Integrated marketing

communication
Submitted by
Amuliya vs
 Integrated Marketing Communication
The American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA), defines it as “A concept of
marketing communication 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.”
 Evolution of Integrated Marketing Communications 

• During the 1980s, many companies began taking a broader perspective of marketing

communication and seeing the need for a more strategic integration of their promotional

tools.

• The decade was characterized by the rapid development of areas such as sales promotion,

direct marketing, and public relations, which began challenging advertising’s role as the

dominant form of marketing communication. These firms began moving toward the process

of integrated marketing communication

• A number of companies also began to look beyond traditional advertising agencies and use

other types promotional specialists to develop and implement various components of their

promotional plans.
 Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC)
Process

1. Contextual or Situational Analysis

The first stage of the IMC planning process is to conduct a situational/ contextual analysis.
This can involve a SWOT analysis, and an external and internal environmental analysis.
2.    Target Markets
You need to decide who your target markets are, map them on a demographic and
psychographic level. Then you need to decide what the benefits are to the consumer and
why they would use the product.
3.    Communication Objectives
The third step of the IMC planning process is to decide what the communication objectives
are. These are objectives that your company wants to communicate to the public and their
target audience.
4.    Budget
The types of budget that companies have can vary. These can be, a percentage of sales,
competitive partially, percentage of profit, a budget depending on objectives and tasks and
how much the company can afford.
• 5.    Marketing Mix Strategy
The marketing mix is selected in line with the communication objectives and within
lesion with the budget selected.
• 6.    Evaluating the Programme
The final step of the IMC planning process is evaluating the programme. This can be
done by certain social media metrics, by analyzing online traffic with the use of Google
analytics, by sales and social media tools that allow you to track engagement with
certain items.
 Barriers to Integrated Marketing Communication
• Functional Silos:

 Resources, support and guidance of upper management are needed to build a successful

integrated marketing communications campaign. The job of upper management is to make

sure that all the resources are thoroughly no matter is for budgets, sharing data or people

across teams.

 However, the problem now is integrated marketing communication don’t control by one

manager only. All the managers involve in the information transmitting process have to work

together in controlling the process.

 It mean that all the manager of advertising team, public relation team and also the marketing

team have to coordinate in the process of delivering information about the product and

service of the company to the target customer. When the control is shared among all the

team manager, which can prove to be a difficult concept for some member of upper

management, creating a barrier to integrated marketing communication.

• Restricts creativity:

IMC can restrict creativity. With a variety of team involved in launching an integrated

marketing campaign, each team have to ensure that all the task carry out must fit the

overall goals and message of the campaign. As an example, when the promotional team

comes up with a creative idea for a sweepstakes, it must match with the integrated

campaign goal to ensure the communication process effectiveness. But, if it doesn’t fit with

the realm of integrated marketing goals, the creative plan cannot implement by the

particular team no matter how high the level of creativeness it may seem. All the teams

have to follow the unified strategy to convey a consistent message to send to our target

customer.
• Lack of Resources:

it requires the entire member in the organization to take part in the process of transmitting the

information to the customer. So, in order to make sure the process of transmitting consistent and

useful information to carry out smoothly, the entire member in the organization needs to have

the required knowledge and skill to executive the strategic plan. Because skills and knowledge are

the key needs, some staff members receive training in areas they may not familiar with to ensure

the success of the transmitting information about the product and service the company offer.

Hence, it will increase the company cost and hence it will become more costly to practice

integrated marketing communication. Besides, integrated marketing communication also required

proper planning and time management to ensure the communication transmitting process

become more effectively. When the marketing team delays their work process, it will affect the

sales rape work task because they are interdependence. So, information transmitting process

tends to become less effective when practice integrated marketing communication.

• Different Corporate Cultures:

Integrated marketing communications generally include more than just one company working to put together in

a campaign. For example, pitching articles to the press about a product launch is in charge by the public relations

firm and a print advertisement may develop by an advertising agency. The problem occur when each company

take part in the customer transmitting process tend to operate in its own unique culture, but when it is needed to

meshed with a new company culture, the result is not always positive. There is one of the potential barriers the

organization must overcome when the company practice integrated marketing communication. As an example,

the advertising company may take relaxed approach to completing task, paying little or no attention to looming

deadlines, but the public relation firm may be dead-line driven. This different culture between the companies

may cause the integrated marketing communication process less effective to carry out.

•
 Tools Of IMC
• Advertising

• Advertising is one of the most effective ways of brand promotion. Advertising helps

organizations reach a wider audience within the shortest possible time frame.

Advertisements in newspaper, television, Radio, billboards help end-users to believe in your

brand and also motivate them to buy the same and remain loyal towards the brand.

Advertisements not only increase the consumption of a particular product/service but also

create brand awareness among customers. Marketers need to ensure that the right message

reaches the right customers at the right time. Be careful about the content of the

advertisement, after all you are paying for every second.

• Sales Promotion

• Brands (Products and services) can also be promoted through discount coupons, loyalty

clubs, membership coupons, incentives, lucrative schemes, attractive packages for loyal

customers, specially designed deals and so on. Brands can also be promoted effectively

through newspaper inserts, danglers, banners at the right place, glorifiers, wobblers etc.

• Direct Marketing

• Direct marketing enables organizations to communicate directly with the end-users. Various

tools for direct marketing are emails, text messages, catalogues, brochures, promotional

letters and so on. Through direct marketing, messages reach end-users directly.

• \
• Personal Selling

• Personal selling takes place when marketer or sales representative sells products or services

to clients. Personal selling goes a long way in strengthening the relationship between the

organization and the end-users.

• Public Relation Activities
• Public relation activities help promote a brand through press releases, news, events, public
appearances etc. The role of public relations officer is to present the organization in the best
light. A variety of programs directed toward improving the relationship between the
organization and the public. Advertising is a one-way communication whereas public
relation is a two-way communication which can monitor feedback and adjust its message
for providing maximum benefit.
 components of Integrated Marketing
Communication

• The Foundation - As the name suggests, foundation stage involves detailed analysis of both
the product as well as target market. It is essential for marketers to understand the brand, its
offerings and end-users. You need to know the needs, attitudes and expectations of the
target customers. Keep a close watch on competitor’s activities.
• The Corporate Culture - The features of products and services ought to be in line with the
work culture of the organization. Every organization has a vision and it’s important for the
marketers to keep in mind the same before designing products and services. Let us
understand it with the help of an example.
Organization A‘s vision is to promote green and clean world. Naturally its products need to be
eco friendly and biodegradable, in lines with the vision of the organization.
• Brand Focus - Brand Focus represents the corporate identity of the brand.
• Consumer Experience - Marketers need to focus on consumer experience which refers to what the
customers feel about the product. A consumer is likely to pick up a product which has good
packaging and looks attractive. Products need to meet and exceed customer expectations.
• Communication Tools - Communication tools include various modes of promoting a particular
brand such as advertising, direct selling, promoting through social media such as facebook, twitter,
and so on.
• Promotional Tools - Brands are promoted through various promotional tools such as trade
promotions, personal selling and so on. Organizations need to strengthen their relationship with
customers and external clients.
• Integration Tools - Organizations need to keep a regular track on customer feedbacks and reviews.
You need to have specific software like customer relationship management (CRM) which helps in
measuring the effectiveness of various integrated marketing communications tools.
 characteristics
• It informs, persuades and reminds.
• It is part of the marketing mix.
• It includes all the means by which a communicates
directly with potential customers.
• It attempt to influence feelings, beliefs or behavior.
• It is interactive dialogue between company and
audience
• Effective marketing communication requires reaching
the right people with appropriate information through
the right source.