Session 7 and 8 - Media agencies and big data

    • An ad agency is generally independent from the client (it may be an internal department or even an internal agency) and provides an outside point of view to the effort of selling the client's products or services.
    • An agency can also handle overall marketing and branding strategies and sales promotions for its clients. ( Wikipedia )
  • Media planning is generally the task of a media agency and entails finding media platforms for a client's brand or product to use. The job of media planning is to determine the best combination of media to achieve the marketing campaign objectives. ( Wikpedia )



Session 6 and 7 - Communication plan

Problem: What does a communication plan involve?

Learning objectives:

  1. Different communcation plan models
    1. How company size affectrs communication planning
  2. How do trends influence the communicattion planning ?
  3. How to measure the effectiveness of the communication plan
    • A – attention (awareness): attract the attention of the customer.
    • I – interest of the customer.
    • D – desire: convince customers that they want and desire the product or service and that it will satisfy their needs.
    • A – action: lead customers towards taking action and/or purchasing. ( Wikipedia )

Different communication plan models

  • A communication plan is a written document that describes
  • what you want to accomplish with your association communications (your objectives),
  • ways in which those objectives can be accomplished (your goals or program of work),
  • to whom your association communications will be addressed (your audiences),
  • how you will accomplish your objectives (the tools and timetable), and
  • how you will measure the results of your program (evaluation). [6]
  • A communications plans should answer concretely the following six questions:
  • Who Will be the Key Staff Doing the Communicating?
  • What are the Communications Goals and Objects?
  • Who is the Target Audience(s)?
  • When and How Frequently to Plan to Communicate?
  • How to Communicate the Results?
  • What Resources Are Available for Communicating? [7]

How do trends affect communications planning?

  • Trends affecting communications planning:
  • Ubiquitous mobile access
  • Pervasive social media utilisation

How to measure the success of communcation mix

w:Communications mix redirects to w:promotional mix


An effective communicator gets his point across while maintaining a productive relationship with the other party. This is extremely important if you plan to run a small business. The way you communicate with your customers, employees and other stakeholders can have a significant effect on your company's overall success. Keep a few key concepts in mind as you measure whether you're communicating effectively.[8]

Step 1

  • Conduct regular surveys of your employees and customers to determine if you're communicating effectively. [...] For example,
    • Ask customers, "How did you learn about our latest product or service?"
    • Ask employees, "Do your superiors and team members clearly communicate information to you?" Have them rate their replies on a one-to-five [ liekert ] scale.


Step 2

  • Post information online in blog format to better communicate with employees (intraoffice) and customers (public information).
  • Use a website tracking service to monitor visiting patterns and see how long visitors remain on your various website pages.
    • If you see visitors spend several minutes reading content and making positive comments, then you know your communication is effective.
    • If they click away in a few seconds, that could mean you are not sufficiently capturing their attention and effectively delivering your message.

Step 3 Measure the progress of specific work projects to ascertain whether you and your employees are communicating effectively [with each other].

Step 4 Ask your employees to repeat verbal instructions back to you to see if they fully understand. You can simply ask each employee to send you an email summarizing your assignment and how they plan to get it done. [8]

Session 5 and 6 - Brand strategy

Problem: How to create a brand strategy?

Learning objectives:

  1. What kind of brand strategies exist?
    1. Examples?
    2. Comparison?
  2. When to outsource / not to outsource?
    1. Advantages / disadvantages?
  3. What's the interrelation between a brand strategy and a brand portfolio?
Marketing strategy includes all basic and long-term activities in the field of marketing that deal with the analysis of the strategic initial situation of a company and the formulation, evaluation and selection of market-oriented strategies and therefore contribute to the goals of the company and its marketing objectives.[10] ( Wikipedia )
It is the way in which the brands within a company’s portfolio are related to, and differentiated from, one another. ( Wikipedia )
Developing a good relationship with the target market is essential for brand management.
    • Tangible elements of brand management include the product itself; look, price, the packaging, etc.
    • The intangible elements are the experience that the consumer has had with the brand, and also the relationship that they have with that brand. A brand manager would oversee all of these things. ( Wikipedia )
It is the way in which the brands within a company’s portfolio are related to, and differentiated from, one another. The architecture should define the different leagues of branding within the organization; how the corporate brand and sub-brands relate to and support each other; and how the sub-brands reflect or reinforce the core purpose of the corporate brand to which they belong. ( Wikipedia )
Brand architecture - See also
  • [Your brand consists of] the entire experience your prospects and customers have with your company, product or service.[11]

“Long-term marketing support for a brand, based on the definition of the characteristics of the target consumers. It includes understanding of their preferences, and expectations from the brand.”

[12]

  • Positioning is the marketing activity and process of identifying a market problem or opportunity, and developing a solution based on market research, segmentation and supporting data. […] Positioning relates to strategy, in the specific or tactical development phases of carrying out an objective to achieve a business' or organization's goals, such as increasing sales volume|, brand recognition, or reach in advertising. ( Wikipedia )
  • Brand extension or brand stretching is a marketing strategy in which a firm marketing a product with a well-developed image uses the same brand name in a different product category. The new product is called a spin-off.
Organizations use this strategy to increase and leverage brand equity (definition: the net worth and long-term sustainability just from the renowned name). An example of a brand extension is Jello-gelatin creating Jello pudding pops. It increases awareness of the brand name and increases profitability from offerings in more than one product category. ( Wikipedia )
  • Alternatively, in a market that is fragmented amongst a number of brands a supplier can choose deliberately to launch totally new brands in apparent competition with its own existing strong brand (and often with identical product characteristics); simply to soak up some of the share of the market which will in any case go to minor brands. The rationale is that having 3 out of 12 brands in such a market will give a greater overall share than having 1 out of 10 (even if much of the share of these new brands is taken from the existing one). In its most extreme manifestation, a supplier pioneering a new market which it believes will be particularly attractive may choose immediately to launch a second brand in competition with its first, in order to pre-empt others entering the market. This strategy is widely known as multi-brand strategy. ( Wikipedia article brand on multi-brands )

Session 4 and 5 - Brand identity and image

Problem: How to manage brand identity? Learning objectives:

  1. What is the interrelation between brand identity and brand image?
  2. When and how to rebrand?
    1. Risks and challenges?
    2. Trends?
  3. Examples of good and bad brand management?

Brand identity is the expression of the brand vs. brand image is the perception

~ jubo-jubo on difference between brand identity and brand image


  • Brand identity is the outward expression of a brand – including its name, trademark, communications, and visual appearance ( Wikipedia )
  • The psychological aspect, sometimes referred to as the brand image, is a symbolic construct created within the minds of people, consisting of all the information and expectations associated with a product, service or the company(ies) providing them. ( Wikipedia )
  • Rebranding is a marketing strategy in which a new name, term, symbol, design, or combination thereof is created for an established brand with the intention of developing a new, differentiated identity in the minds of consumers, investors, and competitors.
Often, this involves radical changes to a brand's logo, name, image, marketing strategy, and w:advertising themes. Such changes typically aim to reposition the brand/company, occasionally to distance itself from negative connotations of the previous branding, or to move the brand upmarket ( Wikipedia )

Session 3 and 4 - Visual brand identity

Problem: How to create a visual brand identity?

Learning objectives:

  1. ) What are the elements that create visual identity?
  2. ) What is the process to create visual identity?
  3. ) What are the challenges in creating and communicating visual brand identity
  4. ) Good and bad examples of

Keywords: Cultural adaptation, mission, identity, trend, creativity, art, history, evolution

  • Visual brand language is branding terminology for a unique "alphabet" of design elements – such as shape, color, materials, finish, typography and composition – which directly and subliminally communicate a company's values and personality through compelling imagery and design style. This "alphabet", properly designed, results in an emotional connection between the brand and the consumer.
Visual brand language is a key ingredient necessary to make an authentic and convincing brand strategy that can be applied uniquely and creatively in all forms of brand communications to both employees and customers. [13][14]
Successful Visual Brand Language creates a memorable experience for the consumer, encouraging repeat business and boosting the company's economic health. It is a long-term creative solution that can be leveraged by an executive team to showcase their brand's unique personality.[15] ( Wikipedia )
  • Color preferences are the tendency for an individual or a group to prefer some colors over others, such as having a favorite color. ( Wikipedia )

Session 2 and 3 - Integrated marketing communications

Problem: ?

Learning objectives:

  1. ) How to communicate w:value proposition through channels
  2. ) How to integrate different chanels to send a coherent message?
  3. ) Challenged in IMC
  4. ) Good / bad examples of IMC

Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) is the application of consistent brand messaging across both traditional and non-traditional marketing channels and using different promotional methods to reinforce each other. ( Wikipedia )

The first definition for integrated marketing communication came from the American Association of Advertising Agencies (also 4A's) in 1989, defining IMC as "an approach to achieving the objectives of a marketing campaign through a well-coordinated use of different promotional methods that are intended to reinforce each other. "[17] ( Wikipedia on history of IMC )
IMC makes use of Multichannel marketing is the ability to interact with potential customers on various platforms. In this sense, a channel might be a retail store, a web site, a mail order catalogue, or direct personal communications by letter, email or text message. ( Wikipedia on Multichannel marketing )

Session 1 and 2 – Storytelling and corporate communication

“Good stories get told over and over. Bad stories not so.”

~ jubo-jubo on storytelling


To stay true to truth in marketing communications is essential for long term positive brand image building. If a corporation is spreading dis- or misinformation about its products it will into muck in no-time.

Wikipedia has an article on PBL – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem-based_learning – it may be useful to someone.

Part of the trigger for todays PBL session was this Google Corporation Advertisement video

Problem was to determine the dynamics at play when businesses do image building advertising as a marketing promotion. The opposite of image building advertising is naturally advertising that educates the potential customers of the service and offering provision levels on the market and the price levels on the market.

Learning objectives were to get acquinted with storytelling as a method to do brand promotion.

  • Emotional branding is a term used within marketing communication that refers to the practice of building brands that appeal directly to a consumer's emotional state, needs and aspirations. Emotional branding is successful when it triggers an emotional response in the consumer, that is, a desire for the advertised brand (or product) that cannot fully be rationalized. ( Wikipedia )

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Contemporary Marketing 2011 (textbook), Louis Boone, David Kurtz, Cengage Learning, Jan 1, 2010, Elements of the promotional mix, Retrieved Aug. 26, 2014
  2. Essentials of Marketing, Charles Lamb, Joe Hair, Carl McDanie, Cengage Learning, Jan 1, 2011, Discuss the elements of the promotional mix, Retrieved Aug. 26, 2014, (see page 514+)
  3. Sales Promotion: How to Create, Implement and Integrate Campaigns that Really Work, Roddy Mullin, Kogan Page Publishers, Apr 3, 2010, The Promotional Mix, Retrieved Aug. 26, 2014, (see page 30+)
  4. Harrell, Gilbert D. (2008). Marketing: Connecting with Customers. Chicago Education Press. p. 286. ISBN 9780979830402. 
  5. Small Business Management: Launching and Growing Entrepreneurial Ventures, Justin Longenecker, J. Petty, Leslie Palich, Frank Hoy, Cengage Learning, Sep 27, 2011, The Promotional Mix, Retrieved Aug. 26, 2014, "...how a business combines its promotional methods...blend of nonpersonal, personal, and special forms of communication aimed at a target market..."
  6. http://www.hieran.com/comet/howto.html
  7. http://toolkit.pellinstitute.org/evaluation-guide/communicate-improve/develop-a-communications-plan/
  8. 8.0 8.1 http://smallbusiness.chron.com/measure-effective-communication-3180.html
  9. Baker, Michael The Strategic Marketing Plan Audit 2008. ISBN 1-902433-99-8. p.3
  10. Homburg, Christian; Sabine Kuester, Harley Krohmer (2009): Marketing Management - A Contemporary Perspective (1st ed.), London.
  11. http://www.marketingmo.com/strategic-planning/brand-strategy/
  12. http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/brand-strategy.html
  13. Brunner, R.; Emery, S., Do you matter? How great design will make people love your company., (2009), Upper Saddle River: FT Press.
  14. Lockwood, T; Walton, T., Building Design Strategy, (2008), New York: Allworth Press.
  15. Aaker, D., Building Strong Brands, (1996), New York: The Free Press.
  16. How do colors affect purchases?
  17. "integrated marketing communications (IMC)". Business Dictionary Online. Retrieved 5 February 2014.