| Course | MT359 Integrated Marketing Communications |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 4 |
| Paper type | Message strategy analysis |
| Length | About 1,140 words, 7 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | BS in Business Administration |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MT359 Unit 4
Recognized at the Freezer Door: An MT359 Unit 4 Message Strategy Analysis of Five Tamale Executions
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
MT359: Integrated Marketing Communications
Unit 4 Message Strategy Analysis
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The tamale company and its executions are composite; the planning models and research cited are real.
The Brief Every Execution Answers
The Unit 3 brief set one proposition, Still spread by hand, and one proof, the uneven fold of a husk closed by one of the company's 46 spreaders. Its mandatories require every execution to show the package the way a shopper meets it behind the glass, plus a visible hand-folded husk, and they forbid price, quantity and deal language. Every verdict below is measured against those two sentences.
The Five Executions
The connected TV spot, fifteen seconds, called Crooked Fold, opens on a spreader's hands pressing masa onto a husk, holds for two seconds on the uneven fold and ends on the yellow bag in a freezer case. The radio read, thirty seconds, is spoken by Elva, an 81-year-old spreader, who explains why no two of her tamales close the same way. The bus-shelter poster sets a close-up of the fold beside the bag, under the headline No Two Alike. The freezer-door cling repeats that photograph on the glass of the freezer itself. A fifth piece, a second poster written by the sales team after the brief was approved, shows the bag with the headline More Pork in Every Tamal.
Where Frozen Tamales Sit on the FCB Grid
Vaughn (1980) sorted purchases by involvement and by whether buyers decide mainly by thinking or by feeling. A $8.99 bag of comfort food is a low-involvement, feeling purchase. Buyers in that quadrant tend to try a product, react to it and only then form a view, so advertising there works by being liked and repeated rather than by building a case. That suits the brief: hands at work and a crooked fold invite a feeling about the product without asking anyone to weigh evidence. It also warns against long copy, which none of the planned executions uses.
Recognition, Not Recall
The FCB grid says how buyers decide; the Rossiter-Percy grid adds a distinction it lacks. Rossiter et al. (1991) separate brand awareness into two kinds. Some brands are chosen from memory, so the buyer must recall the name before reaching the store. Others are chosen on sight, so the buyer must recognize the package at the point of purchase. Percy and Rossiter (1992) argue that the two require different advertising: recall needs the name linked to the category, while recognition needs the package shown as the buyer will see it.
Frozen tamales are chosen on sight. A shopper opens the freezer door, scans the shelves and picks up a bag. No one walks in having rehearsed the brand name. That makes recognition the communication objective, and it sorts the executions sharply. The connected TV spot, the poster and the cling all show the yellow bag. The radio read cannot, however warm the voice.
A tamale bought at a freezer door must be known on sight, so an execution that never shows the bag cannot do the main job, whatever else it does well.
Scoring the Executions
Each execution was scored on four questions: does it carry the proposition, where does it sit on the grids, does it show the package as shoppers see it, and does it drift from the brief?
Crooked Fold carries the proposition, sits in the low-involvement transformational cell where Rossiter and colleagues recommend likable, emotional execution, shows the bag in its freezer case and does not drift. It is the strongest execution.
The radio read carries the proposition well and scores highest of all five on emotional authenticity; Elva's voice is the most persuasive thing in the campaign. It fails recognition, because a listener never sees the bag. It does not drift.
The poster carries the proposition, shows the bag and does not drift. Its weakness is placement: bus shelters are seen far from the freezer case, so its recognition value depends on the cling repeating it.
The cling does the most with the least. It carries the proof, shows the bag at the exact place and moment of choice and costs least per store. It does not drift.
The late poster drifts. More Pork in Every Tamal is a second proposition, a claim about quantity, which invites a comparison the national leader can win by changing a recipe. It shows the bag but not the fold. It also reintroduces the kind of message Unit 2 placed off limits.
What the Comparison Shows at a Glance
Read across the four questions, the five executions fall into three groups. Three of them, the spot, the poster and the cling, pass every test and differ only in how close they sit to the moment of choice. One, the radio read, passes three tests and fails the one that matters most for a product picked up on sight. One, the late poster, passes the package test and fails the proposition. Laid out this way, the analysis also shows something the brief did not anticipate: the cheapest piece, the cling, is the one that does the most work, because it puts the proof and the package in front of the shopper at the instant the freezer door opens. A media plan that funds it generously and treats the other pieces as ways of sending shoppers to it would follow directly from this analysis.
Two Different Failures
The radio and the late poster both fail, but for different reasons, and the difference matters for the fix. The radio is on strategy but in the wrong medium for the objective; it can be repaired. The late poster is in a workable medium but off strategy; it cannot be repaired without becoming a different poster. Belch and Belch (2021) describe integration as every piece of communication delivering one consistent message, and the late poster breaks that consistency even though it shows the bag.
Recommendations
Keep Crooked Fold, the poster and the cling as planned, with the cling installed before the poster flight begins so the two reinforce each other. Keep the radio read only with a revised script that names the yellow bag twice, for example by having Elva say look for the yellow bag in the freezer, and reduce its weight in the media plan. Withdraw the late poster and explain to the sales team that a quantity claim would make every other piece argue against it; offer them the cling for their store visits instead.
Limits
The analysis judges executions in rough form. A recognition test with real shoppers, showing the bag among competitors, would confirm whether the yellow bag is distinctive enough to be found quickly, and the Unit 9 evaluation plan includes one.
References
Belch, G. E., & Belch, M. A. (2021). Advertising and promotion: An integrated marketing communications perspective (12th ed.). McGraw Hill.
Percy, L., & Rossiter, J. R. (1992). A model of brand awareness and brand attitude advertising strategies. Psychology & Marketing, 9(4), 263-274. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.4220090402
Rossiter, J. R., Percy, L., & Donovan, R. J. (1991). A better advertising planning grid. Journal of Advertising Research, 31(5), 11-21.
Vaughn, R. (1980). How advertising works: A planning model. Journal of Advertising Research, 20(5), 27-33.
MT359 Unit 4 instructions, in plain terms
Unit 4 asks students to analyze a set of executions against the creative brief using the course's message strategy models. The brief's proposition and proof should be quoted first so each verdict has a fixed reference. Instructors usually expect the FCB grid, the Rossiter-Percy grid or both, applied to the product's buying situation rather than defined in general. Each execution needs a short description concrete enough to be pictured, then a verdict on whether it carries the proposition, fits the grid and shows what the buyer must see. Pieces that drift from the brief should be named as drift, with a fix. Recommendations about what to keep, revise or withdraw close the paper.
How the MT 359 Unit 4 example is put together
The sample quotes the Unit 3 proposition and mandatories at the top. Five executions follow, described in two or three sentences each. The FCB section places the product and warns against long copy. The Rossiter-Percy section separates recall from recognition and argues that a bag chosen at the freezer door needs recognition, under a highlighted line about an execution that never shows the bag. Each execution is then scored on four questions. A section reads the comparison across rows and notices that the cheapest piece, the cling, does the most work. Another explains why the radio and the late poster fail differently. Recommendations keep three pieces, revise the radio script and withdraw the late poster.
MT359 Unit 4 rubric: what earns full points
Message strategy papers are often graded on correct use of the models, the quality of each verdict and the soundness of the recommendations. Applying a grid to the way this product is bought earns more than restating the grid. Rubrics reward a clear link between the communication objective and the verdict, here recognition at the shelf. Each execution should be judged on the same questions. Naming drift honestly, even in a piece someone senior wrote, shows judgment. Distinguishing a repairable weakness from a strategic error adds depth. Recommendations need to follow from the scores. Citations to Vaughn and to Rossiter and Percy belong in APA 7, and the executions should be described precisely enough to be judged.
MT359 Unit 4 help: mistakes that cost points
A common weakness in these papers is defining the FCB and Rossiter-Percy grids at length and then applying neither to the product. Another is praising every execution, which suggests the student did not test any of them. Some papers miss that awareness comes in two kinds, so they grade a shelf product on whether people remember its name. Drift is often ignored when the off-brief piece is the most persuasive. Recommendations frequently say improve the radio without saying how. Before drafting, write down where and how a buyer chooses this product. Then ask of each execution what the buyer must see or hear at that moment, and whether the execution gives it to them.
Get an MT359 Unit 4 example written to your instructions
Got executions to judge, or only a brief they should follow? Either can start the Unit 4 sample. With the prompt and rubric, name the model your course relies on, whether FCB, Rossiter-Percy or another. A free first custom analysis arrives within 24-48h, each execution placed with a reason and tested for drift. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
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MT359 Unit 4 questions, answered
What is the difference between the FCB grid and the Rossiter-Percy grid?
The FCB grid, from Richard Vaughn at Foote, Cone and Belding, sorts products by involvement and by thinking versus feeling. Rossiter and Percy keep involvement but split motives into informational and transformational, and add a separate choice between brand recognition and brand recall. Many papers use FCB for the broad placement and Rossiter-Percy for specific execution tactics.
Do I need to create the executions myself?
It depends on the prompt. Some sections supply real advertisements to analyze, others ask for proposed executions described in words, and a few want rough layouts. Where you propose them, describe each in enough concrete detail to be pictured, because the analysis can only be judged against something concrete. Label proposed work as proposed, not as a campaign that ran.
How should the paper handle an execution that drifts from the brief?
Name the drift, say which second proposition it introduces, and recommend a fix: rewrite it, withdraw it or reassign it to a different job. An honest drift finding usually earns more than claiming every piece fits. If the drifting piece came from someone with authority, such as a sales team, the paper can still judge it on strategy rather than on who wrote it.
Where can I find a free MT359 Unit 4 sample paper?
The complete MT359 Unit 4 message strategy analysis is on this page, scoring five tamale executions on the FCB and Rossiter-Percy grids.
Why does the radio read fail in the MT359 Unit 4 sample even though it is the most persuasive piece?
Frozen tamales are chosen on sight, so the job is pack recognition, and a listener never sees the bag; the plan keeps radio only with a script naming the yellow bag.