Assignment 2

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Assignment 2
Department of Marketing
University of Chester
Assessment noº
Student noº 0807938
Robin de Wit
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TM6004 Marketing Communications, Terry Smith

0807938 Marketing Communications TM6004
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Contents
Introduction p.3
Non-Personal Communications p.5
Personal communications p.7
Cross breed communications p.9
Conclusion p.10
Bibliography p.12

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An evaluation of the marketing communications mix in B2C communications and its contributions to
building brand equity for the “snack food” industry.
Introduction (600 words)
We live in a word where a chocolate bar is not longer a chocolate bar, Instead a chocolate
bar is a Kit Kat, Snickers or a Mars bar; they have become brands. A brand is a distinguishing name
and/or symbol intended to identify the goods or services of either one seller or a group of sellers,
and to differentiate those goods or services from those of competitors (Aaker, D. A., 1991, p.7).
Brand Equity
But we don’t purchase branded products for the mere fact that they are branded. We buy
them because of the equity that the brand holds. Aaker (1991, p.15) defines brand equity is a set of
brand assets and liabilities linked to a brand, its name and symbol, which add to or subtract from the
value provided by a product or service to a firm and/or to that firm’s customers. To elaborate on this
concept he created his brand equity model, shown in figure 1 below, to help identify and act upon
the different brand equity elements.
Figure 1. Aaker’s (1991) brand equity model

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Keller (2001) developed his CBBE (consumer based brand equity) model, in which he outline
four key steps to building brand equity in relation to the six “brand building blocks”, as can be seen
in figure 2 below, and each of the six brand building blocks consists of several sub-dimensions, as
shown in figure 3 below. This model maintains that building a strong brand involves a series of
logical steps and that the true strength of a brand depends on how consumers feel, think and act
with respect to the brand.
Figure 2. Keller’s (2001) Consumer based brand equity pyramid
Figure 3. Sub-dimensions of Keller’s brand building blocks
Marketing Communications Mix
For a company to be successfully brand building or maintaining it needs to create a strong
and distinctive image in the mind of the consumer (Guzman. F., 2005). In order to do so the correct
values need to be communicated to the target audiences. Marketers will make use of one if not

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multiple components of the marketing communications mix. The marketing communication mix is a
subset of the marketing mix, both being the tool which deliver respectively communications and
marketing strategies. The marketing communications mix provides a menu of communication
methods which can be used separately or ideally blended. (Dahlen, M., Lange, F., Smith, T., 2010,
p.277)
The key components of the marketing communications mix are advertising, direct
marketing, promotions, public relations and sales, or as shortened by McCarthy as “the 4’p’s of
marketing (Pickton and Broderick, 2005, p.6). Each communication medium can be classified as one
of the following: personal communications, non-personal communications or a combination of both:
cross-breed communications (Dahlen, M., Lange, F., Smith, T., 2010, p.277)
Business, push and pull strategies
Push strategies involve promoting heavily to the members of the distribution channel, i.e.
wholesalers, retailers and agents, on the assumption that they in turn promote to the end
consumer. Pull strategies involves promoting heavily to the end user and consumers to create a
demand that will pull the products through the distribution channel (Blythe, J., 2003, p.37)
The “Snack foods” Industry
The “snack foods” industry includes many product categories including soft drinks, crisps,
chocolate bars etc… The market is highly competitive with Coca Cola and Pepsi battling for market
share in the soft drinks sector and Mars Inc. and Nestle trying to do the same the same for their
confectionaries.
This investigation will look at the use of the marketing communications mix by companies in
the snack foods industry and evaluate to what extend the communications efforts contribute to the
building of brand equity.
Non Personal Communications
Personal communications is a type of communications that aims to manage the image of a
company and build a brand. The type of communications is traditionally one way; from the company
to its targeted market. The medium that provide such forms of communication are for example TV
advertising, sponsorships, sales promotions or a retail outlet (Dahlen, M., Lange, F., Smith, T.,
2010).

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In terms of building brand equity through the use of non personal communication methods
an organization mainly gains brand awareness. Additionally however such methods will also
establish a perceived product quality, brand associations and familiarity. Also through a repeated
exposure to the brand, if the meets the consumers needs, will generate brand loyalty
TV Advertising
In terms of non-personal communications Coca Cola is probably the biggest player in the
game, with an advertising budget of $2.9 billion (Business Insider, http://www.businessinsider.com ).
The company engages actively in reminder advertising to remind us of the brand and keep the name
alive above the competition. Coca Cola over the years has launched many memorable TV
advertisements such as the Christmas Coca Cola Trucks, the animated coca cola factory or the more
recent “Move to the Beat” campaign as part of their sponsorship of the 2012 London Olympics
(Commercials retrieved from YouTube on 30/03/2012). All this is part of an elaborated pull strategy.
One of the main themes of the Coca Cola TV advertisements is the message of bringing
people together. In the Christmas trucks a father and son hug each other as they see the trucks, and
the move to the beat advertisement features the Olympics as a social event that people enjoy
together.
In terms on Kellers (2001) CBBE model, such advertisement in the first place focuses on
creating brand awareness or brand salience. It is reminder advertising to remind the consumers of
the brand. Then as the consumer’s moves the brand equity pyramid the advertisement then gets
into the “brand imagery” building block, the brand is given personality and values of the family unit
and caring for each other. There is a hint towards the usage situation; a social one, with friends,
family. Some of the company’s other advertisements focus on the history and heritage, such as the
2011 campaign “celebrating 125 years”.
In the 3rd
stage of Keller (2001) CBBE model is where the builds its real equity: it evokes
consumer feelings. As in the previous stage there was such a large focus on promoting the product
as one to be consumed during social interaction in this third stage this social approval is reinforced
again. Additionally with the focus on family feelings of warmth and fun are provoked.
This all leads to a logical flow into the fourth stage of the brand equity process that of
creating relationships.

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A possible reason for the success of these campaigns and thus the building of brand equity,
is the large focus on Coca Cola as a lubricant in social interaction in general and more specifically
within the family unit. In terms of Maslow’s pyramid of needs the product does provide a
physiological satisfaction but it is the focus on the more elevated needs, the need for belonging: to
be part of a group, which in turn also affects the next need up that of self-esteem.
Christopher, M. (1996) quotes Maddox (1995) in saying that with the decline of mass market
and the consequent fragmentation of marketing into smaller segments, conventional media-based
advertising, particularly TV advertising, is costing more and more to deliver the requisite rating.
Kotler and Armstrong (2010, p.428) confirm this by stating that although television remains very
important its dominance is in decline. Lindstrom, M. (2009, p.37) reinforces this through a study that
investigated how well participants were able to recall add they had seen. This showed that in 1965 a
typical consumer had a 34% recall, in 1990 this had fallen to 8% and in 200 this had fallen to 2.21%,
he blames this on the “always-on media assault” and the lack of originality.
Personal Communications (639 words)
Personal communications are mainly aimed at managing sales, service and customer
contact. These are mainly two way, symmetrical dialogues, transmitted directly through face to face
sales contact, telemarketing, mail and all the interactive electronic platforms of internet, intranet
and extranet. (Dahlen, M., Lange, F., Smith, T., 2010). This would be a marketing pull strategy.
Over the last couple of decades, the web has become “an increasingly engaging
communications medium in large part because of the ability to readily tailor content to viewer,
community and timely information (Marcus 2008). The marketing communications landscape, in
terms of personal communications, has taken a very large shift towards the internet and social
media.
The goal of personal communications, in terms of building of brand equity, is that to create
awareness, popularity and loyalty. Loyalty is a combination of awareness, popularity and positive
brand associations. Aaker, D. A. (1996) suggests that a high brand loyalty customer base can be
expected to generate very predictable sales and profits. Aaker also suggests that one way to
enhance brand loyalty is to develop or strengthen the relationship with the brand.
Fisher-Buttinger and Vallaster (2008, p.95) suggest that brands must learn to use the power
of the Internet to their advantage by embracing it as a brand-staging medium... While initially user
generated content was all the hype now the focus has expanded to include online conversations and

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relationship building. The concept of social media, for businesses, is that it allows them to create a
database of people who are potentially interested in the brand and don’t mind being updated
regularly by the company. It’s become clear to many that social media is no longer marketing’s new
thing. It’s now part of the way we do marketing. (Jantsch, J. 2010). The most popular social
networking sites are Facebook, 800 million users (www.facebook.com), 500 million Twitter users
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk) and LinkedIn with 137 million users (www.linkedin.com/about). In
terms of personal communications, from the confectionary sector, on the social media website
Facebook, many organizations make an attempt to engage with their target audience using the
media. Two of the most popular brands on Facebook are the competitors Snickers and Kit Kat.
(www.facebook.com)
Kit Kat currently has an interest database of 6 million users while Snickers has approximately
4 million. Both of the brands make regular posts that will be delivered directly on the “walls” of their
followers. The posts generally consist of statements about the brand like: “one thing you won’t find
when you’re spring cleaning: an extra SNICKERS lying around”
(https://www.facebook.com/#!/snickers on 26/03/12) or the more interactive ones by Kit Kat:
“who’s the person you always wanted a break with?” (https://www.facebook.com/#!/kitkat on
13/03/12)
Although social media does not drive immediate sales, it is an occasion where the consumer
is in direct dialogue with the brand. Using Aaker (1991) brand equity model, such interaction would
in the first of all generate brand awareness, assuming that the user is not affiliated with other similar
brand because then it will just turn into noise. The consumer, from regular updates, will become
familiar with the brand and eventually would make it the “top of mind brand” at the moment of
intended purchase.
If this personal interaction with the organization is regular and adequate, eventually the user
will become increasingly entangled with the brand associations. The product will be differentiated
and positioned in the mind of the consumer and create a positive attitude and feelings towards the
brand.
The final stage of brand equity being built is through the creation of brand loyalty, if the
consumer is aware and has positive brand associates this will eventually lead to increased loyalty
and purchase preference. If consumers are brand loyal this decreases the organizations marketing
costs towards them, can attract new consumers and allows time to respond to competitive threads.

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These three elements that personal communication though social media initiates provides
value to the customer by giving them confidence in their purchase decision and purchase
satisfaction.
Cross-Breed communications (648 words)
Cross breed communications is a hybrid method of communication between personal and
non personal communications. The concept is that cross breed communications make use of non
personal communication media, such as TV ads or posters, to reach the traditional goals of non
personal communications, of creating memories, imagery and the building of the brand. Via this non
personal communication media they are then encouraged to engage in personal contact with the
company through personal communication methods, such as 0800 numbers or social media.
(Dahlen, M., Lange, F., Smith, T., 2010)
Through the personal communications methods the personal communication goals are
achieved of creating customer contact or managing sales and service. Through this direct contact the
non-personal communication goals are reinforced leading to the achievement of the cross-breed
communication goals: creating lifetime customers, repeat sales, brand loyalty and brand
associations.
Online customer engagement is becoming more important. Activities that invite the
customer to engage, at their own discretion, that are non-intrusive and genuinely interesting, will
have a far greater chance of succeeding than strategies that simply take the offline print or TV Ad
online.
In terms of brand equity this means that it will cover all the brand equity factors generated
through the use of personal and non personal communication methods but also generates some
additional ones. On top on creating awareness, perceived quality, brand association, brand loyalty,
familiarity and popularity, cross breed communications also tap into the relevance and uniqueness
factors.
Many organizations have started getting into the idea of cross-breed communications by, at
the end of a TV advertisement, picturing the facebook logo or the twitter address but hardly any
really offer any incentives to engage with the organization.
Many organizations are starting to make an attempt to engage in this type of
communication by shortly telling the audience to go to their website or “like” them on facebook for

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updates or news. But a full on cross breed communication campaign is still uncommon but there is
the exception: the Walkers Crisps – What’s that flavour? campaign. A 30 second TV advertisement
challenges the viewers to purchase one of the three bags with a mystery flavour. Then they asked to
participate online, on the Walker’s website, facebook or twitter, to submit what flavour they think it
is in order for a chance to win £50,000. Visitors are also able to make a remix of the original
advertisement.
This campaign is an excellent example of cross-breed communications. The initial contact is
via a non-personal media, TV advertisement. This will help build the brand and creates memories.
They are then encouraged to engage in personal communications, in the form of making a purchase
and through social media, with as incentive to win £50,000. This incentive and engagement will
reinforce brand imagery which is likely to create lifetime customers.
In terms of brand equity it means that the person that decides to engage in the process will
be guided through virtually all the dimensions of brand equity. In terms of brand protection this
person is bombarded time after time again with the logo, brand name and trademark of Walkers.
Regarding brand description, after trying the mystery product, strong perceptions will be created or
reinforced of the perceived brand quality, value and associations.
In terms of brand strength the consumer, in this case, does not engage with the brand
heritage. But because the person has to make a purchase of the product, in order to try it, to be able
to participate this does create brand loyalty and brand awareness. In terms of brand future, this
campaign could have been more complete. This campaign does not demonstrate the growth
potential of the brand. Regarding the environment that the brand operates in it shows that the
market is highly mature and competitive hunting for market share. The brand does show to be very
adaptable, it encourages its consumers to engage with the brand and let them “name” the product.
Conclusion (208 words)
Within the snack industry there is a very high degree of competition to gain market share.
As was seen different organizations engage in different types of communications to build specified
elements of their brands equity.
Coca cola builds brand imagery and consumer feelings, and eventually brand loyalty through
the communication that make consumers associate the product with social and family interactions.
Confectionary brand engage with their consumers online to create an up to date dialogue building
their brand awareness, associations and eventually loyalty as well.

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Walkers crisps are engaging in a combination of the personal and non-personal
communications; cross breed communications. The benefit of this method is that if it does actually
manage to get consumers to engage with the brand that it can be more effective that either of the
other two separately. In terms of brand equity it is the method that can have the biggest impact on
brand equity and builds it on every level of both the Aaker (1991) brand equity model and Kellers
(2001) CBBE model.
However no one method may be judged “the best”. There are many factors to consider such
as budget and communication objectives. Any communication method can at best considered the
most appropriate or most beneficial to the situation.

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Bibliography
Aaker, D. A., (1991) Managing Brand Equity, Capitalizing on the value of a Brand Name. The Free
Press, New York
Aaker, D. A., (1996) Building Strong Brands. New York, Free Press
Blythe, J. (2003) Essentials of Marketing Communications, Second Edition. Edinbrugh Gate, Pearson
Education Limited.
Business Insider retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/facts-about-coca-cola-2011-
6?op=1 on 30/03/12
Christopher, M., (1996) From Brand Values to Customer Value. Journal of Marketing Practive:
Applied Marketing Science. Vol. 2 No 1, 1996. Pp.55-66
Dahlen, M., Lange, F., Smith, T. (2010): Marketing Communications, a Brand Narrative Approach.
John Wiley & Sons Chichester.
Facebook (2011) Facebook has more than 800 million active users retrieved from:
https://www.facebook.com/notes/statspotting/facebook-now-has-more-than-800-million-
active-users/204500822949549 on 30/03/12
Fisher-Buttinger, C. and Vallaster, C.,(2008) Connective Branding, Building Brand Equity in A
Demanding World. Chichester, John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Guzman, F. (2005) A brand Building Literature Review. ESADE
Jantsch, J. (2010)
Keller, K., L., (2001) Building Customer-Based Brand Equity: a blueprint for Creating Strong Brands.
Marketing Science Institute.
Kotler, P. And Armstrong, G. (2010) Principles of Marketing, thirteenth edition. New Jersey, Pearson
Prentice Hall.
Lindstrom, M. (2009) Buyology, How Everything we Believe About Why We Buy is Wrong. London,
Random House Business Books
Linked in (2012) About us. Retrieved from http://press.linkedin.com/about on 30/03/12
Marcus, C., (2008) Reinvention of TV advertising. IN B.J. Calder (ed.) Kellogg on branding: the
marketing faculty of the Kellogg school of Management. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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Pickton, D. & Broderick, A. (2001) Integrated Marketing Communications. Edinburgh Gate, Pearson
Education Limited
Roy, D. P. (2000): An Examination of the Influence of Perceived Brand-Event Congruence on
Consumer Responses to Event Sponsorships, Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, University
of Memphis
The Telegraph (2012) Titter to hit 500 million registered users retrieved from:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/9098557/Twitter-to-hit-500-million-
registered-users.html on 30/03/12
Youtube Coca Cola move to the beat commercial, retrieved from:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYcsbNtlbvg on 30/03/12
Youtube Coca Cola Christmas Trucks commercial retrieved from:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogetBqMgau0 on 30/03/12
Youtube Animated factory advertisement retrieved from:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX2xS9vPQ-Y on 30/03/12

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Appendix

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