In the late Sixties and in the early Seventies companies experienced a situation of weakness in
coping with a progress and a society which were completely different from those with which they
were used to deal.
In the meantime, starting from the Seventies, three schools in the fi eld of business communication
developed at the international level. They were the Integrated Marketing Communication,
the Total Business Communication and the Holistic Communication. The common aim
of these schools was both to optimize the business communication activity and therefore to
pursue in a more effective and effi cient way a variety of objectives (technical, economic and
social ones).
Now, for a company able to develop an adequate communication culture it was possible to exploit
the full potential of these schools and related operational guidelines, thus overcoming the abovementioned
situation of weakness.
This is the case for a “Communicative Business”, that is nowadays becoming the business
model open to communication and aimed to clearly present its identity and infl uence its image
in a growing audit society.
This essay traces the history of international advertising practice and the parallel evolution of the
literature to describe, evaluate and improve it. History can explain how the business of international
advertising and its related academic discipline developed; it can teach how to avoid the mistakes
of the past. But research and theory, as well as practical experience, are necessary to generate
new knowledge that is useful to guide future practice.
This paper illustrates how international advertising practice, research and theory are interrelated.
The paper includes a discussion of 100 years of: (1) international advertising practice, and
(2) contributions to the literature – especially standardization versus adaptation of international
advertising.
As the practice of international advertising developed, practitioners wrote about their experience
and offered guidelines to others. But most have achieved only modest refi nements in their international
advertising strategies, tactics, executions, and integrated campaigns. Correspondingly,
academic researchers have described, evaluated and investigated the nature of international advertising.
But they have made only modest contributions to knowledge.
However, there is hope. Academic researchers are fi nally beginning to do the kind of cross-cultural
international experiments that are needed to generate new knowledge that will likely be useful
in practice. They are also developing improved research methods needed to achieve reliable
and valid research results. The paper concludes with specifi c suggestions for future international
advertising research.
Product placement is a growing promotional area upon which much Italian academic and
media attention has recently been focused.
This paper reports the fi ndings of an exploratory quantitative study of the attitudes of 1.285 Italian
college students toward product placement in movies, in television programs, and in videogames
and their perceptions of the acceptability of this emerging promotional medium.
The results of the survey indicate that while there are generally favourable attitudes toward
product placement, product and gender have an impact on product placement acceptability.
In fact, the three ethically-charged products of guns, cigarettes and alcohol were largely considered
not acceptable to be placed in movies. Females also found the placement of ethically-charged
products as less acceptable than did males. The acceptability of ethically-charged product placements
did not differ with regard to the frequency of fi lm watching at the cinema or on TV.
Finally, this study identifi ed a segment of respondents who expressed the liking of the presence of
existing brands in a movie and the belief that this presence establishes movie scene authenticity,
enhances the entertaining experience, helps to fi nance interesting movies, aids in character development,
and does not reduce the artistic value of the movie.
It’s safe to say that “engagement” has become somewhat of a buzzword. In English, it conveys
the notion, “building relationships and bond between brands and people”. But is this an universal
interpretation? Or is it a plastic word? Plastic words, like the malleable material that easily
changes shape with heat, are industry terms that easily transcend borders allowing various
interpretation according to the context (Poer Keen, 1995). Until recently, the word, “engagement”
has chiefl y been used as “customer engagement”, a marketing term to explain active consumer
involvement and action in relation to media, brand, program contents, etc. Lately, the
term has won more focus being deemed the new advertising performance index to replace GRPs
in TV and impressions in online advertising by ARF (Advertising Research Foundation) and other
advertising industry bodies. Meanwhile, since 2005, the topic of holistic approach in reaching
the consumers on all contact points from mass to digital media has been building its presence in
the American industry literature. With this came the growing expectation of the advertisers for
IMC (Integrated Marketing Communication) and at its core was “how to connect with consumers
(engagement)”. In other words, the approach to engagement is based on the recognition and
practice of the holistic initiative. Therefore, when we talk about engagement, we need to identify
both the concept and the practice. This paper aims to identify the premise that understanding
the fundamental concept of engagement will make apparent the essence of advertising and marketing
to potentially regenerate the advertising practice.
The present paper is aimed at illustrating the main changes in the market scenario that have recently
emphasized the use of ambient communication as a signifi cant tool in the marketing communication
mix of the companies. Nowadays companies have to engage consumers in an active
and participative relationship in order to enhance their brand value. At this regard, ambient communication
can act as a powerful brand value enhancer, thanks to its ability to convey a brand distinguishing
features in a creative, unconventional and surprising way capable of grabbing the audience
attention and eliciting consumers’ engagement towards the brand. In particular, in today’s
society the only way for companies to reach an increasingly complex and unpredictable consumer
effectively is to use an integrated communication mix of traditional and unconventional tools,
involving consumers in a value co-creation process with the brand. Since ambient communication
includes a wide variety of communication surfaces and media, the next challenge will be to fi nd a
unitary defi nition and categorisation of such concept. The present paper offers a preliminary effort
towards the construction of a conceptual frame of reference from which to derive in the future a
possible unifi ed concept of ambient communication casting light on its effectiveness conditions.
Flemming Hansen - Sverre Riis Christensen, Emotions, Advertising and Consumer
Choice, Copenhagen Business School Press, Copenhagen 2007, pp. 462
Roberto Brognara - Marianna Del Curto, New media & comunicazione di
marketing. Verso i mercati post-pubblicitari, Franco Angeli, Milano 2009, pp.
152
Fascicolo digitale
|
