PBL trigger 6

1.    Compare different marketing communication planning models: what are the stages?

2, 2    Discuss the different stages of the marketing communication planning process.

SOSTAC Model

n this methodology, the objectives are divided into broad strategic goals that incorporate specific KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). In daily practice, however, the KPIs can only be determined when the target audience, the proposition and positioning choices are known. Also essential is determining what tools and marketing techniques will be used. There are differences in the strategic and operational plans that Smith’s SOSTAC® does not distinguish between.

Topics in a strategic plan are general. Performing an analysis, determining objectives, targeting a group, determining direction by means of a strategy, setting a budget, determining the implementation and the manner of establishing control.

At an operational level are the topics: analysis, strategy, concept, implementation, and evaluation. There are basic similarities in terminology between strategic and operationally oriented plans. However, the level of abstraction determines the content and meaning of the term. In a communications plan, the term "strategy" is in the concept phase. The explanation of the term strategy here is whether we are going to employ humor or product comparison in our communication tool. The term strategy in a marketing plan means, for example, the choice to position new products in existing markets.

The differences between the operational and the strategic plans are:

1.   Specifically naming targets. With a strategic plan objectives are explicitly mentioned as a phase, but not in an operational plan.

2.   Explicitly name a target group.

3.   The strategy step is of a different order in a strategic plan than in an operational plan. The determination of a strategy is the direction taken in order to achieve the goal. For example, a strategic plan involves the direction in which the company is going. The strategy in an operational plan involves the choices of which communications tools are being used.

4.   In a strategic plan, management of the plan is called "control", while in an operational plan it becomes "evaluation".

There are 2 disadvantages to the SOSTAC model

Firstly, the determination of the problem must be considered a given and not a part of the methodology. It is precisely the problem framing the direction and the size of the solution.

The second disadvantage of existing methods is that it can be used in strategic planning but not in an operational plan is setting goals or objectives. Determining the goals in an operational plan will take place after analyzing the situation/environment and not before.

The PASTA method

In daily practice, the SOSTAC® method is not workable in developing an operational plan, as described above. The logical process is interrupted by first setting goals and then the strategy. On a strategic level, this is obvious. For example, a company's objective is to grow in market share, but it must make a strategic choice: Innovate? Buy another company? Or just obtain more market share?

In an operational plan, objectives are part of the strategy. And the SOSTAC® method is not practical because problem recognition is not an explicit part of the method.

The PASTA method can be used to develop an operational plan (see Figure 3): Problem definition - Analysis - Strategy - Tactics - Action (PASTA)

Problem Definition

First, there must be a clear definition of the problem: Which goal does the client want to achieve? What issues are involved? What strategic objectives underlie the development of a plan?

There must be knowledge about the organization, product or service. But also knowledge about what the client is really asking for. When an organization indicates low brand recognition, it is justified in asking more questions to seek out the reason why.

Analysis

The second step is to analyze the market and the environment in which the organization or the product exists. To create an operational plan, there must first be an examination of the organization, consumers or customers, the product (supply) and competition.

This consists of both internal and external analysis. For internal analysis it is important to ask questions such as:

·         What is the organization?

·         Who does what?

·         What problems does the organization have?

·         What is the organization's volume of sales, customers, calls and web traffic?

·         What are the company's strengths?

·         How does the public identify with the organization or the product?

·         What are the tangible and intangible values of the product (value proposition)?

The external analyses are more extensive. Most of the information will come from desk research or existing and available information within the organization. Questions to be answered are:

·         How is the market within which the organization operates defined?

·         How many consumers use the product? What is the market size?

·         Who are the customers or users?

·         What interest groups are important?

·         What is the consumer behavior?

·         What does the decision-making process regarding the product look like?

·         Who are the competitors?

·         How do the competitors act online?

·         Which search engine is important?

·         How do referrers act?

·         Which online actors are important?

·         Who could be an online partner?

·         What are the major blogs on the subject?

 Strategy

The term "strategy" is comprehensive and confusing. It should be regarded within the context of an operational plan. The term "concept" can also be used in place of strategy. The development of a strategy or concept within an operational plan consists of four modules, which are interdependent. These building blocks are: target group, objectives, proposition, and positioning.

Target Group

·         Which consumer segment is important?

·         How is the target group defined?

·         What are the needs of the target group?

·         To what extent is the target group involved in the product? What about the Decision Making Unit (DMU)?

·         What are advantages the target group is looking for?

·         What is important to the product for the target group?

·         Which media is the target audience using?

·         Who are involving partners?

·         How is the target group normally informed?

·         What is the target group reading?

·         What are the communications tools and channels they are looking at?

The better the target group is known, the better the strategy that can be worked out. Many questions can be answered using desk research. Discussions and interviews with members of the audience or an observation of the target group can also provide a lot of information.

A description can be made by creating a Customer Profile[2], which consist of the "Customer Jobs" (description of what the customers want to achieve in daily life), "Customer Gains" (description of the results that customers want to reach and the concrete benefits they want to see) and "Customer Pains" (description of the negative outcome, risks and barriers that are related to the job).

Objectives

What should the campaign achieve? Marketing/communications objectives can be broadly divided into three categories: "Reach" goals, "Process" goals and "Effectiveness" goals. The Reach goal of communicating is to reach the target groups in an effective and efficient way. For this purpose a good segmentation and audience definition are needed, as well as insights into the media behavior of the desired segments.

Process goals are conditions which should be established before any communications can be effective. All communications should capture the attention of the target group, then appeal or be appreciated, and be processed (remembered).

The third type of goals are the Effectiveness goals. They are the most important, since Reach goals only assure sufficient exposure, and Process goals only ensure enough processing of the message to make the Effectiveness goals possible. An Effectiveness goal is a behavior goal: Buy, download, registration etc. An Effectiveness goal is the ultimate goal: to enter into a long-term relationship or obtain a growth in market share.

Positioning

"Positioning" is the creation of a distinctive position relative to the competitors in the perception of the consumer. When an organization wants to determine positioning, it is important to have done a good competitive analysis.

An organization can choose an informational Positioning focusing on the functional attributes and benefits of the product: the product is the best solution, or the price is most favorable, or the delivery terms are the best. There can also be choice of a transformational Positioning. That responds to the needs of the customers to purchase a product. When products have many similarities, the transformational Positioning can provide a good solution. For example, values such as "sociability" and "convenience" are being used. When using a two-sided Positioning, there are functional aspects which are connected to the values and needs of the customer.

That responds to the needs of the customers to purchase a product. When products have many similarities, the transformational Positioning can provide a good solution. For example, values such as "sociability" and "convenience" are being used. When using a two-sided Positioning, there are functional aspects which are connected to the values and needs of the customer.

Proposition

If the target group is known and Positioning is determined and it is clear what needs to be achieved, then a central message and values (Proposition) can be determined. The Proposition is the aggregate offer which can be separated into product, price, distribution (which channel?) and the communicative value of the offer. The value Proposition is shaped by the visible and invisible benefits to the consumer.

The Proposition is a bundle of products and services that represent value for customers. In the Value Proposition Design (Osterwalder et al, 2014), the Proposition is formed by a list of "Products and Services", the "Gain Creators" (description of how the offer creates advantage for customers), and "Pain Relievers" (description of how the offer alleviates specific customer pains).

The value Proposition is shaped by the visible and invisible benefits to the consumer. The Proposition is a bundle of products and services that represent value for customers. In the Value Proposition Design (Osterwalder et al, 2014), the Proposition is formed by a list of "Products and Services", the "Gain Creators" (description of how the offer creates advantage for customers), and "Pain Relievers" (description of how the offer alleviates specific customer pains).

Tactics

The next step is to determine which devices, tools, and techniques are to be used. What communication tools and devices (channels) are used to achieve the goal? The channels are the traditional channels such as print (newspapers and magazines) and television, augmented by digital devices (desktop, laptop, tablet and especially the smartphone with internet access).

The tools are the traditional instruments such as advertising, sales promotions (brand activation[3]), direct mail and retail promotion, augmented by typical Internet tools such as the website, the app, email-marketing, bannering and mobile marketing.

The techniques[4] are specific and unique to the internet, such as search engine marketing (traceability), behavioral targeting (communications offering based on the behavior of the user), and affiliate marketing ("sellers" are rewarded based on units sold). Within the Tactics phase, devices and tools and techniques are to be weighed to determine which can be used to achieve the target within the strategy.

Action

Once all the tools and resources have been established, the content for the tools is to be developed to actually carry out the messages. The ads (e.g. AdWords) must be created, the e-mail campaign must be designed, the website should be developed, etc., etc. This step is about creating a schedule, determining a budget and designating people.

·         Time: Making a timetable

·         Money: How can the budget be used? Which channels must be chosen for exposure?

·         People: Who has the expertise to design a tool? Is the developing outsourced?

Examples include a keyword plan, a content plan for social media, sites for link-building and a planning schedule.

Source: http://www.smartinsights.com/managing-digital-marketing/planning-budgeting/marketing-cdommunications-planning-using-pasta-model/

MCPF Model

which provides a visual guide within elements. The process starts from the external agencies which make a marketing research for the company. The marketing communication plan can be based on the gathered information. Which steps must be followed to form a marketing communications plan.

When comparing the three models, you can see that all models are focused on forming strategies and tactics. These are the most important aspects off all three models.  Source: https://theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/2618/Laitinen_Jenni-Mari.pdf?sequence=1

3    What are the characteristics of a successful marketing communication plan or campaign?

1. The Better You Know Your Audience, the Better You (& Your Team) Can Appeal to their Interests

All successful marketing efforts begin with a thorough understanding of your audience. Start by analyzing your current clients and why they chose your products or services. Don't have enough data to get the full picture? Put a research plan in place to help fill in any gaps relating to demographics, purchase patterns and other insights into when, where, why and how people purchase your products.

2. Uncover Your Unique Selling Proposition

Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is the main benefit that, when communicated effectively, drives sales of your product or service. It focuses on a unique problem that you solve better than anyone else. Your USP must be compelling and strong enough to move people to act. Your USP will be central to all of your marketing communications, so don't take this step lightly.

3. Sharpen Your Brand Look and Feel

From logos to business cards and marketing collateral, your brand must speak to the customer in a contemporary, relevant manner. It needs to support your operational USP and accurately represent your market position – don't mislead your audience by creating a marquee brand if you're aiming to be a low-cost option. Be honest, sincere and true to the heart of your business.

4. Ensure that All Messaging is Consistent

While most people think of logo and stationary when it comes to branding, your brand voice is equally important. A good place to start is to generate a few key positioning statements to feature in your communications. Start with a tagline, single sentence version and then a standard short paragraph. Try spooling out a handful of key messages (up to 5) that your company should be communicating (note that they cannot all be in all places). Outline key descriptive words to use and not use, and make sure that your new messaging standards are adhered to in all future communications.

5. Choose Your Marketing Mix

With all of the recent advancements in online marketing, there are more ways to communicate than ever before. Every industry and brand is unique, so there is no standard marketing mix that will work for everyone. The key is to understand your options, and choose a media mix that fits your audience (where do they spend their time / attention), budget and marketing communications goals.

6. Establish Marcom Success Measurements (Metrics)

Whatever the medium and message, ensure that your communications are measurable. Whether it's email open rates, social media exposure or direct mail response rates, establish key communications goals and put systems in place to chart your success. Tie this data in with sales metrics to get a true sense of what's working and what's not.

7. Manage Leads and Client Data

You know your audience, you've built your brand and you've told your story. People are interested – now what? A CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system is a database of your contacts (customers, prospects, others) that allows you to organize information (contact info, records, files, calls, emails, etc) to streamline and scale sales and marketing processes. This will help you better understand how clients move through the sales funnel and help you close more leads.

Successful marketing communications efforts are much more than a shot in the dark. Each of these seven steps needs to be explored to the fullest in order to gain the greatest return on investment possible.

Source: http://www.6pmarketing.com/articles/branding-science/72-marketing-strategy/359-7-steps-to-develop-an-effective-marketing-communications-strategy

4    Discuss the marketing communication planning of a chosen company.

#5 Coca-Cola - Coca-Cola Life

Recently, Coca-Cola launched a new product to its long standing line of soft drinks, called 'Coca-Cola Life' along with a month long campaign. Coca-Cola Life fits in the same kind of category as Coke Zero and Diet Coke - another one of Coca-Cola’s attempts to release a healthier option to its main heavily sugary product.

The campaign is being rolled out across 7,000 outdoor locations nationwide with billboards, bus and digital screen ads; these are all being supported by print, digital, experiential and point of sale activity. Although television is not being used the buzz on social media since the drinks’ launch has been mainly positive.

Along with all of the above, Coca-Cola launched a competition - on Saturday 20th September a pop-up shop opened on South Molton Street, London offering customers to not just have a taste of the new Life drink, but also give them a chance of winning a Coca-Cola Life prize - one of those being a long weekend in New York City. Of course, to fulfil the campaign’s integrated position those who were not able to visit the pop-up shop still had the chance to enter the competition by sharing a Coca-Cola Life moment picture online and using the hashtags #CocaColaLife and #comp.

The product is yet to be proven as a success, but as a campaign it’s fulfilling every specification to be a great integrated marketing campaign.

There’s a few lessons that can be learned from these integrated marketing case studies; one of those being that it doesn’t matter if you mix up the media within your campaign, in fact it’s largely positive, you just have to ensure that there is brand consistency across the entire roll out.

The way in which the message is communicated can also alter the effectiveness of the campaign, as can choosing which media should be at the forefront or the driving factor behind your strategy. It can all become a difficult balance to get right but it’s crucial that you do get it right.

PBL Trigger 5

What is IMC and what does it mean for a company to follow IMC (is it a strategic or an operational tool)? Who are in charge of IMC?

Definition of Integrated Marketing Communications according to the business dictionary :

An approach to achieving the objectives of a marketing campaign, through a well-coordinated use of different promotional methods that are intended to reinforce each other. As defined by the American Association of Advertising Agencies, integrated marketing communications " ... recognizes the value of a comprehensive plan that evaluates the strategic roles of a variety of communication disciplines advertising, public relations, personal selling, and sales promotion and combines them to provide clarity, consistency, and maximum communication impact."

Source: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/integrated-marketing-communications-IMC.html

According to the West Virginia University :

Simply, IMC attempts to unify all pieces of marketing communications, including, advertising, public relations, direct marketing, social media and sales promotion. It is designed to create messaging that is consistent across all channels. 

According to Angeles Navarro, Maria Sicilia and Elena Delgado-Ballester in their article Integrated Marketing Communications, Effects of advertising-sponsorship strategic consistency.

When a company  follows IMC it means that they need to have  strategic consistency. Strategic consistency refers to the extent to which information conveyed by different communications options share meaning

Paul Turner’s article: Implementing integrated marketing communications through major event ambassadors

For IMC to be implemented successfully, a number of issues need to be considered.

Planning of campaigns must be considered holistically, employees must be given new skills

and staff in the organisation need to understand the contribution each communication

element can make and understand how these elements affect the communication process

.

I think IMC is a strategic tool instead of an operational tool because IMC is setting the global strategy of what message all of your different marketing channels will communicate with the public. Each different marketing channel wil use a different operational approach to communicate with the public.

There are 4 stages of IMC as described in the model above.

 The first stage in the progression towards integrated marketing communications approach inside a company is a simple coordination across specialist areas, where they agree upon the use of a standard logo, a company slogan, corporate colors, and a general message.

It is likely that various areas of marketing communication – advertising, direct marketing, sales, online and social media, and public relations – still act quite independently, yet a similar look and feel and message.

Each of these functional areas would have their own goals and targets to achieve. For example, the advertising function might seek to improve brand awareness, the direct marketing area may be focused upon sales conversion rates, the public relations area might be measured upon earned media, and so on.

Despite these areas using a similar approach of message and brand elements, they still generally act independently and are not strategically integrated to achieve an overall goal.

Source : Advertising and Promotion written by Belch and Belch

in the second stage towards integrated marketing communications, the company starts to consider a broader set of touch points than its main communication tools (several of which were mentioned above).

In the first stage, the company is mainly concentrating upon the main communication tools. Second phase is when the company considers how and where a potential or current customer can become exposed or engaged with the brand.

For a company to effectively understand this range of potential interactions and exposures (brand contact or brand touch points) may become a little bit more research based and consider how consumers in different target markets end up becoming customers of their brands. Therefore, the company tries to look at the brand through the eyes of a consumer.

So in this stage, the company might consider email contact, interaction with staff, sponsorships, unplanned media attention, competitive comparisons, information and comparison websites, retail sales people, after sales service contacts, signage on buildings, staff uniforms, word-of-mouth, and so on -as all possibly being part of their customer’s journey towards or away from the brand.

The third stage is really trying to integrate the overall communications approach, as achieved in stages one and two, across the knowledge and practices of the organization. To do this, greater use of data and information is generated and shared across their distribution channels, even extending to their retailer and supplier partners.

Probably the best example of this would be in the banking sector, where the banking customer databases allow them to track each customer’s progression – either towards or away from using the company and certain products.

Obviously the goal is usually to increase share of customer in this progression can be identified relatively easily with today’s technology tools in a bank. Therefore, over time, with the use of information, a bank can get very effective about understanding and even predicting the customer’s behaviour when they come into contact with various marketing communications.

Part of this knowledge is built through market testing and experiments, where different communication mediums and messages and combinations are tested on a small scale before being ramped up and exposed to larger numbers of customers. Therefore, we end up with a relatively scientific approach to marketing communications.

The final stage really reflects that the overall marketing function inside a large company becomes strategically and financially integrated. The starting point for all marketing communications is essentially driven by the top-level strategic plan, which then feeds down to the marketing strategy and plan, which is then effectively executed through the marketing mix elements, including marketing communications.

Contrast this to the first stage listed above, there are various marketing communication specialists act relatively independently to achieve their own targets and KPI’s.

At this level of the final stage, not only are all the improvements from the previous three stages being implemented, but the organization becomes very financially and marketing metric driven in terms of its overall marketing communications. This would mean it would look at the ROI, for example, of increasing brand awareness by 5 percentage points – and work out what impact that has over time trial rates and brand loyalty and therefore bottom line impact.

This becomes increasingly challenging when companies have multiple target markets to pursue the need to consider a range of strategic initiatives. As pointed out earlier in the article, only explore percentage of organizations truly operate at the fourth stage of the model.

 

 

1.    What are the roles of the company and the different agencies
    (such as marketing/ brand/ communication/ advertising/media/research agencies) ?

The role of the different agencies is to give the client company advice on how to use the IMC strategy. When a client company struggles with implemting strategies or doing the right market research, they can hire the following agencies to help them with problems.

Marketing agencies :  marketing firm will plan out and implement a company’s marketing strategy. They often do market research and optimize sales letters. The goal of a marketing firm is to enhance the sales and profits of a company by not only providing more exposure but also by providing targeted exposure, which means reaching potential customers who are likely to be interested in the product or service being offered.

Source : https://www.balcomagency.com/blog/what-does-marketing-agency-actually-do

Source : https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-a-marketing-firm-4017678

Brand agencies : A branding agency will support your brand, by developing an understanding of your business, clarifying your goals and objectives and communicating this in the right way to the right audience. From this information they will help provide a strategy to grow your brand and provide you with the right toolkit to embed your brand purpose, values, promises, positioning, and identity into your organisation.

Source: http://www.thebrandingjournal.com/2016/06/what-is-a-branding-agency/

Advertising agency : Firm that (1) creates new promotional ideas, (2) designs print, radio, television, and internet advertisements, (3) books advertisement space and time, (4) plans and conducts advertising campaigns, (5) commissions research and surveys, and (6) provides other such services that help a client in entering and succeeding in a chosen market. In general, advertising agencies are not deemed agents of the advertisers, because they act as principals for the services they buy on behalf of their clients.

Source:  http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/advertising-agency.html

Communication agency : A communications firm helps companies hone and communicate their message, better reaching the target market for their products and services. In the case of this company, SpeakWell Communications, we focus almost exclusively on online communications.

Source: http://www.speakwellcommunications.com/what-the-is-a-communications-firm/

Media agency: a company that advises companies on how and where to advertise and on how to present a positive picture of themselves to the public

Source: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/media-agency?a=business-english

Research agency: A company offering market research services to clients, comprising a group of researchers and an administrative infrastructure. An agency may offer qualitative research, quantitative research, or both, increasingly supplemented by consultancy services, workshop facilitation and so on. Agencies vary in size from one or two individuals to several hundred people, though qualitative specialist agencies tend to be at the smaller end of this range.

Source : https://www.aqr.org.uk/glossary/market-research-agency

(golden triangle plaatje)

2.    How does/should the client company follow IMC? What are the roles of its different agencies?

I found three approaches to IMC

Inside-out approach

The inside-out approach focusess more on the company’s own capabilities and strengths

Outside-in approach

The Outside in strategy focusses on costumer value, focused on creating high calibre costumer value

Cross functional approach

The cross functional approach tries to combine the inside-out and outside-in approaches together to form strategy that takes care of the company’s internal and external stakeholders.

Source : https://brandmatters.com.au/blog/outside-in-and-inside-out-strategy

Schultz book called : imc the next generation

Gives 5 steps on how to start with implementing IMC into a company

1.        Identifying customers & prospects

2.       Valuation of customers/ prospects

3.       Creating & delivering messages and incentives

4.       Estimating return on customer investment

5.       Budgeting, allocation, and evaluation

Advertisements

Ahmad Kareh wrote an article about 7 steps to better intergrate IMC into a company’s strategy

Source : https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2017/03/16/seven-steps-to-a-better-integrated-marketing-communications-strategy/#70af4b867841

Step 1: identify campaign goals and potential limitations

Step 2: Define the target audience

Step 3: Gain some insight

Make a SWOT analysis from the perspective of your target audience

Step 4: Understand your competition and identify your competitive edge

Step 5: Get creative

Brainstrom a lot of new ideas

Step 6: Check your big idea

Does your idea appeal to your audience and fit your strategy

Step 7 : Communicate

Define how you want to communicate your idea through the different mediums.