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Big Idea of an Integrated Marketing
Communication Campaign
Case study: Edunation’s “Pathway” Product in Vietnam
LAB University of Applied Sciences
Bachelor’s Degree Programme in International Business
2020
Loc Nguyen
Abstract
Author(s)
Nguyen, Loc
Publication type
Bachelor’s Thesis
Completion year
2020
Number of pages
40
Title of the thesis
Big Idea of an Integrated Marketing Communication Campaign
Case study: Edunation’s “Pathway” Product in Vietnam
Degree
Bachelor in International Business
Name, title, and organization of the thesis supervisor
Sami Lanu, Senior Lecturer, LAB University of Applied Sciences
Name, title, and organization of the client
Edunation Oy
Abstract
The purpose of this thesis is to figure out a big idea for an IMC campaign towards the target audience of Edunation’s “Pathway” product. The big idea will be applied in a complete integrated marketing communication campaign to raise brand and product awareness, acting as communication objectives. The main question was, what is the big idea of the campaign? Along with the sub-questions: how to create a big idea? Furthermore, what is the target audience insight? The research was done with Edunation, an educational consultancy company located in Tampere, Finland. The big idea is the first step to build up an integrated marketing communication campaign.
The qualitative research method is applied in the thesis. Data collected for the big idea generation is from Edunation’s research, books, and case study; hence, data collection source is secondary.
The thesis's theoretical framework covers all concepts and terms regarding big idea generation in an IMC campaign to gain a general picture. The result of the research question is “Đừng mù đường”, or “Don’t get lost.”
Keywords
Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC), digital marketing, Edunation, Pathway, customer persona, customer insights, big idea.
Contents
1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Market context ............................................................................................. 1
1.2 Brand context ............................................................................................... 3
1.3 Motivation ..................................................................................................... 3
1.4 Thesis objectives and scope ....................................................................... 3
1.5 Research questions ..................................................................................... 3
1.6 Research Methodology and Data Collection .............................................. 4
1.7 Thesis Structure ........................................................................................... 4
2 Theoretical framework ......................................................................................... 5
2.1 Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) ............................................... 5
2.1.1 Promotion Mix ....................................................................................... 8
2.2 Digital marketing ........................................................................................ 11
2.2.1 Definition of digital marketing ............................................................. 11
2.2.2 Benefits of digital marketing ............................................................... 14
2.2.3 Key digital media channels ................................................................ 15
2.3 Big idea ...................................................................................................... 19
2.3.1 Big idea components .......................................................................... 20
2.4 Communication objectives......................................................................... 22
2.5 Customer path 5A’s and O Zone (O3) model ........................................... 23
2.6 Customer persona ..................................................................................... 27
2.7 Communication process ............................................................................ 27
2.7.1 Message design ................................................................................. 28
2.8 Customer insight ........................................................................................ 29
3 Big idea for Edunation’s Pathway campaign .................................................... 32
3.1 Edunation company ................................................................................... 32
3.2 Pathway product ........................................................................................ 34
3.3 Communication objectives and target audience persona......................... 34
3.3.1 Students .............................................................................................. 34
3.3.2 Parents................................................................................................ 36
3.4 Target audience insight ............................................................................. 37
3.5 Brand connection and big idea .................................................................. 38
4 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 40
4.1 Answers to Research Questions ............................................................... 40
4.2 Suggestions or Further Research ............................................................. 40
References................................................................................................................ 41
1
1 Introduction
1.1 Market context
Undoubtedly, studying abroad has been becoming a big dream for many Vietnamese
students. Their parents also wish that their children can approach superior educational
systems.
The statistics reveal that the number of Vietnamese overseas students has climbed up by
69% in the past six years (UIS UNESCO 2019). According to Vietnam’s Minister of
Education and Training, 2019 saw approximately 108,527 students from Vietnam living and
studying in foreign countries. Such figures rank Vietnam standing in the top 10 countries
outbound students in the world. (The Pie News 2019.) Besides that, about 3 billion USD
yearly contributed to Vietnam's global educational market (HSBC 2019).
Plus, having the high economic growth from 1990, by approximately 5.5% GDP annually,
with the peak in 2015 at 6.7%, Vietnam is named in one of Asia’s strongest economies,
resulting in Vietnamese families having sufficient spending power to send their children
abroad from 2016. (The World Bank 2020.)
Such numbers show that Vietnam is becoming an enormously dynamic and promising
playground where developed educational system countries can jump in and hold market
share in that industry.
2
Chart 1 Uprise trend in outbound student numbers in 2016, 2017, and 2020 (World Bank & UIS UNESCO 2020)
On a more profound aspect, the recruitment market currently is dominated by three major
countries, namely Japan, Australia, and the U.S.A (UIS UNESCO 2020). Respectively, they
make up 38,000 students (29.2%), 23.8% with 31,000 and 28,000 (21,5%) to the total
number of Vietnamese international students. Such nations are followed by China (13,000
– 10%) and the U.K. (11,000 - 8.4%). (OECD 2020.)
However, Vietnamese students consider Europe as an uninteresting destination. To be
more specific, the number of students from Vietnam studying in European nations is 28,000
contributing to around 14,7% (Tienphong 2020). Especially, Finland is now home to only
2500 Vietnamese students in higher education, a small number that the country deserves
to be known.
The problems can be identified that, firstly, Finland, and studying in Finland have been
unpopular among the Vietnamese students despite the vibrant market. Secondly,
Vietnamese students who paid great efforts to start studies in Finland, some of them
unqualify Finnish universities’ English skills requirements in the Entrance Exam or SAT.
Thirdly, travel restriction, and social distancing policies due to COVID-19 hamper the
students' approach to overseas universities. That is to say; such obstacles are blocking the
way to their dreams.
82668
94662
108527
0
20000
40000
60000
80000
100000
120000
2016 2017 2020
Outbound Vietnamese students from 2016 to 2020
Number of outbound students
3
1.2 Brand context
Edunation, who believes that everyone deserves high-level education, is an educational
support company that partners with many Finnish academic universities and universities of
applied sciences recruiting students from Vietnam for Bachelor's Degrees.
In a stream of the Vietnam educational consultancy industry, there are not many brands
raising their voices to deliver offers as the Pathway towards customers; therefore, this is a
chance that Edunation, a new player, can penetrate, anticipate and strongly connect to
solve their target customers’ problems that mentioned above with Pathway – a new product.
1.3 Motivation
In more than three years studying in the university, the author was inspired by marketing
mindset through marketing campaigns run by successful brands, particularly how brands
solve their target audience’s insights to deliver messages touching to customers’ minds and
souls. Fortunately, the author secured a position of ambassador for Edunation when he was
searching for the thesis topic. After meetings and talks, the author would like to contribute
knowledge that the author has learned and collected from studying time to add values and
help them somehow.
1.4 Thesis objectives and scope
The purpose of this thesis is to figure out a big idea for an IMC campaign to target the
audience of Edunation’s “Pathway” product. The big idea will be applied in a complete
integrated marketing communication campaign to raise brand and product awareness,
acting as communication objectives.
Because the author mainly concentrates on creating a big idea in the campaign, other
aspects of creative strategy in an IMC campaign will not be mentioned.
1.5 Research questions
The thesis concentrates on looking for answers to the main question:
What is the big idea of the campaign?
To support the main question, sub-questions should be:
What is the target audience insight?
How to create a big idea?
4
1.6 Research Methodology and Data Collection
The qualitative research method is applied in the thesis. Data is shown in the form of words
to express ideas in qualitative. In this thesis, qualitative focus on data is shown in the form
of words to express ideas supporting customer insight and big idea creation steps. Primarily,
Edunation provided the author insight into the target audience; the insight is demonstrated
in words.
In terms of data collection, the practical chapter is based on secondary sources. Data
collected for the big idea generation is from Edunation’s research, books, and case study.
Building up a big idea, customer insights as fundamental elements provided by Edunation,
who has interviewed target customers, collected, analyzed, and figured out their insights,
are essential. The author was offered access to the company database and collect such
insights as materials for this thesis. Therefore, the data collection source is secondary.
1.7 Thesis Structure
The thesis consists of four main chapters. Chapter 1 is the thesis introduction, where the
author introduces the market context to develop this thesis and mentions thesis objectives,
questions, and research methodology. In chapter 2, the author will cover the theoretical
framework of integrated marketing communication (IMC), digital marketing along with steps
to create a big idea in IMC. Chapter 3 presents steps to big idea applied to Edunation with
case product “Pathway program.” Chapter 4 shows the conclusion and answers to the
research questions.
5
2 Theoretical framework
As being explained by American Marketing Association (2017), marketing is defined as “the
activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and
exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.”
In other words, marketing is figuring out customers’ wants and giving it to them. Specifically,
figuring out refers to “the activity, set of institutions, and processes” of identifying and
anticipating the customers’ wants and needs. Your “customers” are essentially scrutinized
as “customers, clients, partners, and society,” in which clients can be associated with B2B
marketing while a CSR marketing campaign can be executed to society. Lastly, giving it to
them is a set of activities, namely creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging to
satisfy the customers. The model of marketing mix 4Ps: Product, Price, Place, and
Promotion has been ubiquitously presenting in forming a marketing campaign’s spine; it is
a basic and effective tool to accomplish marketing objectives and business goals at large.
Lately, the model has been expanded into 6Ps with Positioning and Packing included or
7Ps People, Physical Evidence, and Process added. Business managers will look at their
business scale and characteristic to decide which Ps matrix should be used to reach goals.
After creating valuable offers, business uses Promotion as an effective channel to
communicate with customers. Fill (2011) believes “promotion is an audience-centered
activity which attempts to encourage engagement between participants and provoke
communications.” However, Promotion is not a single tool but rather a mix of several
promotion mixes or marketing communications mix tools. “Ideally, under the concept of
integrated marketing communications, a company will carefully coordinate these promotion
elements to engage customers and build a clear, consistent, and compelling message about
the product” (Kotler & Armstrong 2018, 422).
As mentioned in the thesis structure, in this chapter, the author focuses on defining
theoretical concepts of integrated marketing communication, terms, and models applied in
the campaign plan. The theoretical framework plays a fundamental role that the practical
plan can be based on and built up.
2.1 Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC)
In the past decades, brands preferred interrupting and force-feeding the audience with a
mass message. Corporations used to spend millions or even billions of dollars in mass-
advertising media such as radio and television to engage their audience with a single ad.
6
Nevertheless, nowadays, traditional marketing communications face some new realities.
Particularly, Kotler and Armstrong (2018) pointed out three main reasons for a shift in
marketing communications: consumers, marketing strategies, and digital technology. The
very first change stems from no other than customers themselves. There has been a severe
modification in this crucial resource’s way of receiving and reacting to brand messages in
the digitalized era, where people are capable of hunting what they long for on the Internet
instead of passively collecting them through brands. Moreover, customers have the
authority to build a brand message and brand experience in terms of connecting to other
consumers via social media and countless digital technologies. Secondly, marketing
strategies alter from blasting messages by mass media to narrowing down target customer
segmentation with tailored marketing programs to engage customers and build customer
relationships. The last change lies within how consumers communicate with brands in the
digital age. The appearance of numerous digital gadgets, such as smartphones, tablets,
and laptops, along with the Internet, reshapes the art of interaction and engagement greatly.
“Advertisers are now adding a broad selection of more-specialized and highly targeted
media to engage smaller customer communities with more personalized, interactive
content” (Kotler & Armstrong 2018, 426) such as social media, email, and blogs. They are
dominating the marketing communication world. Consumers can watch or listen to anything
they wish on any kind of platform they prefer. The fact that marketers notice a wide range
of potential digital channels delivering message enhance the definition of combining all
channels with a consistent message to optimize consumers’ experience and engagement.
(Kotler & Armstrong, 2018, 426.)
The need for integrated marketing communication comes from the failure in integrating
communicating a consistent message through channels. It is often to see that message
from TV is different from one on videos posted on YouTube. It can be a consequence of
content creating inconsistency; an agency produces the content on television while another
department is in charge of YouTube channel. At the same time, consumers receive a wide
range of brand messages from plenty of sources per day. Unfortunately, they do not
distinguish between content sources that marketers do; the fact is that brand-related content
from different sources will merge into a single message about the brand. Therefore, the
conflicting message can cause confused brand images and positioning. (Kotler &
Armstrong, 2018, 427.)
That challenge makes marketers think of and develop a solution called integrated marketing
communication, which brings all together in an organized way. Kotler & Armstrong (2018)
defined “Integrated marketing communication is carefully integrating and coordinating the
company’s many communications channels to deliver a clear, consistent, and compelling
7
message about the organization and its products.” Meanwhile, according to American
Marketing Association (2020), IMC is “a planning process designed to assure that all brand
contacts received by a customer or prospect for a product, service or organization are
relevant to that person and consistent over time.” Meanwhile, Floor & Van Raaji has an
intriguing statement that “IMC is a process where all messages and methods are geared to
each other in such way that they complement and reinforce each other, and that added
value is the result” (Floor & Van Raaji 2011, 541). IMC's main point is that communication
channels must be coordinated to convey a message to customers consistently and
throughout. This message must feel relevant to the customer personally, strong enough to
impress the customers, and at every touchpoint, the customers can understand what the
message says.
According to Belch and his co-writers’ perspectives (2011), several factors is contributing
to the success of IMC that will be mentioned thoroughly below (Belch et al. 2011, 13-14):
- Consumer-oriented firms of Promotion have altered the place of mass media, which
used to be fairly common in advertising. The necessary change is to reduce the cost
of advertising while traditional media advertising is shockingly high.
- More supreme promotion tools solve many communication problems are invented,
such as sponsorship, mail marketing, or event marketing. Because mass media
ultimately heads for boosting sales number.
- The evolvement of information technology has a positive impact on processing
database marketing. Customer profiles are stored and preserved to determine the
target market.
- These days, not only are the compensation advertising agencies requited for high
responsibility, but they also have to ensure a good IMC strategy for their clients since
their commission relies on the market sales, share, and profitability.
- The state-of-art platforms within the Internet and social media such as Facebook,
Twitter, and Instagram shorten their customers' interactive distance.
Marketers have to combine the right communication tools and techniques to create a
sufficient IMC program. The role and capability of these tools and techniques should be
scrutinized. Achieving this goal requires communication executives to own decent
knowledge of IMC tools and know how to use them. (Belch & Belch 2018, 16.)
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2.1.1 Promotion Mix
First and foremost, the definition of Promotion should be presented. Promotion is the
cooperation of every selling effort to build up data and alignment channels for selling
products or services and promoting an idea. Most of a company’s communications with the
marketplaces are executed under a detailed and tailored promotional program during
numerous marketing mix factors controlling implicit communication. (Belch & Belch 2018,
16.)
Either maintaining or boosting consumers’ demand is one of the marketers’ goals.
Promotion mix (Marketing Communication Mix) is an appropriate means for them to conquer
their markets. Before explaining the irreplaceable roles of the promotion mix, its
interpretation should be exposed. A promotion mix is a combination of six promotion tools
that aim for efficient promotional practices and a larger audience. They are Advertising,
Sales Promotion, Personal selling, Public relation, Direct Marketing, and Digital Marketing
(Belch & Belch 2018, 16):
• Advertising: is a fee-included “nonpersonal presentation and promotion of ideas,
goods, or services by an identified sponsor” (Kotler & Armstrong 2006, 425).
Advertising allows consumers to understand the product’s features and benefits.
Mass media is the advertising environment; both traditional media (television,
newspaper, magazines) and new media (blogs, websites, text messages) are places
for advertising to exist and evolve. The presence of advertising from scratch to now
has been for raising consumers’ awareness of brands. Advertising is considered to
be an extremely promotion tool since it is, in fact, pervasive (Belch & Belch 2018,
17). It can design a differentiated image for the brand while the product has the
same functional attributes as those from other competitors (Belch & Belch 2018, 17).
Especially nowadays, state-of-art advertising does not stop at solely delivering a
message to consumers; it also attempts to sway consumers’ buying behaviors with
every chance and effort. In other words, advertising help a company communicate
effectively and persistently with their market. A campaign could be shattered if
marketers cannot speak consumers’ language and advertising is their translator.
• Sales Promotion is a short-term motivation for consumers to escalate the purchase
or sales of a product or service. In most cases, Sales Promotion is misunderstood
as Advertising. Even though the mutual purpose of both sections is convincing
consumers to buy the product; Sales Promotion, however, encourages consumers
to experience the product at stores, which impulses consumers to buy the product
right at that moment (Kotler & Armstrong 2018, 440). There are two main categories
9
in Sales Promotion: Consumer-oriented and Trade-oriented (Belch & Belch 2018,
23). Consumer-oriented Sales Promotion aims for the final consumers of the product
in which point-of-sale materials, coupons, discounts, free offers, contests, and
giveaways, loyalty cards are included to encourage instant purchases from
consumers (Belch & Belch 2018, 23). Meanwhile, Trade-oriented Sales Promotion
aims for marketing intermediaries like wholesalers, distributors, and retailers in
which price deals, sales contests, and trade shows are the promotional tools
convincing the trade to stock and promote the product (Belch & Belch 2018, 23).
If Sales Promotion is executed wisely, it may be an enormous advantage over
competitors in the market. Sales Promotions are operated ubiquitously at retailers
and wholesalers. The more successful these distributors apply for Sales
Promotions, the stronger brand awareness becomes. The most special benefit
Sales Promotion could earn to a brand is gaining consumer database since they do
not hesitate to leave personal information to receive, for example, loyalty card which
owns promising treats in future purchases.
The marketers should carefully handle sales promotion because although it can
trigger interest, trial, and purchase from consumers, an inaccurate group of
consumers may be attracted too. Actualizing Sales Promotions deducts the
company’s equity, so the sales promotion strategy should be calculated cleverly.
Overwhelming Sales Promotion could cause severe damage to brand and product
image.
• Personal selling: is a customer-oriented tool of the promotion mix. According to
Kotler & Armstrong, personal selling indicates “personal customer interactions”
performed by the sales force (Kotler & Armstrong 2018, 425). It is considered the
most effective tool in the selling process because consumers' characteristics and
actions can be directly observed and processed through face-to-face interactions
and telesales communication. Personal selling is an “old but gold” method of
boosting sales by persuading consumers to choose the product and build consumer
relationships. Sales presentations, trade shows, and incentive programs are
elements of personal selling. (Kotler & Armstrong 2018, 425.) The brand can modify
its message through this kind of promotion tool since consumers' feedback shall
return at present (Belch & Belch 2018, 27).
The salesforce must be well-trained because product promotion is now based on
their attitudes, appearance, and specialist product knowledge. Besides, the skill of
asking pertinent and appropriate questions should never be neglected. By asking
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the right questions, there will be a high chance that consumers can get more
personal and create real relationships with the brand. SPIN is a well-known method
that effective salespeople have learned and applied regularly (Keller & Kotler 2016,
673). SPIN stands for Situation questions, Problem questions, Implication
questions, and finally, Need-payoff questions. Personal selling usually receives
consumer’s feedback immediately and has a stronger opportunity to close the deal.
• Public Relations (PR): attempts to build good relations with the company’s various
publics and build up its decent reputation and cope with unexpectedly negative
rumors or events (Kotler & Armstrong 2018, 425). The biggest purpose of Public
Relations is to “establish and maintain a positive image of the company among its
various publics” (Belch & Belch 2018, 26). Public Relations appear to be legitimate
to consumers than ads do. The ugly truth is that marketers often underestimate
public Relations, or they only pay attention to this promotion tool at the latest. PR
reach many purchasers who keep sales force and advertisements at bay by
delivering “News and events” (Kotler & Armstrong 2018, 440). A product or company
could be exaggerated and dramatized by PR. Public Relations is presumed to be a
professional storyteller through fee-excluded media. Not only is PR responsible for
the applauded reputation of the company, making sure that the company’s accolade
will be at the sight of consumers is also a crucial task of PR professionals. All in all,
Public Relations heads for goodwill and mutual understanding between the
company and its publicity. (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2019, 764.)
• Direct marketing: looks for a quick response or transaction by communicating
directly to target customers. In the past, Direct Marketing used to be excluded from
the promotion mix. Nevertheless, it has been an irreplaceable component of the IMC
program (Belch & Belch 2018, 19). Direct Marketing coordinates several activities,
such as database management, direct selling, telemarketing, and direct-response
advertising (Belch & Belch 2018, 19). The most outstanding tool of Direct Marketing
is direct-response advertising, in which product promotion is performed by an ad
suggesting consumers purchase a product directly from the manufacturer. It means
that the time for in-store shopping reduces and online shopping increases due to
credit cards, which effectively encourages purchases from the direct-response ad
(Belch & Belch 2018, 21). Online shopping through a company’s website or catalog
appeals to be convenient and attractive to consumers. Hence, more escalation of
sales.
11
• Digital Marketing: modifies the nature of business strategy and communication with
customers since interactive media welcome a two-way flow of communication in
which users can freely participate (Belch & Belch 2018, 21).
Figure 1 Marketing communications mix (Belch & Blech 2018, 16)
2.2 Digital marketing
2.2.1 Definition of digital marketing
Before well-known as digital marketing, the term has been called Internet marketing, e-
marketing, and web marketing; however, technically, they come from a significant idea that
digital media, data, and technology to achieve marketing objectives. Chaffey & Ellis-
Chadwick (2019) defined digital marketing is “Communications are facilitated through
content and interactive services delivered by different digital technology platforms including
the Internet, web, mobile phone, TV and digital signage.” In other words, digital marketing
is the integration between digital media, data, and technology, and mass-traditional
Promotion Mix
Advertising
Public Relations
Direct Marketing
Digital/ Internet
marketing
Personal Selling
Sales Promotion
12
communications are applied to marketing activities to reach marketing objectives. (Chaffey
& Ellis-Chadwick 2019, 10.)
Digital marketing has the responsibility of controlling and managing online company assets
such as social media company pages, websites, or applications with the support of online
communications techniques mainly used to acquire new customers and strengthen the
existing customer relationships. The techniques are SEO, social media marketing, and
online advertising. On the other hand, digital marketing is not a whole part of the story; to
achieve success in digital marketing, marketers need to get such techniques and traditional
media harmonizing in marketing activities. Old-school media, listed as television, radio,
billboard, and human sales, plays a supportive part in multichannel marketing
communications (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick 2019, 11). Kotler (2017, 33) has the same
thought when speaking about digital marketing, which is born not to replace traditional
marketing but to coexist with interchanging roles in the customer journey. As a result, it is
necessary to point out the relationship between digital communications and traditional
commutations. Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick (2019, 30) illustrated a table clarifying the three
marketing communications terms media, discipline, and channel by defining and
exemplifying them.
13
Figure 2 Key marketing communications terms (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick 2019, 30)
In the age of modern marketing, businesses strive to position their brands as customer-
centric concentration. Hence digital marketing jumps into the playground as an effective
solution to tackle the problem. Digital marketing supports business to reach three main aims
as follows:
• With the Internet's assistance, a business can identify customers’ wants and needs
more comfortably and faster.
• Thanks to the Internet, they now have extra channels to look for what they want.
The customers in the digital world are proactive much more than before. They prefer
searching and accessing information and then purchasing solutions that can solve
their problems. However, marketers can anticipate customers’ needs by analyzing
figures and data on the digital platform.
• Digital marketing can act as a tool to satisfy customers through digital channels. For
example, the company website is easy to interact with and delivers a good
14
experience; the online customer service is fast and helpful. (Chaffey & Ellis-
Chadwick 2019, 17.)
2.2.2 Benefits of digital marketing
Digital marketing is an essential part of the overall marketing strategy. Along with traditional
marketing, digital marketing plays a vital role as a bridge between customers and
businesses. Furthermore, digital marketing has been advantageous for most companies
and occupies an enormous budget in its marketing strategy. The development of digital
marketing does not blur the presence of traditional Marketing, but it also overcomes
previous shortcomings, demonstrating its superior advantages over traditional marketing in
many ways (Trung 2020):
• Convenience: With digital marketing, the company can operate 24/7 without
worrying too much about time. Customers feel more convenient when they can order
online or go to the online store whenever and wherever to buy, find new models,
read product reviews, and share product information with their friends.
• Low initial cost: Applying traditional marketing (such as advertising on television,
event organization, signs, newspapers, magazines, leaflets, correspondence,
phone calls, or even offering, introducing direct products) to market requires a large
amount of budget. On the other hand, the cost of digital marketing applications is
much lower than the traditional one. This advantage helps businesses start
advertising online without being concerned about the initial cost as advertisers do
not require companies to sign a costly contract or pay rental fees or maintenance.
Moreover, the business can even decide ways to approach customers, how long,
and how much for each campaign. Search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and
social channel platforms such as Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram offer flexible
bids so that every business can run ads depending on their financial management.
There are five additional benefits of digital marketing that Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick
(2019) have pointed out, which h called 5Ss.
Benefits of digital marketing Benefits description
Sell – Grow sales This factor involves direct online sales and
offline channels influenced online.
Companies that cannot readily offline
service can get wider distribution or a more
comprehensive product option than offline
15
stores or even lower prices than other
distribution places.
Serve – Add value Extra added benefits to online values or
providing information about product
development in online conversation and
feedback.
Speak – Get closer to customers Digital marketing offers two-way
conversation via online interactions
Save – Save costs Online email communications, sales, and
transactions, for example, can reduce a
wide range of costs spent on staff, print and
postage.
Sizzle – Extend the brand online New propositions, new offers, and new
experiences online can be provided,d such
as building communities.
Table 1 The 5S benefits of digital marketing (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick 2019, 18)
2.2.3 Key digital media channels
Marketers must review online communication tools, which are a part of an online marketing
campaign, to conduct comprehensive planning. Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick (2019) divided
digital media channels into six major categories, namely search engine marketing, online
PR, online partnership, display advertising, opt-in email marketing, and social media
marketing as explained below (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick 2019, 33):
16
Figure 3 Six groups of digital media channels (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick 2019, 33)
1. Search engine marketing: Technically, when an audience is looking for information
on a search engine by typing the keyword phase, marketers can put messages on
there to encourage them to get through the website. The two main search marketing
techniques are first placement in natural or organic listings, making use of Search
Engine Optimization where costs are zero dollars; secondly, using paid placement
or sponsored links as PPC.
2. Online PR: The main idea is building a beneficial online environment for brand
development by boosting approving mentions of brand and product on third-party
websites that the target audience trusts in and usually comes over, such as blogs,
influencers’ websites, and e-newspaper.
Online Public Relations (e-PR) is the type of Public Relations that occur on digital
media platform with the vivid effects of the Internet and social networks. SEO
(Search Engine Optimization), partnership marketing, and social media marketing
are the communication techniques that online PR tries to optimize. Moreover,
content marketing in which partnerships with influencers to participate content is
deeply relevant to online PR.
17
Online Influencer Outreach is an updated technique that recruits companies or
individuals with colossal amounts of followers on social networks and features to
leverage their audiences. These individuals are called online influencers or key
opinion leaders (KOLs) who can be journalists, bloggers, or celebrities (Chaffey &
Ellis-Chadwick, 2019, 765). There are various types of influencers online, so
marketers have to segment with cost-effectiveness. According to Onalytica (2017),
influencers are divided into six groups (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2019, 772):
- Everyday influencers: are those active individuals on webs and social media who
do not perceive themselves as influencers but still have a certain impact on their
friends and relatives.
- Brand advocates: are those receive deep satisfaction from a product or a brand
are eager to share their positive experiences with others without getting paid by
the brand.
- Micro-influencers: are those who love creating relevant and qualified contents
on social media even when they do not usually get widely noticed.
- Professional influencers: are those who earn from their contents since they
possess valid impacts on their legitimate followers.
- Macro-influencers: are those whose fame is exceeding because of their exposed
personality and content. They usually have a manager or a talent agency acted
on their behalf.
- Celebrity influencers: are those who appear to be inspiring to many followers.
Their guidance and advice sufficiently matter to their audiences. A manager or
a talent agency represents these influencers, and the premium payment is
compulsory for their performance. Nevertheless, their engagement rates are
lower compared to other kinds of influencers.
Assessing influence is the action of appraising the accurate value of distinct sections
of influencers (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2019, 773). A common method identifies
the size of reach; Instagram followers are a typical example, but it is considered
risky due to the phenomenon of “auto-follow” bots. Instead, the 4Rs framework is a
strongly recommended technique of assessing influence. 4Rs framework contains
High relevance; High resonance; High reference, and High reach. (Chaffey & Ellis-
Chadwick, 2019, 773.)
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3. Online partnership: Building up and maintaining a long-run relationship with third-
party websites to promote services. Types of partnerships consist of affiliate
marketing, online sponsorship, link building, and co-branding.
4. Display advertising: Having similarities to traditional ads to gain brand awareness,
online ads such as banners or graphical units are shown in online platforms to trigger
audience clicking-through target site.
5. Opt-in email marketing focuses on customer activation and retention by reminding
brands using in-house or rented email lists. This method can also be done by third-
party electronic newsletter ad placement.
6. Social media marketing: the brands participate in social networks and communities
to get closer and interact with the audience. Viral marketing and online word-of-
mouth are at the stage that brand message is shared broadly, and brand awareness
gained consequently. Social media marketing is considered to be one of the most
principle pieces in digital marketing.
The importance of social media marketing can be persuasively explained. Social media
platforms allow users to generate content such as company and product reviews and ratings
and the interaction between other users called C2C interactions. Brands can take
advantage of this factor to increase brand awareness and minimize negative reviews.
Simply, social media encourages users to interact, share their opinions, and create content.
(Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick 2019, 441). Social media contains platforms as Table 2 below
(Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick 2019, 35):
Platforms Popular examples
Social networks Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter,
Snapchat
Social publishing and news Newspapers, magazine articles
Social commenting in blogs Company blogs
Social niche communities The communities and forums are
independent of the main networks.
Social customer service Get Satisfaction
Social knowledge Yahoo! Answers, Quora, Wikipedia
Social bookmarking Delicious
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Social streaming YouTube
Social search Google
Social commerce Reviews and rating
Table 2 Social media platforms (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick 2019, 35)
2.3 Big idea
Message strategy or creative strategy is the pivotal determination for what and how
advertising message will communicate to the target audience (Belch & Belch 2018, 266).
The creativity component is critical to advertising because a creative idea can trigger strong
emotions in customers. There is a critical and logical promotional program (Belch & Belch
2018, 267). Appropriate message strategy and execution may decide the winner for a brand
or a product (Belch & Belch 2018, 268), in which message objectives should be clarified.
A big idea does not pop up in the creator’s head spontaneously, but it results from a chain
of associations and connections over a certain period of time (Gibson 2015, 205). Also
known as a creative concept that will drive a simple message, memorably, and distinctively.
The big idea consists of visualization and phases. It has a responsibility as guidance that
marketers can rely on to decide which advertising appeals should be used. Such appeals
are meaningful – showing why the product is interesting and desirable to customers,
believable – leading customers to believe the product as a solution they are looking for, and
distinctive – revealing product advantage towards competitors’ product. (Kotler & Armstrong
2018, 460).
The big idea is also defined by Kurnit & Lance (2009, 169) as “a concept that communicates
the heart of your product or service in a real, credible, differentiating, and compelling way
(BMW: “The Ultimate Driving Machine”). It gives people a conceptual or emotional
experience of the product before trying it (American Airlines: “We Know Why You Fly”). It is
a call to action, a pledge, and a promise. It connects directly to the customer, not the
company.” The big idea should be an emotional expression line that goes towards the
customers as well as answer the following questions (Kurnit & Lance 2009, 169):
• Does it border everything the brand planned to do and thinking about in the
campaign?
• Does it talk to the target audiences?
• Does it embrace every aspect of the company’s service and mission?
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A big idea is a theme in any campaign which makes people recall, share, and act. The big
idea plays an overarching message that underpins every angle of a campaign to connect
with the target audience. Moreover, the big idea must be fundamentally based on customer
insight in order that the campaign’s objectives are secured to create influence and
relevance. In other words, a big idea communicates the heart and soul of a brand or a
product in the most outstanding and distinguished way that establishes promise and
impulses consumers to act (Kurnit & Lance 2009, 169).
2.3.1 Big idea components
According to Minnium (2015), three fundamental pillars compose a big practical idea, which
is Piercing insight, Brand connection, and Succinct expression.
- Piercing insight: A profound insight with a clear-cut truth increases customer
engagement. The process of seeking and testing insights is challenging because
marketers have to discover piercing that captures consumers' attention. Insights
are supposed to pat on an inspiring truth, and it is narrated bluntly for the target
audience to care and share simply.
- Brand connection: After insight’s effects, the brand should provide a compelling
solution that is either compatible with or exceeds consumers' needs.
- Succinct expression: The chosen insight and brand connection should be
concluded in “a one-line phrase.” A successful big idea can reminisce
consumers of the brand moment.
By applying these core elements, a so-called big idea is formed without the fear of
outrageousness. However, it also means the requirement for qualified intellectual property.
The big idea enables a company to sit in a better position to increase deep consumer
engagement in the right places.
To provide a comprehensive understanding campaign's big idea, a realistic case is in need.,
BelVita, which is owned by Mondelez International, is the perfect example. The brand
wished to introduce their breakfast biscuit to the US market while many competitors
produced the same products. To be outstanding in such a harsh environment, BelVita must
have an excellent big idea (Llewellyn 2018):
- Step 1: Start with a clear brief/challenge
All great campaigns start with a challenge and a brief. A brief is often given to an agency to
assure that a set of expectations of the company will be met. In this particular-lar case, the
21
challenge of BelVita is raising awareness and engagement from consumers, and the brief
proposed a unique big idea: breakfast is crucial to survive and get through. In the briefing
process, marketers have to focus on two questions: What are you looking to achieve and
Who is your audience?
- What are you looking to achieve: Identifying the targets at early stages increases
clarity and focus. BelVita desired for more than solely introducing the brand to America;
they wanted to accentuate their presence by generating buzz along with trial and sales.
- Who is your audience: Identifying the target customers, including their behaviors,
lifestyles, motivations, beliefs, likes and dislikes, crafts the big idea relatively. The group of
audience that BelVita analyzed are “morning optimists.” They have busy lifestyles, but they
are hopeful and energetic.
- Step 2: Uncover a compelling insight
At the next phase, a fascinating insight that captures both truth and according solution
should be explored. It takes a lot of work, which usually contains intensive research on the
target audience and the characteristics of the product. BelVita found out that people spent
1 billion dollars per year, promoting breakfast foods perks in shocking customers with every
message. Practical goals are expected to be reached in the morning, as BelVita
investigated; therefore, breakfast should be considered essential and worthy. Opposite to
how other brands look at breakfast that is a problem, BelVita uncovered an aspect in which
breakfast grants potential accomplishments.
- Step 3: Find the brand connection
Now the brand can optimize their creativity since the insight is present. Marketers’ job is to
bring out ideas and solutions to test the problem or need of customers. Knowing that most
consumers long to make their day with positive morning vibes, BelVita expressed that their
morning biscuits provide fulfilled energy helping customers jump through hoops during the
day. The integration of their insight and their strategic plan created an entire morning
campaign for an exclusive morning brand.
- Step 4: Articulate the idea clearly and succinctly
It is compulsory to examine how a big idea is going to roar and be altered across channels.
This action ensures the connection between the insight, brand connection, and proposed
execution is compatible. The information for this connection should be concise and precise.
A big idea is not built on easy ground, and it involves numerous phases and stakeholders.
No matter a big idea is formed internally or with the cooperation of an agency, discipline
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and pure focus cannot be ignored. A sufficient big idea helps the brand to leave a more
substantial impact on the target audience.
2.4 Communication objectives
Communication objectives are described to happen after the brand’s marketing
communication generates effects (Percy 2018, 184). In other words, a communication
objective is the goals that a message is designed to achieve. The effects are listed as Facets
Model of Effects, including perception, emotion, cognition, persuasion, association, and
behavior. To be more specific, perception objectives aim to get attention, raise awareness,
and make the target audience recognize its brand and the message. Emotion or affective
objectives evokes emotions to raise brand and message liking, or even brand loyalty.
Cognition objectives are used to deliver information about products such as how to do or
how to use something; these objectives are suitable for creating a brand position.
Association objectives connect to brand image and personality. Persuasion objectives
mainly focus on formulating or even changing points of view, leading to argument,
conviction, and belief; this type can create buzz, advocacy, and preference. Behavior
objectives arouse trial, sample, and purchase. (Moriarty et al 2019, 227.)
23
Figure 4 Facets Model of Effects (Moriarty et al 2019, 226)
2.5 Customer path 5A’s and O Zone (O3) model
AIDA used to be the most well-known and common framework for depicting the customer
path, short for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. This framework aims to help marketers
design advertising strategies and sales pitches (Kotler et al. 2017, 39). However, the AIDA
model has gone through several modifications and been altered to 4A’s by Derek Rucker ,
which stands for Aware, Attitude, Act, and Act Again. He believed that 4A’s framework would
be able to “track post-purchase customer behavior and measure customer retention” (Kotler
et al. 2017, 39). In recent years, it has become the era of connectivity, which should be the
core of the existing model. Nowadays, customers' final attitude reflects how the community
reacts to the first appeal of a brand. The loyalty of customers expresses through the
willingness to advocate a brand. Ask-and-advocate relationships are widely built on
understanding a brand; therefore, recommendations and biases upon that brand are usually
looked forward to in online forums (Kotler et al. 2017, 40). Consequently, the model 4A’s
has been updated to the 5A’s: Aware, Appeal, Ask, Act, and Advocate.
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• Aware: In this phase, a brand must ensure that their target customers are exposed
to the brand’s experience, marketing communication, and also the support of the
community. By recalling the experience of customers, they automatically recognize
the brand name. Moreover, the method of verbal advertising from others has a major
impact on brand awareness. When customers are finally aware of the brand,
delivered messages will be processed. Respectively, short-term memory is forged,
and long-term memory is emphasized (Kotler et al. 2017, 41).
• Appeal: Customers only find some specific brands memorable after long-term
memory embeds in their minds. These brands own unique elements that amplify
greatly brand’s appeal (Kotler et al. 2017, 41). It can be said that executing this stage
is challenging because triggering the curiosity and interest in customers requires
both legitimately financial and strategic investment from the company.
• Ask: The curiosity of customers leads them to research for more information about
the brand. They may ask their family, friends, netizens, or directly the brand. At this
stage, customers tend to choose the social path since they need other’s affirmations
and suggestions (Kotler et al. 2017, 42).
• Act: Customers’ actions do not stop at purchase actions. Their interactions happen
more often through brand consumption and usage. Therefore, a brand must make
sure that their experience with the brand is ideal and engaging with them as much
as possible (Kotler et al. 2017, 42).
• Advocate: Customers’ loyalty to the brand is formed after a qualifying period of time
that is seen as retention, repurchase, or utter advocacy. Customers are not hesitant
to establish delightful stories about the brand and defend the brand during harsh
times.
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Figure 5 5A's customer path (Kotler et al. 2017, 41)
In the progress of executing and optimizing the 5A’s framework, the O Zone (O3) is
analyzed to clarify customers’ decisions in each phase of 5A’s. Their decisions are
influenced by three aspects: Own influence, Other’s influence, and Outer influence (Kotler
et al. 2017, 43).
26
Figure 6 O Zone across 5A's path (Kotler et al. 2017, 44)
• Own influence: generates from the within of an individual. It is the aftermath of
previous experience and interactions with multiple brands, personal perspectives,
evaluation of the brands, and personal preferences. In most cases, an individual’s
preferences toward certain brands are affected by conversations (other’s) and
advertising (outer) (Kotler et al. 2017, 44).
• Other’s influence generates from the external environment, usually from
conversations of close friends or family. In many cases, the Other’s influence is from
a community in which customers belong. Most importantly, it is not directly controlled
by brands.
• Outer influence: also generates from the external environment. The brands intend
this type of influence via advertising and marketing communications. Customer
interfaces, such as sales force or customer service staff, have effects on customers
too. Because brands initiate outer influence, so they are totally in charge of it.
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2.6 Customer persona
A customer’s personality is described as a semi-fictional profile showing a specific target
audience's typical characteristics and behavior. Also, it is based on market research and
actual data from current customers. It is believed to be a potent tool in building up customer-
centered strategies on online platforms. (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick 2019, 79.) If a customer
persona is carefully set up, it can create a message for any marketing campaign.
Scott (2015, 33) affirms that two main elements that a customer persona should cover are
demographics and psychographics. Notably, while demographics information contains age,
gender, and geographic and socio-economic classification, the psychographics component
consists of personality, values, lifestyles, and opinions. In today’s persuasive marketing,
customer persona plays a vital role in message generation. The fact is that customers
nowadays require a lot of effort from brands to build a deep connection with them; the
connection can be established from knowing interests and lifestyles, which belong to
psychographics.
A customer persona benefits the marketers in two ways: demographics describe who
customers are, whereas psychographics decides when, how, and why aspects of a
customer's decision to buy a product (Scoot 2015, 35).
2.7 Communication process
In generating the message process in communication, it is vitally necessary for marketers
to understand the communication process. The communication process contains nine main
elements, namely two major parties – sender and receiver, two primary communication
tools – message and media, and four additional functions – encoding, decoding, feedback,
and response, followed by the last aspect – noise. The “sender” before sending a message
to another party has to “encode” the message by putting ideas or concepts into a set of
symbols which are called “message’. The message, with support of communication
channels called “media,” is delivered to the “receiver.” During the process of receiving the
message, the receiver will “decode” the message where he/she will assign meaning to the
symbols. The receiver will “feedback” – communicating back to the sender after reacting
and responding to the message. Getting through the communication process, unplanned
distortion or “noise” is considered to be an obstacle preventing the receiver from getting the
message from the sender; the noise can also lead the receiver get the different message
than the origin. (Kotler & Armstrong 2018, 431.)
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Figure 7 Elements of the communication process (Kotler & Armstrong 2018, 431)
2.7.1 Message design
According to Kotler (2018, 433), two main elements of a message that should be paid
attention to are message content – what to say and message structure - how to say it. An
ads message should be engaging, useful, or entertaining unless it will be ignored or skipped
by the audience. (Kotler & Armstrong 2018, 458).
Message content is where marketing communicators seek out the appealing theme that
generates a response. There are three kinds of appeals, namely rational, emotional, and
moral. While rational appeals are close to the audience’s self-interest about product’s
benefits such as quality, economy, and performance, moral appeals are related to the
audience’s perception of what is “right” and “proper,” which usually used in supporting the
social cause (Kotler & Armstrong 2018, 433-434).
On the other hand, emotional appeals strive to evoke positive or negative emotions such
as love, joy, guilt and fear that can be purchase motivation. Marketing professionals who
prefer using emotional appeals believe that an emotional message attracts more attention
and generates more trust in the brand. An explanation for this statement is based on the
fact that “consumers often feel before they think, and persuasion is emotional in nature.”
(Kotler & Armstrong 2018, 434). In Marketing 4.0, Kotler (2017, 72) believed that brands
who can connect emotionally with the audience could drive their actions. They stir up
emotions and connect with them to the extent of emotion by motivating messages.
There are two issues associated with message structure that marketers have to handle.
Firstly, whether to pull out a conclusion or let the audience come up with their own.
Researchers suppose that it is better to ask questions and leave the conclusion to the
29
audience. Secondly, ending anticlimax can cause by depicting compelling arguments first.
(Kotler & Armstrong 2018, 434.)
2.8 Customer insight
Insight is defined as “the moment you spontaneously come to an understanding of a
previously incomprehensible concept, or you suddenly grasp the solution to a seemingly
unsolvable problem. It is something you previously did not know or did not think about, that
has the power to surprise and inspire you” (Gibson 2015, 245). In other words, in terms of
business context, it is a new and penetrating understanding of customers' attitudes and
behavior, such as anxiety, unrevealed desire that they previously did not think of or perceive
of it. Insights are seen as “the fuel of big ideas” (Moriarty et al., 2019, 239). According to
Kelley and Jugenheimer, insight “identifies the intersection of the brand’s benefit and the
quality of life it provides to the consumer” (Moriarty et al., 2019, 239).
Supporting the definition, Bullmore, member of the Advisory Board at WPP, the
multinational marketing communications company, stated that “a good insight is like a
refrigerator, because the moment you look into it, a light comes on going with a new fresh
but familiar feeling.”
Insights are defined as the unrevealed understanding of situations based on their behaviors,
desires, and beliefs. When being mentioned, these insights are going to trigger targeted
customers (Steenburg et al. 2018). They grant promising businesses opportunities to invent
impacts on consumer behavior decisions (Wang 2010, 43-45). Collecting insights can be
seen as one of the biggest challenges to marketers since they cannot be clarified from
common sense. Indeed, insight is the solid turmoil of the two aspects: Fact and Truth. Fact
owns itself clear and obvious meanings that contain no sentiment. Oppositely, Truth is all
about sentimental factors; however, it has more persuasive power over consumers. In the
aftermath, insight unveils a ground-breaking thought. Exploring insight requires marketers
to nurture their inner souls in terms of seeing objects' nature (Sawhney 2018, 134). The
campaign of “Dirt is Good” of Unilever is a perfect example of successfully clear insight.
Through the story, the motive of Asian mothers who would rather allow their kids to actively
play without the fear of dirt than keeping them clean, but no lesson learned. Once Unilever
fathomed out their motivation, the company can send a meaningful message of a concrete
family bond and love that is the spine in a campaign to promote a laundry detergent – OMO
(Dang 2018, 23-24). This campaign exponentially boosted Asian sales by ten times and
made OMO the number one brand among Asian countries (Nielsen Consumer Report
2017). Therefore, the essential role of insights in emphasizing its position in the global
presence is undeniable.
30
Another instance of shining customer insight is from Starbucks, a giant coffeehouse chain
in the world. The company was founded and developed based on valuable insight. Starbuck
believes, in a busy life, a coffeeshop attracts customers not only by “pure and traditional
coffee taste” but also by acting as a comfortable third place other than home and workplace
where people can relax, enjoy life, and be inspired. (Sawhney 2018, 134.)
In human-centric marketing, as stated earlier, the path to approach customers is as whole
human beings with minds, hearts, and spirits. Marketers have to put customers' functional
and emotional needs into consideration and focus on addressing their latent anxieties and
desires. (Kotler et al. 2017, 68.) Therefore, good insight is undoubtedly the first step to
conquer customers’ hearts and minds.
A customer insight that contributes to some remarkable marketing campaigns contains
three elements: truth, deep tension, and motivation. A company discovers insight from such
concrete formula (Tomorrow Marketer Academy 2018, 26):
Figure 8 Customer insight formula (Tomorrow Marketer Academy 2018, 26)
An illustration for the formula in the case of OMO, a laundry product from Unilever. Unilever
has detected that moms desire their children to gain new learning experience from playing
with dirt, but they are still concerned with getting rid of the dirt off the clothes (Think with
Google 2017). The truth that every single kid is delighted to hang outside, and they are not
afraid of the dirt generates a dilemma. Moms are facing the severe pressure of balancing
everything, especially taking care of their family. Doing laundry is the one task in the total
of massive work, but it still can stress moms out. The marketers acknowledged this tension,
and they started to dig deeper into the motivation behind it. It is common knowledge that
moms only want the best for their children, and healthy development is not an exception.
This insight allowed Unilever to evolve the brand philosophy “Dirt is Good.” This campaign
attempts to encourage all moms to give their kids more freedom to experience outside
activities without being bothered by dirt. The main goal of “Dirt is Good” is to change the
belief that dirt is bad for children. When children begin their exciting adventures, dirt
probably appears all over their clothes. On the bright side, moms should see this as a
31
potential growth opportunity for their kids because children would not learn much-watching
TV or playing video games.
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3 Big idea for Edunation’s Pathway campaign
3.1 Edunation company
Edunation is a company that was established in 2017 to create a talent pool while making
education the biggest industry in Finland. They attempt to help students worldwide evolve
their skills through the Pathway diploma program and successfully apply to partner
universities in Finland and other European countries. The company promises highly
qualified customer service throughout the application process. The customer service staff
will thoroughly instruct and consult consumers with the program requirements, documents,
and every university application aspect.
Finnish residence permit, which is one of the intimidating issues to students, will be
managed by students with Edunation’s support. Edunation has noticed and treasured all
students’ efforts and dreams of studying and living in the world's happiest country because
they are valued customers. Therefore, the more motivated the company feels to grant
students those opportunities.
With the widespread network of partner universities and universities of applied sciences in
Finland and Europe and their bonded cooperation, both students' and universities'
procedures become so much easier. Edunation is deeply proud of their expertise in
international education; they can provide that to their partners. The company has an existing
belief in the changing power of education in an individual’s life, which has a major impact
on its long-term operating path. Edunation is impressed by Finnish education's high quality;
they reckon that Finland's education is akin to the world’s revolution. Nevertheless, an utter
boost is still in need. Edunation confidently perceives itself as a “game-changer” in Finnish
education’s development.
After three years of running, Edunation has owned remarkable milestones for their career.
They have companionship with a total of twelve partner universities, which includes: LUT;
Metropolia University of Applied Sciences; Hanken School of Economics; Arcada University
of Applied Sciences; Turku AMK University of Applied Sciences; HAMK University of
Applied Sciences; SAMK University of Applied Sciences; SeAMK University of Applied
Sciences; KAMK University of Applied Sciences; University of Northampton; Estonian
Entrepreneurship University of Applied Sciences and Helsinki School of Business. As it is
recorded, the number of applications for the intake of Edunation in September 2019 is 1198
33
with a variety of 26 nationalities. These achievements are considered to be reasonably
auspicious, and the number of partnerships is unstoppable.
Vision & mission cannot be excluded from the company’s introduction.
• Edunation Vision: The company’s ambition is to become the most desired education
provider to study online and in chosen countries. Simultaneously, they are persistent
in recruiting an international talent pool for Finland while making education the most
massive industry in the region. In other words, Edunation creates educational
gravity.
• Edunation Mission: The responsibility of helping students reach their professional
ambitions by guiding them to achieve world-class education and career abroad is
the company’s core priority. Moreover, they consider profitable growth as a method
of measuring success.
Edunation has developed and maintained a set of values that play an important role in
raising brand awareness. Reliability and Quality; Cooperation; Customer Focus;
Determination; Learning and Innovation are included in Edunation’s values.
• Reliability and Quality: The company’s constant intention is to optimize customer
service, which is performed as an individual approach. The desired relationships
with customers should be built with trust and responsibility. According to Edunation’s
motto, excellent quality is made of sufficient bonds with customers.
• Cooperation: Edunation encourages all stakeholders to work in close cooperation in
a transparent, committed, and honest way to make a greater impact on future
education.
• Customer Focus: Customers are the imperative resource of the company, so that
they long to ensure a valuable, trustworthy, and useful service to customers.
• Determination: “Can do attitude” is, in fact, the go-to-phrase of the company. They
are seriously determined to bring a positive difference to the lives of people from
around the world.
• Learning and Innovation: Continuous learning is the key to professionalism. The
company pushes themselves every day to learn and improve from mistakes and
also achievements in the past. Edunation does not hesitate to try new things.
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3.2 Pathway product
Pathway program is another way for students to apply to university studies in Europe. They
provide a fast and more economical- track to obtain the dream of high-quality education in
Finland: a guaranteed study place at a Finnish university or in the EU without concerning
Entrance Exam, accredited credits in advance, receive the Finnish study in their home
country. In Edunation’s Pathway program, two majors are considered accepted and carried
out: Business and Engineering. The program aims to create flexibility in the studying
environment: Online; at study hub in Asia or Finland. Students catered by the programs
should reach two different English levels: Standard (IELTS 5.0) and Extended (IELTS 5.5).
Finnish education's hands-on training contains Finnish studying platform; Finnish teachers'
teaching courses relating to academic skills and major-related fundamental courses are
assured for students.
Edunation Pathway programs are an unbelievable advantage granted for students. It is a
starting base for them to embark on their adventures in different lands. In general progress,
Pathway programs are possibly generous contributions to the brand name.
3.3 Communication objectives and target audience persona
Communication objectives for this campaign are perception objectives raising Edunation
and Pathway awareness. As Edunation is a new player on the ground, getting brand and
product awareness is its foremost goal. Based on 5A’s customer path, after this campaign,
the target audience will be at the stage “I know” to the Pathway and Edunation brand.
3.3.1 Students
Pathway programs are ideal and convincing for those interested in studying abroad in
Europe, especially in Scandinavia and Finland. Edunation targets the group of students that
long for exploring a new culture and new ways to looking at life, that are keen on searching
for an opportunity to study in the top happiness countries, that wants to pursue an English-
taught bachelor and master degree in one of the best education systems in the world. The
target audience tends to be too busy to prepare for the Entrance Exam of Finnish
universities and is worried about their unfamiliarity with the Entrance Exam format. They
are unfamiliar with the Finnish education system and the so-called residence permit in
Finland (e.g., differences between university and university of applied sciences, Finnish
application portal, required documents for school application and residence permit
application, differences between regular visa and residence permit). Also, they have never
traveled abroad and have no contacts in Finland. Therefore, they may prioritize the safest
35
choice for their study abroad. The target audience also struggles with standardized English
tests such as IELTS, SAT, and the Entrance Exam.
Students’ ages range from 17 to 19. Both male and female are optimal. These students live
in small to big cities in Vietnam, such as Ho Chi Minh, Hanoi, Can Tho, Da Nang, Hai Phong,
etc. The education level is located primarily in freshman (public and private) or just-gradated
high school (public and private, gifted high school). Single household composition and none
salary categories are focused on. These students live in a house with their family.
They are into surfing the Internet, hanging out with friends at cafes, and shopping and
entertaining in shopping malls. Students prefer an easy and safe way to approach
everything, and they tend to procrastinate. Their interests may land in foreign educations
and posting nice pictures on social media. They value safety and self-confidence.
Demographics
Age, gender, and relationship status
17-19, single
Female and male
Geographic Live in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, Can
Tho, Da Nang, and Hai Phong
Level of education Freshman (from public and private school)
or just-gradated high school (public,
private, and gifted high school)
Home environment Live in a house with their family
Salary None
Table 3 Target audience demographics (Edunation 2020)
Psychographics
Hobbies
Surfing the Internet
Hanging out with friends at a coffee house
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Shopping and entertaining in shopping
malls
Lifestyles
I prefer an easy and safe way to approach
everything.
Tend to procrastinate things.
Interests
Foreign Educations
Posting nice pictures on FB and Instagram
Values Safety and self-confidence
Table 4 Target audience psychographics (Edunation 2020)
3.3.2 Parents
Parents of the students are also considered because of the common knowledge that they
hold financial decisions. Edunation heads for the type of parents who want their children to
receive a good education and seize the job chances upon graduation. They prioritize the
safety, high living standard, happiness, and quality of education over the destination's
popularity. They are capable of their finance to support the studying abroad of their children
(able to pay 12,000 – 20,000 per year, including tuition fees and living costs). They may be
unfamiliar with the Finnish education system and the so-called residence permit in Finland
(e.g., differences between university and university of applied sciences, Finnish application
portal, required documents for school application and residence permit application,
differences between regular visa and residence permit). They cannot manage their time to
help their children through the school application and residence application process.
Besides, they do not have any relatives in the EU or Finland. Last but not least, they are
stressfully concerned about their children studying abilities.
Parents of the targeted students shall be graduated with bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
Executive levels in foreign companies, state employees, or officials are scrutinized. Their
household composition may be a married spouse with at least one child. Their salaries are
estimated to be no less than 3,000 euros per month, and they should own a house.
Surfing the Internet, watching the news on TV (getting all information to convince and rocket
their worries), and taking care of children are these parents’ hobbies. They pay a great deal
of attention to their children. It can be said that caring about their children is a life-time
responsibility. They are delighted at attending study-abroad events, reading/watching
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study-abroad news on the media if planning for children to study abroad. Lastly, just like
their kids, they treasure family and safety.
3.4 Target audience insight
As mentioned earlier, customer insight, which is structured by three elements, namely
motivation, tension, and truth, plays an important role in formulating a big idea. In this part,
the author will analyze the three components of the target audience's insight before
concluding an accurate statement. Edunation provides insight.
The statistics reveal that young Vietnamese tend to avoid studying in domestic universities
and prefer studying abroad instead. The number of Vietnamese overseas students has
climbed up by 69% in the past six years (UNESCO, 2019). According to Vietnam’s Minister
of Education and Training, 2019 saw approximately 108,527 students from Vietnam living
and studying in foreign countries. Such figures rank Vietnam standing in the top 10 countries
outbound students in the world. (The Pie News, 2019.) As a result, conversations about
studying abroad are booming in number. Studying aboard becomes a hot topic and trend,
which is frequently mentioned on social media and popular e-newspapers, where the target
audience interacts and visits every day. The content of conversations is mainly about fellow
Vietnamese students studying or having finished their studying abroad programs. The posts
highlight benefits that studying abroad brings to international students, such as discovering
the world, gaining experience, enriching knowledge, living independently, and how excellent
they are in academic performance to apply for a slot in overseas universities. The
outstanding performance is identified by IELTS and SAT scores. Such people are set as
general role models to study aboard. The target audience is into wandering on social media
to interact with and showing points of view on posts and news. They also raised such topics
in talks with their friends. Consequently, discussions gradually form a desire to study abroad
among the target audience community. (Edunation 2020.)
Being curious about the target audience and loving to understand them deeply, Edunation
has researched and found out two deep reasons urging young Vietnamese students to
study aboard. Firstly, the target audience believes studying abroad can differentiate
themselves and be respected in their community. Secondly, they love following the trend;
they look up to the individuals studying abroad on the Internet and wish to experience such
people are witnessing. However, the role models establish a belief that they have to be
excellent to qualify the requirements. The target audience starts enrolling in IELTS and SAT
courses to obtain their big dream. (Edunation 2020.)
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One of the reasons giving birth to the Pathway product is that the target audience struggles
with standardized English tests such as IELTS, SAT, and the Entrance Exam. To be more
specific, the students from 17 to 19, who wish to study abroad, believe that IELTS, SAT, or
Entrance Exam might be the ways to obtain the acceptance letter to study oversea. Such
tests are always tremendous obstacles for them as their structures are complicated, and
the knowledge required to get a qualified score is enormous. However, because of the big
dream, they try harder with the tests, but they much wonder whether they can successfully
secure a study plot overseas or not. In a nutshell, they believe they are still pushing
themselves every day, but inside, the fear of being rejected and the wrong direction is vivid.
The insight can be looked through truth, tension, and motivation perspectives (Edunation
2020):
Truth: Studying abroad is a big dream, which requires much effort to be qualified for
overseas schools’ requirements.
Tension: I have a fear of being rejected and going the wrong way though I try hard.
Motivation: I desire to be paid off what I have tried by being accepted to study in an overseas
school.
The insight statement: I know studying abroad is a big dream, which requires much effort
to reach out, so I am pushing myself every day. However, I always wonder whether my try
will be paid off, and I am going in the right way.
3.5 Brand connection and big idea
After figuring out the piecing insight, marketers need to finally find out brand connection to
come up with a big idea. Briefly, a big idea is a concise and relevant message that solves
the target audience’s insight. This big idea is able to execute a wide range of marketing
channels and reach communication objectives.
The big idea for this insight is “Đừng mù đường” in Vietnamese and “Don’t get lost”. The
author would like to explain how to come up with the big idea as follow.
Based on one of the company values, customer focus, Edunation tries to get into the
customers’ lives to understand their big problems and act as an experienced friend to tackle
such difficulties. Understanding customer insight, Edunation believes the target audience is
getting lost on the way to accomplish their dream when no obvious goals are set.
“Mù đường” can be understood as a poor sense of direction for persons who are getting to
the destination but have no idea where they are going to and how to reach the destination
39
no matter how hard they try. On the other hand, the target audience living in cities usually
faces this problem, so they are aware of and relevant to a poor sense of direction difficulties.
The brand connection can be pointed out as one of the promises of the “Pathway” product,
which Pathway guarantees a study slot for those who pass the program. This function can
partly solve the tension “fear of being rejected” of the target audience. Otherwise, “Don’t get
lost to your dream” makes the target audience thinking of a question which is the right way
to my dream, then, “Pathway” appears to refer that Pathway is a right and proper way
solving the rest of the insight. Edunation as well acts as a reliable person who guarantees
every effort student spent is paid off. The big idea also can be delivered through relevant
stories to the target audience about “poor sense of direction” difficulties in cities where they
live. The message can be that a poor sense of direction in the streets is fine, but not in a
way to your dream.
40
4 Conclusion
4.1 Answers to Research Questions
The purpose of this thesis is to figure out a big idea for an IMC campaign towards the target
audience of Edunation’s Pathway product. The big idea will be applied in a complete
integrated marketing communication campaign to raise brand and product awareness,
acting as communication objectives. The main question was, what is the big idea of the
campaign? Along with the sub-questions: how to create a big idea? Moreover, what is the
target audience insight?
Firstly, there are four steps to create a big idea: setting communication objectives and
defining the target customer persona, then discovering and figuring out target audience
insight, finding brand connection, and articulating the idea clearly and succinctly.
Secondly, the answer to sub-question two is based on the theory of model Truth, Tension
and Motivation, and customer persona presented above. Truth: Studying abroad is a big
dream, which requires much effort to be qualified for overseas schools’ requirements.
Tension: I have a fear of being rejected and going the wrong way though I try hard.
Motivation: I desire to be paid off what I have tried by being accepted to study in an overseas
school.
Therefore, the answer to this sub-question is the following statement. “I know studying
abroad is a big dream, which requires much effort to reach out, so I am pushing myself
every day. However, I always wonder whether my try will be paid off, and I am going in the
right way.”
Lastly, applying and practicing those steps, the author created a big idea for the campaign,
called “Đừng mù đường”, which means “Don’t get lost” in English.
4.2 Suggestions or Further Research
Research about media strategy generation for the campaign is recommended to undertake.
As the big idea is a theme of the campaign was in shape, the next research questions are
which channels are the most suitable for the big idea and which type of message form
should the big idea be most effective?
41
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