Marketing communication: principles and practice

FURTHER READING
Bradley, F. (1995) 
Marketing Management: Providing, Communicating, and Delivering
Value
, London: Prentice-Hall.
Davidson, M. P. (1992) 
The Consumerist Manifesto: Advertising in Postmodern Times
,
London: Routledge.
Dibb, S., Simkin, L., Pride, W. M. and Ferrell, O. C. (1999) 
Marketing: Concepts
and Strategies
, 3rd edn, Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Grönroos, C. (2000) 
Service Management and Marketing: A Customer Relationship
Management Approach
, Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.
Kotler, P. (2000) 
Marketing Management
, The Millennium (10th) edn, Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Prentice-Hall International.
Leiss, W., Kline, S. and Jhally, S. (1986) 
Social Communication in Advertising: Persons,
Products, and Images of Well-Being
, London: Methuen.
O’Shaughnessy J. (1992) 
Competitive Marketing: A Strategic Approach
, 2nd edn,
London: Routledge.
Smith, P. R., Berry, C. and Pulford, A. (1997) 
Strategic Marketing Communications:
New Ways to Build and Integrate Communications
, London: Kogan Page.
S O C I A L C O M M U N I C A T O R
148

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Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate
Shakespeare, Sonnet 18, ll. 1–2
People do not perceive the world as it really is
Robert Ornstein
The brand can defeat reality
Stuart Crainer
chapter 
eight
THE BRAND
COMMUNICATOR
LEARNING POINTS
Careful study of this chapter will help you to:
• examine the nature and role of product brand management
• appreciate the communicative nature of a brand
• connect brand design with marketing communication objectives
• think of a brand as akin to a product–provider reputation

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INTRODUCTION
Cognitive effects may influence behaviour – experience is interpreted and
used to change attitudes and knowledge, which control our behaviour.
Behaviour may be modified when people communicate. This can explain
how some advertising and word-of-mouth interaction affect consumer
choices. This is counter to the behavioural perspective. Behaviourists rejected
the idea that thought and feeling initiate actions. They saw thought and feeling
as effects not causes. The stimulus–response (S–R) is now widely considered
to be outmoded (see chapters two and three). 
The cumulative effect of advertising is to associate commodities with
meanings. Thus in Britain a Valentine card stands for romantic love, a roast
turkey stands for Christmas. As we saw in chapter six, cultural differences
produce various meanings for products and related expressions and
representations.
Product purchase is an expression of a preference among a fixed range of
options (those offered by providers). This is product or brand selection rather
than choice.
Strong brands seem to live forever! A Boston Consulting Group study
showed that in 19 of the 22 categories studied, the brand leader in 1925 was
still the leader in 1985. In the other categories the 1925 brand leader was
either second or fifth in 1985. 
Why will customers pay over $400 more for an IBM PC than for a similar
performance and specification PC from Dell or Compaq?