Trigger 5
Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC)


1    What is IMC and what does it mean for a company to follow IMC (is it a strategic or an operational tool)?


Integrated marketing communications (IMC) is the use of marketing strategies to optimise the communication of a consistent message of the company's brands to stakeholders.

Or IMC means integrating all the promotional tools, so that they work together in harmony. It ensures that all forms of communications and messages are carefully linked together. 

The video bellowed illustrate IMC in an interesting way:

 

 

The Different Types of Integrated Marketing Communication 
  • External: This is in the event where a company outsources the task of marketing to a marketing firm or a public relations firm. The firms are then tasked to design and develop the most effective strategies for the contracting firm. 
  • Internal: Internal marketing integration involves the top level management ensuring that the employees are happy and excited about developed new products. This ensures that the workers leak the details prematurely hence exciting prospective customers even before the product hits the target market. 
  • Horizontal: This contributes to a very crucial part in the development of a product or service. This demands a lot of efficiency between the team tasked to develop and the distribution team as well as the finance team. This open flow of information provides the requisite synergy required to make the strategy a success.  
  • Vertical: Under this, the strategy demands that the product developed to fit with the corporate policy as well as the structure of the company. This means that the product has to be within the breadth of the company’s mission and goals.        

For example:


Coca Cola’s viral “Share a Coke” campaign is one of the most recognizable and effective integrated marketing campaigns to date.




The brand used their clever campaign hashtag, #shareacoke, across all social media channels and published effective videos that transformed the phrase, into an all inclusive experience which highlighted a sense of pride and sense of personal ownership.

The important of IMC:

IMC creates brand awareness among customers at a minimal cost. Through IMC, similar message goes to customers simultaneously, eventually creating a better impact on them. The end-user does not even think of buying Brand B, if features and benefits of Brand A are communicated well to the end-users.
IMC focuses on not only winning new customers but also maintaining long term relationship with them. It ensures two way dialogue with customers - a must in all business. Customer feedbacks need to be monitored and  their feedbacks are valuable and need to be evaluated carefully. It ensures the brand (product or service) is an instant hit among end-users. It also develops a sense of attachment and loyalty among end-users.
IMC saves time which is often lost in figuring out the best marketing tool. From IMC, marketers can smartly blend and integrate all marketing tools for better response. It ensures that the customer gets the right message at the right place and right time.
The 5 steps in IMC process:

 


Sources:
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-integrated-marketing-communications-73248.html
https://www.sketchbubble.com/en/powerpoint-integrated-marketing-communications.html


2    Who are in charge of IMC? What are the roles of the company and the different agencies (such as marketing/brand/communication/advertising/media/research agencies)?

Who are in charge of IMC:

  • Senior Management, all managers, Advertising, PR, Sales Promotions staff.
  • Everyone in the company has to be aware of the IMC
  • When agencies take care of IMC the initiative has to come from the client still 
Some of the responsibilities of an IMC manager are:
  • Synchronize with a variety of teams and departments to ensure various functionalities for all shows; design all agendas for prime speakers and monitor all prospective client events
  • Design various techniques for trade show, design communication and messages for all marketing procedure and prepare required plan for sales
  • Prepare required presentations for customers, use various strategies to combine marketing processes and collaborate with the internal stakeholders to develop quality procedures
  • Design and trace all the best practices implemented for all marketing communication activities
  • Maintain a variety of case studies, monitor everyday requests from the department to ensure the required response and prepare monthly reports for different status planning
  • Plan for various evaluation management procedures, assess all daily and weekly publications and follow various external and internal programs
  • Develop all promotional materials and collaborate with different teams to assure appropriate news releases and create client presentations
  • Carry out various external as well as internal communication activities and prepare plan and apply various communication events
  • Monitor communication deliverables of each day on a regular basis, make brief presentations of all, evaluate all marketing tactics and develop plans for various projects
  • Handle a variety of editorial bureau calendars, make necessary reports for the same and collaborate with various subject matter specialists to design different content
  • Ensure appropriate utilization of all email, draft mail to retain potential clients, design multiple press strategies, promote different events and ensure necessary utilization of paid search programs.

Sources:

https://www.managementstudyguide.com/integrated-marketing-communication-tools.htm


3    How does/should the client company follow IMC? What are the roles of its different agencies?

Guidelines for the client to preserve relationship with advertising agency:
  • A branding agency is a firm that specialises in creating and launching brands, as well as rebranding. The role of a branding agency is to create, plan and manage branding strategies for clients, but can also involve support in terms of advertising and other forms of promotion.
  • A market research agency offers services to clients, comprising a group of researchers and an administrative infrastructure. An agency may offer qualitative research, quantitative research, or both, increasingly supplemented by consultancy services, workshop facilitation and so on. Agencies vary in size from one or two individuals to several hundred people, though qualitative specialist agencies tend to be at the smaller end of this range.
  • An advertising agency, often referred to as a creative agency, is a business dedicated to creating, planning, and handling advertising and sometimes other forms of promotion and marketing for its clients. An ad agency is generally independent from the client; it may be an internal department or agency that provides an outside point of view to the effort of selling the client's products or services, or an outside firm. An agency can also handle overall marketing and branding strategies promotions for its clients, which may include sales as well.
  • Media agencies advise companies on how and where to advertise, and on how to present a positive picture of themselves to the public. Primary services include advertising, public relations and other forms of media management.

Advice to advertising agency to maintain good relationship with clients


Suggestion for a client and advertising agency to maintain their relations:

Sources:

http://kalyan-city.blogspot.fi/2013/08/client-agency-relationship-in.html

References:

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-integrated-marketing-communications-73248.html
http://kalyan-city.blogspot.fi/2013/08/client-agency-relationship-in.html






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