them about the improvement of the quality of life that accrues from collaborating with the organisation.

Besides, Lusch and Vargo (2014) note that the brand strategy aids in addressing the customers’ expectations regarding organisational goods through efficient communication that creates a distinction of a company from its competitors. For instance, General Motors sank approximately $3.1 billion in its integrated marketing communications campaigns for the Chevrolet brand. Sales improved as more buyers were attracted to the brand for it was consistently being featured in Disney’s Marvel Studios.

Brand differentiation

Albers-Miller and Stafford (1999) argue that the initiative of brand differentiation is a powerful asset deployed in integrated marketing business campaigns in the contemporary business environment. The promotion efforts must launch different brands that aim at attaining consistency in meeting the customers’ dynamic changes. Other companies can hardly duplicate such brands. Shimp and Andrews (2013) add that through attractive packing that corporations use to distinguish their products from those of the rivals, customers gain more attention, thus increasing the emotional desire to purchase the goods. Integrated marking communication promotes new ideas that help organisations to match their brand image with the prevailing customer needs that keep on fluctuating with time.

The peculiarity of the brand offers innovative services, thus enabling the name of a given brand to gain awareness over a vast scope. During marketing campaigns, brand managers dedicate to ensuring that the formulated strategies incorporate appealing logos and catch lines. Yeshin (2012) argues that since most buyers are highly influenced by what they see, they will tend to gain more desire for well-branded products and services, thus increasing sales.

For instance, Coca-Cola has invested in branding, thus triggering the emotions of prospective customers towards purchasing their products. With time, the customers’ taste, lifestyle, and preferences also change. The Coca Cola’s integrated marketing communication develops proper awareness to prospective customers concerning the product options that match their satisfaction requirements.

Price of products

Price is one of the major elements of the marketing mix, and it influences the customers’ decision during the purchase process (Albers-Miller & Stafford 1999). The pricing system is crucial in shaping the customers’ perceptions during the initial purchase decisions. Percy (2014) holds that active management of customer relationship drives the buyers’ preferences towards choosing products and services with the best prices.

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Pricing ought to be dynamic to suit the customers’ needs. The strategies that organisations deploy during the marketing process must undergo the proper assessment to give the clients’ anticipated value. Consumers are often willing and ready to pay for products and services that offer value for money and meet the quality requirements. Clow and Baack (2014) warn that low pricing may elicit the perception that the product lacks the quality standard requirements while higher prices may scare probable customers, especially when dealing with non-luxurious good.

Most companies assume that prospective clients understand the exact costs attached to specific products, and thus they often compare the prices with the expected value. However, customers deploy irrational choices when making decisions of purchase. Some psychological aspects are responsible for the buyers’ behaviours, and especially the elements correlate with pricing. Egan (2014) postulates that consumers rarely recall the prices that they incurred during their recent purchases, which highlights the inability to make rational buying decisions based on pricing.

However, Yu and Dean (2001) note that the choice to purchase is based on the reference price that customer harbour in their minds. Therefore, integrated marketing communication should invest in understanding the customers’ reference prices to win their preferences during the purchase process.

The promotion program

Advertisements

Integrated business marketing communication cannot emotionally influence the consumers’ drive in making purchase decisions without incorporating effective promotion strategies. According to Yeshin (2012), advertising has a manipulative capability of driving consumers away from their will through persuading them to embrace given products. Motivation is a fundamental component in the advertisement process, and it allows organisations to win the customers’ interests towards approving a given product. Dahlén, Lange, and Smith (2010) agree that through efficient communication measures, most behavioural characteristics exhibited by consumers are emotional.

Advertisers can manipulate consumers using subtle techniques by employing modern psychological skills to win the customers’ choices in buying certain preferred products or services. Clow and Baack (2014) add that other methods of influencing the consumers’ purchase decisions entail the incorporation of amplified expressiveness and impersonality during advertisements.

Personal selling and sales promotions

Personal selling of the company’s products is essential in influencing the emotions of the prospective consumers (Percy 2014). A customer is convinced to buy a given product or service through the personal interactions that are established during the marketing process. Since both parties are in a position to observe the reactions of each other, persuasive communication will allow the market to sway the buyers’ desires. Through personal selling, the clients feel more obligated to purchase after a convincing sales conversation with the marketer.

Furthermore, sales promotions create an avenue for provoking the consumers’ emotions. Coupons, contests, and premiums help in initiating a vibrant relationship and faster feedback. Shimp and Andrews (2013) assert that the benefits offered by promotion are essential in boosting plummeting sales and highlighting product offers. The incentives that are often attached to promotion initiates offer a concession, and they induce useful contributions that add value to prospective consumers. The consumers get the urgency required in engaging in a business transaction with the company thus prompting them to make initial purchases. For instance, Wal-Mart utilises the tactics of online sales promotion by giving incentives to the customers that wish to buy online.

Public relations

Public relations and direct marketing are vital tools used in integrated marketing communication deployed when influencing the consumers’ purchase decisions (Percy 2014). The company can enhance public relations by instilling high credibility, dramatization, and the ability to chat with buyers skilfully. Thorson and Moore (2013) posit that direct marketing must allow interaction between the marketer and the prospective buyer by changing the message depending on the responses that arise in the process. For instance, the Sony Group creates mutual relationships through good publicity policies.

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An image that Sony released with a man smiling towards the camera and wearing a crown of thorns and bearing a message “Ten years of Passion” provoked audiences’ the emotions. Consequently, such visual images influence the purchase choices of future clients after the publicity affects their psychological perceptions and attitudes. Information ought to be updated and customised to appeal to the targeted consumers.

The distribution system

The integrated marketing communication enables marketers to distribute the goods and services directly to the prospective customers. Due to easy availability of products, the customers’ utility is attained thus making them own the product, which leads to inflated sales (Lusch & Vargo 2014). In instances where clients need personalised service, an organisation can utilise a local network by initiating a reseller program that persuades consumers to buy its services. Online purchases can be achieved by establishing an e-commerce website where sales can be made directly to the prospective customers. Percy (2014) posits that the healthy relationship among wholesalers, retailers, agents, consultants, and aspiring buyers is a sound basis that triggers consumers to buy a given commodity.

Conclusion

Integrated marketing communication is essential in manipulating the consumers’ purchase decisions. The option of whether to acquire particular goods or services depends on the customers’ emotions but not their rational capabilities. When increasing the number of purchases, a company can ensure the incorporation of a good brand image and brand differentiation. The pricing strategy must be dynamic to attract the preference of the prospective consumers towards making a purchase. The promotion strategies especially advertisement, sales promotion, and effective public relations are vital tools used in manipulating the customers’ emotions when making purchase decisions. Furthermore, the distribution system should address the clients’ immediate needs, thus prompting them to make order requisitions.

Reference List

Albers-Miller, N & Stafford, M 1999, ‘An international analysis of emotional and rational appeals in services vs goods advertising’, Journal of Consumer Marketing, vol. 16, no.1, pp. 42-57.

Binet, L & Carter, S 2014, Mythbuster: The appeal of reality advertising. Web.

Clow, K & Baack, D 2014, Integrated Advertising, Promotion, & Marketing Communications, Pearson Education Ltd, Essex.

Dahlén, M, Lange, F & Smith, T 2010, Marketing communications: a brand narrative approach, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken.

Du Plessis, E 2005, The advertised mind: groundbreaking insights into how our brains respond to advertising, Kogan Page Publishers, London.

Egan, J 2014, Marketing Communications, Thomson Learning, London.

Kemp, E, Kennett-Hensel, P & Kees, J 2013, ‘Pulling on the heartstrings: Examining the effects of emotions and gender in persuasive appeals’, Journal of Advertising, vol.42, no.1, pp.69-79.

LaTour, M 2006, ‘Retrospective and Prospective Views of ‘Fear Arousal’ in ‘Fear Appeals,’ International Journal of Advertising, vol.25, no.3, pp.409-413.

Lusch, R & Vargo, S 2014, The service-dominant logic of marketing: Dialog, debate, and directions, Routledge, London.

O’Shaughnessy, J & O’Shaughnessy, N 2004, Persuasion in Advertising, Routledge, London.

Percy, L 2014, Strategic integrated marketing communications, Routledge, London.

Shimp, T & Andrews, J 2013, Advertising promotion and other aspects of integrated marketing communications, Cengage Learning, Boston.

Thorson, E & Moore, J 2013, Integrated communication: Synergy of persuasive voices, Psychology Press, Thames.

Yeshin, T 2012, Integrated marketing communications, Routledge, London.

Yu, T & Dean, A 2001, ‘The contribution of emotional satisfaction to consumer loyalty’, International Journal of Service Industry Management, vol.12, no. 3, pp. 234-250.

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