title: Swiss Challenge League

text: The Challenge League is the second-highest tier of the Swiss football league system and lower of two professional leagues in the country. Ten teams play in the Challenge League; the winners of the league are promoted to the Super League, while the bottom-placed team is relegated to the Promotion League.


title: Swiss Challenge League

text: The Serie B was first carried out in 1898. In the year before, Genevan newspaper "La Suisse Sportive" organized the first inofficial Swiss Championship, where the "Coupe Ruinart" was awarded to Grasshopper Club Zürich. The first Serie B was competed for this same cup. The final game was held between Cantonal Lausanne, FC Bern, and Vereinigte St. Gallen, with Cantonal Lausanne beating first FC Bern 2-0 and then Vereinigte St. Gallen 3-2 to win the championship. In the 1900-01 season, Serie B winner Fortuna Basel were the first team to be promoted to the Serie A. In the following two seasons, the second teams of Grasshopper Club Zürich and FC Zürich won the Serie B and thus no teams were promoted. The Serie B was held under this name until 1922. However, records of these times are spotty at best.


title: Swiss Challenge League

text: In 1922, the league was renamed to Serie Promotion and was split into three regions East, West, and Central with each region further subdivided into two groups. The respective regional group winners played a final game and the three regional champions qualified for the final round. While SC Veltheim won the first Serie Promotion, all three participants of the final round were promoted to the Serie A. In the following seasons, regional Serie B champions played relegation/promotion playoffs against the last placed of the regional leagues in the Serie A. This format would persist until the 1929-30 season.


title: Swiss Challenge League

text: Starting in 1930, both Serie A and B were renamed to First and Second League, respectively, and in the season after the Second League become the First League (as the previous First League became known as the National League). These name changes came as a push to create the aforementioned National League, which no longer would be split into regional groups. This reorganization was finally realized for the 1933-34 season, however the First League maintained regional groups. The league was split into a western and eastern group, except in the 1939/40 season where five regional groups were created due to the World War.


title: Swiss Challenge League

text: Starting with the 1944-45 season, the National League B (NLB) was created. Fourteen teams, the top seven teams of both groups in the 1943-44 season, minus champions AC Bellinzona, plus the relegated FC Luzern, would participate in the inaugural season. Initially, the top two of the league were promoted, while the bottom two were relegated. In the 1976-77 season, the number of teams was increased to sixteen. After the number of teams was reverted in 1979, the number of teams was increased again in 1981. This incease was also mirrored by the National League A.


title: Swiss Challenge League

text: For the 1986-87 season, playoffs between the top four of the NLB and the bottom four of the NLA were played, with only two of them getting promoted, as the NLA would reduce the number of teams to twelve for the next season. At the same time the NLB was increased to 24 teams, split once again into two regional groups. Furthermore, the seasons were also split into two stages: a qualifying stage and promotion/relegation stage. During the promotion/relegation stage, the bottom four teams of the NLA would be joined by the top six of both groups. These sixteen teams were once again split into two groups and the top two of both groups would gain promotion to the NLA. For relegation, the bottom six teams of either group were shuffled into two groups, where the bottom two of both groups are relegated to the First League.


title: Swiss Challenge League

text: The number of teams in the NLB was reduced to 20 in 1993 and further reduced to 16 in 1994. Starting with the 1995-96 season, the NLB was once again reunited and slimmed down to twelve teams. The promotion/relegation and relegation playoffs would also no longer be split into two groups. Both playoffs would be played in a round-robin group with eight teams, with the top four promoted/remaining in the NLA and NLB, respectively. Bottom four would be relegated/remain in the NLB or First League, respectively.


title: Swiss Challenge League

text: At the beginning of the 20th century, further format changes to the top Swiss leagues were suggested. Starting with the 2003-04 season, the league was renamed to Challenge League. Unlike the top league, the Super League, the Challenge League did not have a title sponsor at first, until the 2008-09 season which was named the Dosenbach Challenge League. The league would again be without a title sponsor for the following four season. Between 2013 and 2021, it was named brack.ch Challenge League and since the 2021-22 season it is called the dieci Challenge League.


title: Swiss Challenge League

text: The number of participants has fluctuated since the renaming of the league. Initially, the Challenge League had 17 participants, but in the following season it was increased to 18. To make the league more attractive to viewers, it was reduced again to 16 participants in 2008 and then further down to ten in 2012. This last reduction came as a result of the creation of the Promotion League. Similarly, the number of teams relegated and promoted to and from the former First League (later Promotion League) had also fluctuated. With the new Promotion League, it has been a simple 1-up 1-down promotion/relegation format between Challenge League and Promotion League.


title: Swiss Challenge League

text: Promotion to the Super League had also been restructured along with the name changes. The old promotion/relegation playoffs were scrapped and replaced with the simpler 1-up 1-down format. Between 2003 and 2012, the second placed team of the Challenge League would also play a two-legged promotion/relegation playoff against the second-to-last team of the Super League. This playoff was dropped in 2012 and later reintroduced for the 2018-19 season.


title: Swiss Challenge League

text: FC Lugano and FC Lausanne-Sport went bankrupt which meant that no team was relegated due to their league position. FC Sion were not awarded a license for the 2003–04 season resulted in an extra team being promoted.


title: César Franck

text: César-Auguste Jean-Guillaume Hubert Franck (; 10 December 1822 – 8 November 1890) was a French Romantic composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher born in modern-day Belgium.


title: César Franck

text: He was born in Liège (which at the time of his birth was part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands). He gave his first concerts there in 1834 and studied privately in Paris from 1835, where his teachers included Anton Reicha. After a brief return to Belgium, and a disastrous reception of an early oratorio "Ruth", he moved to Paris, where he married and embarked on a career as teacher and organist. He gained a reputation as a formidable musical improviser, and travelled widely within France to demonstrate new instruments built by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll.


title: César Franck

text: In 1858, he became organist at the Basilica of St. Clotilde, Paris, a position he retained for the rest of his life. He became professor at the Paris Conservatoire in 1872; he took French nationality, a requirement of the appointment. After acquiring the professorship, Franck wrote several pieces that have entered the standard classical repertoire, including symphonic, chamber, and keyboard works for pipe organ and piano. As a teacher and composer he had a vast following of composers and other musicians. His pupils included Ernest Chausson, Vincent d'Indy, Henri Duparc, Guillaume Lekeu, Albert Renaud, Charles Tournemire and Louis Vierne.


title: César Franck

text: Franck was born in Liège, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands (from 1830 part of Walloon-speaking Belgium) to Nicolas-Joseph Franck, a bank clerk whose family came from the German-Belgian border, and Marie-Catherine-Barbe Franck (née Frings), who was from Germany. Although young César-Auguste, as he was known in his early years, showed both drawing and musical skills, Nicolas-Joseph envisioned him as a young prodigy pianist-composer, after the manner of Franz Liszt or Sigismond Thalberg, who would bring fame and fortune to his family. His father entered Franck at the Royal Conservatory of Liège, studying "solfège", piano, organ, and harmony with Joseph Daussoigne-Méhul and other faculty members. César-Auguste gave his first concerts in 1834, one before Leopold I of the newly formed Kingdom of Belgium.


title: César Franck

text: In 1835, his father resolved that the time had come for wider audiences, and brought César-Auguste and his younger brother Joseph to Paris, to study privately: counterpoint with Anton Reicha and piano with Pierre Zimmerman. Both men were also professors at the Paris Conservatoire. When Reicha died some ten months later, Nicolas-Joseph sought to enter both boys into the Conservatoire. However, the Conservatoire would not accept foreigners; Nicolas-Joseph was obliged to seek French citizenship, which was granted in 1837. In the interval, Nicolas-Joseph promoted concerts and recitals in Paris featuring one or both boys playing popular music of the period, to mostly good reviews.


title: César Franck

text: Young Franck and his brother entered the Conservatoire in October 1837, César-Auguste continuing his piano studies under Zimmerman and beginning composition with Aimé Leborn. He took the first prize in piano at the end of his first year (1838) and consistently maintained that level of performance. His work in counterpoint was less spectacular, taking successively third, second, and first prizes between 1838 and 1840. He added organ studies with François Benoist, which included both performance and improvisation, taking second prize in 1841, with the aim of competing for the Prix de Rome in composition in the following year. However, for reasons that are not explicit, he made a "voluntary" retirement from the Conservatoire on 22 April 1842.


title: César Franck

text: His withdrawal may have been at his father's behest. While César-Auguste was pursuing his academic studies, he was, at his father's demand, also teaching privately and giving concerts. "It was a hard life for him, . . . and not made easier by the ill-tempered and even vindictive behavior of his father . . . ." Concerts performed by young Franck (some with his brother on the violin, some including Franck's own compositions) were at first received well, but increasingly Nicolas-Joseph's commercial promotion of his sons antagonized the Parisian musical journals and critics. César-Auguste's technical abilities as a pianist were acknowledged; his abilities as a composer were (probably justly at this point) felt to be wanting. The whole situation was aggravated by what in the end became a feud between Nicolas-Joseph and Henri Blanchard, the principal critic of the "Revue et Gazette musicale", who lost no opportunity to castigate the aggressive pretensions of the father and to mock the "imperial" names of the elder son. This animosity, "undoubtedly personal", may well have caused Nicolas-Joseph to decide that a return to Belgium was in order, and in 1842 "a peremptory order" to young Franck compelled the latter to leave the Conservatoire and accompany him.


title: César Franck

text: The return to Belgium lasted less than two years. Profitable concerts did not arise; the critics were indifferent or scornful; patronage from the Belgian court was not forthcoming (although the King later sent César-Auguste a gold medal) and there was no money to be made. As far as Nicolas-Joseph was concerned, the excursion was a failure, and he brought his son back into a regime of teaching and family concerts in Paris, which Laurence Davies characterizes as rigorous and low-paying.


title: César Franck

text: Yet there were long-term benefits for young Franck. For it was from this period, extending back into his last Conservatoire years and forward beyond his return to Paris, that his first mature compositions emerged, a set of Trios (piano, violin, cello); these are the first of what he regarded as his permanent work. Liszt saw them, offered encouragement and constructive criticism, and performed them some years later in Weimar. In 1843, Franck began work on his first non-chamber work, the oratorio "Ruth". It was privately premiered in 1845 before Liszt, Meyerbeer, and other musical notables, who gave moderate approval and constructive criticism. However, a public performance in early 1846 met with public indifference and critical snubs for the oratorio's artlessness and simplicity. The work was not performed again until 1872, after considerable revision.


title: César Franck

text: In reaction, César-Auguste essentially retired from public life to one of obscurity as a teacher and accompanist, in which his father reluctantly concurred. Young Franck had commissions both in Paris and in Orléans for these activities, and for the composition of songs and small works. He had offered some compositions to celebrate and strengthen the new Second Republic of 1848; the public received some of them with interest, but as the Republic gave way to the Second Empire under Louis-Napoléon, they dropped out of use. In 1851 he attempted an opera, "Le Valet de Ferme", with a libretto of "abysmal literary quality" and a hastily sketched score. Franck himself was to say towards the end of his career that "it is not worth printing." All in all, however, this obscurity may have been restful for him after his previous life in the spotlight: "Franck was still very much in the dark as to what his vocation was." However, two crucial changes in these years were to shape the remainder of his life.


title: César Franck

text: The first was an almost complete disruption of relations with his parents, especially his father. The main cause was his friendship with, and later love for, one of his private piano pupils, Eugénie-Félicité-Caroline Saillot (1824–1918), whose parents were members of the Comédie-Française company under the stage name of Desmousseaux. He had known Felicité from his years at the Conservatoire, and her family home had become something of a refuge for him from his overbearing father. When in 1846 Nicolas-Joseph found a composition dedicated to "Mlle. F. Desmousseaux, in pleasant memories" among César-Auguste's papers, he tore it up in the latter's presence. César-Auguste went directly to the Desmousseauxs', wrote out the piece from memory, and presented it to Félicité with a dedicatory line. Relations worsened with his father, who forbade any thought of betrothal and marriage (French law required parental consent to marriage for a son younger than 25), accused César-Auguste of distressing his mother and shouted at him about a then notorious husband-wife poisoning case as being the most likely outcome of any match by his son. His mother's role in the dispute is unclear: she was either mildly supportive of her son or stayed out of the conflict. On one Sunday in July, César-Auguste walked out of his parents' house for the last time with nothing except what he could carry, and moved to the Desmousseauxs', where he was welcomed. From that time on, Franck termed himself and signed his papers and works as "César Franck" or plain "C. Franck". "It was his intention to make a clean break with his father and to let it be known he had done so . . . . He was determined to become a new person, as different as possible from the other."


title: César Franck

text: Under Félicité's parents' friendly if vigilant eyes, he continued to court her. As soon as he turned 25 in 1847, he informed his father of his intention to marry Felicité, and did so on 22 February 1848, the month of the Paris revolt. To get to the church, the party had to climb over the barricades set up by the revolutionaries – with, d'Indy says, "the willing help of the insurgents who were massed behind this improvised fortification." The elder Francks were sufficiently reconciled to the marriage to attend the ceremony; they signed the register at what had become César's parish church, Notre-Dame-de-Lorette.


title: César Franck

text: It was the second great change that had made Notre-Dame-de-Lorette become Franck's parish church: his appointment there as assistant organist in 1847, the first of a succession of increasingly more important and influential organ posts. Although Franck had never shone at the Conservatoire as organist in the same manner that he had as pianist, he had wanted an organist's position, not least because it provided a steady income. He now had occasion to match his Roman Catholic devotion with learning the skills needed for accompanying public worship, as well as the occasional opportunity to fill in for his superior, Alphonse Gilbat. In this position he won the favorable attention of the church's Abbé Dancel, who in 1851 moved to the new church of Saint-Jean-Saint-François-au-Marais (a small church in Le Marais district), as "curé" and two years later invited Franck to assume the position of "titulaire", or primary organist. Franck's new church possessed a fine new organ (1846) by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, who had been making a name for himself as an artistically gifted and mechanically innovative creator of magnificent new instruments. "My new organ," Franck said, "it's like an orchestra!" Franck's improvisatory skills were now in much demand, since liturgical practice of the time required the ability to take the plainsong music sung for the Mass or the Office and to develop from it organ music fitting into the service between texts sung or spoken by the choir or clergy. Furthermore, Franck's playing ability and his love of the Cavaillé-Coll instruments led to his collaboration with the builder to demonstrate the latter's instruments, Franck travelling to towns throughout France to show off older instruments or play inaugural concerts on new ones.


title: César Franck

text: At the same time, a revolutionary change was occurring in the techniques of French organ performance. The German organist Adolf Hesse (1809–1863), a student of Bach's biographer Johann Nikolaus Forkel, had demonstrated in 1844 in Paris the pedal technique which (together with a German-style pedal board) made the performance of Bach's works possible. This was totally outside the scope of the kind of playing which Franck had learned from Benoist at the Conservatoire; most French organs did not have the pedal board notes required for such work, and even France's own great classical organ tradition dating from the period of the Couperins was at that time neglected in favour of the art of improvisation. Hesse's performances might have been treated simply as a short sensation for their dazzling virtuosity, but that Hesse's pupil Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens (1823–1881) came to Paris in 1852 and again in 1854. Lemmens was then professor of organ at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, and was not only a virtuoso performer of Bach but a developer of organ teaching methods with which all organists could learn to play with precision, clarity, and legato phrasing. Franck appeared on the same inaugural concert program as Lemmens in 1854, much admiring not only the classic interpretation of Bach but also the rapidity and evenness of Lemmens's pedal work. Léon Vallas states that Franck, pianist before he was organist, "never wholly acquired the legato style himself"; nevertheless he realized the expansion of organ style made possible by the introduction of such techniques and set about the task of mastering them.


title: César Franck

text: In his search to master new organ-playing techniques he was both challenged and stimulated by his third and last change in organ posts. On 22 January 1858, he became organist and "maître de chapelle" at the newly consecrated Sainte-Clotilde (from 1896 the "Basilique-Sainte-Clotilde"), where he remained until his death. Eleven months later, the parish installed a new three-manual Cavaillé-Coll instrument, whereupon he was made "titulaire", Théodore Dubois taking over as choirmaster and assistant organist. The impact of this organ on Franck's performance and composition cannot be overestimated; together with his early pianistic experience it shaped his music-making for the remainder of his life. Norbert Dufourcq described this instrument as "unquestionably the constructor's masterpiece up to this time". Franck himself told the "curé" of Sainte-Clotilde: "If you only knew how I love this instrument . . . it is so supple beneath my fingers and so obedient to all my thoughts!". To prepare himself for this organ's capabilities (including its thirty-note pedal), Franck purchased a practice pedalboard from Pleyel et Cie for home practice to improve his technique, as well as spending many hours at the organ keyboard. The beauty of its sound and the mechanical facilities provided by the instrument assisted his reputation as improviser and composer, not only for organ music but in other genres as well. Pieces for organ, for choir, and for harmonium began to circulate, among the most notable of which was the "Messe à 3 voix" (1859). The quality of the movements in this work, composed over a number of years, is uneven, but from it comes one of Franck's most enduring compositions, the communion anthem "Panis angelicus". More notable still is the set of "Six Pièces" for organ, written 1860–1862 (although not published until 1868). These compositions (dedicated to fellow organists and pianists, to his old master Benoist, and to Cavaillé-Coll) remain part of modern organ repertory and were, according to Rollin Smith, the first major contribution to French organ literature in over a century, and "the most important organ music written since Mendelssohn's." The group includes two of his best-known organ works, the "Prélude, Fugue et Variation", op. 18 and the "Grande Pièce Symphonique", op. 17.


title: César Franck

text: His increasing reputation as both performer and improviser continued to make Franck much in demand for inaugural or dedicatory recitals of new or rebuilt Cavaillé-Coll organs: Louis James Alfred Lefébure-Wély's new instrument at Saint-Sulpice (1862) and later for organs at Notre-Dame, Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, and La Trinité; for some of these instruments, Franck had acted (by himself or with Camille Saint-Saëns) as consultant. At his own church, people began to come to hear the improvisations for the Mass and the Office. In addition, Franck began to give "organ-concerts" or recitals at Sainte-Clotilde of his own works and those of other composers. Perhaps his most notable concert arose from the attendance at a Sunday Mass in April 1866 of Franz Liszt, who sat in the choir to listen to Franck's improvisations and afterward said "How could I ever forget the man who wrote those trios?" To which Franck is supposed to have murmured a little sadly, "I fancy I have done rather better things since then.". Liszt organized a concert at Sainte-Clotilde to promote Franck's organ works later that month, which was well received by its listeners and well reported in the musical journals. Despite his comment about the trios, Franck was pleased to hear that not only Liszt but Hans von Bülow was including them in concerts in Germany on a regular basis. Franck reinforced his understanding of German organ music and how it should be played by hearing Anton Bruckner at Notre-Dame in 1869. He began to have a regular circle of pupils, who were there ostensibly for organ study but showed increasing interest in Franck's compositional techniques.


title: César Franck

text: Franck continued to write compositions for choir in this period, but most were never published. As was then common even for Conservatoire-trained musicians, he had never become familiar with the polyphonic music of earlier centuries. Franck composed his liturgical works in the then-current style, which Davies characterizes as "secular music with a religious bias". Nevertheless, he was encouraged to begin work (1869) on a major choral work, "Les Béatitudes", which was to occupy him for more than ten years, the delay partly due to the interruptions of the Franco-Prussian War. The war, like the 1848 Revolution, had caused many of his pupils to disappear, either because they left Paris or were killed or disabled in the fighting. Again he wrote some patriotic pieces which, in the harshness of the times, were not then performed. He and his family experienced economic hardships as his income dropped and food and fuel became scarce. The Conservatoire was closed for the academic year 1870–1871. But a change was coming in how French musicians regarded their own music; particularly after the war they were looking for an "Ars Gallica" that would be distinctly French. The term became the motto of the newly founded Société Nationale de Musique, of which Franck became the oldest member; his music appeared on its first program in November 1871.


title: César Franck

text: Franck's reputation was now widespread enough, through his fame as performer, his membership in the Société, and his smaller but devoted group of students, that when Benoist retired as professor of organ at the reopening of the Paris Conservatoire in 1872, Franck was proposed as successor. There is some uncertainty as to who made the nomination to the government; at different times Saint-Saëns and Theodore Dubois claimed responsibility, as did Cavaillé-Coll. What is certain is that Franck's name was at the head of the list of nominees—and that the nomination exposed the embarrassing fact that Franck was not a French citizen, a requirement for the appointment. It turned out that Franck did not know that when his father, Nicolas-Joseph, became a naturalized French citizen to enter his sons into the Conservatoire as students, they were counted as citizens only until age twenty-one, when they were obliged to declare their allegiance to France as adults. Franck had always regarded himself as French from the time of his father's naturalization. In fact, he had unknowingly reverted to his birth nationality of Belgian upon becoming a legal adult. Franck went through the naturalization process at once; his original appointment on 1 February 1872 was regularized in 1873.


title: César Franck

text: Many of his original circle of students had studied or were studying at the Conservatoire. Among the most notable in later life were Vincent d'Indy, Ernest Chausson, Louis Vierne, and Henri Duparc. This group became increasingly tight-knit in their mutual esteem and affection between teacher and pupils. d'Indy relates that independently but unanimously each new student came to call their professor "Père Franck," "Father Franck". On the other hand, Franck experienced some tensions in his faculty life: he tended to teach composition as much as he did organ performance and improvisation; he was considered unsystematic in his teaching techniques ("Franck never taught by means of hard and fast rules or dry, ready-made theories"), with an offhand attitude towards the official texts and books approved by the Conservatoire; and his popularity among some students provoked some jealousy among his fellow professors and some counter-claims of bias on the part of those professors when judging Franck's pupils for the various prizes, including the "Prix de Rome". Vallas says that Franck, "with his simple and trusting nature was incapable of understanding . . . how much back-chat of the nastier kind there could be even in a Conservatoire whose atmosphere he himself always found kindly disposed towards him."


title: César Franck

text: He was now in a position to spend time composing works for which ideas had been germinating for years. He interrupted his work on "Les Béatitudes" to produce (among many shorter works) the oratorio "Rédemption" (1871, revised 1874), the symphonic poem "Les Éolides" (1876), the "Trois Pièces" for organ (1878), and the piano "Quintet" (1879). "Les Béatitudes" itself finally saw its first performance in 1879. As with many other premieres of Franck's larger choral and orchestral works, it was not successful: the work was highly sectionalized and lent itself to performance of excerpts rather than as a whole. There was no orchestra available, and those sections that were performed were accompanied by piano. Further, even d'Indy points out that Franck seemed incapable of musically expressing an evil contrasting to the virtues expressed in the Gospel beatitudes: "This personification of "ideal evil"--if it is permissible to link these terms—was a conception so alien to Franck's nature that he never succeeded in giving it adequate expression." The resulting "impression of monotony", as Vallas puts it, caused even Franck's devoted pupils to speculate on "Les Béatitudes"' viability as a single unified work.


title: César Franck

text: Franck was finding, in the 1880s, that he was caught between two stylistic advocates: his wife Félicité, who did not care for changes in Franck's style from that to which she had first become accustomed; and his pupils, who had a perhaps surprising influence over their teacher as much as he over them. Vincent d'Indy is quoted as saying "When [Franck] was hesitating over the choice of this or that tonal relation or over the progress of any development, he always liked to consult his pupils, to share with them his doubts and to ask their opinions." In turn, one of Franck's students recounts that Mme Franck remarked (with some truth) that "It is you pupils who have aroused all the hostility shown against him." In addition, there were some discords within the Société Nationale, where Saint-Saëns had put himself increasingly at odds with Franck and his pupils.


title: César Franck

text: How exactly all of this turmoil may have played out in the composer's mind is uncertain. It is certain that a number of his more "advanced" works appeared in this time period: the symphonic poems "Le Chasseur maudit" (1882) and "Les Djinns" (1883–1884), the Prelude, Chorale, and Fugue for piano (1884), the "Symphonic Variations" (1885), and the opera "Hulda" (1879–85). Many met with indifferent success or none, at least on their first presentations during Franck's lifetime; but the "Quintet" of 1879 (one of Saint-Saëns's particular dislikes) had proven itself an attention-getting and thought-provoking work (critics described it as having "disturbing vitality" and an "almost theatrical grimness").


title: César Franck

text: In 1886 Franck composed the Violin Sonata as a wedding gift for the Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe. This became a resounding success; Ysaÿe played it in Brussels, in Paris, and took it on tour, often with his brother Théo Ysaÿe at the piano. His last performance of the piece occurred in Paris during 1926, with the pianist on that occasion being Yves Nat. Vallas, writing in the mid-twentieth century, says that the Sonata had "become Franck's most popular work, and, in France at least, the most generally accepted work in the whole repertoire of chamber music."


title: César Franck

text: The continuing ambiguity of esteem in which Franck was held may be shown in the award which Franck's circle had thought long delayed in its presentation. On 4 August 1885, Franck was made a Chevalier of the French Légion d'honneur. His supporters were indignant: d'Indy writes that "it would be wrong to suppose that this honor was bestowed upon the musician, the creator of the fine works which do honor to French art. Not in the least!". Instead the citation was simply as "professor of organ" having completed more than ten years in that post. Vallas goes on to state: "Public opinion made no similar mistake on this score" and quotes a journal usually opposed to Franck as saying that the award was "above all things an act of homage paid justly if a little tardily to the distinguished composer of "Rédemption" and "Les Béatitudes.""


title: César Franck

text: The dissension between Franck's family and his circle of students reached a new height when Franck published "Psyché" (written 1886–88), a symphonic poem based on the Greek myth. The controversy (not confined to Franck's immediate acquaintances) was not over the music, but over the philosophical and religious implications of the text (based on a poetic sketch by a certain Sicard and Louis de Fourcaud). Franck's wife and son found the work too sensual, and wanted Franck to concentrate on music wider and more popular in appeal "and altogether more commercial". D'Indy, on the other hand, speaks of its mystical significance, saying that it has "nothing of the pagan spirit about it, . . . but, on the contrary, is imbued with Christian grace and feeling . . . ." D'Indy's interpretation was subsequently described as revealing "some embarrassment, such as a newly timid Sunday-school teacher would feel if abruptly called on to acquaint riotous adolescents with "The Song of Solomon"."


title: César Franck

text: Further controversy arose with the publication of Franck's only symphony, that in D minor (1888). The work was badly received: the Conservatoire orchestra opposed, the audience "ice-cold", the critics bewildered (the reactions ranged from "unreserved enthusiasm" to "systematic disparagement"), and many of Franck's fellow composers completely out of countenance towards a work "which by its general style and even certain details" (for example, use of an English horn) "outraged the formalist rules and habits of the stricter professionals and amateurs." Franck himself, on being asked whether the symphony had any basis in a poetic idea, told Louis de Serres, a pupil, that "no, it is just music, nothing but pure music." According to Vallas, much of its style and technique can be attributed directly to the centrality of the organ in Franck's thinking and artistic life, and Franck profited from the experience. "He confided in his pupils that from thence on he would never write like that again."


title: César Franck

text: In 1888, Franck tried his hand again at another opera, "Ghiselle". It was more sketched out than composed and Franck never completed it. In contrast, a massive String Quartet was completed and performed in April 1890, and was well received by public and critics. There had been other recent successes, including his own performances as concert pianist in and around Paris, an enthusiastic reception of a revival of "Psyché" of a couple of years earlier, and performances of works by various of his pupils. In addition, he was still playing Sunday improvisations to usually large congregations at Sainte-Clotilde. He had in mind major works for organ and possibly a cello sonata.


title: César Franck

text: In July 1890 , Franck was riding in a cab which was struck by a horse-drawn trolley, injuring his head and causing a short fainting spell. There seemed to be no immediate after-effects; he completed his trip and he himself considered it of no importance. However, walking became painful and he found himself increasingly obliged to absent himself first from concerts and rehearsals, and then to give up his lessons at the Conservatoire. He took his vacation as soon as he could in Nemours, where he hoped to work on the proposed organ pieces as well as some commissioned works for harmonium. During the vacation he was able to start on both projects.


title: César Franck

text: While Franck could not complete the harmonium collection, the organ pieces were finished in August and September 1890. They are the "Trois Chorals", which are among the greatest treasures of organ literature, and which form a regular part of the repertory today. Of them, Vallas wrote: "Their beauty and importance are such that they may be properly considered as a kind of musical last will and testament." A more recent biographer, R. J. Stove, has written in similar terms: "The sense of Franck bidding a protracted good-bye is evident throughout. ... It is hard, it is well-nigh impossible, to believe that the "Chorals"' composer retained any illusions about his chances of full physical mending."


title: César Franck

text: Franck started the new term at the Conservatoire in October, but caught a cold mid-month. This turned into pleurisy complicated by pericarditis. After that, his condition rapidly worsened and he died on 8 November. A pathologist writing in 1970 observed that, while Franck's death has traditionally been linked to his street injury, and there may have been a connection, the respiratory infection by itself could have led to a terminal illness. Given the lack of antibiotics, this "could not be considered an unusual pattern for pneumonia in a man in his seventh decade." But this verdict has been subsequently queried: "no doubt about the 'proximate cause' was ever voiced by the two persons most likely to know, namely, Franck and his wife; nor was such a doubt ever voiced by those outside Franck's immediate household who dealt with him between July and early November 1890. ... Franck's punishing workload, 'burning the candle at both ends' over decades, could well in itself have impaired the bodily resilience he needed to fight off even a minor injury."


title: César Franck

text: The funeral mass for Franck was held at Sainte-Clotilde, attended by a large congregation including Léo Delibes (officially representing the Conservatoire), Camille Saint-Saëns, Eugène Gigout, Gabriel Fauré, Alexandre Guilmant, Charles-Marie Widor (who succeeded Franck as professor of organ at the Conservatoire) and Édouard Lalo. Emmanuel Chabrier spoke at the original gravesite at Montrouge. Later, Franck's body was moved to its current location at Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris, into a tomb designed by his friend, architect Gaston Redon. A number of Franck's students, led by Augusta Holmès, commissioned a bronze medallion from Auguste Rodin, a three-quarter bust of Franck, which in 1893 was placed on the side of the tomb. In 1904, a monument to Franck by sculptor Alfred Lenoir, "César Franck at the Organ", was placed in the Square Samuel-Rousseau across the street from Sainte-Clotilde.


title: César Franck

text: Many of Franck's works employ "cyclic form", a method aspiring to achieve unity across multiple movements. This may be achieved by reminiscence, or recall, of an earlier thematic material into a later movement, or as in Franck's output where all of the principal themes of the work are generated from a germinal motif. The main melodic subjects, thus interrelated, are then recapitulated in the final movement. Franck's use of "cyclic form" is best illustrated by his Symphony in D minor (1888).


title: César Franck

text: His music is often contrapuntally complex, using a harmonic language that is prototypically late Romantic, showing a great deal of influence from Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner. In his compositions, Franck showed a talent and a penchant for frequent, graceful modulations of key. Often these modulatory sequences, achieved through a pivot chord or through inflection of a melodic phrase, arrive at harmonically remote keys. Indeed, Franck's students reported that his most frequent admonition was to always "modulate, modulate." Franck's modulatory style and his idiomatic method of inflecting melodic phrases are among his most recognizable traits.


title: César Franck

text: Franck had huge hands (evinced by the famous photo of him at the Ste-Clotilde organ), capable of spanning the interval of a 12th on the keyboard. This allowed him unusual flexibility in voice-leading between internal parts in fugal composition, and in the wide chords and stretches featured in much of his keyboard music (e.g., his "Prière" and "Troisième Choral" for organ). Of the "Violin Sonata"'s writing it has been said: "Franck, blissfully apt to forget that not every musician's hands were as enormous as his own, littered the piano part (the last movement in particular) with major-tenth chords... most mere pianistic mortals ever since have been obligated to spread them in order to play them at all."


title: César Franck

text: The key to his music may be found in his personality. His friends record that he was "a man of utmost humility, simplicity, reverence and industry." Louis Vierne, a pupil and later organist "titulaire" of Notre-Dame, wrote in his memoirs that Franck showed a "constant concern for the dignity of his art, for the nobility of his mission, and for the fervent sincerity of his sermon in sound... Joyous or melancholy, solemn or mystic, powerful or ethereal: Franck was all those at Sainte-Clotilde."


title: César Franck

text: Unusually for a composer of such importance and reputation, Franck's fame rests largely on a small number of compositions written in his later years, particularly his Symphony in D minor (1886–88), the "Symphonic Variations" for piano and orchestra (1885), the Prelude, Chorale and Fugue for piano solo (1884), the Sonata for Violin and Piano in A major (1886), the Piano Quintet in F minor (1879), and the symphonic poem "Le Chasseur maudit" (1883). The Symphony was especially admired and influential among the younger generation of French composers and was highly responsible for reinvigorating the French symphonic tradition after years of decline. One of his best known shorter works is the motet setting "Panis angelicus", which was originally written for tenor solo with organ and string accompaniment, but has also been arranged for other voices and instrumental combinations.


title: César Franck

text: As an organist he was particularly noted for his skill in improvisation, and on the basis of a mere twelve major organ works, Franck is considered by many the greatest composer of organ music after Bach. His works were some of the finest organ pieces to come from France in over a century, and laid the groundwork for the French symphonic organ style. In particular, his early "Grande Pièce Symphonique", a twenty-five-minute work, paved the way for the organ symphonies of Charles-Marie Widor, Louis Vierne, and Marcel Dupré, and his late "Trois Chorals" are a cornerstone of the organ repertoire, featuring regularly on concert programs.


title: César Franck

text: Franck exerted a significant influence on music. He helped to renew and reinvigorate chamber music and developed the use of cyclic form. Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel remembered and employed the cyclic form, although their concepts of music were no longer the same as Franck's. Relating Franck as organist and composer to his place in French music, Rollin Smith states that "the concept of César Franck as organist and undisputed master of nineteenth-century French organ composition pervades nearly every reference to his works in other media."


title: Multi-sport event

text: A multi-sport event is an organized sporting event, often held over multiple days, featuring competition in many different sports among organized teams of athletes from (mostly) nation-states. The first major, modern, multi-sport event of international significance was the Olympic Games, first held in modern times in 1896 in Athens, Greece and inspired by the Ancient Olympic Games, one of a number of such events held in antiquity. Most modern multi-sports events have the same basic structure. Games are held over the


title: Multi-sport event

text: course of several days in and around a "host city", which changes for each competition. Countries send national teams to each competition, consisting of individual athletes and teams that compete in a wide variety of sports. Athletes or teams are awarded gold, silver or bronze medals for first, second and third place respectively. Each game is generally held every four years, though some are annual competitions.


title: Multi-sport event

text: The Ancient Olympic Games, first held in 776 BC, was the precursor to the Modern Olympic Games, although its first edition only featured a footrace and the number of sporting competitions expanded at later editions.


title: Multi-sport event

text: Other multi-sport festivals emerged in the Middle Ages in Europe, including the Cotswold Olimpick Games in England in the 1600s, the Highland Games in Scotland, and the Olympiade de la République in France in the 1800s.


title: Multi-sport event

text: In the late 19th and early 20th century, athletes at multi-sport events were almost exclusively male. As international women's sport began to develop, events such as the Women's World Games and Olympics of Grace were held to allow women to engage in sport on the international stage. Though short-lived, events such as these led to greater inclusion of women at multi-sport events over the course of the 20th century.


title: Multi-sport event

text: Although the modern tradition commemorates the 1921 revolution, the Naadam festival in Mongolia is a continuation of ancient sporting practises amongst Mongolians. The three events of wrestling, horse racing and archery are thought to date back centuries and represent the three most important pursuits of a strong man in nomadic society. Alongside these sporting events there are other cultural activities such as dances and parades.


title: Multi-sport event

text: Since the establishment of the Olympics, most serial multi-sport events have been organized for specific audiences and participating countries or communities. These affiliations include:


title: Multi-sport event

text: The first modern multi-sport event organised were the Olympic Games, organised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) (est. 1894) for the first time in 1896 in Athens, Greece. After some celebrations (1900, 1904), the Olympics became very popular nowadays. The number of sports, initially only a few, is still growing.


title: Multi-sport event

text: The Paralympic Games is the largest multi-sport event involving athletes with physical disabilities and is organized by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). Arranged for the first time in 1960 in Rome, Italy. The number of sports, initially only a few, is still growing.


title: Multi-sport event

text: The first Special Olympics International Summer Games were held in Chicago, Illinois, in 1968. The most recent Special Olympics World Winter Games in Schladming, Austria involved 25 sports and approximately 2,277 athletes from 133 countries.


title: Multi-sport event

text: At the beginning of the 20th century, another multi-sport event, the Nordic Games were first held. These Games were held in Scandinavia, and the sports conducted were winter sports such as cross-country skiing and speed skating. The Nordic Games were last held in 1926, after which the 1924 Winter Sports Week in Chamonix was declared the first Olympic Winter Games.


title: Multi-sport event

text: In the 1920s, all kinds of other multi-sport events were set up. These were usually directed for a selected group of athletes, rather than everybody, which was the case with the Olympic Games. The Soviets organized the first Spartakiad in 1920, a communist alternative to the 'bourgeois' Olympic Games, and in 1922 the University Olympia was organizedor in Italy, the forerunner of the World University Games, meant for students only.


title: Multi-sport event

text: Regional games were another kind of multi-sport event that was established, such as the Far Eastern Championship Games (1913), the Central American and Caribbean Games (1926) or the Pan American Games (1951).


title: Multi-sport event

text: The Olympic Games are still the largest multi-sport event in the world in terms of worldwide interest and importance (though no longer in participation), but several others also have significance.


title: Multi-sport event

text: Other Games are intended for handicapped or disabled athletes. The International Silent Games, first held in Paris in 1924, were the first Games for deaf athletes. The Stoke Mandeville Wheelchair Games, K incepted in 1948 in England, were the first Games for wheelchair athletes. In 1960, the first Paralympic Games were held, connected with the Olympic Games. The Special Olympics World Games, for athletes with intellectual disabilities, were first held in 1968.


title: Marketing communications

text: Marketing Communications (MC, marcom(s), marcomm(s) or just simply communications) refers to the use of different marketing channels and tools in combination. Marketing communication channels focus on how businesses communicate a message to its desired market, or the market in general. It is also in charge of the internal communications of the organization. Marketing communication tools include advertising, personal selling, direct marketing, sponsorship, communication, public relations, social media, customer journey and promotion.


title: Marketing communications

text: MC are made up of the marketing mix which is made up of the 4P's: Price, Promotion, Place and Product, for a business selling goods, and made up of 7P's: Price, Promotion, Place, Product, People, Physical evidence and Process, for a service-based business.


title: Marketing communications

text: Marketing communications include advertising, promotions, sales, branding, campaigns, events, and online promotions. The process allows the public to know or understand a brand and get a clear idea about what the brand has to offer. Brand awareness is the first stage, then brand preference over its competitors is the desired outcome. With growing technology and techniques, the direct participation of customers is made. This is done by including their ideas and creations, in product development and brand promotion. Successful branding involves targeting audiences who appreciate the organization's mission and vision, business values and marketing program.


title: Marketing communications

text: Advertising is a small but important part of marketing communications; the marketing communications mix is a set of tools that can be used to deliver a clear and consistent message to target audiences. It is also commonly called the promotional mix. Crosier (1990) states that all terms have the same meaning in the context of the 4ps: product, price, place and promotion. Price can send a message to the target audience. For example, comparing a $50 bag to a $10 bag, the former may be viewed as a luxury or more durable item. The higher goal of advertising is to establish a relationship between the brand and its target market.


title: Marketing communications

text: The marketing plan identifies key opportunities, threats, weaknesses, and strengths, sets objectives, and develops an action plan to achieve marketing goals. Each section of the 4P's sets its own objective; for instance, the pricing objective might be to increase sales in a certain geographical market by pricing their own product or service lower than their competitors. This creates a significant change in the market because more people of the target market would aim to do business with your organization than your competitors because pricing is one of the most significant aspects of marketing that can change the whole market positively and or negatively.


title: Marketing communications

text: Communications is one important aspect of the marketing mix. Marketing communication is often the largest component of communication within a company, which may be to present company values, objectives or specific products and services to investors, customers or the general public. In the 21st century, communications objectives focus on more customized messages, targeting customer groups or individuals to create high responses and greater brand interaction.


title: Marketing communications

text: As business becomes increasingly global with greater access to the Internet, mobile phones and social media, new challenges exist to inform people in targeted foreign markets. Shifts in the global economy and access to new markets lead also to greater demands for product shipping and associated services. To be effective, marketing communications must be tailored to its channels. For example: public relations messaging set is customized to its target audience which is media and the industry, there the messaging will be about data proofed achievements, whereas in social media messaging content is more friendly and about the brand soft qualities. communication strategies must converge with marketing objectives while also accounting for local languages, dialects and cultural norms.


title: Marketing communications

text: External communications might involve market research questionnaires, office website, guarantees, company annual report and presentations for investors. Internal communication can be the marketing materials, price list, product catalogs, sales presentations and management communications. On the other hand, each market demands different types of communications. For example, the industrial market demands a more personal communication but the consumer market demands non-personal communication.


title: Marketing communications

text: One-to-one is more immediate, while the many-to-many channels tend to be less urgent but with greater longevity.


title: Marketing communications

text: One of the primary goals of marketing communication is to persuade consumers or businesses, by either changing their perception of a brand, product, or service or persuading them to purchase (or feel motivated / tempted to purchase) a product or service. The "Elaboration Likelihood Model" is used to demonstrate how persuasion occurs. When a marketing communication message is sent out, first it must be acknowledged and attended by the receiver. By giving their attention to marketing communication, consumers will begin to process and comprehend the message. There are two routes to persuasion: Central and peripheral. Central route processing is used in high-involvement purchase decisions. These are infrequent, high-risk purchases, usually involving large amounts of money and a significant amount of time (for example, purchasing a house or car). Because these purchase decisions are high risk, a large cognitive effort is expended in order to rationally select the most logical and valuable option available. In these marketing messages, information about the product or service itself is most valuable.


title: Marketing communications

text: Peripheral route processing is employed in low involvement purchase decisions. These are frequent, low-risk purchases, generally of a low or medium cost in which choices are made more on affective (or emotion-based) values rather than cognitive (or rational) values. Because of this, marketing messages will employ more storytelling and imagery, focusing on how the product or service makes one feel, and the associations it has, rather than the attributes and specifications it possesses.


title: Marketing communications

text: A big part of marketing is how companies communicate, whether that be with clients and potential customers or internally with other departments within the business. When companies advertise, they can utilize linguistic devices to persuade the targeted audience; Different devices can produce differing effects. One of the linguistic device categories is a simple language. The different devices under simple language include phonetic symbolism, numbers, sound repetition, and pronunciation. All four devices use the cognitive effort of automatic processing. Phonetic symbolism is "a non-arbitrary relation between sound and meaning, and suggests that the sound of a word can convey meaning apart from its definition". Back vowels and consonants are lower in pitch due to the positioning of the tip of the tongue being further back in the throat. These sounds are associated with heaviness, masculinity, and psychological distance. Conversely, front vowels and consonants are higher in pitch and associated with closeness, femininity, and light. The sound of a brand name can influence the perception of the brand from the consumers' perspective along with product attitude and product recommendations. This being said, when a brand name sound preference is in alignment with the consumers' preference, the perception of the preferred attributes is enhanced.


title: Marketing communications

text: Communication can be defined as the process of using, word, sound, or visual cues to supply information to one or more people. A communication process is defined as information that is shared with the intent that the receiver understands the message that the business intended to send. The communication process was once thought of as having the source of the message, which is then encoded, put through the chosen communication channel, which is then decoded by the recipient and then received. Throughout the middle of the channel there is the potential for noise to distort the message being sent. Once the receiver has the message they then give feedback to the original source, where they then find out whether the campaign has been successful or not.


title: Marketing communications

text: With the prevalent use of technology, customers are seeking out information about brands, products, and businesses prior to purchase. This means that there is a need for an additional channel within the communication process, so it is a more accurate representation of the current business environment. Businesses are now having to take into consideration both opinion leaders and opinion formers who have a great influence over today's society and their perceptions. So they have to be included in the communication process before the recipient of the message receives it.


title: Marketing communications

text: This model is more effective when there is common ground between the senders and receivers so they can communicate effectively. Choosing the appropriate source helps develop the message and appeal to the targeted audience. The source will be more effective if they are relatable to the target audience. This realm of understanding is represented by overlapping circles. The more knowledge the source has about who they are targeting, the better they can understand how the receiver may interpret or react to the message.


title: Marketing communications

text: Opinion leaders are consumers who have large influence over the purchasing behavior of other consumers. These can be peers or celebrities, and often represent a "desired state" in the eye of the influenced consumer. By following the consumption patterns of opinion leaders, consumers aspire to achieve a similar status or lifestyle, and project a similar image. Because of this, opinion leaders are powerful factors in marketing communications. Having opinion leaders endorse a brand can increase brand awareness and sales. Due to this, large companies pay highly influential celebrities to endorse their products.


title: Marketing communications

text: You can receive the opinion leaders' thoughts or feelings towards the product/service through paid advertising, social media, blogs, or any other form of written media. These can be direct, or indirect influences.


title: Marketing communications

text: Opinion Formers are consumers who are regarded by their peers as being highly knowledgeable and trustworthy. They are considered experts in selecting the highest quality products due to their extensive knowledge, and as such are able to influence the purchasing behavior of other consumers despite lacking the celebrity status of an opinion leader. They have specialized knowledge about the area which corresponds with the product, service or business. For example, this could be a doctor sponsoring a form of medication, or a personal trainer recommending a sports brand to the customer. This means that both opinion leaders and opinion formers have a large influence on the consumer and their perceived view of the business, product, or service provided. If a brand is specializing in the sale and manufacturing of makeup products, the business would want to look at someone who is both known for their knowledge about makeup and also someone who they know is popular within that community, so that the message is as widespread throughout their target market as possible.


title: Marketing communications

text: Opinion leaders add another link in the communication process, acting as a "meaning filter" for the receivers of the message. The message is sent from the sender and the opinion leaders share their opinions with the targeted audience.


title: Marketing communications

text: Television has since its inception dominated the advertising media scene, due to its combination of visual and aural stimulation, allowing for greater attention grabbing and more effective transmission of messages than other forms of media. It has a few disadvantages: television commercials suffer from being "zipped" and zapped". "Zipping" is the term given to fast forwarding commercial break sessions during the pre-recording of programs. Often viewers will record programs purely so they can be viewed without the commercial breaks. "Zapping" is the term given to the habit of many consumers to change channels during commercial breaks. This is also done to avoid watching advertisements. Using television advertisements is beneficial due to its wide reach and the degree to which content can be segmented according to the intended target market. Advertisements are carefully paired with time segments and / or linked with appropriate programming, known as "media vehicles". This helps to ensure the intended audience is being reached with the marketing message.


title: Marketing communications

text: While initial production costs of a television advertisement are high, it is likely to reach a mass audience and, therefore, maintains a low cost per viewer, making it an efficient communication platform.


title: Marketing communications

text: Radio by definition is the broadcasting of sound programs to the public and today can be live streamed through a broadband connection or digitally transmitted into people's cars or homes. Despite being the oldest form of media transmission still being used, marketing via radio remains a popular and effective choice due to its relatively lower cost and convenience (radio exposure can occur during transit, at work, and during recreational activities). Due to the lack of a visual aspect, radio advertising attempts to create imagery in the consumer's mind. Radio advertising is also extremely effective at reinforcing messages encountered in other channels (such as television). A familiar jingle or voice associated with a brand enhances brand and ad awareness, ultimately increasing brand equity. This is an example of "Integrated Marketing Communications", in which multiple marketing channels are simultaneously utilized to increase the strength and reach of the marketing message. Like television, radio marketing benefits from the ability to select specific time slots and programs (in this case in the form of radio stations and segments within).


title: Marketing communications

text: Fill et al. argue that radio communication promotes "emotional consumer–centric associations" as each listener is forced to construct a visual representation of the words and sounds such as music in their minds. A common technique used by companies is known as imagery transfer, where a complementary visual television advertisement is used alongside a one-dimensional radio advertisement featuring a similar audio track to stimulate a visual association between the two. Research suggests this sub-conscience relational thought process greatly benefits future brand recognition and awareness.


title: Marketing communications

text: Radio infomercials are often a simple script that is read out by the presenter. This is quick and does not require extensive lead times due to minimal production efforts.


title: Marketing communications

text: Printed media is the most basic form of media advertising. It is the most challenging to create strong imagery with, due to its lack of sensory stimulation, but can be effective in efficient, clear information communication and message delivery. Where a consumer may miss a message in video promoted by ads or audio (A loud noise interrupts, or someone blocks their view) in print the message remains visible indefinitely. Aspects such as size, color and style can be used to increase effectiveness relative to other print advertisements, which is important as despite being a basic media communication channel, print is the second largest medium after television.


title: Marketing communications

text: Traditionally, marketing communications practitioners focused on the creation and execution of printed marketing collateral. Traditional media, or as some refer to as old media, has been used within the marketing and advertising world for many years. Traditional media encompasses conventional forms of advertising media, such as television, magazines, newspapers, radio, and direct mail and outdoor. For many decades, these forms of communication have been the main source for marketers to reach both consumers and other companies. In a world with no internet and the vast world of social media, roots of advertising and promotion lie within traditional media, where there is a more direct, physical way of advertising.


title: Marketing communications

text: Advertising in the form of print is used by businesses in the form of billboards and posters, as well as magazines and newspapers, to get their message across to the target audience. Businesses will usually place a billboard in areas where it can be easily seen and where the target audience will spend their daily activities. Newspapers, magazines and posters are smaller in size and can be found in numerous places allowing the general public to read them. Depending on the product or service that is being advertised, marketers may specify where the majority of their prints may go to, such as advertisements of a new shampoo promoting more common within salons.


title: Marketing communications

text: Print media are highly customizable, varying in print size, font, positioning and color combination. Newspapers commonly use coarse paper and tend to have poor reproduction quality, while magazines can enhance the appearance of a certain product due to the heavy weight gloss paper used which translates color well and offers a long lasting quality and likeability. Magazines function as a frame, a psychological device which manipulates perspective and judgement. For example, Vogue, a leading paid circulation fashion magazine, publishes advertising efforts alongside beautiful imagery and elegant photography, the association of the two communicates respectability and sophistication and promotes the credibility of the brands which appear in the same publication. Due to the high-quality reproduction, magazines tend to last longer and are often found in hair salons and waiting rooms. Consumers often cut out individual images which further prolongs the message and increases potential exposure. Although the relevance of the message may be lost during this extended time, brand awareness may still be raised.


title: Marketing communications

text: Magazines are often segmented by subjects such as women's health, automotive or fashion and therefore effectively reach a particular target market. Newspapers focus on geographical regions which tend to appeal to a broad representative population sample, offering low impact in selectivity. Newspapers are often run on a weekly schedule offering up-to-date information and coverage of local events and businesses as a lower cost alternative to other forms of media. Such advertisements are in smaller typeface and are black and white.


title: Marketing communications

text: Past forms of media are said by many to be gradually losing effectiveness as more contemporary forms become more popular. This change is driven by two key factors: audience fragmentation and ability to choose commercial content. Television, radio, magazines, and newspapers are becoming more fragmented and reaching smaller and more selective audiences. The rapid growth of communication due to interactive messaging, particularly the internet, had caused the changes in the use of communication throughout promotion mediums, with businesses preferring to use modern media over more traditional media methods. Consumers cannot avoid new and innovative ways of communication. Many marketers believe that traditional techniques of advertising have become too expensive and not cost-effective compared to modern ones. Older forms of marketing communications such as TV and newspaper advertising are one way in nature, whereas new media allows marketers to perform a variety of functions.


title: Marketing communications

text: Communication platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Skype, or other types of media have become an extremely important means of communication. Although there are other methods of communications that aren't related to social media, people can be hugely influenced by their peers. This process is known as social mediation. Marketing communication platforms personalizes and expends marketing contents in an automated fashion based on the profile of the recipients.


title: Marketing communications

text: A platform functions as a similar principle in marketing communications, providing awareness and information about a specific brand or product. Strategic selection of various communication platforms is known as a media strategy which aims to engage an audience in a conversation and, as a result, attempt to create a lasting relationship. Modern technology has expanded the use of platforms and ways in which consumers and the brand can interact. As a result, the context of platforms and how they are defined has changed. There are various platforms by which communication is transmitted, and these can be categorized as paid, owned, earned, or shared, formally named as the integrated communication triangle by Grönroos and Lindberg-Repo. The model acknowledges that communication must be credible and trustworthy to be effective. Studies reveal that many consumers look at review forums and ask friends or peers whom they trust for ratings on products before making a purchase decision. Therefore, effective communication relies on an integrated approach of one dimensional and interactive platforms.


title: Marketing communications

text: Explicitly planned market content is shared through non-personal communication platforms. The brand controls the platform, message content, frequency and repetition of the communication message. These factors are typically accomplished through traditional paid platforms, such as print, electronic, outdoor and alternative media, that aims to target a mass segment of the market.


title: Marketing communications

text: Other aspects of noise decrease the effectiveness of message penetration. For example, most paid communication platforms, print, and electronic media are filled with marketing and advertising messages and are subject to clutter, often forcing brands to compete for attention. To eliminate noise, brands often choose to include inserts such as samples and scent strips within magazines while newspapers utilize "call to action" inserts such as coupons which encourage consumers to visit or try a local service or good.


title: Marketing communications

text: Social media's market penetration is rising thanks to services like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat and TikTok. Companies are using these external platforms to engage existing and future customers, reinforce brand messaging, influence customer opinions, provide target offers, and serve customers more efficiently. Social media are flexible communication tools that go beyond the traditional means of advertising and allow brands to interact with their audience personally or professionally.


title: Marketing communications

text: Influencer Marketing used to be focused on applying celebrity endorsement to help to influence audiences. Nowadays, with the growing outreach of social media, "common people" like bloggers are becoming popular and are connected with brands and products as influencers. Companies are beginning to invest time and money creating influence through resonance and reach. Return on Influence is not metrically trackable like Return on Investment is, but mechanisms such as links with UTM parameters can be created to track conversion behavior of influence.


title: Marketing communications

text: The Internet features both non-personal and personal forms of communication. It has become one of the most dominant sources of information for most consumers. Belch & Belch explained that the internet is mostly a non-personal form of communication as consumers absorb information online with no personal contact between the consumer and the organizations that are providing the information on their websites. However, as the internet develops, it is including personal communication as consumers interact with marketers online as well as communicate and share information with one another through the use of social media.


title: Marketing communications

text: The Internet allows multimedia documents to be shared among its users. approximately 30 million websites have been registered worldwide and 650 million were connected to the Internet. The Internet as a marketing tool can be used to reach and inform customers directly, create brand loyalty, and build relationships. Online advertising includes elements such as: graphic images as website banners, pop-up advertisements, homepage restyling and anchor deals (co-operation between two organizations ).


title: Marketing communications

text: Interactivity is a characteristic feature of the Internet that was described in 1996 by John Deighton. He argued that in the then-new Internet business environment, clients rather than the marketers usually start the interaction, by actively looking for the information that they need. Moreover, personal responses of customers will be collected by corporations and their individual demands will be met according to their desires.


title: Marketing communications

text: On the one hand, traditional media are "push" formats where marketers broadcast their messages to customers, but do not allow direct feedback. The interaction between the two parties is few and far between. On the other hand, Internet media have the attribute of "pull" where customers have the freedom to search for whatever they wish. For instance, whenever a consumer types "flower" on Google's search engine, an advertisement of a specific flower shop might be placed on the top or bottom of the search result page by the Google AdWords program. Google makes use of the client's search history and location to place an appropriate ad. The traditional one-way "push" communication is supplanted by the more productive two-way "push and pull" interaction.


title: Marketing communications

text: Compared with the traditional media where the same information is received by all consumers, Internet media can send information "tailored" to the needs of a specific consumer. This is another advantage of two-way interaction of the Internet media. One of the first and most prominent examples is the personalized service provided by Amazon in which consumers are called by their names and "tailored" recommendations are provided according to their previous purchase records. Furthermore, besides "tailored" individual service, with the accumulation of consumers' information on the Internet, mass customization becomes possible in which companies provide "tailored" content to particular segments of consumers with similar interests. Douban is a Chinese social networking service website that allows its users to rate movies, TV dramas, music and concerts. It rapidly grew to 200 million registered users in 2013 (founded in 2005). In addition, people who like the same TV drama, like "Game of Thrones", or fans of the same movie star, such as Tom Cruise, will group together to discuss and share their feelings. This allows companies to take advantage of mass customization to sell products or reinforce their brand equity in suitable target groups. By doing so, the interaction and co-operation of companies and consumers are deepening, widening and multiplying in a variety of ways.


title: Marketing communications

text: Restructuring followed by disintermediation and reintermediation is one of the essential features of the transition from traditional to Internet marketing communications. The Internet may force traditional distributors or retailers out of business simply because Internet transactions are less costly. JD.com significantly impacted the distribution channels for personal computers in China as of 2009 by allowing consumers to order different parts of the computers that were then assembled by the online business, leaving tens of thousands of retailers in that field out of their jobs. In 2015, JD.com accounted for 22.9% of the Chinese online shopping's market share. Again, according to "Financial Times", with the shifting trend of using mobile phones for online purchase in China, the people using cellphones to log on to the Internet outnumbered those using PC, the next wave of restructuring faced by JD.com and its major competitors like Alibaba. In 2014, JD.com's orders deriving from mobile phones increased by 543%, compared with the last year's quarter of the same period. Haoyu Shen, the chief executive of the JD.com, ascribed this result to its own company's app rather than the co-operation with Tecent, the Chinese second largest online corporation, although it invested in JD.com in March 2014. As an ecommerce business, JD.com has been constantly facing challenges and opportunities of reintermediation with the rapid shifts of the technology development of the Internet.


title: Marketing communications

text: Email marketing is directly marketing a commercial message to a group of people using email. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing. It usually involves using email to send ads, request business, or solicit sales or donations, and is meant to build loyalty, trust, or brand awareness. Email marketing can be done to either sold lists or a current customer database. Broadly, the term is usually used to refer to sending email messages with the purpose of enhancing the relationship of a merchant with its current or previous customers, to encourage customer loyalty and repeat business, acquiring new customers or convincing current customers to purchase something immediately, and adding advertisements to email messages sent by other companies to their customers.


title: Marketing communications

text: Another channel for direct digital marketing is in-product communication (or in-product marketing), which delivers marketing content directly to a user's internet-connected device or software application. In-product marketing content is often very similar to that of email marketing campaigns, but the segmentation and delivery is more targeted. Because email has become a standard tool in the digital marketing toolkit, the email channel often is overloaded and overused, leading to much lower open rates, lower engagement rates, lower click-through rates (CTR), and lower conversion rates. The rise of internet-connected (IOT) devices is enabling a growing number of consumer products manufacturers to take advantage of this channel of marketing communications, to supplement other digital marketing channels.


title: Marketing communications

text: Due to the rise in advertising clutter, there has been a push for non-traditional media such as guerrilla marketing. Guerrilla Marketing is usually a low-cost way of generating buzz through creative or unexpected communication platforms. Outdoor settings provide potential ground to gain attention from a large audience. An example is customizing street infrastructure or creating an event such as a flash mob. Research rates guerrilla advertising as having a higher perceived value compared to other communication platforms, which tends to result in a positive consumer response. An example of successful guerrilla marketing was created by Volkswagen (VW) in their promotional "driven by fun" campaign, where consumers could use VW "fast lane" slide instead of the escalator to get to the bottom of the stairs faster.


title: Marketing communications

text: Every point of contact is a form of communication and it is, therefore, necessary to consider touch points as a communication platform. Touch points can be either physical or a human interaction between a brand and the consumer which influence customer decision-making process during pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase.


title: Marketing communications

text: There are many ways in which a customer may interact with a business. Interactions occur through direct customer service exchanges, a company website, the point of purchase environment and product packaging or performance. These all contribute to consumer perceptions of a particular brand. For instance, the service-scape of a purchase touch point such as a retail store can influence the perception of quality and service through lighting and layout or other sensory touch points, for example, smell. Fast fashion retailers such as Topshop maintain a white store interior and exterior which is perceived as luxurious. Likewise, the higher price point and packaging of Ferrero Rocher may communicate sophistication and better quality. Visual appearance can have a significant effect on purchase decision, companies such as Coke a Cola and Pepsi provide a free fridge to distributors to control how products are displayed at the point of purchase.


title: Marketing communications

text: While boarding a United Airlines flight, Dave Carroll saw baggage handlers on the tarmac damage his Taylor guitar. After failed attempts to solve the issue through customer service, Carroll uploaded a humorous YouTube video titled "United breaks guitars", which experienced over 15 million views. Carroll's YouTube video is an example of the multiplier effect, and how consumer experiences are shared through user-generated content (UGC) networks and word of mouth communication. Research shows customers are more likely to pass on negative experiences, and therefore, such interactive platforms have a significant impact on purchase decisions and brand outlook.


title: Marketing communications

text: This highlights a trend in integration of consumer behavior with marketing communications, where technology has facilitated social group communication. Communication has changed from one direction with companies in control of their message to a dialogue where businesses interact with consumer feedback. As Andy Lark, Commonwealth Bank CMO states "the power has shifted, we are now entering a transparent age where there are no secrets".


title: Marketing communications

text: Traditional models viewed paid media platforms as the primary source of information. However, technology has enabled dialogue within a consumer-centric communication platform. This flow of information allows a many-to-many exchange through UGC, which includes all types of creative content online through blogs, chats, forums, online platforms for product reviews and social media websites such as Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, which are known as earned and shared media.


title: Marketing communications

text: Co-creation takes place when customers not only buy the company's products but also help in designing and developing them. Nike built an example of co-creation and customer empowerment through earned and shared media. Nike ID is an online application that allows customers to design their shoe and therefore "Just do it online". Market-generated media remain an important communication platform and information source. Consumers tend to consider both market-generated and UGC when making a purchase decision, particularly, for higher involvement product like vinyl record albums. The transition from traditional media to various forms of online and UGC marketing is increasing. Academics recognize that marketing communication is an open system and customers are influenced by multiple communication platforms. Ultimately positive brand encounters manifest brand supporters who contribute to positive earned and shared media, through product recommendations online and offline.


title: Marketing communications

text: In direct marketing the producer communicates directly with potential customers, instead of through third-party media. Individual customer's responses and transactions are recorded. Direct marketing is a growing form of marketing communication. It is designed to build the relationship between the customer and the brand, known as customer relationship management (CRM). Organizations use customer accounts in order to monitor and understand their needs. They manage detailed information about the customer's touch points with the objective to maximize satisfaction and loyalty. The communication can be in person, by telephone, mail, email or website. The interaction between the organization and the customer is usually a two-way communication. Direct marketing relies on CRM databases that contain valuable customer information. Good quality databases can provide a competitive advantage and increase profitability. Treating the customer database as an expense rather than an investment, or not continuously maintaining or updating them can be detrimental.


title: Marketing communications

text: Direct mail is a letter, card, catalog, or sample sent through post, email, fax, or courier. This communication is most effective when the recipient has shown interest in or has previously purchased from the organization. Advantages of direct mail are personalization, careful targeting, creativity and flexibility. Email is low-cost, but can be lost through spam and junk email filters. Direct mail is dependent on accurate databases.


title: Marketing communications

text: Telemarketing is marketing communication via telephone. There are two types of telemarketing: outbound and inbound. Outbound telemarketing is used by organizations to reach out to potential customers, generate sales, make appointments with salespeople and introduce new products. Inbound telemarketing is where people call the organization to complain or inquire about products. Both outbound and inbound can be used as a customer service strategy to boost sales and receive suggestions for improvement. Advantages of telemarketing include targeted communications, flexible and direct interaction between the organization and the customer, it can be an effective personal selling partner and it is cost-effective compared to face-to-face contact. A disadvantage is that call centers are usually used to handle outbound and inbound telemarketing, which need to be implemented, managed and financed.


title: Marketing communications

text: Mail order marketing is a catalog of products that customers can order to receive in the mail. This form of direct marketing dates back over 100 years. Home shopping, online shopping and teleshopping now accompany it. With current technology mail order has improved. Now there can be a larger range in catalog, delivery is faster, and complaints are dealt with professionally. Mail order exerts less pressure on the customer than telemarketing and sales are easy to manage, however costly infrastructure is required in maintaining the back-end.


title: Marketing communications

text: Direct-response advertising is partially direct marketing. It is a message transmitted through traditional communications media that requires the reader, viewer, listener or customer to respond directly to the organization. The audience may respond to receive more information or to purchase a product. A common example of direct response advertising is in television "home shopping immediately to receive a particular deal or discount. Disadvantages are that focus can be lost because of the medium of communication and the targeting can be less narrow compared to direct mail. Organizational messages can get cluttered and crowded.


title: Marketing communications

text: Cellular marketing uses the audience's mobile phone and SMS to promote a product or brand. Advantages are a high level of flexibility and easy integration through computer systems using the Internet to send mass text messages. This marketing communications platform allows organizations to directly target customers to remind them to renew subscriptions, give exclusive product discounts, or build brand reputation through competitions or sweepstakes.


title: Marketing communications

text: The disadvantage is that some customers are charged to receive SMS, so opt-in permission is required.


title: Marketing communications

text: CD and DVD discs can be used as part of e-communications. Entire marketing presentations, catalogs, brochures and price lists can be stored on a CD. CDs are small and simple to hand out to target audiences and most modern computers have CD drive readers, however, most of the same information can be presented on a website or email.


title: Marketing communications

text: Integrated marketing communications (IMC) is the use of marketing strategies to optimize the communication of a consistent message of the company's brands to stakeholders. Coupling methods together improves communication as it harnesses the benefits of each channel, which when combined, builds a clearer and vaster impact than if used individually. IMC requires marketers to identify the boundaries around the promotional mix elements and to consider the effectiveness of the campaign's message.


title: Marketing communications

text: In the mid to late 1980s, the marketing environment was undergoing profound environmental changes with implications for marketing communications. Media proliferation, audience fragmentation, globalization of markets, the advent of new communications technologies, the widespread use of databases meant that the old methods, and practices used in mass marketing were no longer relevant. In particular, the rise of digital and interactive media meant that marketers were relying less on advertising as the dominant form of marketing communications. Amongst practitioners and scholars, there was an increasing recognition that new approaches to marketing communications were required. That new approach would become known as "integrated marketing communications." A number of empirical studies, carried out in the early 1990s, found that the new IMC was far from a "short-lived managerial fad," but rather was a very clear reaction by advertisers and marketers to the changing external environment.


title: Marketing communications

text: Integrated marketing communications is a holistic planning process that focuses on integrating messages across communications disciplines, creative executions, media, timing and stakeholders. An integrated approach has emerged as the dominant approach used by companies to plan and execute their marketing communication programs and has been described as a "paradigm shift."


title: Marketing communications

text: IMC unifies and coordinates an organization's marketing communications to promote a consistent brand message. Coordinating a brand's communications makes the brand seem more trustworthy and sound, as it is seen as a 'whole' rather than a mixture of different messages being sent out. The IMC perspective looks at the 'big picture' in marketing, advertising and promotions.


title: Marketing communications

text: The impetus to rethink marketing communications came from a number of environmental changes that were becoming increasingly apparent throughout the mid to late 1980s. Media was proliferating and at the same time converging, audiences were fragmenting and many new communications disciplines were emerging. Few advertising agencies provided the full suite of services in terms of the varied communications disciplines. Companies were reliant on a multiplicity of service providers for assistance with advertising, public-relations, branding, packaging, sales promotion, event organizers and other promotional activities. Each of these communications disciplines was treated as a "silo"; with little thought to the synergies between them, with the result that many different stakeholders involved in presenting the company's external image throughout the breadth and length of a campaign. In that environment, both practitioners and theorists recognized the potential for confusing or inconsistent brand images to develop across media and across different communications disciplines. The fragmentation of audiences presented marketers with particular challenges. No longer were they able to communicate with mass markets via mass media; instead they needed to communicate with increasingly tightly defined market segments, using highly specialist media and communications disciplines. New media and the use of databases were enabling marketers to communicate with customers on a one-to-one basis. The old methods and practices associated with mass communications were failing to serve the realities of the new era. The imperative to present a clear, coherent and unified narrative in both internal and external communications was becoming increasingly apparent by the late 1980s.


title: Marketing communications

text: In 1989, two discrete events served to draw attention to the fact that industry attitudes to marketing communications were shifting. Firstly, the consulting firm, Shearson-Lehman Hutton published a report on the subject of consumer advertising, signaling that a number of market-place changes would force packaged goods marketers to adopt a more integrated approach to marketing communications. Their report also noted that high-end manufacturers (e.g. automobiles) and up-market services (e.g. cruise vacations) were more inclined to use integrated promotions. Secondly, the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A's), instituted a task-force to investigate integrated marketing communications (IMC), with the result that the first official definition was published. The AAAA defined IMC as, "a concept of marketing communications planning that recognizes the added value of a comprehensive plan that evaluates the strategic roles of a variety of communication disciplines (e.g. general advertising, direct response, sales promotion, and public relations) and combines these disciplines to provide clarity, consistency, and maximum communication impact." At this stage, the development of IMC, focused primarily on the need for organizations to offer more than just standard advertising and to integrate the various communications disciplines. The 4As originally coined the term the "new advertising"; however, this title did not appropriately incorporate many other aspects included in the term "IMC" – most notably, those beyond traditional advertising process aside from simply advertising.


title: Marketing communications

text: In 1991, the faculty of Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University in conjunction with the AAAA, began the first empirical research study designed to investigate how IMC was being used. The study focused around understanding the concept and the importance of IMC and also to analyze the extent in which IMC was practiced in all major U.S advertising agencies. This initial study was then replicated by other studies with a view to examining how IMC was being used in other countries; New Zealand, UK, US, Australia, India, Thailand, South Africa and the Philippines, etc. The findings from these studies demonstrated that the new IMC was far from a "short-lived managerial fad" but rather was "a very clear reaction by advertising agencies and their clients as they are affected by a multitude of factors such as new forms of information technology including development and usage of databases, media fragmentation, client desires for interaction/synergy, and global and regional coordination." This was the second stage of IMC's development, where the focus shifted to documenting the practice of IMC as a global phenomenon. In other words, researchers were attempting to codify practices that had been used for some time.


title: Marketing communications

text: In 1993, Don Schultz and his team published the first text-book dedicated to IMC. Their work, simply entitled, "Integrated Marketing Communications," described IMC as a totally new way of looking at the whole of marketing communications, rather than looking at each of the parts separately. And, in the same year, the Medill School at Northwestern University changed their curriculum to include a focus on this new idea of integrated marketing communications rather than the traditional program which had emphasized advertising. IMC emerged from an "academic department that, for several decades, had been recognized as the number one advertising program. Since the mid-1990s, virtually every text-book on the subject of marketing communications has adopted an integrated perspective or has added chapters on IMC in new editions of standard works. Collectively these books focus on the IMC planning processes and this represents the third distinct stage in the evolution of IMC – an emphasis on managing and organizing IMC.


title: Marketing communications

text: Over time, scholars have advanced different definitions of IMC, with each definition exhibiting a slightly different emphasis. Yet, in spite of the variety of definitions in circulation, there is general consensus that integrated marketing communications should be viewed as a planning process. Some scholars have pointed out that because IMC is both a process and a concept, it is exceedingly difficult to define.


title: Marketing communications

text: Today, there is general agreement amongst both practitioners and scholars that the emergence of IMC represents "a significant example of development in the marketing discipline... [that] has influenced thinking and acting among all types of companies and organizations facing the realities of competition in an open economy." Belch and Belch argue that IMC has become the dominant approach used by companies to plan and execute their marketing communication programs while other scholars have described IMC as a "paradigm shift." Larry Percy argues that "the planning and execution of "all" marketing communication should be "integrated"".


title: Marketing communications

text: Within the literature there is no absolute agreement about the meaning of "integration" in the concept, "integrated marketing communications". The concept of IMC has evolved during its brief history, and with that different ideas around the meaning of integration have been advanced. The diverse views surrounding IMC and its meaning can be explained by the early state of theoretical development and research on IMC which gives rise to a multiplicity of different perspectives. As the discipline matures, these different views are expected to converge.