Integrated Marketing Communication : Need of the hour!

Integrated marketing communication is a method used to communicate promotional activities to its customers through multiple marketing channels. A simple yet interesting concept which has all forms of messaging and communications intact in order to deliver the idea impact fully on the masses.

The use of conventional techniques for marketing and business expansion has become a thing of the past. Today 78.5% of the companies are using IMC (Integrated Marketing Communication) for the purpose of promoting their brand and products. The world is getting inclined towards technology for day-to-day works. As modern advancements coming in the market, it has become a part of people’s daily regime. Technologies have made work and day-to-day activities so convenient that the life without it cannot be imagined.

Even the corporate world has been widely accepting this change. Companies are using these marketing tools (PR, Ads, OOH, re-marketing, etc.) to grow their businesses and connecting with the masses. If you think you understand Integrated Marketing Communication well, you might have to reconsider. The integrated marketing communication technique is a yet complex technique which requires creating and executing skills.

It is essential for an organizations to promote their brand(s) well among the end-users not only to outshine competitors but also survive in the long run.Organizations are adopting Integrated Marketing Communication for promotion of their brand and reach out to the masses. IMC helps with Brand promotion by increasing awareness of products and services, and eventually increases their sales, yielding high profits and revenue for the organization.

Integrated Marketing Communication Steps:

The IMC planning process primarily includes six steps being explained in the following lines:

• Knowing your audience- The primary step on which the whole process depends, until and unless you know the areas to be focused, you cannot plan further. The audience is divided into different sections-on basis of demographic, gender, age group. By doing this, it becomes easy identifying the leads and plan accordingly.
• Developing situation analysis- The next step towards developing an effective marketing communications strategy is to analyze the current marketing scenario of the brand. Basically it’s an evaluation process which gives an overview of both internal and external strengths and weaknesses that can affect the brand.
• Determine marketing communication objectives- In this, you need to be clear what you want to achieve from your IMC strategy. Like it depends what a company wants to promote, new product launches, BTL activities etc.
• Determining your budget- Developing an IMC plan is easy but implementing IMC plan is costly. The cost may vary according to the client’s requirements. This step can be implemented once you’re done step 5 &6.The budget varies depending upon the services which a company is undertaking and also on agencies.
• Strategies and tactics- Based on above 3 steps, now it’s time to develop a strategy what’ll help your company achieve your objective. That strategy might depend on target areas and audiences.
• Evaluation and measurement- This is a stage which will help you determine what to-do and what not to. Resource management is crucial for you to understand where to put or not to put your money. As a final step, a test run is initiated theoretically before actually implementing it to make sure the all the objectives and agendas are met. Risk analysis is done and the profits are measured.

The integrated marketing communication process has become the most anticipated and highly popular platform which companies prefer for promotion for their brand/product.

These are the basic and foremost important integrated marketing communication steps which an agency follows for their client build-up.

The steps to be followed depends on requirements of the clients, whether they want an SCO, SEO, Advertising, PR, Digital Marketing and many more. This may vary according to the client/company’s product, for example-Samsung might be focusing on BTL activities for their product launches; Real Estates client might be looking for Lead Generation or OOH media, like bill boards and banners for generating sales qualified leads for their property.

Here’s when the integrated marketing communications agency’s role kicks in. The mix use of technology and innovative thinking gives birth to the smartest ideas which hit the mind of public ultimately resulting in conversion.

Domino’s Any Ware is the best integrated marketing communications example where Domino’s started a campaign to deliver food by connecting them throughout the globe. People will be able to order food even with a tweet.

Still curious? Got questions? Sit back we got you! Follow us on Instagram @themarcomavenue, for more insights.

Author Bio: Shubham Visaria, is working as a Business Developer in The Marcom Avenue. He’s a hardcore marketing enthusiast who loves surpassing expectations every time.