GROUP:160 Ayush Khosla and Carol Sambucco
Integrated marketing communications(IMC) is an approach used by organizations to brand and coordinate their communication efforts. It is the process of effectively communicating product information or ideas to a target audience. Developing a marketing communications plan is important to any business. This is because marketing communications is one of the most important activities a company can undertake due to its proximity to the consumer.
Example of IMC:Flock Associates – Coca-Cola: Share a Coke With Friends Integrated Campaign
The 5-step IMC process is:
- Customer identification from behavioral data.
- Valuation of customers
- Creating and delivering messages
- Estimating return on Customer0investment
- Budgeting,allocation,evaluation and recycling
Marketing communications touches consumers using many different types of communication vehicles. Some of which may include:
- brochures
- sales sheets
- data sheets
- press releases
- packaging
- radio/television advertisements
- print advertising
- websites
- E-mail marketing
- social media
- video demonstration
BENEFITS OF IMC
One of the major benefits of integrated marketing communications is that marketers can clearly and effectively communicate their brand’s story and messaging across several communication channels to create brand awareness. IMC is also more cost-effective than mass media since consumers are likely to interact with brands across various forums and digital interfaces. As consumers spend more time on computers and mobile devices, marketers seek to weave together multiple exposures to their brands using different touch points Companies can then view the performance of their communication tactics as a whole instead of as fragmented pieces.
The other benefit of integrated marketing communications is that it creates a competitive advantage for companies looking to boost their sales and profits.
In conclusion i would like to add “Understand the customer and the brand to unearth a key insight for the communication/solution”.
Refernces:
Marketing Management Blog 
Hello Group Why is having an integrated marketing plan important?
Technology and consumerism are ever-changing. And that creates a necessary evolution of your company’s integrated marketing. The relationship you want to build with consumers also changes as their needs, wants and desires evolve. Consumers now want to be more engaged and have more interaction with your company and brand. General marketing, customer service, reputation marketing, and sales are morphing into one big beast that needs to be tackled and tamed. All departments of your company, especially any that are client-facing or that interact with consumers, should be communicating one consistent identity that is the face of your company.
WIth Regards
Nishanth
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How it happened…
Cognition – created awareness and knowledge? Step one: Surprise in the middle of the night…
Secondly: Broad promotion
Affect – built positive attributes and associations? Personalised product with individual name attached, connect with consumer, using fans, people’s stories to promote and drive the promotion
Behaviour – encouraged more buying? On largest media day, share a coke…
Channel: social media e.g. twitter, facebook, billboard matching target audience behaviour…
I personally liked the idea of how Coke turned around the approach from an inside out to an outside in promotion. Let the consumer tell you how they like it and track this and put it into place.
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Integrated marketing communication is the harmonious mix of all the possibe promotional tools which allow delivering a single message carefully and aptly. As the name suggests IMC means bringing together communication tools to promote a product. Promotion we must remember is one of the four P’s required for a perfect marketing mix.
As the blog suggests there are numerous options for communication in the present types, apart from the traditional ones such as e-commerce, etc. The challenge is to ensure that we’re using the right tools so that the concept or message goes out in the most appealing and acceptable manner to the target consumers.
If applied appropriately the benefits of IMC are not one but many. These include having a competitive edge in the market, boosting company sales and profit returns, and saving time and money. I particularly agree with your concluding statement which resonates the importance of understanding your consumer needs and product type before developing an IMC strategy.
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Nice blog!The concept of having an integrated marketing communications services plan is all about effectively coordinating your efforts to produce a sale in a targeted market.Most businesses are started by entrepreneurial individuals with a specific passion and talent. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs do not have much of a marketing or lead generation background. Their specialized expertise and abilities are sufficient to get new companies off the ground and running, but once the momentum of the first few years settles down, these companies often find themselves in distress because of an empty sales pipeline..
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Thanks for your blog.
Integrated marketing communication is a business strategy, which is to develop, optimize, implement and evaluate persuasive brand communication plan, the recipient of these activities includes consumers, customers, potential customers, internal and external audiences and other targets.The process of integrating enterprise behavior and marketing behavior is based on consumer. A business will spread its consistent product information by developing a unified goal and a unified image of brand.
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Hi bloggers – well done!
Integrated Marketing is also used for managing crisis too! With the recent VW emissions issue, it’s very much in the media. (http://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/how-volkswagen-got-caught-cheating-emissions-tests-by-a-clean-air-ngo/story-fnjwucvh-1227540571966). It’s not really a complicated class, as it basically consists of only three simple rules. First, act fast. Second, take responsibility (even if it later it’s proven you were not to blame). Third, declare the crisis over and use your successful response to rebuild trust and brand equity as quickly as possible.
http://www.theage.com.au/business/media-and-marketing/volkswagen-scandal-even-textbook-crisis-management-cant-save-vw-20150923-gjtizf.html
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Thanks for the blog 🙂
Just one thing I wanted to question, is it always going to be the case that an IM campaign is more cost effective than just focusing on mass media? For example, if your product placement is very specialised, it may prove ineffective to advertise across many platforms and therefore rather than adopting an IMC it would rather be better for the firm to just advertise through one medium. As an example, working in a niche finance firm the only marketing we do is through mass media (TV) seasonally. We have delved into other mediums in the past (social media, print, sponsorship’s) but have not had an acceptable ROM from any other mix.
Ultimately, in my opinion the cost effectiveness of most marketing campaigns is realised through good STP preparation work.
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Thanks for the amazing blog!
As they have discussed Integrated Marketing Communications is a simple concept. It ensures that all forms of communications and messages are carefully linked together.At its most basic level, Integrated Marketing Communications, or IMC, as we’ll call it, means integrating all the promotional tools, so that they work together in harmony.
Promotion is one of the Ps in the marketing mix. Promotions has its own mix of communications tools.
All of these communications tools work better if they work together in harmony rather than in isolation. Their sum is greater than their parts – providing they speak consistently with one voice all the time, every time.
This is enhanced when integration goes beyond just the basic communications tools. There are other levels of integration such as Horizontal, Vertical, Internal, External and Data integration.
The blog clearly states all the points of the communication.
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Nice blog!
Another example of IMC :
American Express: Small Business Saturday
Promoted online and offline to American Express cardholders and businesses using Amex, the aim was to get people back into their main street or high street and to support smaller, local stores. A full pack of resources was created for business owners, providing a consistent brand image, ready to go material and enabling entire communities to participate.
small-business-saturday
Coherence. The fact that Small Business Saturday is now part of the US consciousness and gaining support in other markets is due in large part to the simplicity of its message, and the fact that the majority of people mourn the demise of small retailers on Main Street USA. Or High Street Great Britain. Or la Rue Principale de France.
Consistency. The simplicity of this message enabled American Express to create marketing collateral for small businesses, print advertising, Facebook apps, You Tube explainer videos and Google Maps listings that sand from the same hymn-sheet.
Continuity. Once again, the simple message and the use of social channels (You Tube, Twitter and Facebook) as a central hub for the majority of campaign activity meant that communications remained consistent on both style, message and desired action.
Complimentary. Its use of Facebook as a ‘hub and amplifier’ was integrated with Twitter interactions that allowed customers to talk about their own favourite businesses and for businesses to publicise their participation.
Effectiveness. It won a host of awards. It was made an official ‘day’ by the US Senate. Even Barack Obama tweeted his support. And it is now rolling out to countries worldwide.
Source :http://www.smartinsights.com/traffic-building-strategy/integrated-marketing-communications/three-examples-integrated-campaigns/
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Interesting blog.As you mentioned in the blog to create a brand image,IMC is an important tool to get into peoples mind.As an new gen IMC tool,i think Social media is being a strong IMC platform for the coming companies.
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Thanks for your views and i really like your thought on how social media has become a grand platform for IMC for companies in the current market scenario.
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Good Blog
Due to the increase in the standard of living of people in recent times people expect more and more from the company. Customers expects more interaction with the company to understand what kind of service or goods that they are being consumed so it is up to the companies to understand the consumer needs and wants .IMC helps the company to have target marketing and also reach the organisational goals The bottom line says that IMC has a very good impact on companies to lead the market and also reach millions of people.
Over all a good read
Good Luck
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Great blog,
Clear explanation of IMC. The list of various platforms to be considered while promoting a product can be further divided to traditional and modern methods. Many of the traditional methods like usage of brochures are outdated and not suitable for most of the products. It is also very important to clearly understand the target market. With a good understanding of the tastes and preferences of the target market, promotional platforms suitable can be selected.
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Nice post. it more useful definition of IMC is: “Planning in a systematic way in order to determine the most effective and consistent message for appropriate target audiences.” To build an effective brand must first find the correct positioning for this brand, and then successfully create a strong, positive brand image. IMC is critical in ensuring that all aspects of the brand’s marketing communication are delivering a consistent message. IMC also plays an important role in managing the communication strategies associated with branding strategy.
I think that “without the right strategy no amount of talk about integrating multiple platforms and mediums makes much sense.” And I agree with others’ comments that a good strategy is a necessary starting point for any marketing effort. But let’s assume for a minute that a small business does have solid marketing goals and a supporting strategy that includes multiple tactics — your red-tape-cutting example above, for instance (great ideas for tactics, btw). The real value — the real “what the heck is it” — of integrated marketing is the act of tying the multiple tactics together in a natural way so they reference and reinforce each other, lead prospects/customers through a desired education process, send multiple but connected messages, etc. Yes, integrated marketing sounds like meaningles corporate-speak, but it does help to remind people of simple, easy steps they can take (like using tweets to announce important blog entries, or linking a YouTube post to your Facebook page) to keep their first entry into Social Media grounded in the actual user experience and tied into the rest of their corporate strategy. After all, tactics are important too.
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Good blog.
More and more in the network platform, network marketing competition is more and more incentive, under the form of network marketing to obtain significant effect, integrated marketing would have great advantage, but many small and medium-sized enterprise due to a lack of network marketing experience, on a single marketing methods also have defects, to penetrate to the field of integrated marketing, there is still a long way to go.However, it has been proved again that the benefits of integrated marketing is not a single marketing can match.
Integrated marketing should include the following eight model: network pr (soft article marketing, BBS, blog marketing, crisis management, etc.);Video marketing (commercial film, advertising game);Internet advertising database marketing (EDM, email marketing, membership-based marketing);Marketing website construction;Search engine marketing (seo/sem);(C2C e-commerce marketing/B2C/B2B platform promotion);Affiliate marketing.If only using one or a few more of these patterns, and can’t be called integrated marketing.
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Interesting Blog!
There was a time when Nike was producing its products almost exclusively for marathon runners. Then emerged the fitness craze and the folks from Nike’s marketing knew they had to take advantage of the situation and surpass their main competitor, Reebook during early 1980s. During the end of 1980,Nike created the “Just Do It” campaign. It was a hit!
In 1988, Nike sales were at $800 million; by 1998, sales exceeded $9.2 billion. “Just Do It.” was short and sweet, yet encapsulated everything people felt when they were exercising and people still feel that feeling today. It’s a slogan we can all relate to: the drive to push ourselves beyond our limits.
So when you’re trying to decide the best way to present your brand, ask yourself what is the problem you are solving for your customers. What solutions does your product or service provide? By hitting on that core issue in all of your marketing messaging, you’ll connect with consumers on an emotional level that is hard to ignore.
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Nice post. Great explanation of the integrated marketing communications provided in this blog, in terms of these information, there are a lot of comprehensive work needing to be researched, like the five steps implementing of the integrated marketing communications, the tools used in each step should be identified to make sure the methods used appropriately in each step and improve the outcomes of this process. On the other side, there are many channels of communications developing as the integrated marketing strategies, a company should figure out the strength and drawback of every channel of the communication strategy, it is not only aiming to developing a comprehensive research before the company applying the method, but helping the company reduce the loss from the failure of the choosing wrong marketing communications. For instance,the cost of the brochures may be very large due to the unsatisfactory promotions’ result that including the printing cost and the loss of failure of the profits.
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Informative blog!
The 5 step IMC process is very informative. There are very few bloggers who have mentioned the process. But there is one more point that IMC also plays the communication strategy along with the brand strategy in IMC process. Additionally, the advertisement you shared with the blog is one of my favorite advertisements as its spreading the message of friendship. Thanks!
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