Core Concepts of Marketing by John Burnett - HTML preview

CHAPTER 8

COMMUNICATING TO MASS MARKETS

American Express card (the heart of the company's business) rang

nearly $80 billion

in purchases in nearly 60 million separate transactions, making it the card most used by

Americans.

Much of the credit for success must go

manner in which American Express

has taken big ideas and converted them into major marketing programs. The process

begins with "the hunt." Big ideas can be found anywhere, by anyone-and everybody

keeps an eye peeled. The "Interesting

idea, for example, was buried deep in the

copy of a new "women's" ad campaign, developed by their agency Ogilvy and Mather.

Since the campaign began in 1983, the number of new card members who

women

has jumped from 29% to more than 50%. Moreover, nmes Walsh, "Big ideas make us

unstoppable because they take the high ground. There's no way to counteract big ideas

without imitating them."

American Express has a very unstnictured corporate environment. Consequently,

every big idea needs a "champion"-someone who can charge ahead with the big idea

with a minimum of restraint. Champions are allowed a free rein because management

trusts their top people. Failure's no big deal at American Express. Marketing research

doesn't drive the business-instinct does.

Since there are always four or five big ideas competing against each other, "bat-

tles" are inevitable. In the case of the American

Platinum Card, the fights were

particularly brutal. In meeting after heated meeting, opposing sides battled over the

name, the price, the look of the card, etc. The champion of each idea openly battled each

other. There are some

though .

one attacks anyone personally. Everyone's

friends the minute the battle is over. And absolutely no politics.

In the end, Walsh's idea may not win. His big idea has some formidable foes who

think it is simply too soft of a sell. Walsh is far from defeat. He's constantly drumming

up support and making subtle changes in the ads themselves. Even if

idea isn't

selected this time, he won't stop fighting.

idea may retire briefly, but it won't die .

change it a little here, a little there, and, before you know it, it'll be reincarnated,"

says Walsh. "You don't win by wimping out."

Sources: Mark Padden. "Amex 's Blue Card Needs More Than Good Looks 10 Succeed," Future I . 1999.

p. 52 : "Advanced Cards 101: What Makes Them So Smart and So Secure?" Canadian Business, August 7. 2000, p. 15; "Mag ic Promotes Amex Blue Busi ness Card," Business and Induslry, Vol. 2000, No. 95 , May 17, 2000, p. 1; Michael Dumiak, "Adver·

tising

Amex Unrivaled in Advenising Spending," Financial Service Marketing . Vol. 2.

May 15 , 2000. p. 8.

INTRODUCTION

The case example clearly points to one of the most difficult problems facing marketers. How

can a marketer clearly and effectively communicate the story (message) in a society that is

so overcommunicated that the typical consumer is both overwhelmed with the vast num-

ber of messages and annoyed at the thousands of messages that have no relevance what-

soever to that person 's needs and wants? The amount of sameness, and the amount of

communication clutter is so excessive, that the approach employed by American Express

appears to be the only answer. Yet, as we have noted throughout this text, the needs and

capabilities of marketers vary, and not all marketers are blessed with a creative genius like

THE ROLE OF IMe

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Jerry Walsh.

do all marketers require a multimillion dollar national advertising cam-

paign in order to reach objectives. All marketers, however, must learn to communicate their

strategy to their target market.

The concept of Integrated Marketing Communication (IMe) is offered as a general

framework, which can be employed by marketers in order to design a comprehensive and

effective program of communication. It acknowledges the inherent differences between mar-

keters and builds upon the reality that "every company is cast in the role of communica-

tor." Ultimately, it is the choice of each company whether this communication process will

be performed in a haphazard, unplanned way, or whether it will be guided by stated objec-

tives and implemented through effective strategies.

This chapter introduces the concept of IMC, a framework for organizing the persua-

sive communication efforts of the business. Because of its visibility, many consumers feel

that they already know a great deal about IMC, or at least about advel1ising. Most hold either

a somewhat positive or negative attitude toward advertising, aggressive salespeople, coupons,

and so forth. This is a case when a little bit of information can be a dangerous thing.

This chapter also provides a discussion of four of the IMC mix elements-advertising,

sales prom')tion, public relations, and personal selling. We begin our discussion with an

explanation of the role IMC plays in the marketing strategy.

THE ROLE OF IMe

The heart of every transactional exchange is communication between parties . The buyer

seeks certain basic information about product features, price, quality, support service, rep-

utation of the seller, and so forth. All this information is intended to assess how close each

alternative is to meeting desired needs and wants. We seek information to reduce possible

risk associated with the transaction. Presumably, the more solid the information we have,

the more secure we feel in our decision. The seller also desires information. The seller wants

to know whether you qualify as a buyer (i. e. , do you reall y need the product and can you

pay for it), which product

are important to you, what other choices you are con-

sidering, are you ready to buy, how much do you know about my product, and so forth.

Therefore, all the parties enter a transaction with a whole set of questions they want answers

to. Some of these questions are quite explicit: "How much does it cost?" Others are qu ite vague and may almost be subconscious: "Will this product make me feel better about myself?"

All these decisions relate to the marketer's ability to integrate marketing comm unications

(IMe).

The primary role of !MC is to systematically evaluate the communication needs and

wants of the buyer and, based on that information, design a communication strategy that

will (1) provide answers to primary questions of the target audience, (2) facilitate the cus-

ability to make correct decisions, and (3) increase the probability that the choice

they make most often will be the brand of the information provider, i.e. , the sponsor or mar-

keter.1 Marketers know that if they learn to ful fill this role, a lasting relationship wi th the customer can be established.

Primary Tasks

If the marketer is to consistently and effectively communicate with consumers, three pre-

liminary tasks must be acknOWledged and achieved. First, there must be a mechanism for

collecting, storing, analyzing, and disseminating relevant infornlatio n. This includes infor-

mation about customers (past, present, potential), competitors, the environment, trends in

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