What is Integrated Marketing Communication?

What is Integrated Marketing Communication?

Integrated marketing communications (IMC) is a process of managing customer relationships that drive brand value primarily through communication efforts. Such efforts often include cross-functional processes that create and nourish profitable relationships with customers and other stakeholders by strategically controlling or influencing all messages sent to these groups and encouraging data-driven, purposeful dialog with them.

IMC includes the coordination and integration of all marketing communication tools, avenues, and sources within a company in to a seamless program in order to maximize the impact on end users at a minimal cost.

Ideally, IMC is implemented by developing comprehensive databases on customers and prospects, segmenting these current and potential customers into groups with certain common awareness levels, predispositions, and behaviors, and developing messages and media strategies that guide the communication tactics to meet marketing objectives.

In doing this, IMC builds and reinforces mutually profitable relationships with customers and other important stakeholders and generates synergy by coordinating all elements in the promotional mix into a program that possesses clarity, consistency, and maximum impact.

Definition of IMC: According to American Association of Advertising Agencies IMC is a “concept of marketing communication planning that recognises the added value of a comprehensive plan that evaluates the strategic roles of a variety of communication discipline”

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Tools of Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC)

Advertising

Advertisement is a non-personal presentation of an idea or a product (where as personal selling or salesmanship help in personal promotional.) Advertisement supplements personal selling to a great extent. Advertising has, acquired great importance in the modern India characterized by tough competition in the market and fast changes in technology, and fashion and taste customers.

It creates an active role in integrated marketing communication mix as it creates.

• Good image
• Top of the mind awareness
• Counterclaim the competitors
• Reinforce positive attitude

Publicity

Publicity is the non-personal presentation. It originates from the desk of the editor. It aims at only informing the public about the events, person, firm etc. There is no control on the publicity by the advertiser as it comes from the media owner. Publicity can be favorable or unfavorable. Large firms have separate publicity or public relation department for publicity and cordial public relation. The secret of the publicity is to get placement in the desired media.

Thus the use of publicity provides various advantages to the seller they are:

• It is available free of cost
• It provides more information than advertising as it comes from the editors desk
• Consumer believe publicity more than advertising

Public relation

A Public relations is defined as a management function which identifies, establishes, and maintains mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and the publics. Public relations consider multiple audiences (consumers, employees, suppliers, vendors, etc.) and uses two-way communication to monitor feedback and adjust both its message and the organization’s actions for maximum benefit. It is used to generate good will for the organization. Public relation help the company and its public by relating each other for mutual benefits.

The main objective of public relation is :

• To remove misunderstanding, doubts, confusion, and wrong impression in the minds of different social groups
• To maintain good corporate image.
• To have the public support to the future of the company.
• To fulfill social responsibility.

Sales promotion

Sales promotions are direct inducements that offer extra incentives to enhance or accelerate the product’s movement from producer to consumer. Sales promotion constitutes devices like contests, coupons, free samples, premium, and point of purchase material. Sales promotion is action oriented. It motivates customers to buy the goods under incentive plans.

Sales promotion not only covers consumers but also dealers and wholesalers. It acts as a connecting link between advertising and salesmanship. Thus in a competitive marketing sales promotion act as a effective tool to an advertiser to solve several short-term hurdles in marketing.

Personal Selling

Personal selling includes all person-to-person contact with customers with the purpose of introducing the product to the customer, convincing him or her of the product’s value, and closing the sale. The role of personal selling varies from organization to organization, depending on the nature and size of the company, the industry, and the products or services it is marketing. Many marketing executives realize that both sales and non-sales employees act as salespeople for their organization in one way or another.

Personal selling is the most effective way to make a sale because of the interpersonal communication between the salesperson and the prospect. Messages can be tailored to particular situations, immediate feedback can be processed, and message strategies can be changed to accommodate the feedback.

Packaging

A properly designed package can induce the prospects to buy the product. A well designed package can communicate the type and quality of the product.

Packaging plays an important role in converting the minds of the consumers as it provides

• Providing information of the product.
• Protection of goods while transportation and handling
• Preservation of quality of the products.
• Promotion of the product.

Internet

Just as direct marketing has become a prominent player in the promotional mix, so too has the Internet. Virtually unheard of in the1980s, the 1990s saw this new medium explode onto the scene, being adopted by families, businesses and other organizations more quickly than any other medium in history. Websites provide anew way of transmitting information, entertainment, and advertising, and have generated a new dimension in marketing: electronic commerce.

E-commerce is the term used to describe the act of selling goods and services over the Internet. In other words, the Internet has become more that a communication channel; it is a marketing channel itself with companies such as Amazon.com, CDNow, eBay, and others selling goods via the Internet to individuals around the globe.

Sponsorships

Many advertisers heavily rely on sponsorship in order to create positive feelings toward a company. Sponsorships increase awareness of a company or product, build loyalty with a specific target audience, help differentiate a product from its competitors, provide merchandising opportunities, demonstrate commitment to a community or ethnic group, or impact the bottom line.

Like advertising, sponsorships are initiated to build long-term associations. Organizations sometimes compare sponsorships with advertising by using gross impressions or cost-per-thousand measurements. However, the value of sponsorships can be very difficult to measure. Companies considering sponsorships should consider the short-term public relations value of sponsorships and the long-term goals of the organization. Sports sponsorships make up about two-thirds of all sponsorships.

Trade shows and Exhibition

It is one of the oldest forms of promoting the sales of products. Trade shows and exhibition provide opportunities for face-to-face contact with prospects, enable new companies to create a viable customer base in a short period of time, and allow small and midsize companies that may not be visited on a regular basis by sales people to become familiar with suppliers and vendors.

Because many trade shows generate media attention, they have also become popular venues for introducing new products and providing a stage for executives to gain visibility. In India, India trade promotion organization (ITPO) has been set up by the government to organized trade fairs and exhibitions.

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Importance of Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC)

Awareness

IMC tools play an important role in creating awareness of the products with respect to brand name and brand availability. It brings to the notice of the potential customer the new varieties of goods available in the market.

Information

Product information is needed when the product is recently launched in the market. Potential customer must know about the product, features. IMC provides this information through various techniques so that the buyer can take correct decision while buying the goods.

To increase sales

A proper communication mix tends to increase the sales of the organization. This is possible as increased sales brings economies of large scale production which enables the seller to reduce cost and increase profit.

To inform the intermediaries

IMC act as a communication channel between the sellers and the intermediaries like dealer and agents. These intermediaries are regularly informed through sales literature, pamphlets, brochures, price list etc.

Expansion of the market

IMC help the seller to expand the business from local level to regional level and to national level .This expansion provides his good will, recognition through out the country.

More specialized media

It used to be said that mass media was enough to cover any advertiser’s needs. But with ever-increasing ad clutter, shorter attention spans and greater resistance to advertising, customers now tend to be a lot more selective: they shut out the stuff they feel they don’t need, and go with the stuff that they want. Therefore with IMC sellers can retain the attention of customer by diverting their attention through various communication Mix.

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Steps Involved in Framing Integrated Marketing Communication

It is likely that integrated marketing communication will be expected to make a number of contributions toward meeting the marketing objectives. Thus the main steps in designing IMC are:

Identification of target audience

Defining the target audience is one of the first steps in designing the IMC. While thinking about the target audience one must look well beyond traditional demographic considerations. It is also important to ‘think ahead ‘and ask the following question.

• What are the relevant target buyer groups?
• What are the target group’s demographic, lifestyle, and psychographic profile?
• How is the trade involved?

Determining the communication objectives

The next step is setting the communication objectives. There may be different communication objectives like increase in sales, brand image and good will, expansion of business. Thus the seller has to evaluate all this objectives and select the one which he intends to achieve.

Determining the message

An effective message should get attention, hold interest, arouse desire, & obtain action (AIDA model). In practice, few messages take the consumer all the way from awareness to purchase, but the AIDA framework suggests the desirable qualities of a good message. In putting the message together, the marketing communicator must decide what to say &how to say it. , who should say it. Thus the communicator should focuss more on message content, message format and message structure.

Selecting the communication channel

There are two broad types of communication channels – Personal and Non personal.

Personal Communication Channels

In personal Communication channels, two or more people communicate directly with each other. They might communicate face-to-face, over the telephone, through the mail or even through an internet chat. Personal Communication channels are effective because they are allowed for personal addressing the feedback.

Non Personal Communication Channels

Non personal communication channels include media at most year-end events. Media consists of:

• Print media -newspapers, magazines, direct mail etc.
  
  
• Broadcast media-radio, television etc.
  
  
• Electronic media-audiotapes, videotapes, CD-ROM, web page etc.
  
  
• Display media-billboards, signs, posters, banners, hoardings etc.

Most of the non personal messages come through paid media.

Determining the budget

This is one of the most important decisions of IMC process. The effective IMC depends upon the budget set for communication Mix. The marketer prepares the budget taking into nature of the customers, objectives, nature of competitions and also availability of funds.

Promotion Mix decision

After determining budget it is essential to determine the promotional mix. Promotional mix is the combination of various tools like advertising, public relation, personnel selling and so on. Because of different marketing environment thee has to be variation in communication mix. One medium which is effective in one market may not be equally effective in another market.

Implementation of promotion mix

The marketer then makes an arrangement to implement the communication mix. The seller has to select the right media in order to put across the promotion message.

Follow up

Here the advertiser has to review the performance in terms of sales and purchase. If the performance is as per communication objectives there is nothing to worry. On the other hand if the performance falls below the communication objectives then certain corrective step have to be taken.