COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND LIBERAL ARTS DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION

Ground Floor, Falcon Radio Station

5242011 loc 159

1st- 6th Week

Key Concepts
1. Integrated Marketing Communication
2. Marketing Mix
3. Product
4. Price
5. Promotion
6. Place
7. People
8. Process
9. Physical evidence
Objectives
1. Comprehend the principles and components of Integrated Marketing
Communication (IMC).
2. Define and explain the significance of each element within the marketing mix.
Comprehend the components of the marketing mix: Product, Price, Place, and
Promotion.
3. Understand the role of distribution channels in delivering products to consumers.

Acquire
Lesson 1: IMC
I. Definitions of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC)
1. According to Kotler and Armstrong, Integrated Marketing Communications
(IMC) is a concept in which a “company carefully integrates and coordinates
its many communication channels–mass media advertising, personal selling,
sales promotion, public relations, direct marketing, packaging, and others–to
deliver a clear, consistent, and compelling message about the organization
and its products.”
2. Integrated Marketing Communication according to Schultz and Kitchen “is a
strategic business process used to plan, develop, execute, and evaluate co-
ordinated measurable, persuasive brand communication programs overtime
 COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND LIBERAL ARTS DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION
Ground Floor, Falcon Radio Station
5242011 loc 159

with consumers, customers, prospects

and other targeted, relevant external and internal audience.”
3. Tom Duncan defined IMC as “A process for managing the customer
relationships that drive brand value. More specifically, it is a cross-functional
process for creating and nourishing profitable relationships with customers
and other stakeholders by strategically controlling or influencing all messages
sent to these groups and encouraging data-driven, purposeful dialogue with
them.”
In short, Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) is “Joint planning, execution and
coordination of all areas of marketing communication and also understanding the
consumer and what the consumer actually responds to.”
II. The Shift from Fragmented to Integrated Marketing Communications
 Prior to the emergence of integrated marketing communications during the
1990s, mass communications—the practice of relaying information to large
segments of the population through television, radio, and other media—
dominated marketing. Marketing was a one-way feed. Advertisers broadcasted
their offerings and value propositions with little regard for the diverse needs,
tastes, and values of consumers.
 Often, this "one size fits all" approach was costly and uninformative due to
the lack of tools for measuring results in terms of sales. But as methods for
collecting and analyzing consumer data through single-source technology such
as store scanners improved, marketers were increasingly able to correlate
promotional activities with consumer purchasing patterns. Companies also began
to downsize their operations and expand marketing tasks within their
organizations. Advertising agencies were also expected to understand and
provide all marketing functions, not just advertising, for their clients.
 Today, corporate marketing budgets are allocated toward trade promotions,
consumer promotions, branding, public relations, and advertising. The
allocation of communication budgets away from mass media and traditional
advertising has raised the importance of IMC importance for effective marketing.
Now, marketing is viewed more as a two-way conversation between
marketers and consumers.
 COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND LIBERAL ARTS DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION
Ground Floor, Falcon Radio Station
5242011 loc 159

III. The Tools of Integrated Marketing

Communications
The IMC process generally begins with an integrated marketing communications plan
that describes the different types of marketing, advertising, and sales tools that will be
used during campaigns. These are largely promotional tools, which include everything
from search engine optimization (SEO) tactics and banner advertisements to
webinars and blogs. Traditional marketing communication elements such as
newspapers, billboards, and magazines may also be used to inform and
persuade consumers. Marketers must also decide on the appropriate combination
of traditional and digital communications for their target audience to build a
strong brand-consumer relationship. Regardless of the brand's promotional mix, it is
important that marketers ensure their messaging is consistent and credible across all
communication channels.
IV. Benefits of Integrated Marketing Communications
1. 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.
2. The other benefit of integrated marketing communications is that it creates a
competitive advantage for companies looking to boost their sales and profits.
This is especially useful for small- or mid-sized firms with limited staff and
marketing budgets
V. Step-by-Step Exploration of the IMC Process
IMC makes use of different promotional methods across channels to reach a befitting
audience with the proper message.
There are six essential steps to be followed while designing your IMC strategy. Let’s go
through each of them one-by-one:
Step 1: Know Your Audience from Behavioral Data
Step 2: Develop a Situational or Contextual Analysis
Step 3: Determine Your Marketing Objectives
Following are some of the objectives that you could set for yourself:
 Developing awareness about your brand in the market.
 COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND LIBERAL ARTS DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION
Ground Floor, Falcon Radio Station
5242011 loc 159

 Improve your brand image.

 Improve the sales of your product.
 Reinforce your customer’s decision to go with your brand.
Step 4: Establish Your Budget
Step 5: Defining Your Strategies and Tactics
Step 6: Evaluation and Measurement

Why Companies are Adopting Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC)?

Companies look at Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) as a way to coordinate
and manage their marketing communication programmes to ensure that they give
customers a consistent message about the company or its brands. IMC represents an
improvement over the traditional method of treating the various marketing
and communication elements as virtually separate activities. The IMC approach helps
companies identify the most appropriate and effective methods for communicating and
building relationships with their customer as well as other stakeholders such as
employees, suppliers, investors, interest groups and the general public.
1. Can consolidate image of company, develop a dialogue and nurture its
relationship with customer
2. Reduce Confusion of the product
3. Increase the profit through increase effectiveness
4. Integrated Marketing Communication can boost sales by stretching message
across several communication tools
5. Integrated marketing communication can help the company to save money
6. Reliability of the messages
7. Customer Database.

Barriers to Integrated Marketing Communication

 COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND LIBERAL ARTS DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION
Ground Floor, Falcon Radio Station
5242011 loc 159

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Lack of Resources: When the integrated marketing communication is practiced,
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
 COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND LIBERAL ARTS DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION
Ground Floor, Falcon Radio Station
5242011 loc 159

sales rape work task because they are

interdependence. So, information transmitting process tends to become less
effective when practice integrated marketing communication.
4. 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 occurs 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.

Lesson II: Marketing Mix

Who created the 7Ps marketing mix model?

The 7Ps marketing model was originally devised by E. Jerome McCarthy and
published in 1960 in his book Basic Marketing. A Managerial Approach.

History
 COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND LIBERAL ARTS DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION
Ground Floor, Falcon Radio Station
5242011 loc 159

 The 4Ps marketing mix was designed at a

time when businesses were more likely to sell products, rather than services. The
4 Ps represented an early focus on product marketing, when the role of customer
service in helping brand development wasn't so well known.

 Over time, Booms and Pitner added three extended ‘service mix P’s': Participants
or People, Physical evidence, and Processes. Later 'Participants' was renamed
as 'People' - the marketing mix covering marketers, customer service reps,
recruitment, culture, training and remuneration.

 Today, it's recommended that the full 7 elements of the marketing mix are
considered when reviewing competitive strategies - across product, customer
service and more.

 The 7Ps helps companies to review and define key issues that affect the
marketing of its products and services. A popular marketing model, the marketing
mix is can also be referred to as the 7Ps framework for the digital marketing mix.

In Dave Chaffey's book: Digital Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice, this
model was refreshed and applied to online channels to give a practical approach which
works well for multichannel businesses.
An eighth P, ‘Partners’ is often recommended for businesses to gain reach online (first
mentioned in Digital Marketing Excellence by Dave Chaffey and PR Smith although
some would argue it's part of Place).
 COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND LIBERAL ARTS DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION
Ground Floor, Falcon Radio Station
5242011 loc 159

1. PRODUCT
The digital marketing mix is perfect for showcasing products, through SEO, blogs
or articles, paid advertising, influencer marketing, and viral video campaigns, for
example.
2. PRICE
The strategy behind the pricing of product needs to be based on what customers are
prepared to pay, costs such as retail mark-up and manufacturing, as well as other
considerations. Marketing mix can include subscription and membership discounting
programs, or email marketing of promotions and sales.
3. PROMOTION
Successful marketing strategies include all the promotional activities across the
marketing mix, including advertising, direct marketing, and in-store promotional
activities.
4. PLACE
Where and how your product is displayed and sold should be directly informed by
customers. A deep understanding of purchasing patterns – and targeting at the
right stage in their buying cycle – will make it clear where should promote and sell
products and how that fits into online and real-world marketing mix.
5. PEOPLE
Excellent customer service not only converts to sales but can increase customer base
by referrals. Acquiring these referrals by people who love your brand can also be a
great example of how your marketing efforts can support your sales process.
6. PROCESS
The process of delivering your product to the consumer should be designed for
maximum efficiency and reliability, but may also include features that are in line with
your brand, such as being environmentally or sustainably focused.
7. PHYSICAL EVIDENCE
Physical evidence incorporates aspects that proves brand exists and that a purchase
took place.

Activity and Assessment:

 Short Quiz or Essay
 Agency Analysis on hypothetical Clients given by Instructor
 COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND LIBERAL ARTS DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION
Ground Floor, Falcon Radio Station
5242011 loc 159

Works Cited:

Belch, G. E., & Belch, M. A. (2021). Advertising and promotion: An integrated

marketing communications perspective (12th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.

Clow, K. E., & Baack, D. (2021). Integrated advertising, promotion, and marketing
communications (8th ed.). Pearson.

Shimp, T. A., & Andrews, J. C. (2013). Advertising, promotion, and other aspects of
integrated marketing communications (9th ed.). Cengage Learning.

Kitchen, P. J., & Burgmann, I. (2015). Integrated marketing communication:

Making it work at a strategic level. Journal of Business Strategy, 36(4), 34-39.
https://doi.org/10.1108/JBS-05-2014-

Kotler, P., & Keller, K. L. (2019). Marketing management (15th ed.). Pearson.

Grönroos, C. (1994). From marketing mix to relationship marketing: Towards a

paradigm shift in marketing. Management Decision, 32(2), 4-20.
https://doi.org/10.1108/00251749410054774