Integrated Advertising Promotion and Marketing Communications - Case Study Example

Introduction Marketing for a service requires great understanding of the consumer mind-set. It means having a firm understanding about how s feel; their motivations, their perceptions and preferences. It requires a profound understanding of their attitudes, their knowledge and their emotions. Consumer behaviour is influenced by their culture and belief and results in the emotional outcome that guides their decisions. Beliefs are developed over a period of time and are a product of customs and practices of a community or group developed as a result of religious, cultural or ethical values. Marketing Marketing is all about understanding the customers and of finding ways and means to for providing product or service as per his requirements (Sandhusen 2000). Marketing is a highly misunderstood word. It is not tactics or methods of getting customers to buy a company’s product or services. That is advertisement or promotions. It is a conscious effort to analyze and understand what is needed and trying to fulfill this need. Marketing is about understanding the stakeholders. It is highly relevant to investigate what each stakeholder contributes in terms of the product, quality, service deliveries and pricing. Marketing is also about knowledge of your own company and its capability of delivering a product or service and managing its resources and competencies in that direction. But above all, Marketing is all about customers. Their behavior and attitude towards buying a product is of paramount importance. Their needs and wants and their likes and dislikes are decisive factors and purchase decisions depend on these issues. It is the understanding of these factors that will develop a marketing strategy. Therefore Marketing is all about understanding the customers and of finding ways and means to for providing product or service as per his requirements. Marketers have adopted a variety of means to persuade customers, foremost among them being advertisement, promotion, publicity and public relations. However unless a proper commutation channel is established the efforts will go in vain. Communications Advertising and promotions both need effective communication to produce successful results. Kotler et al (1996) have pointed out persuasive communication is designed to stimulate a pre-defined response from consumers and advertisers use this ploy to gain advantage over susceptible consumers. This can be done using various methods like “mass media advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, direct mail and point-of-sale merchandising” (Kitchen 1999). Latest addition in their arsenal is provided by technological advances that have brought forth electronic and digital media, the internet, mobile devices etc., (Crosier 1999) and all of them offer another platform that is interactive communications (Pavlou & Stewart 2000). Communication has therefore become an important tool for sending across the message from the advertisers and usually it is cleverly executed through use of several mediums. According to Crosier (1999) integrated marketing communications is now considered the underlying principle of success in the marketplace. The earlier method of communication was addressed to passive audiences hence it was staid and results were largely predictable (Barry & Howard 1990). The targeted consumers were passive and could be influenced into purchasing the products (Lannon & Cooper 1983). Communication therefore plays a vital role in advertising to consumers as the means to pass on information to the customer. However it has been stated by Clow et al (1997) that the intangible nature of service also prompts the consumers to seek information. This is communications in reverse and often seen in cases like that of the Royal Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) where the consumers search for an answer to their dilemma. The Communication Process There are several characteristics of communication; starting from the message to the eventual delivery. They have to be packaged together for best results. Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) means that all the key products and messages, positioning, image, and identity of the organisation are synchronised for maximum effect (Lindel, 1997). Keller (2001) further suggests that there are several ways that a product or service can be projected and communicated to the intended consumer. Fill (2001) has stated that to be effective, communications necessarily involves all stakeholders including the employees. As a result when employees are equally involved it results in providing excellent service and support to the consumer (Clow and Baack 2004). It has therefore been observed later by Clow and Baack (2007) that direct communications with the consumers actually addresses the psychological issue of the customers. In other words this is how the emotions are effected and changes take place in their attitudes. Communications therefore is method of the meaningful conveyance of the message; and IMC is only mode for the success of advertisements. It can be said that IMC is a bridge builder between the organisation and the consumer. The RSPCA Case Study RSPCA is a voluntary body that has been built around the need to protect animals from all kinds of cruelty at the hand of humans. The animal life form may be a lower one yet it too demands the love and care of humankind. The Society was formed by animal lovers who want to bring all into its fold so that a proper and caring environment is provided to all kinds of animals, whether pets or otherwise. This message has to be communicated to the general public as well to arouse the humane feelings that are often found lacking. It assumes greater importance when animals are harshly treated and need the care and love of those who care. The advertisements have to be more emotional in content to be effective. The message and service offered by RSPCA has to be conveyed through advertisements and the above theories apply well in this case too. The basic purpose of an advertisement is to arouse the equanimity of the emotional state of the mind. Cutler and Javalgi (1993) have propounded that service advertisements often use transformational appeals in place of informational appeals to change the min-set of the consumers. Emotional advertising is therefore a subject of growing interest because of its potential for increasing the effectiveness of marketing communications Emotions in advertisements may communicate hedonic benefits and enhance attention to the effort. Emotional responses aroused within viewers have been found to affect consumers reactions to them and actually enhance attention to the advertisement. Indeed emotions can change the beliefs of consumers. Predominantly, emotion is always going to play some part in terms of influencing and motivating the communication process that will convert the odd glance to interest and then encourage action. There is need to understand how emotions effect the human mind. There are two distinct manifestations of emotions; Emotional Flow and Emotional Integration. Emotional flow is clearly understood as the extent to which emotions shown in a commercial are supposed to change their nature and/or intensity during the course of the commercial. Thorson (1991) identified a variable called emotional flow which represented not what was portrayed in the advertisement but rather what viewers felt in response to it. Emotional flow was indicated by changes in the valence and intensity of emotions experienced by the consumers while watching a commercial. Thorson found that the intensity of consumers emotional responses influenced attention, brand liking, and learning. The next step is Emotional integration which is defined as the extent to which the advertisement links between the brand, on the one hand, and the emotional responses of the ads characters on the other. In advertisements for which emotional integration is high, the brand is perceived as a causal agent to the characters emotions in it. For example there is high emotional integration when in an RSPCA advertisement the characters experience an emotional benefit or outcome from its messages. Emotional integration is a relatively new thought in advertising and was recently introduced to the advertising literature by MacInnis and Stayman (1993). The potential for this idea is strong, as they found that commercials varied widely in the level of emotional integration they exhibited. They also found that high emotional integration influenced feeling responses, perceptions of the relevance and attitudes, particularly in ads using negative appeals. Emotional flow and emotional integration may also affect intentions by means of their effects on understanding, relevance, and brand image. Emotional integration which unequivocally demonstrates the emotional benefits that accrue from product use that these induces a vivid trial experience which helps consumers understand what the usage of the service will be like. Assuming the experience is favourable; it indicates future support the consumer will receive from use of this service. Consistent with these ideas, Puto and Wells (1984) propose that empathy strongly influences ad persuasiveness and choice behaviour by converting the viewers experiences of using or appreciating the service. Bagozzi and Moore (1994) have also shown that empathy is related to consumer action. Recommendations The RSPCA needs a new makeover in communications. The new age consumer has developed different attitudes towards services. Persuasion is now used as a method of getting across to customers and this is directed more generally towards segmented sections based on age, education and ethnicity rather than social class. Extensive use is made of the Elaborate Likelihood Model and this theory provides the most efficient way to persuade the targeted segment for producing an attitude change. However communication of the message is vital for audience response. There are basically two ways of forcing changes in attitudes; and these are the two routes to persuasion. One is the Central Route and the other is the Peripheral Route. Petty and Cacioppo (1981) have defined Central route to be one that looks at attitude that has developed as a result of issue related arguments. This means that this attitude is well thought out and has encompassed all possible views on the subject. Usually this attitude is also rather rigid and not changeable as it has already considered alternatives. Elaboration or explanations tend to impact attitude changes. In such cases careful evaluation of the content of the message is made through the central route to test the strength of the arguments and attempts are made to change the mind-set of the customer. If successful, the result is strong change in the attitude. On the other hand the Peripheral route is subject to change based on either positive or negative attitudes. When the views have not become unyielding or rigid they are likely to be either for or against. However these are triggered by some event or phrase/word or activity that sets off this attitude. Here the message is less important but the assault is on motivation and emotions of the consumer. If successful, the result is a change in attitude, but since it is a play on sentiments, it is comparatively weak. The central route fabricates a major positive attitude change, while the peripheral route uses six different signals or cues to draw a quick response with a slight shift in attitude. Both routes involve message elaboration. The central route is used to examine ideas, wrap up their merit and consider possible consequences. The peripheral route is used to offer a quick accept or reject judgment without going into the depth of the matter. These cues relate to reciprocation, consistency, social proof, liking, authority and scarcity. These six cues automatically lead a person to the peripheral route. By character ELM is a scientific theory that portrays people as reactors to a motivation. It provides a platform for making a desired reaction or assists in making attitude change possible.  Indeed it is a fairly accurate model of how attitude changes are achieved and it also shows the difficulty in producing a major or long-term attitude change. The theory clearly and simply explains both routes of persuasion and the ideal circumstances for each. But despite being scientific in approach it is not possible to verify it through the conventional falsification test of true and false. Petty and Cacioppo (1981) conducted studies to arrive at the above conclusions. The study revealed that when perceptions are fixed or rigid, reactions of consumers are predictive. People will react in an identical way in a comparable situation. When perception is flexible or unclear then people look for cues or indicative signs to take a positive or a negative attitude. It is therefore recommended that RSPCA should adopt a more persuasive line in communicating is services and messages in order to garner general support of its humane services. [2045 words] Bibliography Bagozzi, R. P. and D. J. Moore., (1994), "Public Service Advertisements: Emotion and Empathy Guide Prosocial Behavior," Journal of Marketing, v58, pp 56-70 Barry, Thomas E. and Daniel J, Howard., (1990), “A Review and Critique of the Hierarchy of Effects,” International Journal of Advertising 9, 121-135 [Reprinted in Marketing Communications Classics, (2000), Maureen Fitzgerald and David Arnott, London: Business Press, Clow, Kenneth E., and Baack, Donald., (2004), Integrated Advertising, Promotion & Marketing Communications, 2nd Edition, Pearson Prentice Hall, New Jersey, USA. Clow, Kenneth E., and Baack, Donald., (2007), Integrated Advertising, Promotion & Marketing Communications, Prentice Hall, New Jersey, USA. Clow, Kenneth E. 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