Integrated Marketing Communication tools
Written by Sanna Haapaniemi
Elements of
promotion mix, advertising, personal selling, public relations and publicity,
direct marketing and sales promotion, are tools for integrated marketing
communication. Those are shown in figure 1. and explained later.
Advertising:
Advertising
is usually the most visible component of the marketing communication. It is one
of the most visible forms of marketing communication. Although advertising
methods may vary from country to country the major advertising objectives remain the same. Advertising can reach many customers with
simple messages that present what a product is, what its primary function is
and how it relates to all the other similar products within the shortest
possible time. Advertisements help end-users to believe in your brand and also
motivate them to buy the same to remain loyal to the brand. Major advertising objectives might include
some of the following: Increasing sales from existing customers or obtaining
new customers. Advertising tools are for example broadcast, newspaper,
Internet, mobile, outdoor and other forms.
Sales
promotion:
Sales
promotion seeks to offer additional value as an inducement to generate an
immediate sale. These inducements can be targeted at customers, distributors,
agents and members of the sales force. Sales promotions are short-term
incentives to encourage the purchase or sale of a product or service. A whole
range of network members can benefit from the use of sales promotion. Company
may use sales promotion tools like discounts, coupons, loyalty clubs,
membership coupons, displays and demonstrations.
Personal
selling:
Personal
selling is one of the most effective tool for integrated marketing communication.
Personal selling involves interpersonal interactions between sales and the
customer. It can happen face to face, by phone, e-mail, through video or
Internet conferences. Personal selling takes place when marketer or sales
representative sells products or services to clients. Personal selling goes a
long way in strengthening the relationship between the organization and the
end-users. Personal presentation by the firm’s sales force for the purpose of
making sales and building customer relationship. In complex selling situation
personal selling can be more effective than advertising. Selling tools are
sales presentations, trade shows and incentive programs for example.
Public
relations:
Public
relation activities help promote a brand through press releases, news, events
and public appearances. Public relations provides visibility for an
organization, and this in turn allows it to be properly identified, positioned
and understood by all of its stakeholders. The role of public relation officer
is to present the organization in the best light. Public relations should be a
planned activity, one that encompasses a wide range of events. The use of
public relations does not require the purchase of airtime or space in media
vehicles, such as television or magazines. Public relations tools are press
releases, sponsorship, events and Web pages.
Direct
marketing:
Direct
marketing is a term used to refer to all media activities that generate a
series of communications and responses
with an existing or potential customer. It is concerned with the management of
customer behavior and is used to complement the strengths and weaknesses of the
other communication disciplines. Direct marketing is a strategy that is used to
create a personal and broker-free conversation with customers. It enables
organizations to communicate directly with the end-users. Tools for direct
marketing are emails, direct-response TV, kiosks, text messages, catalogues,
the Internet, brochures and promotional letters.
References:
Hollansen,
S. 2010. Global maketing. a Decision-oriented approach. Pearson education
Fill, C.
2009. Marketing communications: interactivity, Communities and content. Pearson
Education
Kotler, P.
2014 Principles of marketing. Pearson Education
Percy, L.
2008. Strategic integrated marketing communications. Taylor & Francis Ltd
I like your blog's design and it fits for the theme well. It is well written and easy to read. This is very good package of the tools in promotion mix and you tell what these are and what you can do with them. I only remain to miss to problem statement and solution for the problem, which was said in the assignment and also your own views and comments of the theme...
ReplyDeleteI think some of these tools might be useful in my own work as well in wholesale market in B2B business. I have already used the sales promotion as we have different campaigns and special offer days that we use to get more sales. I think I could use more personal selling and really get to know the customers so I can offer them more specific products with the special price of course. This is challenge as people are so busy these days so you have to have right timing and real offers to do. And if you send something via email, it easily lost in your inbox. So it may be challenging but if you have right tools you may succeed.
Hello Sanna,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your informative article!!!
I would like to add some items for each communication tool.
By advertising I think the modern technologies which can be use in marketing communication, online advertising, the target group can better be identified and be reached, so the effectiveness is much higher than offline advertising. Within the offline world the prices are also much higher to reach the target group.
With sales promotion also the online methods offers great tools like e.g. deals to introduce new products and services in the market. The advantage of deals is that often the cost price of the product is covers by the deal and compared to the offline variant when free sampling often is the way to introduce new products of services, so the cost price of introduction new products is higher. This new method gives start up companies without having a big amount off marketing budget, the opportunity to penetrate the wished market segment(s).
Personal selling in a B2B environment is indeed mostly the most effective way of creating new customers. The advantage is that you directly can influence the sales process by reacting on buyers behaviour.
Public relations is a tool often used high in the business funnel and covering the awareness of the AIDA model. This means that often supporting media is needed to create a high effectiveness.
Direct marketing needs often a high volume and follow up to create the be wished effectiveness. Because this tool is intensive used in the world of marketing, more broader target group should be reached to create the same result.
Thank you for your interesting article.
Regards,
Frank
Hi Sanna!
ReplyDeleteThank you for producing a nice article which will definitely help the reader in understanding the concept of integrated marketing communication tools. You have covered most of the tools very effectively. Since there are definite pros and concerns for all the tools you have described, I would suggest that it can be a very good idea to include a little bit of concerns with all tools. Specially advertising and direct selling is more challenging in international business contexts while the firms are in their early phase. The concept of internet based advertising as mentioned by Frank can be handy but it depends upon the target market. If it is European market may be you can reach it significantly through internet but the markets like Africa & under developed Asia, still needs to be reached mostly through conventional local print and mass media. It would be expensive and require lot of designing and cultural issues related to message.
Still I would say your coverage of the topic is very encouraging.
Great Job Done!!!
Regards,
Akram
Thank you for your article. The subject in itself is quite interesting, but I was missing the problem statement or at least I could not figure out what it was. The text seems more or less a narrative on IMC tools, not so much discussion on some problem or other matter concerning it.
ReplyDeleteAs there were no references marked in the text, except for the figure 1, I for one could not tell what text was your own and what was from the sources mentioned in the end. Even if there were text of your own, it would have been good to have some discussion on the matters or i.e. give real life examples.
The article was useful in the way that I got better acquainted with IMC tools.
Best Regards,
Kati S.
Hello Sanna,
ReplyDeleteThis is very informative article.
First of all, I would like to mention that there is no problem statement of this article therefore I am unable to find the solution.
Integrated marketing tools as a one package is a new information for me. I, before reading this article, was under the impression that organizations waste their resources on different kind of activities e.g. advertising, sales promotions etc. However, this article has changed my views regarding marketing tools. Moreover, I have learnt that advertising can easily and effectively convey product message in shortest message time. This is true as, in this fast track life, people do not have enough time to see, stop and think about the products and services. Therefore, any word or a phrase can easily convey message effectively e.g. Hello Tomorrow form Emirates airline. This two word message is very clear for the travellers by air.
I have worked in a bank so I am fully aware of all these tools individually. Sales promotions help the organizations to increase sales turn over along with introduction of their by-products. Furthermore, personal selling is also very effective tool of communication. However, it faces many challenges in different cultures. It is difficult to target required number of customers in developed countries because people, in these countries, do not like to meet without appointment. However, in the developing, particularly Asian, countries personal selling is a challenging task as people do not easily trust the door knocking or street stopping activities. However, sales shows, presentations can be very effective.
Overall the blog design is very creative with a good theme.
Thanks,
Zia Chaudhry
To me this was an interesting article which gave a good overview of the tools for integrated marketing communication. Each tool was covered quite well. The text was clearly structured, fluent and easy to read. Also the design of the blog is appealing. However, what was missing was the problem statement, solution to the problem and practical examples.
ReplyDelete