Integrated Marketing Communications

It is essential for organizations to promote their brands well among the end-users not only to outshine
competitors but also survive in the long run. Brand promotion increases awareness of products and
services and eventually increases their sales, yielding high profits and revenue for the organization.

To understand integrated marketing communication, let us first understand what does brand
communication mean?

Brand communication is an initiative taken by organizations to make their products and services
popular among the end-users. Brand communication goes a long way in promoting products and
services among target consumers. The process involves identifying individuals who are best suited to the
purchase of products or services (also called target consumers) and promoting the brand among them
through any one of the following means:

 Advertising
 Sales Promotion
 Public Relation
 Direct Marketing
 Personal Selling
 Social media, and so on

Integrated Marketing Communication - Let us now understand what does integrated marketing
communication mean?

Integrated marketing communication refers to integrating all the methods of brand promotion to
promote a particular product or service among target customers. In integrated marketing
communication, all aspects of marketing communication work together for increased sales and maximum
cost effectiveness.

Let us go through various components of Integrated Marketing Communication:

1. The Foundation - As the name suggests, foundation stage involves detailed analysis of both the
product as well as target market. It is essential for marketers to understand the brand, its
offerings and end-users. You need to know the needs, attitudes and expectations of the target
customers. Keep a close watch on competitor’s activities.
2. The Corporate Culture - The features of products and services ought to be in line with the work
culture of the organization. Every organization has a vision and it’s important for the marketers to
keep in mind the same before designing products and services. Let us understand it with the help
of an example.

Organization A‘s vision is to promote green and clean world. Naturally its products need to be eco
friendly and biodegradable, in lines with the vision of the organization.

3. Brand Focus - Brand Focus represents the corporate identity of the brand.
4. Consumer Experience - Marketers need to focus on consumer experience which refers to what
the customers feel about the product. A consumer is likely to pick up a product which has good
packaging and looks attractive. Products need to meet and exceed customer expectations.
5. Communication Tools - Communication tools include various modes of promoting a particular
brand such as advertising, direct selling, promoting through social media such as facebook,
twitter, orkut and so on.
6. Promotional Tools - Brands are promoted through various promotional tools such as trade
promotions, personal selling and so on. Organizations need to strengthen their relationship with
customers and external clients.
7. Integration Tools - Organizations need to keep a regular track on customer feedbacks and
reviews. You need to have specific software like customer relationship management (CRM) which
helps in measuring the effectiveness of various integrated marketing communications tools.

Integrated marketing communication enables all aspects of marketing mix to work together in harmony to
promote a particular product or service effectively among end-users.

Integrated marketing communications (IMC) is a process through which organizations accelerate returns
by taking a customer-centric approach to aligning their marketing and communication objectives with
their business or institutional goals. (Definition provided by Don and Heidi Schulz.) 

Four key things to note about IMC:

1. IMC is an ongoing process, not just a one-off campaign. That process includes strategic planning,
measurement, and refinement of communications.
2. The goal of IMC is to accelerate returns. This most often means growing revenue faster.
3. IMC is customer-centric. Marketing is no longer about pushing out messages and hoping people
will listen. We must understand and develop empathy for the people we are trying to reach —
and put them at the core of our efforts.
4. IMC is about aligning objectives with goals.

In short, IMC is a replacement for outdated marketing models and funnels. Think about it — there’s no
mention of customers in the four P’s model (price, product, promotion, place). And funnel-based
approaches miss the reality that the customer decision-making process is rarely linear.
Five Steps of the IMC Process

1. Identify your customers from behavioral data

Let’s start with this assumption: For education institutions, the customer is the student.

Behavioral data: Tells us what customers do, how they act, and their history in relation to our offering.

Demographic data: Tells us a customer’s age, location, gender, income, and so on.

IMC is based on what people do. The key takeaway is that behavioral data is going to yield better results
over demographic data, every single time. Aggregate your customers according to their behaviors first.
After that, enhance it with other types of segmentation.

2. Determine the financial value of your customers and prospects

Marketing is traditionally considered an organizational expense. However, an IMC mindset requires us to

To know what we can spend to attract new students, we must know the financial value of our current
students and prospects. This value becomes the basis for marketing investment because customers drive
revenue. Use this value to set goals and determine what marketing actions to take.

3. Create and deliver messages and incentives

We can now set marketing goals that tie back to our institution’s financial goals, and then create and
deliver meaningful marketing communications to prospects and customers.
Tie marketing objectives to financial outcomes using these two components:

1. Delivery: Where do customers come into contact with your brand? Where do they want to
come into contact with your brand?
2. Content: What customer insights can you use to connect what your brand wants to deliver with
what your customer wants to acquire?

While a traditional marketing approach would require you to determine your creative content first and
then select the channel, IMC flips this process around by asking first for an understanding of where your
customers are. With that knowledge, you can meet them there with content and messaging that is
grounded in customer insights.

4. Estimate the return on customer investment (ROCI)

Step four focuses on determining ROCI as a result of your marketing and communications. This is the
goal of IMC.

Wouldn’t you rather invest in marketing efforts that will yield the most loyal and profitable customers?
Prove to senior leaders that you can turn a $100 investment into $1,000 in customer revenue and you’ll
never need to fight for budget again.

How? Use:

 Analytics: descriptive, predictive

5. Budget, allocate, evaluate, and recycle

A true IMC approach requires that you budget at the end, which is the opposite of how most college and
university budgeting processes unfold.

Think like an investor and know important financial numbers: customer acquisition cost, retention rate,
and the difference between your short-term and long-term returns.

Understand the three C’s:

 Contribution: dollars generated over time

And now that you can prove IMC’s impact, you can truly evaluate the effectiveness of your program and
use that insight to plan for the future. Remember that IMC is cyclical.