Relationship Marketing, Electronic Marketing and Integrated Marketing Communications - Assignment Example

Relationship Marketing, Electronic Marketing and Integrated Marketing Communications Table of Contents Table of Contents Introduction 2 Relationship Marketing 2 Electronic Marketing 3 Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) 3 The Resultant Effect 4 How to gain a better insight regarding marketing? 4 Effect of Relationship Marketing 4 Example of Relationship Marketing 5 Effect of Electronic Marketing 5 Example of Electronic Marketing 6 Effect of Integrated Marketing Communications 6 Example of Integrated Marketing Communications 7 Overlapping of relationship marketing, electronic marketing and integrated marketing communications 7 How marketing helps the people nuances? 8 Conclusion 8 Bibliography 10 Introduction Marketing is a very active field. The individuals who work within its regime know well how to maneuver themselves in line with the marketing needs and requirements. If they remain aloof of these marketing comprehensions, their business realms would be hurt badly. It is for this reason that marketing as a tool has been employed by nearly every organization in this day and age. These corporations and big businesses know that if they use marketing in a proper manner, they will be able to achieve instant results which are reassuring and give the processes the confidence to move ahead further. Hence, marketing has received its due share of attention but the tangents under which it is divided require even more significance. This is because marketing cannot just come about in an automated fashion. It requires understanding on the part of the people and the ones who make it happen. This paper discusses how relationship marketing, electronic marketing and integrated marketing communications go hand in hand with one another to produce that vital formula which brings about success. It will help establish where these three ingredients of marketing play their pivotal roles and how the overlapping happens. Relationship Marketing When one concerns the basis of relationship marketing, the effects are very direct and concisely driven. It makes things easier to understand for the people who wish to learn how relationship marketing is carried out in the first place. The relationship marketing covers areas where the marketing people reach out to the consumers in a one on one fashion. It means that they are looked after in a personalized fashion, and given more individual attention than these consumers would receive once they are a part of the electronic marketing or integrated marketing communications quarters. The premise of relationship marketing is to talk to them as the consumers would like in their own language (Dwyer, Schurr and Oh, 1987: 11-27). Electronic Marketing Similarly, electronic marketing comprises of all those realms where product promotion and customer relations come in direct contact with the various electronic media forms. These can entail the television, the radio, the Internet and other related disciplines. Since the electronic marketing discussion is centered on a wider spectrum than relationship marketing, its positives as well as negatives are immensely drawn so as to gain a fair enough understanding. Within electronic marketing, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) pertains to how users adopt a particular technology based on the factors of perceived usefulness coined by Fred Davis or perceived ease of use (Son, Kim and Riggins, 2006: 473-508). In relation to electronic marketing, the consumers know quickly which of the two sub-factors of TAM have to be employed and what they can gain out of it. Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) It would be fair to suggest that the integrated marketing communication (IMC) combines all other forms of marketing in such a way that the resultant effect is wholesome and facilitates in making the marketing process much easier than one can think of. This is the reason why IMC is hailed as a tool that delivers sound results and often times more than relationship and electronic marketing quarters, either in individual roles or in combination. The IMC effect supersedes just about everything that comes under the direct aegis of marketing and resolves issues which would seem almost impossible to avoid (Kam, Han and Schultz, 2004). The Resultant Effect These three forms of marketing more or less dictate how well the message reaches the intended audience and what kind of message is absorbed by them so that they can bring about the sale process which is the eventual end goal for the sake of the business which has devised marketing to begin with. Consumer satisfaction, their loyalty and returning back to buy the same product or avail the service yet again are the hallmarks of a good marketing strategy that the organization shall have at any given time. How to gain a better insight regarding marketing? Since relationship marketing asks the marketing team to visit the consumers where they reside, work or hang out, it becomes an even more difficult task for this team to locate them firstly and then connect with them through their intended message. The need is to understand that relationship marketing is doing whatever it can so that success will reign in within the relevant quarters. It will imply for instant success on the part of the marketing team if it makes a sale, which could be the end goal of having relationship marketing in the first place. Effect of Relationship Marketing As relationship marketing could take a long amount of time before it could culminate in a positive or negative way, the costs associated with it are also something to fathom about, especially before the entire exercise of building a relationship is talked about. There is the essential understanding of being on top of one’s game (as in marketing) so that the wastage is minimal and the end results comprise more successful ventures than the marketing team has planned in entirety (Morgan and Shelby, 1994). In essence, relationship marketing covers most of the areas which might be overlooked by other pointers or sub-domains of marketing and which shall always be given the much needed room by the marketing team before they undertake a campaign or an activity that solicits response from the consumers. This will bring in the results which were estimated before the relationship marketing avenues even kicked off. Example of Relationship Marketing Some of the most essential examples of relationship marketing can be seen when direct mail marketing is employed by certain brands, which is not only personalized but also very one on one. This means that the relationship marketing comes about in full circle, taking care of the individual needs rather than pinpointing towards a mass audience to extract benefits for the brands. Effect of Electronic Marketing Moving on towards electronic marketing, it is a fact that it includes just about anything that comes under the direct aegis of transmitting electronically – which fundamentally means that the reach aspect is also broader than one can think of (Son, Kim and Riggins, 2006: 473-508). The wastage element is also several times more than one can witness within relationship marketing. There are definite positives which need to be taken into consideration and same is the case with its drawbacks that must always be paid heed. Example of Electronic Marketing An example of electronic marketing doing wonders for the marketers and organizations is when the digital side behaves in exactly the same way as the above the line marketing dynamics. This suggests for properly manifesting the campaign on a digital platform, i.e. through the usage of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Vimeo and other avenues. If these tools are used in an adequately sound way, the results would be proper and shall bring about instant success for the campaigns under discussion. Effect of Integrated Marketing Communications Similarly, the integrated marketing communications brings about a fair enough view of how the marketing processes can best be utilized. This means that if integrated marketing communications is allowed the liberty to move around under the aegis of an organization’s different marketing campaigns, it will produce much better results than one can think of. It will highlight the essential basis of bringing all marketing strategies, tactics, undertakings and processes on a unified level, which shall mean more mileage for the marketing campaign in essence. The reduction in costs is also apparent when the organization under discussion makes use of the integrated marketing communications to suit its marketing needs (Kitchen and Li, 2005:51-78). The end result is such that there would be proper understanding for the consumers who will know exactly what the marketing processes are telling them and how they need to react in order to derive the best possible results. Example of Integrated Marketing Communications An example of integrated marketing communications can be easily interpreted when a specific brand is being marketed across a number of channels on television, radio, the newspapers, magazines, the digital platforms and through the ambient forms of media. It will make sure that the end consumers know exactly that there is synergy within the message that is coming for their sake and that they must act in a positive way. Overlapping of relationship marketing, electronic marketing and integrated marketing communications There is overlapping within these three areas of relationship marketing, electronic marketing and integrated marketing communications which one must comprehend before moving ahead further. Since relationship marketing takes into consideration the individualized efforts to reach out to the people, electronic marketing gives another alternative which is more inclusive and has a secondary essence. Similarly, the integrated marketing communications takes under its umbrella the combined role of both the relationship marketing regimes and the electronic marketing discipline. What the three does in effect is to create an overall feeling of reaching out to the end consumers in such a way that they start thinking of the brand or campaign in a very positive manner. They believe that this brand or campaign is talking to them in a language which is their very own. The overlapping is deemed as an important element here for the three forms of marketing because it makes sure that the synergistic effect of relationship marketing, electronic marketing and integrated marketing communications will sow the seed that shall reap rich fruit for the brands and the organizations which believe in enacting such mechanisms in the first place (Karuanga, Su and Beauregard, 2006). The need is to remain vigilant and the synchronized feel will make sure that all processes and strategies under the realms of marketing are unified and geared to achieve the results which have already been envisaged. How marketing helps the people nuances? The relational sentiment is thus made apparent through the efforts of the people who bring forward the relationship marketing, electronic marketing and the integrated marketing communications domains to the fore. Whenever there is a successful marketing campaign being gauged in terms of its effectiveness and efficiency, the discussion centers on the premise of bringing out the best possible outputs rather than what the inputs have been. This means that the three forms of marketing which have been detailed above are given the significance that is rightly required by any campaign working under the auspices of an organization. The marketing discipline shall always be the torchbearer under such settings because it sets the ball rolling and that too in the right direction. Conclusion To summarize the discussion that has been done till now, it would be fair to state that the marketing discipline is indeed comprised of a number of entities, all of which play one role or the other. These dictate the essential basis of understanding where the problems lie and how these can be done away with as and when required. Also a proactive measure sets the basis of undertaking quite a few steps which are geared to achieve results for the betterment of both the business and the end consumers (Kliatchko:7-34). All said and done, the overlapping of the three forms of marketing is always a good omen for the marketers, the end consumers and the marketing process. It is because of these measures that the brands and campaigns are able to reach out to newer markets, reclaim the old ones and thus reinforce sales whilst building a positive word of mouth all along. Bibliography Dwyer, F., Schurr, P. and Oh, S. April, 1987. “Developing Buyer-Seller Relationships.” Journal of Marketing, vol. 51, pp. 11-27. Kam, I., Han, D. and Schultz, D. March, 2004. “Understanding the Diffusion of Integrated Marketing Communications.” Journal of Advertising Research. Karuanga, E., Su, Z. and Beauregard, R. 2006. « Technological Innovations Diffusion in China.” Academy of Management Best Conference Paper 2006 TIM: XI. Kitchen, P. and Li, T. 2005. “Perceptions of Integrated Marketing Communications: a Chinese and PR agency perspective.” International Journal of Advertising, 24(1), pp. 51-78. Kliatchko, J. “Towards a new definition of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC).” International Journal of Advertising, 24(1), pp. 7-34. Morgan, R. and Shelby, D. July, 1994. “The Commitment-Trust Theory of Relationship Marketing.” Journal of Marketing. Son, J., Kim, S. and Riggins, F. July, 2006. “Consumer Adoption of Net-Enabled Infomediaries: Theoretical Explanations and an Empirical Test.” Journal of the Association for Information System, vol. 7, no. 7, pp. 473-508. Read More