Integrated Marketing Communications Campaigns - Assignment Example

Integrated Marketing Communications Campaigns Table of Contents A.The Different Integrated Marketing Communications Campaigns 2 B. Reasons for choosing the three Integrated Marketing Communications campaigns 3 I.Advertising by Apple 4 II.Public relations used by coca-cola 5 III.Direct marketing as well as data base marketing used by the Audi 6 D. The analyses of the similarities and the differences of the three IMC campaigns 7 E. The favourite IMC campaign and the reasons (Reflection) 9 F. The following are the communication tips for marketers in integrated marketing 10 G. Conclusion 11 Reference 11 A. The Different Integrated Marketing Communications Campaigns There are a number of concepts as well as philosophies associated with integrated marketing communication. It should also be noted that there is a difference between marketing communications tools, such as advertising and public relations. The concept also applies the principles of marketing theory to analyze given communications problem (Armstrong & Kotler, 2007). Integrated marketing communications refers to the process of integrating and coordinating all the marketing tools, functions, avenues and sources, which are within the company into a one seamless program that is capable of maximizing all the impacts felt by the consumers as well as any other end user but at a very minim cost. It also entails the management of the customer relations in the sense that they will be able to drive the new brand values through some efforts in communication. Some of these efforts are processes involving cross-functional which ensure a very successful profitable relationship is cultivated with the stakeholders as well as the customers though strategically influencing as well as controlling the messages that are sent to the groups as well as the encouraging the data-driven and purpose driven form of a business. There is all round coordination as well as integration of the tools of marketing communication, which should affects the firm’s business, the marketing channels, internal directed form of communications and customer-focused (Armstrong & Kotler, 2007). The three integrated marketing communication campaign used includes the following advertising, public relations and direct marketing as well as data base marketing. B. Reasons for choosing the three Integrated Marketing Communications campaigns The 4Ps approaches of service and product marketing have several shortcomings. The 4Ps model is internally oriented, product oriented, lacks human element, lacks interactivity with customers, lacks quality element and relation building and communication is absent in the 4Ps approach. This makes it inappropriate for service marketing that requires personalized relationship. Thus to address these shortcomings, service marketing has devised the services marketing mix. This is where the issues of employee motivation come in. Branding of the products, and services, knowledge management as well as integration of the departments in the company to ensure there is a connection between the employees and the customers in the process of service production so that the needs of the customers can be met effectively (O'Guinn et al. 2003). Still that is not enough and so the three integrated marketing communication campaign are used. One of the main purposes for the integration is to ensure the three tools or campaign works harmoniously with each other to accomplish the purpose it is intended to. This is because their sum output is far much better than their parts of the output. The integration of the three campaigns is very important in a number of ways to the business. They will help in improving the competitive advantage of the business, it will also boost the profits as well as the sales, and it will help in the savings in terms of stress, time and money. The campaigns will be communication strategies which will target the customers directly hence enabling them to successfully move through all the process that entails buying of the products. There is an aspect of communication improvement, company’s image consolidation, as well as nurturing the relationship of the company with the customers all over. The effect of the three campaigns helps to bind the customers together with loyalty so that the company can have consistence with its customers. C. Description of each campaign I. Advertising by Apple Four main characteristics are associated with advertisement. It is persuasive in its nature, it is non-personal, a non-identified sponsor usually pays for it and finally it is only disseminated only through the media or the mass communication. Through advertisement messages, the customers are able to adapt to the goods, the services, ideas and persons. The process of disseminating information through the mass media instead of using people to do it is also very cheap. It is one of the methods that are likely to reach to so many people in the whole world (Rix, 2007). It should be noted that the method is not very personal meaning that it lacks some ability to tailor the messages to the customers. The use of the internet to do the advertisement is very important. This is because of the fact that a company like the coca cola bottling. Some of the ways through which brand promotions have been used in the earlier days include the issue of banner advertisements, the interstitials and pop-ups, which were not as effective as the internet advertisement. They were not very good sales drivers but the innovations as well s the changes in the technology has been able to make things much better. This is because a company like is able to track the number of people who will visit their technology to dig out information about the products it deals in. In addition, the visitors on the website are bale to click on the different options and then acquire the relevant information they need for the products that they desire. In addition, the assistance does not end in acquiring the information because also purchases can be done through the website. The technology of advertisement is unique because the company can also use the symbols as well as images in the effort of advertising the products. It is by advertisement that the brand value can be easily maintained. The brand value of the company has been maintained through continuous innovation and creativity. The brand value of any given company refers to the feeling the customers and the entire world feel concerning the brand. One of the uniqueness the brands of the company like the apple have to the world is the effort it has continuously put in ensuring that the people of the world are always happy. It is evident form the people that all of the products that are associated by the Apple Company are ever fashionable of high quality, contains the latest technology, and contains a unique design which suit any age (Russell et el. 2004). II. Public relations used by coca-cola This refers to the process of management of the company’s functions, which are responsible to the identification, establishment as well as the maintenance of the relationship existing between the public and the organization since this determines the success as well as the failure of the company. The coca-cola company has been employing this kind of communication strategy for a while. The reason as to why the company preferred this type of communication is because unlike the advertisement strategy which is just a one on one strategy to the consumer from the marketer, public relations has the advantage of applying more than one audience in that it will affect the employees, the vendors, consumers and suppliers among others. It is very helpful in that it applies the technique of being a two-way form of communication since it allows for feedback. This is very useful for the Coca-Cola Company because the company is able to monitor the feedback that is received from the consumers of their product and then improve on the products (Cutlip et al, 2008). III. Direct marketing as well as data base marketing used by the Audi This is one of the ancient forms of marketing used by different companies. The strategy involves a direct communication with the customers to be able to acquire the information that is needed by the Audi Company and give some encouragement to the customers. It is done through a direct conversation over the telephone, electronic means, as well as mails or even at times, the employees make a personal visit to some clients. The following the are main users of the strategy in the business; the retailers, wholesalers, services providers as well as the manufactures and the methods that are mainly used for the effectiveness of this method includes, when there is an online purchase being done, the use of the networks in cable shopping, advertisement that requires telemarketing, informatics. It has the following advantages, increments in the total number of income holders this because of the fact that people are now able to do the online shopping without wasting a lot of time in the market places. The people have been able to use credit cards to do their shopping meaning that the purchase of products is now easier as well as very fast(Stone & Jacobs, 2001).. In addition, the company has been able to target a specific segment of the customers. There are three very important parts of brand management as far as the company is concerned by using the strategy, which are the image, feature, and the core values. These are very useful for the company in building the brand name to all of its customers. The issue of image has been used by the company for the purposes of winning it customer’s identification. The Audio has been committed in trying to build the image of the brand for all of its products. This explains why most of the people in the whole world think very positively about the products that are offered by the Audio Company as compared to other companies. It is very evident that even most of the parents will gladly buy films for their children as well as the entire family viewing form the Audio Company because they trust them. This explains why the three element appears in the centre most of the circle in the concentric. D. The analyses of the similarities and the differences of the three IMC campaigns The contributions towards sales are very hard to be obtained because of the fact that many factors are affecting it but the internet arena gives the exceptional as far as the issue is concerned. The exception to this thinking is within the internet arena. The use of the internet to do the advertisement is very important for companies such as Coca Cola Bottling. The three methods have some similarities in their effects as well as differences, which are listed as follows. The three methods are all geared towards helping the company to acquire the following They lead to improved level of creativity at a personal level hence leading to the creation of a room for innovation They lead the organization to a point of realizing economy of scale and so lowering the production costs. They ensure the company maintains consistency in terms of the quality of its services and products. They also enable the organization or the business repeating the mistakes it had committed. They Improve responsiveness in terms of competition They Improve the business’s process of decision making The following are the issues that have raised due to differences in the three campaign methods. New initiates have been under resistance. This is because of the fact that the company is composed of very talented and skilled professionals who feels that their work is very sufficient. They are very good in work but the problem is that each of them feels that their skills are sufficient hence spending much time in coming up with innovations rather that getting to response to the customers needs. A strong culture of self-containment This is whereby due to some of the experts in the company believing in themselves too much, they are out of touch to the innovations or rather the possibility of embracing innovation. Lack of enough trust with the communication system. There has been a continuous process of knowledge sharing within the organization. However, it has not been efficiently transmitted within the organization because the employees do not have trust in each other. This means that there is gap that has to be filled up so that people can freely share their concepts, ideas and experiences all in the effort of making the production better. High rate of turnover. This is whereby many employees come in the organization and before there has been sufficient time for them to share the knowledge they have, they leave the company and join the competitors. Poor motivation to share the existing knowledge. There are not proper incentive systems to encourage the employees to share their knowledge with other. Work pressure. The most expert in the company have so much work to do such that they do not get enough time to share the knowledge and skills that they have. This is because at some time they have many questions to deal with hence interfering with their performances in the organization. E. The favourite IMC campaign and the reasons (Reflection) My favourite campaign tool is data base marketing. This is because Database marketing refers to the process that involves more than agendas. It deals with the driving the customers as well as reinforcing the transactions of the sales. It also a strategy if used in any organization can use to add much value to its production in terms of increased production, organization’s management as well as the quality of the products the organization is dealing with. It also answers the following question, the current marketing objectives, and strategies. How effective the marketing process is controlled, the achievement of the marketing budget, how to realize or if there is a realization of the objectives in a smart way, the level of staffing, the way to develop staff and train them and finally the experience and learning achieved as per that level. It helps in market identification as well. This refers to the process of identifying the portion in the market exhibiting differences from each other. This process enables the company to meet the needs of the consumers. It also enables the business owners to be in a better position of competition with their competitors. The following are the criteria of identifying market segments - accessibility, identifiable, uniqueness of the needs, substantiality, and durability of the product. For a market, segment to be good then it should contain members that are externally heterogeneous and internally homogenous. F. The following are the communication tips for marketers in integrated marketing Decisions on promotion involve communication issues.  This is whereby information is passed to the customers with an aim of letting them to getting a positive response from the customers. The following are the main decisions that are involved in the marketing strategy of promotion; promotional strategy like the pull or the push, advertising, publicity and public relations, budget on marketing communications, sales promotions, sales force and personal selling.  Company has greatly employed theses factors to ensure it has catered for the needs of its customers efficiently (Dennis, 2001). It has a personal spokesperson that relays the information about the activities of the company to the world and especially the customers who are interested in the products the company deals with.  It is able to have its new products in the market before they are published in the magazines. This ensures that as the company goes ahead to advertise its new product in the market people are already desperately looking for the product. This also enables the product to sell very fast.  It also promotes its sales by selling their products to the royal people who are highly esteemed. This ensures that people or rather the customers gains full confidence in their products. The company has made it a trend to launch over 11,000 new products every year. This had enabled the customers to expect automatically new products in the market frequently without necessarily being advertised. Once in while the company also carries out sales promotion to its customers. G. Conclusion The marketers should always consider the needs of the customers. This means that there should be a research carried out in the vicinity where the business will be set to be able to establish what the customers need. The need depends on the gap that other marketers have not filled. In other words, the marketers must be in a position to give the consumers what they have not been given. For example, a product like a Toyota Prado car may be in existence in the market (Hisrich, 2000). However, the marketer must go to extend of checking out what that particular make of a car does not have and then introduce such in the market. It could be that the latest model in that town does not have the alarm system or rather the ant robbery system Reference Armstrong, G., & Kotler, P. (2007). Marketing, 8th Ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Cutlip et al. (2008). Effective public relations, 10th Ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Dennis, A. (2001). Marketing: principles and practice, 4th Ed. Financial Times, Prentice Hall: New York. O'Guinn, T. C., Allen, C. T., & Semenik, R. J. (2003). Advertising and integrated brand promotion, 3rd Ed. Ohio: Thomson South-Western. Rix, P. (2007). Marketing: A Practical Approach, 6th Ed. McGraw-Hill: Australia. Russell, J. T., & Lane, W. R. (2004). Kleppner’s advertising procedure, 16th Ed. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. Schultz, D. E., & Kitchen, P. J. (2000). Communicating globally: An integrated marketing approach. Basingstoke: Macmillan. Semenik, R. (2002). Promotion & integrated marketing communications. Ohio: Thomson Learning. Stone, B., & Jacobs, R. (2001). Successful direct marketing methods, 7th Ed. Illinois: McGraw-Hill. Shimp, T. A. (2003). Advertising, promotion & supplemental aspects of integrated marketing communications, 6th Ed. Ohio: Thomson South-Western.   Read More