Integrated Marketing Communications Strategy

1. Integrated Marketing Communications Strategy www.AssignmentPoint.com

2. THE MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS MIX(PROMOTION MIX) A company’s total marketing communications mix (promotion mix) consists of the specific mix of various promotion tools that the company uses to pursue its advertising and marketing objectives. www.AssignmentPoint.com

3. Major Promotion Tools Advertising Paid form of nonpersonal communication of ideas, products or services by an identified sponsor. Personal selling Personal presentation by the firm’s sales force to make sale & build customer relationships Sales promotion Short-term incentives to encourage the purchase or sale of a product or service www.AssignmentPoint.com

4. Public relations Building good relations with various publics by obtaining favorable publicity, building up a good corporate image and handling unfavorable rumors and stories. Direct marketing Direct communications with carefully targeted individual consumers to obtain an immediate response and cultivate lasting customer relationships. www.AssignmentPoint.com

5. INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS (IMC) Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) is the concept under which a company integrates and coordinates its many communication channels to deliver a clear, consistent and compelling message about the organizations and products. www.AssignmentPoint.com

6. The tools for IMC Advertising Direct Marketing Public Relation Sales Promotion Personal Selling www.AssignmentPoint.com

7. A VIEW OF THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS Sender’s Field of Experience Receiver’s Field of Experience Sender Media Receiver Encoding Decoding Message Noise www.AssignmentPoint.com Feedback Response

8. Sender The party sending the message to another party. Encoding The process of putting thoughts into symbolic forms. Message The set of symbols that the sender transmits. Media The communication channels through which the message moves from sender to receiver. Decoding The process by which the receiver assigns meaning to the symbols encoded by the sender. www.AssignmentPoint.com

9. Receiver The party receiving the message sent by another party. Response The reactions of the receiver after being exposed to the message. Feedback The part of the receiver’s response communicated back to the sender. Noise The unplanned static or distortion during the communication process, which results in the receiver’s getting a different message than the one the sender sent. www.AssignmentPoint.com

10. STEPS IN DEVELOPING EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION www.AssignmentPoint.com

11. STEP 1:Identifying the target audience The audience may be potential or current buyers, those who influence the buying decision. The audience may be individuals, groups, or various publics. The target audience will heavily affect the communicator’s decision on – • What will be said • How it will be said • When it will be said • Where it will be said • Who will say it www.AssignmentPoint.com

12. STEP 2:Determining the communicationobjectives The marketing communicator needs to know where the target audience now stands and at what stage it needs to be moved. The target audience may be in any of six buyer readiness stages - Awareness Knowledge Liking Preference Trial Purchase www.AssignmentPoint.com

13. STEP 3:Designing a message • The message should get ATTENTION, hold INTEREST, arouse DESIRE and obtain ACTION. (AIDA model) • The marketing communicator must decide – • What to say (message content) • How to say (message structure and format) www.AssignmentPoint.com

14. Message content The communicator has to figure out an appeal or theme that will produce the desired response. There are three types of appeals – Rational appeals They show the product’s quality, value, economy and performance Emotional appeals They show the positive or negative emotions that can motivate purchase Moral appeals They show what is right and proper usually on social causes www.AssignmentPoint.com

15. Message structure The communicator must decide how to handle three message structure issues- 1. Whether to draw a conclusion or leave it to the audience 2. Whether to present a one-sided argument or a two-sided argument 3. Whether to present the strongest arguments first or last www.AssignmentPoint.com

16. Message format • Print ads Headline, copy, illustration, color • Radio Words, sound, voices • Television or Facial expressions, gestures, in person dress, posture, hairstyle • Product or Scent, color, size, shape its package www.AssignmentPoint.com

17. STEP 4:Choosing media • Personal communication channels are channels through which two or more people communicate directly with one another whether face-to-face, by telephone, by mail or via the Internet. • Nonpersonal communication channels are media that carry messages without personal contact or feedback. • Media -- Print, broadcast, display, online • Atmosphere -- Designed environments • Events -- Press conferences, shows www.AssignmentPoint.com

18. STEP 5:Selecting the message source • Marketers hire celebrity endorsers and models to deliver the message. • Message delivered by the highly credible sources are more persuasive. www.AssignmentPoint.com

19. STEP 6:Collecting feedback • The communicator must research its effect on the target audience which may suggest changes in promotion program or in the product offer itself. • This involves measuring how many people bought a product, talked to others about it or visited store • This involves asking the target audience members- • Whether they remember the message • How many times they saw it • What points they recall • How they felt about the message • Their past and present attitude toward the product/company www.AssignmentPoint.com

20. SETTING THE TOTAL PROMOTION BUDGET • Affordable method • The company sets the promotion budget at the level management thinks the company can afford. • Advantages: Helpful for smaller firms • Disadvantage: Ignores the effect of promotion on sale Result in over-spending or under-spending www.AssignmentPoint.com

21. Percentage-of-sales method • The company sets the promotion budget at a certain percentage of current or forecasted sales or as a percentage of the unit sales price. • Advantage Simple to use • Disadvantage Sales become cause of promotion There is no basis for choosing a specific percentage www.AssignmentPoint.com

22. Competitive-parity method • The company sets the promotion budgets to match competitors’ outlays. • Advantage Prevent promotion wars • Disadvantage It cannot prevent promotion wars The competitors do not have better ideas on the company’s promotion needs www.AssignmentPoint.com

23. Objective-and-task method • The company sets the promotion budget based on what it wants to accomplish. • This budgeting method entails three steps – • Defining specific promotion objectives. • Determining the tasks needed to achieve these objectives. • Estimating the costs of performing these tasks. The sum of these costs is the proposed promotion budget. www.AssignmentPoint.com

24. SETTING THE OVERALL PROMOTION MIX • The nature of each promotion tool Advertising Personal selling Sales promotion Public relations Direct marketing www.AssignmentPoint.com

25. Promotion mix strategies Push strategy A promotion strategy that calls for pushing the product through distribution channels to final consumers. Pull strategy A promotion strategy that calls for spending a lot on advertising and consumer promotion to build up consumer demand, which pulls the product through the channels. www.AssignmentPoint.com