Marketing communication: principles and practice

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BOX 9.2
PEPPING UP PEP PROMOTION
Virgin Direct wanted to make contact with, and broaden the appeal of personal equity
plans for people who do not regularly read the personal finance sections of national
newspapers.
Agency Consolidated Communications created a series of advertorials that
appeared in the news sections of several major daily and Sunday newspapers. These
were written to given a more in-depth explanation of the benefits of Virgin’s PEP
products, and featured quirky photographs of Richard Branson in various related
situations that would be immediately recognizable and with which people could
identify and see as fun.
The style of the features was consistent with that of the respective publication but
did not attempt to mimic editorial. Information was kept very basic so that readers
could make up their own mind.
Through a direct-response telephone number, the ‘On the track of the best PEP’
article generated more than £1m in sales.
(
Source
: based on Purdom, 1996: 11)

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constantly created in interaction with consumers, suppliers, employees and
managers (Normann and Ramirez, 1994). In these interactions, people
construct experiences (Holbrook and Hirschman, 1982). The value of the
experiences is increased by customized marketing relationships. In this new
way of thinking, consumption can no longer be seen as separate from
communication, buying, post-purchase behaviour, and so on (Gatarski and
Lundkvist, 1998).
Box 9.3 and 9.4 provide two illustrations of marketing communication
through new media and by innovative methods.
We saw, in chapter two, that traditional marketing thinking presupposes
that producers produce and communicate, while consumers receive and
consume. In the marketing process, i.e. in taking a product into the
marketplace, production, communication, and consumption are separate
processes. The task of the marketer is seen to be to reach, and stay in, the
minds of consumers. It is also presumed that consumers are (naturally)