UNIVERSITY OF CANBERRA

Divis ion of C ommunic a tion a nd

Ed uca tion Sc hool of Profess io na l
C ommunic a tion

MARKETING
COMMUNICATION
SEMINAR M

Assessment 2
Critically Discuss The growth and success of the profession of marketing
communication depends on many developments in the field, organizational support,
higher education, professional visibility, professional credibility, etc. It is however, the
opinion of many leaders in the field that ethical practice is one of the most important
aspects of development and application that is demanded in a self-regulated profession.

Lecturer: Raveena Singh

Submitted by: Kraivich Kraisintu ID3003196
Submission date: 22nd May 2006

As we are shifting towards the new digital economy where the information is fully
democratized (Kotler, Jain & Maesincee: 2002), there has been an inevitable calling for
marketing communication, which, as a field of study, is only a decade old. Despite the
fact that marketing communication itself is relatively young and still in the early growth
stage (Shultz, Han and Kim: 2006), many organizations have started implementing this
concept to improve and enhance their internal and external communications, some of
them even consider their marketing communication to be a key competitive advantage
associated with marketing (Kitchen and Schultz: 2001).

Moreover, marketing communication also helps enhance value drivers for mastering the
value stream in the new business landscape, which includes customer value, core
competencies and collaborative network (Kotler, Jain & Maesincee: 2002). As a result,
marketing communication has undoubtedly played an important role in the global
marketplace as well as the global marketspace.

However, in order for such young profession to grow and success, it also depends upon
many developments in the field, namely organizational support, higher education,
professional visibility, professional credibility and etc. In addition, ethical practice, in the
opinion of many leaders in the field, is one of the most important aspects of development
and application that is demanded in a self-regulated profession.

This essay will critically discuss the aforementioned developments in the field that affect
the growth and success of the profession, short case studies may be used to better
illustrate the concepts or ideas. Lets now begin with the growth and success of
marketing communication.

The growth and success of the profession of marketing communication

In this session, the author will focus upon the growth and success of our marketing
communication profession rather than marketing communication as a concept or tool
to acquire and retain customers. In authors opinion, the growth of marketing

communication does not necessarily imply the growth of the profession; likewise, the
growth of the profession may not imply the growth of marketing communication too.

Profession, as defined by the Wikipedia Encyclopedia, is an occupation that requires

extensive training and the study and mastery of specialized knowledge, and usually has a
professional association, ethical code and process of certification or licensing. In more
academic terms, what make up a profession are Body of knowledge, Group of
Membership, Category of Member, Professional Organizations and Associations
and Code of Ethics.

In terms of Body of Knowledge, Marketing Communication (MC) and Integrated

Marketing Communication (IMC) are emerging concepts. Therefore, they do not yet have
a commonly accepted theoretical framework, most of the history of IMC approaches,
theories and contributions are very recent. However, a large number of scholars are now
contributing to build a theory base to cope with the increasing demand for MC (Shultz,
Han and Kim: 2006) for both professionals and academics.

For this reason, the author believes that we are still far from being mature; to illustrate
this, lets take a look at the definition of IMC. It has been a decade that many scholars
have not yet reached an agreement on the general concept and scope of IMC, Kitchen and
Schultz (1999) stated that since the early 1990s, there has been little progress in
understanding IMC beyond the 'one-sight', 'one sound' view. Duncan and Everett (1993)
claimed that since IMC is both a concept and a process, there is difficulty in arriving at a
definition of IMC. Nowak and Phelps (1994, p. 51) observed three broad concepts of
IMC. The first was the 'one voice' concept where integration was seen as having a clear
and consistent image, position, message across all marketing communication tools.
Second was the 'integrated' marketing communications concept, which focused on
advertisements that not only strengthened brand image but also influenced consumer
behavior. The third was the 'coordinated' marketing communications concept, aiming to
produce holistic communications campaigns. Beard (1997) argued that aside from a lack
of agreement on IMC definitions, the issue of viewing IMC as both a concept and a

process is also unsettled. He singled out two principles of IMC that have appeared
consistently in his review of the literature: 'campaign messages designed to speak with
one voice' and 'campaign messages attempting to elicit a measurable, behavioural
consumer response'. Cornelissen and Lock (2000) and Cornelissen (2001) upheld the
contrary opinion. They suggest that IMC is but one more among many management
fashions propagated by so-called gurus and that it is theoretically underdeveloped and
ambiguously defined. Schultz and Kitchen (2006) responded to such claims and explain
that IMC is still in a 'pre-paradigm stage of development' and that its value will
become more evident as further research and experience is obtained through the years.

The above examples clearly illustrate how weak our body of knowledge is, however, the
author believes that as scholars and professionals are contributing their findings and
experiences into the profession, we are gradually having stronger and stronger body of
knowledge, which is essential to the development of the profession.

In terms of professional organizations and associations, internationally we have The

International Advertising Association (IAA) which champions the common interests of
all the disciplines across the full spectrum of marketing communications, from
advertisers to media companies to agencies to direct marketing firms as well as individual
practitioners, and International Public Relations Association (IPRA), domestically we
have The Advertising Association of Thailand (AAT) and Marketing Association of
Thailand (MAT). In authors opinion, these associations are not yet enough for our
profession. As a profession, we can no longer stay under the umbrella of Marketing or
even Advertising (because many marketing people think advertising is under promotion,
which is one of the four marketing mixes). Therefore, we need to have our own
marketing communication association to be able to stand up as a profession.

In terms of Certification and Code of Ethics, it has been intensely debated in Thailand
for the last few years; a study by Positioning magazine (one of the Thailands best selling
magazines for marketers & marketing communicators) revealed that more than 57% of
marketing communication professionals support certification, which is a voluntary

process that individuals obtain a document recognizing that they have fulfilled the
requirements of an may practice in the field. In authors opinion, the certification
program requirements of marketing communication professionals may include passing an
objective knowledge test, some basic level of experience, and more importantly an
agreement to abide by a code of professional practices and a commitment to engage
in ongoing professional developments. From the study, new graduates or younger and
less experienced researchers support certification to a higher degree than their older
colleagues.

In Thailand, there are a number of reasons why our profession needs a certification
program and code of ethics. There are already too much bad, unethical marketing
communication programs (Limpanavetch: 2003) being delivered to the clients by
untrained, unqualified practitioners, by consultants, by the Business Development
Department, by MBA or Marketing Major graduates who know nothing or a little about
Marketing Communication. Besides, because there are no standards or minimum
qualifications to enter the field, anyone can claim that they are a marketing
communication professional without knowing what is correct or what is now correct
which reduces our professional credibility and visibility.

Though we do not yet have official certificate program (We do have the certificate
program by the Marketing Association of Thailand, called CPM Certified Professional
Marketer, however, it is not directly for marketing communication professionals and it is
not yet generally accepted, the direct association in charge with this called The
Advertising Association of Thailand (AAT) does not yet have it) and official code of
ethics, in Thailand, we have started to see the needs for it, there are now codes of ethics,
by MAT and AAT, MATs first revision code of ethics was released after 40 years of its
establishment for many professions related to the field of marketing, namely marketing,
marketing communication, marketing research. In this code of ethics, there is a general
ethical code for every profession related to the field of marketing, social and
environmental concerns, and ethical codes for a specific profession. AAT also has its

own code of ethics, which focuses more upon advertising rather than marketing
communication.

In authors opinion, the double ethical standards by the two institutions, have shown
that our profession is not yet mature, worse than that, in Thailand, we do not have direct
association for marcom professionals. Many times we seem to be staying under the
umbrella of Marketing, Advertising or Public Relations. These double standards have led
to confusion and non-uniform practices, for example, the code of ethics by AAT does not
allow comparative advertising which could be detrimental to the competitors whereas
MATs code does not mention about comparative advertising at all. As a result, running
this kind of ad may break the code by AAT but is acceptable under the code by MAT,
which makes it difficult for marcom practitioners in Thailand to behave ethically under
two different standards.

The code of ethics by MAT, though good to have, is questionable in terms of practicality
and the quality of the code. It is only three-page-long, and is for virtually every
profession related to the field of marketing. Here is what it says under the Marketing
Communication Professionals, in a bullet point form, Avoid false or misleading
message, Avoid forcing consumers to buy products or services that they do not want,
mislead them to buy, Avoid false information that is against values, cultures and beliefs,
distorts the information and unethically attacks the competitors. The author wonders if
these three bullet points are enough for our profession. Compared to the codes of ethics
of social communications by the Vatican, IABC and PRSA, MATs work is no match for
them.

The code of ethics by AAT seems to focus extensively upon advertising, which, in fact,
we are doing a lot more than advertising these days. In order to be able to stand up to any
challenges as a profession, we need to have our own, unborrowed code of ethics or else
the growth of our profession will somehow depend upon that of other professions, which
is not the case.

To sum, we are growing considerably fast in terms of the application, the implementation
of our knowledge, however, when it comes to the growth of the profession, we have
just started to realize its importance and fight for the rights we deserve as a profession. It
is therefore growing, but not as fast as the application of our knowledge to many
organizations in different sectors. In order to foster the growth of our profession, it is
indispensable to increase our body of knowledge, organizational support, credibility
and visibility, enforce ethical practices to continue our self-regulated profession and
seek for status protection such as establishing career registration, licensing or
certificate programs.

Higher Education
Higher education is essential for the development of every profession. It plays an
important role in building a solid-base body of knowledge. Education strategizes,
systemizes and sharpens the thinking, as a result, graduate students help ensure a certain
level of quality results delivered to the clients. Quality, measurable results increase
credibility, visibility and ultimately organizational support.

Today we have Marketing Communication as a field of study in all Bachelor, Master and
Doctorate level, implying that we are gaining more body of knowledge as well as
visibility so that there is a demand for the course. In Thailand, five universities that offer
marketing communication degrees are Chulalongkorn University (Thai), St. John
University (Thai), Bangkok University (Thai), UTCC (Thai) and DPU (International),
meaning that hundreds of marketing communication professionals are being produced
each year, which increases our professional visibility.

Another important why higher education is so important is because of Alumni, the alumni
is truly a place where professionals in the same field can share their thoughts, ideas and
professional experiences and is also a good source to increase credibility and visibility.

Moreover, higher education also helps improve marcom ethical practice, which is one of
the most important developments in our profession. How could one care about ethics,

what to concern, what to think about, best practice in the industry when s/he does not
receive proper education? As a result, higher education does not only increase the
aforementioned developments, but it also helps improve ethical standard for the
profession as a whole.

Professional Credibility
Professional credibility helps enhance trust, acceptance and organizational support,
consequently, when we are supported by organizations, chances are that we become more
visible to the publics. Fill (2002:20) stated that credibility is an important aspect of the
communication process and of marketing communications. Likewise, credibility is of
vital importance to our profession too.

In order to increase professional credibility, body of knowledge must first of all be

increased because many people still believe that media people are liars and thus have no
credibility. Therefore, as a marketing communication professional, we have to contribute
our inputs into our works and produce efficient outcome, which means more ethical,
more precise, more strategic and systematic body of knowledge in order to get more
credibility.

Aside from the body of knowledge, accountability is another key to increasing

professional credibility. In Thailand, measurement of results has always been underrated
(Limpanavetch: 2003), when there are no such reliable measurements, the accountability
and credibility are thus questionable. However, the author believes poor accountability is
not entirely caused by marcom practitioners. Many times we might have been forced to
do that, because of low credibility, we get less organizational support, when we get less
organizational support, we get less budget, and when we get less budget, the first place
where we are going to cut the budget is evaluation. This is therefore a domino effect from
another development in the field.

In authors opinion, the measurement method is where we may be able to improve. Many
advertising agencies and organizations have been using reach and frequency as the

measures for media success. Unfortunately, reach and frequency will not help improve
accountability much in terms of financial returns of an organization; only a few of us
have started to use ROCI (Return On Customer Investment), which provides a greater
degree of accountability.

Professional Visibility
Unlike other professions such as Pharmacists, Lawyers, Engineers, not many people see
us having enough visibility. They do not know that we are the marketing communication
professional, media profession, or advertising professional, and that is why we are in the
growing stage not yet professional.

However, our profession, though unequalled when compared with the above professions,
is now improving and a number of publics have started to see us as a distinguished
profession. For instance, Thailand TAC Awards 2005, the most valuable award given to
the countrys best advertising and PR campaigns, has now included best marketing
communication campaign awards, as a distinguished field from marketing and
advertising, which therefore implies that we have become more visible to the publics than
our early days.

The author believes that the growth of our profession in terms of visibility greatly
depends upon credibility and education, because when we have credibility, we are more
likely to have organizational support, and with organizational support, it is highly
possibly that we gain more professional visibility, which is one of the keys to
professional development.

Organizational Support
When we have the aforementioned developments such as body of knowledge, more
memberships, visibility, credibility, we will gain organizational support, which is crucial
for our growth and success. As a marcom professional, we always struggle when it comes
to the time that we set the budget, and ask the management to allow that certain amount

of budget for the marketing communication department, which implies that the
organizational support is not good enough for the development of the profession.

In fact, it is not the CEO or the managements false to give inadequate support, the reason
why the organizations can not yet fully support the marcom department is because we
still have inadequate body of knowledge, credibility and visibility. Another factor that has
brought about hard time for marcom practitioners is the organization structure to support
the growth of marcom, again, if credibility is not present, who is going to believe that
reengineering organization and integrating business functions in order to employ fullthrottle marketing communication program would make it stay ahead of others.

To sum, each development of the profession has a clear linkage to one another, the
author thus believes that credibility, body of knowledge, visibility, education and
organizational support need to be developed simultaneously, along with ethics, which
will be discussed later.

Ethical Practice, one of the most important aspects of development and application
demanded in a self-regulated profession
First of all we have to admit that we were using media evil goals in the past years such as
propaganda, brain washing, misleading, isolating people, destructive values, attacking
each other, which were detrimental to our profession. However, we have now started to
see the importance of ethics, which has been defined by McElreath (1997:53) as a branch
of philosophy that is concerned not only with what is right and what is wrong, but also
with what is good and what is bad. We now have codes of ethics by several associations.
Although they may be under the marketing or advertising code of ethics, we have already
shown our concerns for ethics and moral issues.

Although many laws govern advertising, not all marcom programs are regulated.
Numerous marcom-related issues are left to the discretion of the marcom practitioners
and are based on ethical concerns. As a self-regulated profession, ethics is thus absolutely
indispensable to protect both our profession and consumers and to speed up the growth

and success of our profession. Imagine the country that has no laws, the only way for
them to live happily in a society is to follow moral values, norms, beliefs or cultures.
Moreover, we will not gain credibility or visibility without behaving well to the
society so ethical practice is interrelated to all other developments in the field.

A good example of this topic is the corporate campaign for Unilever Holding PLC
(Thailand). Unilever came up with the campaign We care..so we help during June
2005, when the oil price went beyond $60 per barrel. Prices of everything virtually
increased but Unilever products. The reason why price tags for Unilever products
were unchanged was primarily because the company decided to reduce the content in
the package for home care and personal care products, for example, a small sized
bottle containing 500ml of shampoo was reduced to 450ml. However, the firm did not
want customers to be aware of the change, so the packages were redesigned and the
shapes of the bottles were changed so consumers would not know that the amount of
content inside the bottle was no longer the same. The company then came up with the
campaign We careso we help, aiming to tell the audience that we care so we
help all the Thai people by maintaining the same price to gain better corporate image
and reputation without saying a word about the reduced quantity in the new,
beautifully designed packages. After a week of its launch, Unilevers major rival,
P&G, reported such unethical communication to the Consumer Protection Board, and
it was on the headline news on many Thailands top newspapers, including Manager,
Thairath, Matichon and Daily News sales in many categories dropped and the firm
needed to spend a huge amount of money on their next campaign Blue Flag to
regain their good image and reputation.

In authors view, maintaining same price while reducing quantity could not mean
helping Thai People because the price of the content in the bottle actually
increased. Of course, Unilever management, staff and the agency (JWT) knew that
they were not really contributing something to the society, but still they wanted to
make money out of everything they did and that is why the market is being flooded by
unethical campaigns.

In this case, it did not only destroy Unilever in terms of sales, but it also destroyed our
profession as a whole. Consumers used to think that we were liars; we tried hard to
change that perception, but when this kind of campaign was again launched, how can we
prevent consumers from feeling that way? Therefore, as a marcom practitioner, in order
for our profession to grow and succeed we must help, we must strictly follow ethical
practice because it will help enhance other developments in the field too.

Conclusion
In order for our profession to grow and succeed, we need to first be more self-reliance,
we can no longer depend upon marketing or other professions, especially in Thailand, we
need to establish our own marketing communication association for our profession for the
professional rights that we deserve. We will also need to admit that we might not yet be a
profession, however, we are now very close to it, we already have everything that the
profession is supposed to have, for example, body of knowledge, professional
associations, members, category of members, certification programs, ethical codes and
etc, but we have to do it more seriously, the development in each factor would also help
one another and altogether we can be a credible, self-regulated profession.

Besides, marketing communication practitioners must also contribute something to our

profession, not only for the sake of money in their pockets, but for the sake of
development of our profession, the Advertising Association of Thailand (ATT) is a good
example, years after years, we have just had a code of ethics, but when there were issues
that dealt directly with money, we often went to solve such issues first, in ATT, there is a
new hotly debated issue, the pitching fee, and everything was done so fast after this
issue has been raised, a week after the idea to collect pitching fee when pitched to the
clients was originated, 49 advertising agencies participated in the agreement to collect
this certain amount of money, unlike code of ethics, which seems to be less prioritized so
it took many years to write and implement.

The author believes that in order for our profession to grow, visibility, credibility, higher
education and organizational support are also the keys. Each of them affects one another,

therefore, they must be developed simultaneously for the desired results, and when we
have all of these, along with ethical practice, our profession could grow and succeed.
Last but not least, ethical practice for the marcom profession must strictly be enforced.
Sadly, many times it is underrated and overlooked by marcom practitioners in Thailand
and in many countries across the globe. Therefore, the ethical practice, which helps
improve credibility, visibility, organizational support and more, and is a key to grow and
succeed in our profession, must be embedded in the heart of every marcom practitioner.
Professional Organizations, Associations, certification programs and any other
institutions that are contact points for marcom practitioners must also help promote and
enforce ethical practice reward those who follow the rules and punish those who break
so that we can be what we have always been dreaming of, a distinguished profession,

REFERENCES
English References
Schultz, D & Schultz, H 2003, IMC The Next Generation. The United States: McGraw Hill
Schultz, D, Stanley, T & Robert, L 1997, Integrated Marketing Communications.
The United States: NTC Business Books
Singh, R 2005, Unit Outline, Marketing Communication Seminar M. Australia: The
Flexible Delivery Development Unit, University of Canberra
Singh, R 2004, Book of Readings Vol1, Marketing Communication Seminar M.
Australia: The Flexible Delivery Development Unit, University of Canberra
Singh, R 2004, Book of Readings Vol2, Marketing Communication Seminar M.
Australia: The Flexible Delivery Development Unit, University of Canberra
Singh, R 2004, Book of Readings Vol3, Marketing Communication Seminar M.
Australia: The Flexible Delivery Development Unit, University of Canberra

Thai References
Kotler, P, Jain, D & Maesincee, S 2002, Marketing Moves. Thailand: Tarn Settakij Press
Limpanavetch 2001, Cutting-Edge CRM. Thailand: BrandAge Books
Phongsataporn, S 2003, Practical IMC. Thailand: Nut Republic
Lohthongkam, T 2002, IMC in Action. Thailand: Tipping Point Press
Martketing Association of Thailand, BrandAge Publishing 2005, Brand Activation:
The Ultimate Tool of Tomorrow Brand Success. Thailand: BrandAge Boks

Internet
The Marketing Association of Thailand
http://www.marketingthai.or.th
The Advertising Association of Thailand
http://www.adassothai.com
The Vaticans Code of Ethics
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/pccs/documents/rc_pc_pccs_doc_200
00530_ethics-communications_en.html