Marketing & Communications

Notes
Marketing
By Grewal & Levy

Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, capturing, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.

The four P’s of the marketing mix: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion Decision

IMC: Integrated Marketing Communications. The Promotion of the four P’s. It encompasses a variety of communication disciplines—advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, PR, direct marketing, electronic media, and community building—in combination to provide clarity, consistency, and max communication impact. Each element is part of a whole focusing on a unified clear, consistent, and concise message., enhancing the value story. There are three elements in any IMC strategy: the consumer, the channels of communication which the message is communicated, and the evaluation of results.

PR: involves managing communications and relationships to achieve various objectives, such as building and maintaining a positive image of the firm, handling or heading off unfavorable stories or events, and maintaining positive relationships with the media. In many cases, PR activities support other promotional efforts by generating “free” media attention and general goodwill. Good PR has always been an important success fator. Yet in recent years, the importance fo PR has grown as the cost of other forms of marketing communications has increased. PR has become more powerful as concumers have become increasingly skeptical of marketing claims made in other media. Consumers view media coverage generated through PR AS MORE CREDIBLE AND OBJECTIVE BECAUSE THE FIRM DOE NOT ‘BUY’ SPACE IN PRINT MEDIA OR TIME ON RADIO OR TELEVSION.

SALES PROMOTION: the goal of any sales promo is to create value for both the consumer and the firm. Some build short term sales like: coupons, deals, premiums, samples, POP displays, rebates, product placements(over 4B spent in movies annually). loyalty programs, contests, sweepstakes are part of long term customer relationship management (CRM) programs
Cross Promoting: when two or more firms join together to reach a specific target market. To achieve successful cross promo the two brands or products must appeal to the same target market and together create a value for customers.

Viral marketing encourages people/bloggers/news agencies to pass along a marketing message. Connects people and customers online to create dialogue rather than monologue.

Chasing Cool
By Noah Kerner & Gene Pressman

Entertainment marketing/branding, break through the clutter. A product has to deliver on the promise of its communication. Consumers appreciate brand messages when the message is relevant.
Press mentions are just one element of a successful marketing campaign. Hip hop is the iPod/apple of the decade. Constantly innovating.

P&G has an Inhouse brand ambassador program called tremor. There are lots of ambassador programs for products and services.
This can have an adverse affect if not done right. You have to utilize ambassadors that are truly passionate about your product and your product delivers. Good advertising makes a bad product fail faster. Brand value/brand equity is the most important metric today. It means sustainability. Contrived enthusiasm will always fail. Products ultimately have to deliver. Over promoted and under served will never work. Don’t use short term tactics for a long term strategy.

Aesthetic-merchandising, look of store, look of brand. Should be adeeply personal point of view. Make yer brand part of the vernacular. For Barney’s less is more. They displayed their garmets like they were islands. knowyour product in context to its consumer. Have a holistic approach to aesthetics. Its a narrative. It’s about taking people ona journey. It’s not just about pretty. It’s the difference between design and decoration. Both function and form are important. FUN is an important element. Holistic aesthetic is an entire experience–from beginning to end. Mass retail is taking notice. Target is a great example. Expect more. Pay less. And have a good overall experience. Look of store, good products, good customer service. Originality is an important part of the aesthetics. Aesthetic quality lasts and creates brand equity. This is industrial design. A complete aesthetic experience will become increasingly more important as industries become more competitive. It’s a long term strategy to meld form with function.

Borrowing equity: endorsements, borrowed syntax and Symantec, street cred with a dj.

Don’t define yourself as luxury if you are not. Quality, aesthetics, exclusivity mean luxury. Luxury has become ubiquitous. It’s losing its pop.
A quiet message makes people have to lean in to hear. You don’t need to scream,”luxury!”. Quality and luxury are internal. Bling is the urban/hip hop version of luxury. Authenticity is everything. Putting bling in yer copy can be interpreted as bullshit. Packaging designer. Noise for the sake of noise is a short term strategy. As noise increases, people will stop listening. Authenticity and aspiration. Artificial insemination, ie, mcdonalds paying rappers to put their sandwiches in their songs. It’s not what consumers are, it’s what they want to be. Buster rhymes pass the corvaissiey organically gave the drink endorsement. The brand never changed their message to accommodate their new found demographic. M&m was aligned with dr dre when he went big. It was an synergistic partnership because m&m was authentic.
NatasCopas is a global creative director at quicksilver. Malevolent market leadership-suits trying to lead brand messaging to subcultures. There are a lot of famous people today, but few stars.

Shared equity, grow a bond. By authenticity. Benevolent market leadership: a company grows an entire industry, not just itself. Quicksilver grew surfing and skating culture, not just quicksilver. How do you authentically speak to an audience.
Think small. fringe instead of mass. Starbucks sells music. Hand selects music to market to its customers. They choose established and emerging artists. Nike develops deep relationships with artist and athletes that endorse them.

You can be mainstream and edgy. Sharing equity will be more important as the marketing clutter grows. Yahoo sponsors dmc dj contest. First major brand to partner with dmc. Sponsorship sounds too disconnected. Yahoo brand and culture was perfectly integrated into the event. No one thrives in a one way diologue. Great partnerships allow both parties to grow. There is a seamlessness. A balance between a company’s DNA, the desires of its customers, and the third party from which it’s borrowing. To keep the customer wanting more, the mix needs to be perfect. A company needs to be as passionate about what it’s co opting as it needs to be about its own agendas. You have to work both sides of the coin to propel the heads and the tails.

The greatest risk is not taking one. Achieving genuine relevance for any brand means taking risk. Barney’s diluted the market with accelerated expansion. They went from heavyweight to overweight. You have to review the numbers. Barney’s filed for bankruptcy. But is profitable today. Risk needs to be managed, but creativity is still top priority. Your gonna have hits and hiccups.

PR mentions are just one element of a successful marketing campaign. Hip hop is the iPod/apple of the decade. Constantly innovating.

Borrowing equity: endorsements, borrowed syntax and Symantec, street cred with a dj.

Cool refuses to fit into a categorical definition. People have to agree to disagree on the merits kool. It’s slippery. Kool is the ultimate point of difference. Kool depends on who is asking. Kool is about achieving relevance to a particular group–Small or large. Don’t change someone else’s definition if kool. Follow a personal vision. The process is the prize. -Julianne shnavel.