Week 1: Advertising and Integrated Marketing Communications

The first lecture introduces the promotional function in marketing, the growing importance of advertising and other promotional elements, and the concept of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC). The central message is that all marketing and promotional tools must be coordinated so that a company communicates one clear and consistent message to its target market.

Chapter objectives

1. To examine the promotional function and the growing importance of advertising and other promotional elements in the marketing programs of domestic and foreign companies.
2. To introduce the concept of IMC and consider how it has evolved.
3. To examine the reasons for the increasing importance of the IMC perspective in planning and executing advertising and promotional programs.
4. To introduce the various elements of the promotional mix and consider their roles in an IMC program.
5. To examine how the various marketing and promotional elements must be coordinated to communicate effectively.
6. To introduce a model of the IMC planning process and the steps in developing a marketing communications program (worked out further in Week 2).

What is marketing?

The AMA represents marketing professionals in the United States and Canada. Its definition stresses that marketing is a process and that it covers all four areas of the marketing mix (conception of the product, pricing, promotion and distribution). Effective marketing requires that managers recognise the interdependence of activities such as sales and promotion and understand how they can be combined into one marketing program.

The lecture structures marketing around four themes, each discussed below:

• Marketing focuses on exchange.
• Relationship marketing.
• The marketing mix.
• Integrated Marketing Communication.

The marketing concept

The marketing concept is illustrated with the well known cosmetics quote: "In the factory, we make cosmetics; in the store, we sell hope." The idea is that marketing is not just about producing goods or offering services, but about understanding and satisfying customer needs and desires.

A cosmetics company is not simply selling a cream, a lipstick or a perfume. It sells something deeper: a feeling, a promise and an aspiration. When customers buy cosmetics they are often buying confidence, beauty, self esteem and hope, the hope of feeling better about themselves or of being perceived differently by others. (The slide shows a Revlon advertisement, "Choose love", as an illustration.)

In short: the factory creates the product, but marketing creates the meaning behind it. Going beyond the functional and connecting to emotional and psychological needs is what makes brands powerful and meaningful.

Marketing focuses on exchange

Exchange is the central focus of marketing. For an exchange to occur, three conditions must be met:

• There must be two or more parties;
• each party must have something of value to the other;
• and there must be a way to communicate with each other.

Advertising and promotion play an important role in the exchange process: they inform consumers of an organization's product or service and convince them of its ability to satisfy their needs or wants. The exchange principle is not limited to commercial firms: non-profit organizations also use advertising, for example to appeal to altruism (donations, volunteering, social causes).

Relationship marketing

The focus of market-driven companies has shifted from single transactions to developing and sustaining relationships with their customers. This is called relationship marketing.

The movement toward relationship marketing has several causes:

• Customers have become much more demanding. They want superior customer value: quality products and services that are competitively priced, convenient to purchase, delivered on time and supported by excellent customer service.
• Customers want personalized products and services tailored to their needs and wants.
• Technology makes this possible. Advances in information technology, flexible manufacturing systems and new marketing processes have led to mass customization: configuring and personalizing a wide range of products and services, such as computers, clothing and cosmetics, for individual customers at scale. Examples in the lecture are Nike By You (customers design their own sneakers) and Mattel's Barbie You Create.
• Retention is cheaper than acquisition. It is often more cost-effective to retain existing customers than to acquire new ones.
• Marketers pay more attention to the lifetime value of a customer, because long-term relationships are profitable.

The marketing mix (4 Ps)

Marketing facilitates the exchange process and the development of relationships by:

1. carefully examining the needs and wants of customers;
2. developing a product or service that satisfies these needs;
3. offering it at a certain price;
4. making it available through a particular place or channel of distribution; and
5. developing a program of promotion or communication to create awareness and interest.

These four controllable elements are the 4 Ps: Product, Place, Promotion and Price. The basic task of marketing is to combine these four elements into a marketing program that facilitates the potential for exchange with consumers in the marketplace. In the lecture diagram, promotion is itself broken down into advertising, sales promotion, public relations, personal selling and direct marketing (the promotional mix, see below).

Key points about the marketing mix:

• The proper marketing mix does not just happen.
• Marketers must be knowledgeable about each element of the mix and must combine the elements to provide an effective marketing program.
• The market must be analyzed through consumer research, and the resulting information must be used to develop an overall marketing strategy and mix.

The advertising program as part of the marketing strategy

• The advertising program must be part of a viable marketing strategy and be coordinated with other marketing activities.
• A firm can spend large sums on advertising or sales promotion, but it stands little chance of success if the product is of poor quality, is priced improperly, or does not have adequate distribution to consumers. Advertising cannot compensate for weaknesses in the other Ps.
• All elements of the marketing mix should be cohesive within one marketing strategy.
• All marketing communication efforts should be integrated to achieve more effective marketing communications.

The failure of separate promotional functions

For many years, the various marketing and promotional functions, such as sales promotion, advertising, direct marketing, public relations and package design, were planned and managed as separate practices, with different budgets and different objectives. The failure was that firms did not recognise that all marketing and promotional tools must be coordinated to communicate effectively and to present a consistent image to the target market. IMC is the answer to this problem.

Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC): definitions

Schultz emphasizes that IMC calls for a "big-picture" approach to planning marketing and promotion programs and to coordinating the various communication functions. Firms must develop a total marketing communications strategy that recognizes how all of a firm's marketing activities, not only promotion, communicate with its customers. The price, the packaging, the store, the website and the behaviour of staff all send messages about the brand.

Comparing both views: the 4A's definition focuses on combining promotional tools into one comprehensive plan, while Schultz's view is broader and looks at every contact point between the customer and the brand.

Example: Coca-Cola, "It's the real thing" (1970s). Coca-Cola coordinated and managed its marketing communication programs so that consumers received one consistent message about the brand and the company across all media.

IMC and branding

• Brand identity is the sum of all points of contact that consumers have with the brand, and it extends beyond the experience of actually using it.
• These contacts can result from many forms of IMC activity: advertising, sponsorship, the website, packaging, point of sale and other interactions with the brand.

Examples of strong brand advertising discussed in the lecture:

The challenge of IMC is to understand how to use the various IMC tools to make these contacts and to deliver the branding message effectively and efficiently. A successful IMC program requires that marketers:

1. find the right combination of communication tools and techniques;
2. define their role and the extent to which they can or should be used; and
3. coordinate their use.

The promotional mix: the tools for IMC

The basic tools used to accomplish an organization's communication objectives are called the promotional mix. The lecture lists six elements:

1. Advertising
2. Direct marketing
3. Interactive / internet marketing
4. Sales promotion
5. Publicity / public relations
6. Personal selling

The slides define advertising in detail. For the other elements the standard textbook descriptions (Belch and Belch, the course book) are:

Advertising

The elements of the definition:

• Paid: the space or time for the message must be bought.
• Nonpersonal: advertising involves mass media, which transmit a message to large groups of individuals at the same time. As a consequence there is no immediate feedback from the message recipient (unlike personal selling).
• Identified sponsor: it is clear who is sending the message.

Advertising is a very important promotional tool because of its persuasiveness. Reasons:

• It is a cost-effective method of communicating with large audiences.
• It can create brand images and symbolic appeals, which is especially important for products that are hard to differentiate on functional attributes.
• It can attract consumers' attention and help generate sales.

IMC examples: Volvo, McDonald's, Starbucks, Nike, Apple, Absolut

The lecture shows how strong brands use many touch points with one consistent message:

• Volvo: logo, print advertisements, website and TV commercials, all built around the same brand values (safety, Scandinavian design).
• McDonald's: logo, website, mobile application, outdoor advertising and the store itself.
• Starbucks: logo, website, video commercials and the Starbucks app (worked out in detail in Week 2).
• Nike: logo, websites (including the "Move to Zero" sustainability pages), flagship stores, shoe packaging, print ads, outdoor ads and the Nike app.
• Apple (iPhone product pages) and Absolut vodka (commercials and the "Transform today" campaign) as further examples of consistent brand communication.

The point of these examples is that every contact (logo, packaging, store, app, advert) expresses the same brand identity. That is IMC in practice.

Case: Nike IMC and retailing, the House of Innovation

Nike was founded by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight; its first brand name was Blue Ribbon Sports (the company became Nike in 1971). Nike uses its flagship stores as an integrated communication tool.

Nike flagship store New York: the House of Innovation

• A six-level flagship store, designed to be frictionless, with many screens that upgrade the visual energy of the store.
• On the one hand, "Team Nike" staff are very helpful and omnipresent. On the other hand, customers can shop entirely through the Nike app: scan QR codes to request items to be delivered to dedicated pick-up zones, "Ask the Expert" for advice via a chatbot, use kiosks with "hanger drop" and bags, and buy online using "Shop the Look" on mannequins. It is possible to be outfitted without speaking to a single associate.
• Nike Instant Checkout: pay through the app without queuing.
• Two maker's studios let shoppers fully customize their shoes, down to laces, fabrics and decals (mass customization again).
• Speed Shop: customers order shoes online and try them on in the store. They use a special entrance, find their shoe locker (unlocked via smartphone), try the shoes and check out on mobile without interacting with a person.
• Nike sees the store as a learning platform: from the day the store opens it must continue to learn, reinvent and drive new innovations; services that work are scaled to the whole fleet through the app.

Results linking the store to the membership program (NikePlus)

• Shoppers automatically become NikePlus members when they download the Nike app, and receive perks such as discounts, personalized recommendations and exclusive product offers.
• NikePlus members spend three times more on Nike.com than other shoppers.
• The conversion rate of shoppers into NikePlus members at Nike by Melrose was six times higher than at the rest of Nike's stores.
• Members who had visited the shop later spent 30% more online than comparable members without the in-person experience.
• In Shanghai, where Nike opened a similar store, it signed up a new member every two minutes.
• Similar Houses of Innovation exist in Shanghai and Paris.

The case shows IMC and relationship marketing working together: the physical store, the app, the membership program and personalization form one integrated brand experience that increases loyalty and customer lifetime value.

Summary

• Marketing is about creating exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives; exchange requires two parties, something of value and a means of communication.
• Relationship marketing and mass customization reflect demanding customers, new technology and the value of retention.
• Promotion is one of the 4 Ps and cannot compensate for a weak product, price or distribution.
• IMC coordinates all communication tools, and ideally all brand contacts, to deliver clarity, consistency and maximum impact.
• The promotional mix consists of advertising, direct marketing, interactive/internet marketing, sales promotion, publicity/PR and personal selling.

From online to omnichannel: how digital advertising is defined (Rodgers & Thorson, 2026)

The 2026-27 lecture adds the first chapter of Rodgers and Thorson's Digital Advertising Theory (2026). It shows how the definition of digital advertising has shifted over time, from a focus on the medium to a focus on data, audiences and algorithms.

Early definitions: the medium

Early definitions used labels such as "web", "online" or "internet advertising" and focused on the delivery medium: a paid promotional message appearing on the web (Barnes, 2002) or across electronic platforms such as websites, email and search engines (Strauss & Frost, 2001). These medium-based definitions reflected the first migration of traditional advertising into new digital spaces.

Later definitions: interactivity, ubiquity and targeting

As platforms grew, definitions expanded to emphasize interactivity, ubiquity and targeting sophistication. Parallel developments place digital advertising inside data-rich, computational infrastructures. Contemporary definitions stress algorithmic mediation (McStay, 2017), precision targeting (Mills et al., 2019) and the construction of audiences through predictive modeling and automated optimization (Huh & Malthouse, 2020).

Five conceptual dimensions

Across scholarly definitions from 2016 to 2025, Rodgers and Thorson (2026, p. 5) identify five recurring conceptual dimensions used to define and analyze digital advertising:

Digital advertising encompasses a range of practices that operate within networked digital environments, including programmatic advertising, computational advertising, AI-driven advertising and immersive advertising in virtual or augmented settings. These practices are worked out further in Week 5 (digital advertising as a system) and Week 9 (advertising and AI).

Exam tip: when asked to define digital advertising, contrast the old medium-based view (what and where) with the contemporary view (who, when and how), and use the five dimensions to structure your answer: show which dimensions a given campaign uses.