Free Essay. Importance of Integrated Marketing Communication

The way in which brands communicate with their consumers has undergone a great transformation in recent years. The creation of an identity, with which users can interact, has become indispensable due to the opening of new communication channels. Within this framework, a new approach to marketing has emerged, known as IMC or Integrated Marketing Communication. It involves the use of various existing channels for the transmission of consistent messages to consumers (Manser Payne, Peltier & Barger, 2017). The consistency of the message is a crucial aspect of IMC. For example, if a brand uses comedy to promote its products on television, it must apply an identical tone on other platforms. However, this does not necessarily mean the replication of the same commercial in other formats but taking advantage of different means to reinforce the message. In this way, coherence is generated in the communication and the user can feel more connected to the brand.

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Benefits and Challenges of IMC

Integrated marketing communication (IMC) uses different means to carry out communication marketing tasks, such as advertising, digital marketing, sales promotion, public relations, free press or publicity, internal communication, direct marketing, etc. (Valos et al., 2016). Consumers form a perception of the product or brand whose results or benefits for the company include increasing the economic results of the company; optimizing the marketing and communication actions carried out and improving its results; attracting new customers; generating a good working environment and improving the credibility of the products thus building trust with the audience or potential customers.

Among the major challenges of an IMC is the lack of an integrated data management system (Gould, 2004). Every marketing strategy must be consistent with what a brand represents (mission, vision, values, etc.). Therefore, the marketing actions that the brand performs must be consistent and integrated between all channels of interaction with consumers. Despite this, most marketing departments use different management and data collection systems for each of the channels. The lack of unified and connected data management systems makes it impossible to share the data resulting from the different channels and greatly hinders integrated marketing. Regarding the outcome of the actions, both the impact on the audience and its coherence are minimized. Therefore, it is difficult to know the result of these actions to see what elements or elements (actions and strategies) are necessary to reinforce or change to achieve the marketing goals.

Primary Benefit of Advertising Online

In recent times, the Internet has become one of the most used tools worldwide, and different brands have seen in the online world an excellent opportunity to communicate with their customers. Companies of all kinds are turning to the network to advertise their products and services, leaving traditional media in the past. One of the primary benefits of online advertising is the exponential growth and positioning of the company brands due to the endless possibilities offered by the Internet when it comes to publicizing a brand, and also the ease it offers to deliver an advertising message to a huge audience.

Major Advertising Decisions for Akamu Beverage

An integrated marketing communication plan is an essential product promotion strategy for the beverage. Through the plan, it is possible to coordinate the different activities under a strategic backbone that allows transmitting the key promotional messages through the different channels, to impact its audience. Like every program, a strategic plan must be developed incorporating the major advertising decisions including identifying the target audience, determining the objectives, designing the communications, selecting the channels, setting the budget, and doing management. An advertising campaign for Akamu Beverage mostly targeting the youthful population would be crucial in positioning the drink in the minds of those consumers. The advertising message would highlight the health benefits associated with the beverage preferably through social networks. Social networks are one of the best spaces to do advertising as it will allow to bring the message of the Akamu brand to a higher audience and, with this, attract the attention of consumers and new potential customers. Promotional strategies such as free samples offer, and discounts would also go a long way to ensure the Akamu brand stick in the customer's minds and leave a good impression which will give them the confidence to purchase the product.

References

Gould, S. J. (2004). IMC as theory and as a post-structural set of practices and discourses: a continuously evolving paradigm shift. Journal of Advertising Research, 44(1), 66-70.

Manser Payne, E., Peltier, J. W., & Barger, V. A. (2017). Omni-channel marketing, integrated marketing communications and consumer engagement: A research agenda. Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, 11(2), 185-197.

Valos, M. J., Haji Habibi, F., Casidy, R., Driesener, C. B., & Maplestone, V. L. (2016). Exploring the integration of social media within integrated marketing communication frameworks: Perspectives of services marketers. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 34(1), 19-40. Retrieved from < http://www.dx.doi.org/10.1108/MIP-09-2014-0169>