“Integrated marketing: advertising and politics”
Massey University Masters of Business Administration Marketing Unit Presented July 2013 Mike Richards Student ID 13154066

CONTENTS
CONTENTS ................................................................................................................................ 2 1. OVERVIEW ........................................................................................................................ 3 2. SUMMARY OF RESEARCH FINDINGS AND THE APPLICATION OF ADVERTISING THEORY TO POLITICS .............................................................................................................................. 5 A. B. C. D. E. 3. 4. Advertising, Promotion, and Other Aspects of Integrated Marketing Communications (Shrimp & Andrews) 2013 .............................................................. 5 Advertising Theory (edited by Shelly Rodgers & Esther Thorson) 2012 .................. 6 Advertising and Society – Controversies and Consequences (edited by Carol J. Pardun) 2009............................................................................................................... 7 Advertising and the Market Orientation of Political Parties Contesting the 1999 and 2002 New Zealand Election Campaigns. ..................................................................... 7 Political Campaign Communication Principles & Practises (Trent and Friedenberg 2008) ............................................................................................................................ 9 IS ADVERTISING THEORY RELEVANT TO POLITICAL ADVERTISING? ............................ 9 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................. 10

APPENDIX ........................................................................................................................... 11 REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................... 12

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1.

OVERVIEW

The topic selected for this paper “Integrated marketing: advertising and politics” was chosen by the writer following a history of personal and professional interest and involvement in these areas, viz., advertising and politics. The writer has worked as a research officer for a member of parliament and also in the advertising industry primarily through the media – in newspaper publishing. Involvement in the management of political election campaigns at regional level has also contributed to a strong interest in the topic of this paper. This background has led to the writer’s current work in communications within a government agency. Further, the writer harbours an aspiration to work at a high level within Government in a senior marketing communications role. Integrated marketing is one of the key components in Holistic Marketing. Holistic marketing is best described as a comprehensive and unified approach which incorporates the design, development and execution of marketing plans, activities and processes and acknowledges both their interdependencies and scope. In essence everything matters in Holistic Marketing and a wide and integrated view is frequently required. The other three components of Holistic Marketing are: Internal, Performance and lastly Relationship Marketing.

Advertising sits within the marketing communications mix of eight modes of communication as defined by Kotler and Keller i which encompasses (in addition to
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advertising): sales promotion, events and experience, public relations and publicity, direct marketing, interactive marketing, word of mouth marketing and personal selling. Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) refers to the integration of the elements in the promotional mix to effectively align or speak with one voice. Advertising is one element, the first major tool of IMC and it is an extremely high profile one due to the exposure we all have to it almost every day. Advertising is aptly defined by Shrimp and Andrews as “Advertising is any paid form of nonpersonal communication of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor.” ii It is primarily the word ‘paid’ that distinguishes advertising from other marcom (marketing communications) tools or elements, particularly public relations which focusses on gaining free space (print) or airtime (radio, TV or digital) at no cost due to the ‘news’ value of the message (content). This definition has been expanded to accommodate more of what is going on in the current market place, e.g. the application of internet-based and web-enabled media such as social media. Marla B Royne surmises that “…the scope and definition of advertising are changing and expanding... to include the internet, mobile advertising and publicity, among others.” iii Indeed, Kotler and Keller also support this more contemporary definition “In this new communication environment, although advertising is often a central element of a marketing communications program, it is usually not the only one…” iv The writer believes that this more holistic view of advertising is both a comprehensive and more inclusive definition of advertising than traditional views, and has adopted this position when references are made to advertising in this paper. According to Shrimp and Andrews v advertising performs a number of different functions. These include: informing, influencing, reminding and increasing salience, adding value and assisting other company efforts. The influencing value of advertising is described by Shrimp and Andrews as “Effective advertising influences prospective customers to try advertised products and services.” vi Advertising has also been labelled as both a mirror on society and an agent of change. A seminal paper by Richard Pollay (1986) vii presented this construct about the role of advertising. The latter is the force that is most important in the formation of political advertising.

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Therefore the introduction of a ‘political’ lens on the category of advertising enables a consideration of the impact of the persuasive (influencing) and informative aspects of advertising with particular emphasis towards one target audience, the voting public.

2.

SUMMARY OF RESEARCH FINDINGS AND THE APPLICATION OF ADVERTISING THEORY TO POLITICS

Although a wider library has been sourced for this paper, five key publications have been selected for review and a brief summary of the chosen texts and an illustration of their particular relevance is included here.

A.

Advertising, Promotion, and Other Aspects of Integrated Marketing Communications (Shrimp & Andrews) 2013

Specific insight gained for this paper was drawn from Chapter 9: “Advertising Management” which provides a comprehensive overview on advertising, complete with a well-developed definition and highlights the enormity of the advertising industry ($300 billion advertising spend in the United States alone in 2010), its role in the economy, and the functions advertising performs. The chapter explains that the influencing nature of advertising is the way we as consumers are often tempted to try a new product or service or to switch brands within a product category (e.g toothpaste) we already make purchases in. It is both the influencing and informing aspects of advertising that is most relevant here – especially in the context of political advertising and politics. The ‘influencing’ and ‘informing’ is done by use of reasoned arguments and emotional appeals. By way of illustration, imagine an advertising message that said “Your weekly fuel bill will increase by $35 if you vote Labour” - obviously a message like this has to be backed up by a taxation policy reference or similar but it does capture your attention and if well-reasoned could influence your voting intentions. Imagine an emotional appeal that said “National said no child will live in poverty by 2013. Try telling that to 23,471 Kiwi kids who don’t get 2 meals a day” – again the message is powerful and emotive – we get upset when kids don’t get well looked after. The chapter also includes a discussion about the investment made in advertising and its impact on revenue growth in companies versus reducing prices and an examination of

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advertising expenditures and elasticity co-efficients in determining market share. This is less relevant to the theme of this paper.

B.

Advertising Theory (edited by Shelly Rodgers & Esther Thorson) 2012

This book delivers a series of contemporary examinations of key theories in the discipline of advertising. The book comprises case studies, readings, and a number of specific examples by prominent educators and advertising academics. It highlights the pervasive and persuasive aspects of advertising and how it is applied to influence behaviours and beliefs. It relates theory to modern advertising which includes consideration of traditional media (newspaper, radio, TV) and new media (digital and social media) and includes coverage of contemporary political issues, ethics and health-related matters. In all there are 38 chapters and the topics covered range from media analysis and decision making to Brand concepts and Advertising. The most relevant for this paper are: Four theories on how IMC works (Chapter 32), IMC, advertising research and the Advertising Discipline (chapter38). It is the latter chapter that provides some insight into the area of IMC and where Patricia Rose, with 20 years commercial marketing experience before turning ‘academic’ suggests that scholars are having difficulty reaching agreement on a suitable definition of IMC. This problem is largely due to the changing perception and definition of advertising, which is moving away from its original ‘paid form of… promotion’. Rose does however elevate the recognition and importance of IMC and states: “…IMC has made message delivery, and consequently media choice, far more important in the messaging process. In essence, acknowledging the consumer as the point of focus opened the way for publicity, promotions, word-of-mouth, direct and interactive marketing, and personal experiences to be deemed part of messaging.” viii This theory profoundly confirms the need for holistic and integrated political advertising messaging, given the very short timeframes of political advertising campaigns and the multiple touch points that are used in contemporary election campaigns. It also supports Robinson’s New Zealand findings. The book provides a useful and informative guide as to how advertising works and how it can be made more effective.

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C.

Advertising and Society – Controversies and Consequences (edited by Carol J. Pardun) 2009

This book provides a thought-provoking point and counterpoint exploration of a number of topical subjects that reflect the importance of the impact of advertising on society. The book counts contributions from 25 experts (including the editing author) and addresses some of advertisings most contentious issues in a highly engaging format. The balance between practice and criticism is refreshing and the quoted additional references add both academic rigour and ease of reading to the work. It includes 12 topics, several being particularly relevant to this paper; ‘The Economic Impact of Advertising’, ‘Advertising and Social Responsibility: Being good is Always a Good Idea – Right? ‘Political advertising: Necessary, Necessarily Evil, or Evil Necessarily’ and ‘Political advertising serves and important role for American voters’. For this paper, the last two topics (above) sparked a great deal of interest and relevance. The latter has suggested that political advertisements have often had the ability to raise and discuss issues of concern to voters, which is supported by a US study conducted from 1952-2000 that “…found 65 percent of the ads were dominated by issue-related concerns…” and that “…ads considered issue-focussed has actually increased in the last two presidential elections.” (2002, 2005). ix A significant finding in this book is that political ads do in fact influence voters feelings and evaluations about candidates. This reinforces the need for the use of an integrated marketing approach to all communications as the alignment that comes from this form of discipline can add to the strength and value to the overall outcome of a campaign. It has been argued that political ads use: attack, acclaim or defences to appeal to voters and that “Political advertising allows for these roles in a way that news media cannot.” x These findings support the role of advertising in politics and that there is a strong need to coordinate all marketing communications activities in an integrated manner.

D.

Advertising and the Market Orientation of Political Parties Contesting the 1999 and 2002 New Zealand Election Campaigns. A Doctoral thesis by Claire Elizabeth Robinson, Massey University
(2006).

This work albeit substantial, is quite narrow in its focus but provided the only New Zealand perspective on the subject of this paper.
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Robinson suggests a connection between electoral success and market orientation. She proposes that through concentrating on market orientation is a message in itself, rather than simply being a management function. She looks at the advertising messages of the top polling parties in both the New Zealand elections of 2009 and 2002. The thesis covers electoral-party and voter-centric interpretations for electoral outcomes or results but adds a more rigorous academic dimension to the discussion. The subject matter is one that carries little or no precedent in New Zealand and manages to encourage support for a view that those parties that reflected their target audience in their advertising (images, language and style) scored more favourably in those target markets than would otherwise be the case. In essence those parties who campaigned with advertising that showed a relationship between party leaders and the target audience, in this case an ‘affinity for their target voter groups.” xi scored well at the polls. This in itself is a significant finding and one that warrants further examination. It suggests that if, for example a party was to target the Pacifica vote, creating campaign advertising with images of say a Fijian family around a lovo with a local political candidate, would resonate far better than depicting the same people in a shopping mall, and would deliver a higher R.O.I. (return on investment) on advertising funds invested. Given the non-compulsory voting system we have in New Zealand, the need to encourage every vote a party can muster takes on an entirely different meaning to say, the situation in the electoral system in Australia, where voting is compulsory and fines are applicable and enforced for those who fail to vote. xii This system has been operating in state elections for almost 100 years (1915) and Federal elections since 1924. Robinson’s paper concludes convincingly that “In the two elections studied here it was certainly the case that parties that demonstrated a strong voter orientation in their political advertisements also achieved their electoral goals… by showing images of voters and their environments and images of party leaders with voters.” xiii A further component of Robinson’s work that supports the function of IMC is that the various communication channels used were harmonised or consistent. “There was a visual consistency to their television, print and billboard advertising messages that rendered the messages easy to recognise and remember.” xiv

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E.

Political Campaign Communication Principles & Practises (Trent and Friedenberg 2008)

This reference was first published in 1983 and was unique in what it presented. Back then it focused on speech communication principles and practices as they related to elective politics. The current iteration (2008) reflects a broader view of the ‘communication phenomena’ of political campaigns and provides insights into the tactical and strategic communications choices available to political campaigners and the communications practices and principles integral to election campaigns. Central to this paper, Chapter 10 “Advertising and Political Campaigns” takes a look at the selection of political advertising media, and reviews channels: direct mail, use of telephone to deliver ‘persuasive messages’, print advertising, radio, TV, video and cable TV, and the internet. Interestingly, the internet is featured as having 10 functions which covers a variety of activity including: information, fund raising, news, communication with supporters, polling and voting information, recruitment of volunteers, opinion seeking and even attacking opponents. This makes use of the internet an essential component of integrated marketing and goes beyond the communications function of advertising. The ability of the internet to galvanise target audience groups, such as supporters or endorsers is quite a powerful tool. An integral theme in this chapter is that the message itself is the key consideration and that it must be clear right from the early planning what this is and how it will be used. This supports the importance of role of integrated marketing and execution. “…advertising media are simply vehicles for conveying the images and ideas of candidates, and that it is the images and ideas, not the size of the commercial buy and the placement of the commercial buy, that ultimately are of the most consequence.” xv

3.

IS ADVERTISING ADVERTISING?

THEORY

RELEVANT

TO

POLITICAL

One of the vital ingredients in political advertising is quickly and efficiently conveying information to potential voters. In the ‘live’ campaign environment this information must be presented as: convincing, compelling and persuasive as it needs to elicit a response – that is, the encouragement of a person to cast a vote for a political party/candidate. The references cited in this paper confirm a number of key points regarding the need for an integrated marketing approach to political advertising.
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Most important is that following key themes or a ‘one voice’ approach can provide the ability to add power to each message that is presented and that this works best when a target audience (an identified specific group of voters) is presented with messages that are created to reflect those target audiences in terms of look, language, style and situation.

4.

CONCLUSION

Political advertising has, by virtue of the nature and time-frames allowed for election campaigns (quite short periods), a real need to be organised quickly and efficiently. Without a holistic view of marketing and a specific focus on an integrated marketing approach it would be almost impossible to be effective in using advertising to persuade and/or inform potential voters of the merits of supporting a particular party or candidate. The lack of basic research in the area of the use of integrated marketing in politics – particularly the communications (advertising) function warrants further investigation and would surely provide a very good return on investment. Manufacturers of major brands spend vast sums of money on market research and on testing and validating various IMC functions – they have no doubt about either its value or return. They also take a much longer view (in tern of product life-cycle and eventual maturity and sales plateau and then decline). If these same measures could be applied in the concentrated time-frame of an election campaign, the results could be quite dramatic. The only barriers to doing this would be the cost and any legislative restrictions such as in New Zealand where there is a total media blackout period prior to Election Day.

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APPENDIX

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REFERENCES i ii

Kotler, P and Keller, K, l, Marketing Management (P 500), 2012, Harlow, England, Pearson

Shrimp, Terence A and Andrews, Craig J, Advertising, Promotion, and Other Aspects of Integrated Marketing Communications (P 8), 2013, Mason, USA, South-Western Royne, Marla B, Chapter 35 pp. 542-543, Advertising Theory, Edited by Shelly Rodgers and Esther Thorson, 2012, New York, USA, Routledge iv v iii

Kotler, P and Keller, K, l, Marketing Management (P 500), 2012, Harlow, England, Pearson

Shrimp, Terence A and Andrews, Craig J, Advertising, Promotion, and Other Aspects of Integrated Marketing Communications (Pp. 241-244), 2013, Mason, USA, South-Western Shrimp, Terence A and Andrews, Craig J, Advertising, Promotion, and Other Aspects of Integrated Marketing Communications (P 242), 2013, Mason, USA, South-Western vii vi

Richard W. Pollay. "The Distorted Mirror: Reflections on the Unintended Consequences of Advertising" Journal of Marketing 50.2 (1986): 18-36.

Rose, Patricia B, Chapter 38, pp. 563-566, IMC, Advertising Research, and the Advertising Discipline, (P 564), Advertising Theory, Edited by Shelly Rodgers and Esther Thorson, 2012, New York, USA, Routledge ix viii

Pardun, C. J. (Ed.). (2009). (P 42) Advertising and society: controversies and consequences. Chichester, United Kingdom: Wiley-Blackwell.

Pardun, C. J. (Ed.). (2009). (P 38) Advertising and society: controversies and consequences. Chichester, United Kingdom: Wiley-Blackwell. xi x

Robinson, C. E. (2006). (P 5), Advertising and the market orientation of political parties contesting the 1999 and 2002 New Zealand general election campaigns. (unpublished PhD dissertation), Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand. http://www.aec.gov.au/Voting/Compulsory_Voting.htm

xii xiii

Robinson, C. E. (2006). (P 282), Advertising and the market orientation of political parties contesting the 1999 and 2002 New Zealand general election campaigns. (unpublished PhD dissertation), Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand. Robinson, C. E. (2006). (P 282), Advertising and the market orientation of political parties contesting the 1999 and 2002 New Zealand general election campaigns. (unpublished PhD dissertation), Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand. Trent, Judith S and Friedenberg, Robert V, Political Campaign Communication Principles & Practices (2008) (p 353), Maryland, USA, Rowman & Littlefield xv xiv

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