Introduction
Integrated marketing communications (IMC) is the strategy that takes your marketing department from disparate functions to one interconnected approach. IMC takes various marketing collateral and channels — from digital to social media, to PR, to direct mail — and merges them with one dependable message. Accenture is a global brand associated with professional services, consulting and IT services. Based on the necessary analysis, this paper will discuss the promotional mix for Accenture and the underlying premise for the selected venues. The analysis will focus on traditional (print, broadcast) and non-traditional (digital) marketing campaigns and strategies.
Promotional Mix
A promotional mix is a combination of different marketing methods that help a business to achieve its goals. The promotional mix is made up of five elements, shown below:
- Advertising (TV, radio, press).
- Direct marketing & digital marketing (email, social media, etc.).
- Public relations (PR).
- Personal selling.
- Sales promotion.
The budget impact for each component depends on the costs involved. For example, traditional elements such as Advertising would cost the most and require the majority of the budget to be allocated toward them. Digital channels are not as costly; however, when celebrities and bloggers (PR) get involved, the costs can outrun the traditional channels. Personal selling and promotion would require the least amount of budget since the costs would already be reflected in the price of goods. A company determines what channels to utilize for its integrated marketing communications plan based on the message that the company is trying to send. In terms of budgeting, different elements of the promotional mix require different budgets.
Marketing Strategy for Accenture
As part of Accenture’s marketing strategy, the company offers lots of varieties in the product line. Accenture guarantees higher quality and time-delivery of the final product. Accenture uses a set of both traditional and non-traditional marketing strategies in order to achieve its business targets. With the help of traditional media channels and advertising, Accenture uses to promote the company’s products in front of the customers. For example, one of the traditional channels is business magazines that display Accenture-related information as well as success stories about its clients to attract further customers (Mehta, 2022). This strategy is aimed at traditional and older clients, who would not have access or would not be influenced by the digital campaigns.
In terms of non-traditional marketing campaigns, Accenture uses a mix of digital and direct marketing strategies for promotional purposes. The company has corporate profiles on social media portals to engage with customers and clients directly. This strategy has proved a boon for the company as it is now able to gather important information about customer requirements and use it for future reference (Mehta, 2022). Accenture encourages feedback from clients and customers on the company website, which offers important information about the brand, its products and ongoing promotional activities.
As well as that, Accenture uses brand ambassadors for direct marketing purposes. The influencers often post a video of a specific product along with their own version of product information and quality analysis to influence their followers (Mehta, 2022). This enables the company to attract a new generation of customers who cannot be reached by traditional channels. Moreover, in order to increase brand awareness, Accenture uses the celebrities’ influence and success stories. The one that specifically comes to mind is Tiger Woods. The famous golfer had a successful contract with the company, which resulted in increased brand awareness.
Conclusion
The best option for an effective marketing strategy is the mix of promotional elements. It would enable the company to deliver the same message through different channels to different groups of customers. Accenture successfully uses a mix of traditional and non-traditional marketing channels. The company uses business magazines, brand ambassadors and digital marketing to promote its products and send its messages to a variety of potential and existing customers. Considering that the company is quite successful, its marketing strategy proves to be effective.
References
Mehta, R. (2022). Accenture Marketing Mix and Marketing Strategy. Digiade.