University of Westminster “Integrated marketing communications are far from reality in most companies. A number of strong barriers prevent IMC from being implemented quickly and efficiently. ”- De Pelsmacker Managing Marketing Communications 2011 Introduction Integrated Marketing Communications, (IMC) has been one of the major communications developments in the last decade of the 20th century (Kitchen & Schultz 1999, 2000) It is regarded as a fundamental paradigm shift in the thinking and practice of marketing communications.
Although marketing communications has been used as the umbrella term to group various communication functions, it is IMC that brings strategic integration to these functional areas, to reach consumers and other stakeholders effectively.
(Duncan & Everett, 1993) IMC is no longer just a communication process, but an integration of the brand with the management. The IMC diffusion curve has begun to accelerate, due to today’s highly fragmented media marketplace and the dwindling attention spans of consumers.
IMC is no longer an inside-out approach, but an outside-in; and has moved beyond tactical juxtaposition of channels.
It is driven by buyers or potential buyers of products and services, to bring sharp focus to orient all communications and touch-points with the consumer. This cross-functional process is the center of all relationships. It is an on-going, circular process that creates brand value in the form of sales, profits, and brand equity. IMC has become a strategic tool, in helping to ensure synergy and consistency of messages, regardless of the vehicle used to deliver the message.
It is also important to note, that though there is ample focus on IMC, integrated marketing and integrated marketing communications, (IMC), are intrinsically interdependent, one cannot function without the other.
IMC can never function in a disintegrated organisation, and equally an integrated organisation will make it impossible for un-harmonious communication to be disseminated. 1 IMC is impossible to achieve when the brand’s communication programs work separately, are disjointed and disconnected. This leads to inconsistency and incoherence of brand messaging, and can be detrimental to brand equity.
IMC, conceptually and practically does offer significant value to marketers and advertising agencies, most organisations have adopted IMC, to one degree or another but various barriers and obstacles prevent it from being truly successful. ‘One Voice, all the time, every time’. Changing market environment, heavy media fragmentation, new technology and the evolving consumer mind-set have encouraged and forced companies to organise and integrate their marketing communication activities. (Kitchen & De Pelsmacker, 2004) Some other drivers include:
All the tools in the marketing mix, especially promotion cannot work in isolation. For the brand to achieve a harmonious and seamless integration fuelled by various drivers, it needs to speak consistently with one voice all the time, every time. IMC makes the sum greater than its parts. IMC Process model (Duncan, 2002) There are various ways integration can be strengthened: ? Horizontal Integration: It occurs across the marketing mix and business functions. It brings together functions like production, finance and distribution.
It is essential these work together for the right messages to flow to the consumer. Data Integration: It occurs when marketing information system collects and shares data with functions such as sales, direct mail and advertising. Vertical Integration: It occurs when marketing and communication objectives support higher level corporate objectives and missions. Internal Integration: It occurs when internal marketing keeps all staff informes and motivated about corporate identities, new developments and promotions, new service standards, new strategic partners and so on.
External Integration: It occurs when external partners, such as ad agencies & PR agencies, closely work together to deliver a seamless, cohesive, singular solution- a thoroughly integrated message. 3 IMC, for most organisations is a goal worth pursuing as they realise that multiple communication tools in conjunction with one another can produce greater results than tools used individually, and in this era of ‘noise’ surrounding the consumer, only integrated campaigns can break through the clutter. Some salient features of IMC are:
Stages in IMC development 4 Synergy The most important benefit of implementing IMC is synergy. The 2+2=5 phenomenon. IMC attempts to combine, integrate and synergise elements of the communications mix, as the strengths of one are used to offset the weaknesses of others. It brings together various facets of marketing communications in a mutually supportive and enhancing way.
Research has confirmed the link between increased integrated marketing communications and increased sales, share and profit (Marketing week 2002a). IMC does not only imply uniformity of communications. While a single theme has to commend, it is perfectly feasible to consider the integration of disparate approaches and messages targeted at a variety of groups. eg. A message targeted to the employees will be different to a message targeted to the shareholders. Some other benefits of IMC (Linton and Morley, 1995) are listed below:
While, most companies try and seek these benefits and adopt IMC, they are not always achieved because of difficulties and barriers to achieve them. Some of these benefits have much to do with quality and ability of personnel involved as they have to do with integration. It is true that truly integrated marketing communication is an exception, rather than a rule. Barriers and Obstacles “A lack of IMC, the lack of co-ordinated communications planning & delivery of a consistent message, could lead to multiple portrayals of a brand in the market, even if the brand positioning is the same; there will be no synergy of lift from the overall program. ” (Larry Percy, 2008) This ‘lift’ described by Percy, is the absence of synergy between different functions in an organisation, between marketers and agencies, between consumer and brand, and thus the difference between various messages, far from being, ‘one voice, all the time, every time. The logic underlying IMC seems so clear and compelling, and although there is a movement toward increased implementation of IMC, not all organisations have been able or enthusiastic enough to adopt it as a permanent feature in their marketing efforts. Integration is not easily achieved and the problems can be overcome, they are still significant: Some of the barriers to effective IMC are:
Robbs & Taubler, 1996 have highlighted agency creatives’ aversion to integration and lack of willingness to work across the media and promotional mix tools. It is seen that members of the marketing communications industry are not favourably disposed towards the concept of integration in the true sense. Also many client organisations downgrade promotions to a tactical level and thus fail to appreciate strategic significance of integration. Due to limited thinking and expertise, full array of communication targets and activities are not covered, and only certain elements within a certain campaign are integrated.
The language and taxonomy used to describe the marketing mix itself becomes detrimental to the integrative process. This results in marketers to perceive and encourage the use of promotional activities as discrete activities such as advertising is separated from corporate identity and so on. This leads to difficulties in placing certain elements within the categories of the mix such as endorsements or internal communications. They fail to understand and grow each element in turn, and thus affecting their relationship with other elements and their potential integration.
With the advent of project teams and cross-functional assignments, some barriers to IMC are being overcome. However, problems of hierarchical structures, vertical communications, turf battles, power struggles and functional silos (Gonring 1994, Schultz 1993) are still posing problems for the synergistic function of IMC to take place. Elitism: Separatism is organisation structures is encouraged, leading to elitism attached to specialisation of certain elements in the marketing mix. Total marketing communications efforts become diluted when specialists extol their superiority over fields other than their own.
This leads to misbalance of the equal play of elements in the IMC effort. Magnitude of task: IMC requires collective integration of various levels and dimensions of the organisation and brand. Consistent maintenance of a brand’s perspective and vision can in itself pose an obstacle to IMC. 7
Some organisations consider expenditure on IMC an unnecessary investment, although with the growth of in brand equity through IMC, this phenomenon is changing. Even so, budgets are set with short term in mind rather than long term and as a cost rather than an investment. Therefore budgets usually become inadequate for fulfilment of complete integration required of the marketing mix. Manager ability: IMC requires wide knowledge and a vast but non-specialised skill set. Cross disciplinary skills create a barrier to IMC.
With media commission at play, most agencies favour advertising activities over other forms of marketing communications. This scenario is now changing to some extent, with changes in agency payment systems but still pose a threat to true integration.
Each problem at each dimension of integration needs to be addressed, IMC is not exclusively about integration of promotional mix elements but also should include the integration of creative elements, intra and inter organisational factors, integration of promotional mix with other elements of the marketing mix, information & database systems, integration of communications targeted at multiple audiences- internal and external, corporate and unitised communications and geographic integration.
Most organisations see dimensional integration difficult and thus affecting efficiency of IMC. In practice, IMC is challenging to achieve in its widest sense, but this challenge if not overcome can lead to lack of synergy and thus prove to be counter-productive to the communications of the organisation. IMC, in theory and practice is popular, it has become a requirement in the marketing communications industry. Academics advocate integration and practitioners stress the need for greater integration.
It is to be noted that factors driving the need for IMC are external; outside the control of organisations, clients and agencies and factors posing barriers for true IMC are internal and organisationally driven, which if meant to overcome can be achieved as the control of the same lies with the management. 8 IMC, the new consumer & social media “The world has changed, the nature and forms of communication have changed, and therefore, the practice of developing and managing marketing and communication must change as well” (Kitchen and Schultz, 2000).
With the emergence of social media, e-commerce and smart phones, the ‘new economy’, the need for IMC has heightened. IMC wraps communications around consumers and aids them to move through the various stages of the purchase process with ease; by consolidating the brands image across various touch-points and by developing, maintaining & nurturing a healthy dialogue a with the consumer. IMC makes messages more consistent and therefore more credible.
Synthesised messages aid consumers by providing timely reminders, new updates and special offers, reducing their ‘misery of choice’, in this new world of This relationship marketing cements a bond of loyalty; protecting the brand from the inevitable onslaught of competition. With new technology, customer databases can now identify precisely which consumers need what information when, and in this way IMC can integrate information for the consumer throughout their buying life.
Schultz (1996) had explained that the desire for a high degree of consistency in the IMC concept is driven by the complexity of consumer information processing required by the multitude of competing brand stimuli in today’s marketplace. A brand message which is relatively more consistent in its message and execution across all marketing vehicles employed by the brand is more likely to be processed effectively by a consumer. Walker and Olson’s cognitive psychology perspectives, is consistent with the view of the importance of maintenance of message consistency. The true test of a product’s communication effectiveness is how consumers respond to the total product (Shimp, 1990). An on-going consumer-brand relationship led by IMC enhances consumer appeal.
With the numbers of unique visitors growing on social media sites, social media has now become a staple in the marketing mix. It should not be trated as a stand-alone element and should be fully planned and integrated into business strategy. Consumers now live in totally wireless world and have relative autonomy in how they consume media.
With magazines going online, television content being podcasted, live stream radio content now being available on fingertips, there is an obvious shift in how consumers consume and interact with media and brands. Consumers are no longer just receivers; rather they are passionate publishers, proud opinion leaders, researchers, advocators and voters. Communication today is multi-faceted, multi-step and multi-directional. Opinion leaders talk to each other, consumers talk to opinion leaders and consumers talk to each other.
In this age of ‘connection generation’ (Pintado, 2009), consumers crave interaction and connection to each other, to information, to ideas and experiences. Such need for interaction and connection is advantageous to IMC. IMC is about tying platforms together to maximise modality (auditory & visual assets of brand) and also provide the ability to reach different consumers or sub-segments of a brand’s target market. IMC makes it easier for the consumer to easily identify the brand at various touch-points. A brand loses share if a consumer cannot find it.
IMC adds differentiation through consistent, synergised, bombardment of mental cues by way of symbols, logos, slogans, jingles and characters. Application of recency scheduling tactics through social media can now disseminate brand messages to reach potential buyers right before the purchase occasion. With the use of sophisticated single-source data, IMC should strive for ‘sophisticated mass targeting’ that targets category buyers (Sharp 2010) as opposed to traditional targeting based on typical demographic definition.
IMC is already proving to be a survival strategy in a shrinking and rapidly changing economy. Its progression has seen a fairly steep learning curve and significant organisational structuring. It has helped harmonize client/agency structures to produce effective and memorable campaigns. It seems to have provided greater effectiveness and efficiency in reaching the right audience with reduced media wastage. But a major area of critique is lack of measurement in the effectiveness of IMC programs.
Measuring outcomes instead of outputs of marcom activities would be beneficial in IMC being adopted to a higher degree. IMC now seems ready to enter the next phase of it being linked to behavioural segmentation and concomitant behavioural systems. Great positioning, big creative ideas and driving integration have become the required ingredients for winning in this increasingly busy and complex world.
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