Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC)

Through real case of Mountain Dew- a brand that consumed by millions of young, active, outdoor oriented consumers and ranks 4th highest selling soft drink in US, they are known for successfully presenting a consistent message over time and across media. In contrary to Moutain Dew, a lot of other companies are struggling due to the imbalance  between  communication activities. For example, advertising, SP, PR...  are created but rather than achieving the same goal, they tend to separate from each other, more specifically, personnel in charge of advertising failed to coordinate with the ones from SP or publicity.

After the Opening, we came out with the problem:

How to keep messages about the brand consistent through different channels and tools? 

3 Learning Objectives:

1. Coordinating Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) 
• What is IMC
• Who participates in IMC and their roles 
• Successful coordination of their activities IMC
2. IMC tools and channels 
• Available tools and how to choose the right ones 
• how to successfully implement
3. Message
• How channels and coordination affect the message

Coordinating IMC 

To understand such a broad topic like Coordinating IMC, we firstly need to know 

1. What is IMC - Integrated Marketing IMC?

According to Kliatchko in his book "Revisiting IMC construct" (2008), being improved by the work of Schultz and Schultz (1998) and states the key difference in the use of ‘business process’ – phrase ‘audience-driven’ summons the centricity that IMC gives to relevant publics. The most up-to-date perfect definition is:

“IMC is audience-driven business process of strategically managing stakeholders, content, channels, and results of brand communication programs” (Kliatchko, 2008, p. 140)

I found this either academically standard yet very informative and concrete. 

                                                                                                                    (Kliatchko, 2008, p.145)

Another definition is brought by American Marketing Association:  Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) is explained as “a planning process designed to assure that all brand contacts received by a customer or prospect for a product, service, or organization are relevant to that person and consistent over time.”

The IMC planning process has been compared to composing a musical score. In a piece of music, while every instrument has a specific task, the goal is to have them come together in a way that produces beautiful music. It’s the same in IMC, where advertising might be your violin, social media your piano, public relations your trumpet and so on.

     2. Who participates in IMC and their roles?

McGrawhill/Irvin, 2002

A.The organization (manufactures, services firms, retailers, suppliers, nonprofits) who want communicate with consumers about their brands 

Nike is an example of a firm that does both 

• B2B:  Nike’s Relationship with shoe retailers like Foot Locker
• B2C:  Niketown stores selling shoes directly to consumers

B. The agencies who help the companies prepare their marketing communications messages and help select the appropriate media to communicate the message 

More specifically, Advertising Agency: This is an outside firm that specializes in the creation, production, and/or placement of the communication message and that may provide other services to facilitate the marketing and promotions process. Many large advertisers retain the services of a number of agencies when they market a number of products.

C. The media (content providers, national/local media) who provide the channel of communication for the marketer’s messages 

Media Organizations: The primary function of media organizations is to provide information or entertainment to their subscribers, viewers or readers but from the point of view of the promotion planner, the purpose of the media is to provide an environment for the firm's marketing communication programs.

And Customers are placed centrally among all.

And  how they successfully coordinate in IMC 

is the next interesting to be discovered. According to Duncan, Principles of Advertising & IMC, 2005:17, IMC Process Model needs to be developed.

Smith (1996) put forward a summary of the guidelines for effective integration:

– Ensure senior management understanding & support for IMC implementation 

– Ensure IMC is implemented horizontally 

– Ensure common visual standards are maintained 

– Have clear communications objectives, clear positioning statements, & link core brand values into every communication 

– Start with a zero budget and build communications plan around objectives

– Design communications around the customer's buying process 

– Ensure all communications help to develop stronger relationships and brand values with customers – Develop a good marketing information system 

– Share artwork & other media 

– Be prepared to change it all 

IMC tools and channels

1. Available tools and how to choose a right ones

The tools for IMC: 

Marketing promotion has been defined by Belch and as the coordination of all seller initiated efforts to set-up channels of information and persuasion in order to sell goods and services or promote an idea. Kallmeyer and Abratt (2001) viewed it as marketing communication mix which the joint researchers called the specific mix of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations and direct marketing that a firm uses in order to pursue its advertising and marketing objectives. While, implicit communication occurs through the various elements of the marketing mix, most of an organization’s communication effort with the market place takes place as part of a carefully planned and controlled promotional programme.

In the words of Davies, he sees marketing communication mix as the specific mix of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations and direct marketing that a company uses to pursue it advertising and marketing communication objectives. Fill (2006)goes further when he says, marketing communication is a management process through which an organization engages with its various audiences.

Traditionally, Wright (2000) believes that the promotional mix has included four elements: advertising, sales promotion, public relations and publicity; personal selling. However, most modern scholars agreed on the inclusion of the 5th element which is direct and interactive (internet) marketing. A company’s total marketing communication mix-called its promotional mix therefore, consists of the specific blend of:

• Advertising

• Personal selling

• Publicity and public relations

• Sales promotion

• Direct and interactive marketing tools that a firm uses to pursue its advertising and marketing objectives


Briefly, we can identify these promotional mix elements.

Advertising: Any paid form of nonpersonal communication and promotion of ideas, goods or services by an identifiable sponsor.

Personal selling: Oral presentation in a conversation form with one or more prospective purchasers for the purpose of making sales and building customer relationships.

Sales promotion: The use of short-term incentives in order to encourage the purchase or sale of a product or service.



Fig. 1: Marketing communications mix



Public relations: Building good relations with the company’s various publics by obtaining favourable publicity, building up a good corporate image and heading-off unfavourable rumours, stories and events about the firm.

Direct and internet marketing: Direct marketing communication is a process of communication directly with target customers to encourage responses by telephone, mail, electronic means or personal visit. Popular methods of direct marketing communication include direct mail, telemarketing, online computer shopping services, castle television shopping network, internet marketing, etc. All types of marketers including retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers and service providers use direct marketing communications. The ultimate goal of marketing communication is to reach some audience to affect their behaviour. In Fig. 1, marketing communication mix elements with the objectives of marketing communication are shown.

Informative promotion:
• To inform the market about the arrival of a new product

• To increase the awareness of a new product, brand or product attribute

• To explain how the product works

• To suggest new uses for a product

• To build a company image


Persuasive promotion:
• To encourage brand switching

• To change customers’ perceptions of product attributes

• To influence customers to buy now

• To persuade customers to call back


Reminder promotion

• To remind consumers that the product may be needed in the near future

• To remind consumers where to buy the product

• To maintain consumer awareness


Differentiation promotion: The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), London in 2007-2008, Lecture manual added a fourth objective to the marketing communication objectives. CIM London in 2008, calls these marketing communication objectives with the acronym, Drip to, i.e.:

• Differentiate a seller’s products from other competing products (D)

• Remind customers on the company products/offers (R)

• Inform potential customers on the products’ availability (I)

• Persuade customers to buy (P)

      2. Choosing the correct marketing communication tools:

It is believed that choosing the correct marketing communications tools for a particular promotional task is not an easy one. Indeed, the process is still very much an art though it is becoming more scientific because of the access to consumer and media database. Computer can carry out matching consumer characteristics with media database very rapidly and promotional budgets can be evaluated for a variety of different mixes. In the final analysis however, the client’s wishes and the expertise of the promotion planner are decisive. In this regards, it is good to provide some guideline for choosing the correct promotion tools.

The choice should be exercised within the flowing top-down hierarchy of objectives. According to CIM London in 2008, the choice of the marketing promotional tool is largely influenced by a number of factors such as:



Fig. 2: Marketing matrix

How to implement 

Implementation of promotional strategies is very vital and this calls for a firm’s advertising agency to display a sense of creativity, professionalism and commitment to the client’s promotional objectives. Belch added that it is vital for advertising agencies to work closely with their clients as they have to develop the adverts and select media because it is the advertiser (client) that ultimately approves (and pay for) the creative work and media plan. The joint research added that a similar, process takes place for the other elements of the IMC programme as objectives are set, an overall strategy is developed, message and media strategies are determined and steps are taken by the firm to implement them.

Last but not least step in order to choose the most effective tools/channels or combination of them:

It is vital for firms to determine how well the promotional programme is meeting the communications objectives. Chisnall adds that the marketing promotions planners want to know how and why the promotion programme is performing. He wants to know if there are deviations from the plans or whether there is need for modification, Belch added that this last step is designed to provide managers with continued feedback concerning the effectiveness of the promotional programme which in turn can be used as input into the planning process. The integrated marketing communication model (Fig. 3) portrays the development of a marketing program which requires an in-depth analysis of the market. This analysis may make extensive use of marketing research as an input which in turn provides the basis for the development of marketing strategies with regard to product pricing, distribution and promotion decisions. Each of the steps requires a detailed analysis since, this plan serves as the road map to follow in achieving marketing goals.

Once the detailed market analysis has been completed and marketing objectives have been established, each of the marketing mixes must contribute to a comprehensive integrated marketing program. The above joint researchers added that the promotional program element which is the focus of the model must be combined with all other program elements in such a way as to achieve maximum impact. This view is also supported by Peltier et al. (2003) and Cornelissen and Lock (2000) amongst others. Kitchen et al. (2004)looked at IMC process model from the strategic point of view. The researchers believed that firms need to do a SWOT analysis of their operation as well as those of their competitors.

The firm is also to analyze its database and information technology network. The firm who intends to have sound integrated marketing communications need to review it brand relationships which leads to customer acquisition, retention and growth. Moreover, Kitchen et al. (2004) believed that IMC must show 5 significant features. These according to them are:

• The primary goal of IMC is to affect behaviour through direct communication

• The process should start with the customer or prospect and then work backward to the brand communicator

• IMC should use all forms of communication and all sources of brand or company contacts as prospects message delivery channels

• The need for synergy is paramount with coordination helping to achieve a strong brand image

• IMC requires that successful marketing communication needs to build a relationship between the brand and the customer

When deciding how to properly utilize the marketing communications mix to meet the marketing objectives, it is important to consider the relative strengths and weaknesses of each component of the marketing communication mix.



Fig. 3: Marketing and promotions process model

Further, one must always define his/her total budget first (generally defined in the marketing and/or business plan) and then decide upon the best way to leverage the different elements of the mix to maximize the return on one’s investment. One has to balance the various mixes to create an integrated approach to one’s marketing communications effort and also devote enough resources for each component to be successful.

In order to achieve better results from use of IMC, the marketing communicator must take the following steps into consideration when designing the message. We now examine the steps involved in developing an effective integrated marketing communication programme.

• Identify the target audience: The marketing communicator must have a clear target audience in mind. The audience may be potential buyers or current users; those who make buying decisions or those who influence it.

• Determine the communication objectives: This is what the marketer wants to achieve. To do this, he needs to know where the target audience now stands and what stage/or state it needs to be moved to. The purpose of marketing communication is to move the customer along these stages and ultimately to achieve final purchase (Fig. 4).

Design the message: Having designed the communication objectives, the marketing communicator turns to develop an effective message. Ideally, the message should get attention; hold interest; arouse desire and obtain action (A framework known as AIDA model). In practice, few messages take the consumer all the way from awareness to purchase but the AIDA frame work suggests the desirable qualities of a good message.



Fig. 4:
Process of customer decision

      3. Message

In putting the message together the marketing communicator must decide what to say (message content) and how to say it (message structure and format).

Message content: Here, the marketing communicator has to figure out an appeal or theme that will produce the desired response. There are 3 types of appeal.

• Rational appeal: Message appeals that relate to the audience’s self interest and show that the product will produce the claimed benefits, i.e., appeals of product quality, economy, value or performance.

• Emotional appeal: Message appeals that attempt to stir up negative or positive emotions that will motivate purchase. Examples are fear, guilt, shame, love, humour, pride and joy appeal.

• Moral appeal: Message appeals that are directed to the audience’s sense of what is right and proper 

Message structure: Here, the communicator decides how to say the message. There are three issues that are involved here:

• The first is whether to draw conclusion or to leave it to the audience. Present researches show that the advertiser is better-off asking questions to stimulate involvement and motivate customers to think about the brand and then let them come to their own conclusions
• The second message structure is whether to present a one sided issue, i.e., whether to mention only the product’s strengths or whether to admit few shortcomings of the product. When dealing with highly sophisticated and enlightened customers, you have to present the two sides
• Whether to present strong arguments first or last. Presenting strong arguments first leads to strong attention but may lead to anti-climate ending

Message format: This has to do with the content of the message such as in print adverts the communicator has to decide on the headline, copy, illustration, colour, etc.

• Selecting the message source: Message source refers to the company, the brand name, the salesperson, the actor in the advert who endorses the product, i.e., today many firms are using celebrities and other drama artists to endorse their adverts s the message source, i.e., in Nigeria many companies are using footballers such as Kanu, Okocha or other world footballers such as Becham, Ronaldo, Ronaldiiho, etc.

• Choosing the media: The communicator must now select channels of communication. There are broad two communication channels. These are personal and non-personal communication channels.

• Personal communication channel: In personal communication channel, two or more people communicate directly with one another. They may communicate face-to-face or over the telephone or through mail, fax machine, internet, etc. Personal communication system is very effective as it gives room for quick feedback.

• Non-personal communication: These are media that carry messages without personal contact such as radio, television, newspapers, billboard, posters, etc.

Collecting feedback: After sending the message, the communicator must research its effects on the target audience. This involves asking the target audience whether they remember the message; how many times they saw the message. What points they recall, how they felt about the message and their past and present attitude towards the product and the company. The communicator would also like to measure behaviour resulting from the message. How many people bought the product. How may people visited their stores or shops after the adverts, etc.

How the channels and coordination affect the message: 

As all the points made above, if channels are suitably chosen (right target, right marketing objectives ...) and they successfully coordinate with each other, which simply means different departments, functions work towards a common goal as they know what exactly they want to achieve as a union, not separately, I think, partly of the message is successful. Because the message's gonna be delivered corporately.

Case studies:
Probably huge firms like Coca Cola would be the best classical example (Share a coke campaign), for example in India.
Besides, I found this Tesco campaign in South Korea quite interesting because they managed to take the largest  title from E-Mart with their integrated campaign of the virtual market in subway, after having in-depth research about SK's buying behavior, despite of their disadvantage of less presence compared to E-Mart, they didn't necessarily use considerable amount of money to build more stores to win.

Sources:

Kliatchko,. "Revisiting IMC construct" (2008)
Ducan, T., Principles of Advertising and IMC, 2nd edition 2005, Chapter 2 
http://imc.wvu.edu/about/what_is_imc
http://multimediamarketing.com/mkc/marketingcommunications/
http://pure.au.dk/portal-asb-student/files/45282492/Integrated_Marketing_Communications_and_Social_Media.pdf
http://www.medwelljournals.com/fulltext/?doi=sscience.2011.64.73
https://pure.ltu.se/ws/files/44188484/LTU-EX-2013-44152419.pdf
http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-tips-articles/integrated-marketing-management-imc-4029166.html#ixzz1YSDt15Wf