INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION

Integrated Marketing Communication



Integrated Marketing Communication

Introduction

Integrated marketing communications is the concept of using four marketing communications based on common goals. According to the American Association of Advertising Agencies, IMC is a concept of marketing communications planning, originating from the need to assess the strategic importance of their individual areas of advertising, sales promotion, PR, etc) and for the optimal combination of clarity, consistency, and maximize the impact of the search for Communication Programs through consistent integration of all applications. IMC improves the efficiency of the system sales, as opposed to all other forms of individual organizational unites its various divisions and departments under one banner - the image of the brand. Unified Communications system eliminates parochialism managers and seeks to properly drawn up calls to the right customers at the right time and place. In this paper, we try to identify the barriers existing in the integrated marketing communication that that prevents the effective working of the organization.

Discussion

De Pelsmacker (2004) stated that “Integrated marketing communications are far from reality in most companies. A number of strong barriers prevent IMC from being implemented quickly and efficiently.”

De Pelsmacker highlighted the major barriers in integrated marketing communication. One of the fundamental problems implementing IMC as identified by the author is the aspect of getting every employee in every department is to work, plan and believe together as a team. It is the separate and distinct territories that destroy integration, consistency, pro-activity, real branding ability, and solid customer service and retention.

This is due to the fact that the theory of IMC fails to take into account the way most corporations are structured and function or their unique culture. , in his own rights, lashes out: most IMC approaches concentrate on the integration of external communications and thus are incomplete IMC, is doomed to fail if the employees are not included in the integration process, and if the external community is better informed than the internal community .

The greatest barrier to implementing IMC in a given company is the absence of direct support from the CEO. In the absence of CEO support, there is an operational threshold past which IMC cannot be completely or effectively adopted. One of the most apparent conceptual barriers is the lack of strategic objectives in communications planning; even though most communication functions or activities are planned and executed in a professional manner, they lack strategic vision and clear positioning at the corporate level. The Barriers can be the external factors like the other competitors which are already presented in competition because the new entrants do not have any support of existing product. The other factor can be a customer perception about the product and the acceptation level of the features of the new entrant product in the market (Wang and Petrison 1991, 11).

Fully integrated marketing requires a very high level of clarity in the articulation of brand strategies; the more understood and clear a brand strategy is, the easier it is to get people from distant areas of the ...