Brands as Publishers and the Future of Integrated Marketing Communications
‘KFC’s global CMO Jennelle Tilling believes that ‘marketing has fundamentally changed from marketing to publishing. The pace and turnaround is so much faster. What we are asking for (as a client) is still ideas, creative vision and cultural insights but in a different shape and form and much more quickly.’ Critically evaluate her assertion about the fundamental change in terms of its accuracy and whether, in your view, it applies only to the FMCG and retail sectors. What does her view mean for the future of IMC?’
The concept of IMC, despite acquiring numerous varying definitions since its conception, is ultimately one of harmony and synergy. Burnett and Moriarty (1998, p.15) plainly explain it as the ‘practice of unifying all marketing communication tools - from advertising to packaging - to send target audiences a consistent, persuasive message that promotes company goals.’ Of course, there are many factors that comprise an IMC, but fundamentally it is about creating a clear, consistent message across all promotional components in such a way that each component’s existence enhances the effects of another – creating ‘media synergy’ (Schultz, 2060). Marketing communications exist to ‘inform, persuade, incite and remind customers’ about brands (Keller, 2001, p.819); the argument for IMC is that integration increases the likelihood of those aforementioned purposes.
The concept emerged at a time of intense competition and change in the perceived effectiveness of mass media marketing, alongside technological advances and new forms of media. This meant new communications options (Cornelissen & Lock, 2000) and therefore new modes of reaching consumers. It was arguably a natural progression from old marketing models to one better-suited to the 21st Century and the modern consumer (Pickton & Broderick, 2005). Although this initial change occurred in the 1990s, the ‘change’ that Tilling’s assertion refers to is still much the same today. IMC came about alongside the technological advances of the time, namely the internet, and these have continued to develop and change the nature of marketing ever since. It is almost impossible to discuss the emergence of IMC without mentioning the rise of the internet and subsequent changing media environment, as this triggered the shift of power, placing it in the hands of the consumer.
Although IMC has had to remain fluid throughout the rapid growth of digital media, its promise of increased brand personality, equity and loyalty still remains. What Tilling’s quote addresses is the increasing demand for content at an increasing pace, with brands vying to respond directly to consumer trends, desires and sentiments in an almost real-time format. Again, due to digital media, companies are now able to tap into consumer motivations, needs and emotions on a deeper level, at a faster rate; this creates pressure for companies to use this information for strategic, competitive benefits with a quick turnaround. However, these ‘cultural insights’ sometimes emerge at a rate quicker than agencies (and advertisers) can process, plan for and deliver on. As a result, the onus is now on brands’ in-house teams to generate a certain amount of marketing content internally (Pickton & Hartley, 1998); hence Tilling’s use of the term ‘publishing’. Brands now possess more control over their marketing platforms and can rely less on traditional advertising - the more effectively a company uses owned and earned media, the less paid media is required. Online business ASOS, for example, don’t advertise through traditional media, whilst their online marketing strategy is predominantly social media-focused. Yet, it is still a household name with a distinctive brand personality.
The premise of IMC is its ‘audience-driven’ and ‘outward-looking’ nature (Kliatchko, 2005), and so must begin with the consumer. But what Tilling’s point raises is the challenge to keep up with consumer insights and generate content that is relevant, creative and engaging yet still tightly aligned with brand personality and strategy. The involvement of agencies in this inevitably slows the process down, arguably interrupting integration with an outside force. For maximum integration, the functional components of an organisation must also be involved (Schulz & Schulz, 1998), with business planning, objectives and management processes (Jones et al, 2004 & Fill, 2002) all in coordination with IMC. Agencies, by their very nature, cannot be integrated in this sense – although the ‘Five Stages of Integration’ (De Pelsmacker et al, 2013) does contain an opportunity for them to enter, at the Functional Integration stage, during the selection of appropriate tools for an IMC execution. Returning to Tilling’s statement, perhaps the priority shouldn’t be speed and volume, but instead creativity and ideas, albeit at a slower rate. Although consistency is key for remaining top-of-mind, perhaps there is equal value in less frequent communications of a higher quality. One of IMC’s driving factors is its contribution to building strong brand personality, leading to equity and loyalty. In order to ensure success, brands are now expected to construct a narrative rather than simply communicate their primary value; IMC enables this. Taking a postmodernist perspective, this stems from the ability of common societal values and myths to be simulated to become marketable, as a means of connecting with consumers (Firat et al, 1994). However, it is worth noting that despite a brand’s efforts to persuade through carefully planned and directed IMC, the end interpretation still remains in the hands (and hence the power) of the consumer (Schultz & Pilotta, 2004, Cova et al, 2013). In this sense, the consumer ‘writes their own [brand] stories’ and ‘constructs their own myths’ (Firat et al, 1994).
The dominance of the internet, social media and mobile devices in particular drives the need for ‘content’; these things are so integrated into people’s lives that if a brand can maintain a strong presence on these platforms then the brand can potentially become integrated into their lives too. This is because consistency and repetition aids to strengthen recall. Kliatchko describes content as ‘the very impetus that induces persuasion in communication’ (2008, p.140); the revision of his initial IMC definition to include content as a fourth pillar evidences its importance. However, when we consider the constituent parts of IMC, it becomes apparent that not all elements apply to all businesses and brands. FMCG and retail both feature products that can be sold on the basis of image appeal, which also lend themselves to a globalised, standardisation approach (De Pelsmacker et al, 2013). Such products can be marketed using the ‘lifestyle’ approach, with communications that focus on values and beliefs. This also cements notions of ‘publishing’ further, as they provide a basis for story-telling – another now-vital element of the IMC format.
A classic example of this would be Red Bull, a brand that started with an energy drink and developed into something much larger. The iconic tagline, ‘Red Bull gives you wings’, communicates the simple idea that with this energy drink, you will possess the ability to accomplish great things beyond the normal human capabilities. From this, the idea spawned into an empire now consisting of numerous Red Bull-sponsored, endorsed and even owned extreme sports teams and events, as well as a record label, music events and an art fellowship programme. They even orchestrated a stratospheric parachute jump and world record attempt, which saw the tagline almost physically manifest as a sky-diver attempted the highest jump on record – metaphorical ‘wings’ and all. In a more literal sense, there is the Red Bull Media House, which actually produces a range of publications and content across every possible medium there is. They are a true example of a brand-turned-publisher, and their content seldom features its core product. It exemplifies the importance of message, and how a powerful sentiment that consumers can connect with has the potential to take brands to a higher level through relevant content. It also demonstrates how a universal message can be standardised globally to great effect. Exhibiting IMC at its most extreme and also effective, Red Bull have managed to expand into many different avenues all whilst remaining thoroughly on-brand. Their overarching message is simple, easily digested and manifests within each of their endeavours, resulting in consistent integration.
What FMCG and retail aim to accomplish with consumers is not immediate purchase, but rather competitive differentiation and top-of-mind through a creative approach as a means of achieving long-term loyalty. Due to the nature of the sector’s products and the consumer’s relationships with them, this is suitably done through IMC and it’s many potential marketing channels, to give said products emotional charge. Meanwhile, outside of FMCG and retail, promotion on the basis of image appeal can be much less appropriate. Emphasis cannot always be placed on continuous content as the key driver for establishing brand identity and personality for all brands and sectors. Persuasion is of course vital, and is ultimately what drives a consumer to purchase, but different sectors require different adaptations of IMC. For example, brands must consider the extent of their integration, as for some, a global approach is less suitable than a localised strategy (De Pelsmacker et al, 2013) due to cultural differences. An example of this is KitKat, whose ‘Have a Break’ tagline positions the product as a simple break-time snack in Europe, whilst an entirely different brand story is constructed in Japan. There, the brand name’s similarity to Japanese phrase ‘kitto katsu’ (meaning ‘sure win’) has seen the product become a token of good luck often given as a gift, something which the company have heavily incorporated into their marketing strategy in order to capitalise on this particular culture’s interpretation of the brand. It demonstrates the limits to which IMC can work, at least on a global scale, with cultural sensitivity and brand modifications deviating from the construct to positive effect.
In terms of the importance of content and marketing as ‘publishing’, the extent to which it applies varies from sector to sector. Brands operating in a B2B context such as the construction or manufacturing industries, for example, do not require IMC to the same extent as FMCG and retail. Of course, some level of branding is fundamental as a means of differentiation, but their products and services do not call for the personification and emotional charge that other goods do in order to sell. In the case of the aforementioned examples, the actual services themselves speak more than the ‘content’ that might surround them, as they are not sold on an image-based appeal in the way that other goods are. This limits the extent to which IMC can be applied, instantly reducing the number of relevant marketing channels and content that can be created. There is also the argument that IMC emerged due to media fragmentation and the subsequent loss of faith in mass media advertising (De Pelsmacker, 2013), which would not have affected niche B2B businesses in the same way and hence required less need for a shift in marketing tactics.
Despite this, however, the general IMC construct is arguably applicable to all sectors, due to the fact it can be adapted in different ways. The somewhat fluid nature of the construct itself allows it to be adaptable, and thus pertinent to a range of sectors. As explained, IMC is a consumer-driven idea that seeks to persuade, and if all marketing is concerned with the exchange between business and customer, then IMC potentially applies to all marketing – and therefore, all businesses, at varying degrees. What determines this variation is the demand for content that Tilling addresses, and the methods for a business to market itself accordingly. The broader the target, the more marketing content (and therefore integration) is required, and vice-versa.
IMC has grown, developed and changed since its conception – by its very nature, it seeks to respond to a changing environment (Belch & Belch, 2015), building on the marketing mix whilst simultaneously recontextualising it. In terms of the future of IMC, this could mean that the constituent elements of IMC will continue to shift and change to adapt to the trends of the time. IMC is already much more complex now than it was, mostly due to the sheer volume of communication channels and the rate at which new technologies emerge. Meanwhile, the short lifespan of content is also something that will force the construct to be modified. By placing the consumer at the heart, the IMC idea must follow the consumer wherever it goes; the future arguably points towards co-creation (Payne et al, 2009). Brand stories are becoming bigger and more meaningful, and the material from which to draw content needs to grow. Logically, the consumers themselves are the next biggest resource to do this. The closer a consumer feels to a brand, the more enhanced the emotional connection and in turn their level of loyalty, and co-creation offers the most personal and emotional interaction with a brand that currently exists. This idea of a ‘service-dominant logic’, as argued for by Vargo and Morgan (2005), proposes that consumers are actively involved in every aspect of the product process, from design to end use, providing a highly integrative experience that benefits all parties involved.
An example of how co-creation is currently being used by brands is the way in which user-generated content is encouraged and rewarded by the use of such content on brand platforms – from social media channels and websites to projections of live digital content in-store. Many brands also plan their retail spaces and marketing activity (e.g. experiential events) around ‘shareability’, optimising them for documentation by consumers and the subsequent creation of digital content and further promotion. In fact, growing trends in experiential marketing will likely take a larger place within IMC. Experiences have emerged in the last few years as a popular and effective way to build emotional relationships between businesses and consumers, and act as a physical manifestation of a brand’s story in a way that allows consumers to feel closer than ever to brands (Prahalad, 2004). IMC is concerned not only with the integration of marketing channels, but in doing so is also concerned with meaningful integration into the lives of consumers; experiential tactics provide a valuable means of doing this (Payne et al, 2009).
Examples like this show the steps that brands are taking to become closer to consumers, taking relationship marketing to new heights. In a sense, the rapid demand for content is almost balanced by the generation of content by consumers, which some brands publish as often as they produce their own. Alongside relationship marketing-based strategies, brand communities and neo-tribalism (Cova, 1997) are also likely to forge more importance within IMC (Aggarwal, 2004). Although not a form of content themselves, they could work as a well from which brands can pull content from. Again, IMC is about meaningful consumer relationships, and no consumer relationship is more meaningful than one that involves brand advocacy. What is almost certain is that traditional media will continue to be less popular and dominant than it has been in the past, making way for new technologies and new methods of content generation.
Ultimately, the IMC concept is one that comes with endless speculations, definitions and interpretations, something which is unlikely to ever change. It lends itself to modification, either by a brand, in order to suit its needs, or due to current trends in a given market. Brands have had to adapt to the fast-growing demand for content, another factor unlikely to change, which proves Tilling’s statement about the notion of ‘publishing’ to be true – albeit it more so within particular sectors. With this demand ever-growing, developments within IMC will have to take place alongside changing consumer expectations, ensuring to maintain a customer-focused concept that puts needs before product. Although what occurs in future remains to be seen, for now it seems content really is king.
Bibliography
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Schultz, D.E. & Pilotta, J.J. (2004) ‘Developing the foundation for a new approach to understanding how media advertising works’. ESOMAR. Worldwide Audience Measurement Conference, June 16, 2004.
Vargo, S. L., & Morgan, F. W. (2005) ‘An historical reexamination of the nature of exchange: The service-dominant perspective’ Journal of Macromarketing, 25(1), 42–53.
Newspaper Articles
Demetriou, D. (2015) ‘How the KitKat became a phenomenon in Japan’ The Telegraph, 12th December 2015. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/food-and-drink/features/how-the-kitkat-became-a-phenomenon-in-japan/ (Accessed 23rd July)
Websites
www.kitkat.com
www.redbull.com