Page 466 - Foundations of Marketing

Integrated Marketing Communications | Chapter 15 433

Figure 15.2 Information Flows Are Important in Integrated Marketing
Communications

Information Integrated
about customers marketing
and marketing communications Customers
environment forces plan

FEEDB A CK

From Pride/Ferrell, Marketing 2014, 17E. 2014 Cengage Learning.

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For example, Procter & Gamble spends about $ 4.6 billion on advertising yearly. Marketers
also indirectly facilitate favorable relationships by focusing information about company activ-
ities and products on interest groups (such as environmental and consumer groups), current
and potential investors, regulatory agencies, and society in general. For instance, some orga-
nizations promote responsible use of products criticized by society, such as tobacco, alcohol,
and violent movies or video games.
Companies sometimes promote programs that help selected groups. For example, Target’s
REDcard generates customer loyalty by allowing you to donate 1 percent of your credit card
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purchases to specific schools. Such cause-related marketing links the purchase of products to
philanthropic efforts for one or more causes. By contributing to causes that its target markets
support, cause-related marketing can help marketers boost sales, increase loyalty, and gener-
ate goodwill.
For maximum benefit from promotional efforts, marketers strive for proper planning,
implementation, coordination, and control of communications. Effective management of inte-
grated marketing communications is based on information about and feedback from customers
and the marketing environment, often obtained from an organization’s marketing information
system (see Figure 15.2 ). How successfully marketers use promotion to maintain positive rela-
tionships depends to some extent on the quantity and quality of information the organization
receives. Because customers derive information and opinions from many different sources,
integrated marketing communications planning also takes into account informal methods of
communication, such as word of mouth and independent information sources on the Internet.
Because promotion is communication that can be managed, we now analyze what this com-
munication is and how it works.
Promotional objectives vary considerably from one organization to another and within
organizations over time. Large firms with multiple promotional programs operating simulta-
neously may have quite varied promotional objectives. For the purpose of analysis, we focus
on the eight promotional objectives shown in Table 15.2 . Although the list is not exhaustive,
one or more of these objectives underlie many promotional programs.

Create Awareness Table 15.2 Possible Objectives of
Promotion
A considerable amount of promotion efforts focus on creating aware-
Create awareness Retain loyal customers
ness. For an organization that is introducing a new product or a line
extension, making customers aware of the product is crucial to initiat-
Stimulate demand Facilitate reseller support
ing the product adoption process. A marketer that has invested heavily
in product development strives to create product awareness quickly to Encourage product Combat competitive
generate revenues to offset the high costs of product development and trial promotional efforts
introduction. Microsoft created awareness about its Windows 8 operat-
ing system months before its official launch. Microsoft allowed soft- Identify prospects Reduce sales fl uctuations
ware developers to have an early version of Windows 8 and unveiled © Cengage Learning

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