Integrated Marketing Communication for the Companies to Achieve the Desired Results - Case Study Example

Integrated Marketing Communication

• Introduction

Marketing can be defined as an activity or a set of processes and institutions that create, communicate, deliver and exchange offerings which have a value for the clients, partners and public at large. Marketing mix is such a tool that can be used in a business for the purpose of marketing and by the marketers. There are 4Ps of marketing mix namely, product, price, place and promotion. Advertising is a very powerful tool and if it is used properly, the organizations can be successful.

IMC or Integrated Marketing Communications is the process of expansion of the utilisation of both the traditional and the modern marketing strategies for optimising the communication system of a message that conveys the brand of the company to its stakeholders (Roll, 2006). The mixing of different processes together is an added value to create a successful communication, since it harnesses individual advantages of each of the channels (Quirke, 2008). If the benefits of the channels are compiled together, a vaster and a clearer vision is constructed, which is not possible if it is individually used. Achieving clarity and synergy in between the different elements helps in the construction of valuable comprehensibility among messages while addressing the target audience for building long-term relationships and for fostering short term, medium term and long term profitability. The company initially has a detailed and structured plan which includes the intentions of the campaigns in a very comprehensive manner, regarding what it wishes to attain from the various mediums that are used. For achieving success by using the IMC, it is very important for the marketers to identify the present boundaries around the elements of the promotional mix and to which extent the message of the campaigns would be grasped by the masses. Examples of Integrated Communications are sales promotions, general advertising, direct response and public relations. For example, MontBlanc is a company that specialises in the manufacture of pens. It uses different elements of the marketing mix that includes design, price, product, distribution strategy and brand name for the creation of upscale and high quality usage image for its products. Integrated Marketing Communications plays a vital role in business-to- business interactions, internally directed communications, consumer focused communications and in the marketing-channel communications (Chaffey and Smith, 2013). With the help of Integrated Marketing Communications, promotion is affected positively. The function of Integrated Marketing Communications on promotion is described as follows:

• It helps in a two way communication technique with the customers, which is very important for knowing the tastes and preferences of the target consumers.
• IMC focuses on building a long-term relationship with its consumers (Blakeman, 2015).
• The marketers apply and coordinate various types of communications for interacting with the consumers.

IMC covers a wide range of various strategies and media that would prove to be very useful for the communication mix (Fischhoff, 2011). It uses different mediums like radio, PR, TV, Direct, social media, etc. Integrated Marketing Communications uses a selective compilation of the appropriate communication types that would be helpful for making promotion mix a success. It also helps in the meeting of a common objectives set for the particular brand. For example, Nike, Inc. collaborates with other shoe retailers such as Foot Locker, which is a form of B2B (Business-to-business marketing). It involves selling products of one company to another. The stores of Nike, Inc. town directly sell shoes to their customer that is a type of B2C. B2C refers to the best practices and the tactics that are used for promoting the products and the services of a company among its customers (Kumar, 2008). There are eight main functions of communication mix and they are mentioned as follows:

• Direct Marketing
• Personal Selling
• Advertising
• Publicity and public relations
• Personal Selling
• Packaging
• Social Media
• Sales Promotion
• Sponsorships and Events

Advertising

Advertising can be defined as a type of marketing communication that is used for promoting or selling a product or service. It involves the time and space for which an amount of money is given by the particular advertiser to the owner of the media (Koltsova, 2006). The messages include those on which editorial control cannot be exercised by the medium. The medium can only accept or reject it but cannot alter its contents. An example can be the use of the ‘before and after’ technique, by portraying the effect that the product or service is likely to bring after its use. If the business involves the sale of weight loss systems or products, the effectiveness of the products and services can be evaluated by the photos that show the ‘before and after’ effect.

Direct Marketing

Direct Marketing is a selective and selected communication and distribution channel (Kazmi, 2011). It involves direct response and it is interactive. It involves the media, for example, print, telemarketing, TV and the Internet. The purpose of direct marketing is to make the products and the services of an organisation visible to the audience so that they are aware of the availability and benefits of the products and services (Boyd, 2014). It is used to make the audience aware of the possible advantages and the benefits that they will be able to derive from them. It also serves the purpose of approaching a large number of public rather than approaching the targeted customers one at a time (Duhigg, 2012).

Publicity and Public Relations

Publicity can be defined as the process of increasing the public awareness or existence of a product (Callen, 2010). For example, news stories or interviews in the trade journals, magazines, newspapers, industry sites, etc., quotes of various experts in a particular story that is written by a blogger or a journalist, speaking engagements, etc.

Public relations can be defined as communication activities which help a company and its targeted publics to mutually adapt to one another for gaining the cooperation and the support of such publics (Stromback and Kiousis, 2011).

Sales Promotion

Sales promotion is a short-term focus and it is targeted at the customers and trade (Winer, 2008). Examples of sales promotion include bonus packs, samples, coupons, sweepstakes, competitions, etc.

Personal Selling

The process of personal selling involves a process of selling, in which a salesman sells a solution, product or service to the customer after meeting him personally (Pride and Ferrel, 2010). For example, in the department stores where the cosmetics and the perfumes can be purchased by the customers from the counters and the salespersons persuade the consumers to buy them by telling them the benefits that can be derived from the products that are offered for sale.

Social Media or Internet

This process involves co-creating with the customers and the examples of it are Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, etc.

There are five factors that are the key success factors of communication mix and they are discussed below:

• Persuasion

It is the sole reason organisations involve in marketing: for persuading the target audience for taking an action, for example, buying their products or subscribing to the services, make a call, or to donate money. When Coca-Cola advertises its TV commercials, or runs print advertisements, it has an objective in mind; which is, to convince the targeted audience that it is the cola that is very refreshing and it helps in bringing the world in a single place, so it is best to drink Coke!

• Goal Directed

All of the marketing communications are extremely goal directed (Singh and Singh, 2006). It is very important that there is a specific objective when a marketing strategy is created. In a typical sense, the goals and the objectives are to deliver information, sell the product or to create brand awareness.

• Contact Points

Each and every successful plan of marketing communications requires the marketing management at all the contact points (Lieberman and Esgate, 2014). The contact points are the marketing messages which the target audience receives. They act as vehicles which distribute the marketing message. The contact points might be either planned or unplanned. Examples of the planned contact points are advertisement, business cards, brochures, packaging or websites. Examples of unplanned contact points include cleanliness and hygiene of the store, attitudes of the employees and store layouts. For the effective persuasion of the targeted audience for purchasing the product or the service, all the contact points need to be successfully managed for ensuring that the product and the service are in accordance to the brand message that is planned.

• Stakeholders (Opinion Influencers/Opinion Leaders)

The stakeholders are sometimes referred to as the Opinion Influencers or the Opinion Leaders (Lee, 2014). It is so because in marketing the communications, they are the groups or the individuals who have the power to influence the buying of the product or the service as well as in the success of an organisation. Examples of stakeholders include government regulators, media, employees, and the distributors. Most of the organisations are of the view that their employees are their main stakeholders (Belal, 2008). The reason behind this is that if the employees are taken good care of by the companies they would provide better customer services and also good in-store experiences for the targeted audience.

• Message

The message of marketing communications is planned or is unplanned (Grönroos, 2007). This message forms the base of the strategy of marketing communications. Various tools and techniques are applied for delivering the marketing message. Examples of the tools of planned marketing are as follows:

• Online or printed advertising
• Websites
• Marketing Collateral like annual reports or brochures
• Public Relations
• Sales Promotions
• Personal Selling
• Direct Marketing
• Customer Service
• Point of Purchase displays
• Sponsorships

Nike, Inc. is a very famous brand that have been serving its customers for a long time and it uses advertising as an aspect of communications mix for reaching out to its customers. Since Nike, Inc. is a very popular and a well-known brand, it has a huge fan following on their social media pages. Nike, Inc. does not disappoint their followers on social media and they provide valuable insights regarding their products in the social media pages for making the audience aware of their availability. The content and the campaigns that are provided by them on the social media get their followers talking. Nike, Inc. uses various social media sites for strengthening their brand and to connect to the audience. On Instagram, they have posted carefully shot and captivating photographs and good videos of their products. The content of Nike, Inc. is of a good quality at all times and that benefits the image of their brand and it encourages adventure and high-quality activities. They have also developed various different forms of brand hashtags, for example #justdoit, #Nike, Inc.women, etc. On Twitter, they have created many accounts that represent the different sports that they are involved in for places where Nike, Inc. has their biggest market bases. On Facebook, they have different pages that are constantly updated. Due to this, the brand has gained a lot of popularity as it was earlier. There can be some improvements that can be made in this type of communication mix used by Nike, Inc.. They can create small targeted social media groups according to the various types of customers. This would help them in making a more customer-centric approach.

Advertising is a very effective means to gain social acceptance and Coca Cola too uses this. It has created ‘staplines’ or advertising slogans that are innovative, relevant and memorable. This messages that are created have a global appeal. Also, they have featured well known celebrities and sportspersons for its advertising to connect to the people. This has proven to be very successful and Coca Cola has been the market leader since a very long time. Since social media is very popular in the recent times, Coca Cola should focus on advertising in the social media as well. This would increase their audience and they would be able to reach out to a greater number of people.

Social media has a greater appeal nowadays and people are more inclined to it rather than television (Tetlock, 2005). In other words, social media has a wider approach and if advertising is done with the help of it, there are greater chances of making the process of advertising a success.

• Conclusion

Marketing Communications mix is an approach by the use of which, companies can be successful in achieving the desired results. Advertising is a powerful marketing weapon that can be applied by the companies and if it is correctly used, the companies can be very successful. There are different advertising tools so a company gets a wide range of options to choose from, as according to their requirements. There have been various cases in the past where proper advertising has helped a company revive its position and increase its sales.

• Reference List

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