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Integrated advertising, promotion and marketing communications.

The case has been developed for use in marketing communication as well as strategic brand management courses of MBA and/or PGDM programmes. It high/ights the fact that generating interest amongst customers is not the only task of marketing strategists but conversion of such interest into an effective purchase is what the marketing department should be looking for.

The case takes the students through the journey of Vodafone's marketing communication since its introduction in the Indian market. It gives the reader a briefing as to how Vodafone has grown in the past few years - the changes in communication strategies involved to propagate the product; the integrated marketing communications that have he/ped Vodafone increase its customer base considerably. As mentioned by Marten Pieters, CEO of Vodafone Essar, India is an emerging market and it is necessary for Vodafone not on/y to increase its customer base but a/so to generate revenues. Therefore, his di/emma is how to bring about the perceptual connect with customers which induces them into product usage.

The area of integrated advertising, promotion and marketing communications is an integral part of marketing. It forms the foundation of creating effective marketing programmes that in turn helps develop positive product perception in the minds of the customers. It also helps the student understand the role of customizing the marketing communication according to the target audience and the importance of integrating advertising with not only the promotional activities but also other newer forms of marketing communications. The case has been structured to achieve the following learning objectives: the role of marketing communications in creating and building brand Vodafone; understanding the importance and key elements of Vodafone's Zoozoo ad campaign relating it to Vodafone's communication strategies; and the effect of marketing communication on the customers' perception about the brand.

Teaching notes are available. Please consult your librarian for access.

This paper develops and tests a model depicting the drivers of organizational leaders' intentions to use social media for in‐bound customer communications in a political marketing context. This model improves practitioners and researchers understanding of what influence leaders' attitudes and intentions toward using social media to enhance marketing communications.

The paper uses mediated OLS regression analysis with survey data collected from a national sample of political candidates running for the US House of Representatives in 2010.

Overall satisfaction with social media for marketing communications and customers' normative expectations that organizations use social media for marketing communications drive leaders' future intentions to use social media for in‐bound customer communications. Perceived ease of use, and perceived social media usefulness for in‐bound and out‐bound customer communications drive overall satisfaction with social media for marketing communications.

Leaders support social media as a tool to enhance marketing communications if they perceive relevant social influence and technical applicability. Whereas we find empirical support of our model in a US political context, future research should test our model in other cultural and organizational contexts.

This paper addresses a gap between what research addresses in regards to new media and what is happing in practice. This paper adds to the body of research in marketing and other disciplines that explains the integration and use of social media for marketing communications.

The purpose of this paper is to show the diversity within integrated communication and to demonstrate how its scope has been broadened to include virtually everything an organization says and does and everyone who is affected by the organization's existence and activities. In the most ambitious interpretations of the concept the integration endeavour extends from the external integration of visual design to the internal integration of the organization's culture and “soul”.

The paper is based on a critical and thematic reading of the integrated marketing communication (IMC) field. The review covers both theorists and practitioners and those who are in between: theoretical practitioners and practical theorists, since all parties contribute to the creation of the field and the phenomenon that are the object of analysis in this paper. The focus is on semantic and conceptual development in relation to the range and scope of integrated communication.

The ideal of integration in connection with marketing communication is not new. The analysis shows that the IMC field is marked by great diversity and disagreement. The ideal scope of integration has expanded. An attempt is made to “map” various approaches and perspectives within the IMC field, based on the distinctions between opponents versus advocates and theoretical versus non‐theoretical.

The paper makes the claim that in many interpretations of the concept integrated communication is focused on control. It does not seek to demonstrate how more dialogical perspectives might be developed within the framework of integrated communication.

The focus in this paper is on the semantic and conceptual development in relation to the range and scope of integrated communication. It usefully asks, how far does the organization's effort at integration extend, and how deeply is it supposed to enter the individual's life: what, in short, is the extent of integrated communication's intervention and influence and outreach.

The purpose of this paper is to explicate the natures, histories, similarities and differences of, and between, corporate communication and corporate marketing.

The modus operandi of the article is to map these two territories and, by this means, afford assistance to scholars and practitioners within the communications and marketing domains who share the authors' intellectual and instrumental interests in these two territories. As such, the article seeks to provide a general introduction to the nature of these two fields along with their bases and rationales.

Whilst there are significant differences between corporate communication and corporate marketing, the authors also found similarities in terms of the importance accorded to identities (an identity‐based view of the corporation can be significant here) and are mindful of the impact of ethics and note common grounds in their analytical focus. Both areas are also inextricably linked by virtue of their foci on corporate‐level concerns rather than product‐related concerns that have, for the main, predominated vis‐à‐vis traditional modes of communication/PR and marketing.

From a theoretical point of view the paper invites to explore the synergies between these two disciplines. From a practical point of view practitioners are invited to rethink their communications under the lens of corporate marketing and corporate communication.

The contribution of the paper is to provide an extensive literature review of the two fields that uncovers the theoretical backgrounds of both disciplines, their nature and analytical focus. Also, the value is to compare these two fields one with the other.

Given the role of communication in relationship development and maintenance, the purpose of this study is to examine the multidimensional nature of relationship communication and examine its association with customers’ cognitive and affective states (consisting of trust, intimacy and image) and relationship commitment.

A set of hypotheses is developed based on review of the literature. The hypotheses are tested empirically using partial least square path modelling on survey data collected from users of retail banking services.

Results show that relationship communication is a second-order construct consisting of the first-order factors of clarity, pleasantness, responsiveness and language. The findings suggest that service firm’s communications influence customers’ cognitive and affective states, which, in turn, affects customer’s commitment towards the firm.

The study provides useful insights to both researchers and practitioners on the role of relationship communication in relationship development and maintenance. Through investigation of the relationship communication dimensions, an optimum communication mix can be achieved to deliver messages in an effective way to the customers.

The contribution of the study lies in proposing and testing relationship communication as a higher-order construct and explicating its role in developing committed customers.

To achieve a full understanding of the role of marketing from plan to profit requires a knowledge of the basic building blocks. This textbook introduces the key concepts in the art or science of marketing to practising managers. Understanding your customers and consumers, the 4 Ps (Product, Place, Price and Promotion) provides the basic tools for effective marketing. Deploying your resources and informing your managerial decision making is dealt with in Unit VII introducing marketing intelligence, competition, budgeting and organisational issues. The logical conclusion of this effort is achieving sales and the particular techniques involved are explored in the final section.

Relatively little is known about marketing communications within the context of special events. The aim of this paper is to begin to address this gap in knowledge by analysing managerial practice, consumer perceptions and preferences in relation to marketing communications for this market offering.

A case study analysis of Festival Melbourne 2006 was undertaken using marketing communications collateral, ethnographic (participant observations) and interview (in‐depth and focus group) data.

A centralised approach to marketing communications was adopted for this event, but was difficult to implement. In addition, it was found that the marketing communications in situ did not assist attendees to make the most of their event experiences. It was also found that research participants prefer to receive information about special events passively.

With the increasing levels of globalisation and standardisation in the event sector there is a need to attain a balance between centralisation and adaptation in relation to marketing communications strategies and their implementation. Furthermore, it is imperative that marketing communications are integrated across all stages of consumption.

This study adds to the body of knowledge about marketing communications, and more generally within events. It also adds to the debate surrounding the integration of marketing communications.

Marketing organisations increasingly talk about the importance of integrating their communications, of aligning symbols, messages, procedures and behaviours across formal organisational boundaries. Often this implies tighter central control over communications and other organisational processes. This paper sets out to discuss potential negative consequences of such tight control in terms of organisational incapability to react to market changes in increasingly fluid environments due to a loss of sufficient corporate complexity and diversity.

In response, a flexible integration approach that draws attention to the handling of difference and variety within the context of an integrated communications project is articulated. The paper proposes a framework that balances centralisation and decentralisation through attention to dimensions of endogenous control, tight and loose couplings, networks, and common process rules.

The paper demonstrated that, in order to integrate its communications, an organisation needs to embrace diversity and variety and to balance the wisdom of its many voices with the effort to secure clarity and consistency in its overall expression.

The flexible integration approach advanced in this paper opens new avenues of research, practice and pedagogy, encouraging scholars, practitioners and teachers to explore the following dimensions of integrated communications: reception, variability, organisation, voice, couplings and transferability.

The paper contributes to the literature on integrated communications and corporate communications by addressing the organisational dimensions of integration and suggesting a new avenue of integrated communications research that is far more sensitive to the organisational context in which projects of integration exist and unfold.

The concept of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) is receiving increasing attention in many academic and practioner media, primarily from an organisational perspective. Yet, influence of integrated communications programmes on consumers is difficult to establish in the literature. Consideration of IMC seems unpromising unless the concept itself can be grounded within a psychological perspective of consumer cognition. This paper is an attempt to conceptually explore these concerns. The paper commences with a discussion of broad issues facing contemporary research in marketing communications and strongly suggests that multidisciplinary approaches may offer greater insight than unidisciplinary ones. The authors then briefly, and selectively, introduce questions concerning the psychological assumptions underpinning theoretical work in marketing communications and speculate on implications these assumptions may have for a consumer psychology of IMC. The final strand of the argument considers the cognitivist notion of social cognition and contrasts this with the social constructionist view with regard to theoretical implications both views may have for a psychology of integrated marketing communications. We conclude by suggesting possible interpretations with practical implications for marketing communications practitioners.

The paper explores consumers' responsiveness to marketing communication about various services and products in three different media. Communication value is seen as an element of service value and is measured as consumer responsiveness to marketing communication.

The empirical data is based on interviews with consumers concerning their perceptions of the relevance and acceptance of marketing communication of 15 different services/products in three media, traditional direct mail, e‐mail and SMS. The consumers have responded to scenarios of marketing communication.

Findings showed differences in consumer responsiveness to different services and physical products. The overall responsiveness was relatively low for the offerings in all media. A division into responsiveness groups demonstrates that there are also consumers that are positive to communication. The share of positive consumers varies considerably over offerings.

The present study did not account for some important aspects in marketing communication. Firstly, the communication was not considered as part of a firm's integrated marketing communication. The creative element was omitted even if it in practice is important in planned marketing communication. Moreover, the respondents have evaluated scenarios based on their general attitudes toward the communication. The consumer's relationship to the company/brand/offering was excluded. However, despite these limitations it shows that it is necessary to consider that products and services may have different responsiveness patterns.

The emergence of digital media has increased the number of ways to interact with consumers. The variation in the responsiveness to products and services for different media indicates that it is important to have an understanding of how the media adds and subtracts value. The analysis points to the need for companies to measure the responsiveness of consumers in order to understand and enhance consumer perceived value of the communication as a part of the service.

The paper contributes to service marketing research by introducing the communication value and responsiveness conceptualisations that have an interest both for academic research and practitioners. This includes a new perspective on the role of communication on one hand and on the empirical findings of differences in digital interactive media on the other hand.