Marketing Communications

Chris Fill, Sarah Turnbull

• Publisher: Pearson
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781292235004
• Edition: 8
• Topic: Commerce
• Subtopic: Ventes

The new edition of Marketing Communications delivers a rich blend of theory with examples of contemporary marketing practice. Providing a critical insight into how brands engage audiences, Fill and Turnbull continues to be the definitive marketing communications text for undergraduate and postgraduate students in marketing and related fields.

Theeighth edition, which contains two new chapters, reflects the changing and disruptive world of marketing communications. Throughout the text the impact of digital media and its ability to influence audience, client, and agency experiences, is considered. Each chapter has been extensively revised, with new examples, the latest theoretical insights, and suggested reading materials. Each of the 22 chapters also has a new case study, drawn from brands and agencies from around the world.

Marketing Communications is recognised as the authoritative text for professional courses such as The Chartered Institute of Marketing, and is supported by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising.

Chapter 1Introducing marketing communications

Chapter 2Marketing communications: issues, influences and disruption

Chapter 3Communication: theory and practice

Chapter 4Classical theories and interpretations of buyer behaviour

Chapter 5Contemporary interpretations of buyer behaviour

Chapter 6How does marketing communications work?

Introducing marketing communications

Marketing communications is concerned with the methods, processes, meanings, perceptions and actions that audiences (consumers and organisations) undertake with regard to the presentation, consideration and actions associated with products, services and brands.

Aims and learning objectives

The primary aim of this chapter is to introduce some of the key concepts associated with marketing communications. In addition, readers are encouraged to consider the scope and purpose of marketing communications, and to develop an appreciation of the key characteristics of the communications mix.

The learning objectives are to enable readers to:

1.examine definitions of marketing communications;

2.explore ideas about how engagement underpins the key role of marketing communications;

3.discuss the scope and tasks of marketing communications;

4.consider ways in which the environment can influence the use of marketing communications;

5.understand the nature and configuration of the marketing communications mix.

Introduction

Marketing communications is used to engage audiences. It is a complex activity that is used by organisations with varying degrees of sophistication and success. For example, global brands may develop campaigns to run across multiple territories and in multiple languages, while in contrast, a local firm may produce a one-off radio ad to air on the local radio station.

While organisations may use marketing communications in different ways, to achieve different goals, and to pursue their own marketing and business objectives, engaging audiences is key to the success of any campaign. This book will help you to understand why organisations use marketing communications and how campaigns are developed and implemented, drawing on academic and practitioner views.

The opening sentence contains the word ‘engage’. ‘Engagement’ refers to the nature of the communications that can occur between people, and between people and technology. There is no universally agreed definition of the term ‘engagement’, and it is used in many different contexts. Marketing communications is closely aligned to an educational context and Li et al. (2013) refer to three types of engagement taken from a learning perspective. These are cognitive, relational and behavioural engagement. Cognitive engagement refers to the degree to which individuals are engrossed and intellectually involved in what they are learning (messages). Relational engagement refers to the extent to which individuals feel connected with their environment, while behavioural engagement reflects the extent to which individuals feel involved and participate in activities.

All three of these aspects of engagement can be activated using marketing communications. A range of communication tools are available to first expose, and then sometimes to gain the attention, captivate, and then enable interaction with an audience. It is often achieved through a blend of intellectual and emotional content. Engagement may last seconds, such as the impact of a funny video ad, an emotional TV ad, a witty radio commercial or an interactive billboard. Alternatively, engagement may be protracted and last hours, days, weeks, months or years, such as an exhibition, a festival sponsorship or brand experience.

Viewpoint 1.1

Meet Graham

Image 1.1 Graham was put on display as part of an interactive exhibition

Source: Used with permission from Transport Accident Commission.

Engaging audiences in road safety messages has always been challenging. For more than 25 years the Transport Accident Commission (TAC) in Australia pioneered shock advertising campaigns that had been successful in reducing road accidents. However, audiences had become desensitised to shock messages and accidents were increasing.

To find a way to cut through and engage audiences, TAC developed a unique campaign, ‘Meet Graham’, a direct response campaign featuring ‘Graham’, a sculpture, showing what humans would need to look like to survive a car crash. Developed by an artist in collaboration with a trauma surgeon and a road safety engineer, Graham created a stark visual experience to highlight the inability of the human body to withstand road accidents.

Graham was put on display as part of an interactive exhibition that toured Australia and visitors were invited to experience Graham for themselves using Tango, Google’s augmented reality technology. Bringing audiences face-to-face with Graham allowed them to explore his anatomy and see for themselves what would happen to the body in a crash scenario. To extend the reach of the campaign, TAC developed a visitor website that allowed visitors to explore Graham online in 360 degrees.

Image 1.2 Meet Graham created a new way to engage audiences with road safety

Source: Used with permission from Transport Accident Commission.

Graham created a unique experience that engaged visitors directly with the safety message. The provocative sculpture encouraged interaction and discussion around road safety. More than 287,000 visitors saw Graham close up at the exhibitions and the campaign website saw over 10 million visitors in five days and 1.2 billion global impressions in the first week of launch. Graham was integrated into school curriculums to educate future drivers about road safety.

Graham has engaged audiences not only in Australia, but around the world. By developing a creative campaign that encouraged audiences to experience road safety messages in person and to share online, Graham launched a global conversation.

Meet Graham has won numerous industry awards, including a host of Lions trophies, which are seen as the most coveted awards globally for creative and marketing communications. In 2017, the campaign won two Grand Prix, eight Gold Lions, fifteen Silver Lions and four Bronze Lions.

Sources: Deighton (2018); Graham reaches millions as TAC vulnerability campaign goes global (2016); Meet Graham (2017).

Insight

Meet Graham illustrates how organisations are using marketing communications to engage audiences. Experiential approaches such as this allow audiences to engage in person with the organisation and messages, and extend the Meet Graham illustrates how organisations are using marketing communications to engage audiences. Experiential approaches such as this allow audiences to engage in person with the organisation and messages, and extend the length of engagement. The integration of the campaign online provided additional opportunities to extend the reach and length of the interaction with audiences.

Question:	Using Li et al’s (2013) three types of engagement, consider what types of engagement were achieved by Meet Graham.
Task:	Find examples of three other recent campaigns that have used unique ways to engage with audiences and discuss how the strategy encouraged engagement.

Organisations such as Apple and Google, John Lewis and Aldi, HSBC and Santander, Samsung and Sony, Ryanair and easyJet, Chanel and L’Oréal, Boeing and Airbus, Oxfam and Shelter, and Merlin and Disney all operate across different sectors, markets and countries and use a variety of marketing communications activities to engage with their various audiences. These audiences consist not only of people who buy their products and services but also of people and organisations who might be able to influence them, who might help and support them by providing, for example, labour, finance, manufacturing facilities, distribution outlets and legal advice or who are interested because of their impact on parts of society or the business sector in particular.

The organisations mentioned earlier are all well-known brand names, but there are hundreds of thousands of smaller organisations that also use marketing communications to engage their audiences. Each of these organisations, large or small, is part of a network of companies, suppliers, retailers, wholesalers, value-added resellers, distributors and other retailers, which join together, often freely, so that each can achieve its own goals.

Scholars’ paper 1.1

What does engagement mean?

Hollebeek, L.D. (2011) Demystifying customer brand engagement: exploring the loyalty nexus, Journal of Marketing Management, 27(7–8), 785–807.

Consumer brand engagement is a relatively recent concept and this paper explains the nature of the construct and provides a contemporary definition. The author makes a clear distinction between direct and indirect brand interactions, which are important considerations for marketing communications.

Defining marketing communications

There is no universally agreed definition of marketing communications. This lack of consensus can in part be explained by the vast number of ways marketing communications is used. For example, we see some campaigns using sales promotion and personal selling to drive sales, whereas other marketing communications activity may use sponsorship or public relations to build brand image. The different ways market...