Integrated Marketing Communications

Integrated Marketing Communications

Integrated Marketing Communications

Introduction

Marketing communication plays an important role in building and maintaining stakeholder relationships, and in leveraging these relationships in terms of brand and channel equity (Dawar 2004; Duncan 1998; Lannon and Cooper 1983). As Dawar states: "Advertising and promotions of brands drive traffic and sales volume; marketing efforts and outcomes are measured and managed at the brand level; and brands are central to a firm's responses to short-term competitive moves. In effect, brands have become the focal point of many a company's marketing efforts and are seen as a source of market power, competitive leverage and higher returns". Good Marketing Communication is the basis for good branding and this communication is used in different ways to enhance the brand image of the products and services. In today's tough market competition, Integrated Marketing Communication is used creatively and effectively to enhance the brand by implementing different marketing techniques. In this report we will study the concept of Integrated Marketing Communication, its relation with branding and its implementation.

Basic Concepts Of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC)

The key word in the concept of integrated marketing communications is still a "marketing". Clearly understanding the marketing goals, we can build so-called "post-marketing" space, which will include all the necessary communications - communications, contacts and relationships, including interpersonal, supporting the operation of the enterprise itself (as a kind of living organism) and its development. The word "integrated" implies a set of different techniques: organizational, technical, economic, informational. Although a number of experts narrowed the concept to a combination of personal selling, advertising, trade promotion and public relations, the practice shows that the controls are critical situations (Crisis Management), corporate ethics and a lot more impact on business success, and involves construction of communication at different levels. All this is part of the IMC.

IMC is called "the concept of planned marketing communications, which is associated with the added value provided by the general plan, evaluating the strategic role of communication disciplines such as advertising, promotion, PR, and connecting these disciplines to provide clarity, consistency and maximum communication impact. " Australian Professor Graeme Dowling generally believes that the "4Ps" of marketing today is increasingly referred to as IMC (Dowling, 2003). General definition may be considered: IMC - a system of intensive methods of business development. It turns out that the IMC should possess specialist knowledge in the field of advertising and sociology, management and marketing, psychology and economics, and more - to be able to coordinate all business units for the performance of the same problems stated. Clearly, this requires a broad outlook, and certain communication skills. At its core, an expert on the IMC is most likely "development director" who shall have all the powers of the head of a high-level and influence on all parts of the structure - from production to sales. We will see that in his arsenal to be organizational, administrative, legal, information and other means of organizing communication at various ...