The integration of marketing communications 403
The growth of global marketing
The changes brought about, substantially, by
mass communications have, to some degree,
encouraged the movement towards global mar-
keting. With the recognition that national and
cultural differences are growing ever fewer,
major manufacturers have seized upon the
opportunity to ‘standardize’ their marketing
across different markets.
It is now possible to purchase an ostensibly
similar product with the same name, same
identity and similar product ingredients in
many different markets. From the ubiquitous
Coca-Cola, now available in almost every differ-
ent country, to products like the Mars bar,
manufacturers are seizing the opportunity to
ensure a parity of branding throughout all of the
markets they serve, and to extend the territories
in which they operate. The latter company has
unified its branding of the Marathon bar to
Snickers and Opal Fruits to Starburst to achieve
international parity. Similarly, Unilever recently
consolidated the various names of Jif and Vif
into Cif for the same reasons.
There are few markets (although the prod-
uct contents may well be different) which would
not recognize the Nescaf ́e coffee label or what it
stands for. The big M means McDonald’s in any
language, and Gillette run the same copy
platform for its series range of male shaving
preparations in many different countries.
Non-verbal communications
We have already seen that the emergence of
new media has enabled a more precise focus on
target groups of consumers. But it has also
demanded a new approach to the execution of
marketing communications propositions, par-
ticularly on television.
Increasingly, satellite channels are unrest-
ricted in their availability. The same pro-
grammes can be watched simultaneously in
France and Finland, Germany and Greece. And,
if that is true of the programming, it is equally
true of the advertising contained within. Whilst
programmers have the opportunity to over-
come language and other barriers to commu-
nication within their formats, the same is not so
readily true for the advertiser.
The response has been a growth in the
recognition that visual communication has a
vital role to play in the overall process. Increas-
ing numbers of television commercials are
being made with a pan-European or global
audience in mind. The emphasis is less on the
words being used than the impact of the visual
treatments employed.
Currently, a constant visual treatment is
being utilized by Gillette to support their Series
range of products across diverse markets. Here,
the voice-over is modified to verbalize the
proposition in each marketplace. In fact, the
company has adopted an integrated approach
for their six-year-old campaign embracing
everything the company does. ‘It is a much
more single minded strategic platform for the
brand,’ according to Bruce Cleverly, General
Manager for Gillette Northern Europe, ‘It is the
strategic premise of the entire Gillette grooming
business’.
Other companies have gone considerably
further. The verbal component of the proposi-
tion has been minimized, with the storyline
being developed entirely, or almost so, in visual
form. Television commercials for Dunlop, Levi’s
and Perrier are examples of this approach.Speed of information access
Not only has the growth of information tech-
nology meant that information can be pro-
cessed more rapidly, it has also meant that
access to that information can be made far more
speedily than at any time in the past. This has
significant import for the marketer.
Census information, which was previously
tabulated by hand or on comparatively slow
computers – and which was substantially out of
date by the time it was made available – is now
available within a relatively short period of
time. Marketers can determine with far greater
precision than at any time in the past the likely