IMC Hawks Blog

By: Davis Upton

My Experience

My experience at The University of North Carolina Wilmington has been a wild one. I arrived at the university and had the best 3 weeks of my life to all of a sudden be thrown out of school for a month due to Hurricane Florence. One year later, another hurricane “Dorian” came back to the University to kick us out of school again but this time for 2 weeks. After that, when we thought it couldn’t get any worse. The next semester a worldwide pandemic occurred that forced the world and UNCW to go with online virtual learning for the rest of the year. Nowadays, we are still dealing with a pandemic that won’t seem to go away. Through it all, I decided to become a UNCW Communication Studies major with a focus in Integrated Marketing Communications. Now I am on my way to graduating in May of 2022.

The Communication Studies Major

The Communication Studies Major offers a variety of different courses that one can take to practice, criticize, and study communication. The Communication Studies classes have helped explain the variety of contexts in which communication takes place. From interpersonal to public communication and mediated/digital communication. The major investigates numerous styles and modes of interaction within the communication studies department including rhetoric, public address, and performance studies to communication technologies, including media production and computer-assisted interaction.

The scope of communication studies as a discipline is one without boundaries that give rise to the challenge of clarifying just who we are and what we are about. While communication technologies continue to change, the basic human need for connection: to understand and be understood, remains as important as ever. The Communication Studies department seeks to work closely with students to help them think deeply about the strategic, creative, and logistical challenges of Integrated Marketing Communications. The major explores how theory, research, analytics, and digital platforms and environments can help navigate those challenges and create communication connections.

I have really enjoyed getting to know everyone within the major and I value the experience I have gained throughout the years. I think the best part about the Communication Studies department is the people. From the students to the professors, this department has helped me succeed, learn, and grow as an individual.

Memorable Moments in COM

Some of my most memorable moments as a UNCW Communication Studies major would have to be in class with other COM major students and our amazing Communication Studies professors. I have loved planning COM Studies Week with my fellow COM majors and Tammy Bulger. I have also liked taking a mediation and conflict management class with Professor Bruce McKinney. As well as Principles of Multimedia Journalism with Jeff Rivenbark (WWAY News Anchor). Furthermore, I have appreciated all the courses I took with Christopher Stuart in graphic design.  All these Communication Studies classes, whether they were in person or virtual, have been memorable and helpful opportunities to grow in the application of that knowledge all the while gaining practical communication competencies.

Conclusion

With this being my final semester here at The University of North Carolina at Wilmington, I have set out to finish my college career on a high note. If I focus on using what I’ve learned in the Communication Studies major, I know that I will. With confidence, I can do what I set out to do, mentally, emotionally, and physically. After graduation, I plan on moving back home to Charlotte and securing a job in the marketing field. When I am not working on school or the job search, I am outdoors soaking up the sun and fresh air with my roommates.

If I could offer some words of encouragement to fellow UNCW students as they continue to push through the extremely challenging circumstances of the pandemic, it would be to never take things for granted. From my personal experience here at The University of North Carolina Wilmington, and as a Communication Studies major, anything could happen at any time, and you should always be prepared for the change to occur. From hurricanes to pandemics, always plan for the worst. Also, try to utilize all that the University has to offer from tutoring to Chick-Fil-A. You are never alone. I have been very blessed to not only call The University of North Carolina Wilmington home for 4 years but also to have shared experiences with my peers, whether they were good or bad. I am very sad to end this chapter of my life, but I am extremely excited to start another. All in all, I will always love UNCW aka “The DUB”, and the Communication Studies department forever. Go Seahawks!

By: Emily Klein

Before you know it, the question of “What are you going to major in?” becomes “What are your plans post-graduation?”.

Throughout your young adult life, you’ve probably had someone tell you to make sure you pick a job you love. This statement can carry a lot of weight, as choosing a career path is one of the biggest decisions you will make in life.  Once you’ve decided on a major, the focus moves to determine what you’ll do with the degree after graduation and how you’ll make money with it.

If you are like me, despite the advice you’ve been given, you begin college and still have no clue what you want to do with your life. I am going to be totally transparent when I say that I chose communication studies because it was a “safe” major. COM studies is such a broad major with a wide range of jobs that you can apply your degree. I knew that I liked working with people, being creative, and having a diversity of tasks in my workday and COM provided opportunities for all of those things. I thought I was going with the safe choice, but little did I know how perfect of a fit COM studies was for me.

Everyone has a different journey when it comes to their college career but compared to others, my journey has been somewhat simple. Due to the confusion, I faced regarding choosing a major I started my college career at a local community college. I decided to pursue an Associate’s Degree and then transfer to a university in hopes that after those two years I would have a better idea of what I wanted to do. Spoiler alert: I did not.

With my time at community college coming to an end I knew I had to make a decision on what university to attend and to do this, I had to pick a major first. Because I was transferring in, I needed to start my specific major classes right away and there was no time for general education classes. I was accepted into NCSU which happened to be my dream school ever since I was a child. ECU and UNCW also expressed interest in me as a potential student. I was already living in Wilmington at the time, attending Cape Fear, and had already committed to a lease in Wilmington for the next year. I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t devastated to give up my spot at NC State, the school I always envisioned myself going to, but God had other plans. I was meant to stay in Wilmington, to attend UNCW, and I am so thankful I did.

Having decided to stay in Wilmington, I settled on the idea of majoring in COM Studies with a concentration in Integrated Marketing Communication. I jumped right into my core COM classes, virtually, as we were at the peak of a worldwide pandemic. I never envisioned my college experience being online and never stepping foot inside of a UNCW classroom, but that’s exactly what happened. I attended classes virtually and obtained a marketing internship with the New York State Senate, working on a candidate’s campaign. I learned so much about written and verbal communication during this internship. I mean heck, you learn a lot from cold-calling people who tell you to shove it.

After completing this internship, I was approaching the middle of my junior year and knew that I made the right decision in choosing COM studies, I still wasn’t sure what sector of communication I wanted to work in…but I knew politics wasn’t it. I was able to apply the skills I learned during the previous internship along with the knowledge I had from class to a new internship, which revolved around project management. I became a Project Management Intern with a computer software company called Red Hat. Project management was something I had never thought about exploring prior to this, but I felt equipped to try it due to the vast amount of knowledge I had learned in my first two semesters as a COM studies major. I learned so much through this internship, but once again knew that this specialty was not for me, so onto the next.

Right after finishing my time at Red Hat, I accepted an offer as a Conference and Event Marketing Intern with an up-and-coming computer software company, nCino, where I was able to be IN THE OFFICE! I would no longer be restricted to the confines of a home office and would actually be able to have an in-person team to work with. This was huge! I was pushed out of the comfort zone that the pandemic had put me in, confining me to my home, and communicating via Zoom. This was it; I had found my niche.

For the last 8 months, I have spent time applying everything I learned at UNCW to the workplace. The knowledge I learned in COM 346 taught me how to communicate with a diverse team. The information provided in COM 200 gave me the skills to conduct research and draw my own conclusions. The skills I gained from COM 334 taught me about branding and how to represent the company. I could go on and on about how I was able to apply the knowledge from the UNCW COM department to the real world, but I won’t bore you. My time in this program has forced me to grow not only professionally but personally as well.

Being forced to make a decision so big at such a young age is hard but doable. Take the time to discover what you like, what you don’t like, and what your true passions are. Decide what your career options are. Pick your major. Apply the knowledge to real-world scenarios. You’ve got this.

Mia Bruce

Many companies offer personalized ads to appeal more to the interests of their consumers. Personalized ads are based on consumers’ preferences and behaviors that are released with permission from the consumer. This information can be pulled from shared information on consumers’ social media platforms, basic demographics shared from their account profiles, and tracked digital behavior. Is receiving personalized ads worth the exposed privacy that is required for them?

Stronger CBRs Influence Consumers

          Just like strong friendships between people, strong brand relationships can influence consumers based on the trust that has been built between the two. The closer you are to your friends, the more comfortable you feel around them and the more personal information you will share with them. With brands that you develop relationships with, this is the same concept. The closer you feel to the brand, the more information you feel like you can share because you feel like there is a relationship established. Brands thrive off this concept to acquire personal information that can be used for personalized ads and to gain the demographics of their consumers.

When brands have a strong Consumer-Brand Relationship (CBR), consumers are more likely to release their information to the brand compared to a brand they have a weaker relationship with. Brands have better relationships with their market when consumers find they are trustworthy and worthwhile. This customer loyalty can be established by putting forth products that live up to their standards and maintain their company values. Advertising a product that meets certain criteria, but doesn’t, will have consumers opting to find another brand that will.

Consumer Interaction with Personalized Ads

          Consumers do not always think highly of personalized ads, unfortunately. More than half of consumers have negative connotations with personalized ads for privacy reasons (Hayes, 2021). When ads are seen as hyper-personalized, consumers tend to break away from the brand. This can make the consumers feel like the brand is overstepping its boundaries and encourage consumers to avoid these brands. Consumers have even gone to the point to use services that will block companies from being able to access their information and block ads to protect their privacy.

By allowing brands to have access to their personal information, consumers can benefit from personalized ads. Having personalized ads makes it easier for consumers to find the products they are looking for. Based on their previous history and typical interests from their information, brands can suggest products that they will probably be interested in. Consumers find this very helpful when they’re trying to search for a product promptly. Websites receive more interaction and positive associations when consumers are shown personalized ads.  

Results of Personalized Ads

          There are both positives and negatives that come with personalized ads. Strong consumer-brand relationships work well to encourage consumers through personalized advertising. This promotes a positive ad experience and can help consumers find the right products and the right time. This is great for brands because it allows them to have a closer connection to their consumers. Brands can target their audiences properly because of the released personal information that they have to go off. The main point of advertising is to appeal to your targeted audience and having this information to use makes that so much simpler for brands.

          On the other hand, in the eyes of the consumer, personalized ads can be an invasion of privacy that is not necessary. When consumers develop these strong relationships with companies, they may not realize the true extent of what information they are releasing. Consumers may feel so comfortable with a brand that they may not mind or understand what information is being given out.

          Blatantly giving companies your personal information may not seem like a big deal to some, but this information ultimately is being used against consumers for brands to make their sales. Personalized ads can prove to be beneficial for brands and consumers who enjoy having ads that make their lives easier when looking for products. It may be convenient to have advertisements pop up for products that you may be interested in, but does that mean you should relinquish your information to a company that you truly don’t know?

          It’s important to think about both the positives and negatives that come with personalized ads to make an informed decision as a consumer if you will allow companies to your personal information or not. On one hand, you will have a customized approach to online ads, but your details are also given out whether you realize it or not. Weighing both sides is crucial as a consumer, as many people prefer to not give out their information to a company they know through the internet, just to receive more personalized ads for themselves.

References

Hayes, J. L., Brinson, N. H., Bott, G. J., & Moeller, C. M. (2021). The influence of

consumer-brand relationship on the personalized advertising privacy calculus in Social Media. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 55, 16–30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intmar.2021.01.001

By Gabe Thomas

What role does experiential marketing play in the way a brand is viewed? Is it possible for branding to change people’s habits? An article from Wen-Jung Chang explored how a study on the famous brand Starbucks was able to use marketing and brand loyalty to exponentially grow the amount of coffee consumed by people in Taiwan.

Experience Matters

While people in the U.S. have been using coffee as a way to get their morning started for decades, this isn’t the case worldwide. It is only within recent years that coffee consumption has begun to skyrocket in Taiwan, but it is currently at “2.3 billion cups of coffee per year” (Chang, 2020). The leading coffee brand in Taiwan is Starbucks, and while many people can’t function without their morning coffee, it is clear that the rate of growth seen in Taiwan is about much more than just the coffee alone.

Starbucks has used an important integrated marketing tactic called experiential marketing, which attempts to deeply engage the customer in their brand and in efforts to sell you “not just coffee, but a sense of affection and belonging” (Chang, 2020). Companies have used experiential marketing to cater to the idea that by selling an experience to your customer, you can hope to engage with them in ways that make them excited to return again. In the case of Starbucks, everything from the decorations inside the store, to the music playing while you wait, and engagement with the barista making your drink is deliberately creating an experience within the customer that is not only memorable but creates a positive brand image that will get you to come back.

The Importance of Image

Brand image is crucial to building loyalty among consumers, but this is not something that happens by accident. The way that you view a brand is often the direct result of deliberate marketing and brand communication efforts. When breaking down the image of Starbucks in Taiwan, it can be done through “identity, personality, association, behavior and attitude and competence and benefit” (Chang, 2020).

Starbucks’ identity is in its enjoyable experience and has a personable personality that makes you feel connected in order to further the experience. It can be associated with fun, relaxation, or even an environment to get work done, and all of these factors play a role in the image created when you think of this brand. It is fascinating to see how well the results of Starbucks’ positive brand image have changed the habits of those it reaches worldwide.

Loyalty is the Goal

When you attempt to dig deeper into the why of marketing, the ultimate reason is so companies can create loyal customers. Selling a product to a returning customer creates significantly higher results than selling to a new customer, which Starbucks showed to be true with the national coffee intake increasing by “20% in the last two years” (Chang, 2020).

One of the ways that Starbucks has attempted to improve customer loyalty is through their mobile app. Customers are able to order online and receive their order faster, as well as receive rewards and free drinks the more they go. While this alone does not create a loyal customer, the many other efforts to create positive experiences and brand images are all tactics that have seen great results.

The Relationship Between Image, Experience, and Loyalty
Image, experience, and loyalty are all key to a brand’s success. The results of Starbucks’ success placed a large emphasis on the experience of the customer, and this combined with a positive brand image has created loyalty within their brand that impacts a nation. The positive experience of a customer instead leads to a positive brand image, and the combination of both experience and brand image then both have a massive impact on the loyalty of the company. If a company is able to master the combination of brand image, customer experience, and product loyalty, they just may be able to change the habits of a nation.

References

Chang, W.-J. (2020). Experiential marketing, Brand Image and brand loyalty: A case study of starbucks. British Food Journal, 123(1), 209–223. https://doi.org/10.1108/bfj-01-2020-0014

George, J. A. (2020, October 22). Photo by June andrei george on unsplash. Beautiful Free Images & Pictures. Retrieved February 26, 2022, from https://unsplash.com/photos/1SL5Rj0xzsU