Part A.

Critically assess the perception that mass communications tools have lost their
effectiveness and the emergence of direct communication tools has created both
opportunities and challenges for marketers. (50%)

Traditionally, marketing communication through mass communication tools

including the use of advertisements on television, radio, newspaper to move the
mass audience along the AIDA (Attention – Interest-Desire- Action) ladder has been
the preferred mode of marketing communication. Underlying this practice was a
belief that the broad reach afforded by mass communication tools if coupled with
high advertising frequency holds the key to attracting and converting the as many
of the prospect. Consequently, in the old school of thought, the success of a product
depended presumably on a cleverly crafted selling message and its advertising
budget. Yet in the past decade, the communication model is evolving dynamically
as marketers question the efficacy of traditional approach. A number of authors
who have provocatively proclaimed the end of advertising have attributed it to
media fragmentation, declining trust, rise of the internet and lack of financial
accountability. Such perception are further reinforced as one observes how
companies such as Starbucks, The Bodyshop, Facebook and Google ; despite a
minimal use of traditional mass communication tool in their promotional mix
succeeds in capturing enviable frequency of brand recall in an advertisement-
cluttered world. This article examines how in the age of new media, technology and
empowered consumers, 1) mass communication tools are perceived to have its lost
its effectiveness 2) the opportunities and challenges presented to the marketers
through the emergence of the direct communication tools. In doing so, the author
revisits the increasing importance of integrated marketing communication (Schultz
et al, 1993) first put forward more than fifteen years ago.

Mass communication: A money pit of wasted resources?

In the “post television age” (Cappo, Joe, 2003), mass communication through the
traditional media is considered to be losing ground to the new media. Therefore, it
is not surprising that literature proclaiming the “death of advertisement” (Rust &
Oliver, Dec 1994) has not been lacking. What Seth Godin depicts as the demise of
the “TV-industrial” complex, attributing it in part to the public’s growing attention
deficit, their distaste for unsolicited mass advertisements and a growing
advertisement-avoidance behaviour (Seth, 1999), Al Ries explains it as a decline of
trust by the masses for paid advertisements. (Ries & Ries, 2002). When Joseph Jaffe
paints modern consumers as increasingly gaining control over their media habits
and choices and attributes it to the fragmentation of traditional media channels
along with the proliferation of new channels enabled by internet and digital
technology (Jaffe, Joseph, 2003), data supporting the eroded effectiveness of the
mass media were pouring in and continues to do so. Between 1960 to 2005, the
average number of TV channels available in United States (U.S.) households grew
from six to over a hundred. As viewer choice broadens, the audience
fragmentation deepens . Consequently, the percentage of TV household viewers
per programme declined . For example, in 1954 , nearly three-quarters of the U.S
TV households watched “ I Love Lucy” on Sunday night. In contrast “Amercian Idol”
, a modern and hugely popular TV show with the highest ratings in the same
country is typically viewed by less than 15% of the household. Furthermore , poorer
program ratings are not translated to lower costs for the advertisers or programme
sponsors ; from 1995 to 2005, the average cost per thousand viewers watching
primetime TV increased 144 percent for national network and 92 percent for local
broadcast TV ads. (Marcus, 2008). Likewise, print media in mature cities share a
similar story of sliding revenues from advertisements as the average newspaper
circulation and magazine circulation continues to plummet (Perez-Pena, 2009).
Understandably, in the face of market fragmentation, free newspaper, on-line news
and changing reader habits, typical figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations in
these countries are gloomy and will likely remain so .

Clearly, as viewers and readers transfer a fraction of their attention time “on-line”

http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/brandnewday/archives/2006/03/what_we_
already.html

Whereupon established brand including Coke built a cult status through decades of
massive print advertisements and thirty seconds commercials on monolithic TV
networks, Coke’s ex Chief Marketing Officer Zyman warn about thirty-second
commercials as being a potential colossal waste of money as advertisement
agencies with self-serving interest produces overly creative, award winning
commercials that entertain but does not generate sales. (Zyman & Brott, 2002).

In the “post advertising era”, marketers across the industries face a plethora of
challenge. (Rust & Oliver, Dec 1994). For one, avalanches of promotional message
are overwhelming the consumers. Figures vary but it is estimated that the average
person is targeted by about to 3000 to 5000 advertisement per day. (Smith, 2006).
As life becomes a blitz of marketing , consumers are resorting to devices to avoid
the messages.