Week 5: Integrated Marketing Communication

What is IMC and what does it mean for a company to follow IMC?

Integrated Marketing Communications is a cross-functional process that seeks to shape the entirety of communications received by the target audience. Its goal is to start from the perspective of the customer and works its way backward, seeking to align every touchpoint the company has with the customer into a synergized communications program.

A company following IMC, will view all touchpoints as part of the plan and not siloed departments. Advertising, PR, Sales, and all other customer-facing departments should have a consistent, unified messaging for the customer. The organization should be leveraging data gathered on its customers and desired prospects to create this unified messaging to affect customer behavior rather than just their attitudes or opinions. Once more, all of this hinges on crafting this messaging from the customer’s perspective and working backward. (Pelsmacker, Geuens & Bergh 2018). This messaging should revolve around a big idea that will become the crux of all messaging. For a neat explanation of IMC check out the video below:

Who is in charge of IMC? What are the roles of the company and different agencies?

Ideally, there should be one communications manager that is tasked with the integration process and maintaining synergistic and consistent messaging for all channels (Pelsmacker, et al. 2018). This position requires the authority to oversee all stakeholder facing communication initiatives and the ability to augment or cancel any communications that do not fall in line with the core edicts of the organizations messaging. All customer/stakeholder facing departments must make this messaging a not just a top priority but a guiding philosophy in all interactions. These edicts must also be conveyed to all third parties involved in communications or sales. If an advertising agency is working on an ad that is off message, the only outcomes will be lost money and confused customers.

How should the companies follow and execute IMC?

The first step in planning and implementing an IMC strategy is to examine the organization’s corporate identity (to read a previous post on brand identity click here). The big idea behind an IMC strategy must align with the values and culture of an enterprise or it will be built on a foundation of sand. After some soul searching, further questions must be asked. Marketing Communications: A European Perspective (2018), lays out six crucial questions every successful IMC plan must address. These being:

■ Situation analysis and marketing objectives: Why?
■ Target groups: Who?
■ Communications objectives: What?
■ Tools, techniques, channels, and media: How and where?
■ Budgets: How much?
■ Measurement of results: How effective?

Once these questions are answered the planning process can begin in earnest. For our plan, we’ll look at Philip J. Kitchen’s and Patrick De Pelsmacker’s Integrated Marketing Communications: A Primer (2004).

The stages of planning an IMC strategy (Kitchen & Pelsmacker 2004).

We begin with tactical coordination of marketing communications. This is where everyone gets on the same page. The second stage includes an examination of customer data and previous communication efforts while simultaneously bringing in any applicable third-parties. The third step is all about leveraging IT systems. The fourth and final step is evaluating outcomes and augmenting strategy when needed.

Find good (well integrated) and unsuccessful (un-integrated) IMC executions

The good:

In 2010, Old Spice rolled out an overnight sensation with its “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” ad. At present, the ad has been viewed more than 55 million times. Old Spice has since maintained a consistent, irreverent tone that has brought the brand back from the brink.

The bad:

In 2015, Anheuser-Busch rolled out its #upforwhatever campaign for Bud Light. The marketing push included a slew of viral-ready commercials and included a number of taglines featured on the bottles. One such tagline read “The perfect beer for removing 'no' from your vocabulary for the night”. The ad-copy was read by many as insensitive to issues surrounding date-rape, among other things. The date-rape issue notwithstanding, the bone-headed copy flew directly in the face of efforts in the alcohol industry to push a message of moderation. Apologies were issued and the campaign was summarily ended.


  

Wow... just wow.


See ya next week!


Sources:

Kitchen, P. and Pelsmacker, P. (2004). Integrated Marketing Communications: A Primer. New York, NY: Routledge, p.9.

Pelsmacker, P., Geuens, M. and Bergh, J. (2018). Marketing communications. 6th ed. Harlow: Pearson, pp.6-13.