Shift to Integrated Marketing Communications - Research Paper Example

Topic: Shift to Integrated Marketing Communications Integrated Marketing Communications According to Pickton and Broderick (2005) integrated marketing Communications (ICM) refers to the consolidation of all known marketing tools, marketing strategies as well as the resources of the company. The main purpose of Integrated marketing Communications is to maximise the profit of the company by efficiently using the little resources that are available at the time. Integrated marketing Communications use direct communications and start with client and move backwards to the person who communicated the brand (Koekemoer et al 2004). It utilise all forms of communications as well as brand or company contacts channels to deliver the promotional message to the intended customers. Integrated marketing communications create strong brand image because it is created by synergy and proper coordination. Pride et al (2009) stated that integrated marketing Communications is coordinating all the promotional efforts of a product or a service with the main reason of maximising the impact of the information and persuasion applied on promotional undertakings. The basis of Integrated marketing Communications is to send and deliver consistent message about a given product or service to the customers. According to Koekemoer and steve (2004) asserted that integrated marketing Communications can be used to manage customer relationships so as to propel the value of the brand. They further argued that for integrated marketing Communications to occur, four stages must be fulfilled. The first stage is developing the policies of sending, delivering and receiving combined marketing messages. The second stage is to consider the source of the company’s brand as well as the product distribution channels. This provides useful information on how the message can be transmitted to the intended customer or consumer. It is important at stage two to widen the scope of communication activities to include employees, suppliers as well as other relevant business partners. The wider inclusion of key stakeholders help to support and align the marketing communication activities of given product or service to the customers or consumers. The third stage Koekemoer and steve (2004) recommended for efficient integrated marketing Communications is the use of information technology (IT) when utilising the available data. Information technology provides a foundation to identify the impact and value of both internal and external marketing communication programmes. The fourth stage is to align strategic planning to be driven by consumer orientations. The last stage also suggests that cost incurred during the marketing activities must be tracked and the level of return on customer investment must also be determined. Finally, integrated marketing communications provides a business organization with an opportunity to organize and coordinate all its promotional efforts to promote consistent marketing messages. According to Fill (2006) marketing communications is comprised of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations. It combines all elements of brands to a single whole. It is interactive and networked marketing approach. It takes into consideration the sales force, the product, and means of distribution, customer service, pricing and company’s image. It is used to gain competitive edge over competitors and improves organizational learning. The factors driving integration There are many factors that have been used to explain a shift towards integrated marketing Communications. The factors are technological, political, social and economical. The first factor is the advancement of information communication technology. There have been considerable rapid improvements of communication gadgets and computer software. Mobile phones, computers and other important electronic accessories are becoming household products. The forms of communication have increased in number significantly as a result of advancement in communication technology. They include magazines, podcasts, DVDs, social networking, emails, World Wide Web (Brierley 2006). Most people are computer literate and Internet is becoming increasingly available to millions of people in the world. Computers and other communication devices have made communication much easier and cheaper. It has also promoted personalisation of information communication devices has made direct mailing possible. Direct mailing target individual customers. Computers have also improved database management. As a result, improved technologies in the information communication sector have positively promoted integrated marketing communications. The second factor is the increasing cost of advertisements. Peppers and Rogers (2004) assert that integrated marketing communications came into existence to help companies cope up with high cost of marketing. It was developed by advertising companies to help their clients reduce marketing costs and improve their profits. The costs of advertising materials have been skyrocketing and companies have realised that the return on investment of advertising activities are not impressive. In addition, down turn in the global economy has made most of the companies to cut down advertising budget as part of the strategy to minimise their expenses. As a result, cost efficient marketing programmes are essential for the companies. Integrated marketing communication achieves many audiences at lower cost as compared to mass media. The third factor that drives integrated marketing Communications is increasing competition. The fierce competition in the market has given the customers opportunity to choose their suppliers. As a result, they are becoming more powerful in controlling the market. Customer loyalty is essential to retain companies’ customers. To built and nurture customer loyalty requires use of personalized promotional techniques which can only be achieved by maintaining accurate customer records. Getting complete customer information demands integrated communications from all channels that comes in contact with the customer (Tapp 2000). Relevant information is relayed back to the customer using integrated promotional techniques. Furthermore, integrated marketing communications emerged because the current customer or consumer has been empowered (De Pelsmacker et al 2007). Customers know what they want and are being increasingly sensitive to how businesses response to their needs. Currently, managing customer relationships is important because it is driving brand value. Therefore, integrated marketing Communications has proved to be a cross functional means of creating and nurturing profitable customer relationships (Kitchen and de Pelsmacker 2004). Increased segmentation is another important factor that drives integrated marketing communication. According to Koekemoeret al (2004)companies are becoming more focused on data-based advertising rather than general focus advertising. Specialized goods and services are produced and the marketers must advertise on specialized segments to pass the product message to the relevant target audience. Specialized marketing promotions have been found to increase the sales of products and services (Pride et al 2009). Public relations have also shifted from maintaining positive corporate image to maintaining brand and product image as a way of achieving competitive edge. This is only possible through integrated marketing communication. Globalisation is another factor that has driven integrated marketing communication. This is because with internet services in nearly all corners of the world, the world is becoming a global village. People are becoming aware of various products and services of intrastate and interstate companies. As a result, promotional companies must globalise their marketing strategies to reach and appeal to both national and international clients. The future and integrated marketing communications There are many benefits that have direct association with the introduction of integrated marketing communications. The key among them is increased communication impact that has created competitive edge, increased profits and sales as well as save time, money and stress (Fill 2005). It has been possible to develop highly creative and effective ideas through the use of integrated marketing communications. Greater message consistency and return on marketing investments have been improved. Furthermore, integrated marketing communications has created sustainable customer relationships as well as efficient use of marketing resources in the business. The role played by integrated marketing communication has been outstanding. The companies will continue to use this approach in future promotional and marketing activity in order to sustain and improve its current positive performances. It is becoming increasingly important to build and strengthen company’s brands. The businesses have become customer driven and there is need for continued customer relationship. Customer loyalty developed and nurtured through good customer relationship creates a bond that protects businesses from fierce competition. This is relevant in the current and future competitive landscape. As a result, integrated marketing communication will continue to evolve and play significant role in building customer relationships. It increases profits through improved effectiveness. Consolidated message is important in the current world. This is because people are too busy and do not have sufficient time to choose messages to go through thousands of messages that bombard them every day. Integrated marketing communication has been instrumental in creating more avenues to make customers aware and purchase the product or service. The messages of integrated marketing communication are more consistent and credible. It has been able to shorten product search process and dictate the outcomes of product and brand comparisons. Integrated marketing communications requires a lot of efforts to be achieved. The future of integrated marketing communications lies solely on following factors. Companies and promotional agencies should be flexible. Issues such as resistance to change will dictate the use of integrated marketing communications in future. This is because integrated marketing depend on promotional tools that are changing and advancing at high speed. Consequently, consolidated marketing should be able to change at nearly the same speed to be relevant. This will be dictated by presence of innovation and creativity among the company employees and availability of integrated marketing skills. Managers and employees of the company should be flexible and considerable enough to let off their personal interests such as power and control in order to allow injection of new ideas into their departments. The company should align integrated communication with the company’s strategic plans. This will ensure that the promotional activities will have the support of the top management and other employees. Furthermore, it will have reduced barriers during implementation of its marketing activities. In addition, integrated marketing communications must start at the top and trickle down to other employees in the organization. The top down strategy will demand commitment and active support of the chief executive officer. In addition to financial support, what is required is internal support in terms of directives, memos and cheering of the chief executive officer and departmental heads. It must also be clear to every employee that integrated marketing communications marketing is important for the survival of the company. Another challenge is time horizon. An image advertising that has been designed to develop and nurture a given brand may conflict with promotional activities that are meant to achieve sales in the short term. This is because most promotional slogans and images developed under integrated communication marketing are meant to last for a longer period of time. Much time and resource have been invested for the promotional activity and becomes difficult to frequently change the integrated communication challenge. Lack of integrated marketing expertise among the managers is a serious challenge that may impact negatively to the future advancement of integrated marketing communications. There are few people who have the experience of all marketing communications disciplines. As a result, few people can implement the consolidated marketing with ease. Lack of compressive skills in all promotional fields may scare off the managers from implementing consolidated market promotions. As a result prefer other easier available alternatives known to them over years which may be inefficient and ineffective. This is because consolidated marketing demands commitment, hard work and relevant skills that take time and money to acquire. The company should be committed to the satisfaction of the customer. The company needs to identify and learn the clients well at all levels. Therefore, the company should direct all energies to locating and satisfying customer rather than concentrating only on product production (Christopher et al 2002). The company should also be able to realign marketing programs so as to make the customer friendly and active. The company must also communicate freely in the organization. Free flow of information promotes information integration from all departments. Communication of information must also be centralized. This will ensure that consistent messages are relayed to all relevant departments of the company and more importantly the consumer. Therefore, communication function must be retained by corporate leadership and must be viewed as a major company activity. The benefit of integrated marketing communication is enormous. Consequently, most companies will continue to develop and nurture it to continue developing competitive edge and increasing the product sales. However, company managers must be flexible, communication must be freely flowing in the organization and integrated marketing communication must be supported from the top. References Blythe, J. (2006) Essentials of Marketing Communications, Pearson Education, London Brannan, T. (1995) A practical guide to integrated marketing communications, Kogan Page Publishers, London Brierley, S. (2006) The Advertising Handbook Routledge, London Chaffey, D., Mayer, R., Johnston, K. and Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2003), Internet Marketing, 2nd edition Pearson Education, London Christopher, M., Payne, A and Ballantyne, D. (2002) Relationship Marketing Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford De Pelsmacker, P., Geuens, M., & Van den Bergh, J., (2007) Foundations of Marketing Communications, Prentice Hall, London Fill, C. (2006) Simply Marketing Communications Prentice Hall, London Fill, C. (2005) Marketing Communications Prentice Hall, London Gummesson, E. (2002), Total Relationship Marketing, 2nd edition, Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford Hackley, C. (2005) Advertising and Promotion – communicating brands, Sage Publications, London Kitchen, P. and de Pelsmacker, P. (2004) Integrated marketing communications: a primer, Routledge, London Koekemoer, L and Steve Bird, S. (2004) Marketing Communications, Juta and Company Ltd. Pride, W., Hughes, R. and Kapoor, J. (2009) Business 10th Edition, Cengage Learning, USA Schultz, D., Tannenbaum, S. and Lauterborn, R. (1994) The new marketing paradigm: integrated marketing communications, McGraw-Hill Professional, London Schultz, D., Tannenbaum, S. and Lauterborn, R. (1993) Integrated marketing communications, McGraw-Hill Professional, London Shimp, T.(2008) Advertising Promotion, and Other Aspects of Integrated Marketing Communications, Cengage Learning, USA Tapp, A. (2000) Principles of Direct & Database Marketing, 2nd edition, Financial Times Publishing, London Read More