Integrated

Marketing
Communication
 Syllabus
Module I

Introduction To IMC, Role of IMC in marketing process, IMC planning

model, Communication process, steps involved in developing IMC
program, Advertising vs. Marketing mix, Advertising appeal in various
stages of PLC, Damage control and communication, Type of advertising
agencies, Services offered by various agencies, Criteria for selecting the
agencies and evaluation
 Marketing communications

Marketing communications are the means by which firms attempt to

inform, persuade, and remind consumers, directly or indirectly, about
the products and brands they sell.
 Modes of Marketing Communications

Advertising Direct marketing

Sales promotion Interactive marketing
Events and experiences Personal selling
Public relations and publicity Word-of-mouth marketing
 Integrated Marketing
Communication
Integrated Marketing Communications is a simple concept. It ensures
that all forms of communications and messages are carefully linked
together.

IMC means integrating all the promotional tools, so that they work
together in harmony
 Example
• The Coca-Cola Company mainly the use of the
mass media methods: print advertising, banner
ads and TV advertising.
• Coca-Cola Company use a marketing mix of
advertising strategy to promote products,
moreover, it based on the social media and
Web interactive for sales promotion and
marketing.
• The company has created various advertising
that has a significant impact on the society and
culture.
• The packaging design of the product has
become the indispensable brand and image.
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Elements of IMC
Role of IMC in marketing process
Marketing Strategy and Analysis

Marketing Strategy and Analysis: 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.
Example: Athletic-shoe companies such
as Nike, Reebok, and others see the
shoe market as an opportunity to
broaden their customer base both
Nike self lacing shoes
domestically and internationally
Competitive Analysis
The company must carefully
analyse the competition to be
faced in the marketplace.
For example, recently Bangalore
market has seen significant
growth in the pet products, with
more consumers spending more
of their money on pet related
items
Target Marketing
Developing the marketing planning
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: 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
• Distribution Channel Decisions: One of a
marketer’s most important marketing
decisions involves the way it makes its
products and services available for
purchase.
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
IMC Planning Model – Analysis

Involves the process of planning, executing, evaluating & controlling

the use of our various promotional mix elements to effectively
communicate with targeted audience, it provides framework for
developing, implementing and controlling our organization's 'IMC'
program.
Steps involved in developing IMC
program
Situational Analysis --- Communication
process analysis

• Set marketing communication

objectives
• Apply the basic
communication model
Budget Development

Budgeting Methods
Marketing communication program
development
• Explicit Communications: Convey a distinct, clearly stated message
through personal selling, advertising, public relations, sales
promotion, direct marketing, or some combination of these methods.

• Implicit Communications: What the message connotes about the

product itself, its price, or the places it is sold.
Monitoring, Evaluating, and
Controlling
• Monitor sales promotion by the number of coupons redeemed.
• Measure the effectiveness of a new personal selling strategy by
looking at the number of new accounts opened.
• A firm might run tests to see it consumers noticed the ad.
• Review sales results and attribute fluctuations in sales volume to MC
 Elements in the
Communications Process
• Sender
• Encoding
• Message
• Decoding
• Receiver
• Response
• Noise
• Feedback
• Sender: The party or person who is sending the message to the other party or person
is the sender.
• Encoding: The conversion of thought into the meaningful symbols is called encoding.
• Message: The group of symbols transmitted by the sender is called a message.
• Media: The channel of communication through which transfers the message from
sender to receiver is called media.
• Decoding: The conversion of symbols into meaning by the receiver is called decoding.
• Receiver: The sent message received by another person or party is called the receiver.
• Response: The reaction shown by the receiver before the message is called response.
• Feed Back: The portion of the response of the receiver that is sent back to the sender
is called feedback.
• Noise: The unplanned distortion during the process of communication due to which
the receiver understands the wrong meaning of the original message is called noise.
Message
1. Message content: The communicator has to figure out an appeal or theme that will produce
the desired response.
2. Message Structure: The communicator must also decide how to handle three message
structure issues.
1. The first issue is whether to draw a conclusion or leave it to audience. Recent research suggests that
in many cases, rather than drawing a conclusion, the ads are better off asking questions and letting
buyers come to their own conclusions.
2. The second issue is whether to present the strongest arguments first or last. Presenting them first gets
strong attention but may lead to an anticlimactic ending.
3. The third issue is whether to present a one-sided argument (mentioning only product’s strengths) or a
two sided argument (both product’s strengths and its shortcomings).
3. Message Format: The marketing communicator also needs a strong format for the message.
In a print ad, the communicator has to decide on the headline, copy, illustration, and color. To
attract attention, advertisers can use novelty and contrast; eye-catching pictures and headlines;
distinctive formats; message size and position; and color, shape, and movement. If the message
is to be carried over a radio, the communicator has to choose words, sounds, and voices
Steps in Developing Effective
Communications
• Identify target audience
• Determine objectives
• Design communications
• Select channels
• Establish budget
• Decide on media mix
• Measure results/manage IMC
Advertising and Marketing Mix
Key Differences Between Marketing
and Advertising
• The difference between marketing and advertising is given as follows.
• Advertising is marketing, but Marketing is not advertising.
• The product, Price, Promotion, Place, People, Process are the six major
aspects of Marketing. Promotion is the major aspect of Advertising.
• Marketing is done with the intent of while Advertising is done with the
objective of increasing sales & inducing customers.
• Marketing focuses on creating a market for the product, and building
reputation whereas advertising focuses on seeking public attention.
• Marketing is a long-term process. On the other hand, advertising is a
short term process.
Advertisement appeals:
In order to present a message
symbolically, a marketer needs to
use “appeals”. Advertisement
appeals could be of various kinds,
viz. factual, emotional (humorous,
agony etc.).
• Rational appeal—appeal to
audience’s self-interest.
• Sensory appeal- Triggers the senses
of the audience
• Emotional appeal—attempt to stir
up negative or positive emotions
that motivate purchase.
• Social Appeal- Directed towards
the social needs
• Moral appeal—directed at what is
right and proper.
Dr. Smita Harwani, NHCE
• List down the
• Objectives
• Pricing strategies
• Marketing strategies
• Appeals to be used

At various stages of PLC

Strategies for the different
stages of the PLC
• Introduction stage of PLC: The need for immediate profit is not a pressure. The product is promoted to
create awareness. If the product has no or few competitors, a skimming price strategy is employed.
Limited numbers of product are available in few channels of distribution. Advertising differentiates the
product.
Example: Print ad of a Printer giving details about its specifications
• Growth stage of PLC: Competitors are attracted into the market with very similar offerings. Products
become more profitable and companies form alliances, joint ventures and take each other
over. Advertising spend is high and focuses upon building brand. Market share tends to stabilise.
Advertising establishes participation with the marketplace.
• Maturity stage of PLC: Producers attempt to differentiate products and brands are key to this. Price wars
and intense competition occur. At this point the market reaches saturation. Producers begin to leave the
market due to poor margins. Promotion becomes more widespread and use a greater variety of media.
Advertising puts price ahead of the competition.
• Decline stage of PLC: At this point there is a downturn in the market. There is intense price-cutting and
many more products are withdrawn from the market. Profits can be improved by reducing marketing
spend and cost cutting. Defensive advertising or for revitalization.
Pre-Introduction: Light advertising, pre-introduction publicity

Introduction: Heavy use of advertising, public relations for awareness, sales promotion for
trial

Growth: Advertising, public relations, branding and brand marketing, personal selling for
distribution

Maturity: Advertising decreases, sales promotion, personal selling, reminder & persuasion

Decline: Advertising and public relations decrease, limited sales promotion, personal
selling for distribution
Advertising Agency
• An advertising agency or ad agency is a service business dedicated to
creating, planning and handling advertising
Types of advertising agencies
There are basically four types of ad agencies. They are:
• 1. In-house agencies
• 2.Creative boutiques
• 3.Media buying agencies
• 4.Full service agencies
• In- house agencies: Some companies, in an effort to reduce costs and
maintain greater control over agency activities, have set up their own
advertising agencies internally. An in- house agency is an ad agency
set up, owned and operated by the advertiser. Many companies use
in-house agencies exclusively; others combine in-house efforts with
those of outside agencies
• Example: In-house agencies in India are:
• Levers - Lintas (previously)
• Videocon – Confidence
• Reliance – Mudra (when Mudra started out)
LINTAS
• Creative boutiques: Creative boutique is an agency that provides only
creative services. These specialized companies have developed in
response to some client’s desires to use only the creative talent of an
outside provider while maintaining the other functions internally.
• The full-service agencies also sub-contract work creative boutiques
when they are very busy or want to avoid adding full time employees to
their pay roll
• Example: Few creative boutiques in India:
• RMG David
• Vyas Gianetti Creatives
• Chlorophyll
• Media buying agencies: Media buying agencies are independent companies
that specialize in the buying of media, particularly radio and television. The
task of purchasing advertising media has grown more complex as specialized
media proliferate, so media buying services have found a niche by
specializing in the analysis and purchase of the advertising time and space.
• Example:
• Mindshare
• Initiative Media (LOWE)
• Zenith Media (Bates, Saatchi & Saatchi)
• Optimedia (Publicis)
• Starcom (Leo Burnett)
• Fulcrum (HTA)
• Full – service agency: The function of an advertising agency is to see
to it that its client’s advertising leads to greater profits in the long run
than could be achieved without the ad agency. Most such agencies
are large in size and offer their clients a full range of services in the
area of marketing, communications and promotions. These include
planning, creating and producing the advertisement, media selection
and research
Services offered by Agencies
• Produce logos, creating effective and attractive color schemes to draw the
consumer's attention to their clients' ads.
• Prepare slogans and brochures, and write descriptive copy for sales materials.
• Produce public service announcements for charitable organizations and social
programs as well
• Issue press releases for new programs, events, and products.
• Advertising agencies use assorted forms of media to promote their clients'
businesses or organizations, including magazine advertisements, newspaper ads,
radio and TV commercials, website etc
• Plan events, provide booths at conventions, and give away promotional items.
• The way advertising agencies work is by getting to know their clients'
product or service well and determining which demographic provides
the best audience for promotion. If a company sells designer
handbags, an ad agency would likely try to position the company's TV
commercials during women's programming or on a channel geared
toward women. The look and tone of an ad campaign is also
dependent upon demographics. If the company's target audience is
mature adults, design elements should be more traditional than if the
target were a younger generation.
Criteria for selecting the agencies
• Compatibility: the selection of an advertising agency depends on the compatibility of the agency. The needs of the
company determine the fitness of the agency. The advertiser visits several agencies and chooses the best agency on the
basis of its merits, demerits, accreditation, its methods of handling the accounts and using the available opportunities.
• Agency Team: This includes management specialists, market researchers, copywriters, media experts, production managers
and art directors. The attitude, thinking, experience and personalities of the team members have positive effects on the
selection process.
• Agency Stability: An agency, which has been long in existence generally, performs efficiently and effectively. The greater the
investment in the agency, the more vital the contribution of the agency to the advertising activities. The personnel, finance,
management and credit are examined before selecting a suitable advertising agency.
• Services: The services rendered by the agency are evaluated with a view to choosing the best advertising agency. Cost
accounting, general agreements, project estimates, selling attitudes and other services performed by the advertising
agencies are considered to evaluate their efficiency and credibility in performing advertising jobs. The greater the range of
an agency’s services, the more fully it can serve the clients’ needs. The agency can serve the clients by its potential capacity
for advertising, sales promotion, media placement, public relations, market research, sales training and distribution
channels.
• Creativity: Creativity is the main element in advertising. If the advertising agency is capable of great creative efforts, it is
selected for the purpose. Style, clarity, impact, memorability and action- these are taken into account while evaluating
creativity.
• Problem-solving approach: The agency which has a problem solving approach is considered to be superior and useful. The
importance of choosing the right agency cannot be ignored. Caliber, compatibility, balanced services, responsiveness, talent
an equitable compensation-these are important factors in selecting an advertising agency.
Evaluation of an Advertising
Agency
• The process of agency evaluation involves regular assessment of two aspects of performance area – financial and
qualitative.
The financial assessment focuses on how the agency conducts its business to verify costs and expenses, the number
of personnel hours charged to an account to an account and what payments are made to media and other outside
service suppliers.
Qualitative assessment explores the agency’s efforts devoted in planning, developing and implementing the client
company’s advertising campaign and an assessment of the achievements.
The parameters on which an ad agency’s creative services dept is evaluated are as follows:
• Agency regularly produces fresh ideas and original approaches?
• Creative executions are consistently on strategy?
• Research is effectively used in strategic development and in pre-post testing of advertising
• Creative group is knowledgeable about the company’s products, markets and strategies?
• Creative group is concerned with good and consistent advertising communications and develops campaigns, ads that exhibit this
concern
• Creative group produces on time and submits for review in time to permit orderly revisions
• Creative group performs well under pressure
• Agency presentations are well organized with sufficient examples of proposed executions
• Creative group participates in major campaign presentations
• Agency presents ideas and executions not requested but which they feel are good opportunities.
• Creative group takes constructive criticism and redirection
• Creative group effectively controls costs
• Overall evaluation of creative services