In the recent past, cities all over the world have made attempts to brand themselves differently from their counterparts. These efforts have been made with the aim of improving the economic locus of the city in question and to some extent the welfare of its inhabitants. With this regard, various activities have been organised to ensure that the cities attract tourists, investors and other pertinent stakeholders. The hosting of city events is one major strategy that cities have used to trademark themselves more attractively to external stakeholders. City event planners have similarly made efforts to brand and communicate these city events in order to achieve recognition and attendance. In spite of these attempts however, studies reveal that the major stakeholders of the events: the residents, seem to be overlooked by the city decision makers during these endeavours. Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) involves the combination of all the available communication channels and resources to convey a message to a target audience. Hence, with regard to communicating city events, the key motivation for using IMC is to generate awareness whilst communicating an effective, clear and consistent message to the target audience (residents). However, communication strategies should not be developed in isolation. It is of extreme importance that city event planners consider involving the city residents when crafting these IMC strategies. In fact, the city events planners and decision makers should bear in mind that; the major success of any city event depends entirely on the support of the city residents, who act as brand ambassadors to their social circles within and outside the city. In order for a city to successfully implement a communication strategy, it is imperative that the city understands the media consumption patterns of the residents. Various factors such as age, gender and ethnicity determine the media consumption habits of residents; and should be investigated in order to determine the most effective channels of communication to use for a particular target audience. During the early months of the year 2014, key stakeholders within Nelson Mandela Bay (NMB) resolved to improve the brand image of the NMB. These stakeholders entered into a partnership with NMMU Business School, who offered to conduct research on various themes: Brand Identity, Business Events, City Events Communication, City Events Marketing, Cultural Events and Sports Events. This study is hence based on the City Events Communication theme and its purpose is to establish the factors that determine media consumption amongst the residents and their perception towards communication with and amongst the residents of NMB. Additionally, this study sought to identify the various communication channels that are available in NMB whilst establishing which of these channels are most highly ranked by the residents. In order to achieve these objectives, both primary and secondary research were conducted. Literature was reviewed in order to create a basis for this study based on previous academic research. The background of IMC was established and the various pillars of IMC discussed. Factors that influence the choice of communication media were also identified and discussed. Thereafter, an empirical study was conducted in order to determine the factors that influence media usage amongst the residents of NMB, in addition to their perception towards communication. A total of 3,659 residents were interviewed and findings indicated that there is a strong relationship between the media usage and age, gender, ethnicity, income per household and the suburb lived. However, the strength of relationships that were observed differed amongst the various dependent variables that were created for purposes of analysing the media usage. A strong inclination towards the use of traditional media; radio and newspaper amongst the residents of NMB was identified. Equally, Public Relations (PR) emerged as an essential way for residents to create and maintain stakeholder relationships between themselves and the NMB. The residents felt that NMB should make efforts and engage with them more frequently especially with regard to communicating city events. Word of mouth amongst peers and billboards were also identified as communication media that are largely used to source for city events information, impacting greatly on the events attendance by the residents. Unfortunately, the use of New Media (Facebook, Twitter and YouTube) to source for city events information was not predominant amongst the respondents. However, with close to three quarters of the respondents having access to the Internet, there is a likelihood that residents can adopt to the use of social media as a source of city events information. Furthermore, the majority of respondents indicated that they access the Internet daily. These findings are a clear indication that the adoption and use of new media is possible if developed and implemented in a strategic manner by the major decision makers. Once the factors that influence media consumption by the residents of NMB were established, an integrated marketing communication framework was developed based on these factors and the highly ranked channels of communication. This study concluded in the development and proposal of an IMC framework for use in communication of city events to the residents of NMB. Managerial recommendations were also given which are expected to enhance the effective implementation of the proposed framework.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:26368 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Kanyutu, Teresia Watiri |
| Publisher | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, MBA |
| Format | xii, 193 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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