Selecciones - Webs

Belch: Advertising and
Promotion, Sixth Edition
V. Developing the
Integrated Marketing
Communications Program
The next time you see a campus opinion leader or
Hollywood star driving a certain type of car, drinking
a soda, or talking about the merits of some
product or service, realize that he or she may be
being paid to promote the item. While not a com-
pletely new idea, the use of nonconventional
methods of getting products promoted appears
to almost be becoming conventional. Referred to
by a variety of titles including stealth marketing,
ambush marketing, and guerrilla marketing,
these “under-the-radar” methods attempt to get
exposure for products or services in a number of
ways at the lowest cost. For smaller companies
stealth marketing may be the only form of communications
they can afford, so this means of
communication is a necessity. But now many of
the larger advertisers have also adopted the
approach.
One of the more popular brands in Britain is
Colman’s Mustard. Founded 188 years ago, Colman’s
has successfully employed under-the-radar
tactics since the 1920s, when its advertising
agency initiated the idea of a fictitious “mustard
13. Support Media © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2003
Stealth Marketing Goes Mainstream
club.” The campaign started with the agent himself
pasting stickers on buses that read, “Has
father joined the mustard club?” The campaign
caught on very quickly with Brits and eventually
expanded into an integrated campaign that
included a club members’ newsletter,
card games, and badges
(500,000 badges were distributed
in 1933 alone!). The success of the
campaign led Colman’s to be the
top-selling mustard by 1938, and it
has remained a brand leader ever
since, although it is now owned by
Unilever.
In the United States, a number
of brands that have become successful
through more conventional
advertising approaches are also
attempting to capitalize on the
stealth approach. For example,
Revlon paid ABC to include its cosmetics
as part of the plot on the soap opera All
My Children. Calvin Klein’s $45 million launch of
the men’s cologne Crave will include street sampling,
“seeding”—having designated opinion
leaders be seen with and talk about the brand—
and sand sculptures of the logo on beaches on
both coasts. Sony Ericsson hired troupes of actors
to pose as tourists in New York City and Los Angeles
to ask passers-by to take their picture with the
company’s new combination cell-phone camera.
Procter & Gamble sent elaborate Porta Potties to
state fairs to promote Charmin toilet paper, and
Elle magazine (among others) has hired individuals
to log on to Internet chat rooms and talk
about its product. And this is just a sampling!
Like many other things, however, overuse creates
problems. Many consumers and businesspeople
consider the practice of stealth marketing