The American Marketing Association defines Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) as “a planning process designed to assure that all brand contacts received by a customer or prospect for a product, service, or organization are relevant to that person and consistent over time.”The IMC planning process has been compared to composing a musical score. In a piece of music, while every instrument has a specific task, the goal is to have them come together in a way that produces beautiful music. It’s the same in IMC, where advertising might be your violin, social media your piano, public relations your trumpet and so on.
Integrated marketing communication (IMC) is a cross-functional process for planning, executing, and monitoring brand communications designed to profitably acquire, retain, and grow customers. IMC is cross-functional because every contact that a customer has with a firm or its agents helps to form brand images.
For example, a retail customer might buy and use a product from the Web site, then e-mail or call a help line number to complain about a problem, and finally return the product to the brick-and-mortar retail store. Every contact with an employee, a Web site, a magazine ad, a catalogue, the physical store facilities, and so forth, helps the customer form an image of the firm.
There are 5 forms of Integrated Marketing Communication and the as follows:
ADVERTISING
One key distinction to make when studying advertising is between general advertising and direct response advertising (i.e., direct marketing). General advertising does not attempt to achieve an immediate measurable response. The ad might be for a soft drink, say, Coca Cola and show people enjoying a can of the soft drink while having fun on the beach. The person seeing the ad does not have to do anything. Of course, the ultimate goal of the ad is to get you to buy Coca Cola when you shop for a soft drink. However, an immediate response on the part of the person seeing the ad is not expected. With a direct response advertisement, the goal of the ad is to elicit a direct response. This is the reason the ad must have a device (usually a phone number to call) so that the prospect can do something after viewing the ad. For example, a person seeing an loan ad can probably call the company 60 seconds after the commercial because the right commercial came at the right time for the person . The advantage of direct marketing is that there is a way of knowing how effective the ad (and the advertising medium) was by simply counting how many people called after seeing it. This is what is refereed to as measurable response. We can use the measurable responses to compare different ads for the product or different advertising media (radio vs. television) or even different vehicles within the same medium (e.g., two different television programs or two radio shows). Also, once people call in, we can capture their names and addresses and use them to build a database of customers or prospective customers.Any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor
•Magazines, newspaper, outdoor posters, direct mail, radio televisions, etc.
•Key issues
–The time or media space is paid for
–The sponsor is identified and has control over the promotional activity
PERSONAL SELLING
Defined as two-way flow of communication between a buyer and seller, designed to influence a persons or groups purchase decision. Advantages to personal selling are a salesperson can control to whom the presentation is made. The personal component of selling has another advantage over advertising in that the seller can see or hear the potential buyers reaction to the message. If the feedback is unfavorable, the salesperson can modify the message. The flexibility of personal selling can also be a disadvantage. Different salespeople can change the message so that no consistent communication is given to all customers. The high cost of personal selling is probably its major disadvantage.Oral presentation in a conversation with one or more prospective purchasers for the purpose of making a sale
–Personal selling represents the most popular promotional effort in terms of financial expenditures and number of people employed
–Personal Selling is:
•(1) Dyadic, (2) Flexible, (3) Focused (personalized), and (4) Often results directly in a sale
•Other promotional elements move the customer toward the sale, personal selling closes the sale
DIRECT MARKETING
IMC Uses direct communication with consumers to generate a response in the form of an order, a request for further information, or a visit to a retail outlet. Direct marketing often consist of interactive communication. It also has the advantage of being customized to match the needs of specific target markets. Several disadvantages of direct marketing, one being most forms of direct marketing require a comprehensive and up-to-date database with information about the target market. Developing and maintaining the database can be expensive and time consuming. In addition, growing concern about privacy has led to a decline in response rates among some customer groups. Companies with successful direct marketing programs are sensitive to these issues and often use a combination of direct marketing alternatives together, or direct marketing combined with other promotional tools, to increase value for customers
•Techniques used to get consumers to make a purchase from their home, office or other nonretail setting
–Direct mail, catalogs, mail order, telemarketing, electronic retailing
Sales Promotion
•SALES PROMOTION
Sales Promotions are inducements or gimmicks whose purpose is to encourage the purchase of a product/service immediately. Unlike advertising, where the objective is usually to influence long-term buying behavior, sales promotions are concerned with the short-term. A problem with promotions is that they sometimes cause consumers to focus more on the promotion than the product. In fact, sometimes consumers are not at all loyal to the product but are attracted to the coupon, gift, or rebate.
Some examples of sales promotions aimed at consumers (consumer promotions):
(a) coupons (b) free samples (c) refunds and rebates (d) demonstrations (e) premiums (gift for purchasing a product) (f) contests and sweepstakes (g) advertising specialties (some common ones are calendars, caps, refrigerator magnets, and pens with the name of the product or company) (h) point-of-purchase displays (displays in stores that are often used for impulse items such as magazines and candy) (i) shows or exhibits for consumers (J) special events (k) frequent-shopper gifts.
–Those marketing activities - other than advertising, public relations/publicity, and personal selling - that stimulate consumer purchasing and dealer effectiveness
•Displays, shows and exhibitions, coupons, contests, samples
PUBLICITY
Is (a tool used in public relations) is nonpersonal communication, that is typically in the form of a news story, that is transmitted through the mass media. The purpose of publicity is to draw favorable attention to a company and/or its products without having to pay the media for it. The way it often works is as follows: a company sends a press release (often with a video tape) to the media (e.g., Daily Graphic,TV3,OmanFM etc) with the hope that it is newsworthy enough to be mentioned in the mass media. The advantage of publicity, besides the fact that it is free, is that it tends to more credible than advertising. On the other hand, there is no guarantee that the media will find the story newsworthy. Also, they might change the press release around so that it does not help the organization in anyway. One product that received an incredible amount of publicity was Viagra. Sometimes, a film – especially one that is controversial – can generate a great deal of publicity. Several years ago, Brooklyn College received much publicity regarding its innovative core curriculum, one that is being copied by universities all over the world.
PUBLIC RELATIONS
Is a form of communication management that seeks to influence the feelings, opinions, or beliefs held by customers, prospective customers, stockholders, suppliers, employees, and other publics about a company and its products or services. Many tools such as special events, lobbying efforts, annual reports, press conferences, and image management may be used by a public relations department, although publicity often plays the most important role. Publicity is a nonpersonal, indirectly paid presentation of an organization, good, or service. The disadvantage of publicity relates to the lack of the users control over it. A company can invite a new crew to preview its new product. But without buying advertising time, there is no guarantee of any mention of the new equipment or that it will be aired when the target audience is waiting. With publicity there is little control over what is said, to whom, or when. As a result, publicity is rarely the main component of a promotional campaign.
To conclude,I believe that a comprehensive integrated marketing communications plan can produce stronger message consistency. In simpler terms, IMC improves the company's ability to reach the right customers with the right messages at the right time in the right place.
REFERENCES
1.Promotion and integrated marketing communication(chap 12-14)
2.West Virginia university(July 2011)
3.Integrated Marketing communication and direct marketing (chapter 15))
