Marketing Communications in Emerging Economies, Volume II

This chapter sets the scene for this volume by discussing conceptual issues of marketing communications. It highlights that marketing communication is critical to the survival and growth of brands and entities operating within emerging economies. It starts by explaining why managing different stakeholder audiences is crucial to successful communications and highlights how critical it is for firms to adopt the integrated marketing communication approach. The chapter further shows some empirical evidence on the marketing communication practices in emerging markets. The chapter ends with a synopsis of the various themes and topics discussed in the book chapters.

Much like everything else in the world today, marketing communications has also evolved. With all the digital options available to consumers, the traditional methods still remain effective. The current chapter strives to examine both traditional and contemporary marketing communications and how both can be used effectively in contemporary times. The chapter starts with an introduction about marketing communications, followed by a section on traditional marketing presenting theories of traditional marketing, traditional marketing mix and the advantages of traditional marketing communications. The chapter also evaluates the contemporary marketing methods in depth and argues that the growth of digital marketing communications has created new forms of hybridity that incorporate traditional and contemporary forms of marketing communications and expanded the scope of opportunities that could not be accessed via traditional platforms while integrating new technologies. Added together, this shows an emerging pattern of opportunities and challenges brought by the digital technologies for the marketers and practitioners and how to efficiently adapt in the rapidly changing environment. The cultural differences can also pose a challenge for the marketers in emerging economies, the chapter provides recommendations on how to deal with cultural perceptions. The chapter provides practical implications for both academics and emerging markets to use the marketing communication methods effectively.

Global environments and market conditions are constantly changing worldwide. The change in the media landscape brought by the popular use of social media and online platforms has also created a change in the ways markets consume media messages. An economic downturn brought by a global pandemic has also forced marketers to cut down advertising and promotional costs to guard organizational financial stability. Finally, and specifically to the United States, the change in demographics seen through a rapid growth of minority groups, primarily Hispanics, who now hold a growing purchasing power, require marketers to shift attention to this particular group. This chapter focuses on viable and creative avenues through the use of public relations campaigns that marketers could consider when reaching the Hispanic community in the United States and emerging economies globally as they touch upon emotions using culture, traditions, values, and representation. The chapter posits that in these times of change in media preferences, economic declines, and demographic landscapes, the use of public relations practices should be seen as an extremely useful and powerful tool that drives positive change and influence for consumers in emerging economies given its power for relationship building and connection.

This chapter provides a comprehensive framework for marketing communication program development for SMEs in emerging economies. The model presented highlights the SME communication process, key determinants of communication program development, and channel options and the effective measure of SME communication. This has become necessary as extant literature has not paid adequate attention to marketing communication developments in SMEs in developing and emerging economies. The chapter demonstrates the lack of research and the gaps that need to be addressed. It goes further to demonstrate how marketing research and intelligence gathering are core to the development and implementation of an effective marketing communication strategy for SMEs in emerging economies. The chapter concludes with managerial advice on how to use cost-effective channels by looking into the combination of the traditional and new media channels.

Increasingly, firms are playing a key role in resolving societal problems, including pandemics. The contribution of firms in pandemics can be performed through corporate social responsibility initiatives. Consequently, firms make their target audience aware of their corporate social responsibility activities through communication efforts. However, there is an advocacy to adopt a strategic approach in corporate social responsibility communication. In emerging economies, the performance of CSR has been widely viewed as a philanthropic gesture, thus leading to firms not using innovative ways such as CSR communication to enhance its effectiveness and strategic benefits. This paper, therefore, seeks to identify the various CSR communication activities within the CSR communication strategy domain. The study adopted a semi-systematic literature review approach to understanding ways to perform CSR communication, with a close look at communications on firms COVID-19 initiatives. Some examples of COVID-19 CSR communications in emerging economies are also provided. The paper suggested that a strategic CSR communication on COVID-19 is determined by the strategy (informational, reactive, and deliberative), the creative message and content of the message (CSR initiative, CSR fit, CSR motive, and CSR impact), communication channel (advertisement, website, annual report and sustainability report, social media) and must be results-driven. The paper contributes to how firms must undertake CSR communication in emerging economies.

A feeling of possibility has a strong effect on how a person may endure a situation as possibility is embedded in hope and uncertainty. In marketing communications, brands inspire some form of hope in terms of what the brand can do. In this chapter, we evaluate and share insights into a marketing campaign that inspired hope and spurred a nation in an uncertain situation. During the global coronavirus pandemic, tourism customers and travelers were uncertain about the attainment of their goals and needed “possibility” communicated to mitigate the negative emotions of not being able to achieve a positive goal-congruent outcome. The South Africa Tourism responded to the ominous mood and frightful psychological state created by the pandemic and communicated hope that galvanized the nation. The brand identified that the country needed to act collectively and instead of seeking capitalistic transactions. The focus was on seeking out and delivering true intangible value of customer well-being through coordinated, customer-centric marketing communications. The chapter shares insights into how brands can create value even in uncertain and harsh conditions.

The practice of marketing communications in smaller firms in Ghana has received mixed feelings among staff and clients alike. This chapter investigates the perceptions and opinions of staff and customers on marketing communication strategies and practices employed by the selected Rural and Community Banks (RCBs) in Ghana. A multi-stage sampling technique was used in selecting the final 561 samples for the study from 10 regions of Ghana. Findings from the study revealed that there is a positive perception of marketing communication practice among the selected Rural Banks in Ghana although the agreement level was not very strong. The study recommends that the management of the RCBs facilitates training programs for capacity building of staff and periodically conducts client surveys to solicit their opinions on their marketing communication programs. The perception of clients on the various marketing communication mix adopted by RCBs in communicating to its clients becomes very imperative as it influences whether or not a particular client would continue to conduct business or not.

Ghana’s advertising industry has witnessed tremendous growth enabled by the increasing number of local and multinational advertising agencies. The benefit of advertising to the marketing of goods and services has been acknowledged. Despite the growing importance of advertising recounted in literature, it seems there is little understanding of firm-level management issues and challenges affecting the performance of firms in the advertising industry. This paper provides a qualitative perspective of some key management issues affecting advertising sector performance in Ghana. To provide insight into these management issues, four in-depth interviews and a panel discussion of nine advertising stakeholders in the Ghanaian advertising industry were conducted to understand the factors’ driving the performance of advertising firms in Ghana. The findings show that the factors are associated with the human practices, technological advancement and managerial process of the firms. The managerial practices have instead not helped the growth of advertising firms in Ghana. The implications of this study as well as the direction of future studies have been presented at the end of the paper.

The purpose-driven marketing trend became popular in 2018 because consumers have increasingly become engaged in political and social causes debates on social media. However, COVID-19 has provided brands with another kind of “debate”, namely, to communicate how they implement what they stand for. By meaningfully responding and interacting with their target audiences on social media about important COVID-19-related topics and issues, consumers could obtain a better sense of brands’ reason for existence. A general inductive approach was followed to illustrate how a leading South African brand executed its brand purpose with social media brand communication on two social media platforms during the first 5 months of the pandemic. Findings indicate that the brand aligned consumer priorities with core brand values were focused on the future and shared helpful information for principle-driven solutions and support. Theoretically, the findings add to the body of knowledge of purpose-driven marketing during an eventuality while the findings can also serve as a heuristic for other brands on how to represent their purpose on social media. Further research on this topic is necessary to also gain insight into audiences and employees about their experiences of different purpose-driven brands.

Point-of-purchase advertising is a common marketing promotional tool in influencing consumer purchase behaviour within the retail store environment. Point-of-purchase promotions are used by marketers in an attempt to gain consumers’ attention and influence their purchases in emerging markets. However, the efficacy of point-of-purchase materials in emerging markets remains unexplored. Using the stimulus–organism–response as a theoretical base, this chapter examines the shoppers’ evaluation of point-of-purchase material advertising and how their responses influence purchase intentions of a grocery product. The study was conducted in a grocery store in a shopping centre. The shopper’s evaluation of the marketing aesthetic (point-of-purchase material) was measured using Kaplan’s four dimensions of mystery, coherence, complexity, and legibility. The results of the structural equation modelling found that dimensions of mystery, coherence, complexity, and legibility all influence purchase intentions. The findings imply the need to design point-of-purchase materials that have higher levels of aesthetic features. In emerging markets, marketers in the retail sector must attempt to include many aspects of aesthetic features in developing marketing promotions. The study contributes to the literature on consumers’ aesthetics responses to point-of-purchase materials in emerging markets.

High social media penetration in Indonesia (60% of its population) and Malaysia (81% of population) has compelled businesses to adopt social media marketing strategies for many purposes. The real-time, interactive, and borderless features of social media enable businesses to engage and connect with customers, share information, build brand image and retain customers. This chapter aims to draw relevant and important insights from social media consumption in Indonesia and Malaysia by consumers and businesses and develop/propose a typology of social media marketing strategies for the B2C sector. The typology is based on two dimensions (engagement and commerce) and results in four social media marketing strategies (Social Media Optimization Strategy, Social Media Engagement-Focused Strategy, Social Media Commercial-Focused Strategy and Social Media Early Extension Strategy). The chapter commences with a background to social media usage among Indonesians and Malaysians, followed by a brief comparison of the usage before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on the analyses of social media marketing strategies utilized by B2C firms, a typology of social media strategies is presented. The chapter concludes with social media marketing implications and addresses future challenges.

This final chapter summarizes the key issues discussed in this book and offers important conclusions and recommendations. The chapter reiterates that marketing communication is an important function in every entity and as such must be managed carefully. It highlights why firms in emerging economies must pay attention to the nuances in the context to be successful. In reflections, the chapter indicates that social and technological changes are upon us and must be managed carefully when communicating. It also highlights that a mix of the traditional and contemporary marketing communication channels is critical for communication success. It concludes by offering a lesson for public sector marketing communications and research avenues in marketing communications in emerging markets.