Integrated Marketing Concept - Essay Example

? IMC Contents 0 Introduction 3 2.0 Literature Review 3 3.0 Key Aspects of IMC at Sea-board 4 3 Target Market 5 3.2 Communication Needs and Goals 6 3.3 IMC Tools 6 3.3.2 Advertisement on TV and Print media 6 3.3.3 Shop displays 6 3.3.4 Public Relations 6 3.3.5 Results 6 4.0 Key Aspects of the Marketing Campaign at Ice Hotel AB 7 4.1 Target Market 7 4.2 Communication Needs and Goals 7 4.3 IMC Tools 7 4.4 Results 8 5.0 Comparing the two Cases 8 6.0 Conclusion 8 Works Cited 10 Analyzing IMC 1.0 Introduction Integrated marketing concept can be defined as an advertisement campaign, which utilizes various marketing channels to promote a product or service. This kind of advertisement methodology also uses different electronic channels in order to fulfill their objectives, such as marketing on social networking sites and online commerce facilities. These marketing efforts emanating from various sources converge in such a way, which influences the customer in making a favorable purchase decision towards a certain product. Marketers have to pay close attention to different aspects of marketing both in real and digital marketing techniques; therefore their key responsibility is to develop an integrated linkage between the psychological images of product portrayed through various marketing techniques. In summary, customer should be provided with a realistic view of the product through marketing, so that he does not feel betrayed while utilizing the product for the first time, thus nullifying the possibility of overpromising. 2.0 Literature Review However, this concept is ill-defined according to the present literature of marketing (Cornelisson, 2003), so more empirical study is warranted for concerning this important topic. IMC is reported to have a positive impact on the brand image of the product (Reid, Luxton, & Movondo, 2005), through this technique products can be advertised worldwide in minimal financial implications. Another study is of the view that marketing combines, historical evidence, present development and future implications of a product upon customer’s quality of life. But conventional advertisement methodologies were not able to communicate these aspects of the product (Finne & Gronroos, 2009). Therefore, the promotional activities focused on the present development of the product, in this way customer could not relate the past, present and future with the product, this caused the impact of marketing to drop in the past. However, the availability of electronic media, such as internet streaming video technology, provides a ground for marketers to integrate the three times of a product in front of customers and prospects. IMC is also believed to be highly flexible in nature and could be used to market wide range of products and services. (Luck & Moffatt, 2009). Hence this method for marketing is based on the concept of highlighting abstractive qualities of the product, such as good looks in case of clothing and ease of access for a website. The phenomenon under study is also designed to build customer linkages on personal level, because advertisements appear touchy and very moving on internet and social sites (Smith, 2010). Thus help in building a customer base for a product. But at the same time the product which is advertised through IMC, must be available in the market, so that customer could be facilitated while making purchase decision. Advertisers are compelled to use various marketing channels to cater for various types of customers; however the intactness of message’s meaningfulness is a significant challenge for business professionals (Zavrsnik & Jerman). IMC is vastly accepted in the advertising of hotels and other services (Comm, Saura, & Rijeci, 2009) . This paper turns its focus towards analyzing the famous cases of implementing IMC in a real world setting by The See-board Energy and Ice hotel AB. These organizations belong to very different businesses, but the applicability of IMC could be highlighted by the analysis of these two campaigns. First of all, this paper will set a spot light on See-board Energy case. 3.0 Key Aspects of IMC at Sea-board Researchers believe that if IMC is implemented properly could lead to high level of value creation for the organizations. As the local market was privatized in 2002, See-board found itself in the middle of a war zone with famous and well established brand names, therefore it had to innovate or die, and thus the vigilant tot management of the company opted for the first choice and renovated the marketing, to its advantage. See-board hired an external consultant to manage its business for a year and take it out of the trouble. It was wise decision, because See-board was not a specialist in innovation, so they gave the responsibility to somebody else (Jenkinson & Sain, 2004). The consultant company that was named AIS, analyzed the internal environment of the firm and developed a strategy, which was customer driven and resulted in integration of various departments. At the same time, See-board’s local links within the market were utilized and a favorable shelf space was being allocated for its products. On the other side marketing department initiated a campaign, which emphasized on See-board image as a local company. Along with this advertisement moment promoted the products on social media, electronic media and also sponsored local sports and other social events, in this way, the firm exploited on its competitors’ lack of cultural awareness. At the later stage of the year See-board was acquired by LE, in a multimillion dollar deal, which proved to be beneficial for the organization. 3.1 Target Market The target market of the marketing campaign designed at Sea-board Energy was the middle class families living in the locality of the company. The idea was to attract these customers, through advertising the quality of the products, while offering them at reasonable prices (Jenkinson & Sain, 2004). 3.2 Communication Needs and Goals The advertising moment was fabricated in such a manner that, it should boost the market share and sales of the company, through emphasizing on quality of the products and reasonableness of their pricing. On the other hand the company attempted to win the sympathy of customer, through repeatedly notifying people, that Sea-board Energy is a local company. The slogan was set to be “We are local” (Jenkinson & Sain, 2004). 3.3 IMC Tools The company used social sites as advertising media for its campaign, because the target market, it was pursuing found to be heavy users of the internet. The banner ads were placed on face-book and Google (Jenkinson & Sain, 2004). 3.3.2 Advertisement on TV and Print media Sea-board Energy advertised its household products on local cable and national channel. At the same time, endorsements are made through local newspapers, magazines and other print media, which include brochures and flyers (Jenkinson & Sain, 2004). 3.3.3 Shop displays Favorable display was also arranged for the company product on shops and malls (Jenkinson & Sain, 2004). 3.3.4 Public Relations The strategy of personal selling was also deployed, with teams going to various schools and colleges to sell out their products. In this way, their sales boosted quiet significantly (Jenkinson & Sain, 2004). 3.3.5 Results Sea-board was able to capture major part of the customer base in the local market, but the financial resources of the company were depleted as a result of heavy investment in the marketing campaign, therefore this company was acquired by LE, due to its major share in the market, it was sold in a million dollar deal. This is the reason, why this campaign was considered as a success (Jenkinson & Sain, 2004). 4.0 Key Aspects of the Marketing Campaign at Ice Hotel AB Now we will analyze the second case of Ice hotel AB, where growing competition made it necessary for tourism facilities and hotels to advertise themselves through various marketing channels, including internet and international magazines. However, this development is demanding an extreme level of integration within the internal department of the concerned organizations. 4.1 Target Market The target population of Ice hotel AB was happened to be people living in developed countries who are logical buyers for any product or service. Therefore, organization had to develop an appealing message for all of its potential customers, who are foreigners coming to Sweden from all around the world (Kulluwaara & Tornberg, 2003). 4.2 Communication Needs and Goals Ice-Hotel had to develop an integrated approach to marketing, through a featured emphasis on the quality of services with other benefits, in a reasonable price (Kulluwaara & Tornberg, 2003). 4.3 IMC Tools The advertisement campaign initiated with ads on local newspapers, and then it started to expand in print media and internet. The management of the hotel deliberately neglected the channels of radio and television, because of their dropping impact and visibility in the market. On the other hand, Ice hotel arranged a series of seminars on the topic of marketing services, which resulted in a highly informed staff about their responsibilities. Thus, this integrated approach to management led the hotel to increase its sales revenue by 12% during initial fiscal year (Kulluwaara & Tornberg, 2003), 4.4 Results The campaign caused revenue of the hotel to increase by 6%, during the first year of its deployment. In this way, the net profit grew 3.5% during the same period. This finding highlighted a successful implementation of IMC in hotel industry as well (Kulluwaara & Tornberg, 2003). 5.0 Comparing the two Cases Both of the cases discussed earlier are based on the need to compete with a growing opposition in a marketplace. However, two companies analyzed belong from a different business with diverging customer types. But the idea was the same, which was to increase sales. In this way it can be assumed that IMC is applicable in wide range of industries, in the current these are tourism and toiletries. The acceptability of IMC is very much higher in service industry than another, because abstraction is only thing sellable in this industry. At the same time, See-board was also able to implement it successfully, but through external consultancy, which points in favor of a well experienced and practical oriented management of Ice hotel. 6.0 Conclusion This paper examines the applicability of IMC in the practical world of business. This concept focuses on advertising a product or service through various channels including internet. This concept possesses a potential for becoming a norm in international market within few years. At the same time maintaining integrity of a message is proving to be a significant challenge for marketers. But they are seemingly handling it sufficiently well. One drawback of IMC, is its ill-definition, along with this, its dimensions cannot be identified. More research work is needed on these lines IMC is utilized to improve the sales in both of the cases, this paper analyzed, however it gives practitioners empirical evidence in favor of IMC’s applicability in a practical way. But on the other side, the usability of this concept needs to be evaluated in terms of achieving long term goals, because this study came across the short term successes, due to the deployment of this important technique. This paper renders the concept of IMC as less defined, but highly applicable in the dynamic business environment. IMC also requires a highly decentralized organizational structure with swift decision making. In the light of this finding, this paper recommends the organizations, which are interested in advertising through IMC, to in-formalize their companies’ setup, because this approach to marketing requires a certain level of autonomy in carrying out a task assigned to teams or individual. Works Cited Comm, M., Saura, I., & Rijeci, K. (2009). Integrated Marketing Communications in High Quality Hotels Central and Southern Dalmatia . Dalmacija , 67-83. Cornelisson, J. (2003). Change, continuity and progress: the concept of integrated marketing communications and marketing communications practice. The Journal of Strategic Marketing , 217-234. Finne, A., & Gronroos, C. (2009). Rethinking marketing communication: From integrated marketing communication to relationship communication. Journal of Marketing Communications , 179-195. Jenkinson, A., & Sain, B. (2004). Implementing Integrated Marketing: Seeboard Energy Case. Interactive Marketing , 359-372. Kulluwaara, C., & Tornberg, J. (2003). Integrated Marketing Communication and Tourism. Lulea University of Technology . Luck, E., & Moffatt, J. (2009). IMC: Has anything really changed? A new perspective on an old definition. Journal of Marketing Communications , 311–325. Reid, M., Luxton, S., & Movondo, F. (2005). The Relationship between Integrated Marketing Communication, Market Orientation and Brand Orientation. Journal of Advertising , 11-23. Smith, B. (2010). Beyond Promotion: Conceptualizing Public Relations in Integrated Marketing Communications. International Journal of Integrated Marketing Communications , 47-57. Zavrsnik, B., & Jerman, D. (n.d.). Measuring Integrated Marketing Communication. JEL , 351-361. Read More