Integrated marketing communications is a method that organizations and firms all over the world have started to use to create the best possible influence and communication with their current and potential customers. Integrated marketing communications allows using multiple tools and channels to help the marketing program cover as many aspects and areas as possible. This approach has proved to be extremely effective; it is designed to involve large amounts of people and create an impression of seamless brand experience for the customers by many different means (Introduction to Integrated Marketing Communications par. 1 n.d.).
The variety of tools IMC works through is big – it includes traditional mass-media and digital media. Integrated marketing communications covers such ways of marketing as television, newspapers and magazines, radio, digital billboards and all the possibilities internet has to suggest – this includes marketing through social networks, blogs, micro blogs, forums and webinars.
- Great examples of the companies that manage to cover various means of advertising with the same campaign are companies like So Delicious (Grinberg 2012). This company has been extremely successful over last couple of years because of the use of IMC. They have their advertising running everywhere: outdoor, on television, in the internet and in magazines. So Delicious has demonstrated how quickly and rapidly the number of fans and consumers grows once the company has joined its efforts to cover many media means at a time and produce the maximum influence. Another amazingly useful technique So Delicious added to the list of their ways to spread the word was an appearance of a celebrity in their social campaign. As a result – the number of their fans skyrocketed by nearly a thousand per cent.
- One of the biggest challenges for the organizations that are planning to start IMC is to create a harmony between all the media they are using. The experience from the point of view of a consumer has to be seamless; the brand awareness has to be flowing for the customer but not confusing or frustrating. IMC does not only include the company’s communication with the consumers. Another important aspect of it is the company management. Huge corporations like Nike have great marketing campaigns but they have failed the management part and the company has gone through several loud scandals related to inner management. As a result the company’s reputation was affected. Large companies like Nike and Proctor & Gamble lose the balance between the product development and communicational strategies (The Emergence of Integrated Marketing Communications 2014).
- In recent years main goal of IMC campaigns was growth of audience– increasing number of fans. It is predicted that the new goal of the developing IMC is going to be engagement. The audience does not only need to be attracted, it also will have to be entertained by rewards, prizes, giveaways, contests and gifts. Posting the same content on the fans’ social networks pages will soon become boring. The information will start to repeat itself and annoy the audience. The future of integrated marketing communication lies in more interactions, actual mutual communication between the audience and the company or its representatives. The modern society is crowded by information and creating an aggressive advertising campaign is not enough, no matter how many posts the company throws at the clients – these posts will very soon be replaced by some other company’s posts. Rewarding the consumers is the best way to stand out from the rest of the companies working in the same sphere.
Works Cited
Grinberg, Maya. The Next Generation of Social Media Marketing Strategy. 2012. Web.
Introduction to Integrated Marketing Communications. Boundless. n.d. Web.
The Emergence of Integrated Marketing Communications. UKessays. 2014. Web.