INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION (IMC)

DEFINITION AND FEATURES

Integrated Marketing Communication is a management concept that is designed to make all aspects of
marketing communication such as advertising, sales promotion, public relations, and direct marketing
work together as a unified force, rather than permitting each to work in isolation. It ensures that all
forms of marketing communications and messages are carefully linked together.

For example, the brand Surf Excel uses the tagline “Daag Ache Hai”. The ads are published in
newspaper, magazines and banners. The brand also broadcasts the ads in radio, internet, etc. The brand
uses the consistent tagline in all the communication. Consistency is the key to the success of IMC.

Marketing Communications includes the following:

● Advertising, Direct Marketing, Sales Promotion and Public Relations.

● IMC is coordinating all the promotional and other marketing activities that communicate with a firm’s
customers and other stakeholders through online and offline channels.

● The key here is coordination or integration.

FEATURES

1. Outside-in approach: An initial key feature of Integrated Marketing Communication is that the
process should start with the customer or prospect and then work back to the brand
communicator in determining the most appropriate messages and media to persuade or induce
the communicator’s brand. The IMC approach avoids an “inside-out” approach (from company
to customer) in identifying communication vehicles and instead starts with the customer
(“outside-in”) to determine those communication methods that will best serve the customers’
information needs and motivate them to purchase the brand.
2. Use of appropriate marketing communication tools: IMC tools include advertising, sales
promotions, sponsorships, etc. Such is the case with marketing communications: not all tools
(again, advertising, sales promotions, sponsorships, etc.) are equally effective for all jobs.
Rather, a truly professional marketing communicator selects those tools that are best for the
job. A professional marketing communicator must carefully select those tools that are most
appropriate for the communications objective at hand.
3. Message consistency: The philosophy and practice of IMC is the demand that all the
communication through various IMC tools must all strive to present the same message and
convey that message consistently across diverse message channels, or points of contact.
Marketing communications must, in other words, speak with a single voice. Coordination of
messages and media is absolutely critical to achieving a strong and unified brand image and
moving consumers to action.
4. Build relationships: IMC believes that successful marketing communication requires building
relationships between brands and their consumers/customers. A relationship is an enduring link
between a brand and its customers. It can be argued, in fact, that relationship building is the key
to modern marketing and that IMC is one of the keys to relationship building. Successful
relationships between customers and brands lead to repeat purchasing and perhaps even to
loyalty toward a brand. The importance of relationship building has spawned the growth of an
entire industry of consultants and software suppliers who are involved in the practice of
customer relationship management, or CRM.
5. Influence consumer attitude: A final IMC feature is the goal to affect the behaviour of the target
audience or target market. Successful IMC requires that communication efforts be directed at
encouraging some form of behavioural response. The objective, in other words, is to move
people to action. An IMC program must be judged, ultimately, in terms of whether it influences
behaviour; but it would be simplistic and unrealistic to expect an action to result from every
communication effort. Prior to purchasing a new brand, consumers generally must be made
aware of the brand and its benefits and be influenced to have a favourable attitude toward it.
6. Cost-effective: IMC helps in the optimum utilization of resources. The systematic
communication mix helps in avoiding the duplication of images, photos, etc. Agency fees are
reduced by using a single agency for all communications and even if there are several agencies,
time is saved when meetings bring all the agencies together – for briefings, creative sessions,
tactical or strategic planning. This reduces workload and subsequent stress levels – one of the
many benefits of IMC.
7. Creates an Integrated Communication Plan: The best marketing strategy in the world will
ultimately fail if you are unable to get the right message to your potential customers at the right
place and the right time. An integrated marketing communications plan matches your available
budget of time and money to the most effective means for distributing your message. No matter
how great your product or service, if your potential customers don’t know it exists; there will
never be a sale.
8. Budget and allocate resources: An “integrated marketing communications plan” must have a
target budget and resources assigned to each element of the plan. Depending on the size of
budget, brands will probably need to make trade-offs between methods to achieve
communication goals. In addition, brands need to have the internal or external resources
aligned to carry out the plan. A good integrated marketing communications plan can take
marketing efforts to the next level.

ADVANTAGES/RELEVANCE OF IMC

1. Competitive advantage: Although IMC requires a lot of effort, it delivers many benefits. It can
create competitive advantage, boost sales and profits, while saving money, time and stress. The
ability to keep a customer for life is a powerful competitive advantage.
2. Aids in buying process: IMC wraps communications around customers and helps them move
through the various stages of the buying process. The organization simultaneously consolidates
its image, develops a dialogue and nurtures its relationship with customers.
3. Building brand identity: IMC, with help of various communication mix, builds a strong brand
identity by tying together all images and messages.
4. Message credibility: IMC also makes messages more consistent and therefore more credible.
IMC helps the marketers in choosing the right message for the target audience with the right
communication tools. This reduces risk in the mind of the buyer which, in turn, shortens the
search process and helps to dictate the outcome of brand comparisons.
5. Cost-effective: IMC helps in the optimum utilization of resources. The systematic
communication mix helps in avoiding the duplication of images, photos, etc. Agency fees are
reduced by using a single agency for all communications and even if there are several agencies,
time is saved when meetings bring all the agencies together – for briefings, creative sessions,
tactical or strategic planning. This reduces workload and subsequent stress levels – one of the
many benefits of IMC.
6. Increased profits: IMC also increases profits through increased effectiveness. In a busy world, a
consistent, consolidated and crystal clear message has a better chance of cutting through the
‘noise’ of over five hundred commercial messages which bombard customers each and every
day.
7. Updating the consumer: Carefully linked messages also help buyers by giving timely reminders,
updated information and special offers which, when presented in a planned sequence, help
them move comfortably through the stages of their buying process.
8. Avoids deviation: IMC helps in coordinating corporate messages, positioning and images across
all places. Such coordination ensures same message and content across all communication and
hence avoids deviation in the messages.

DISADVANTAGES OF IMC

1. Restrict creativity: IMC can restrict creativity. There will be no more wild and crazy sales
promotions unless they fit into the overall marketing communications strategy. The joy of
widespread creativity may be silent, but the creative challenge may be greater and ultimately
more satisfying when operating within a tighter, integrated, creative brief.
2. Time-consuming: IMC deals in coordinating the message across the various media. Appropriate
coordination requires systematic planning which becomes a time-consuming process.
3. Spoils corporate image: IMC requires coordination with various media and advertising agency.
Proper track with these advertising agencies is a must, failing in which, the communication many
a time distorts and spoils the corporate image.
4. Requires proper coordination: Sadly, some organizational structures isolate communications,
data, and even managers from each other. For example, the PR department often doesn’t report
to marketing. The sales force rarely meets the advertising or sales promotion people and so on.
Imagine what can happen when sales representatives are not told about a new promotional
offer.
THE MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS MIX
The marketing communications mix consists of a set of tools (disciplines) that can be used in various
combinations and different degrees of intensity in order to communicate with a target audience. In
addition to these tools or methods of communication, there are the media, or the means by which
marketing communications messages are conveyed. Tools and media should not be confused, as they
have different characteristics and seek to achieve different goals.

Firms select a mix of promotional tools to effectively communicate with their target customer group.
The different elements of this group are:

1. Advertising

2. Personal selling

3. Sales Promotion

4. Public relations

5. Direct Marketing

STEPS IN DEVELOPING AN EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION PLAN

Step 1: Know your target audience
As a general rule, there is no “general audience”. You always want to communicate with a specific
audience to make the most effective use of your resources.
Segmenting specific audiences into groups based on characteristics will help you identify who are most
likely to purchase or utilize your products and services.
Step 2: Develop a situation analysis
Commonly referred to as a SWOT Analysis, this is basically a structured method of evaluating the
internal strengths and weaknesses, and external opportunities and threats that can impact your brand.
A situation analysis can provide much insight into both internal and external conditions that can lead to
a more effective marketing communications strategy.
Step 3: Determining marketing communication objectives
In this step, you basically want to document what you want to accomplish with your IMC strategy.
Objectives should be measurable if you truly want to map your campaign’s effectiveness at the end of
your plan’s term.
Step 4: Determining your budget
Having a realistic idea on what you have to work with is important as it will shape the tactics you
develop in the next step. Once you determine your overall budget, you will want to come back to this
after completing step five to further refine your budget allocations.
Step 5: Strategies and tactics
Looking back at the objectives you created in step three, you will want to develop strategies which are
ideas on how you will accomplish those objectives. Tactics are specific actions on how you plan to
execute a strategy.
Step 6: Evaluation and measurement
Almost as important as the plan as a whole, you want to outline a method of how you will evaluate the
effectiveness of your IMC strategy. Sometimes elements of your plan will not work. It’s important to
know what did or didn’t, try to understand why, and make note for future planning.

FACTORS TO BE CONSIDERED WHILE SELECTING A PROMOTION MIX:

1. Nature of the Product:- The product may be consumer product or industrial product, convenient
goods or specialty goods, simple or technical goods etc. In each case, the promotion mix
element may vary.
2. Overall marketing strategy:- It means, whether the firm wishes to “push” the product or create
“pull” for the product. Depending upon the strategy, the elements of promotion mix will vary.
3. Buyer readiness stage:- The choice of different elements of promotion mix is depend on the
buyer’s readiness and awareness of the brand.
4. Product life cycle stages:- Different elements of promotion mix were used in different stages of
product life cycle.
5. Market size: -In narrow market, direct marketing is more effective. For a market having large
number of buyers the promotion tool is mainly advertising.
6. Cost of Promotion elements:- The cost of different tools is very important while selecting the
Promotion mix.

ADVERTISING

It is a paid form of mass communication and can be traced to an identified sponsor. Now a day s
Advertising plays a significant role in awareness creation and attitude formation. In a macro concept, it
stands for the managerial function of an organization intending to send information to the other
members of the society. American Marketing Association defined it as, “Any paid form of non –personal
presentation of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor.”

Features of Advertising:

1.It is a mass communication medium. 2. It is a salesmanship in print. 3. It is a paid form of

communication by an identified sponsor. 4. It is a non personal communication. 5. It helps to stimulate
sales. 6. It may be written or spoken.
ROLE/ ADVANTAGES /IMPORTANCE OF ADVERTISING

Advertising is an integral part of our social and economic system,. As a powerful technique of promoting
sales, it has been doing wonders in the domain of distribution. The role of advertising can be analysed
from five distinct angles.

1. Manufactures and Advertising(Advantages to Manufactures)

a. It maintains the existing market and explores the new.

b. It increases the demand for the product

c. It helps to build up or increase goodwill of the company.

d. It controls product price.

e. It helps to introduce a new product into the market .

2. Middlemen and Advertising(Advantages to Middlemen):

a. It guarantees quick sales

b. It acts as a salesman.

c. It increases the prestige of the dealers.

d. It makes retail price maintenance possible.

e. It enables the dealers have a product information.

3. Sales-force and Advertising(Advantages to salesmen)

a. It creates a colourful background for a salesmen to begin his work.

b. It reduces his burden of job.

c. It helps to develop self confidence and initiative among the salesmen.

4. Consumers and Advertising(Advantages to consumers):

a. It ensures better quality product at reasonable price.

b. It provides product related information to the customers and thereby makes the purchasing an easy
task.

c. It helps the consumers to save time by providing information related to the availability of product.

d. Helps the consumers in intelligent buying.

5. Society and Advertising(Advantages to society):

a. It helps to uplifts t he living standards

b. It helps to generate gainful employment opportunities.

c. It provides new horizons of knowledge.

d. It up-holds the culture of a nation.

PERSONAL SELLING

Personal selling is the art of convincing the prospects to buy the given products and services. Though it
is basically a method of communication, it is two way as it involves direct face to face contact between
the salesman and the prospect. It is the ability to convert human needs into wants. It is the process of
contacting the prospective buyers personally and persuading them to buy the products.

According to American Marketing Association,” Personal selling is the oral presentation in a

conversation with one or more prospective purchasers for the purpose of making sales; it is the ability
to persuade the people to buy goods and services at a profit to the seller and benefit to the buyer”.

In the words of Garfield Blakde, ”Salesmanship consists of winning the buyers confidence for the seller’s
house and goods, thereby winning the regular and permanent customer.”

FEATURES OF PERSONAL SELLING

1.It is one of the important tools for increasing sales. 2. It is a two way communication between
salesmen and the prospect. 3. It is a persuading process to buy the goods and services. 4. The objective
of personal selling is to protect the interest of both seller and buyer. 5. The essence of personal selling
is interpretation of product and service features in terms of benefit and advantages.

PROCESS OF PERSONAL SELLING

Selling is the sequence of steps involved in the conversion of human desire into demand for a product or
service. Personal selling process involves the following stages.

1. Prospecting: It is the work of collecting the names and addresses of persons who are likely to
buy the firm’s product of services. While collecting the details, ‘suspects’ must be separated
from ‘prospects’ to avoid waste of time.
2. Pre approach: Pre approach is to get more detailed facts about a specific individual to have
effective sales appeal on him or her. It is closer look of prospects like habits, financial status,
social esteem, family background, material status, tastes and preferences etc.
3. Approach: Approach means the meeting of the prospect in person by the salesmen. It is a face
to face contact with the prospect to understand him better.
4. Presentation and demonstration: A good sales presentation is one that not only gives all the
benefits that the prospect gets but also proves to the latter that he or she will better off after
the product is bought and used. An effective sales presentation demands the sales person use
skills like presentation and explanation
5. Managing objections: This is the most important stage of personal selling. For every action of
salesman there is prospect’s pro action or reaction, ie, approval or disapproval. An efficient sales
man has the ability to identify the reasons for raising objections by the prospects and the ways
to overcome these objections.
6. Sale: If all the above stages have been concluded successfully, then the next stage is ultimate
sale of the product.

MERITS OF PERSONAL SELLING

1. Flexibility and adaptability: It is capable of providing more flexibility and adaptability. 2.

Minimum waste: The chances of wastage is minimum in case of personal selling while
comparing to other methods of sales promotion. 3. Acts as feedback: Being in direct contact
with the consumers, he can understand the feeling and reactions of the customers. It helps to
modify the product according to the requirements of customers. 4. Creates lasting impression:
It helps to create a long lasting relationship with the customers through the personal contact of
salesmen.

LIMITATIONS OF PERSONAL SELLING:

1.It is expensive: Personal selling as a method of promotion is quite expensive. Getting

salesmen and retaining him for a long period is very difficult and expensive. 2. Difficulty of
getting right kind of salesman: In practice, it is very difficult to get a trained salesmen from
company’s point of view. 3. More administrative problems: Personal selling involves more
administrative problems than impersonal selling.

SALES PROMOTION

Sales promotion is another major component of promotion mix. The phrase sales promotion has a
distinct meaning. It stands for all those activities that supplement, co-ordinate and make more effective
the efforts of personal selling and advertising. It collectively comprises of the tools used to promote
sales in a given territory and time. It consists of short term incentives designed to achieve a specific
marketing goal in the immediate future.

According to American Marketing Association,” those marketing activities other than personal selling,
advertising and publicity that stimulate consumer purchasing and dealer effectiveness such as display,
shows and exhibitions, demonstrations and various non-recurrent selling effort in the ordinary routine.”

ROLE/ADVANTAGES OF SALES PROMOTION

The role or advantages of sales promotion to various parties like manufactures, middlemen and
consumers are given below:
1. Manufacturers and sales promotion: (i) It helps to retains the existing customers (ii) It helps to
create new customers. (iii) It promote sales (iv) It helps to enhance the goodwill of the firm (v) It
helps to slashes down the cost (vi) It helps to face the competition.
2. Middle men and sales promotion: (i) It reduces strain of the middlemen to a greater extend. (ii)
It helps to increase the sales of middlemen (iii) It builds and enhance the goodwill of the shop
(iv) It gives some personal benefits to the middle men.
3. Consumers and sales promotion: (i) It helps to improve the standard of living of people by
making available goods and services at least cost. (ii) It gives knowledge of new products
available in the market. (iii) It gives both cash and non cash incentives. (iv) It helps to get more
credit facility and special concession because of his brand and store loyalty

DISADVANTAGES OF SALES PROMOTION.

1. It has the shortest life impact as promotion tool like advertisement.. 2. It is only a supplementary
device of personal selling and advertising 3. In most of the cases, too much sales promotion may
damage the brand image. 4. Sales promotion techniques are non-recurring in their nature.

PUBLIC RELATION

It is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individuals, etc. in promoting goodwill between
itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc. It can be defined as the practice of
managing communication between an organization and its public. Public relation is used to build rapport
with employees, customers, investors, or the general public. This method of marketing does not aim at
promoting a single product/service but the company as a whole.

This is done by spreading a positive feel about the company through various stories and articles or
positive feedback from customers about the company in different media channels. In comparison to
advertising, PR is a very cost effective method of marketing. A full page advertisement of a product may
fail to attract customers attention, but a positive response about the same from a satisfied customer
when appears in the form of an article in the same news paper will work wonders for the company. PR is
quite understandably considered as a very genuine method of marketing. It creates a favorable
atmosphere for conducting business of the firm.

According to UK Institute of Public relation, “ It is the deliberately planned and sustained efforts to
establish and maintain mutual understanding between the organisation and its public.”

ADVANTAGES OF PUBLIC RELATIONS:

1. Credibility: The information communicated through public relation department is more reliable
and it has more credibility. For eg.an article in newspapers or magazines discussing the virtues
of aspirin may be perceived very much as more credible than an ad for a particular brand of
aspirin.
2. Cost: In both absolute and relative terms, the cost of PR is very low, especially when the possible
effects are considered. While a firm can employ advertisement agencies and spend millions of
dollars on advertisements, for smaller companies, this form of communication may be the most
affordable alternative available.
3. Lead Generation : Information about the technological innovations, medical break-through and
the like results almost immediately in a multitude of inquiries. These inquiries may give the firm
some quality sales lead.
4. Ability to reach specific groups: Because some products appeal to only small market segments,
it is not feasible to engage in advertising and / or promotions to reach them. If the firm does not
have the financial capabilities, to engage in promotional expenditures, the best way to
communicate to these groups is through PR.
5. Image Building: Effective PR helps to develop positive image for the organization. A strong
image is insurance against later mis-fortunes.
6. Stimulate awareness: Public relation techniques helps to stimulate awareness among the
customers regarding the products of the company and thereby creating demand for your
product.

Functions of public relations

The functions of public relations is given below:-

1. Creating awareness for a company or client and building a positive image for them through articles
and stories in the various channels of media.

2. Keeping an eye on all media channels for any public feedback on the client company or its products.

3. Crisis management in cases where the company may be endangered.

4. Building goodwill and rapport with customers through special events, charity and community work.

DIRECT MARKETING

Direct marketing is a channel-agnostic form of advertising that allows businesses and non profits
organisation to communicate straight to the customer, with advertising techniques such as mobile
messaging, email, interactive consumer websites, online display ads, fliers, catalog distribution,
promotional letters, and outdoor advertising. Direct marketing is practiced by businesses of all sizes —
from the smallest start-up to the leaders on the Fortune 500. A well-executed direct advertising
campaign can prove a positive return on investment by showing how many potential customers
responded to a clear call-to-action. Direct marketing is concerned with establishing an individual
relationship between the business offering a product or service and the final customer.

Direct marketing has been defined by the Institute of Direct Marketing as “The planned recording,
analysis and tracking of customer behaviour to develop a relational marketing strategies”.
Direct Marketing Channels

Any medium that can be used to deliver a communication to a customer can be employed in direct
marketing and it includes:

1. Email Marketing: Sending marketing messages through email is one of the most widely used
direct-marketing methods. According to one study email is used by 94% of marketers, while 86%
use direct mail.
2. Mobile Marketing: Through mobile marketing, marketers engage with prospective customers
and donors in an interactive manner through a mobile device or network, such as a cell phone,
smart phone , or tablet. Types of mobile marketing messages include: SMS: (short message
service) — marketing communications are sent in the form of text messages, also known as
texting. MMS: (multi-media message service)
3. Direct Mail: The term "direct mail" is used to refer to communications sent to potential
customers or donors via the postal service and other delivery services. Direct mail is sent to
customers based on criteria such as age, income, location, profession, buying pattern, etc. Direct
mail includes advertising circulars, catalogs, free-trial CDs, pre-approved credit card applications,
and other unsolicited merchandising invitations delivered by mail to homes and businesses.
4. Telemarketing: Another common form of direct marketing is telemarketing in which marketers
contact customers by phone. The primary benefit to businesses is increased lead generation,
which helps businesses increase sales volume and customer base.
5. Voicemail Marketing: Voicemail marketing emerged out of the market prevalence of personal
voice mailboxes, and business voicemail systems. Voicemail marketing presented a cost
effective means by which to reach people directly, by voice.
6. Direct Response TV : Direct marketing via television (commonly referred to as DRTV) has two
basic forms: long form (usually half-hour or hour-long segments that explain a product in detail
and are commonly referred to as infomercials) and short form, which refers to typical 30-second
or 60-second commercials that ask viewers for an immediate response (typically to call a phone
number on screen or go to a website).
7. Catalogue marketing: In catalogue marketing , an organisation provides a catalogue from which
customers make selection and place orders by mail or telephone. It involves selling of products
through catalogues mailed to selected customers.

TELEMARKETING

Telemarketing (sometimes known as inside sales, or telesales in the UK and Ireland) is a method
of direct marketing in which a salesperson solicits prospective customers to buy products or services,
either over the phone or through a subsequent face to face or Web conferencing appointment
scheduled during the call. Telemarketing can also include recorded sales pitches programmed to be
played over the phone via automatic dialing. Telemarketing is defined as contacting, qualifying, and
canvassing prospective customers using telecommunications devices such as telephone, fax, and
internet. It does not include direct mail marketing.
Telemarketing is one of the most divisive strategies in modern marketing because many organizations
have been known to use irritating or unethical practices in telemarketing. One of the most negatively-
perceived versions of telemarketing is known as “robo-calling,” a practice that involves using a pre-
recorded message delivered through an automatic dialing machine that can contact thousands of people
every day. Because of these and other unpopular methods, there are many government regulations of
telemarketing in several countries throughout the world.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING (SMMR)

Social media marketing is the use of social media platforms and websites to promote a product or
service. Although the terms e-marketing and digital marketing are still dominant in academia, social
media marketing is becoming more popular for both practitioners and researchers.[2] Most social media
platforms have built-in data analytics tools, which enable companies to track the progress, success, and
engagement of ad campaigns. Companies address a range of stakeholders through social media
marketing, including current and potential customers, current and potential
employees, journalists, bloggers, and the general public. On a strategic level, social media marketing
includes the management of a marketing campaign, governance, setting the scope (e.g. more active or
passive use) and the establishment of a firm's desired social media "culture" and "tone."
When using social media marketing, firms can allow customers and Internet users to post user-
generated content (e.g., online comments, product reviews, etc.), also known as "earned media," rather
than use marketer-prepared advertising copy.