imc business plan video

Integrated Marketing Communication Strategy Plan: 5 Examples

Table of Contents

What is a marketing communications strategy, what is a marketing communication channel, 5 steps to create an integrated marketing communication strategy from idea to implementation.

• Defining Objectives and Target Audience
• Selecting Communication Channels
• Crafting Consistent Messaging
• Implementation and Evaluation
• Refinement and Adaptation

Marketing Communication Strategies Examples

Advertising in integrated marketing communication strategy, direct marketing communication strategy in imc, importance of marketing communication strategy, conclusions.

In today’s hyper-connected world, a robust marketing communication strategy is paramount for any brand aiming to cut through the noise and reach its audience effectively. One of the most powerful approaches in this realm is Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC). Let’s delve into this strategy and explore its importance, examples, and the steps to create a winning IMC plan.

At its core, a marketing communications strategy is the blueprint that defines how a company will effectively communicate its messages to its target audience. It integrates various marketing channels to convey a cohesive brand message.

“A marketing communication strategy defines how a company communicates its messages. Channels, like TV or social media, deliver these messages.”

A marketing communication channel refers to the specific mediums or avenues through which a company delivers its messages to its audience. These channels can be diverse, encompassing both traditional and digital platforms. Traditional channels include print media, television, radio, and direct mail, while digital channels comprise websites, social media platforms, email, mobile apps, and search engines.

Crafting a robust channel of communication within a marketing strategy involves a meticulous selection process. It’s imperative to identify the most effective channels that resonate with the target demographic. A channel that works wonders for one brand might not yield the same results for another. Hence, understanding audience preferences, behaviors, and consumption patterns is crucial in channel selection.

A well-thought-out communication marketing strategy carefully selects and optimizes these channels to ensure the message reaches the right audience at the right time. The strategy might involve a blend of various channels, creating an omnichannel experience for the audience, thereby enhancing brand visibility and engagement.

Moreover, an effective communication marketing strategy doesn’t merely focus on the selection of channels but also emphasizes the synchronization and consistency of messaging across these channels. Consistency in brand voice, tone, and message across various communication channels reinforces brand identity and fosters trust among consumers.

By leveraging an appropriate mix of communication channels and aligning them within a cohesive strategy, businesses can effectively engage with their audience, amplify brand messages, and drive desired actions, ultimately contributing to their overall marketing objectives.

• Defining Objectives and Target Audience : Understand the marketing communication strategy goals and the audience to tailor messages effectively.
• Selecting Communication Channels : Choose the mix of channels that align with the audience’s preferences.
• Crafting Consistent Messaging : Ensure the message remains cohesive across all selected channels.
• Implementation and Evaluation : Execute the plan and continuously assess its effectiveness to make necessary adjustments.
• Refinement and Adaptation: Stay agile and adapt the strategy based on insights gained through evaluation.

Integrated Marketing Communication Strategy combines various strategies for all marketing communication channels with IMC tactics into an omnichannel comprehensive marketing plan.</з>

The five main components of Marketing Communication include: advertising to deliver mass media communication ad messages, direct marketing for individual personalized communications, public relations (PR) for brand communications and relationships with community, online digital marketing, and offline traditional media marketing communications. Each of these components is an independent marketing strategy and a part of the overall marketing strategy. Here are these top 5 marketing communication strategy examples.</з>

Traditional and digital yet impactful, advertising remains a cornerstone of IMC. It involves strategically placing messages through various mediums to reach the intended audience. Advertising campaigns are paid media buying. Ad is a message or message sequence shown to many peaple many times at a specific time and place. Advertising strategy includes defining target audience, choosing media placement, calculating budgets and media reach, creating ad copy, launching ad campaigns, and analyzing results, and adjusting strategy. </з>

• Advertising Communication Strategy Examples
• Goal: Increase sales of retail products, new cellphone models.
• Online Advertising Strategy Plan Example
• Target Audience: people who are interested in buying a new smartphone online.
• Digital Channel: Online ads on Instagram and Facebook 
• Placement: NewsFeed Post and Stories
• Budget: $1000
• Potential Reach: 100,000 
• Interaction Clicks: 1000
• Message: Text + Image + Link 
• Traditional Advertising Strategy Plan Example
• Target Audience: people who are interested in tech and smartphones.
• Traditional Channel: Print ad in Tech Magazine
• Placement: Half Page
• Potential Reach: 50,000 
• Customer Interactions: undefined
• Message: Text + Image 

Direct marketing involves personalized communication with potential customers, utilizing channels like personal conversations, direct sales, phone calls, emails, text messages, or targeted QR codes. Direct marketing is also known as

One-to-One Marketing or Real-Time Marketing

communications. Utilizing tools like ClearLine apps can streamline and enhance this process, ensuring seamless communication with the audience, delivering instant measurable results for any direct to consumer business.

• Direct Marketing Strategy Example
• Target Audience: store visitors who are interested in buying a new smartphone.
• Channel: ClearLine marketing apps
• Placement: text messages, SMS, email, QR codes. 
• Budget: $79
• Customer Interactions: 1000

Public Relations Content Marketing and Global PR Campaigns

Public relations focus on managing the brand’s image and reputation. Content marketing and global PR campaigns play a crucial role in shaping consumer perception.

• Public Relations Strategy Example
• Blog posts and social media marketing
• Press Release for news media
• Media production and video content
• Brand marketing campaigns
• Social listening
• Influencer Marketing
• User Generated Content 
• Events and Sponsorships
• Partnerships and collaborations
• Community Outreach and Supporting Programs
• Investors relations
• Government relations

Digital Integrated Marketing Communication Strategy

In the digital age, this strategy leverages online platforms and technologies to connect with audiences, utilizing social media, websites, and targeted digital ads. Digital marketing communication strategy includes Advertising, Direct marketing, and Public relations campaigns using digital media.

Digital Marketing Communication Strategy Example

• Online Advertising, pay per click (PPC)
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Paid Social Media
• Social Media Marketing (SMM)
• Affiliate Marketing
• Email Marketing
• SMS Marketing
• QR Code Marketing

Traditional Marketing Communication Channel

Despite the digital surge, traditional methods like TV, radio, and print ads still hold sway in reaching specific demographics effectively. Traditional marketing communication strategy includes Advertising, Direct marketing, and Public relations campaigns using traditional media.

• Out of Home Advertising (OOH). Billboards, transport ads, and signage in high-traffic areas. 
• Digital Out-of-Home Advertising (DOOH). Digital Signature, digital billboards, transport screen ads, kiosk ads.
• Print ads: magazines, journals, fliers.
• Broadcast marketing: TV ads, Radio ads.

A robust marketing communication strategy is vital for businesses to convey their message clearly, consistently, and effectively. Understanding the marketing communication mix is crucial. A balanced combination of advertising, direct marketing, PR, digital marketing, and traditional media ensures a comprehensive approach.

In a dynamic marketing landscape, an Integrated Marketing Communication strategy is the linchpin for brands aiming to resonate with their audience. By embracing diverse channels, crafting compelling messages, and adapting to changing trends, businesses can carve a path towards sustained success.

Guide to creating an integrated marketing communications (IMC) plan

• by Performance Marketer Team
• 22 November 2022
• 3 minute read

Integrated marketing communications (IMC) is a strategic approach that involves harmonizing and synchronizing all marketing and communication efforts, tools, channels, and resources within an organization. By seamlessly blending various elements of the marketing mix, IMC aims to create a unified and impactful program that effectively reaches and engages both consumers and other key stakeholders.

This comprehensive approach entails coordinating advertising, public relations, direct marketing, sales promotion, social media, branding, and other communication methods, ensuring that they work together synergistically towards a common goal. By integrating these diverse components, IMC enables companies to deliver a consistent and cohesive message across multiple touchpoints, reinforcing their brand identity and enhancing the overall customer experience.

At its core, IMC strives to maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of marketing activities by eliminating silos and fostering collaboration between different departments and teams. It recognizes that customers interact with brands through various channels and touchpoints, and seeks to create a seamless and immersive brand experience across all these interactions. By doing so, IMC aims to build strong and enduring relationships with customers, increase brand loyalty, and drive business growth.

In essence, integrated marketing communications is a strategic framework that enables companies to leverage the power of synergy and coordination to deliver a compelling and unified message to their target audience, ensuring that their marketing efforts are optimized and impactful.

What is an integrated marketing communications plan?

A complete integrated marketing communications plan incorporates every element of the marketing mix in order to present a unified message to target audiences and other company stakeholders. Integrated marketing is based on the master marketing plan, which should include all the components of the marketing mix. The foundation of an integrated marketing communications program consists of a careful review of the company’s image, target customers, and the markets in which buyers are located. Advertising programs are then built on this foundation, as are other elements of the promotional mix. Achieving integrated, marketing communications can become more complex when deployed at a global scale, due to larger national and cultural differences in target markets.

4 stages in designing an effective integrated marketing communications system

• Identify, coordinate, and manage all forms of integrated marketing communication. Bring all of the communication elements together under one umbrella. This includes advertising, promotions, direct mail, digital marketing and e-commerce programs, public relations, sponsorships, and other marketing activities. During this stage of IMC development, the marketing team must be sure that all communications deliver a unified message and speak with one voice. A theme should also be present in the logos, colors, letterhead, and every other message the company sends. The goal is to make sure there’s consistency in and synergy among all communication channels.
• Examine communications from the perspective of the customer. The marketing team should review every contact method, also known as a brand touch points , that might influence customers as they form opinions and make decisions about the company. The goal is to ensure external communications match internal communications. The integrated marketing communications umbrella covers every internal and external group that might affect perceptions of the company and its products.
• Gather integrated marketing communications performance marketing data to make better decisions. Continuously identify and evaluate the impact of communications. Use customer data insights to help drive strategic planning and analyze the return on investment. It’s also important to adjust and optimize marketing campaigns and communications when data insights highlight areas for improvement.

The role of corporate imagine in IMC

Effective marketing communications is based on a clearly defined corporate image. The image summarizes what the company stands for, and how well its position has been established. The goal of image management is to create a consistent impression in the minds of customers and key stakeholders. A strong corporate image creates a major competitive advantage, and can make the difference in a choice between competitors.

Benefits of having a consistently strong visual brand image:

• Give assurance about the purchase when the buyer has little or no previous experience with a good or service, or is making the purchase in an unfamiliar setting
• Reduce search time and purchase decisions
• Enhances company revenue, and builds longer term loyalty when the image also matches or exceeds expectation

It’s important to remember that what consumers believe about a firm is far more important than how company officials view the image. The image of being projected must accurately portrayed the organization and coincide with the good and services being offered.

• integrated marketing communications
• integrated marketing communications imc
• integrated marketing communications plan

Performance Marketer Team

Leave a reply cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

How to build an effective marketing calendar: Types, tips, and tools for success

Catchy headlines: the best types, tips, and examples that get maximum engagement, you may also like.

• 10 minute read

Why your company should apply for industry awards: The untapped marketing benefits

• 28 June 2023

• 5 minute read

Ultimate performance marketing guide for professional marketers

• 21 July 2022

• 9 minute read
• by Whitney Deterding
• 7 November 2022

Key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics for SMS mobile marketing

• 15 September 2022

• 2 minute read

Analyzing marketing conversions and ROI by channel category

• 30 September 2022

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

Integrated Marketing Plan

Section Breakdown

Marketers rely on integrated marketing communication (IMC) to effectively launch successful marketing campaigns . There’s no better place to start than with a well-thought-out IMC plan to meet their marketing goals. This chapter will break down the sections of a comprehensive IMC plan, guiding how to create a plan that fits specific objectives, and includes a sample IMC plan at the end.

The topics that this section will go over include:

• Understand the importance of crafting an IMC plan
• Comprehend the components of a comprehensive IMC plan
• Apply practical tips to be able to build an IMC plan

An Open Guide to Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) Copyright © by Andrea Niosi and KPU Marketing 4201 Class of Summer 2020 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book

561.832.6262

Request A Proposal

• Inbound Marketing
• Search Engine Marketing
• SEO Services
• Social Media Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Hospitality & Hotel Marketing
• Content Marketing
• Photography
• Print Production
• Video Production
• Video Gallery
• Digital Marketing Services
• Additional Marketing Capabilities

How to Create an IMC Strategy

Posted at mar 20, 2020 4:42:00 pm by that agency | share " data-content="     ">share.

What makes a good integrated marketing communications plan? An IMC strategy should be built calmly and with a lot of input. It should be honest about your organization's position, and know the difference between needs and desires. It should be resourced properly and measured as it runs. Most of all, such a plan is built step-by-step. You'll see why in a second:

Step #1: Know your target market

You're not advertising to anyone and everyone. The goals you have in your IMC strategy are largely dictated by the market you hope to attract. You're devoting resources to speak to a particular audience. Do you need more data on this audience? Do you know how they use different marketing channels? What are their spending habits?

You need to know all this to devise your integrated marketing communications plan, but that's not all. You also need your team to speak to each other knowledgeably about this data because your knowledge of it will decide how accurately you can assess your IMC strategy's success.

Step #2: Run a situation analysis

You may know how to implement an IMC strategy, but the context and obstacles for every organization is difficult. There's no one-size-fits-all solution to this kind of strategy. It's wise to run a SWOT analysis . SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats.

Strengths are factors you already know your organization can do well. Weaknesses are areas where your organization needs to improve – be honest here. Lying to yourself won't help anything, and can undermine your later strategy. These are more internal factors having to do with the capabilities and resources of your business.

Opportunities and Threats have more to do with the external environment. What are situations, events, and industry and market climates that create opportunity. What competitors, industry climate, or waning demand pose threats?

There are a number of different ways to run this kind of assessment, but the key is finding what elements you can take advantage of to make your marketing efficient and effective. It's wise to include voices from across an organization in a SWOT analysis. They can offer a broader and more encompassing perspective.

Step #3: Identify your communication methods

An integrated strategy utilizes several channels of marketing. You have information on your audience. You've identified what your organization is good at and where it needs help. Now you need to apply all that information into an integrated plan.

What are the channels where your resources are best applied? This may include content marketing, email marketing, social media marketing , re-marketing, event marketing, elements of traditional marketing, or other channels.

Step #4: Create the foundations of your IMC strategy

The work you've done helps you identify and categorize various elements. You may see that you're exceptionally efficient at email marketing , and it's something that your target audience engages with reliably. Here, you've identified a strength and confirmed its usefulness through the knowledge you have of your target market. You can set goals and begin to roll this into a larger strategy.

Not all of what you know about your target market will line up with your strengths. Consider the following examples:

• Example #1 - Opportunity in an area of weakness: Content marketing is crucial, but you may not have any staff who are particularly strong or consistent in it. This means you've identified an opportunity with your target audience in a place where you're weak.

That situation may mean you need some outside help. Don't ignore the areas where you need this help. It can provide immense returns to you, and it's an area where digital marketing agencies can help.

• Example #2 - Practical tools to blunt a threat: Another potential situation may involve a threatening climate or circumstance. Once engaged with your site, you may see your customer support is overwhelmed. Customers become upset they can't reach anyone and a simple exchange for an otherwise happy customer becomes a situation where they feel disrespected and vow never to buy from you again. You can't hire many more staff, so how can you handle this?

This may be an opportunity for implementing chat bots. They can quickly provide information and narrow down product selection in response to common questions, and they can hand off more complicated queries to your staff. This takes a lot of the more straightforward requests off your staff, which saves a great deal of time. This allows them the time and focus to personally resolve more complicated or unique requests, or give attention to particularly valuable repeat customers.

Step #5: Build a budget and schedule

An integrated marketing communications plan shouldn't feel complicated or overwhelming. You can see how each step builds on the last. No particular element is actually all that complicated. It just requires knowing how to set each new level of the plan on a strong and informed foundation. With that foundation set, now you're beginning to frame out the structure of the plan.

As you identify your strategies, what you can handle in-house, and where you need help, you can begin to determine budgeting needs . These are estimates at first and won't take more precise shape until you get a fuller picture and begin choosing between elements.

At the same time, you can begin building a prototype schedule. Leave it flexible for now. Your schedule should be informed by how long it will take to implement technologies, train staff, and properly evaluate the success of different steps. It should also follow a cadence – or a pace – so that parts of the strategy are ready during certain campaigns, pushes, or holidays.

Step #6: Make it more and more real

You'll notice that this process involves adjustments and iterations. A staff member or department may come to you with a request, a desire, or an outright need. You may see a new opportunity that you slot into your plan, or a new threat that convinces you to accelerate something you were going to leave until later.

As you iterate the plan, it becomes more detailed and more achievable. You might find you have extra room in your budget for longer-term and more stable investments like content marketing. You might find your budget is more crunched than you thought and you'll have to cut out something that's a preference and not an immediate need.

Your IMC strategy will be informed by other voices as they see it and assess it. Don't let the iteration process get away from you. Always focus it on what customers need, how they engage, and what draws them to you instead of a competitor. If you have to decide between something that's advantageous for a customer vs. something that you'd like in-house, lean toward the element that streamlines the customer's experience.

Step #7: Assess and measure your plan

As the different steps of your plan are implemented according to schedule, you should have time and resources factored in to measuring the effectiveness of your plan. Measure things from a realistic perspective: if a long-term strategy isn't providing unrealistic goals within the first few months, that's not what you designed it for. Don't allow the measurement process to panic you.

Alternately, don't be so glued to a strategy that you allow your passion for it to overrule the data in front of you. A good integrated marketing communications plan is one that has some flexibility to focus on strengths or identify where previously unrealized re-marketing opportunities reside.

Need help creating an IMC strategy for your business? Contact the team at THAT Agency for advice today.

Tags: Marketing Strategy

RECENT POSTS

Leave Graphic Design to the Graphic Designer: Why It's Vital for Your Business

Metrics that Matter: How to Measure Content Marketing Strategies

From Visibility to Loyalty: Content Marketing's Role in Brand Equity

Storytelling Strategies: How Content Marketing Shapes Brand Perception

Agency Launches Innovative Partnership With Palm Beach Organized

Stay Updated

Copyright © THAT Agency All Rights Reserved

• Privacy Policy |
• VIDEO GALLERY

2000 Palm Beach Lakes Blvd Suite 601 West Palm Beach, FL 33409

P: 561.832.6262 F: 561.832.7707

Get Started

Integrated Marketing Communications Plan: What is it?

The need for an integrated marketing communications plan is greater than ever, if you want to build and maintain more positive and engaging relationships between customers and companies.

As the world becomes increasingly more digitized and connected, communication between consumers and businesses is changing. Consumers are shifting the power structure, interacting with and influencing businesses more directly.

What is an integrated marketing communications plan?

Integrated marketing communications plans allow you the leverage of the multiple components in the marketing universe to work smarter to address your customer’s needs.

An integrated marketing communications plan or IMC plan incorporates market research, strategic planning, audience segmentation, marketing channel selection, creative briefs and campaign messaging, budgeting, ROI analysis and a system for campaign metrics and evaluation. to achieve maximum impact of marketing objectives ( source ).

An IMC plan retains its theme and messaging consistency throughout a variety of media mediums, whether it's a magazine ad, a press release, social media or a company website.

What are the advantages of an integrated marketing communications plan?

Developing an IMC plan is an intensive and thorough process, but for as much work that goes into it it can reap multiple rewards. An effective plan can increase sales and profit margins and save on time and money within your organization ( source ).

An IMC plan caters to consumers by tailoring communications to them throughout the decision-making and purchase process. This builds a stronger relationship between customer and provider and coincides with a more seamless dialogue and image development within the organization.

Integrated marketing strategies have also demonstrated an increased ability to build brand loyalty. Building a more engaged customer base is key to the long-term success of organizations beyond their marketing departments.

An IMC can also aid in raising profits through greater effectiveness of campaigns. The more unified the message an IMC plan has the more of an impact on an audience rather than an endless stream of individual messages. In an increasingly "noisy" marketplace the clear, consistent messages of an integrated plan have a more significant chance of being heard.

How Can A Master’s Degree Help Me with an IMC Plan?

Consistent themes and messaging shared across an IMC plan also reduces the financial burden of multiple creative costs or agency fees. The St. Bonaventure University online Master's degree program in Integrated Marketing Communications places an emphasis on teaching integrated marketing communications and how to develop these into a plan.

SBU's online master's degree program equips you with the skills you need to succeed in the growing field of marketing. As part of your degree, you'll develop a comprehensive integrated marketing communications plan for the organization of your choosing. Our faculty will guide you through the analysis, identity development, goal defining, and budgetary planning of an IMC plan.

You will learn how to incorporate an executive summary, market research, SWOT analysis, IMC strategy, IMC objectives, marketing strategy, audience analysis, creative briefs, public relations, advertising, new media, campaign development, return on investment, and evaluation into your plan that you can ultimately form the basis of your portfolio to show future employers

Find out more about St. Bonaventure University's online Master's of Integrated Marketing Communications program here.

Check out St. Bonaventure online's top marketing blog posts below.

Integrated Marketing: What Is It?

Top Career Paths With a Master's Degree in Integrated Marketing Communications

Why Is Integrated Marketing Communications Important?

Top Communication Traits of Great Leaders

How Technological Developments Have Affected Integrated Marketing Communications Programs

*Please note that information contained in this blog post may be subject to change per program or regulatory requirements.

Whether you have a simple question or need advice to determine if this program is right for you, our knowledgeable advisors are here to help. They can chat with you on your schedule and guide you through the entire admissions process, so you can feel confident moving forward with your online St. Bonaventure University program.

Connect with an Advisor Today

St. Bonaventure University | 3261 West State Road , St. Bonaventure , NY 14778 | 1-844-424-4960 All Rights Reserved © 2024 | Sitemap | Privacy Policy | California Privacy Notice Online program management

• Request More Info

• school Campus Bookshelves
• menu_book Bookshelves
• perm_media Learning Objects
• login Login
• how_to_reg Request Instructor Account
• hub Instructor Commons
• Download Page (PDF)
• Download Full Book (PDF)
• Periodic Table
• Physics Constants
• Scientific Calculator
• Reference & Cite
• Tools expand_more
• Readability

selected template will load here

This action is not available.

13.4: Steps in the IMC Planning Process

• Last updated
• Save as PDF
• Page ID 99355

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• List the steps in the IMC planning process.
• Summarize the details of each step in IMC planning.

Identify the Target Audience

All successful IMC campaigns start with a good foundation and a carefully written and executed plan. Every step in the marketing process should be driven by research; the same is true for the IMC planning process (see Figure 13.9).

Understanding the audience is integral to creating an effective IMC campaign. Using a variety of tools, marketers are able to identify the target audience. The more that is known about the target audience, the higher the likelihood is of making sure the message is coded correctly and the right medium for effective encoding and reduced noise is chosen.

Marketers employ many tools to understand the target audience. Both primary and secondary marketing research can provide significant insights. A clear understanding of the consumer allows the marketer to create messages that resonate with the needs and wants of the target audience.

Determine the Marketing Communications Objectives

Marketing campaigns must start with clear objectives. Objectives define what needs to be done, and they help to keep the strategy and tactics clearly aligned. Good objectives will help marketers create cohesive messaging across all the promotional mix methods. Objectives need to be simple, and they should be written in such a way that they provide opportunity for analysis. If done correctly, marketers should be able to analyze if the messaging and the medium are working. When creating objectives, follow the SMART guidelines: simple, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time-bound.

The 5A Framework

The 5A framework is the map of the customer’s needs. Through the 5A framework (see Figure 13.10), marketers create messaging that moves the customer through the funnel, or customer journey with the brand. The 5As provide the marketer with clear steps on the role of the messaging at each step of the framework.

Let’s look at the five steps of the 5A framework in more detail:

When Angel Johnson launched her activewear company ICONI , she needed to stand out from more popular and well-funded activewear brands. As a Black woman–owned business, Angel wanted to appeal to other women, many of whom needed different types of activewear. Angel found success in creating awareness through running ads on Amazon , where customers could easily find and purchase her products. 17

• Appeal: After becoming aware that a product exists, the consumer must gain some understanding of what the product can do for them. If the benefits are favorable for the consumer, they may put it in their consideration set of things that appeal to them.
• Ask: After the appeal stage, the consumer may become motivated to actively seek out information about the product. When the consumer asks the company about the product, they have opened the channels of communication. This is part of the feedback loop. Methods of asking include the consumer engaging online through a chatbot or a contact form or by calling a listed phone number.
• Act: Further down the customer journey funnel, if the customer has received information and they feel it is favorable, then they will act. The action can be to either purchase the product or not purchase the product. Either form of action must be evaluated by the marketing team. The marketer can determine if the messaging created a favorable or unfavorable reaction and then modify the messaging for the segment that acted not to buy the product.
• Advocacy: At the bottom of the funnel is the marketer’s holy grail—the consumer becomes a loyal customer. The marketer can begin to calculate lifetime value, but most importantly the consumer becomes an advocate for the product. Through their advocacy, the consumer provides positive word of mouth and encourages purchase by other consumers.

Design the Message

A key element of integrated marketing communications is creating the message. Messages are designed to fulfill the established objectives. Depending upon the objective and the desired action of the consumer, the marketer may create the message to meet the various stages in the customer journey and have a call to action.

The biggest part of the message design is the content of the message. To move the consumer to the point where they act, marketers have at their disposal various forms of appeal. The appeal is the approach used to attract the attention of the target audience or to persuade it to take action.

Create the Message Content

When creating the message, the marketer has to consider not only the stage of the customer journey, but the product’s features and benefits as well. Other factors to consider in the message content include the media and the traits and characteristics of the target market. All of the segmentation bases should be considered when creating the appeal.

Rational Appeals

When Toyota advertises the features of alternative-fuel vehicles and tells the consumer how those features benefit them, it is creating a rational appeal (see Figure 13.11). Rational appeals prompt the consumer to make the choice for the product because of all the ways they will benefit from using it.

Emotional Appeals

Consumers have a wide variety of emotions. Advertising messages can play to all those emotions. A few of the typical emotional appeals include happiness, fear, trust, sadness, anger, and guilt. It can be quite effective to create fear if the customer doesn’t purchase the product. Some examples of common fear appeals include skin care products and the fear of the effects of aging on skin. Vitamins and supplements use the fear of being unhealthy. And automobiles promote the fear of not being safe in a crash unless you drive a certain brand with a good crash-test rating.

Link to Learning: Happiness Campaign

Coca-Cola (see Figure 13.12) wanted to associate drinking a Coke with being happy and created a whole campaign on the emotion of happiness. Everything in the campaign was focused on drinking Coke and choosing to be happy. They created the #choosehappiness hashtag to be used in their social and digital promotions. Consumers would include their pictures drinking a Coke with friends and add #choosehappiness. Check out this commercial from the campaign.

Public health campaigns often rely on fear appeals (see Figure 13.13). If you continue a behavior there may well be negative consequences, which can arouse fear in the consumer. These campaigns seek to change behavior through fear. Fear appeals can be very effective in some circumstances.

Moral Appeals

A moral appeal pushes the consumer to want the product because of a sense of morality or social good (see Figure 13.14). The messaging may encourage the consumer to do the “right thing.” If they don’t do what is being asked of them, the situation will get worse.

Message Structure

Promotional messages generally have common elements, which include a slogan, the text or content, and the graphics. The graphics can include photos and brand identification. Messages can tell stories with words or lead the audience to their own conclusion based on the graphics.

When Apple first promoted its iPod, the company used the imagery of a very colorful background, a completely black silhouette, and the stark contrast of the all-white iPod with white headphones. The graphic alone conveyed the message that the iPod would allow consumers to “jam” to their own tunes through this new device.

Message Format

The format of the message depends largely on the media being used to send the message. For example, a television ad combines sight and sound, while radio is reliant only on sound. The same is true for print, billboards, and various digital campaigns. Formatting the message needs to take into consideration the target market as well as the medium of the message.

Determine the Budget

Promotional budgets are determined based on many variables. In developing the promotional budget, it is important to consider where the consumer is in their journey. Additional considerations include the current level of brand awareness for the product, accessibility of the target market, creation of the promotion, and specific media under consideration. There are several commonly used methods of creating promotional budgets.

• Objective and Task: This is perhaps the best method but is often used the least. With objective and task, the marketer determines the objectives of the IMC campaign and what tasks need to be done in order to complete the objectives. The tasks are priced, and the level of reach (number of consumers who will see the message) and the frequency (the number of times the consumer will see the message) are estimated. Based on the tasks necessary to achieve the campaign objectives, the budget is established.
• Top Down: With a top-down budgeting approach, the IMC campaign budget is issued from the operating budget based on input from the executives responsible for setting the budgets. While this method takes into consideration the overall organization, it pays little heed to the needs of the specific campaign.
• Percent of Sales: While personal selling is one of the methods included in the promotional mix, it is not the only method. A percent-of-sales approach attributes sales to all the functions of marketing. Generally, an organization may provide an arbitrary percent of overall sales as the total budget for the marketing promotions. Because many issues affect the sale of a product, it is difficult to make sales the only determinant of the marketing activities and the promotional methods.
• Affordable: The affordable method allocates only the amount of money the company can provide to a marketing budget. This method does not create a mindset of growth within the organization. A robust marketing strategy is focused on the growth of the organization. Affordable only provides for what is left over after all the other expenses have been allocated.
• Competitive Parity: If you were to look at the advertising budgets of competitors in the same industry, you might very likely see that they are spending similar amounts on a very similar promotional mix. Companies of every size closely monitor the promotional activities of their competitors. With the competitive parity method of budgeting, the allocations essentially mirror whatever the closest competitor is spending on promotions. This method of budgeting doesn’t allow for increased market share.

Develop Strategies and Tactics

The promotional strategies include the promotional methods the marketer chooses in order to achieve the objectives. Within the promotional methods, the tactics are the specifics the marketer must use to achieve the objectives. For example, if Panera Bread wants a 10 percent increase in brand awareness for its decorated Christmas sugar cookies from November 26 to December 30, it may choose to use the following strategy and corresponding tactics:

A strategy might be to create an Internet/digital messaging campaign focused on creating awareness with a message to try the Panera Christmas sugar cookies for a limited time. The tactics might then be developed as follows:

• Develop push ads through the Panera Bread mobile app
• Publish pop-up banner ads through Google
• Post campaign messages in Instagram
• Post campaign messages in Facebook

Select the Promotional Tools

The marketer must decide on the mix of promotional tools based on the established marketing objectives. Choosing the mix of promotional methods is also primarily dependent on the consumer and how best to reach them.

When Timmy Global Health , a not-for-profit organization, wanted to do an end-of-year fundraising ask, it chose to reach its donor base through direct mail. The organization chose an email campaign for the segment of its market that is responsive to email and has an email address in the CRM system. For a small segment of its market, those who are older and not responsive to digital marketing, it chose to do a direct mail campaign with a postcard mailed through the US Postal Service . 18

Link to Learning: Direct Mail Examples

There are hundreds of examples where companies have used direct mail campaigns in their promotional mix. Check out some of the best as referenced in this article .

Designing the Promotion

In considering the target market and the message to send, the marketer must think of the desired response. Three important issues arise in the design of the promotion: what to say (message), how to say it (creative), and who should say it (source). This leads the marketer to the overall message strategy, which will look at the appeal as it relates to the brand positioning. A marketer will consider the following in designing a promotion:

• Message Strategy: A good message strategy must tie the brand to the target audience. What will appeal to them? What action do you want them to take? How does the brand positioning need to be portrayed? The marketer may choose to highlight how the product compares to the competition (points of parity), or the marketer may choose to focus on how the product is different (points of difference). In doing so, it is important to showcase the product or service through the value it will bring to the target market. Ultimately, the customer wants to know “What’s in it for me?”
• Creative Strategy: Through a creative strategy , the marketer is able to translate their message into words, images, and sounds. If the message and the creative do not match up, the communication objectives may miss their mark. The creative strategy helps the marketer cut through the clutter and get the attention of the target audience. A properly done creative strategy serves as the guiding principles to develop good content.

Personal communication channels can include social networks like friends, family, and neighbors. They can also include paid or unpaid experts and even the company’s own sales force. Nonpersonal communication channels include everything from television and radio to billboards and direct mail.

In designing the promotion, the marketer can mix and match the message, creative, and communication strategies until they have the right combination to execute on their objectives and connect with the target market.

For example, when World Food Championships wanted to reach home cooks, professional chefs, and aspiring chefs to participate in its Food Sport events, it enticed them with the opportunity for a big payout in winnings. And it created a connection with them through smaller local qualifying events. When the winners of smaller events received a Golden Ticket to compete, they were instantly excited. Then they realized the competition would allow them to meet with even bigger food celebrities and increase their chances of television fame (see Figure 13.15).

Scheduling the Promotion

Knowing when to promote and how often to promote is a critical juncture in the promotional process. For scheduling purposes, it is important to understand the complexity of the message and the medium or channel for delivery. If the average of 5,000 promotional messages a day is correct, the consumer will need to see a message many times in order to become aware and act. To move them down through the customer journey, the message has to cut through the clutter and stick.

Reach is the number of consumers who will be exposed to the promotional message at any given time. Frequency is the number of times the consumer will be exposed to the message. Using the combination of reach times frequency, the marketer is able to determine the promotional schedule. Marketers typically work to create promotional schedules that optimize the exposure to the target market. Once again, we see that having extensive knowledge of the target market is critical to creating effective campaigns. There are three promotional schedules a marketer may consider:

• Continuous: With a continuous promotional schedule , the marketer will conduct the promotion year-round on a very regular schedule. Consumers will continuously see the ads.
• Flighting : Through a flighting promotional schedule , the marketer will run a period of heavy promotions and then go for a period of time without any promotional messaging. The idea is to give the target market a break and avoid potential wear-out of the message.
• Pulsing: If you see promotions on a regular basis and then suddenly you see them a lot during certain seasons, the sender is using a pulsing schedule .

For example, let’s consider the television commercial for MyPillow . Throughout a broadcast, the MyPillow commercial plays two or three times. The commercial plays every night on one broadcast station. However, during holiday seasons, the commercial plays more often. The commercial is often accompanied by a special code. With the code, viewers can receive a discount on the pillows. The viewer gets a discount, and MyPillow receives analytics to determine if its budget for this commercial television time is effective. In this example, MyPillow is utilizing a pulsing schedule for its promotional efforts.

Evaluate and Measure the Objectives

Before starting a promotional campaign, marketers must establish objectives. Including measurable and time-bound objectives is important. The marketer must evaluate the campaign on a continual basis to ensure that every element in the campaign is working to achieve the objective. Measuring and evaluating the campaign on a continual basis allows the marketer to evaluate the elements and make changes. Typically, objectives also have financial accountability. Changing elements of a campaign avoids overspending on components that are not working to meet the objectives.

Some common key performance indicators (KPIs) for evaluating promotional campaigns include the following:

• return on investment
• cost per lead
• cost per sale

Digital promotional campaigns allow marketers to track many analytics in real time and have the ability to make changes to the campaign in real time. The advantages of digital media include a host of valuable analytics, such as the following:

• website traffic
• bounce rate
• conversion rate
• impressions
• cost per click

Marketing Dashboard: ROCI

IMC is centered on data-driven decision-making to drive organizational value. So it’s no surprise that the founder of IMC, Don Schultz , determined a way to measure IMC campaigns. Schultz calls this metric return on customer investment (ROCI) . ROCI is a marginal analysis that shows the efficiency of marketing communications spending. We often think of effectiveness as the key measure of a campaign’s success. But equally important is the efficiency of how we spend resources. We should consider how hard our resource works for us.

We should also be concerned about how well our investment does in the short term and the long term. After all, we are trying to build financial returns for our organizations. ROCI looks at short- and long-term value by considering the change in profitability and value during the period and overall.

IMC considers all aspects of the marketing communications relationship, not just a single campaign. The ROCI metric looks at how revenue grows over time and not just in response to one action.

The formula for ROCI is as follows:

Let’s say we own an ice cream shop and we are interested in the efficiency of our recent IMC campaign. So, we decide to conduct an ROCI calculation for an average customer using the following data. What is the ROCI?

Last period, the ROCI was $37.50. What factors might impact the change from the previous period to this period?

ROCI considers all aspects of the IMC relationship, so as the relationship grows, the ROCI does as well.

What is the value of the ROCI calculation?

It determines the marketing communication campaigns that yield the most profitable customers.

Link to Learning: Don Schultz

Hear from Dr. Schultz directly about IMC trends in this video.

Knowledge Check

It’s time to check your knowledge on the concepts presented in this section. Refer to the Answer Key at the end of the book for feedback.

The first step in the IMC planning process is ________.

• determine the objectives
• determine the budget
• identify the target audience
• select the promotional tools

According to the 5A framework, when Jennifer uses the Panera Bread coupon sent through a text message to her mobile device, which stage of the customer journey is she in?

When advertising is scheduled to run constantly without variation, this is referred to as ________.

When Nestlé shows an advertisement that has children coming down the stairs on Christmas morning to the smell of freshly baked Nestlé Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies, this is an example of which method of message appeal?

The CFO for Wendy’s tells the CMO that after doing the annual budget, there is only $700,000 left for marketing promotions. Which form of budgeting is Wendy’s using?

• Objective and task
• Competitive parity
• Percent of sales

11.1 Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC)

Learning objectives.

The objectives of this section is to help students …

• Understand what integrated marketing communications (IMC) are.
• Understand why organizations may change their promotional strategies to reach different audiences.
• Understand the different components of the promotion (communication) mix and why organizations may consider all components when designing the IMC program.
• Understand the difference between types of communication that target many people at one time versus types of communication that target individuals.
• Understand the factors that influence selection of the promotion mix.
• Understand the communication process and message problems.

Once companies have developed products and services, they must communicate the value and benefits of the offerings to current and potential customers in both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) markets. Integrated marketing communications (IMC) provide an approach designed to deliver one consistent message to buyers through an organization’s promotions that may span all different types of media such as TV, radio, magazines, the Internet, mobile phones, professional selling, and social media. For example, Campbell’s Soup Company typically includes the “Mm, mm good” slogan in the print ads it places in newspapers and magazines, in ads on the Internet, and in commercials on television and radio. Delivering consistent information about a brand or an organization helps establish it in the minds of consumers and potential customers across target markets. Although the messages are very similar, Campbell’s uses two variations of commercials designed to target different consumers. Watch the following two YouTube videos. You’ll notice that the message Campbell’s gets across is consistent. But can you figure out who is in the two target audiences?

Video Clip A Meal : That’s Always Popular with the Group

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5ZM1cqpdT0

Campbell’s soup provides a good meal.

 Video Clip : So Many Possibilities for Enjoying Soup

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IN3c4rZJNd4

Campbell’s soup pleases people of all ages.

Changes in communication technology and instant access to information through tools such as the Internet and social media (online communication among interdependent and interconnected networks of organizations, people, and communities) explain one of the reasons why integrated marketing communications have become so important. Consumers are also changing. With access to many sources of information and often an interest in interactive media, consumers may collect more product information on their own. Marketers must organize and assemble available information to build a consistent brand message and make it relevant. With IMC, organizations can coordinate their messages to build the brand and develop strong customer relationships while also helping customers satisfy their needs.

FedEx’s recent campaign, the “We Understand” tagline launched in 2009 and the “Solutions that Matter” tagline launched in 2011, illustrate examples of IMC campaigns they used to deliver a consistent message across all media channels including television commercials, e-mails, social media, mobile marketing, direct mail, and the FedEx channel on YouTube (Dilworth, 2010). Watch the following videos to see examples of commercials in the FedEx campaigns.

Video Clip : The “We Understand” at FedEx Shows Customers that They Understand and Can Satisfy Their Needs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et1oZPNf2d0

FedEx often uses a humorous appeal.

Changing Media

Many consumers and business professionals seek information and connect with other people and businesses from their computers and phones. The work and social environments are changing, with more people having virtual offices and texting on their cell phones or communicating through social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter. As the media landscape changes, the money that organizations spend on different types of communication will change as well. Some forecasts indicate that companies will spend almost 27 percent of their total promotional budgets, or $160 billion, on electronic or non-traditional media by 2012.

Figure 11.1: Changing media 

Some consumers feel lost without their cell phones. Phones such as the one pictured provide a source of information for consumers and a new medium for advertisers to deliver information.

(Yeray Hdez Guerra – iPhone – CC BY 2.0.)

Many college students are part of the millennial generation, and it is consumers from this generation (people like you perhaps) who are driving the change toward new communication technologies. You might opt to get promotions via mobile marketing—say, from stores on your cell phone as you walk by them or via a mobile gaming device that allows you to connect to the Web. Likewise, advertisements on Facebook are popular as businesses continue to utilize more social media. For example, when Honda let people on Facebook use the Honda logo to give heart-shaped virtual gifts on Valentine’s Day, over one and a half million people participated in the event and viewed the Honda Fit online in the process. Imagine the brand awareness generated for the Honda Fit.

Figure 11.2: Search engine marketing

Marketing based on the Internet and wireless technology is popular.

(Danard Vincente – Search-Engine-Marketing – CC BY 2.0.)

Traditional media (magazines, newspapers, television) compete with media such as the Internet, texting, mobile phones, social media, user-generated content such as blogs, and YouTube as well as out-of-home advertising such as billboards and movable promotions. You might have noticed that the tray tables on airplanes sometimes have ads on them. You have probably also seen ads on the inside of subway cars, in trains and buses, and even in bathroom stalls. These, too, are examples of out-of-home advertising.

Figure 11.3: Out-of-home advertising

The inside walls of many subways provide an opportunity for advertisers to reach commuters with their messages.

(emilydickinsonridesabmx – Vintage NYC Subway Trains – CC BY 2.0)

Although the money organizations spend promoting their offerings may go to different media channels, a company still wants to send its customers and potential consumers a consistent message (IMC). The different types of marketing communications an organization uses compose its promotion or communication mix, which consists of advertising, sales promotions, direct marketing, public relations and publicity, sponsorships (events and experiences), social media and interactive marketing, and professional selling . The importance of IMC will be demonstrated throughout the discussion of traditional media as well as newer, more targeted, and often interactive online media.

Advertising involves paying to disseminate a message that identifies a brand (product or service) or an organization being promoted to many people at one time. The typical media that organizations utilize for advertising of course include television, magazines, newspapers, the Internet, direct mail, and radio. Businesses also advertise on mobile devices and social media such as Facebook, blogs, and Twitter.

Consumer sales promotions consist of short-term incentives such as coupons, contests, games, rebates, and mail-in offers that supplement the advertising and sales efforts. Sales promotions include promotions that are not part of another component of the communication mix and are often developed to get customers and potential customers to take action quickly, make larger purchases, and/or make repeat purchases.

In business-to-business marketing, sales promotions are typically called trade promotions because they are targeted to channel members who conduct business or trade with consumers. Trade promotions include trade shows and special incentives given to retailers to market particular products and services, such as extra money, in-store displays, and prizes.

Direct marketing involves the delivery of personalized and often interactive promotional materials to individual consumers via channels such as mail, catalogs, Internet, e-mail, telephone, and direct-response advertising. By targeting consumers individually, organizations hope to get consumers to take action.

Professional selling is an interactive, paid approach to marketing that involves a buyer and a seller. The interaction between the two parties can occur in person, by telephone, or via another technology. Whatever medium is used, developing a relationship with the buyer is usually something the seller desires.

When you interview for internships or full-time positions and try to convince potential employers to hire you, you are engaging in professional selling. The interview is very similar to a buyer-seller situation. Both the buyer and seller have objectives they hope to achieve. Business-to-business marketers generally utilize professional selling more often than most business-to-consumer marketers. If you have ever attended a Pampered Chef party or purchased something from an Amway or Mary Kay representative, you’ve been exposed to professional selling.

Pampered Chef and Tastefully Simple have built their businesses primarily on the professional selling skills of their consultants. Professional selling is used more in business-to-business markets than in business-to-consumer markets.

[Wikimedia Commons – public domain.]

Public relations (PR) involves communication designed to help improve and promote an organization’s image and products. PR is often perceived as more neutral and objective than other forms of promotion because much of the information is tailored to sound as if it has been created by an organization independent of the seller. Public relations materials include press releases, publicity, and news conferences. While other techniques such as product placement and sponsorships, especially of events and experiences, tend to generate a lot of PR, the growth of expenditures and importance of sponsorships are so critical for so many companies that it is often considered a separate component in the communication mix. Many companies have internal PR departments or hire PR firms to find and create public relations opportunities for them. As such, PR is part of a company’s promotion budget and their integrated marketing communications

Sponsorships typically refer to financial support for events, venues, or experiences and provide the opportunity to target specific groups. Sponsorships enhance a company’s image and usually generate public relations. With an increasing amount of money being spent on sponsorships, they have become an important component of the promotion mix.

A marketing manager from one company might decide to focus on social media, whereas a marketing manager from another company might decide to focus her company’s efforts on television commercials. Why do companies select different types of media for what may be perceived as similar messages? As Figure 11.5 “Factors That Influence Selection of Promotion Mix” shows, a number of factors affect the choice of promotion mix elements.

Factors That Influence Selection of Promotion Mix

Budget Available: For many companies, the budget available to market a product determines what elements of the promotion mix are utilized. The budget affects a promotion’s reach (number of people exposed to the message) and frequency (how often people are exposed). For example, many smaller companies may lack the money to create and run commercials on top-rated television shows or during the Super Bowl. As a result, they may not get the exposure they need to be successful. Other firms such as McDonald’s may come up with creative ways to reach different target markets. For example, McDonald’s targeted college students with a special promotion that it filmed live in a Boston University lecture.

Stage in the product life cycle: The stage in the product life cycle also affects the type and amount of promotion used. Products in the introductory stages typically need a lot more promotional dollars to create awareness in the marketplace. Consumers and businesses won’t buy a product if they do not know about it. More communication is needed in the beginning of the product life cycle to build awareness and trial.

Type of product and type of purchase decision: Different products also require different types of promotion. Very technical products and very expensive products (high involvement) often need professional selling so the customer understands how the product operates and its different features. By contrast, advertising is often relied upon to sell convenience goods and products purchased routinely (low involvement) since customers are familiar with the products and they spend relatively little time making purchase decisions.

Target market characteristics and consumers’ readiness to purchase:  In order to select the best methods to reach different target markets, organizations need to know what types of media different targets use, how often they make purchases, where they make purchases, and what their readiness to purchase is as well as characteristics such as age, gender, and lifestyle. Some people are early adopters and want to try new things as soon as they are available, and other groups wait until products have been on the market for a while. Some consumers might not have the money to purchase different products, although they will need the product later. For example, are most college freshmen ready to purchase new cars?

Consumers’ preferences for various media:  We’ve already explained that different types of consumers prefer different types of media. In terms of target markets, college-aged students may prefer online, cell phone, mobile marketing, and social media more than older consumers do. Media preferences have been researched extensively by academics, marketing research companies, and companies to find out how consumers want to be reached.

Regulations, competitors, and environmental factors:  Regulations can affect the type of promotion used. For example, laws in the United States prohibit tobacco products from being advertised on television. In some Asian countries, controversial products such as alcohol cannot be advertised during Golden (prime) time on television. The hope is that by advertising late at night, young children do not see the advertisements. The strength of the economy can have an impact as well. In a weak economy, some organizations use more sales promotions such as coupons to get consumers into their stores. The risk is that consumers may begin to expect coupons and not want to buy items without a special promotion.

Availability of media:  Organizations must also plan their promotions based on availability of media. The top rated television shows and Super Bowl ad slots, for example, often sell out quickly. Magazines tend to have a longer lead time, so companies must plan far in advance for some magazines. By contrast, because of the number of radio stations and the nature of the medium, organizations can often place radio commercials the same day they want them to be aired. Social media and online media may be immediate, but users must be careful about what they post and their privacy. Uncontrollable events can affect a company’s promotions, too. For example, when a disaster occurs, TV stations often cut advertisements to make way for continuous news coverage. If there is a crisis or disaster and your company is in the middle of a promotion being advertised on TV, you will likely have to scramble to reach consumers via another medium.

Figure 11.5: Factors Influencing Promotion Mix

The Communication Process

Do you use TiVo or a digital video recorder (DVR) to record movies or television shows so you can watch them when you want without television commercials? Do you ever use the remote to skip the commercials or zap (change channels) to look at different shows? Think about which television shows you choose to watch, which magazines you read, which radio stations you select. The perceptual process is how a person decides what to pay attention to and how to interpret and remember different things, including information in advertising. By selecting a magazine, a television show, or even an elective class in school, you’re selecting what you’re exposed to and deciding what gets your attention. However, your selection does not insure you’ll either pay attention or remember or correctly interpret what you see or hear.

Think about what else you are doing when you watch television, when you are studying, or when you are listening to the radio. It’s a hot day in July and you’re enjoying a day at the beach. Your friends brought a radio and the volume is turned up so you can hear all the music. If you’re listening to the music or talking to a friend at the beach while you’re listening to the radio, do you hear or pay attention to the commercials? Do you remember which products were advertised? If you’re with a friend and hear someone else say your name, do you pay more attention to the person talking about you than to your friend?

The same thing happens when you are watching a television show, reading a magazine, or studying for a test. The phone rings or your friends show up and your attention shifts to them. With so many different types of distractions and technology (such as recording devices), imagine how difficult it is for an advertiser to get you to pay attention much less remember the message. Do you remember the terms you memorized for a test a day later? Do you know your friends’ phone numbers and e-mail addresses or do you just find their names on your contact list? To increase retention, advertisers may repeat the same message multiple times in different places, but they must be careful that consumers don’t get so tired of the message that there is a negative effect.

The communication process illustrates how messages are sent and received, as shown in Figure 11.6 “The Communication Process”. The source (or sender) encodes, or translates, a message so that it’s appropriate for the message channel—say, for a print advertisement, TV commercial, or store display—and shows the benefits and value of the offering. The receiver (customer or consumer) then decodes, or interprets, the message. For effective communication to occur, the receiver must interpret the message as the sender intended.

Message Problems

You’re ready to go home on a Friday afternoon and you hear someone mention an upcoming event on Saturday. However, you did not listen to all the details and assume the event is the next day, not the following Saturday. Since you already made other plans for the next day, you don’t even consider showing up the following Saturday. Has this ever happened to you? You don’t show up at an event because you didn’t interpret the message correctly? If you do not hear someone correctly, misread information, or misinterpret a message, you might think a product or service provides different benefits or is easier or harder to use than it really is.

Interference, or noise, can distort marketing messages. Factors such as poor reception, poor print quality, problems with a server, or a low battery can interfere with your getting messages. Interference includes any distractions receivers and senders face during the transmission of a message. For example, when you were growing up did you see commercials for toys such as the pogo ball, which appeared to be so easy to use but when you tried to jump up and down on it, you found out it was extremely difficult? The same thing may happen if you’re studying for an exam while you’re talking on the phone. The conversation interferes with remembering what you’re reading. If a friend tells you a story, then you tell another friend, and that person tells someone else, will the message be the same after it is relayed to multiple people? If you miss class and borrow someone else’s notes, do you understand what they mean? Not only must advertisers try to present consistent messages (IMC), they must also try to ensure that you interpret the message as they intended.

Purchasing a product provides the sender with feedback, which often tells the seller that you saw information and wanted to try the product. If you use any coupons or promotions when you buy a product, the advertiser knows which vehicle you used to get the information. Market research and warranty registration also provide feedback.

We tend to purchase products and remember information that has some relevance to our personal situation or beliefs. If you have no need for a product or service, you might not pay attention to or remember the messages used to market it. Advertisers also want you to remember their brands so that you’ll think of their products/services when you need to make a purchase.

Figure 11.6: The Communication Process

• As the media landscape changes, marketers may change the type of promotions they use in order to reach their target markets.
• With changing technology and social media (e.g., Facebook), less money is being budgeted for traditional media such as magazines and more money is budgeted for “non-traditional media.”
• Regardless of the type of media used, marketers use integrated marketing communications (IMC) to deliver one consistent message to buyers.
• Technology is changing the way businesses and individuals communicate.
• Organizations use Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) to deliver a consistent message across all components of the promotion mix.
• The promotion (communication) mix is composed of advertising, professional selling, public relations, sponsorships (events and experiences), sales promotion, direct marketing, and online media, including social media.
• Many factors, such as a firm’s marketing budget, the type of product, regulations, target customers, and competitors, influence what composes the promotion mix.
• Depending on what medium is used, marketers use the communication process to encode or translate ideas into messages that can be correctly interpreted (decoded) by buyers.
• Marketers must determine how to get consumers’ attention and avoid as much interference and noise as possible.
• Perceptual processes include how a person decides what to pay attention to and how to interpret and remember different things.

Dilworth, D., “FedEx Launches Fully Integrated Campaign, Featuring E-mail, Direct Mail,” Direct Marketing News, January 7, 2010, http://www.dmnews.com/fedex-launches-fully-integrated-campaign-featuring-e-maildirect-mail/article/160829/

Share This Book

• Increase Font Size

13.4 Steps in the IMC Planning Process

Learning outcomes.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• 1 List the steps in the IMC planning process.
• 2 Summarize the details of each step in IMC planning.

Identify the Target Audience

All successful IMC campaigns start with a good foundation and a carefully written and executed plan. Every step in the marketing process should be driven by research; the same is true for the IMC planning process (see Figure 13.9 ).

Understanding the audience is integral to creating an effective IMC campaign. Using a variety of tools, marketers are able to identify the target audience. The more that is known about the target audience, the higher the likelihood is of making sure the message is coded correctly and the right medium for effective encoding and reduced noise is chosen.

Marketers employ many tools to understand the target audience. Both primary and secondary marketing research can provide significant insights. A clear understanding of the consumer allows the marketer to create messages that resonate with the needs and wants of the target audience.

Determine the Marketing Communications Objectives

Marketing campaigns must start with clear objectives. Objectives define what needs to be done, and they help to keep the strategy and tactics clearly aligned. Good objectives will help marketers create cohesive messaging across all the promotional mix methods. Objectives need to be simple, and they should be written in such a way that they provide opportunity for analysis. If done correctly, marketers should be able to analyze if the messaging and the medium are working. When creating objectives, follow the SMART guidelines: simple, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time-bound.

The 5A Framework

The 5A framework is the map of the customer’s needs. Through the 5A framework (see Figure 13.10 ), marketers create messaging that moves the customer through the funnel, or customer journey with the brand. The 5As provide the marketer with clear steps on the role of the messaging at each step of the framework.

Let’s look at the five steps of the 5A framework in more detail:

When Angel Johnson launched her activewear company ICONI , she needed to stand out from more popular and well-funded activewear brands. As a Black woman–owned business, Angel wanted to appeal to other women, many of whom needed different types of activewear. Angel found success in creating awareness through running ads on Amazon , where customers could easily find and purchase her products. 17

• Appeal: After becoming aware that a product exists, the consumer must gain some understanding of what the product can do for them. If the benefits are favorable for the consumer, they may put it in their consideration set of things that appeal to them.
• Ask: After the appeal stage, the consumer may become motivated to actively seek out information about the product. When the consumer asks the company about the product, they have opened the channels of communication. This is part of the feedback loop. Methods of asking include the consumer engaging online through a chatbot or a contact form or by calling a listed phone number.
• Act: Further down the customer journey funnel, if the customer has received information and they feel it is favorable, then they will act. The action can be to either purchase the product or not purchase the product. Either form of action must be evaluated by the marketing team. The marketer can determine if the messaging created a favorable or unfavorable reaction and then modify the messaging for the segment that acted not to buy the product.
• Advocacy: At the bottom of the funnel is the marketer’s holy grail—the consumer becomes a loyal customer. The marketer can begin to calculate lifetime value, but most importantly the consumer becomes an advocate for the product. Through their advocacy, the consumer provides positive word of mouth and encourages purchase by other consumers.

Design the Message

A key element of integrated marketing communications is creating the message. Messages are designed to fulfill the established objectives. Depending upon the objective and the desired action of the consumer, the marketer may create the message to meet the various stages in the customer journey and have a call to action.

The biggest part of the message design is the content of the message. To move the consumer to the point where they act, marketers have at their disposal various forms of appeal. The appeal is the approach used to attract the attention of the target audience or to persuade it to take action.

Create the Message Content

When creating the message, the marketer has to consider not only the stage of the customer journey, but the product’s features and benefits as well. Other factors to consider in the message content include the media and the traits and characteristics of the target market. All of the segmentation bases should be considered when creating the appeal.

Rational Appeals

When Toyota advertises the features of alternative-fuel vehicles and tells the consumer how those features benefit them, it is creating a rational appeal (see Figure 13.11 ). Rational appeals prompt the consumer to make the choice for the product because of all the ways they will benefit from using it.

Emotional Appeals

Consumers have a wide variety of emotions. Advertising messages can play to all those emotions. A few of the typical emotional appeals include happiness, fear, trust, sadness, anger, and guilt. It can be quite effective to create fear if the customer doesn’t purchase the product. Some examples of common fear appeals include skin care products and the fear of the effects of aging on skin. Vitamins and supplements use the fear of being unhealthy. And automobiles promote the fear of not being safe in a crash unless you drive a certain brand with a good crash-test rating.

Link to Learning

Happiness campaign.

Coca-Cola (see Figure 13.12 ) wanted to associate drinking a Coke with being happy and created a whole campaign on the emotion of happiness. Everything in the campaign was focused on drinking Coke and choosing to be happy. They created the #choosehappiness hashtag to be used in their social and digital promotions. Consumers would include their pictures drinking a Coke with friends and add #choosehappiness. Check out this commercial from the campaign.

Public health campaigns often rely on fear appeals (see Figure 13.13 ). If you continue a behavior there may well be negative consequences, which can arouse fear in the consumer. These campaigns seek to change behavior through fear. Fear appeals can be very effective in some circumstances.

Moral Appeals

A moral appeal pushes the consumer to want the product because of a sense of morality or social good (see Figure 13.14 ). The messaging may encourage the consumer to do the “right thing.” If they don’t do what is being asked of them, the situation will get worse.

Message Structure

Promotional messages generally have common elements, which include a slogan, the text or content, and the graphics. The graphics can include photos and brand identification. Messages can tell stories with words or lead the audience to their own conclusion based on the graphics.

When Apple first promoted its iPod, the company used the imagery of a very colorful background, a completely black silhouette, and the stark contrast of the all-white iPod with white headphones. The graphic alone conveyed the message that the iPod would allow consumers to “jam” to their own tunes through this new device.

Message Format

The format of the message depends largely on the media being used to send the message. For example, a television ad combines sight and sound, while radio is reliant only on sound. The same is true for print, billboards, and various digital campaigns. Formatting the message needs to take into consideration the target market as well as the medium of the message.

Determine the Budget

Promotional budgets are determined based on many variables. In developing the promotional budget, it is important to consider where the consumer is in their journey. Additional considerations include the current level of brand awareness for the product, accessibility of the target market, creation of the promotion, and specific media under consideration. There are several commonly used methods of creating promotional budgets.

• Objective and Task: This is perhaps the best method but is often used the least. With objective and task, the marketer determines the objectives of the IMC campaign and what tasks need to be done in order to complete the objectives. The tasks are priced, and the level of reach (number of consumers who will see the message) and the frequency (the number of times the consumer will see the message) are estimated. Based on the tasks necessary to achieve the campaign objectives, the budget is established.
• Top Down: With a top-down budgeting approach, the IMC campaign budget is issued from the operating budget based on input from the executives responsible for setting the budgets. While this method takes into consideration the overall organization, it pays little heed to the needs of the specific campaign.
• Percent of Sales: While personal selling is one of the methods included in the promotional mix, it is not the only method. A percent-of-sales approach attributes sales to all the functions of marketing. Generally, an organization may provide an arbitrary percent of overall sales as the total budget for the marketing promotions. Because many issues affect the sale of a product, it is difficult to make sales the only determinant of the marketing activities and the promotional methods.
• Affordable: The affordable method allocates only the amount of money the company can provide to a marketing budget. This method does not create a mindset of growth within the organization. A robust marketing strategy is focused on the growth of the organization. Affordable only provides for what is left over after all the other expenses have been allocated.
• Competitive Parity: If you were to look at the advertising budgets of competitors in the same industry, you might very likely see that they are spending similar amounts on a very similar promotional mix. Companies of every size closely monitor the promotional activities of their competitors. With the competitive parity method of budgeting, the allocations essentially mirror whatever the closest competitor is spending on promotions. This method of budgeting doesn’t allow for increased market share.

Develop Strategies and Tactics

The promotional strategies include the promotional methods the marketer chooses in order to achieve the objectives. Within the promotional methods, the tactics are the specifics the marketer must use to achieve the objectives. For example, if Panera Bread wants a 10 percent increase in brand awareness for its decorated Christmas sugar cookies from November 26 to December 30, it may choose to use the following strategy and corresponding tactics:

A strategy might be to create an Internet/digital messaging campaign focused on creating awareness with a message to try the Panera Christmas sugar cookies for a limited time. The tactics might then be developed as follows:

• Develop push ads through the Panera Bread mobile app
• Publish pop-up banner ads through Google
• Post campaign messages in Instagram
• Post campaign messages in Facebook

Select the Promotional Tools

The marketer must decide on the mix of promotional tools based on the established marketing objectives. Choosing the mix of promotional methods is also primarily dependent on the consumer and how best to reach them.

When Timmy Global Health , a not-for-profit organization, wanted to do an end-of-year fundraising ask, it chose to reach its donor base through direct mail. The organization chose an email campaign for the segment of its market that is responsive to email and has an email address in the CRM system. For a small segment of its market, those who are older and not responsive to digital marketing, it chose to do a direct mail campaign with a postcard mailed through the US Postal Service . 18

Direct Mail Examples

There are hundreds of examples where companies have used direct mail campaigns in their promotional mix. Check out some of the best as referenced in this article .

Designing the Promotion

In considering the target market and the message to send, the marketer must think of the desired response. Three important issues arise in the design of the promotion: what to say (message), how to say it (creative), and who should say it (source). This leads the marketer to the overall message strategy, which will look at the appeal as it relates to the brand positioning. A marketer will consider the following in designing a promotion:

• Message Strategy: A good message strategy must tie the brand to the target audience. What will appeal to them? What action do you want them to take? How does the brand positioning need to be portrayed? The marketer may choose to highlight how the product compares to the competition (points of parity), or the marketer may choose to focus on how the product is different (points of difference). In doing so, it is important to showcase the product or service through the value it will bring to the target market. Ultimately, the customer wants to know “What’s in it for me?”
• Creative Strategy: Through a creative strategy , the marketer is able to translate their message into words, images, and sounds. If the message and the creative do not match up, the communication objectives may miss their mark. The creative strategy helps the marketer cut through the clutter and get the attention of the target audience. A properly done creative strategy serves as the guiding principles to develop good content.

Personal communication channels can include social networks like friends, family, and neighbors. They can also include paid or unpaid experts and even the company’s own sales force. Nonpersonal communication channels include everything from television and radio to billboards and direct mail.

In designing the promotion, the marketer can mix and match the message, creative, and communication strategies until they have the right combination to execute on their objectives and connect with the target market.

For example, when World Food Championships wanted to reach home cooks, professional chefs, and aspiring chefs to participate in its Food Sport events, it enticed them with the opportunity for a big payout in winnings. And it created a connection with them through smaller local qualifying events. When the winners of smaller events received a Golden Ticket to compete, they were instantly excited. Then they realized the competition would allow them to meet with even bigger food celebrities and increase their chances of television fame (see Figure 13.15 ).

Scheduling the Promotion

Knowing when to promote and how often to promote is a critical juncture in the promotional process. For scheduling purposes, it is important to understand the complexity of the message and the medium or channel for delivery. If the average of 5,000 promotional messages a day is correct, the consumer will need to see a message many times in order to become aware and act. To move them down through the customer journey, the message has to cut through the clutter and stick.

Reach is the number of consumers who will be exposed to the promotional message at any given time. Frequency is the number of times the consumer will be exposed to the message. Using the combination of reach times frequency, the marketer is able to determine the promotional schedule. Marketers typically work to create promotional schedules that optimize the exposure to the target market. Once again, we see that having extensive knowledge of the target market is critical to creating effective campaigns. There are three promotional schedules a marketer may consider:

• Continuous: With a continuous promotional schedule , the marketer will conduct the promotion year-round on a very regular schedule. Consumers will continuously see the ads.
• Flighting : Through a flighting promotional schedule , the marketer will run a period of heavy promotions and then go for a period of time without any promotional messaging. The idea is to give the target market a break and avoid potential wear-out of the message.
• Pulsing: If you see promotions on a regular basis and then suddenly you see them a lot during certain seasons, the sender is using a pulsing schedule .

For example, let’s consider the television commercial for MyPillow . Throughout a broadcast, the MyPillow commercial plays two or three times. The commercial plays every night on one broadcast station. However, during holiday seasons, the commercial plays more often. The commercial is often accompanied by a special code. With the code, viewers can receive a discount on the pillows. The viewer gets a discount, and MyPillow receives analytics to determine if its budget for this commercial television time is effective. In this example, MyPillow is utilizing a pulsing schedule for its promotional efforts.

Evaluate and Measure the Objectives

Before starting a promotional campaign, marketers must establish objectives. Including measurable and time-bound objectives is important. The marketer must evaluate the campaign on a continual basis to ensure that every element in the campaign is working to achieve the objective. Measuring and evaluating the campaign on a continual basis allows the marketer to evaluate the elements and make changes. Typically, objectives also have financial accountability. Changing elements of a campaign avoids overspending on components that are not working to meet the objectives.

Some common key performance indicators (KPIs) for evaluating promotional campaigns include the following:

• return on investment
• cost per lead
• cost per sale

Digital promotional campaigns allow marketers to track many analytics in real time and have the ability to make changes to the campaign in real time. The advantages of digital media include a host of valuable analytics, such as the following:

• website traffic
• bounce rate
• conversion rate
• impressions
• cost per click

Marketing Dashboard

IMC is centered on data-driven decision-making to drive organizational value. So it’s no surprise that the founder of IMC, Don Schultz , determined a way to measure IMC campaigns. Schultz calls this metric return on customer investment (ROCI) . ROCI is a marginal analysis that shows the efficiency of marketing communications spending. We often think of effectiveness as the key measure of a campaign’s success. But equally important is the efficiency of how we spend resources. We should consider how hard our resource works for us.

We should also be concerned about how well our investment does in the short term and the long term. After all, we are trying to build financial returns for our organizations. ROCI looks at short- and long-term value by considering the change in profitability and value during the period and overall.

IMC considers all aspects of the marketing communications relationship, not just a single campaign. The ROCI metric looks at how revenue grows over time and not just in response to one action.

The formula for ROCI is as follows:

Let’s say we own an ice cream shop and we are interested in the efficiency of our recent IMC campaign. So, we decide to conduct an ROCI calculation for an average customer using the following data. What is the ROCI?

Last period, the ROCI was $37.50. What factors might impact the change from the previous period to this period?

ROCI considers all aspects of the IMC relationship, so as the relationship grows, the ROCI does as well.

What is the value of the ROCI calculation?

It determines the marketing communication campaigns that yield the most profitable customers.

Don Schultz

Hear from Dr. Schultz directly about IMC trends in this video.

Knowledge Check

It’s time to check your knowledge on the concepts presented in this section. Refer to the Answer Key at the end of the book for feedback.

• determine the objectives
• determine the budget
• identify the target audience
• select the promotional tools
• Objective and task
• Competitive parity
• Percent of sales

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

This book may not be used in the training of large language models or otherwise be ingested into large language models or generative AI offerings without OpenStax's permission.

Want to cite, share, or modify this book? This book uses the Creative Commons Attribution License and you must attribute OpenStax.

Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/principles-marketing/pages/1-unit-introduction

• Authors: Dr. Maria Gomez Albrecht, Dr. Mark Green, Linda Hoffman
• Publisher/website: OpenStax
• Book title: Principles of Marketing
• Publication date: Jan 25, 2023
• Location: Houston, Texas
• Book URL: https://openstax.org/books/principles-marketing/pages/1-unit-introduction
• Section URL: https://openstax.org/books/principles-marketing/pages/13-4-steps-in-the-imc-planning-process

© Jan 9, 2024 OpenStax. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License . The OpenStax name, OpenStax logo, OpenStax book covers, OpenStax CNX name, and OpenStax CNX logo are not subject to the Creative Commons license and may not be reproduced without the prior and express written consent of Rice University.

Business Opportunity

Want to join us as business associate.

To be recognized as one of the most inspiring and dependable Direct Selling companies in the world, promoting healthy well-being and making people economically independent.

Benefits of Joining IMC Business

It was year 2007, when two enthusiastic individuals, Dr. Ashok Bhatia and Mr. Satyan Bhatia, decided to embark on a journey towards creating a better world. A world of health, wealth and comfort. And, in this quest, they started IMC, a direct selling cotmpany, which deals in organic Ayurvedic patented herbal, health, beauty and personal care products.

Business With No Investment

Retail Profit Upto 40%

Free Web Page

Acc. Perf. Income 15%

Spl. Incentive Upto 17%

Leadership Bonus Upto 18%

Sr.leadership bonus upto 10%.

Eagle Fund 2%

Super Star Fund 6%

Team Building Fund 2%

Meeting Fund 2%

Traveling Fund 7%

Motorbike Fund 4%

Car Fund 2%

House Fund 2%

Chairman Star Fund 2%

Ambassador Star Fund 1.5%

Cr. Ambassador Star Fund 1%

President Star Fund 1%

Cr. President Star Fund 1%

Sr. Cr. President Star Fund 0.5%

Dir. Cr. President Star Fund 0.5%

Koh. Cr. President Star Fund 0.5%

Royal Annual Bonus Upto 5%

Start your journey now, join the imc business.

Incredible Magic of Conviction, an extended version of IMC generates energetic vibes to fulfill your dreams.

IMC Business Plan 2023 PDF Download

Download IMC Busines Latest Full Business MLM Plan PDF for free – International Marketing Corporation Income and Business Plan PDF

This post will provide you with a PDF of the complete IMC Business Plan.  You can find the latest Marketing and Business Plan for IMC Company,  which you can also download in PDF format   at the end of the post.

IMC is a product-based network marketing company , which is a well-known direct-selling company in India. It was started in 2007 and its head office is in Ludhiana, Punjab.

IMC stands for International Marketing Corporation . Ashok Bhatia is the chairman and Satyan Bhatia is the managing director of IMC.

IMC got registered under MCA on 31 December 2013 from Ludhiana, Punjab. IMC products list consists of Health Care, Agriculture products, Personal Care, and Home Care category products.

• Tupperware Business Plan PDF
• AWPL Plan PDF Download

IMC Business Plan

Anyone can join IMC as a Distributor or Associate and being an Associate, Every person has to perform two major tasks to earn from it.

1. Product Selling

After becoming an Associate, the company provides the product at a lower price, which is known as Distributor price (DP) and by selling that product in MRP, you can earn a good amount of retail profit.

The retail profit can be calculated by the following formula:

2. Recruitment

The second task to earn more is recruiting new people. To earn passive income as well as active income, distributors need to recruit more people in the downline.

As per Direct Selling Guidelines , earnings are always based on the product purchase, which can be a personal purchase or downline purchase.

IMC Compensation Plan

IMC offers 17 types of Income to their Associates:

• Retail Profit
• Accumulative Performance Incentive
• Leadership Bonus
• Travelling Fund
• Chairman Star Fund
• Ambassador Star Fund
• Crown Ambassador Fund
• President Star Fund
• Crown Ambassador Star Fund
• Senior Crown President Star Fund
• Director Crown President Star Fund 0.25%
• Kohinoor Crown President Star Fund
• Special Meeting Fund
• Royal Annual Bonus

IMC Business Plan PDF Download

To understand more about it, you can download IMC business plan PDF by clicking the below button.

How to Join IMC?

To join IMC, a person can contact any existing distributor of IMC and ask them to enroll in the company.

To join, individuals should have documents such as Aadhar Card, Pan Card, and Bank Account.

• Qnet Business Plan PDF Download
• DXN Business Marketing Plan PDF

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Customer Reviews

• Password reminder
• Registration

Once your essay writing help request has reached our writers, they will place bids. To make the best choice for your particular task, analyze the reviews, bio, and order statistics of our writers. Once you select your writer, put the needed funds on your balance and we'll get started.

Finished Papers

Our Top Proficient Writers At Your Essays Service

Finished Papers

US has no immediate plan to sanction Chinese banks over Russia, source says

• Medium Text

'GROUNDLESS ACCUSATIONS'

Sign up here.

Reporting by Devika Nair in Bengaluru, Ziyi Tang and Liz Lee in Beijing and Trevor Hunnicutt, Michael Martina and Daphne Psaledakis in Washington; Editing by Varun H K, Gerry Doyle, Lincoln Feast, Bernadette Baum and Andrea Ricci

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. New Tab , opens new tab

World Chevron

US senator questions whether State Dept properly assessing Israel conduct

A Democratic senator on Sunday questioned whether the Biden administration was properly assessing whether Israel was complying with international law, following a Reuters report that some senior U.S. officials did not find that country's assurances credible.