Marketing communication: principles and practice

WHAT DO YOU THINK?
1 Consider the advent of artificial agents (‘intelligent search engines loaded
with consumer preference data’) in online shopping. What are the
implications for the management of marketing communications?
2 With ‘e-tail’ (online retail shopping) accounting for only a tiny portion
of total retail sales value, why all the attention?
3 What are the advantages and disadvantages for consumers/buyers and
providers, respectively, of the proliferation of media options?
4 What might be the symbolic value to a marketer and to a consumer
respectively, of a web presence for the provider?
5 As product and corporate branding efforts increase, arguably advertising
will have to be increased in volume and impact to promote and protect
brands against more competition in the minds of consumers and buyers.
How will this affect media-selection judgements?
6 ‘New media generally do not replace “old” media, they simply offer
another option.’ What implications does this have for marketing
communication managers?
7 Some selection criteria are degree of interactivity, content format, cost,
and availability. Examine several rather different media options and
identify realistic benefits and limitations for several communication
objectives.
8 Why is media selection a critical part of the marketing manager’s job?
9 What media options are available for the generative part of the marketing
process? How would you evaluate their effectiveness and efficiency?
10 Some people are today arguing that the media are not merely
‘communications channels’. What is meant by this?
S E L E C T I N G M E D I A
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Discussion topics
1. Who else has built a product brand with only direct mail? (Names that come to mind
include 
Reader’s Digest
, 
Which? Magazine
, and the International Masters Publishers (IMP)
series of specialist books. Pizza Express, for example, never advertise. Can you identify
others?)
2. What is the impact on direct mail for the adoption of the Internet?
3. Royal Mail clearly have a vested interest in direct mail. What is their response to Internet
advertising and trading?
4. What is the reason that the Royal Bank of Scotland is not able to build a strong brand?
5. What should they do next?
6. Does the consumer credit card finance market need regulating? (See the 
Cruickshank
Report
).
7. Why are people in the UK so inert to the onslaught of promotional marketing messages?
(In 1999 more than 300 million mailing packs were sent to 21 million households).
Note
: 
a
The cooperation and assistance of Tim Lewis, the Royal Bank of Scotland, and Dave Hawkins, the
Hawkins Innovation Network, in preparing this case history is gratefully acknowledged

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