Basic Marketing: A Global Managerial Approach

Perreault−McCarthy: Basic
Marketing: A
Global−Managerial
Approach, 14/e

14. Promotion −
    Introduction to Integrated
    Marketing
    Communications

Text © The McGraw−Hill

Companies, 2002

Promotion_Introduction to Integrated Marketing Communications 397

wholesale distributor. In addition, because of differences in outlook and experience,

the advertising, sales, and sales promotion managers often have trouble working

with each other as partners. Too often they just view other promotion methods as

using up budget money they want.

The marketing manager must weigh the pros and cons of the various promotion

methods, then devise an effective promotion blend—fitting in the various depart-

ments and personalities and coordinating their efforts. Then the advertising, sales,

and sales promotion managers should develop the details consistent with what the

marketing manager wants to accomplish.

Effective blending of all of the firm’s promotion efforts should produce

integrated marketing communications—the intentional coordination of every

communication from a firm to a target customer to convey a consistent and com-

plete message.

The PT Cruiser case at the start of this chapter is a good example of integrated

marketing communications. Different promotion methods handle different parts of

the job. Yet the methods are coordinated so that the sum is greater than the parts.

The separate messages are complementary, but also consistent.

Send a consistent and

complete message

with integrated

marketing

communications

Internet

Internet Exercise Sony produces a very wide variety of products. Does the

information available on its website (www.sony.com) appear to be part of an

integrated marketing communications effort? Explain your thinking.

It seems obvious that a firm’s different communications to a target market

should be consistent. However, when a number of different people are working

on different promotion elements, they are likely to see the same big picture only

if a marketing manager ensures that it happens. Getting consistency is harder

when different firms in the distribution channel handle different aspects of the

promotion effort. Different channel members may have conflicting objectives—

especially if they don’t have a common focus on the customer at the end of the

channel.

To get effective coordination, everyone involved with the promotion effort must

clearly understand the plan for the overall marketing strategy. They all need to

understand how each promotion method will contribute to achieve specific promo-

tion objectives.^4

Which Methods to Use Depends on Promotion Objectives

The different promotion methods are all different forms of communication. But

good marketing managers aren’t interested in just communicating. They want com-

munication that encourages customers to choose a specificproduct. They know that

if they have a better offering, informed customers are more likely to buy. Therefore,

they’re interested in (1) reinforcing present attitudes or relationships that might lead

to favorable behavior or (2) actually changing the attitudes and behavior of the

firm’s target market.

In terms of demand curves, promotion may help the firm make its present

demand curve more inelastic, or shift the demand curve to the right, or both.

These possibilities are shown in Exhibit 14-3. The buyer behavior model intro-

duced in Chapter 6 showed the many influences on buying behavior. You saw

there that affecting buyer behavior is a tough job—but that is exactly the objec-

tive of Promotion.

Overall objective is to

affect behavior