Integrated Marketing Communications Is The Coordination and Integration of All Marketing

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Integrated Marketing Communications is the coordination and integration of all marketing

communication tools, avenues, functions and sources within a company into a seamless
program that maximizes the impact on consumers and other end users at a minimal cost. It
aims to ensure consistency of message and the complementary use of media. The concept
includes online and offline marketing channels. Online marketing channels include any e-
marketing campaigns or programs, from search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click,
affiliate, email, banner to latest web related channels for webinar, blog, micro-blogging, RSS,
podcast, Internet Radio and Internet TV. Offline marketing channels are traditional print
(newspaper, magazine), mail order, public relations, industry relations, billboard, radio, and
television. A company develops its integrated marketing communication programme using all
the elements of the marketing mix (product, price, place, promotion and public relations).

Integrated marketing communication is integration of all marketing tools and resources


within a company to impact consumers, and maximize profit at minimal cost. Generally
marketing starts from "Marketing Mix". Promotion is one element of Marketing Mix.
Promotional activities include Advertising (by using different media), sales promotion (sales
and trades promotion), and personal selling activities. It also includes internet marketing,
sponsorship marketing, direct marketing, database marketing and public relations. And
integration of all these promotional tools along with other components of marketing mix to
gain edge over competitor is called Integrated Marketing Communication.

Using outside-in thinking, Integrated Marketing Communications is a data-driven approach


that focuses on identifying consumer insights and developing a strategy with the right (online
and offline combination) channels to forge a stronger brand-consumer relationship. This
involves knowing the right touch points to use to reach consumers and understanding how
and where they consume different types of media. Regression analysis and customer lifetime
value are key data elements in this approach.

The starting point of the IMC is the marketing mix (Product, Price, Promotion, and Place)
which involves different types of marketing, advertising and sales. Without a complete IMC
plan there is no integration or harmony among client and customers. The goal of an
organization is to create and maintain communication throughout its own employees and
throughout it's customers.
Reasons for the Growing Importance of IMC

Several shifts in the advertising and media industry have caused IMC to develop into a
primary strategy for marketers:

1. From media advertising to multiple forms of communication.


2. From mass media to more specialized (niche) media, which are centered around
specific target audiences.
3. From a manufacturer-dominated market to a retailer-dominated, consumer-controlled
market.
4. From general-focus advertising and marketing to data-based marketing.
5. From low agency accountability to greater agency accountability, particularly in
advertising.
6. From traditional compensation to performance-based compensation (increased sales
or benefits to the company).
7. From limited Internet access to 24/7 Internet availability and access to goods and
services.
8. its brilliant

Selecting the Most Effective Communications Elements

The goal of selecting the elements of proposed integrated marketing communications is to


create a campaign that is effective and consistent across media platforms. Some marketers
may want only ads with greatest breadth of appeal: the executions that, when combined,
provide the greatest number of attention-getting, branded, and motivational moments. Others
may only want ads with the greatest depth of appeal: the ads with the greatest number of
attention-getting, branded, and motivational points within each.

Although integrated marketing communications is more than just an advertising campaign,


the bulk of marketing dollars is spent on the creation and distribution of advertisements.
Hence, the bulk of the research budget is also spent on these elements of the campaign. Once
the key marketing pieces have been tested, the researched elements can then be applied to
other contact points: letterhead, packaging, logistics, customer service training, and more, to
complete the IMC cycle
Marketing Communications (or MarCom or Integrated Marketing Communications)
are messages and related media used to communicate with a market. Marketing
communications is the "promotion" part of the "Marketing Mix" or the "four Ps": price, place,
promotion, and product.

Those who practice advertising, branding, brand language direct marketing, graphic design,
marketing, packaging, promotion, publicity, sponsorship, public relations, sales, sales
promotion and online marketing are termed marketing communicators, marketing
communication managers, or more briefly, marcom managers.

Traditionally, marketing communications practitioners focused on the creation and execution


of printed marketing collateral; however, academic and professional research developed the
practice to use strategic elements of branding and marketing in order to ensure consistency of
message delivery throughout an organization - a consistent "look & feel". Many trends in
business can be attributed to marketing communications; for example: the transition from
customer service to customer relations, and the transition from human resources to human
solutions and the trends to blogs, email, and other online communication derived from an
elevator pitch.

In branding, every opportunity to impress the organization's (or the individual's) brand upon
the customer is called a brand touch point (or brand contact point.) Examples include
everything from TV and other media advertisements, event sponsorships, webinars, and
personal selling to even product packaging. Thus, every experiential opportunity that an
organization creates for its stakeholders or customers is a brand touch point. Hence, it is
vitally important for brand strategists and managers to survey all of their organization's brand
touch points and control for the stakeholder's or customer's experience. Marketing
communications, as a vehicle of an organization's brand management, is concerned with the
promotion of an organization's brand, product(s) and/or service(s) to stakeholders and
prospective customers through these touch points.

Marketing communications is focused on the product/produce/service as opposed to


corporate communications where the focus of communications work is the
company/enterprise itself. Marketing communications is primarily concerned with demand
generation, product/produce/service positioning while corporate communications deal with
issue management, mergers and acquisitions, litigation, etc.

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