SEBASTIAN AWAYA
BACP2016043
Integrated Marketing Communication is an approach to achieving the
objectives of a marketing campaign through a well coordinated use of different
promotional methods that are intended to reinforce each other. In other words Integrated
Marketing Communication is a way of getting all the various components of your
business to work together to develop and promote salable product or service.
There are four types of integrated marketing communication which also helps
to streamline a company’s marketing communication. These include:
External marketing integration is when a company deals with outside sources.
These sources include advertising/marketing agencies or public relations
agencies. Through the outside sources the company is able to inform the world
about its product.
Internal marketing integration means that you strive to keep your employees
excited about any new developments that the company is involved in. Naturally,
if you're going to introduce a new product, you won't want the workers to
reveal details prematurely, but by generating excitement among your own people,
that excitement gets transmitted to others outside the company.
Horizontal integration is important when it comes to actual development of
the product or service. For instance a company’s distribution team to talk to
the production team and the production team talk to the financing team. By
making sure that the lines of communication stay open, you'll find your
business flowing more smoothly than if certain groups are kept out of the loop.
Vertical marketing integration enables product to fit in with the corporate
policy and structure of the company. By making sure that the product or service
is aligned with the company's mission, you should have a leg up on enveloping a
seamless production plan.
Finally, when a company takes all of the different types of integrated
marketing and have and the product developed, you'll have the information you
need to present your product to customers. By engaging in advertising, and
through the judicious use of public relations, you'll be able to apply sales
tools to create a successful product campaign.
Integrated marketing communication saves money as it eliminates duplication
in areas as such as graphics and photography since they can be shared and used
in advertising, exhibitions and sales literature.
Marketing communication is a coordinated promotional messages delivered
through one or more channels such as print, radio, television, direct and
personal selling. This enables a company capture attention, build desire and
gain favor among consumers. In other words marketing communication helps to
develop brand awareness which means that the consumer translates product
information into perceptions about the product’s attributes and its position
within the larger market.
Marketing communication therefore operate through variables or elements in
the promotion mix. These include advertising, directing marketing, personal
selling, sales promotion, public relations and sponsorship marketing.
These elements or variables in the promotion mix exist in the market at
different periods and thus influence a company’s marketing communication.
Personal selling is the most cost effective for a company where the potential
buyers or consumers are small. The however result to oral communication with
its potential buyers. This may initially focus on developing a relationship
with the potential buyer, but will ultimately end with an attempt to “close the
sale”. A good example would be businesses selling software systems designed for
supermarket retailers.
On the other hand, where markets are geographically dispersed or, where
there substantial numbers of potential buyers, advertising is usually the most
effective.
A company may also adopt sales promotion to provide more information about
products such as baked beans or bread.
In a situation where potential buyers need to be provided with detailed,
complex information to help them evaluate a purchase, either public relations
or personal selling is almost always required-often using selling teams rather
than just an individual.
The above arguments suggest that a company’s marketing communication
greatly depends on the choice of variables in the promotion mix which are all
meant to satisfy the demands of the consumer.
REFERENCE:
Principles of Adverting (Yaw Gyau)
