Integrated Marketing Communications

What is IMC?


(source: http://mindfulkreative.com/tag/integrated-marketing-communications/)

The American Marketing Association defines Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) as “a planning process designed to assure that all brand contacts received by a customer or prospect for a product, service, or organization are relevant to that person and consistent over time.”

The IMC planning process has been compared to composing a musical score. In a piece of music, while every instrument has a specific task, the goal is to have them come together in a way that produces beautiful music. It’s the same in IMC, where advertising might be your violin, social media your piano, public relations your trumpet and so on.

Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles – one of the United States’ premier advertising agencies. Proud to be named 2014 Full-Service Agency of the Year by thinkLA’s Interactive Idea Awards.

For the campaign, Toyota integrated social media into its traditional mix from the outset, inviting those who saw the ads on TV and in print to learn more at the company’s YouTube page. millions views.

Succeeding across multiple platforms. Now that’s IMC at work.

 http://imc.wvu.edu/about/what_is_imc

What does IMC include?

A management concept that is designed to make all aspects of marketing communication such as advertising, sales promotion, public relations, and direct marketing work together as a unified force, rather than permitting each to work in isolation. http://marketing.about.com/od/marketingglossary/g/imcdef.htm

Why companies need IMC?

Don Schultz, in his work titled “The Inevitability of Integrated Communications”, considered that “the question of integration or not is moot” because in reality consumers integrate all messages received from an organization. Thus, even if the organization has transmitted uncoordinated messages to the same consumer, that consumer will integrate those messages according to some pattern. Unfortunately, in some cases, the criteria chosen by the consumer to make such integration can harm the organization and associated brand value. Hence the company must be able to manage the process according to its own interests and strategic purposes. http://www.unav.es/fcom/communication-society/es/articulo.php?art_id=415

How to coordinate IMC in company?

(1) Get Senior Management Support for the initiative by ensuring they understand the benefits of IMC.

(2) Integrate At Different Levels of management. Put ‘integration’ on the agenda for management meetings – whether annual reviews or creative sessions. Horizontally – ensure that all managers, not just marketing managers understand the importance of a consistent message – whether on delivery trucks or product quality. Also ensure that Advertising, PR, Sales Promotions staff are integrating their messages. To do this you must have carefully planned internal communications, that is, good internal marketing.

(3) Ensure the Design Manual or even a Brand Book is used to maintain common visual standards for the use of logos, type faces, colours and so on.

(4) Focus on a clear marketing communications strategy. Have crystal clear communications objectives; clear positioning statements. Link core values into every communication. Ensure all communications add value to (instead of dilute) the brand or organisation. Exploit areas of sustainable competitive advantage.

(5) You may have to prioritise communications activities according to your budget.

(6) Think Customers First. Wrap communications around the customer’s buying process. Identify the stages they go through before, during and after a purchase. Select communication tools which are right for each stage. Develop a sequence of communications activities which help the customer to move easily through each stage.

(7) Build Relationships and Brand Values. All communications should help to develop stronger and stronger relationships with customers. Ask how each communication tool helps to do this. Remember: customer retention is as important as customer acquisition.

(8) Develop a Good Marketing Information System which defines who needs what information when. A customer database for example, can help the telesales, direct marketing and sales force. IMC can help to define, collect and share vital information.

(9) Share Artwork and Other Media. Consider how, say, advertising imagery can be used in mail shots, exhibition stands, Christmas cards, news releases and web sites.

(10) Be prepared to change it all. Learn from experience. Constantly search for the optimum communications mix. Test. Test. Test. Improve each year. ‘Kaizen’.

http://multimediamarketing.com/mkc/marketingcommunications/

Storytelling

What is storytelling?

Storytelling is a method of explaining series of events through narrative. In marketing it is used as a tool to encourage consumer loyalty through entertainment or emotional connection. (dictionary at www.zideate.com).

Why to use storytelling?

Because great, captivating content can be a good way to attract precisely the right kind of leads (that will later bring in revenue). (By Stefaine Isabel Kobsa, article ¤ Top Storytelling Examples to Inspire and Optimize your Content Marketing).

How to use storytelling?

Ask youself questions:
-What kind of story fits my business the best?
-How can I integrate company's philosophy in a story?
-Which topics are equally interesting for my audience?
(By Stefaine Isabel Kobsa)

Good example of storytelling

Guinness advertisement on the internet reached 3 million views within 4 days. The ad features guys who play basketball in wheelchairs. The thing is that only one of the guys is really disabled, others are just his friends who support him. After the game, they go to drink beer together. On the background there is a voice: dedication, loyalty, friendship - the choices we make reveal our nature.