Brand Promotion is an important part of any Marketing Process. It is a must for every organization to promote their brand, products and services among their customers in order to surpass the competitors and to sustain in the long run.
Brand promotion not only increases awareness about a brand but also increases the sales, yielding huge benefits and revenue for the company.
What is Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC)
According to the AMA (American Marketing Association), “Integrated marketing communication is a planning process that guarantees that all brand contacts received by a customer for a product, service, or organization are relevant to that person and consistent over time”.
In general terms, IMC or simply brand communication is an organizational strategy developed to popularize their products and services among the target customers. IMC simply means combining all the promotional tools to make them work together. The process of brand promotion involves identifying the best target customers and promoting the brand among them through any one of the below mentioned means:
- Sales Promotion
- Advertising
- Public Relation
- Personal Selling
- Direct Marketing
- Social media, etc.
Hence, Integrated Marketing Communication can be defined as the “integration of all the methods of brand promotion to promote a particular product or service among target customers”. All aspects of marketing communication in an IMC work together for enhanced sales and maximum cost effectiveness.
Various components of Integrated Marketing Communication:
1. The Corporate Culture – To increase their sales, organizations should design the features of products and services in accordance with their work culture. While every company has a vision, it is crucial for the marketers to keep this in mind before designing their products and services.
For example, Assume there is an organization ‘A’ that has its vision of promoting green and clean world. Hence, all its products need to be bio-degradable and eco friendly, according to the vision of the organization.
2. The Foundation – Foundation stage refers to the detailed analysis of the product and the target market. It is important for the marketers to know the brand, its products and services and target customers. In addition, organizations are required to know the needs, expectations and attitudes their end-users. Also, keeping a close watch on the activities of competitors is also essential.
3. Brand Focus – This element of IMC symbolizes the corporate identity of the brand.
4. Communication Tools – Communication tools comprise of different modes of promoting a particular brand like advertising, promoting through social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn, twitter, and direct selling, and so on.
5. Consumer Experience – Analyzing the consumer experience can lead a brand to continuous success. Hence, marketers need to focus on their consumers and what they feel about the product. All the products should meet and go beyond customer expectations. Products with better quality, packaging and affordable prices are likely to attract customers more.
6. Promotional Tools – To promote your brand, you need some effective promotional tools such as personal selling, trade promotions, and so on. To achieve this, organizations need to boost their relationship with end users and external clientele.
7. Integration Tools – It is essential for every organization to keep a track of the customer review and feedbacks. They need to have specialized software such as customer-relationship management (CRM) that can help them in computing the effectiveness of various integrated marketing communications tools.
8. Synergy– Synergy is a necessity for a successful integrated marketing communications strategy. All the different forms of promotional tools you use including direct marketing, social media, advertising, etc. must coordinate with the brand identity.
