This book introduces students to this fast-changing field of marketing communications. While advertising is its primary focus, it is more than just an introductory advertising text because there is more to most organizations’ promotional programs than just advertising. The twelfth edition of this text addresses the many changes taking place in the world of advertising and promotion by an integrated marketing communications (IMC) perspective. This new edition also places heavy emphasis on digital and social media by integrating discussion of these topics throughout the text. Salient Features: Chapter Openers: New opening cases on important and recent issues such as the shift from traditional to digital media, growth of online dating, use of influencers in marketing, use of storytelling as a trending research method, etc. Digital and Social Media Perspective: Discussions on trending topics like today’s ‘Youtubers’, need for pretesting of online advertising, programmatic buying of media, transformation of traditional billboards through technology and augmented reality, etc. Indian Perspectives: Especially added in this Indian adaptation, these provide discussions, views and analysis of interesting issues related to the material in the chapter, drawn from Indian practices. IMC Perspectives: New perspectives on topics such as changing marketing strategies for millennials to that for generation Z, difficulties marketers face with the popular 'discounts' strategy, competition faced by major TV networks due to rise in other streaming services, etc. Updated and Expanded Sections: Overview of the promotional mix and the various IMC tools, word-of-mouth communication and viral marketing, response hierarchy models, to name a few.
