Marketing Communications

Citation

Kitchen, P.J. (2002), "Marketing Communications", Qualitative Market Research, Vol. 5 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/qmr.2002.21605bae.003

Marketing Communications

Marketing Communications

Patrick De Pelsmacker, Maggie Geuens and Joeri Van den BergPearson EducationHarlow2001528 pp.ISBN: 0273 638718£29.99Keywords: Marketing, Communications, Case studies, Europe

I would agree with the authors that marketing communications is not only one of the most visible and widely discussed instruments of the marketing mix, with an overwhelming impact on both society and business, it is also one of the most fascinating. This "fascination" has helped create numerous courses and modules on marketing communications at many universities and institutes of further and higher education around the world. Such demand by students has provided the avenue for leading authors in the field to develop their own texts. Just a few years ago the leading, but not the only, text was by Terry Shimp from the University of South Carolina (Shimp, 1998). While his is still the leading and most readable text (in my view), he has since been joined by many other authors (see Kitchen, 1999). The flood of new authors into a sub-discipline of marketing is a sure sign of the needed depth and range of the required textual material in a particular field. This new book constitutes a welcome European addition to the discipline.

The book covers the usual and anticipated areas of marketing communications in detail. These include:

• •

  integrated marketing communications;

• •

  how communications works;

• •

  target groups;

• •

  objectives;

• •

  budgetary considerations;

• •

  media planning;

• •

  advertising research; and finally

• •

  a detailed discussion of each of the marketing communications instruments such as advertising, direct marketing, internet communications, and so forth.

So far, so good. But the "welcome addition" of the book lies in its use of European case studies for every chapter of the text – in other words the direct application of the concepts and tools in a European context. That is useful, simply because so many books utilise either national or global case studies. The cases are, apparently, provided by executives of the leading brand companies concerned including:

• •

  Mercedes-Benz;

• •

  Proctor & Gamble;

• •

  Ericcson;

• •

  Nike Benelux;

• •

  General Motors;

• •

  Unilever; and

• •

  many others.

Or, written with the aid of practitioners assisted by academics in and from European business schools. Moreover, each chapter is well provided with various mini-case vignettes, which are appropriate to the subject under consideration. I found the cases particularly interesting reading. For example Mercedes-Benz (now successful) venture into the compact car class with the "A class". This followed the well-trodden path of new product development. Then came the market research phase:

Pre-tests showed exceptional results for Mercedes, with most positive responses coming from young couples with one or two children, aged 30-45 years, 35 per cent of whom were women. During the launch, test drives won excellent ratings and press comments were very positive in the sense of "never was so small so big", "a subtle revolution", and "a milestone", until the car tipped over during the "moose test" in Sweden turning the Baby Benz [from a star] into "a problem child".

The case promises further information later in the text. In other words, almost the equivalent of a "cliff-hanger" ending to keep the readers involved.

Another case involves Ikea. From a parochial UK perspective all we see of Ikea is the large blue shed, lurking adjacent to motorway exits, and containing European less-expensive furniture. In the text, we find the following:

Ikea has had a strong position in the Belgian market since 1985 for youthful and trendy furniture appealing mostly to students and young families. From 1990 onwards Ikea's floor traffic stabilised. The marketing objective became to appeal to a broader range of consumers, to attract more visitors and to turn these visitors from buyers of "home decoration products" into buyers of "high-priced items" such as sofas. The objective for the five-years communications campaign starting from 1991 was to increase turnover by 10 per cent a year. To reach these objectives an annual budget of 1.25 million ecu was decided upon … [Using the full range of marketing communication instruments] … . The results of the campaign were overwhelming. The number of visitors increased by 65 per cent (10.8 per cent) per year. The turnover rose from approximately 107.5 million ecu to approximately 177.5 million ecu, realising an increase of 63 per cent (10.5 per cent per year). Ikea reached an unaided brand awareness of 72 per cent, an aided brand awareness of 99 per cent, and their ads and newspaper inserts received better than average impact scores. Ikea received a gold Effie award for this campaign.

Like the previous, and indeed other cases, this opens the door for further investigation by students – by secondary research or through primary activities. It also provides useful marketing communication hints, techniques and tactics for rejuvenating and developing business when the "plateau" position has been reached.

I like this book. It covers the basic elements of marketing communications well, and the longer case studies and case vignettes are extremely useful from the European context. The book also comes complete with end of chapter questions and case questions. It is designed so that courses can be built around it. It is well referenced.

Given its overt focus on marketing communications planning and tactics, there are inevitably some theoretical "gaps". These suggest that the book could well be positioned as an introduction to marketing communications at either the undergraduate or postgraduate level. Further readings could well supplement the text if these are required.

This book represents a good European contribution to the marketing communications library.

Philip J. KitchenHull University