IMC Exam One Study Guide Flashcards (Chapters 1–8)

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering key definitions, concepts, and comparisons from Chapters 1 through 8 of the Integrated Marketing Communications course notes.

Communication

The process where individuals share meaning and establish a commonness of thought.

Marketing Communications

All elements of a firm's marketing mix that facilitate exchange by establishing shared meaning with customers.

Marketing Mix

The 4 Ps: product, price, place, and promotion.

Promotional Mix

Advertising, public relations, sales promotion, personal selling, direct marketing, and digital/social media.

Promotion Management

Coordinating promotional mix elements through objectives, budgets, program design, evaluation, and corrective action.

Promotion Objectives

Inform, persuade, and Induce Action

Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC)

Coordinating promotional tools with each other and with the marketing mix so all elements speak with one voice.

Synergy

Multiple communication tools working together to create better results than the tools used individually.

• EX: A TV ad, social media posts, and in-store displays all use the same campaign

5 IMC features

1. Start with the consumer

2. Use relevant touch points

3. Speak with one voice

4. Build Relationships

5. Affect Behavior

Paid Media

A channel the company pays to use, such as a paid Instagram ad.

Owned Media

A channel the company controls, such as its website or email list.

Earned Media

Exposure received from others, such as reviews, shares, word-of-mouth, or news coverage.

Micromarketing

Customizing products and communications for smaller segments.

Brand

A name, term, sign, symbol, design, or combination that identifies a seller and differentiates it from competitors.

Brand Equity

The goodwill an established brand has built over time.

Trade Dress

A product's appearance and image, including packaging, labeling, shape, color, sounds, design, lettering, and style.

• EX: Coca-cola’s recognizable red-and-white packaging

Revenue Premium

Extra revenue earned because customers pay more for a branded product than for a comparable private-label product.

Firm-Based Brand Equity

Brand value outcomes for stakeholders such as consumers, retailers, wholesalers, suppliers, and employees.

Customer-Based Brand Equity

Brand value created by familiarity and strong, favorable, unique associations in consumers' memories.

Brand Awareness Pyramid

Unawareness → recognition → recall → top-of-mind awareness (TOMA).

Functional Needs

Solving a practical problem, such as a vacuum cleaner removing dirt.

• EX: A vacuum cleaner removing dirt

Symbolic Needs

Needs related to status, identity, self-enhancement, group membership, or belonging.

• EX: A luxury watch communicating status

Experiential Needs

Needs for sensory pleasure, variety, fun, or cognitive stimulation.

• EX: Buying an exciting vacation experience

Brand Personality

Human characteristics associated with a brand.

Five Brand Personalities

Sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness.

Co-Branding

A partnership between two brands.

Ingredient Branding

One brand is included as a component of another product, such as Intel Inside.

ROMI - Return on Marketing Investment

Measures whether marketing creates a reasonable return relative to its investment.

Product Adoption

The introduction and acceptance of new ideas, including new brands.

Relative Advantage

How much better an innovation is perceived to be than the current option.

Compatibility

How consistent an innovation is with existing values, experiences, habits, and needs.

Complexity

How difficult an innovation is perceived to be.

Trialability

The ability to try an innovation before fully committing.

• EX: Free streaming trial

Observability

How easily the positive effects of an innovation can be seen.

Brand Name

A unique designation or trademark distinguishing an offering from competitors.

Good Brand Name

Differentiates, helps learning, fits the image, is memorable/easy to pronounce, and works globally.

Logo

A graphic design element related to a brand name. Good ___ are recognizable, meaningful, positive, balanced, and updatable.

Patent

Protects inventions or technology; lasts for a 20-year term.

Copyright

Protects tangible expression of an idea, not the idea itself; lasts for the life of author plus 70 years.

Trademark

Protects brand/product identification and is renewable in 10-year periods.

Brand Naming Process

5 step process: 1. Specify objectives for the brand name, 2. Create candidate brand names, 3. Evaluate candidate names, 4. Choose a brand name, 5. Register a trademark

Green Marketing

Responding to environmental/sustainability concerns through environmentally oriented products and promotional programs.

Legitimate Green Marketing

Should improve environmental quality and meet customer needs.

Greenwashing

Bogus, misleading, or exaggerated environmental marketing claims.

• EX: Calling a shirt eco-friendly because it contains 5% recycled material while hiding the rest.

Environmental Packaging Response

Recyclable bottles, paperboard instead of polystyrene, cardboard instead of plastic, and smaller packages.

Seal of approval programs

Programs helping consumers identify environmentally friendly products, such as EPA Safer choice or Rainforest packages

FTC - Federal Trade Commission

Regulates advertising, environmental claims, packaging claims, and online marketing claims.

FDA - Food and Drug Administration

Regulates food, drug, and tobacco packaging/labeling and prescription drug advertising.

Lanham Act

Allows companies to sue one another over false claims.

Self Regulation

Industry oversight through groups such as NAD, NARB, and CARU

NAD - National Advertising Division

Reviews advertising claims and helps determine whether advertising is truthful and accurate

NARB - National Advertising Review Board

Reviews appeals of NAD decisions

CARU - Children's Advertising Review Unit

A self-regulatory program that reviews advertising directed at children.

Deception

A representation, omission, or practice likely to mislead a reasonable consumer and material to the consumer's choice.

Corrective Advertising

Future advertising used to correct deceptive impressions.

Ethics

Questions of right and wrong or moral conduct in marketing communications.

Segmentation

Identifying bases for dividing a market and developing profiles of the resulting segments.

Targeting

Evaluating segment attractiveness and selecting target segment(s).

Positioning

Developing a position for each target segment and creating a marketing mix for each target.

Behavioral Segmentation

Dividing consumers by how they behave toward a product category.

Psychographics

Attitudes, values, motivations, and lifestyles related to buying behavior.

Geodemographics

Geographic clusters whose residents also share demographic and lifestyle similarities.

Online Behavioral Targeting

Tracking online behavior to serve targeted ads; raises privacy concerns.

Five Effective Segmentation Criteria

Measurable, substantial, accessible, differentiable, and actionable.

Undifferentiated Marketing

One strategy for the entire market

Differentiated Marketing

Different strategies for multiple segments

Concentrated Marketing

Focusing on one or a small number of segments

Benefit Positioning

Positioning around the benefit received

Attribute positioning

Positioning around a product feature.

VALS

Psychographic Segments

VALS: Innovators

Successful, sophisticated, take-charge, high self-esteem

VALS: Thinkers

Mature, satisfied, reflective; value order, knowledge, and responsibility

VALS: Believers

Conservative and conventional; guided by traditional beliefs and community

VALS: Achievers

Goal-oriented; motivated by achievement and committed to career and family

VALS: Strivers

Trendy and fun-loving; motivated by achievement and committed to cereer and family

VALS: Experiencers

Young, enthusiastic, impulsive; motivated by self-expression and new experiences.

VALS: Makers

Motivated by self-expression and working on the world around them.

VALS: Survivors

Few resources; prefer familiarity and focus on safety and security.

General communication objectives

Build category wants, create awareness, enhance brand attitudes, influence purchase intention, and facilitate purchase.

Encoding

Putting a thought into symbolic form, such as words, images, symbols, or nonverbal cues.

Decoding

Transforming message symbols back into thought.

Semiotics

The study of meaning and meaning-producing events.

Socialization

Learning cultural values, beliefs, and physical cues representing those values

Signal

A product feature where the product is a cause or effect of something else

• EX: SUVs signaling large families

Sign

An association where the product and referent belong to the same cultural context.

• EX: SUVs may be associated with suburbs and upper-middle-class families

Symbol

An association created even though the product and object had no prior relationship.

• EX: Ford trucks and a tough-guy image.

Simile

A comparison using like or as.

• EX: a brand is like a rock

Metaphor

A direct comparison without using like or as.

• EX: Breakfast of champions

Allegory

An extended metaphor where a story or character represents a larger meaning.

Consumer Processing Model (CPM)

A model assuming consumer behavior is rational, highly cognitive, systematic, and reasoned.

Hedonic, Experiential Model (HEM)

A model assuming consumer behavior is driven by emotions in pursuit of fun, fantasies, and feelings.

More Exposure Hypothesis

Repeated exposure increases familiarity and may create positive feelings

Attention Factors

Stimulus intensity, novelty, past experience, needs, expectations, and values.

8 Stages of Information Processing

1. Exposure to information, 2. Selective attention, 3. Comprehension, 4. Agreement, 5. Retention in Memory, 6. Retrieval, 7. Consumer Decision-making, 8. Action

Cognitive

Knowledge, thoughts, and beliefs

Affective

Feelings and evaluations.

High-Involvement Hierarchy

Cognition → affect → conation (think, feel, do).

Low-Involvement Hierarchy

Minimal cognition → conation → affect (limited thinking, act/try, then develop feelings).

6 Tools of Persuasion Influence

Reciprocation, Commitment, social proof, authority, liking, scarcity.

Reciprocation

Free samples or gifts create a desire to return a favor.