Marketing  communication

Marketing communication is comprised of several tools and media that companies can use in their marketing mix when promoting and communicating products, services or events to their customers (Shimp, 2010).

A consumer fair for jewellery targets all consumers, yet it is reasonable to believe that the core target group consist of consumers with a genuine interest in jewellery. The target

consumers are also those who can contribute to the profitability of the fair, for instance through purchases. It is of utmost importance to know who the target consumers are to direct marketing efforts toward them. One significant factor that influences both attitude and intention of consumers is the marketing of the fair. It is important for managers to note that only two questions measure this construct, which might lead to some inaccuracy regarding the actual significance of the construct as used here. On the other hand, both validity and reliability is high, and it is not a surprising result that marketing proved to be a significant influence as companies spend billions of dollars each year to promote their brands and products through advertising (Shimp, 2010). In the following, strategies for marketing the fair will be presented, while implementing other factors that proved to influence the attitude and intention of consumers.

11.2.2.1 Information processing

To ascertain that the correct marketing tools are employed marketing managers should acquire knowledge on how consumers process advertising. The modified Elaboration Likelihood Model by Tellis (2004), showing how motivation, ability and opportunity decide how consumers process information in an advertising campaign, could be utilized to determine the correct action. The involvement of consumers can be classified as either low or high (Hoyer and MacInnis, 2010), and based on the fact that consumers are comprised of people with different socio-demographic characteristics, different channels should be used with different messages in order to reach both low and high involvement consumers.

Students have similar characteristics and it can be argued that they constitute a homogenous group. Nevertheless, it is reasonable to assume that the group also consists of students with diverse personalities and different capabilities, who are both high and low in terms of involvement.

Results from the study show that respondents are to a great extent influenced by the marketing efforts of the fair, which may imply that respondents react well to strong arguments and demonstrate a high degree of involvement in processing information. A somewhat surprising result is that respondents tend to answer on the negative side of the scale, with a mean close to completely disagree on the questions measuring “marketing”.

This could imply that marketing is not that influential after all, and that consumers do not have high motivation to process marketing despite its significance on attitude and intention in regards to consumer fairs for jewellery. It is more reasonable to believe that the two

remaining questions are phrased in a way that does not fully capture the importance of marketing, which will be discussed in the following chapter regarding limitations of the study.

A study by Verma (2009) found that young consumers want to experience new things, and that they enjoy watching advertisements. A consumer fair for jewellery is completely novel in Norway, which in itself may contribute to the willingness of consumers to process advertising. There does not exist such an event, and it is reasonable to believe that marketing will stimulate interest and a higher degree of processing as a result of this novelty aspect.

Findings within the consumer behaviour literature confirm that novel stimuli are likely to gain more attention and be processed more extensively (Lynch and Srull, 1982; Hastie and Park, 1986; Oliver et al., 1993) than familiar innovations, as they require less analysis (Oliver et al., 1993). Furthermore, a study by Oliver et al. (1993) found that consumers use imaging when presented with advertisements for stimulus perceived as novel. Marketing managers should therefore take on a strategy of strong argumentation, based on the strong significance of marketing in the regression analysis, while also cater to those who process information more peripherally by the use of repetitions and visual stimuli (Tellis, 2004), to enable imaging. This can be done through the use of different channels to reach different consumers. There also exist differences between genders on how marketing information is processed, with women being more detail oriented (Meyers-Levy and Maheswaran, 1991, and meyers-Levy and Sternthal, 1991, as cited in Verma, 2009). This might require that advertising is targeted towards the genders, rather than one campaign targeting both genders.

11.2.2.2 Marketing communication media

Marketing, in the format of advertising, can lead to increased attention and awareness of the consumer fair for jewellery, strengthen positive associations and alter negative attitudes (Shimp, 2010). There exist a range of marketing tools, from the traditional offline media such as television, newspapers, magazines and radio to online media in the format of Internet advertising (Shimp, 2010). Managers should utilize these tools in reaching their target consumers, and incorporate the results from the study in this thesis in their marketing efforts.

The fair should be promoted in magazines and newspapers, as such advertisement reaches the target consumers in an efficient manner and exposures are not “wasted” on non-potential consumers (Shimp, 2010). Consumers reading magazines and newspapers are in the correct mental state to process commercials, and will thus pay attention to the advertisement

(Shimp, 2010). A consumer fair for jewellery promotes and sells expensive and precious products, and should therefore be considered as a serious event. By advertising through media-channels that are considered to be serious, such as newspapers and magazines, this will reflect on the image of the consumer fair. Broadcast media, in the form of radio, could be used both locally and nationally to reach consumers. This is an economical marketing medium that managers can take advantage of when providing information about the fair and creating awareness, and it enables them to reach target consumers through the use of different radio stations (Shimp, 2010). Internet is growing rapidly as an advertising medium, and managers can advertise through the website of the consumer fair for jewellery, and by the use of banner ads that appear on websites visited by the target consumers. Companies spend billions of dollars on online advertising, and thus online ads are a key element of the marketing mix (Shimp, 2010).

11.2.2.3 The influence of peers in marketing communication

One of the most prominent results reveal that the influence and initiative of peers is highly important when forming attitudes and intention to visit a consumer fair for jewellery. The influence and initiative of peers should be implemented in the marketing efforts, through the use of word-of-mouth and social media networks online. It is evident that consumers rely on the opinions of others when making decisions, not because it is expected of them, but rather because they trust the opinion of others and appreciates their initiatives. In addition, subjective norm proved to influence the attitude of women on a 10% significance level, which means that women to a larger extent will be influenced by, and comply with, others.

When including attitude as an independent variable, results show that subjective norm also significantly influences the intention of men. Marketing managers must therefore take into consideration the social context of the consumer fairs and acknowledge the existence of social and normative pressures. Furthermore, it is in the interest of managers to control what is being said about their products, services, or in this case, event, and thus advertising is the first step of this process, followed by word-of-mouth (Shimp, 2010).

Marketing should create buzz and a flow of information to reach social networks online, such as Facebook and Twitter. Social media is growing rapidly (Colliander and Dahlén, 2011) and it is comprised of powerful tools to reach the target consumers and to stimulate interest and discussions. A study by Colliander and Dahlén (2011) found that it is important to consumers that information is unbiased and stem from people they can relate to. This

makes social media an important marketing tool. It is of great importance to the managers of consumer fairs for jewellery to reach opinion leaders or influencers, who are persons in a social network who have a particular influence on the attitudes and behaviours of others (Shimp, 2010). The opinion leaders can influence a range of consumers due to people looking up to them and valuing their opinions. One type of opinion leader is the bloggers, who write about their lives and their experiences with products and brands. By connecting the brand to a blog or online social media, marketers can be provided with a new and highly efficient publicity tool (Colliander and Dahlén, 2011). The managers of a consumer fair for jewellery should reach out to a few of the most serious and salient bloggers and offer them a chance to visit the fair, and provide them with an unforgettable experience. If they develop positive attitudes towards the fair and pass it on in their blogs then that will likely contribute to positive attitudes amongst followers of the blog. Blogs usually have a number of loyal followers, and it is crucial that the bloggers develop positive attitudes; otherwise blogging may contribute to negative word-of-mouth (Shimp, 2010). Other opinion leaders such as magazine editors or prominent personalities within the jewellery industry should also be targeted. This can increase the word-of-mouth and influence in other areas than those reached by blogging.

11.2.2.4 Message and targeted advertising

The overall message of the marketing campaign, either it be in a commercial or a post in a group on Facebook, should focus on creating awareness about the fair and stimulate interest.

It is of great importance that the managers have a clear definition of what they are offering their consumers. A consumer fair for jewellery offers consumers the opportunity to view and purchase jewellery from several competitors at the same time and place while providing them with an unforgettable experience, and this must be communicated. Experience proved to be an influential factor of the attitude of men, and should therefore be implemented into the message. The marketing must make consumers believe that they will attain new and positive experiences from visiting the fair. As this factor was only significant for men, the experience factor should be especially salient in advertising targeting male consumers. Since consumer fairs are built on experiential stimuli, this aspect should be implemented in all marketing efforts, though appear more salient in marketing targeting men than women. Past behaviour regarding jewellery was a significant influence on intention to visit a consumer fair for jewellery both when attitude was included and excluded as an independent variable.

Consumers should be reminded about their prior experience with jewellery when they are exposed to advertising and other marketing efforts. The same is true for past behaviour regarding consumer fairs as this factor became significant for women when attitude was included as an independent variable influencing intention.

In order to increase the processing of advertisement, inferences regarding the experience must be incorporated, as the consumer will have no prior knowledge to rely on. The advertising must enable a “trial in the mind” (Oliver et al., 1993). In addition, it is of importance that consumers who actually visit the fair attain new and positive experiences as promised through marketing. Satisfied consumers will contribute with positive word-of-mouth which is vital to the future existence of the fair.

11.2.2.5 Capitalize on past behaviour

It may be possible to retrieve lists with information about consumers who have previously purchased jewellery, and thereby target marketing communications directly toward them.

The results show that previous purchase of jewellery has a positive impact on intention, and therefore it would be valuable for marketing managers to target this segment. The creation and use of such lists for marketing purposes must however be approved by consumers upon purchase. Marketing managers should investigate the possibility to cooperate with large jewellery brands that will be present at the consumer fair. Consumers can be given the choice to have their e-mail address registered for marketing purposes when they purchase jewellery products in stores. Consumers can also register their e-mail address on the websites of the jewellery companies, where it will be stated that they will receive e-mails with offers and advertisements.

Past behaviour regarding consumer fairs proved to be a significant influence on the intention of women when attitude was included as an independent variable. As with past behaviour regarding jewellery, managers should retrieve lists with for instance e-mail addresses of consumers who have visited consumer fairs for other industries in the past. Managers should investigate the possibility to collaborate with managers of other consumer fairs, and enable the creation of lists. Staff may ask visitors if they would like to register their e-mail address for future information about fairs in Norway when entering or leaving the consumer fair venue. The lists can then be distributed to the managers of the collaborating fairs for marketing purposes.

11.2.3 Potential reasons behind the insignificant impact of other factors