Integrated Marketing Communications and Consumer Behavior

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the foundations of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC), the marketing and promotion process, and internal and external influences on consumer behavior.

Integrated Marketing Communications (4As Definition)

A concept of marketing communications planning that recognizes the added value of a comprehensive plan that evaluates the strategic roles of a variety of communication disciplines and combines them to provide clarity, consistency, and maximum communications impact.

Integrated Marketing Communications (Schultz Definition)

A strategic business process used to plan, develop, execute, and evaluate coordinated, measurable, brand communications programs over time with consumers, customers, prospects, employees, associates, and other targeted audiences, aiming to generate short-term financial returns and build long-term brand and shareholder value.

Value

The customer's perception of all the benefits of a product or service weighed against all the costs of acquiring and using it.

Promotion

The coordination of all seller-initiated efforts to set up channels of information and persuasion to sell goods and services or promote an idea.

Promotional Mix

The basic tools or elements—such as advertising, direct marketing, digital/internet marketing, sales promotion, publicity/public relations, and personal selling—used to accomplish an organization's objectives.

Advertising

Any paid form of nonpersonal communication about an organization, product, service, or idea by an identified sponsor.

Direct Marketing

A system of marketing by which organizations communicate directly with target customers to generate a response and/or a transaction.

Sales Promotion

Marketing activities that provide extra value or incentive to the sales force, distributors, or ultimate consumers to stimulate immediate sales.

Publicity

Nonpersonal communications about an organization, product, service, or idea that is not directly paid for nor run under identified sponsorship.

Public Relations

A management function that evaluates public attitudes, identifies the policies and procedures of an individual or organization with the public interest, and executes a program of action to earn public understanding and acceptance.

Personal Selling

Direct person-to-person communication whereby a seller attempts to assist and/or persuade prospective buyers to purchase a company's product or service or act on an idea.

Company-Created Touch Points

Planned marketing communication messages generated by the firm, such as advertisements, websites, press releases, packaging, sales promotions, and point-of-purchase displays.

Intrinsic Touch Points

Interactions that occur with a company or brand during the process of buying or using a product or service, such as discussions with retail sales personnel or customer service representatives.

Unexpected Touch Points

Unanticipated references or information about a company or brand that a customer or prospect receives beyond the organization's control, including word-of-mouth and media sources.

Customer-Initiated Touch Points

Interactions that occur whenever a customer or prospect contacts a company, typically involving inquiries or complaints handled by customer service departments.

Brand Identity

A combination of factors—including name, logo, symbols, design, packaging, and performance—as well as the associations that come to mind when consumers think about a brand.

Market Opportunities

Areas where a company feels there are favorable demand trends, where customer needs and wants are not being satisfied, and where it can compete effectively.

Competitive Advantage

Something unique or special a firm does or possesses that gives it an edge over competitors.

Market Segmentation

The process of grouping potential customers based on similar needs and/or behaviors that are likely to cause them to respond similarly to marketing actions.

Undifferentiated Marketing

A target marketing strategy that involves ignoring segment differences and developing one product for the entire market.

Differentiated Marketing

A target marketing strategy that involves deciding to compete in a number of segments and developing different marketing strategies for each.

Concentrated Marketing

A strategy where a firm focuses all of its efforts on one specific segment in an attempt to capture a large share of that market.

Positioning

The art and science of fitting the product or service to one or more segments of the broad market in such a way as to set it meaningfully apart from the competition.

Brand Equity

An intangible asset of added value or goodwill that results from the favorable image, impressions of differentiation, and/or the strength of consumer attachment to a company name, brand name, or trademark.

Push Strategy

A promotional strategy aimed at persuading trade intermediaries to stock, merchandise, and promote a company's products by aggressively selling to resellers through trade allowances, personal selling, and trade advertising.

Pull Strategy

A promotional strategy designed to create consumer demand among end users through heavy advertising and sales promotion so that retailers are encouraged to carry the brand.

Consumer Behavior

The process and activities that people engage in when searching for, selecting, purchasing, using, evaluating, and disposing of products and services so as to satisfy their needs and desires.

Problem Recognition

The first step in the consumer decision-making process, caused by a perceived difference between the consumer's ideal state and actual state.

Internal Search

An information search stage involving a scan of information stored in memory to recall past experiences or knowledge regarding purchase alternatives.

External Search

An information search stage involving acquiring information from outside sources such as personal contacts, marketer-controlled sources, public sources, or product examination.

Perception

The process by which an individual receives, selects, organizes, and interprets information to create a meaningful picture of the world.

Sensation

The immediate and direct response of the senses to a stimulus, such as an advertisement.

Subliminal Perception

The ability of an individual to perceive a stimulus that is below the level of conscious awareness.

Evoked Set

A subset of all the brands of which the consumer is aware and actively considering in the purchase decision process.

Evaluative Criteria

The dimensions or attributes of a product or service that are used by consumers to compare different purchase alternatives.

Functional Consequences

Tangible, concrete outcomes that can be experienced directly by consumers when a product or service is purchased and/or consumed.

Psychosocial Consequences

Intangible, subjective, and personal outcomes experienced by consumers when purchasing or consuming a product or service.

Attitudes

A summary construct that represents an individual's overall feelings or evaluation of an object, such as a brand, company, retail store, or advertisement.

Multiattribute Attitude Models

Models that view an object as possessing a collection of attributes providing the basis upon which consumers form beliefs and shape their overall attitudes.

Heuristics

Informal integration rules or mental shortcuts used by consumers to combine information and evaluate alternative options during decision making.

Cognitive Dissonance

A feeling of psychological tension or post-purchase doubt a consumer may experience after making a difficult purchase choice.

Routine Response Behavior

A habitual consumer decision-making process for low-priced, frequently purchased products consisting of little more than problem recognition, brief internal search, and purchase.

Limited Problem Solving

A decision-making variation where a consumer has limited experience with a product or service but is somewhat aware of available brands and purchase criteria.

Extended Problem Solving

The most complex and detailed form of decision making, occurring when consumers have little to no knowledge regarding criteria or available brands.

Classical Conditioning

A behavioral learning approach assuming learning is an associative process whereby the relationship between an unconditioned stimulus and conditioned stimulus develops through repetition and contiguity.

Operant Conditioning

A behavioral learning approach (also called instrumental conditioning) requiring an individual to act on the environment, where learning occurs as a result of outcomes or reinforcements associated with a response.

Reference Group

A group whose perspective or values are used by an individual as the basis for his or her judgments, opinions, and actions.