Class 7 - IMC Flashcards
Why Integrate?
In an ideal world, all of these channels work together:
Advertising: Create beautiful TV and digital ads promoting the launch
Sales: Trains sales employees on the selling features of the new phones
Digital: Implements targeted ad campaign on social media and engages in search-engine marketing for the new launch
PR: Organize press events, launch parties, and exclusive previews to showcase the new iPhone to journalists, influencers, and industry insiders.
All these channels need to agree on:
Core message: What new features do we want to highlight for consumers?
Timing: When should each of these be enacted? (e.g., the sales team should be ready for questions by the time the first ad is launched)
Data sharing: Determining which tactics and messages are effective during the campaign and reinforcing those across all channels
Budget: Teams need to prioritize and allocate budgets based on strategic objectives, expected and performance metrics
What is integrated marketing ?
Definition: The processes concerned with the consistent development and coordinated delivery of company’s messages with its target audiences.
includes both content and process:
Content : Message consistency across platforms such that brands achieve “one voice, one look” across all marketing materials
Process : An organizational structuring of a company or brand such that all the various communication disciplines are brought together
Types of Process integration
Non-integration is when most of the key channels are separate departments in the organization (or separate hired agencies), with no oversight or coordination.
Advertising - Public relations - Digital - Sales promotion - Sales
Fix the separate department problem: Putting all these functions within the same department (or by hiring them all out to the same ad agency).
Fixing the no oversight problem: Or you can fix this by designating one person (or a small group of people) to oversee all departments
Fixing the no coordination problem: Or you can fix this by having one or more people from all departments meet regularly to agree on goals. (regular meetings)
What is being integrated ?
Marketing mix :
All consumer touchpoints with the brand should be consistent
Promotional strategy should be consistent with price, product, and placement
Branding :
The brand should be able to adapt to different targets yet retain a consistent core proposition
Strategy :
The message of MarComms should align with the brand’s strategy
Ex. Ads discussing price with a low-cost strategy
Ex. Ads discussing added value and not price for differentiation
Employees :
All customer-facing employees of the brand should reflect the brand
Can be done through hiring decisions, training, and in-house documentation
Agencies :
If working with multiple ad agencies and contractors, it is important to provide them all with a consistent image for your brand so they can produce integrated products
Why is IMC important …
… within an organization
Enables an organization to become efficient & synergistic with its communications, which can lower costs
Increases accountability for all communications spending, which can help limit costs
Can provide direction and purpose for employees
… within the market
Being consistent across communication tools fosters trust and commitment from consumers
In a crowded media landscape, non-integrated communication can lead to information overload and misunderstandings
Reinforcing the same message across platforms may lead to better comprehension and recall
How to write an IMC
Step 1: Situational Analysis (3Cs)
Step 2 : Segmenting, targeting
3Cs
Customer: How does our product provide value to the customer?
Company: Who are we? Is the way we want to market consistent with our mission? Will people trust this message coming from us?
Competition: Who is competing to meet our customers needs? What is their value proposition?
Step 2 : Segmenting, targeting
Segment your market based on sociodemographic, geographic, psychographic, behavioural, and/or profitability
Choose the target market that is likely to be the most profitable based on size, growth, competition, and accessibility.
Marketing communications plans consist of the following elements
- Context analysis
- Communication objectives
- Marketing communications strategy
- Coordinated promotional mix
- Resources (human & financial)
- Scheduling and implementation
- Evaluation and control
- Feedback
- Context analysis
Purpose: To understand the key market and communication drivers that are likely to influence (or are already influencing) a brand’s ability to meet its long-term objectives.
Should include…
Who is Your Target?
What do we know about our target market (their needs, perceptions, motivation & attitudes)?
Should be based on market research
Media Preferences
What media does our target audience use?
What media do they trust?
Should be based on market research
Time Scales
How long is the campaign expected to run?
How long are we given to prepare it?
Resources
What is the monetary budget for the campaign?
Are there other resources (e.g., personnel, spaces) available?
Outsourcing
Which, if any, tasks should be outsourced to a marketing agency?
Communication objectives
Communication objectives should consist of two main elements:
Marketing Objectives
Derived from the marketing plan
Often sales-related (like desired market share, revenue, volume sold, ROI)
Marketing Communication Objectives
Goals regarding awareness, perception, knowledge, &/or attitudes
All objectives should always be formulated as SMART Goals
SMART objectives
Specific : The goal is concrete and tangible - everyone knows what it looks like
Measurable : The goal has an objective measure of success the everyone can understand
Attainable : The goal is challenging, but should be achievable with the ressources available.
Relevant : The goal meaningfully contributes to larger objectives like the overall mission.
Timely : This goal has a deadline or, better yet, a timeline of progress milestones.
Ex : marketing objectives
Increase market share to 25% within our target market by the end of 2025
Increase our 6 month repeat purchase rate to 3 by the end of 2025
Marketing Communication Objectives
Increase the number of views on our social media to an average of 10,000/post by the end of 2025
Increase repeat website visits to 40% by the end of 2025
Communications strategies
Push :
Encourages retailers to push products out to consumers
Retailers carry your product because you have marketed it to them directly
Generally uses a personal selling approach supported by trade shows and trade advertising.
Pull:
Encourages customers to “pull” products through the distributors.
Retailers decide to carry your product because consumers want it.
Generally, a results in a mass media strategy supported by sales promotions
Profile-positioning
Concerned with marketing your brand to other interested parties, like governments, financial analysts, employees
This form of marketing is generally not focused on the product, but rather in making sure that interested parties have a positive view of the brand
Coordinated Communication Mix :
The steps :
1. Define your key message
2. Decide if you will be taking an emotional or rational approach
3. Decide the tone of your visual messages
4. Based on the previous steps, state the tools and media to be used in the campaign.
Step 1 : Define your key message
Your key message is the main idea you want to communicate with your campaign. It should answer the following questions:
What do you want to tell the target audience about your product?
Why is it important to them?
Why is it unique or different?
What concerns or questions might your audience have?
A key message is not a positioning statement or a tagline
A positioning statement reflects how the brands wants to be seen in the minds of consumers over a long period of time – it’s bigger than a key message
A tagline is part of branding – a phrase that consumers come to associate with the brand. A key message drives what we put in our marketing communications, but may never actually be seen verbatim by consumers.
Step 2 : Will you be taking an emotional or rational approach ?
Emotional
Goal : Sell the consumer on how the product will make them feel.
Message balance : Often one-sided
Message construal level : Often abstract
When :
1. Decisions consumers are unlikely to consider deeply (cheap, no risk)
2. Persuade goals / Remind & Reassure goals
3. Hedonic purchases
Rational
Goal : Inform the consumer about the practical benefits of your product
Message balance : Often two-sided
Message construal level : Often concrete
When :
1. Decisions consumers are likely to consider deeply (expensive, risky)
2. Inform goals
3. Utilitarian purchases
Step 3 : What is the tone of the visual messages ?
Subtle or Bold
Traditional or contemporary
Contemporary-Bold
Contemporary-subtle
Traditionnal-subtle
Traditionnal-bold
Subtle or Bold
Subtle visuals include softer colors, toned down graphics, and less-busy photography.
Bold visuals are louder, more vibrant, and compositionally energetic.
Traditional or contemporary
Contemporary visuals often use sans serif fonts, geometric graphics, and dynamic photography.
Traditional visuals often use serif fonts, more detailed graphics, and quieter photography
Contemporary-Bold
Contemporary-Bold
Color: High contrast
Fonts: Heavier weights (i.e., bold), sans serif
Photography: Incorporate pops of color, movement, and community.
Graphics: Prominent use of solid colors, thicker line weights.
When to use it ?
Conveying excitement & fun
Informal communications
Younger consumers
Contemporary-subtle
Color: Low contrast
Fonts: Lighter weights, sans serif
Photography: Incorporate pops of color, movement, and community.
Graphics: Sparing of solid colors, thinner line weights.
When to use it ?
Conveying excitement & subtle confidence
More formal communications
More mature consumers
Traditionnal-subtle
Color: Low contrast
Fonts: Mix of lighter and heavier weights, serif
Photography: Muted colors, little movement, and no crowds. Focus on quieter scenes.
Graphics: Sparing of solid colors, thinner line weights.
When to use it ?
Conveying sophistication
Formal communications that require a personal touch
Traditionnal-bold
Color: High contrast
Fonts: Mix heavier weights, serif
Photography: Muted colors, little movement, and no crowds. Focus on quieter scenes.
Graphics: Prominent use of solid colors, thicker line weights.
When to use it ?
Conveying importance
More reserved communications
Mature audiences
Step 4 : Based on the previous steps, state the channels to be used in the campaign.
Consider :
What is my communication goal? (Recall: different channels are effective for different goals)
Where does my target audience tend to encounter messages?
What resources do I have available?
The resources required to support the plan include …
Money
time
People/expertise
Scheduling & implementation
Schedule the deployment of the methods and the media, in line with the goals.
Remember that different channels are more effective for different stages (e.g., inform, persuade, differentiate, remind)
Gantt Charts, like the one presented on the next slide, are a particularly helpful planning tool
Evaluation and control
The most important thing to evaluate is your progress towards your stated (marketing and communication) objectives.
If possible, the company should change any communication tasks that are not working as expected.
Feedback
At the end of the campaign, companies should ask themselves…
What went well? What went poorly?
Were there sufficient resources?
Was the strategy appropriate in the first place?
What unforeseen problems occurred?
And use the information gleaned to improve in the future.
