1.

Prior Academic Research on IMC

1.1 Academic Approaches to IMC:
Different Disciplines, Different Perspectives: IMC has evolved over time due
to varying viewpoints from different fields like communication, journalism,
and marketing.
Common Ground: Despite differences, there's a common focus on optimizing
communication options for consumers.
Academic Emphasis: Researchers have emphasized different areas based on
their backgrounds:
○ Communication/Journalism: Internal factors like organizational
processes.
○ Marketing: External factors like consumer effects and optimal
communication program design.
Two streams of research are notable within marketing academia:
○ Micro: 1. More micro approaches that use consumer psychology and
consumer information-processing principles to study multimedia
Integrating Marketing Communications / 123 campaigns (e.g., Edell
and Keller 1989, 1999) and the strengths and weaknesses of different
media (new vs. old) in achieving different communications goals (e.g.,
Chang and Thorson 2004; Dijkstra, Buijtels, and Van Raaij 2005;
Pfeiffer and Zinnbauer 2010).
○ Macro: 2. More macro approaches that use econometric techniques to
assess multimedia effects at the brand level (e.g., Naik, Raman, and
Winer 2005). A topic of enduring importance in this line of research is
the allocation of resources across media (Naik and Raman 2003;
Raman and Naik 2004)
=> Our Approach: Focus on consumer-driven factors for optimal
communication program design. Excludes non-media touchpoints like product
features, employee service, and retail environments.
3 of the most important considerations are consistency, complementarity,
and cross-effects among media and communication options
➢ Consistency: To facilitate learning and induce action, the exact same
persuasive message can benefit from being reinforced in different ways
across different communications
 ➢ Complementarity: different communication options have varied
strengths and weaknesses, which can meet different brand-related
information needs for consumers and, thus, complement each other
➢ Cross-effects: Communication effects from consumer exposure to one
communication option can be enhanced when consumers have had prior
exposure to a different communication option
1.2 Consumer Decision Journey or Path to Purchase

Summary of the Consumer Decision Journey:

● Understanding consumer behavior involves modeling the stages consumers go

through before, during, and after a purchase.
● Classic models like the purchase funnel (e.g., AIDA) are still relevant but may
not fully capture the complexity of modern consumer decision-making.
● McKinsey & Company introduced the "consumer decision journey circle,"
highlighting steps from initial consideration to post-purchase evaluation.
● Actual consumer paths to purchase are complex and nonlinear, involving
various touchpoints like search, ads, price comparisons, emails, and physical
stores.
● Despite interacting with multiple media types in nonlinear ways, consumers
generally follow a sequence of stages when engaging with a brand.
● Consumers typically progress through stages like need recognition, brand
recall, evaluation, preference development, purchase, post-purchase
satisfaction, repurchase intentions, loyalty, and advocacy.
● Success in the consumer decision journey can be disrupted at any stage, leading
to brand rejection or consumer drop-off.
● Each stage of the journey influences the consumer's information-processing
state, determining the most effective media types for brand communication.
● Different media types have direct and indirect effects on consumers at various
stages of the decision journey.
1.2 Main Effects of Different Media: Research Findings

Much academic research has shown the effectiveness of different communication

options and media, as well as the value of a multimedia campaign (Koslow and Tellis
2011; Sethuraman, Tellis, and Briesch 2011; Wind and Sharp 2009)

Traditional media: Even in today’s media environment, the power of traditional

advertising media endures (Nunes and Merrihue 2007), how informative advertising
can create brand awareness and increase knowledge of new products or new features
of existing products (Amaldoss and He 2010; Barroso and Llobet 2012)...

Newer online media: . The wide variety of available online communication options
means companies can offer tailored information or send messages that engage
consumers by reflecting their special interests and behavior
 - Search ads (Berman and Katona 2013; Jerath, Ma, and Park 2014; Rutz and
Bucklin 2011; Rutz, Bucklin, and Sonnier 2012).
- Display ads (Danaher, Lee, and Kerbache 2010; Hoban and Bucklin 2015;
Manchanda et al. 2006)
- Websites (Danaher, Mullarkey, and Essegaier 2006; Hauser et al. 2009;
Steenkamp and Geyskens 2006)
- E-mail (Aufreiter, Boudet, and Weng 2014; Li and Kannan 2014)
- Social media (Kumar et al. 2016; Naylor, Lamberton, and West 2012;
Schweidel and Moe 2014)
- Mobile (Bell 2014; Fang, Luo, and Keith 2014; Hwang, McInerney, and Shin
2015)

1.3 Interaction and Cross-Effects Across Different Media: Research Findings

Traditional media synergies:

- Early research on Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) demonstrated
how traditional advertising and promotions interacted to enhance consumer
response.
- Examples include coordinated TV-radio and TV-print campaigns improving
recall and attitudes.
- Synergies between displays, price promotions, and feature advertising were
noted to be more impactful for low-tier brands.
Sales Force and Personal Selling Interactions:
- Personal selling efforts are more effective when combined with other forms of
marketing communications.
- Studies have shown interactions between advertising and personal selling
impacting sales, with some interactions being significant.
Online and Offline Synergies:
- Marketers are focusing on coordinating online and offline communications.
- Research shows how online and offline communications interact in consumer
decision journeys, impacting brand visits and purchases.
- Examples include synergies within offline media types for dealer visits,
different impacts of online and offline advertising on sales, and the synergistic
effects of firm-generated content in social media with other marketing
channels.
 Development of a Conceptual Framework
- Limitations of the prior research:
1) Not illuminated the full range of outcomes that may arise from consumer exposure
to communications along different stages of the consumer decision journey
2) Tended to study only message effects that occur at the same point of time, rather
than to also incorporate lagged and downstream effects.
→ It has not really provided a fully dynamic, longitudinal view of when and how
cross-effects occur across different media and the temporal sequences (downstream
effects) involved.
3) Generally pools all consumers together during analysis, implicitly assuming that
they have the same response elasticities to every communication or media option
→ The stage of their decision journey should be used as a moderator variable to allow
for heterogeneity in effects.

- Propose two different communication models as part of such an improved

conceptual framework to address 2 specific questions:
1) What are the effects or outcomes created by different types of communication
options or platforms? Which of these communication options best helps achieve the
communication objectives associated with each stage in the consumer decision
journey?
2) How do you ensure that those communication options are well-integrated to
collectively maximize the communication effects created?
Understanding Consumer Processing of Communications

Consumer Characteristics: Consumer motivation, ability, and opportunity to process

a communication determine the intensity and direction of that processing and the
resulting outcomes that occur (Batra and Ray 1986; MacInnis and Jaworski 1989;
MacInnis, Moorman, and Jaworski 1991; Petty, Cacioppo, and Schumann 1983)
+ Opportunity: the opportunity to process information is determined in large
part by the nature of the medium itself, as well as the processing conditions
(context) under which the message is received.
+ Motivation: varies with the extent to which the consumer views it as
potentially helping with the brand choice task at hand.
=> Situational factors may also matter in their potential to affect consumers’
emotional state/mood and willingness or desire to seek information
+ Ability: the consumer's ability to process information depends on the amount
of prior familiarity and knowledge with the brand and category.
=> Consumers at the earliest stages of category search might not be able to process
in-depth attribute-level brand comparison information (Alba and Hutchinson 1987),
though they should still be able to understand which brands are more versus less
relevant for their brand choice decisions (Court et al. 2009)

Characteristics of the Processing Context or Situation:

- The effectiveness of consumer communication depends on time and place of
message exposure: Whether the consumer is under time pressure or in a setting
conducive to in-depth processing. Different media have varying strengths in terms of
information content, emotional impact, and ability to trigger action.
- Prior research: Studies by Stern and Resnick (1991) and others have compared
information content across different media.
- Limited empirical investigation: Most relationships between media characteristics
and communication goals have not been formally studied by academic researchers.
=> Future research is needed to validate and refine the relationships between media
characteristics and communication outcomes.

Communication Content Characteristics

- Characteristics of communication (modality, execution, message information, and
source credibility) ) influence the resulting outcomes from exposure (Stern and
Resnick 1991).
- Creative strategies (music, celebrities, special effects, sex appeals, and fear appeals)
can increase motivation but may also distract consumers from the brand or message.
(McGuire 1978)
- Medium characteristics affect the opportunity for in-depth processing. Mobile
messages may limit processing depth due to smaller screens, while websites can
provide more detailed information.
- Message source credibility is crucial for motivating consumers to process detailed
information. (McGuire 1978).

Communication Outcomes
- Create awareness and salience: Ensure the brand is easily recognized and
associated with relevant cues. (Keller 2001a)
- Convey detailed information: Convince consumers of the advantages of choosing
the actual products or services identified with the brand.
- Create imagery and personality: Develop a distinct brand identity that resonates
with consumers.
- Build trust: Establish credibility and authenticity to influence consumer decisions.
- Elicit emotions: Create emotional connections through brand messaging and
storytelling.
- Inspire action: Motivate consumers to take action, such as purchasing or
recommending the brand.
- Instill loyalty: Build customer satisfaction and loyalty through positive experiences.
- Connect people: Foster brand advocacy and word-of-mouth marketing by creating
meaningful emotional connections.

Rationale for the Communications Models

- Marketers should be “media neutral” and evaluate all communication options on
the basis of effectiveness (How many desired effects does a communication create?)
and efficiency (At what cost are those outcomes created?).
=> Present our communications optimization model, which takes more of a
“top-down” view of the communications program as a whole to consider how
efficiently it has been assembled and how well it has been integrated overall.

Communications Matching Model

The next section will illustrate the model by examining consumer journey steps,
identifying knowledge gaps, and proposing useful media combinations for an
integrated marketing communication (IMC) plan at each stage.

Stage 1: The Consumer Recognizes That (S)he Has an Unmet Need or Want and
Begins to Think About What Kinds of Products or Services Might Satisfy It
- Communications objective: Larger-share brands ought to consider the
enhancement of overall category demand as a possible goal.
- Appropriate media to utilize promoting generic category demand:
+ Location-targeted mobile apps and ads
+ Paid search ads triggered by proximate search keywords
+ Third-party website and blog native content
- Messing approach:
+ Make the category-level need conscious by showing how it solves a
problem or improves quality of life
+ Creating a desire in consumers to identify brands that satisfy the
recognized need.

Stage 2: The Consumer Then Begins to Consider Which Specific Possible Brands
Might Best Satisfy That Need or Want
 - Consumer Motivation and Ability: Consumers are motivated but lack the
ability to research extensively, identifying only a few brands for further
consideration.
- Marketer's Tasks: Increase the accessibility and salience of the brand and its
reasons for consideration.
- Visibility Strategies: Use channels likes:
+ Organic and paid search ads
+ Retargeted display ads
+ Targeted social media posts
+ Location-targeted mobile ads
+ High visibility in traditional media and sponsorships
+ Native content on popular websites
+ Positive user-generated content
+ Thought leadership websites
Stage 3&4: The Consumer Will Next Try to Actively Learn More About the
Various Brand Options That Seem Capable of Satisfying the Category-Level
Need or Want
- Increased Information Processing: As consumers progress in the decision
journey, their ability to process information increases, leading them to seek
more detailed and granular information.
- Reduced Reliance on Heuristics: Consumers are likely to rely less on
heuristics and peripheral cues, such as endorsements or source likability.
- Information Search Methods:
● Visits to brand or third-party websites (e.g., Consumer Reports, Edmunds.com)
● Search engine queries to find informative brand content
● Inquiries to friends and acquaintances, both online and offline
● Visits to dealer and retailer outlets for inspections and conversations with
salespeople

Marketer Strategies: Marketers can utilize:

● Persuasive content in long TV ads or YouTube videos

● Informative online and offline word-of-mouth (WOM) and viral content
● Placement of key brand information on blogs and third-party sites

Stage 5: The Consumer Then Decides Which Pieces of Information Are Both
Credible and Diagnostic and, Thus, Relevant to Choice

- Performance Claims and Evidence: When brands make specific performance

claims, consumers often seek credible evidence to support those claims, known
as “reasons to believe.”
 - Sources of Credible Evidence: This evidence can come from:
○ Objective, third-party testing
○ Endorsements and testimonials from current and past customers (e.g.,
published reviews)
○ Recommendations from friends via Facebook, emails, or personal
conversations
○ Insights from perceived experts or celebrities through ads, blog posts,
tweets, or conversations with salespeople
- Integrated Marketing Communication Plans: Brands should implement
integrated marketing communication plans to:
○ Solicit credible and positive reviews and ratings
○ Encourage endorsements and testimonials in owned media as well as
earned and shared media
- Building Trust and Confidence: Communications at this stage should aim to
foster trust and confidence in the brand, organization, and employees.
- Reducing Purchase Anxiety: Providing credible information helps reduce
purchase anxiety, particularly for service brands, and builds consumer trust.
- Signals of Credibility: Credibility can be signaled through:
○ Increased brand prominence in media
○ Positive public reviews and ratings
○ Publicized awards
○ Associations with other trusted, high-quality brands and organizations

Stage 6: The Consumer Next Has to Decide How Much the Preferred Brand Is
Worth to Decide on the Extent of His or Her Willingness to Pay the Asked-For
Price

- Fair Pricing Communication: Brand communications must convey that the

price is “fair,” competitively reasonable, and possibly lower than the value
delivered compared to competitors.
- Media Campaign Examples: Conventional media campaigns, such as Jim
Beam Black’s “8 Years Changes Everything,” can effectively communicate this
pricing strategy.
- Influence of Emotional Benefits: At this willingness-to-pay stage, perceived
brand value is influenced by emotional benefits and social appeal.
- Meaning Transfer and Social Image: Brands should aim to create desired
feelings and social image value through “meaning transfer,” making these
objectives key at this stage.
- Effective Media Types: Media that effectively transfer brand associations,
cultural meaning, and emotions include:
○ Long-form TV ads
 ○ High-prestige events
○ Celebrity (re)tweets
○ YouTube brand videos (e.g., Dove)
○ Engaging Facebook pages or posts (e.g., Procter & Gamble’s Cover Girl
with Ellen DeGeneres)
○ Blogs (e.g., Iams)

Stage 7: Even if a Favorable Willingness-to-Pay Judgment Is Rendered,

Consumers Still Have to Follow Through and Make the Purchase
- Impelling Action: Brand communications must clearly encourage action by
informing ready-to-buy consumers where the product can be purchased
conveniently, at an acceptable price, and with confidence.
- Delay in Purchase: A preference for a brand does not guarantee immediate
trial or purchase. Delays can occur due to perceived inconvenience,
untrustworthiness, or lack of best pricing, which can reduce actual purchases.
- Effective Messaging: Messages should include information about retail or
e-shopping locations, guarantees/warranties, return policies, and “actual prices
paid” data to show that the price is a good deal.
- Promotional Tactics: “Limited-time” promotions and deals can be offered to
incentivize immediate sales.
- Media Channels: Messages should be delivered through various channels,
including:
● Paid media
● Owned media (e.g., brand websites, social media)
● Earned media (e.g., third-party shopping advice sites, price comparison apps)
● Distribution partners using co-op advertising and linked retailer websites

Stage 9&10: A Consumer Then Has to Weigh Whether (S)he Wants to

Repurchase the Brand over Time
- Repeat Purchases Importance: Repeat purchases increase customer lifetime
value and depend on consumer satisfaction with the product and initial
purchase decision.
- Ongoing Brand Communications: Brands must reassure buyers that they are
meeting “reasonable” expectations to maintain satisfaction.
- Enhancing Customer Satisfaction: Companies can improve customer
interactions through internal media, like internal YouTube channels (e.g., Best
Buy’s “Blue Shirt Nation”).
- Media for Purchase Reinforcement: Effective media for reinforcement
includes:
 ● Post-purchase direct mail
● Email and outbound telemarketing
● Targeted traditional ads
● Retargeted display ads
● Social media support (e.g., Zappos, Delta, UPS)
● Online sentiment tracking

Increasing Consumption and Sales: Brands can enhance consumption and boost
sales through targeted discounts for existing customers in loyalty programs.

Stage 11&12: Some Consumers May Then Choose to Engage in Positive WOM
for the Brand or Even Become Brand “Advocates” and “Missionaries” for It

- Brand Love and WOM Opportunities: Consumers are more likely to engage
in word-of-mouth (WOM) if they genuinely love the brand, believing it reflects
their core values and helps communicate their identity.
- Meaningful Brand Communications: Brands need to create communications
that resonate deeply, symbolizing the consumers' life values, identities, and
aspirations.
- Utilizing Emotional Cues: Effective communications should incorporate
emotional, cultural, and symbolic cues, using “authentic” messages and
“close-to-consumer” media (e.g., Four Seasons tweeting about wine tastings).
- Facilitating Brand Engagement: Marketers should create attractive and easy
ways for consumers to interact with the brand through:
○ Twitter hashtag events
○ Facebook pages
○ Online and offline brand communities
○ Helpful native content on websites and blogs
○ Voting contests (e.g., Electronic Arts player cover voting, American
Express charitable project voting.

Communications Optimization Model

The 7Cs criteria to assess integration include:
- Coverage
- Cost
- Contribution
- Commonality
- Complementarity
- Cross-Effects
- Conformability
To briefly describe,
Coverage and Cost are 2 criteria relevant to the communication plan's financial
efficiency
The next five criteria evaluate if the IMC program actually influences those
consumers along their decision journey to drive sales in the short run and build brand
equity in the long run

Coverage
The proportion of the target audience reached by each communication option
employed, as well as the amount of overlap among those options.
in other words,
- to what what extent do different communication options used reach the designated
target audience and how many of them are reached by again by the other options?

Cost
Goal is to make use of the budget and create the most effective and most efficient
communications program.

To increase the cost efficiency of an IMC program,

- A/B split field experiment, using tracking metrics on business metrics that feed into
ROI assessment. For instance, do those customers who are fans on a firm’s Facebook
page have a sufficiently higher purchase frequency? Do they spend more, with fewer
discounts?

- Such tests would use a randomized test versus control design to obviate issues of
causality. (khó xác định được vấn đề). e.g., Facebook page/Twitter followers could
otherwise be consumers who already feel high brand affinity

Contribution
Contribution measures the direct impact of marketing communication on consumer
behavior, independent of other communication options.
- A communication may affect consumer processing and build awareness, enhance
image, elicit responses, induce sales, or affect any other stage along the consumer
journey

Commonality
The extent to which common associations are reinforced across communication
options; that is, the extent to which different communication options share the same
meaning.
A repeated message is more effective when it is presented in two different modes
rather than in one.
Communication programs with a common theme executed across multiple media in a
visually consistent manner can induce stronger attitudes toward the brand than the
same executions with less visual consistency.

Complementarity
The extent to which different associations and linkages are emphasized across
communication options.
For effective competitive positioning, brands typically need to establish multiple
brand associations. Different marketing communication options may be better suited
to establishing a particular brand association

Cross-Effects
- Communications used in tandem are more powerful when they interact and
create synergistic cross-effects with other communications through proper
sequencing.
eg. promotions and online solicitations can be more effective when combined with
advertising.

- Advertising can shape brand awareness and attitudes, which in turn can boost
the effectiveness of direct sales pitches.
- Call-to-Action: Techniques like online display advertising and search engine
marketing can reinforce brand positioning and prompt consumer action

Conformability
- How well does the communication conform to the different characteristics and
communication needs of different consumers.
- A conformable communication strategy should engage consumers regardless of
their previous exposure to other messages from the brand. It should effectively
reach both new and returning audiences.
- Advances in new media and programmatic advertising allow for better tracking
of consumer interactions, enabling more tailored communications based on
prior exposures.
- A comprehensive IMC program should excel in seven criteria
- Different communication types can fulfill unique roles in achieving objectives.
However, they differ in audience coverage and conformability.
Communications that utilize multiple modalities (e.g., audio, video, images)
have greater potential for commonality and adaptability, allowing them to
resonate with a wider audience.
Summary
Conclusion
Batra and Keller (2016) shed light on the significance of integrated marketing
communications (IMC) in today's complicated marketing landscape. With the surge of
digital platforms, marketers will face new challenges and opportunities, which require
innovative instruments and approaches to organize the progressively intricate
communications environment.
The authors propose two communication models as part of a broad conceptual
framework to address key IMC questions: the Communications Matching Model and
the Communication Optimization Model. These models aim to offer a structure for
strategically arranging promotions over numerous channels to effectively reach
audiences with consistent brand messages. Marketers must carefully consider media
integration and have a complete understanding of the consumer paths to purchase and
decision funnels for their specific product categories and consumer segments.

Managerial Implications
Managerial Implications for managers identified in the article included thoroughly
understanding the consumer paths to purchase and decision funnels specifically to the
product categories and segments of interest with the recognition that these journeys
are often complex and nonlinear. Additionally, conducting regular communications
audits is crucial to evaluate integration and ensure that the collective impact exceeds
the sum of individual efforts. Utilizing the seven criteria from the communication
integration model—coverage, cost, contribution, commonality, complementarity,
cross-effects, and conformability—can aid in this assessment, along with in-depth
reviews of ongoing or completed communication programs to measure their
contributions to brand equity and sales.
Future Research Directions