INTEGRATED MARKETING
COMMUNICATION
Integration marketing
communications is a concept that ensures that all forms of communication and
messages are carefully linked together. At the basic level, Integrated Marketing Communication means joining
all the promotional tools so that they all work in harmony. Integrated Marketing Communication different
horizontal, vertical, internal, external and data integration. (MMC
Learning1996-2009) G. Belch and M. Belch elucidated Integrated
Marketing Communications (IMC) as coordinating the various promotional elements
and other marketing activities that communicate with the firms customers.
The six promotional mix
of Integrated Marketing Communication are basically explained below;
1.
Personal selling- this is a process by
which a person persuade the buyer to accept a product or a point of view or
convince the buyer to take specific course of action through face to face
contact. It is an act of persuading through the use oral presentation of
products or services. Target audience may vary from product to product and
situation to situation to satisfy them by making sales. Example, sales
presentations, sales training and incentive programs.
2.
Publicity- it is the non-personal
stimulation of demand for a product, service or business unit by generating
commercially significant news about it in published media, Television or stage.
Unlike advertising this form of promotion is not paid for by the sponsor thus,
publicity in news is carried in the mass media about an organization, its
products, policies etc. it originate with the media or marketer and is
published at no cost or charge for media space and time example, magazine,
newspaper, articles/report. It can be favorable or unfavorable.
3.
Advertising – advertising communicate as
a message to a targeted audience and generates feedbacks in the form of sale or
action taken by consumers. Any paid form of non-personal communication through
mass media about a service or product or an idea by a sponsor is called
advertising. It is done through non
personal channels or media. Print
advertisements, advertisements in Television, Radio, Billboard, Brouchers and Catalogs,
Direct mails, In-store display, motion pictures, emails, banner ads, web pages,
and posters are some of the examples of advertising. Paid promotion and presentation of goods,
Services, ideas by a sponsor comes under the advertisement.
4.
Sales promotion- is any activity that
offers an incentive for a limited period to obtain a desired response from the
target audience or intermediaries which includes wholesalers and retailers. It
stimulate consumer demand, market demand and improve product availability.
Examples, Contests, product samples, Coupons, sweepstakes, rebates, tie-ins,
self-liquidating premiums, trade shows, trade-ins, and exhibitions.
5.
Direct Marketing- is reaching the customer
without using the
traditional channels of advertising such as radio, newspaper, television
etc. This type of marketing reach the
targeted consumers with
techniques
such as promotional letters, street advertising, catalog
Distribution, fliers etc. These promotional efforts are of two general types
involving:
a. Direct face to face communication
b. Indirect communication through some mass
medium, such as television,
newspapers, radio, etc. Sometimes a
mixture of personal/direct and non-personal/indirect promotion is used as we
use in the sales promotion. Industrial
buyer will not decide to purchase equipment on the basis of advertisements or direct
mail. Personal selling is preferred in
this case. On the other, hand a customer
buying toothpaste or hair oil will have less contact with the company sales
person and will be influenced more by advertisements.
6.
Point of sale- it is a place where retail transaction takes place. On a macro
level, point of sale could be a mall, market among others where refunds can be
provided to customers. For instance, a hungry person will go to a place where
food are sold to purchase some. Also when a person goes to the market to buy
phone, he or she will go to the point where phones are sold and a place where
toffees are sold.
REFERENCE:
Principles of advertising by Mr. Yaw Gyau
Hub Pages.com
Campus.murraystate.com
