Assignment of Advertising Management

Evaluative research & Impact of IMC

SUBMITTED BY
HUMNA ZAHEER (1723106017)
MOMAL JAVED (1723106028)
AYUSHA NOMAN (1723106013)
BBA 8
Session: 2017-2021
SUBMITTED TO
Ms. Mahnoor

DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT SCIENCES

LAHORE COLLEGE FOR WOMEN UNIVERSITY, LAHORE
Definition
It is a simple concept. It ensures that all form of communications and messages are
carefully linked together. At its most basic level, Integrated Marketing Communication or IMC
as we’ll call it means integrating all the promotional tools so that they work together in harmony.
Integrated Marketing Communication It ensures that all forms of communications and messages
are carefully linked together. At its most basic level, Integrated Marketing Communications, or
IMC, as we’ll call it, means integrating all the promotional tools, so that they work together in
harmony. Promotions one of the Ps in the marketing mix. Definition Integrated marketing
communication is the process of conveying a unified message across a variety of channels to
drive higher customer engagement for a company’s products and solutions.

Introduction
Integrated marketing communications (IMC) is an approach used by organizations to
brand and coordinate their communication efforts. The American Association of Advertising
Agencies defines IMC as “a comprehensive plan that evaluates the strategic roles of a variety of
communication disciplines and combines these disciplines to provide clarity, consistency and
maximum communication impact”. The brand’s core image and messaging are reinforced as
each marketing communication channel works together as parts of a unified whole rather than in
isolation.

The Shift from Fragmented to Integrated Marketing

Communications
 a shift from mass media advertising to multiple forms of communication
 the growing popularity of more specialized (niche) media, which considers individualized
patterns of consumption and increased segmentation of consumer tastes and preferences
 the move from a manufacturer-dominated market to a retailer-dominated, consumer-
controlled market
 the growing use of data-based marketing as opposed to general-focus advertising and
marketing
 greater business accountability, particularly in advertising
 performance-based compensation within organizations, which helps increase sales and
benefits in companies
 unlimited Internet access and greater online availability of goods and services
 a larger focus on developing marketing communications activities that produce value for
target audiences while increasing benefits and reducing costs
Tools of IMC
The IMC process generally begins with an integrated marketing communications plan that
describes the different types of marketing, advertising, and sales tools that will be used during
campaigns. These are largely promotional tools, which include everything from search engine
optimization (SEO) tactics and banner advertisements to webinars and blogs. 
 Advertising
 Personal selling
 Direct marketing
 Mobile marketing
 Social media marketing
 Public relations
 Sales Promotion
 Sponsorships

1. Advertising
Advertising is the non-personal and paid form of communication. It is one of the
most effective forms of communication where it reaches a mass audience at once within a
short period of time.
It not only increases sales but also creates awareness among consumers. Marketers need to
ensure that the right message should be delivered in the right manner to the consumers.
The various media used are print media, radio, billboards, television, etc.

2. Personal selling
Personal selling includes face to face interaction with the end-users with the
motive of promoting the product and convincing the buyer to purchase the product.
It is the most effective tool in IMC as a salesperson directly communicates with the buyer,
resolves their issues on spot, improvise his pitch as per the need of the buyer, and focuses on
building a long-term relationship with end-users.
3. Direct Marketing
It is the oldest form of communication where organizations directly communicate
with end-users through emails, telephone, fax, text messages, catalog, brochure, and
promotional letter.
Nowadays people buy more online, so marketers help consumers in the buying process by
sending those catalogs and other marketing material which makes the process easier for
consumers.

4. Mobile Marketing
Mobile marketing involves communicating with customers through mobile by
sending them a text message. It is the cheapest traditional means of promotion.

5. Social Media Marketing

It is one of the most powerful media where the promotion of the brand or
business can be done through the social media channel. It is one of the low-cost promotional
methods where a large number of users are targeted at once.

6. Public Relations
It is the practice of managing the relationship between an organization and
the public. It is a two-way communication where the public shares their feedback to the
organization.PR is done to create goodwill in the market and present the product of the
company in the positive light. Promotion can be done through press releases, public
appearances, event sponsorships, news, etc.

7. Sales Promotion
Sales promotion is the short term incentives given to consumers to accelerate
the sale. It gives them a reason to buy the product by providing attractive offers like discount
coupons, contests, premiums, samples, sweepstakes, price packs, low-cost financing deals,
and rebates.

8. Sponsorships
It is a mixture of sales promotion and public relations. Sponsorships create brand
loyalty and help in differentiating the product with competitors.
Process of IMC
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 look at marketing as an investment, a strategic tool that influences incoming
dollars. 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: Delivery: Where do customers
come into contact with your brand? Where do they want to come into contact with your brand?
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
Attribution: first, last, and multitouch
Optimization: A/B tests, control groups
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
 Commitment: how many dollars you get vs. the competition
 Champions: support, involvement, and advocacy of your brand
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.

Goals of IMC
 To develop brand awareness.
 To increase consumer or business demand for a product category.
 To change or influence customer beliefs or attitudes.
 To enhance purchase actions.
 To encourage repeat purchases.
 To build customer traffic to physical stores, websites or other marketing channels.
 To enhance firm/brand image
 To increase market share
 To increase sales
 To reinforce purchase decisions

Communication Components
 The foundation – This component is based on a strategic understanding of the product
and market. This includes changes in technology, buyer attitudes, and behavior, as well
as anticipated moves by competitors.
 The corporate culture – Increasingly brands are seen as indivisible from the vision,
capabilities, personality, and culture of the corporation.
 The brand focus – This is the logo, corporate identity, tagline, style, and core message
of the brand.
 Consumer experience – This includes the design of the product and its packaging, the
product experience (for instance in a retail store), and service.
 Communications tools – This includes all modes of advertising, direct marketing, and
online communications including social media.
 Promotional tools – This includes trade promotions; consumer promotions; personal
selling, database marketing, and customer relations management; public relations and
sponsorship programs.
 Integration tools – This is software that enables the tracking of customer behavior and
campaign effectiveness. This includes customer relationship management (CRM)
software, web analytics, marketing automation, and inbound marketing software.

Benefits of IMC
 It’s Cost Effective
Creating digital assets like content, images and graphics costs time and money. When you
integrate your campaigns you eliminate any need for duplication because you share these assets
across channels. This saves a tremendous amount of resources.

 It Builds Trust with Your Audience

Today’s consumers have seen and heard it all and are, by nature, very skeptical of most brands
they don’t know. When you integrate your messages and keep them consistent, you gain the trust
of your audience. And, in case you were wondering, it’s far easier to sell to prospects who trust
you than to those that don’t.

 It Puts You Top-of-Mind

Uniformity of message is a powerful thing. Not only does it lead to brand awareness and trust, as
we mentioned, but it puts your business top-of-mind when prospects are in the market for what
you have to offer.

 It Builds Internal Morale

Integrated campaigns require your internal teams pull together to share talent, resources and
communicate clearly. This not only puts out a winning campaign, it builds morale as your entire
staff sees how working together created such a huge success and ROI.
One of the major benefits of integrated marketing communications is that marketers can
clearly and effectively communicate their brand’s story and messaging across several
communication channels to create brand awareness. IMC is also more cost-effective than
mass media since consumers are likely to interact with brands across various forums and
digital interfaces. As consumers spend more time on computers and mobile devices,
marketers seek to weave together multiple exposures to their brands using different touch
points. Companies can then view the performance of their communication tactics as a
whole instead of as fragmented pieces. The other benefit of integrated marketing
communications is that it creates a competitive advantage for companies looking to boost
their sales and profits. This is especially useful for smaller mid-sized firms with limited
staff and marketing budgets. IMC immerses customers in communications 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 throughout the exchange. IMC can be instrumental in creating a seamless
purchasing experience that spurs customers to become loyal, lifelong customers.

Key players of IMC

Impact of IMC
There are three stages of impact of IMC strategies on a customer. These stages are
 Before the IMC
 During the IMC
 After the IMC

Before the IMC

IMC achieves its objectives by delivering a completely incorporated advertising exertion.
Consider the instance of a company that sells food. The enterprise wishes to advance the item
through web-based media and the web as a component of an all-around coordinated advertising
correspondence technique. A solid Integrated Marketing Communication methodology should be
arranged, planned, and carried out.
The time before the IMC stage is the point at which the IMC plan is being created. To draw in
clients, the organization initially fosters an item that addresses the issues of its objective market,
at that point costs it and makes it accessible through legitimate dissemination channels. At long
last, a correspondence plan is planned dependent on purchaser understanding to pull in clients.
Following that, an IMC technique is conceived. The association requires an appropriate
correspondence system and plan to build up Integrated Marketing Communications tasks. The
coordinated correspondence system is intended to characterize the item's situating just as to help
correspondence objectives. The coordinated correspondence plan's significant objective is to
figure out which correspondence innovations ought to be utilized to improve consumer loyalty.

During the IMC

The following stage includes the execution of IMC plan. After the IMC procedures are carried
out, all the promoting mediums have shared an all-around coordinated message, the following
thing is to think about shopper reaction or disposition towards the item. The second arrangement
of Consumer conduct shows elements of customer conduct including discernment, data/learning,
disposition, inspiration and genuine conduct.
The objective clients first watch the ads on numerous media networks. They make a discernment
about the item. On the off chance that they make a positive discernment about the notice or they
feel that the item can satisfy their requirements, they accumulate more data identified with the
item. Afterward, the client shows a disposition towards the item whether positive or negative. On
the off chance that the demeanor is positive, the client's conduct movements to the following
stage that is inspiration to purchase the item. Next up is Actual Behavior whether he decided to
buy the item or not. Burp and Belch alludes that buyers' preferences and abhorrence for the
specific brand influence the choice of procurement or not to buy. Also, Hawkins have expressed
that inspiration is a mind boggling cycle and this unpredictable interaction has capacity to
motivation, touch off or forgo clients purchasing specific items or administration.

After the IMC

Now, after IMC plans are presented, the message has been dispersed, the shopper has seen the
publicizing a few times, the advertisers dissect if the IMC procedure worked? How effectively
the IMC plan has functioned? Is the organization on target to meet its projected objectives? Is the
business beneficial? What is the client's demeanor about the item?
It shows every one of the stages through which shoppers go prior to purchasing a decent or
administration. These stages are need acknowledgment, data search, assessment of choices,
purchasing choice and post buy assessment. The client gives criticism subsequent to making a
buy. Clients who are satisfied with an item are more disposed to buy it again later on. Be that as
it may, if clients are disappointed with the entire showcasing effort just as the item, the
organization should revamp the IMC plan dependent on purchaser criticism and assessment. The
partnership will either change its whole IMC approach or improve it.
Example
Domino’s Any Ware Pizza restaurant chain Domino’s created the “Any Ware” campaign to help
people order food in more convenient ways. Domino’s Any Ware allows customers to order with
a tweet, a text, Ford Sync, smart televisions and smart watches. The idea was possible because
two years prior to Any Ware, Domino’s established Pizza Profiles, which save customers’
payment information, addresses and an Easy Order. The Easy Order is a customer’s favorite food
order that includes preferred payment method, order type (delivery or carryout) and address or
favorite store. Domino’s deployed press releases, a national television campaign and more to
drive customers to AnyWare.Dominos.com, where they can learn about new ways to order. This
successful campaign led to the following results, according to Shorty Awards, a social media
awards show.
 The Any Ware campaign generated 2 billion earned media impressions, including segments on
Jimmy Fallon, Ellen and the Today Show.
 The Any Ware website received more than 500,000 visits.
 The Any Ware television campaign, which ran during the entire third quarter in 2015,
generated 10.5 percent year-over-year sales growth.
 The Any Ware campaign helped Domino’s achieve its goal of having half of all orders be made
digitally.

Conclusion
The primary goal of IMC is to affect the perception of value and behavior through directed
communications. The development and diffusion of IMC is closely associated with fast
technological advancement and of a rapidly globalizing and deregulations of markets and
individualization of consumption patterns.