Third-year Marketing Management students at the
University of Pretoria enjoyed a guest lecture by Mr Johan Kleynhans in July 2016. The lecture focused on corporate strategy and some of the traditional integrated marketing communication (IMC) elements.
Mr Kleynhans has nearly forty years’ experience in the automotive industry and has worked for a number of vehicle manufacturers, including Nissan and Renault. He currently runs his own business, called Automotive Marketing and Franchise Assignments, which specialises in marketing, sales, aftersales, dealer network development and captive sales finance.
During the lecture, he explained that traditional IMC tools such as advertising, personal selling, sales promotion and public relations remain important, even in this era of digital marketing. This is evident in the enormous amount of money that major vehicle manufacturers still spend on television and radio advertising.
When asked which IMC elements Mr Kleynhans found to be the most effective tools to use in today’s automotive industry, he answered that incentives for sales persons remain important, irrespective of the amount of marketing that is done for a product or service. He also pointed out that when sponsoring a sports team, organisations should carefully select a team that people can relate to as a way of strengthening the association between the organisation sponsoring the team and the team itself.
With his first-hand experience in the automotive and tyre industries, Mr Kleynhans gave the class many insights into how to appropriately combine various IMC tools. He also gave facts and statistics about the automotive and tyre industries to assist the students in preparing for their final assignment, for which they will be developing a traditional marketing communication campaign, including point-of-sale material for Bridgestone South Africa.
One of the students, Thabo Baloyi (right), thanking Mr Kleynhans for his presentation at the end of the class
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