The Role of IMC in the Marketing Process

The advent of 21st century has marked a sharp change in almost all fields of life, including business strategies. The old strategies, beliefs and tactics of marketing and selling a product are no longer valid in today’s world. New techniques and technologies have emerged on the surface of the business arena and have become eminent for effective marketing strategies. In the following paragraphs, we will be highlighting one of these strategies that is Integrated Marketing Communications which is currently in practice by all big multinationals and the role it is playing in enhancing business approach.

IMC is defined as customer centric, data driven method of communicating with the customers. IMC is the coordination and integration of all marketing communication tools, avenues, functions and sources within a company into a seamless program that maximizes the impact on consumers and other end users at a minimal cost. Integrated Marketing Communications is a simple concept. It ensures that all forms of communications and messages are carefully linked together.

All elements of marketing mix must be consistent with the strategic plan that will produce an integrated marketing communications program. This chapter discusses how to influence the marketing strategies of promotion activities and how the promotion decision should be coordinated with other marketing mix elements. This chapter also discusses the role of advertising and other promotional elements in an integrated marketing program, a decision to be taken on each element of the marketing mix and find out how decisions that affect and interact with a promotional strategy, the concept of target marketing in integrated marketing communications program; the role of market segmentation and its application on integrated marketing communications programs as well; the use of positioning strategies.

We use the model below as a framework for analysing how promotion fits into an organization’s marketing strategy and programs. This model consists of four major components: the organization’s marketing strategy and analysis, the target marketing process, the marketing planning program development (which includes the promotional mix), and the target market.

Marketing Strategy and Analysis

Any organization that wants to exchange its products or services in the marketplace successfully should have a strategic marketing plan to guide the allocation of its resources. A strategic marketing plan usually evolves from an organization’s overall corporate strategy and serves as a guide for specific marketing programs and policies.

Opportunity Analysis

Market opportunities are areas where there are favourable demand trends, where the company believes customer needs and opportunities are not being satisfied, and where it can compete effectively. Athletic-shoe companies such as Nike, Reebok, and others see the shoe market as an opportunity to broaden their customer base both domestically and internationally.

Competitive Analysis

In developing the firm’s marketing strategies and plans for its products and services, the manager must carefully analyse the competition to be faced in the marketplace. For example, recently the U.S. market has seen significant growth in the high-end luxury market, with more consumers spending more of their money on luxury goods than ever before. High-end products from Coach, Tiffany’s, and Ralph Lauren are all benefiting from this change in consumer spending habits. Interestingly, it is not just the wealthy that are purchasing these very expensive products, but the middle class is doing so as well. Leading marketers apply labels such as the “massification of luxury,” “luxflation,” or the “new luxury” segments

Target Market Selection

After evaluating the opportunities presented by various market segments, including a detailed competitive analysis, the company may select one, or more, as a target market. This target market becomes the focus of the firm’s marketing effort, and goals and objectives are set according to where the company wants to be and what it hopes to accomplish in this market. Marketers rarely go after the entire market with one product, brand, or service offering. Rather, they pursue a number of different strategies, breaking the market into segments and targeting one or more of these segments or marketing and promotional efforts. This means different objectives may be established, different budgets may be used, and the promotional-mix strategies may vary, depending on the market approach used.

The Target Marketing Process

Because few, if any, products can satisfy the needs of all consumers, companies often develop different marketing strategies to satisfy different consumer needs. The process by which marketers do this is referred to as target marketing and involves four basic steps: identifying markets with unfulfilled needs, segmenting the market, targeting specific segments, and positioning one’s product or service through marketing strategies.

Identifying Markets

Target market identification isolates consumers with similar lifestyles, needs, and the like, and increases our knowledge of their specific requirements. The more marketers can establish this common ground with consumers, the more effective they will be in addressing these requirements in their communications programs and informing and/or persuading potential consumers that the product or service offering will meet their needs.

Market Segmentation

The segmentation process involves five distinct steps:

1. Finding ways to group consumers according to their needs
2. Finding ways to group the marketing actions—usually the products offered
3. Developing a market-product grid to relate the market segments to the firm’s products or actions
4. Selecting the target segments toward which the firm directs its marketing actions
5. Taking marketing actions to reach target segments

Segmentation can be done on the basis of:

• Geographic location
• Demographic attributes
• Psychographic attributes
• Behavioural attributes

Selecting a target market

The next objective is to select the segment of the consumers which you want to target. Three market coverage alternatives are available. Undifferentiated marketing involves ignoring segment differences and offering just one product or service to the entire market. Differentiated marketing involves marketing in a number of segments, developing separate marketing strategies for each. Concentrated marketing is used when the firm selects one segment and attempts to capture a large share of this market.

Market Positioning

Positioning has been defined as “the art and science of fitting the product or service to one or more segments of the broad market in such a way as to set it meaningfully apart from competition.” Positioning strategies generally focus on either the consumer or the competition.

Developing a Positioning Strategy: To create a position for a product or service, managers must ask themselves six basic questions:

1.          What position, if any, do we already have in the prospect’s mind?
2.          What position do we want to own?
3.          What companies must be outgunned if we are to establish that position?
4.          Do we have enough marketing money to occupy and hold the position?
5.          Do we have the guts to stick with one consistent positioning strategy?
6.          Does our creative approach match our positioning strategy?

Developing the marketing planning program

The development of the marketing strategy and selection of a target market(s) tell the marketing department which customers to focus on and what needs to attempt to satisfy. The next stage of the marketing process involves combining the various elements of the marketing mix into a cohesive, effective marketing program. Each marketing-mix element is multidimensional and includes a number of decision areas. Likewise, each must consider and contribute to the overall IMC program.

Product decisions

An organization exists because it has some product, service, or idea to offer consumers, generally in exchange for money. This offering may come in the form of a physical product (such as a soft drink, pair of jeans, or car), a service (banking, airlines, or legal assistance), a cause (United Way, March of Dimes), or even a person (a political candidate). The product is anything that can be marketed and that, when used or supported, gives satisfaction to the individual. The term product symbolism refers to what a product or brand means to consumers and what they experience in purchasing and using it.

Price Decisions

The price variable refers to what the consumer must give up to purchase a product or service. While price is discussed in terms of the dollar amount exchanged for an item, the cost of a product to the consumer includes time, mental activity, and behavioural effort. From an IMC perspective, the price must be consistent with the perceptions of the product, as well as the communications strategy. Higher prices, of course, will communicate a higher product quality, while lower prices reflect bargain or “value” perceptions.

Distribution Channel Decisions

One of a marketer’s most important marketing decisions involves the way it makes its products and services available for purchase. A firm can have an excellent product at a great price, but it will be of little value unless it is available where the customer wants it, when the customer wants it, and with the proper support and service. Channel decisions involve selecting, managing, and motivating intermediaries such as wholesalers, distributors, brokers, and retailers that help a firm make a product or service available to customers. The distribution strategy should also take into consideration the communication objectives and the impact that the channel strategy will have on the IMC program.

Developing Promotional Strategies: Push or Pull?

Promotion to the trade includes all the elements of the promotional mix. Company sales representatives call on resellers to explain the product, discuss the firm’s plans for building demand among ultimate consumers, and describe special programs being offered to the trade, such as introductory discounts, promotional allowances, and cooperative ad programs. The company may use trade advertising to interest wholesalers and retailers and motivate them to purchase its products for resale to their customers. Trade advertising usually appears in publications that serve the particular industry.

A push strategy tries to convince resellers they can make a profit on a manufacturer’s product and to encourage them to order the merchandise and push it through to their customers. Sometimes manufacturers face resistance from channel members who do not want to take on an additional product line or brand. In these cases, companies may turn to a promotional pull strategy, spending money on advertising and sales promotion efforts directed toward the ultimate consumer. The goal of a pull strategy is to create demand among consumers and encourage them to request the product from the retailer. Seeing the consumer demand, retailers will order the product from wholesalers which in turn will request it from the manufacturer. Thus, stimulating demand at the end-user level pulls the product through the channels of distribution.

Role of Advertising and Promotion

Marketers use the various promotional-mix elements—advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing, publicity/public relations, and personal selling—to inform consumers about their products, their prices, and places where the products are available. Each promotional mix variable helps marketers achieve their promotional objectives, and all variables must work together to achieve an integrated marketing communications program. The development and implementation of an IMC program is based on a strong foundation that includes market analysis, target marketing and positioning, and coordination of the various marketing-mix elements.