Key Definitions
Marketing communications are one of the critical competitive business tools that encourage consumers to choose a specific company. Marketing Communications (MC) is essentially the process of transmitting information about companies, products, and services to the target audience using various channels. Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) is a concept of marketing communications’ planning based on the necessity to evaluate the strategic role of particular activities such as advertising, promotions, etc. IMC focuses on finding the optimal combination to ensure consistency and maximization of the impact of communication programs by constant integration of all individual tools. According to Percy (2018, p. 6), strategic integrated marketing communications (SIMC) are the ones that are “based on a rigorous planning process that will identify appropriate target audiences.” The purpose of this paper is to review the development of IMC over the last years.
Marketing Communications in a Typical Marketing Mix
A typical mix of marketing communications is represented by five elements: advertising, public relations, personal selling, promotions, and direct marketing. In his article, Kokemuller (2019, para. 1) notes that some include a sixth element, which is an “event sponsorship.” All these elements of marketing communications are interconnected to deliver a strong marketing message to the target audience. The MC’s role can be defined as representing the company’s voice or brand, initiating the dialogue with the customer, providing information on the product, and securing the customer’s loyalty to the company. MC is to boost the company’s sales and business growth as a whole.
The definition of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) changed significantly over the years. The building of a company’s corporate image began in the 1950s, and subsequently, in the 1970s, this idea was expanded by bringing in the term “corporate identity” (Percy, 2018, p. 55). From then on, the role of marketing communications has been changing along with the developments in the area of advertising channels, tools, and media means. The table below provides the definitions of IMC over the years, as well as the implications and influence on various business functions.
1980s
The first definition was provided by the American Association of Advertising Agencies in 1989. According to it, IMC is a “concept of marketing communications planning that recognizes the added value in a program that integrates a variety of strategic disciplines and combines them to provide clarity, consistency, and maximum impact” (Percy, 2018, p. 4). The first studies conducted in the area of IMC came to a common conclusion that the traditional mass advertising needs to look into a more integrated approach and employ various kinds of marketing techniques for more successful product promotion.
1990s
In the following decade, Don Schultz developed the idea that IMC means “talking to people who buy or don’t buy based on what they see, hear, feel, and so on” (Percy, 2018, p. 4). In other words, IMC is viewed as a process of organizing the provision of all the available information to the customer. All the marketing channels are considered aggregate, and IMC starts with assessing the customer first and then defining the proper means of marketing communications.
Another definition of IMC was provided by Kotler in 1999, according to which IMC is “a concept under which a company carefully integrates and coordinates its many communication channels to deliver a clear and compelling message about the organization and its products” (Percy, 2018, p. 5). Some years later, Kotler expanded his definition to a marketing process from the standpoint of a consumer.
2000s
In the next years, the concept of IMC continued to be developed by the researches. In 2002, Tom Duncan interpreted IMC as a “process for managing customer relationships that drive brand value” (Percy, 2018, p. 5). According to this definition, the marketing process involves strategic planning of all the advertising methods to receive a “desired behavior on the part of a target audience” (Percy, 2018, p. 5). Moriarty and Schultz continued developing the concept of IMC and suggested that there are “four broad underlying concepts that form the basis for how IMC works” (Percy, 2018, p. 6). With the development of digital media, it is now essential to not only convey the messages to customers, but also to the stakeholders, suppliers, employees of the company to establish long-term relations. The emphasis is placed on the organizational structure of the company as the crucial factors in IMC.
IMC and Other Areas of Marketing and Business Management
To successfully promote a product, most companies nowadays use IMC as a combination of a variety of different marketing tools, with the ultimate goal of making the desired impact on consumers. The strategic planning process of IMC consists of several steps. The first one involves the identification of an appropriate target audience, then the study of how it makes decisions. Next, it is vital to establish how the products or services will be advertised and organize and the optimal message delivery to the target audience. IMC’s key aspects include advertising, public relations, sales promotions, personal selling, and direct and digital marketing. Most marketing management teams incorporate multiple methods to increase an overall impact on the consumer.
Conclusion
Integrated Marketing Communications is one of the most vital tools companies use to reach the target customers. Since its emergence in the 1980s, the concept of IMC went through several changes. Today, IMC is viewed as a combination of all the elements of the promotional mix with the principal objective to deliver a consistent message to the consumer. By employing IMC, companies reinforce the brand’s image, improve customers’ experience, and generate cost savings. The development of technology and the spread of new social media resources requires the companies to update messaging strategies by switching to non-traditional media such as mobile advertising rather than the traditional means. However, regardless of the type of advertising channel used, IMC remains the primary method of delivering one consistent message across all the promotional mix elements.
Reference List
Kokemuller, N. (2019) ‘What is a marketing communication mix?’, Chron, Web.
Percy, L. (2018) Strategic integrated marketing communications. 3rd edn. Abingdon: Routledge.