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Integrated Marketing Communication

Sahil Avi Kapoor

20140121136 | PGP 1

“My model for business is The Beatles. They were four guys who kept each other kind of negative tendencies in check. They balanced each other and the total was greater than the sum of the parts. That's how I see business: great things in business are never done by one person, they're done by a team of people.” – Steve Jobs (1992)

This quote remarkably puts out the importance of coherence, single focus and collaboration in any business function. Marketing, I believe, is no different. Gone are the days when a glossy, front page newspaper advertisement, a large BTL hoarding, a 30 second radio slot or a TVC marked the launch of a new product. Gone are the days when entire marketing budgets were planned and approved with little or absolutely no coherence between the dollars spent on the varied marketing channels. This is the era of close knit, water tight, integrated marketing communications.

Let’s begin by answering the following question, ‘What is integrated marketing communication?’

The American Marketing Association (1995) defines Integrated Marketing Communications as “a

planning process designed to assure that all brand contacts received by a customer or prospect

for a product, service, or organization are relevant to that person and consistent over time.” Thus,

an outbound marketing communication that is coherent, meaningful and at the same time

conveys the intended message distinctly may be referred to as an IMC.

Going forward with this definition, the next step would be to plan the perfect IMC. How do we

do that? West Virginia University (2014) compares planning an integrated marketing

communication to composing a musical. While in a musical note, each instrument serves its own

distinct purpose, the final goal lies in the symphony produced by all the instruments together.

Similarly in an integrated marketing communication, the social media could be the bass, a TVC

could add the rhythm and PR the percussion.

The latest, most popular add to the integrated marketing mix has been the social media. Not a

single marketing manager would refute the growing clout of social media marketing in any Go to

Market plan. David Meerman Scott (2007), a US based marketing strategist writes in his # 1 best

seller, ‘The New Rules of Marketing and PR’ as to how social communication can be perfected for

the right IMC. He writes about the importance of real time communication, about the importance

of buyers over products and the high cost of online user engagement.

The importance and influence of social media all taken, the biggest, most challenging question

still looms. ‘How to tame this super powerful marketing tool and integrate it into the marketing

mix?’ And who can answer it better than Red Bull, the brand that has proved its prowess time

and again? Ben Sturner (2012), CEO and President – Red Bull, when asked about the Red Bull

space jump called ‘Stratos’, believes that the Space Jump was by far the most awesome

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marketing campaigns by Red Bull, and maybe the best marketing stunt of all time. In fact, he says

that there is no way the brand could get cut as much popularity out of the jump through a mere

press coverage. Social networks played a massive part in this branding strategy. While YouTube

offered live feed to the audience, dedicated Facebook and Instagram feeds catapulted the gig

into the big league. While Red Bull bombarded Twitter with live images, the mentions and

hashtags by marveled social media users lost all sane count.

Such path breaking campaigns show the path forward towards the future of integrated marketing

communications. There’re no points for guessing of course, that the most effective and successful

marketing managers of the near future shall be judged on their ability to integrate each and every

channel of outward communications in the best way possible.

Concluding with the words of Pratik Dholakia (2014), VP Marketing at E2M Solutions, “Integrated

Marketing Communications is not like a software package that you can buy, install and run in one

go. It is a far-reaching change that affects every aspect of the organization, external agencies as

well as the end user. The attempt is to make all the various marketing tools that we have at our

disposal to work together in a synergistic manner so that they make up for each other’s

deficiencies. Give your organization time and solid direction on how to go about this process and

see how the fruits of collaboration and marketing synergies come together to build a stronger,

more successful brand in the long run.”

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References

1. Dan Lyons (2013); Inspirational Quotes From the Late Great Steve Jobs; Retrieved from

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/steve-jobs-inspirational-quotes-im-slideshare

2. West Virginia University (2014); About IMC (Online Graduate Program); Retrieved from

http://imc.wvu.edu/about/what_is_imc

3. PWC (2014); The importance of social media; Retrieved from

http://www.pwc.com.au/private-clients/events/importance-of-social-media.htm

4. Jason Boies (2012); How Red Bull Stratos Successfully Soared Across Social Media;

Salesforce Blog

5. Pratik Dholakiya (2012); The Integrated Marketing Communications Process Any

Marketer Can Use; Search engine people; Retrieved from

http://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/125-marketing-communications-

process.html