Clarke L. Caywood, Ph.D.
Professor, Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing
Communications, Northwestern University
Suggested Title: “Reputation
and Brand Building in High Risk Organizations with Integrated Marketing
Communications” for Wiley Encyclopedia of Reputation
Addressing the contributions of the field of marketing
communications in a book on reputation seems dangerous. After all, the field of marketing
communications includes sales, advertising, public relations, promotions, and
database marketing, all of which individually have their own tenuous
reputations. As it is one of the most highly visible elements of marketing,
marketing communications too often reveals the underbelly of marketing and
management. While marketing communications
can be a key element to launch new products, elect politicians and even revive
an economy in the doldrums; it can also be an irritant to regulators,
watchdogs, unhappy buyers and users of misrepresented products and
services.
Decades of criticism of misleading face-to-face messages from
sales have been best represented by Arthur Miller’s character Willy Loman,
(Miller, 1998, Caywood and Laczniak, 1986).
Advertising has its own marginal reputation, portrayed in the television
series Mad Men and studied in the
long respected work of Ivan Preston on advertising puffery as a form of
misleading mass messaging (Preston 1986). Another factor that has contributed
to the negative reputation of advertising has been unregulated political
advertising due to First Amendment protection, leading to disgust for
proliferation of negative political advertising.) (Caywood and Laczniak 1986
and Caywood and Preston 1986).
The rest of marketing communications (and perhaps marketing)
seems to suffer the same degree of criticism.
Direct mail or “junk mail” had its own club of critics
(Rothschild-Ewald, Vann, 2003 and 2008).
While the latter field has moved increasingly to the Web the dependence
and use of customer “big data” merged with other behavioral data has made it
the subject of privacy challenges and the ethics of targeting tobacco users not
reachable through other channels. (Rapp,
Hill, Gaines, Wilson, 2009). Even the
seemingly “fun” field of promotions has become a field of digital and atomistic
coupon clutter outnumbering the pages in the thinner Sunday newspaper. Finally, the planned failure of the field to
reward customers with their deserved unfulfilled rebates is well known (Edwards
2006-2007). These are harsh statements
about inherently useful communication-based fields, but building and protecting
brands and reputations is a complex, perilous process.
This chapter will explore how Integrated Marketing
Communications (IMC) has emerged as a reputation support force. This is shown
through examples as well as an explanation of the unique attributes of IMC. The
chapter will also delve into reputational risks with certain types of products
that pose a threat to consumers, users and influential people. Finally, there
will be a discussion of how communicating with consumers and dozens of other “protected
status” stakeholders can be a high-risk enterprise capable of building or ruining
an organizational reputation.
To overcome these negative factors the chapter primarily addresses
the integrated marketing communications (IMC) strategic means to reduce the
risk to the reputation of a company, governmental body, non-governmental
organization (NGO), religious organization or individual. Despite the inherent risk of common communications
tactics, using the framework of an integrated marketing communications strategy
with stakeholders may help prevent reputation damage. An integrated strategy can
continuously build a positive reputation.
As a managerial process, integrated marketing communications has
developed over the past two decades. It can support the creation of a more
positive reputation for an organization and more positive brands of the
activities, products and services of the organizations. (See Caywood, 2012 Handbook).
Definitions: IMC,
Brands and Reputation
It is logical that an integrated strategy should be better
than a “disintegrated” one. IMC is captured with the benefit of a global
perspective in Kliatchko’s definition, which is more parsimonious and based on
his comprehensive analysis. He states, “IMC is an audience-driven business
process of strategically managing stakeholders, content, channels, and results
of brand communication programs.” (Kliatchko, 2008) One weakness of this definition is its use of
the word “business” which might detract for some readers from the value of IMC
in many organizations including government, politics, healthcare,
not-for-profits, NGOs and more. However, a precise definition of IMC is still
not yet definitive. Even the logical and heralded integration of functional
areas (sales, advertising, promotions, database marketing and public relations)
of marketing communications has not provided a clear path for IMC- based
reputational management. The intuitive
sense of combining a mix of traditional areas of marketing communications does
not prove its value. However, one business adage may apply: “We continue to profitably use it so we
believe it must work”.
A recent massive academic literature search on integrated communications,
integrated marketing, relationship marketing and integrated marketing
communications does not demonstrate any substantial attention to the importance
of reputation in IMC or related fields except in a limited application to
product and services branding (Kondo and Caywood, 2011). The research suggests that relationship
marketing and integrated marketing with IMC have made marketing more
customer oriented and/or more stakeholder oriented. The value of any of these
still partial theories is that marketing is becoming more holistic. And, a more
holistic, coordinated marketing should require a greater attention to the
building of a baseline positive reputation for the organization or baseline
positive brands for the products or services of organizations.
One area of serious conflict with a potential for
clarification of reputation management in marketing communications is branding
vs. reputation. Are they the same?
Useful definitions of both may help us to understand where marketing communications
can be helpful or not in the promotion of brands and reputations.
Brands
Brands are not simply built on the repeat purchases or even
loyalty of customers. Branding is often misunderstood as purely related to the
logo, name, design and look of the name in print. More often, this means
trademark. Most contemporary marketing
experts tell us that the brand resides mostly in the mind of the consumer. The
American Marketing Association stated in 2008, "Marketing is the activity,
set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and
exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and
society at large." This was the broadest AMA definition to-date that reflected
more of a stakeholder approach. The AMA
relies on an expert committee to rethink the definition every five years. It may be time for the AMA to conduct a
social media exercise to have members define marketing, build a word cloud and
a community crafted definition as the Public Relations Society of American did
in December 2011. See word cloud
example: http://prdefinition.prsa.org/index.php/2011/12/02/snapshot-of-the-public-relations-defined-initaitve-submission-day12/.
Like the word “quality,” the words “brand” and “reputation”
need modifiers. Positive modifiers may be placed in a message by the product
producer or IMC agency, but the real positive or negative value is put on the
product or service by the buyer, user, expert or influential.
For this discussion, “brand” will take a lower position than
“reputation” in the hierarchy of organizations.
In part, this seems logical since many non-corporate and a few corporate
institutions do not offer highly visible product or service brands but do have
to manage their reputations.
Reputation
As a communication challenge, the word reputation also has
this dynamic. Carroll succinctly states
that reputation is what is said about an organization (Carroll 2010). It is useful to note that reputation seems
story-based and therefore communications-based.
When a wider range of channels or tools of communications can be used, then
the story can be told more efficiently (lower cost), effectively (goal
reaching) and even equitably (ethically and fairly targeted).
It is logical that strong and positive reputations are more
likely to be built on an effective integrated communications strategy with an efficient
consistent and strong external and internal orientation to those to whom the
reputation matters. Multiple efficient tactics including advertising, social
media, public relations and promotions can certainly be used to appeal to a
wide range of effectively reached stakeholders.
A partial list of equitable targets would include employees, media,
social media, communities, virtual communities, government, universities,
suppliers, NGOs, investors, customers and consumers (Caywood, 2012 chapter 7).
Emergence of IMC as a Reputational Support Process
In 1992 the advertising, direct marketing and public
relations faculty at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism (not
the usually assumed Kellogg Graduate School of Management) launched a
comprehensive graduate program in a newly developing field. At the time,
agencies or marketing communication’s companies were traditionally labeled
“advertising”, “direct marketing” or “public relations”. All these functional areas were (and still
are) professional fields of practice. However, changes were coming.
The forward-looking agencies and their often large parent
holding companies were exploring how to combine the expertise and resources of
these separate fields. One goal of these acquisitions was to build a larger
revenue source from clients served by common agencies of the holding company
rather than many independent agencies.
One way to do this was to build an integrated holding company of
agencies and consultancies sharing clients and profits from cross selling.
Northwestern’s advertising, PR and direct mail faculty and
students were the beneficiaries of industry’s search for new ideas on how to
create a more formal integrated process. At the time, faculty and practitioners
were searching for a label for what logically seemed the right outcome –
something integrated rather than what had been disintegrated. One of the
leading companies called it “holistic communications”. Another called it a “symphony” referring to
the complex instrumentation in an orchestral symphony. Some talked about “one voice, one look, one
feel.” Others branded their versions of the concept that seemed to take
greatest hold at the beginning of in the early 1990s the last decade of the
20th century as “integrated marketing communications” or IMC.
It was not a wholly new idea. In fact, a number of marketing
professors had been teaching a subject popularly referred to as marketing
communications or marcom since the 1960s. One distinction was that schools of
management teaching marcom typically had no other courses that advanced a
single course in marcom. For the
generalist degree in business, marketers needed to consider several channels of
communications to promote their products and services. But since the same
students had to take courses on other elements of marketing and management
(pricing, distribution and product development), there did not seem to be any
room in the curriculum for additional courses in communications. Over two decades later, a small story in Business Week told how public relations
might finally find a toehold in schools of management (Argenti, 2011).
Marcom may have been one of the most undervalued elements of
the classic description of the components of marketing - product, price, place,
promotion (4 Ps) pioneered by Michigan State professor Jerome McCarthy
beginning in the 1960s (William Perreault, Joseph Cannon and E. Jerome
McCarthy, 2011). One reason for calling it marcom was a symbolic representation
that it was not only mass advertising, usually taught in several courses
(creative, campaigns, strategy, cases, media planning) in schools of journalism
and mass communications. [Advertising and public relations’ placement in academic
journalism was an early 1900s outcome of newspapers’ depending on both for
content and one for revenue].
By the mid-20th century, broadcast and print advertising were
becoming dominant and expensive channels of promotion. However, to some
critics, mass advertising seemed far less relevant to the large
business-to-business economy. And, with the growth of the more focused
integration concept and practice, advertising seemed to be increasingly less
relevant to even mass advertising the business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing
efforts. The mass channels developed for most of the 20th century that included
television, newspaper, radio and magazine advertising seemed threatened by more
targeted and cost effective message channels.
Development of IMC Brand and Reputation Process
The goal of IMC for agencies included a logical argument that
offering a client a richer mix of tactics under a carefully integrated strategy
made good business sense but it also made good sense for the holding company’s
specialist firms to coordinate the budget for marketing research and
communications under a single umbrella.
A notable failing of the assumption was that the client would increase
its marcom budget by simply adding public relations or adding direct
marketing. As it seems to have “played out”
the clients also logically looked for ways the marcom specialties could be
combined to save them promotional dollars in their budget. After all, the
economy in parts of the ‘80s and ‘90s were recessionary periods in business. They
were not as unstable as the present, dragged out recession from 2008 into the
second decade of the 21st century but it was an economic reminder of the need
for IMC-based numerator and denominator management.
It is a continuing battle but IMC has gained some momentum
fighting for more measured results. IMC
teaches not only short-term outcomes but shows how to estimate realistic
calculations of the “lifetime value” of a customer or stakeholder relationship
by increasing the numerator (revenue). Of course, during recessions the marketing
expenses were also often cut as part of the denominator balancing. Along with
several other variables “lifetime value” is one of the advanced elements of
what constitutes modern IMC. Six key
elements are listed here.
1.
IMC is a managerial process. IMC raises the stature of advertising, PR and
marcom from a creative staff and tactics function to an advanced management
function. As a managerial process it depends heavily on planning,
implementation and evaluation.
Traditionally marcom was driven by campaign implementation and some of
the most creative tactics available to organizations.
Planning and evaluation based on
research and metrics gave IMC a more formal role in decision-based
management. With this newer management
process, decisions could be analyzed at the higher policy, next strategic and
then tactical levels. Policy management included social, political, and
environmental and industry level decisions. These policy management decisions affected the
company-wide, market, and operations decisions and tactics. Strategic
contributions under IMC became more feasible to implement as they influenced
well-known tactics to sell products, build brands and strengthen reputations. Tactics
are an easy reach in most plans but IMC must still reach for policy level
contributions.
2. IMC is a
research-based decision process. For many decades, advertising, public
relations, promotions and perhaps most commonly direct marketing relied on
research only about the audience or consumer. Advertising, PR and promotions
often relied heavily on the AIO factors of consumer/stakeholder attitudes,
interests and opinions to determine the message and offer
content. For example, the psychographic profile of a consumer who likes the outdoors
enjoys sports and social interaction or other activities would be appealed to
with advertising or events matching those interests and themes. The social sciences were strong partners with
the marcom fields to profile the audience.
3. IMC is
behaviorally determined. Direct
marketing experts contributed to IMC target marketing precisely based on the
previous purchase behaviors of the target.
Fortunately, the direct marketing industry represented initially by
catalogue marketers, financial credit companies, political and other NGO
fundraising were able to track precisely the actions of the recipients who
responded directly. This form of
marketing, sometimes degradingly referred to as “junk mail” actually begat one
of the most advanced marketing metric models of “behavioral marketing.” It is based
not simply on attitude models but on actual purchases or decisions regarding an
offer of a product or service. Much of
what is known about consumers and stakeholders today is based on relationships
built by companies and other organizations with the customers, donors and
influential stakeholders.
4. IMC is
stakeholder driven. This element of IMC
raises the bar of IMC from simply a sales-driven tactical process selling to
B2B customers or B2C consumers to a strategic communication process. This
function was not previously practiced broadly except by the smaller
professional field of public relations. With PR linked to IMC the difference
was far more significant. The C-Suite including
the CEO was reintroduced to the power of using strategic marketing and communications to build brand and
reputational relationships with many stakeholders including employees, the
press, the community, the social media, government at all levels, investors,
unions, NGOs, suppliers, trade groups and think tanks.
5. IMC is both
financially determined both in a short-term and long-term framework. The simple
explanation was best used to illustrate how companies and other organizations
could profit from more careful planning of their marketing and other program
budgets. The company could, in some instances “cut its way to profits” by
reducing the denominator. We use the equation R/E equals “P” (where R= gross
revenues, E = gross operating expenses, including marketing, personnel and
equipment and P = gross profits) Using the simple formula R/E=P management can
increase profits “P” in two ways: One, the management can cut staff, cut
expenditures on advertising, PR or direct marketing and more by reducing the
denominator E. Or, two, management can increase the numerator R by raising
prices, increasing sales volume, selling to more customers or fostering more
sales to the same customers.
This battle of the numerator and denominator is not new to
any budget bound organization. The
challenge for IMC proponents was to demonstrate how in both the short term, and
even more surely in the long term, IMC could increase revenues (numerator) by
efficient and effective expenditures on marcom (usually less of wasteful mass
advertising) make the organization more profitable.
6. IMC also
depends on calculations that illustrate the “life-time customer value” of
specific customers and even stakeholders. This calculation, often discussed by
Don E. Schultz, offers management a path to investing more in some customers
than in others (Measuring Brand
Communication ROI Schultz, Jeffrey S. Walters). Over a period of time (metaphorically
“lifetime”) IMC managers estimate the revenues and profits of a particularly
key customer or a segment of consumers. The longer view of value allows the IMC
team to determine how much more or less they can invest in acquiring and
retaining a client or customer. Heavily
debated calculators for the idea abound:
http://hbsp.harvard.edu/multimedia/flashtools/cltv/index.html
All of the elements listed above focus on utilizing all
resources possible to consider future outcomes, focus on all stakeholders using
research and behavioral science, avoid pitfalls of a societal or financial
nature and, therefore, enhance the reputation of the company or organization.
Political
Examples of IMC
It was evident to some observers, including those managing
and writing about political campaigns (Caywood and Laczniak 1986), that direct
mail advertising, public relations, promotions and other channels of promoting
the message of the product (a candidate, in this case) were gaining enormous
momentum. The lifeblood of political
marketing was communications (in addition to money). For over two decades, prior to the
“invention” of IMC, political campaigns were run using voter behavior
databases, later celebrated as ‘breakthroughs’ in consumer marketing campaigns.
The messages about the candidate (and his or her reputation) could be
economically delivered via a wider range of channels. The channels to reach citizens who were most
likely to vote or donate, those who would vote for a specific party and those most
likely to vote for a specific candidates based on previous actions.
The 1986 campaign for U.S. Senate in Wisconsin by Scott
McCallum (later Governor) used an early data management software version of dBase
“dbase” as its organizing process. In a 1988 race for Lieutenant Governor,
McCallum’s political advisors used later derivations of the software. Several
Congressional campaigns in the second district of Wisconsin in the ‘80’s were
managed with software driving the messages that defined the positive
reputations of the candidates using a wide range of integrated media.
The integrated logic held for events, speeches, door-to-door
candidate efforts and leaflet distribution.
Some channels used mass and other media that was not paid (earned
press). It was not free either since it
took experienced professionals to persuade reporters and editors in news to
report on the candidate’s positive and sometimes negative contacts with voters
and their speeches to targeted audiences.
Part of the challenge of using public relations was that the channel was
not “controllable” as mass advertisers had become used to in purchased media.
Another important channel, mined heavily long before digital
communications spread widely in politics, is fondly called “snail mail” now,
but was the most personal channel of delivery at the time. Catalogue marketers, alumni associations,
military recruiting offices, political campaigns and charities depended on the
U.S. mail or “junk mail.” Candidate
fundraising money by mail depended on the was particularly popular use of
mailing lists from donated sources including clubs, churches, political parties
and purchased mail house lists (magazines, etc.). The software programs were
carefully designed to allow follow-up of communications and contributions,
which were tracked by database systems. A particularly popular commercial
database was called Hannibal (revealing its elephant themed partisan roots) was
developed in the mid-1980’s. Today the leading brands appear to be Aristotle
and Vocus often reported about and advertised in Campaigns and Elections
publication. (www.campaignsandelections.com). CITE
IMC eventually became the term applied to the Medill School
of Journalism’s Department of Advertising. Its goal, at the time, was to put
the right tactics in the right place, at the right time (advertising,
promotions, public relations and direct marketing). This functional description
later laid the groundwork for IMC. IMC became a managerial process that now
strategically helps to define the product and service reputation and branding
in marketing twenty years later. It also
created an umbrella concept of reputation that helped holding companies (then called
conglomerates) to make sense of their business strategy.
Corporate
Brand and Reputation Building Examples
Over the past three decades, the Chicago global company Sara
Lee has variously owned Hanes, Coach Leather, Ball Park Franks, Sara Lee baked
goods and many more companies (http://www.saralee.com). Each company in the
holding company portfolio was selected for its strong, positive brand name and
upward economic potential. Usefully, the
parent company name of Sara Lee was recognized as having a strong reputation
for financial management, leadership and careful development of the companies
it owned in the 1990s. In this way the
management of the reputation of the brands helped to build the reputation of
the corporate brand and vice versa.
Similarly, IBM found it could create branded names of
targeted technologies in the 1990s. Not
all the products of IBM enjoyed equal brand reputations or even the same
generally positive reputation of the parent company. For example, IBM’s ThinkPad laptop (later
sold to Lenovo in China) found the “ThinkPad” name could be favorably applied
to a wider range of products and services. An advisory board lead by Kevin
Clark, which I participated in, identified a wide range of products and
services that could benefit from the ThinkPad moniker. RSC6000 and AS400 were highly desired
mid-range computers for business but their names did not carry over as strong
and positive marketing communication assets.
The Emerson Company in St. Louis, Missouri in the early 1990s
owned 40 different companies including Insinkerator (www.emerson.com). It took
a decade to manage the moving target of new divisions, SBUs and wholly owned
companies to be recognized as part of Emerson.
Early in the branding and reputation building process using IMC and
management training at Northwestern’s Medill School, even business cards, used
by managers of the 40 companies, did not usually acknowledge the parent
company. At the parent company level,
Wall Street fund managers clearly recognized and rewarded the positive
reputation built by the managers of Emerson for its shareholders.
Reputation Management Under Stress
One dimension
of the role of integrated marketing communications in reputation protection,
survival or maintenance is under stress[MC1]. For example, some organizations operate under
a constant state of stakeholder-induced stress (Caywood 2012). There are two categories of organizations
that fit this profile. One is makers of high-risk products and services that
can cause fatal or great damage such as food, transportation and energy. Another principle category is organizations
that deal with products or services that target “unprotected”, visible (e.g. children)
or invisible (e.g. poor) populations.
For example, products and services marketed to children, the
elderly, racial minorities or even pet animals operate at a particularly high
level of reputational risk. Marketing,
even social marketing, is not prepared to address these issues. The limited focus on marketing on branding to
increase loyalty to sell the product or service does not address reputational
risks except to gain loyalty for re-purchase. Instead, a more integrated approach
led by public relations (corporate or strategic communications) provides the
theoretical and practical support for organizational reputations.
Because high-risk
oriented industries produce and sell potentially high-risk products, the number
of products and services that might be considered more risky than others is
enormous (see the following list). All products
and services might have some risk associated with them through poorly handled
use or deliberate misuse. Managers concerned with managing their corporate
reputation and SBU brand reputations are advised to begin to use IMC more
quickly if they manage any of the following categories of organizations,
products and services.
At-Risk Industries
There are identifiable categories of products and services that
have a potential to do severe damage or cause fatalities (e.g. poorly
formulated or tested pharmaceuticals, undercooked food, and auto safety).
Pharmaceuticals
Prescription
drugs, over-the-counter drugs, natural supplements, medical
record keeping,
Food
Foods for
human consumption
Animal
(pet) foods
Fresh
or raw foods
Packaged
foods
Prepared
foods in restaurants, homes
Home
Fire warning systems, smoke alarms
Carbon monoxide alarms
Product building content (e.g. insulation)
Fire hazard roofing materials, construction
Plumbing supplies
Water saving equipment
Maintenance
Chain saws, cleaning chemicals
Ladders, shelving, dollies, other
Heating systems in homes,
public/private buildings and transportation
Firewood
burning equipment
Ventilation
equipment
Carbon monoxide emission monitors
Asbestos
covered products and removal procedures
Propane
tanks in rural homes and patios
Gas
explosions from pipes, leaks, street connection failure
Fuel oil tanks and ground leaks
Transportation
Airplanes, auto, trucks, ships,
school buses, recreational boats, sailboats, snowmobiles, water jet skis, subways,
bicycles, buses, trolleys
General
related transportation products/services
Instruction
Licensing,
Product
safety check-up
Flotation
devices
Fuel safety measures
Design failure
Seat
belts
Driver
standards and background checks
Night, early day schedules
Safety belts, airbags, padded
dashes, breakaway mirrors, blind spot sensors, tire size issues, wheel design
Mass transit
Travel security
regarding terrorism,
New
travel IDs for passengers
Employee
investigation, training
Lighting,
signage, warning messages
Public
messages for acceptance of rules
Skin and Beauty Products and
Services
Cosmetics
with risk to the elderly, young, pregnant
Cosmetics
with risk to eyes
Age-related treatments
Any
products with internal and external use
Medical
elective surgery
Lasik surgery,
plastic surgery, tattoos, hair transplants
Age and weight related treatments -
skin, chemical peels, and gastric bypass surgery
Entertainment
Children’s
programs, advertising using entertainment characters
Pornography,
R- and X-rated movies for general distribution
Movies, theater, music video games,
comics, television (with regard to violence, racial issues, crime, sexual
concerns)
Parks
including roller-coasters and other rides, food, security,
Helmets, mouth guards, masks, metal bats
Eye protection, clothing
Speed (race track design, safety
equipment)
Medical (game rules, check-ups)
At-Risk
Populations of Targeted Stakeholders
This category focuses on the targeted buyers (moms), users
(children) and influentials (press or social media site). Some of the populations listed are simply
perceived by society (depending on the exact culture) as more vulnerable.
Organizations selling or working with such groups must use reputational
management as a process to thwart the appearance of exploiting the targets.
The assumption is that some populations of citizens require or
are owed more protection from avarice, illegal and immoral organizational
activities. In scientific research, for example, some cite the following: fetuses, children, prisoners, pregnant women,
mentally disabled or cognitively impaired persons, terminally ill patients, the
elderly, students and employees, survey research that involves AIDS information
either with the general public or with vulnerable populations, or economically
or educationally disadvantaged persons
(St. Catherine, 2010).
Examples of protective legal and moral action taken to-date are
highly specific laws targeted at preventing the abuse of selling to a certain audience.
Examples are the advertising of children’s toys, marketing of financial
services to the elderly, puffery-based advertising that misleads the less
educated or common man and contracts that are difficult to understand for the
less educated or ESL customers, especially from agencies like the FDA, FTC or
Federal Reserve Board (Federal Reserve Board, 2008). The leadership of some
companies such RC2 Corporation (RCRC) as failed to even understand the
connection between their ethical obligation to protect the targets of their
marketing a children’s toy (Thomas the Tank Engine) and a quick profit on
manufacturing the product by second and third parties in China without caring
about the sourcing of the dangerous lead paint used in production. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-22/rc2-investor-sues-to-block-640-million-sale-to-japanese-toymaker-tomy-co-.html
The order is random
since each product, service or case will require very specific analysis regarding
risks.
1. People with
physical disabilities
2. Those who
are mentally ill
3. Lower IQ individuals
4. The poor
5. Racial minorities
6. The elderly
7. Children
(e.g. lead painted toys in China)
8. Pregnant
women
9. Military
and former military personnel
10. Uneducated,
less educated, illiterate populations
11. Immigrants
12. Any
combination of the above excluding the next population
13. Pets
Conclusion
The advanced metrics and elements of integrated marketing
communications offer marketers and communication professionals a superior
strategy to manage reputations and brands. The IMC approach also offers a more
broadly defined understanding of how crucial it can be to consider all
stakeholders. Finally, IMC considers the fragility of some products and
services and certain stakeholder groups.
Caution seems reasonable when crafting a positive reputation
for an organization under any circumstance. First, there is a level of distrust
with which many communications efforts are regarded. Furthermore, when the
products and services are labeled higher risk by regulators or by society, the
management of the reputation building process seems even more precarious. In the same way when the analysis shows that
the stakeholder groups targeted to purchase or be involved with the product or
service are high visibility, high risk
populations, the reputation building process is, once again, more tenuous.
The risks are many and varied. The stakeholders are present,
some vulnerable, some vigilant and all significant. Integrated Marketing
Communications has been shown to use managerial, financial, research-based and
behaviorally-determined means to guard and enhance reputations. With so many
factors and stakeholders to consider, it seems advisable to do everything
possible to protect your company or organization’s greatest asset.
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Catherine’s University, 2010, http://minerva.stkate.edu/irb.nsf/pages/specialpopulations
Federal Reserve Board, Report to the Congress on Credit
Scoring and Its Effects on the Availability and Affordability of Credit,
Submitted to the Congress pursuant to section 215 of the Fair and Accurate
Credit Transactions Act of 2003 August 2007, 2008,
https://federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/rptcongress/creditscore/differential.htm#toc10.2
[MC1]Here,
you are saying that the test is under stress.
Do you mean that? Also, Are you
talking about the role of IMC in reputation protection or and reputation
protection?
