An Integrated Marketing and Communication Perspective - Essay Example

Integrated Management Communication . Student’s Name: Grade course Tutor’s Name Date: Introduction Integrated Management Communication is the method at which business community communicate with their current and potential customers. This allows the customer to know which new products and services they can get from the companies that are using IMC. IMC allows the company to send messages and advertisements as well as monitoring the outcome of such messages. There are different methods of IMC which include advertisement, sales promotion, trade fairs, public relations, direct selling among others. This tools aim at creating and promoting the already existing brand names. Therefore, there is need for companies and their marketing teams to decide which tool to use after weighing up their advantages and disadvantages. This will ensure they select a tool that will best suit their products and services and enable them to penetrate the market. The company should always consider their goals and objectives while selecting which tool to use in marketing their products. The tools are used in different occasions for example; when a company wants to create awareness among its customers the best tool to use is advertisement. It will also be of great assistance while introducing new products in the market. There are tools such as direct marketing and internet marketing that suit companies that have direct contact with their customers and their potential customers. The companies which want to increase their sales will tend to sales promotion since will have a direct contact with their current and potential customers. There are also the companies which aim at sending specific messages to their specific customers. This method aims at maintaining specific customers. The companies should consider the targeted customers before they chose which tool to use. The reason behind this is to ensure the selected tool is in line with the company goals, objectives and principles. The designed integrated marketing tool will be used to market hotel services of the McDonald outlets. Internet Marketing Internet marketing is one of the tools of IMC which have developed in the recent past and are being used by many businesses to reach their target market. It is a very good tool to be used in the service and hospitality industry because the companies can relate directly with their customers. The use of internet marketing includes the use of social media to communicate with their customers. This method has been effective because the existing customers influence their friends who they interact using the internet (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010).The companies that use the internet to market their brands ensure that they are remembered by their target market. The companies mainly use Facebook as one way of engaging their customers where they create pages for their customers to like and invite their friends. This allows the companies to widen their clientele base. In the fan pages the company directly communicates with their customers and this allows the customers to suggest on how the products can be improved. Facebook helps the companies to increase the number of customer through referrals. The companies also use Twitter where they create accounts and have their customers follow them (Lilien, & Grewal, 2012). This allows the customers to give feedback to the company directly. Social media is becoming a necessity in the business community where companies are taking it as one of their strategic business options. Therefore, McDonald should not be an exception because it will allow it to widen its clientele base. This will help the company to gain customers even in the areas where they do not have outlets. This is a tool that is gaining popularity than public relations. Use of social media reaches a lot of audience more than any other tool of IMC (Buil, Chernatony and Hem, 2009). Direct Marketing It is considered as the total undertakings through which the seller directs all the determinations to a certain specific audience while using one or more media networks so as to get a response through the use of mails, telephone or even through a private visit from a potential customer (Kotler & Cox, 1980). The direct marketing mainly encompasses of the direct mail, internet selling, direct selling, cable TV selling, direct action marketing and catalogue selling among others. In the recent past the direct marketing has significantly grown due to the constant shifting society structures for instance the latest growth of money rich personalities who possess huge amount of money to spend as well as the existence of time poor people who have little or inadequate time to move about doing the purchasing of different products and the products in the market (Egan, 2007). In order for the direct marketing to achieve its goals it combines with the personal selling, advertising and sales promotion of the services as well as the products. The direct mail is mainly considered as the all the forms of promotion that are sent directly to the prospective clients through the national postal service or even through the private courier facilities. The direct mail mainly includes the inclusions, flyers, broadsides, self-mailers, house organs, catalogues, postcards, folders, sales letters as well as the reprints (Burrow, 2008). The direct marketing mainly contains numerous benefits such as the selective reach of the potential customers, flexibility, timing, personalisation, effectiveness measurement of the economy, market segmentation, as well as the rate of the prospective consumers. It also contains various drawbacks which encompasses of the negative effect on the image of the company, inadequate sustenance content and the exactness of the marketing policy. McDonald can use this strategy together with the other market mix tools to penetrate and widen the market (Egan, 2007). Advertisement It is mainly considered as the passing of material and the messages to the clients in order to convince them to raise the number of their sales. This is mainly aimed at manipulating customers’ behaviour towards a particular direction. This is also mainly intended at growing the company’s income from augmented sales (Belch, 2009). McDonald can take any form of advertisement in order to ensure that their services have improved demand amongst their existing clients as well as the potential ones. This can mainly be passed on through any form of media channels in order to reach as numerous people as possible. Advertisement is mainly considered as an art of making the public’s aware of a certain company’s product and services as well as where they can access them from. It is the most discernible form of marketing, and it is also the most recognisable and identifiable by a lot of people (Egan, 2007). Advertisement mainly takes various forms such as the advertising, corporate identity, branding, exhibitions and special offers among others (Belch, 2009). Advertisement considered as a form of communication by the company to its clients. Advertisement demands on informing the client about the benefits of the product or the services rather than its features. It must capture the attention of the client; therefore, it should be attractive and have a consistent message. The message contained in promotional materials should be easy to comprehend. It should display in a very strong way as well as provide the client with a substantial reason as to why they should be buying from the McDonald and not from a competitor (Lilien, & Grewal, 2012). For this to be successful, the company should make sure that the communication between the management and employees is very clear and well understood. The company’s employees should at all times have the accurate information concerning the company’s products. This will make employee feel acknowledged and will work towards the growth of the company; therefore, they will at all times let the clients know about the product or the service and purchase it (Belch, 2009). Advantages and disadvantages of personal selling Personal selling is mainly considered as one of the most effective methods of promotion mainly due to the fact that it develops interaction between a company and a probable customer or client. In a case of a scenario where a sales person is in direct communication with a potential consumer, for instance, video conferencing, emails, telephone as well as through the face to face meetings (Buil, Chernatony and Hem, 2009). Personal selling usually has various advantages which include; it offers a chance to develop a relationship which is very strong and lasting which boosts customer loyalty to the company. Personal selling also aids in creating a dialogue which usually gives the sales personnel the chance to clarify, listen, respond to questions, gain feedback, as well as convince a potential customer. Personal selling aids in the creation of the support between the sales personnel and a probable customer. The disadvantages of personal selling mainly comprise of the following; unsuccessful sales persons can lose clients as well as damage the business. Personal selling is very expensive advertising instrument when compared to other advertising tools, for instance the costs of travel as well as the provision of the incentives (Belch, 2009). So as to make personal selling to be successful, there is always a great need to maximise the selling audience by for instance, hosting own information sessions, trade shows and presenting at expos. Therefore, McDonald can take personal selling to market its products as well as the services mainly because the method will permit immediate feedback from the consumers as well as the prospective ones (Kotler & Cox, 1980). Sales promotions A sale promotion is considered as a significant tool of Integrated Marketing Communication that is gaining admiration among business. It is also one of the tools of advertising mix and others comprises of the public relations, advertisement and personal selling (Burrow, 2008). This promotional tool has a great advantage to the business due to the fact that they can apply business price discrimination strategy. This will definitely raise the companies’ returns due to the fact that the sellers are in position to sell at a lesser price without experiencing any losses. It is a promotional tool that can be utilised by the business owners to sway consumer behaviour this is due to the fact that a sales promotion is meant for different resolution, for instance, customers increment can be very favourable to the McDonald. This also offers the policies of sales promotion which mainly comprises of the price discrimination which is a technique that lets the businesses to use diverse prices on the same product to diverse target markets. This is mainly centred on the price sensitivity of the clients at specific markets. The businesses which mainly utilises this technique, use vouchers as well as special prices to appeal the price sensitive clients. The companies also utilises a technique of decreasing prices of their products or the services. This method is considered to be very effective mainly because it attracts clients from all the target customers. Coupons are also another technique of sales promotion which the businesses use to attract the customers through reduced price offers (Buil, Chernatony and Hem, 2009). The coupons are usually found in the magazines, journals, newspapers while other companies issue them to their clients. Another method of sales promotion is the pack, where by the company offers an additional product to the clients because of buying a certain product without charging them. The companies may also use free gifts together with the bought merchandise, this mainly aids in the increase of the sales due to the fact that clients normally prefer buying the product offering the free gift. The companies can also utilise the free mail-ins technique, in this technique a client has to make a certain amount of purchases and retains the receipt with them. After acquiring a certain number of purchases they redeem them for a specific amount of the merchandise. Other methods under sales promotion are self-liquidating offers as well as the competitions and contests (Fraser, Merrilees and Wright, 2007). Therefore, McDonald can utilise the sales promotion approach to infiltrate some areas of its target market by proposing cheap prices in the areas where its products and the services has not been performing well. The company can also give high prices in the high income areas so as to upsurge its incomes. They can also offer vouchers to their clients which will make the clients obtain more products and services. Sales promotion strategies The article offers the policies of sales promotion. The article also clarifies that sales promotion has been one of the best effective tools of IMC. The main goal behind its effectiveness is due to the fact that it is directly related to customers and has the capability of increasing sales. The paper also states that sales promotion is significant mainly due to the fact that it has the capability to reach all levels of customers. This technique usually has strategies which can aid business to make use of it to bring improved benefits to clients as well as the businesses. There are mainly three strategies or approaches that are generally recognised and that can aid the business to raise their sales. The strategies comprise of the push strategy; this strategy mainly aims at being sure that the product is needed by the clients. The clients are usually in a dilemma about where to get a certain product whenever they need it. The consumers normally get the products from wholesalers and retailers. Therefore, the company offers incentives to the wholesalers and retailers in order to make them upsurge the sales by promoting the product. This method is usually relevant in situations where there is stiff competition in the market as well as where the slight change in market sales will lead to an increase in revenues This technique is advantageous to wholesalers and retailers due to the fact that they are given limits so as to ensure that when it comes to sales, the product is given special preferences (Kotler & Cox, 1980). Pull strategy another strategy, in this technique the producer assumes that the clients are not aware of the product. The producer works in collaboration with the wholesalers and retailers in order to ensure that the customers find the product attractive by both the looks and taste. The last strategy of sales promotion is mix strategy; is all about mixing factors of push and pull strategies. The producer plans on how to produce incentive to both wholesalers and retailers to make them make the customer aware of the product. The method aids the company more mainly due to the fact that the method is comprehensive and reaches the target market (Fraser, Merrilees and Wright, 2007). The article warns that the strategy requires a lot of planning and funding. Public relations agencies This process mainly seeks to manage the relationship with the customers, general public, suppliers, stockholders, employees, and the suppliers. The public relations usually makes use of the following process in its procedures, the determination and evaluation of public, identification of policies and procedures, as well as the development and execution of the program (Kotler & Cox, 1980). The public relations usually have various functions such as the following, it, the creation of the advertisement bulletin where there is no merchandise broadcast introduction of a product with little or no advertisement required, construction of the marketplace enthusiasm before media promotion breaks provision of a value-added customer service, construction of a brand-to-customer bonds, the manipulating of the persuasive such as the establishment of the information to opinion leaders as well as the protecting of the merchandises at risk and giving clients a motive to purchase those products and services (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010). The public relations information is utilised by the following audiences, the firm employees, the stakeholders, investors, the community members, the suppliers, customers, print and broadcast media, the educators, the civic and business organizations, the governments and finally the financial groups (Lilien, & Grewal, 2012). The internet provides the organisations with a chance of developing real communication between the public and the organisations. The terms such as the dialogic and dialogue are becoming more widespread in the description of the practical and ethical methodologies to communications in the industry as well the academia. This is usually done as the public relations research, theory move towards a communication model of two- way, which is related (Fraser, Merrilees and Wright, 2007). Researchers highly recommend that online strategies should be an essential part of practitioners’ store, and an inclusive set of perfect practices should be formed by a practitioner. This is usually likely through the combining of the online strategies together with traditional public relations. Taylor and Kent are the ones behind the theory of dialogical theory of public relations. This theory expresses the principles of communications between publics and organisations, based on relational communication theory, which usually argues that open discourse and honesty are very essential and vital to key relationships. Dialogic communication framework has also been suggested, a framework through which the degree to which website is used by organisations to ease the dialogue with their public, can be measured by researchers (Turban, King and Lang, 2011). This framework has been useful to a various number of organisational types, and these mainly comprises of the following, activist organisations, non-profit organisations, congressional offices, as well as universities and colleges. The most fascinating thing about this is the degree to which agencies of public relations utilises their own websites to participate in the dialogic communication which is yet to be discovered (Fraser, Merrilees and Wright, 2007). Exploring it is meaningful to follow due to the following reasons; examining websites of agencies should offer an indication of the dialogic website as well as the strategies communication popularity among agencies. It also likely to suggest the degree at which academic recommendations has entered the public relations field. Secondly, the study of agencies interaction with clients or more so potential clients and in a public medium is valuable (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010). This is because, client- agency relationship might require a different website communication strategies set and not what is already suggested research of previous dialogic communication. Since agencies that have higher billings are usually larger, it is suggested that their websites also have different features .This can be used by McDonald to increase their popularity among the customers so as to increase their clientele base. Personal selling Marketing is usually done so as to make selling easier while making a lot of returns. The main purpose is in order to be familiar with and recognise the customer very well in such a way that a product sells itself by fitting the need of all the consumers (Burrow, 2008). Selling is considered as a very vital part of the integrated marketing communication, which has to be coordinated very well for greatest effect on the market place. The marketing communication mix mainly comprises of non-personal selling and personal selling. Personal selling involves face to face, internet chat, or telephone presentation so as to build relationships and make sales. Non- personal selling includes public relations, sales promotion, advertising and direct marketing (Turban, King and Lang, 2011). Marketing mainly insists on undertaking a wonderful job of promoting, pricing, developing and distribution of a product to the client in such a way that the product sells itself to the client. Organisations have understood that the greatest way is to keep current clients, as opposed to finding new clients so as to make sales; this is far more way cheaper than enticing new ones. This has largely contributed to the focus on the marketing relationship which mainly involves working more closely with client in so as to build long lasting relationships with time. Personal selling is mainly considered as the pillar of development of the relationships due to the fact that it is so focussed towards achievement of the satisfying results which are mutual between a seller and a buyer. This in turn improves and endures future relations (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010). Conclusion This paper clearly illustrates that the effects of IMC can be evaluated. There is a great need to form a special ways of gauging the effects of these tools whenever they are used by the businesses. It clearly shows that the outcomes of IMC tools can be measured and amended to provide for businesses and customers’ needs and objectives. Each an every tool of IMC is intended at generating awareness among the clients about the products and the services being offered by the businesses. In order to decide which tool will serve the role in the most suitable way there is need to identify the target audience. The paper calls for more integration so as to achieve success in customer communication. References Belch, G.E. (2009). Advertisement and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing and Communication Perspective. Sydney: McGraw-Hill. Buil, I., Chernatony, L., and Hem, L.(2009). Brand extension strategies: perceived fit brand type and culture influences. European Journal of Marketing, 43(11/12), pp.1300-1324. Burrow, J. (2008) Marketing: Marketing Titles from Burrow Series, Cengage Learning: Michigan Egan, J., (2007). Marketing communications. London: Thomson Learning. 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