I hope you are all doing well and staying healthy. Our next chapter is Integrated Marketing Communications. Integrated Marketing is the intersection of public relations and publicity, advertising, sales promotion and marketing to promote organizations, products and services. Once upon a time, a brand was an identifying mark burned onto livestock with a branding iron. Today, a brand is the way to identify a particular type of something. Indeed, the watchwords in business today are brands and branding – creating a differential identity or position for a company or product.

The act of branding is something communicators can control. A branding program is all about managing perceptions by using the many tools of integrated marketing communication and observing the following principles:

Be early. We remember the “first “ in a category because the law of primacy, which posits that people are more likely to remember you if you were first in their minds in a particular category

Be memorable. Equally important is to fight through the clutter by creating a memorable brand. Creating brand awareness requires boldness.

Be aggressive. A successful brand also requires a constant drumbeat of publicity to keep the company’s name before the public. Potential customers need to become familiar with the brand.

Use heritage. Baby boomers are old. Gen Xers are getting older. And heritage is very much in vogue. This means citing the traditions and history of a product or organization as part of building the brand.

Create a personality. The best organizations are those that create “personality” for themselves. Who is number one in car safety? Volvo. What company stands for overnight delivery? FedEx. What’s the East Coast university that boasts the best and brightest? Harvard. Or at least that’s what most people think. The organization’s personality should be reflected in all communications materials the organization produces.

Your assignment for this chapter is to review the Brand character trait portfolio attached and choose four traits, which in your opinion, best embody Troy University. It is also quite possible that you believe there is a more appropriate trait that is not depicted in the above portfolio

If so, please feel free to include that in your four selections. Please let me know if you have any questions.