Part 7: Advertising/Promotion Metrics

The term “promotion” is misleadingly narrow. A better term is integrated marketing communications (IMC) because it more accurately describes the important interdependence between each promotion category. The role of IMC is to provide clear marketing communications across varied media. Media choices are made based on their ability to deliver an audience that the marketer seeks and hopes to convert to paying customers. No single medium works best, so sophisticated marketers are developing multilayered campaigns that capture customers with similar (not identical) messages in different media. Not all of these vehicles are successful, so marketers must determine which media reach their target audience most effectively and then craft a campaign that appeals directly to them. More problematically, the rapid advancement of the Internet, blogs, and mobile communications have accelerated the pace at which products are known around the world. Many of the IMC components are driven by word of mouth, not impressions, Gross Rating Points, or reach. The challenge for marketers is how to manage these viral effects, because they are otherwise not controllable. Careful planning of products, pricing, market selection, media vehicles, and communication strategies is more important than ever, and the need to measure these has grown as well.

The advertising/promotion section reviews the following metrics: