IBL Year 3 - International Business Communication Summary (exam Semester 2 Block 3 and 4) (Made by Amy Diemer)

100% note divided by: Project decathlon report 50%, Individual refeccon report t implementacon
plan 25%, Writen test 25%

Chapter 1

Importance of a strong brand

Why is a strong brand important for a company?
Name 2 funccons for consumers

1. Convenience when buying
2. Psychological funccon (e.g. Apple, infuence form friends/standard)


A business plan is about what you want with your business, your mission and vision.
From your business plan you derive your Markecng plan; about the customer strategy, promocon
etc. Operaconal markecng plan is 4P'ss.
Markecng-communicacon plan is about the strategy on how to communicate to the customers.

First you need a brand, if you want to survive as a company. Preferably a strong brand (a name, logo,
idea which connects with associacons, reputacon)

Five funccons for a company:

1. Discnccon
2. Concnuity
3. Higher price
4. Easier product introduccons
5. Greater independence regarding the retail trade

A strong web of associacons can save your brand.
Consumer products
Low involvement products V.S. high involvement products

Brand name

 Separate brands (monolithic corporate idencty, unilever)
 Umbrella brand (branded corporate idencty, phillips)
 Mix of these (endorsed corporate idencty)

Unilever --> if something goes wrong with e.g Lipcon, Dove stays in tact. Meanwhile they all come
from Unilever.

Brand image

- Markecng communicacons
- Other markecng tools
- Own experiences with a brand
- Infuenced by others

,How to sell more?

 Push strategy (aimed at retailers)
 Pull strategy (aimed at customers)


Changes in markecng communicacon: historical development:

 Direct contact with customers
 Distance and cme challenges disappeared
 Communicacon through retails (retailers are disappearing)
 Looking for discnccve features (USP)
 First direct advercsing campaigns
 Large advercsing budgets
 More markecng communicacon methods
 One-to-one communicacon




Consumer products

- Convenience goods (frequently bought; cheese)
- Preferencal products (frequently bought; beer)
- Shopping goods (durable; fat-screen TV)
- Specialized goods (unique; iPad)



Chapter 2
Communicacon mix

 Corporate communicaton
o The organizacon as a whole
o Also called concern communicacon
 Marketng communicaton
o The brands, products, services


Corporate communicacon

The mission of the company is the starcng point and subject

,  Corporate idencty
 Corporate image
 Corporate reputacon

Communicacon methods - advercsing, online communicacon, sponsorship etc.
Media - newspaper, internet, personal contact etc.
Corporate design – company vs. Brands
Target groups – vs. Shareholders

Corporate communicacon

 Internal communicacon
 External communicacon (commercial com & markecng com --> money)


Markecng communicacon

Instruments: brand name, packaging, design, price, distribucon channels.
All the markecng communicacon lead the customer to the selling point (shop) and must have a
follow-up in store
Markecng communicacon mix

Marcom – infuencing behaviour

 Thematc marcom (knowledge, attude)
 Acton marcom (buying behaviour)


Advercsing, sponsoring, personal selling and direct markecng is long-lastng communicaton.
Events, sales-promocon, in-store communicacon, markecng PR is short-lastng communicaton.


Process of markecng communicacon

1. Marcom strategy of the sender
2. Coding: campaign concept
3. Message in media
4. Decoding: processing by receiver
5. Knowledge, attude
6. Behaviour


Marcom instruments

 Advercsing – paid messages in the media.
o Advercsing is informacon in mass media, paid for by an advercser, concerning
brands or organizacons, with the purpose of infuencing the knowledge, attude and
behaviour of target groups in a direccon that benefts the advercser.
 PR – systemacc promocon of mutual understanding between organizacons and the public
o Markecng PR has the intencon to infuence buying behaviour (acts at brand level)
 Online communicacon
 Sponsorship