Integrated Marketing Communications
Essays

Strategic Action Plan Nosh Communications

The concepts of marketing in a retail context are critical for the success and future growth of it's Popcorn Time (IPT), not only from an assessment of the traditional marketing mix components of product, price,…

An integrated marketing communications, or IMC approach, involves "coordinating the various promotional elements and other marketing activities that communicate with a firm's customers" (Belch & Belch 1999, p.

Integrated marketing communications was a concept introduced in early 1990s that coordinates marketing aspects with promotional elements to improve the communication between a business firm and their costumers.

Introduction The breadth and depth of traditional and online marketing channels continues to proliferate. The greater the growth of these traditional and online channels, the more urgent the need to synchronize them all to a common objective corporate-wide (Caemmerer, 2009). The foundational elements of marketing including advertising, public relations, sales promotion and a myriad of other marketing activities all must integrate to a common objective to ensure consistency and focus (Kliatchko, 2005) As the characteristics, depth and extent of marketing strategies continue to become more complex and focused, the need for an integrated marketing communications (IMC) program and strategy become critical to the success of any firm. The intent of this analysis is to evaluate the components of an IMC, identify strategies that evaluate the effectiveness of an IMC, and analysis and provide recommendations on the value of each component of an IMC strategy. Defining Integrated Marketing Campaign Components From the most complex consumer-focused IMC strategies to those that are oriented from one business to another all share seven core components. These include the foundation or the specific definition of the product and market, including an assessment of consumer behavior and market dynamics (McArthur, Griffin, 1997). Additional components include the corporate culture, brand focus, consumer experience, communication tools, promotional tools and integration tools. Each of these seven components must be aligned across traditional or offline and digital online ones as well if an IMC strategy is going to attain tis objectives (McArthur, Griffin, 1997). Of these seven components of an IMC, the most critical is the corporate culture, as that will determine the extent to which an organization will willingly embrace change or not (Gonring, 1994). The influence of a transformational leader is critical for ensuring cultural alignment within an organization (Caemmerer, 2009). Transformational leaders have the ability to orchestrate the many aspects of an IMC strategy while also ensuring everyone responsible for its execution has a very strong sense of ownership and accountability of results (Howard, 2002) Studies of exceptional customer experiences also underscore how critical it is for a company to cultivate a strong customer-driven culture, as it serves as the foundation of successful integration of marketing strategies and tactics (McArthur, Griffin, 1997). Companies who excel at IMC strategies successfully combine foundational elements of marketing, galvanizing them with strong leadership and a culture that is strongly customer-driven. All of these factors together combine to also create a very strong brand focus, as exemplified by Disney's execution of IMC strategies and the resulting high levels of brand equity produced and maintained (Broadcasting & Cable, 2012). Additional IMC components include communication tools, promotional tools and integration tools. Taken together these are the unifying elements of any successful IMC strategy (McArthur, Griffin, 1997). They also act to galvanize strategies across offline and online communications and marketing channels. The communications tools are the most visible component of any IMC strategy, encompassing both offline or traditional media and online media channels (Gonring, 1994). The orchestration of these tools is essential for the development of a cohesive IMC strategy that is galvanized around the unique value proposition (UVP) of the company as well. Promotional tools are used for initiating a conversation or dialogue with prospective and existing customers, in addition to driving the initial public relations (PR), direct and e-mail campaigns, and personal selling strategies (McArthur, Griffin, 1997). Increasingly marketers are turning to smartphone-based advertising and messaging as well, using mobility-based platforms as part of their promotional initiatives within broader IMC-based strategies (Hongcharu, Eiamkanchanalai, 2009). Lastly, the unifying element of integration tools are more critical than ever, as traditional media, online and mobility strategies all must resonate around a common, galvanizing unique value proposition and series of communications objectives to achieve optimal performance (Kliatchko, 2005). In the next section of this analysis, strategies are defined to evaluate the effectiveness of an IMC strategy. Next, an analysis and series of recommendations are provided as to the value of each component of an IMC strategy.

Analyzing the Live Nation brand needs to start with the experience customers have when they purchase tickets and attend concerts. The value of live events is in how effectively there are promoted and how easily customers can quickly gain access to tickets, ticket packages and entire entertainment packages. Live Nation's branding has concentrated more on the performers, less on the experience, and have also not paid attention to the mobility factors including having a solid smartphone and table strategy (Tabitha, Hede, Rentschler, 2009). While the actual events the company produces and delivers are exceptional, the experiences of booking them are often problematic and require personal assistance from telephone service centers and customer service representatives. The more complex the event, the more manual the process becomes within Live Nation. After analyzing their financial statement, this fact became clear; the more gross margin they generate the higher their costs of sales. The hard reality for Live Nation is that the more attractive or exclusive the event, the more challenging they become to buy from. From a branding perspective, this is exactly the opposite of what they want to achieve. The essence of entertainment branding is a solid foundation of setting accurate, realistic customer expectations and then deliberately exceeding them on every fact of the experience, beginning with ticket purchased, through getting to and attending the event and the memories that have been formed as a result (Pihlström, Brush, 2008). Entertainment brands grapple with a particularly challenging set of circumstances, as the brand must reflect the overall experience and identity of the business while also managing to define and execute against expectations effectively (Hemphill, 2003). Nowhere is this shift more apparent than in the areas of mobility platforms and support for multiple marketing and selling channels (Verkasalo, 2011). Live Nation has failed to capture the full value of mobility platforms for entertainment, and as a result is in danger of seeing their entire business model become obsolete. The advent of mobility-based branding that supersedes and becomes even more strategically important than off-line (print) and online presence via websites was predicted six years ago and is today gathering momentum quickly (Vlachos, Vrechopoulos, Pateli, 2006). For Live Nation to retain and grow its customer base and also fend off competitors, it will need to concentrate on its mobility strategy not at the event level as it does today, but from a platform perspective, just as the company has done with the Web in the past (Okazaki, Barwise, 2011). For Live Nation the future requires that they make the brand part of the experience itself; today they are disjointed in a very competitive, turbulent market.

In this paper we present an integrated marketing plan to be used by Toyota in the marketing and sale of its products worldwide. The marketing plan begins with a description of the company, its strategic plan and focus, a situational analysis then follows which comprises of a SWOT analysis, industry analysis, company analysis, customer analysis, product-market focus. These are then followed by the development of a strategic focus, marketing goals and objectives, target market analysis, company's position in the global car market, marketing strategy using the 4 Ps (Product, Price, Place ,Promotion),marketing implication analysis, implementation plan, evaluation and control as well as a conclusion

The problem with theories -- marketing or communications -- is that no one knows if they work or how they work until they attempt to employ them in real-life situations. In fact, when Coca-Cola offered "New" Coke two…

Marketers Should Be Limited or Regulated When Targeting Vulnerable Market Segments

Why is it important to have a PR campaign? Give an example of a situation that illustrates the importance of a PR campaign and how is the effectiveness of public relations best measured? Explain your answer.