TOPIC SEVEN INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION

7.1 Introduction

Marketing management involves communicating with customers through various promotion mix. The ele ent! o" #ro otion i$ %re %d&erti!in'( %r*etin'.

!%le! #ro otion( #u)lic rel%tion!( #er!on%l !ellin'( direct

Integrated marketing Communication IMC is a basic concept in marketing that tries to ensure effective communication among promotional tools. It promotes harmony and consensus among them so that they work together. They tend to produce better result if they work together rather than work in isolations. By definition, Integrated marketing communications IMC! is a strategic approach of communicating the brand and company message to targeted customers in ways that are clear, concise, and consistent and yet are customi"able as needed to maximi"e the impact on a particular audience Marshall and #ohnston, $%&%!.

+e%rnin' Outco e! A"ter !tud,in' thi! ch%#ter( ,ou !hould )e %)le to 'nderstand the importance of the concept of integrated marketing communications (now the impacts of integrated marketing communications on marketing management )ist and discuss element of marketing mix Identify advantage and disadvantages of marketing mix. *laborate on effective communications )ist the items in checklist for integrating the promotion mix
..1 Ter inolo', No.

Ter & M%r*etin' Co

unic%tion! Mi$

De"inition Consists certain elements that work hand in hand to produce better result. These elements are adverti"ing, sales promotion, public relations, personal selling and direct marketing. +efers to nature of information whether is appealing, sentimental, ob,ective etc. +efers to the structure of the message. . conclusive message, open positive message and open positive and negative message. +efers to the format of the message such as font, colour, style of writing, pictures etc.

$ Me!!%'e Content - Me!!%'e !tructure / Me!!%'e /or %t

7.0 The M%r*etin' Co M%r*etin' co

unic%tion! Mi$ i$ is also referred as #ro otion i$. It consists

unic%tion

certain elements that work hand in hand to produce better result. These elements are adverti"ing, sales promotion, public relations, personal selling and direct marketing. . company uses these components to advertise and achieve marketing ob,ectives. 0e discuss them below. i1 Ad&erti!in'1 .dvertising is any paid form of nonpersonal presentation and promotion of ideals, goods, or services by an identified sponsor (otler and .rmstrong, $%%/!. ii1 S%le! #ro otion1 this refers to temporary incentives to encourage purchase of goods or services. It takes few days or specific days in a year like eid celebrations days, new year etc. iii1 Pu)lic rel%tion!1 entails about establishing rapport with the publics and favourably enhancing image of the company and heading off rumors and other negative images that may tarnish the image of the company. i&1 Per!on%l !ellin'1 entails establishing good relationship with customers and selling product to them by sales persons through the use of promotion mix. &1 Direct %r*etin'1 This is the effort to establish direct connections

with targeted customers to get immediate response through marketing strategy.

7.2 I #ort%nce o" IMC IMC re2uires commitments and a lot of efforts but it offers many benefits to the management. It creates competitive advantage by wrapping

communications around customers and helps them to move smoothly from one buying stage to the next. The relationship serves as a bridge that connects one part with another. 3armonious relations will bring loyalty of the customer, increase his satisfaction level and that can stop competitors from snatching customer of the company. Through its increase in effectiveness, IMC, increases profits. This is very important because a company that has isolated elements of marketing mix, not really working together, will be in disadvantage. Therefore integrated marketing communication will enhance effectiveness and efficiency of a company. IMC increases sales by disseminating information across potential buyers. The information can be email, multimedia, internet, telephones etc all of which is one4on one basis communication that has the chance of convincing customer directly. It can also record feedback of the customer that can be incorporated in the future decision making of the product or company. 7.. E""ecti&e Co unic%tion!

Communication process is the exchanging information and delivering from one party to another. The process of communication involves many elements without which communication could either be distorted or communicated

ineffectively. Message initially is encoded and sends by the sender. The receiver will then decode and send feedback. 3is5her feedback will tell us how much the receiver understood the message intended by the sender. The figure 6.& below describes the procedures of sending and receiving message.

7igure 6.& 8eneral Communication 9rocess

7...1 Identi",in' the t%r'et %udience The first thing a marketing manager should do is to identify recipients of the communication. That would enable him to know the type of audience his5her level of awareness and understanding. The target audience could be individuals, groups of individuals, publics and company partners. :o matching communication contents with the target audience is very crucial as it will ensure successful delivery of the message intended.

7...0 Deter inin' the O)3ecti&e! o" the Co

unic%tion

It is vital for the company or marketing manager to identify the ob,ective of communication. ;f course the main target is to make buyers to purchase the goods or services. 3owever, before he5she buys there are certain specific

stages or six buyer readiness stages that he5she needs to pass which are identified as awareness, knowledge, liking, preference, conviction and finally purchase (otler and .rmstrong, $%%/!. .t each stage, the marketing manager wants to carry him5her to the next stage through effective communication so that upon reaching the last sixth stage he5she will make purchase. To ensure sustainable purchase for a reasonable period of time, a marketing manager must try to deliver value to the customer that is 2uality first, followed by persuasion.

7.4 De!i'nin' E""ecti&e Me!!%'e .n effective message usually attracts attention, capture interest, arouse desire and obtain action or what is called .I<. model .ttention, Interest, <esire, .ction!. 3owever, to achieve this re2uires continuing efforts from the marketing manager and company. But to achieve this, marketer must encode message content appropriately= mention it with the right structure and format. 7.4.1 Me!!%'e Content Basically the content of the message will determine the feedback from the audience. If the content delivered the message effectively the response will indicate positive outcome and vice4versa. The content can take three appeals vis4a4vi rational, moral and emotional appeals. +ational appeal show to the buyers the 2uality attributes in the product they may like to purchase such as economy, endurance, etc. The buyers now use their rationality to decide

whether to purchase the product now or later or not to purchase at all. Moral appeals however, shows to the buyers what should and what should not be. It is usually based on the norms and culture or religion of a society. )astly emotional appeals that try to attract buyers based on the emotion such as pride, love, fashion and physical or personality appearance. 7.4.0 Me!!%'e !tructure This refers to the structure of the message which can be categorised as three. The three message structure issues are drawing conclusion by the marketing manager, asking 2uestions to the audience so that they draw their conclusion and offering one side information4strength of the products. The marketer has to determine which one of the message structure that best suits his5her context. Initially, marketers used to draw conclusions immediately but recent studies show that it is good as well to enable customers to draw their conclusions or you offer the strength and weaknesses of the product to them especially if they are highly educated customers. 7.4.2 Me!!%'e /or %t This is an important attribute of the message itself. Message format can cause massive attractions of the target audience. In paper print message, it is essential to decide the si"e, fonts, colour, illustrations and pictures to be included in the message. In audio message, the voice and time of the programme are relevant so as to attract the exact target audiences. :imilarly in the television advertisement, it is vital to plan the presenter of the programme, in terms of the body language, facial appearances, length of speech and contents of the speech.

7.5 Settin' the Tot%l Pro otion 6ud'et %nd Mi$ Companies advertise over the media and sometimes directly through contacts with the clients. 3owever, for certainly, they are not sure whether the amounts spend on advertisements is too much or too little. If it>s too high it means waste and if it>s too little it means low sale would be resulted. In making decision on budget for promotion mix, there are four common strategies that could be applied. i! A""ord%)le ethod1 using this approach, companies look at

what they can afford overall on promotion. They tend to deduct all their operating cost and capital outlays and then allocate a portion of what is left for advertisement and promotion. This approach may lead to under spending and pay little attention to the role of promotion on sales. ii! Percent%'e o" S%le! ethod- This method allocates a certain

percentage of sales for promotion. The method misconceives the relationship between sales and promotion. 9romotion generally increases sales, but the approach reverse the relationship and therefore sees sales as determinant of promotion. It is difficult to know how much budget will be for next since the sales varies with time. iii! Co #etiti&e #%rit, ethod- 'nder this approach, competitors

determine how much companies will set aside for promotion. Companies observe estimated of the industry budget that goes

to promotion and advertisement and they take average budget for the industry. This may lead to unhealthy competitions among companies and overspending and under spending of budget for promotions. iv! O)3ecti&e7%nd7t%!* ethod- This is most scientific way of

determining budget that goes to promotion. 'nder this approach companies set the specific goals they want to achieve through promotions, determine the tasks needed to accomplish these goals and set the budget according to the plan.

7.7 Chec* +i!t "or Inte'r%tin' the Pro otion Mi$ Integrating promotion is a complex process by companies. But the benefit of doing it outweighs the cost involved. :mooth integrating of marketing mix is essential for achieving the marketing ob,ectives and overall ob,ectives of the company. a! .nalyse trends1 This re2uires internal and external evaluation about the strength and weaknesses of each communication function. Based on this analysis then a promotional tactics could be develop that will cut across the marketing mix. b! .udit the communication Budgets1 This will enable marketing communicator to harmonise the budget that might be going in piece without real integration.

c! Identify contact points for the company1 This will assist in verifying the stages and different level of communications within the organisation and its contact. It will also answer the 2uestions whether the communications are sending rightly, to the right people at the right time. d! 8roup communications1 In the process to deliver right information to the right people at the right time, a company must engage all parties such as customers, suppliers, distributors, in communications planning at every stage. e! *ncode effectively1 :ometime incompatibility occurs between what the sender of a communications means and what the receiver interprets it. To avoid this miscommunications it is important to encode correctly bearing in mind the media that will deliver the message. f! <evelop performance measures1 This will assist in evaluating overall performance of different communication elements. g! .ssign responsibility for effective communications delivery1 If a company can design and assign task to a manager whose role is to ensure all communications elements move in unison and only little distortions can be observed in the communication process,, then the organisation can accomplish its ob,ectives smoothly.

7.8 Su

%r,

This topic discusses the elements of promotion mix are advertising, sales promotion, public relations, personal selling, direct marketing. Integrated marketing Communication IMC which is a basic concept in marketing tries to ensure effective communication among promotional tools, or promote harmony and consensus among them so that they work together to produce better result if they work together rather than work in isolations.

Re"erence! Boone and (urt" $%%?! Contemporary Marketing $%%?, Thomson, south western (otler, 9hilip and .rmstrong, 8ary $%%/! 9rinciples of Marketing, &%th edition, 9earson (hatibi, .li Mohan, .vvari @. and 3a2ue, .hasanul $%%A! 9rinciples of Marketing, Thomson Marshall, 8reg 0. and #ohnston, Mark 0. $%&%! Marketing Management, Mc8raw3ill