Promotion: From Advertising to IMC - Part 1

Marketing, as defined by American Marketing Association, is a set of activities which create, communicate and deliver values for customers, clients, partners and society at large. Marketers carefully examining the needs and wants of consumers, developing a product or service that satisfies these needs, offering it at a certain price, making it available through a particular place or channel of distribution, and developing a program of promotion or communication to create awareness and interest. These four Ps—product, price, place (distribution), and promotion—are elements of the marketing mix. The basic task of marketing is combining these four elements into a marketing program to facilitate the potential for exchange with consumers in the marketplace.

The main function of promotion part is to communicate what value does company and its products have to offer to customers. Traditionally, the promotional aspect was dominated by advertising through mass media channels. Before 1990’s, in India, there were only a few players operating in the sector and hence competition was less. Products were mainly made for the mass market, and promotion too was done through mass media channels like TVs and newspapers. 

In early 1990s, Indian economy opened up with the era of LPG (Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation).   Till now, markets were dominated by near monopolies of Indian players. But as the Gates of Indian economy were made open for MNC’s, things began to change. The competition increased, and so increased the need for a marketer to make his product visible in the crowd of similar products. Firms realized that just by giving advertisements, they could not attract and hold customers to their products. To cater to this need for more of a strategic integration of their promotional tools, these firms began moving toward the process of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC), which involved coordinating the various promotional elements and other marketing activities that communicate with a firm’s customers.

Process for IMC calls for “big-picture” approach to planning marketing and promotion programs and coordinating the various communication functions. It requires that firms develop a total marketing communications strategy that recognizes how all of a firm’s marketing activities, not just promotion, communicate with its customers. Through IMC, companies aim is to ensure that they give customers a consistent message about their products and their brands. IMC helps companies identify the most appropriate and effective methods of communication and building relationships with customers and other stakeholders.  By coordinating their marketing communication efforts, companies try to avoid duplication, take advantage of synergies and develop more effective and efficient marketing programs.

In the next section, we would see what are the various elements of integrated Marketing Communication and how companies leverage the synergies created by IMC approach.