Creative technologies: methods, principles of development of integrated communications. Integrated marketing communications: elements, strategies, management

20.09.2019

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Levels of integrated marketing communications

All of the communication tools mentioned above work more effectively if they interact harmoniously rather than being isolated from each other. Their sum is greater than their individual components, but only if they constantly work in unison.

The effect can be even greater when integration goes beyond basic communication tools. There are many other levels of integration—horizontal, vertical, internal, external, and data integration. Let's look at how they can strengthen integrated communications.

Horizontal integration is formed in the field of marketing program programs, as well as in the field of activity of enterprise divisions. For example, production, financing, distribution and communications must interact and ensure that the appropriate messages are conveyed to consumers regarding decisions and actions taken.

In addition, different departments—sales, direct mail, and advertising—can also support each other in data integration. To do this, you need to create a marketing information system, which will collect and distribute relevant data among different departments.

Vertical integration implies that marketing and communication goals must support the goals and mission of the corporation at a high level. Meanwhile, internal integration requires internal marketing - ensuring the proper level of staff awareness and motivation regarding new developments - from new advertising campaigns to new principles of corporate style, new service standards, new strategic partners, etc.

External integration requires maintaining relationships with external partners, for example, advertising and PR agencies, close contacts with them to develop homogeneous solutions - related messages - and complex messages.

Problems of integrated marketing communications

Despite the many benefits, integrated marketing communications also pose many barriers. In addition to the constant resistance to change, as well as the specific communication problems associated with different types target audience, there are many obstacles limiting the activities of IMC.

It can be:

vertical company structure
limitation of the creative process
time scale contradiction
lack of management know-how.

Take, for example, the vertical structure of a company. Hard organizational structures inundated with managers defending budgets and the fundamental principles of the organization. Unfortunately, in some organizations, communications, data, and even managers become isolated from each other.

For example, the PR department often does not provide reports to the marketing department. Salespeople rarely communicate with people from advertising or sales promotion departments, etc. Imagine what could happen if sellers were not informed about new promotional offers!

And all of this can be exacerbated by internal wars when individual managers refuse to consider other opinions (or budget constraints) under the influence of an employee working in another department.

In this regard, two questions arise:

What does a truly integrated marketing department look like?
How might this affect creative activity?

It usually doesn't matter who owns a certain creative idea, but sometimes it can be important. The advertising agency may not be enthusiastic about creative idea, born, for example, a PR or marketing consultant.

An integrated marketing communications system can limit creativity. There will no longer be any wild and wacky promotions unless they are consistent with the overall marketing communications strategy.

Unbridled creativity may now be somewhat more restrained, but the creative task at hand can be more complex and effective if it is more capacious, complex and creative.

If you set different time limits for different creative tasks, you will see how forecasting horizons pose an additional barrier to the implementation of IMC.

For example, imagine that an advertising campaign design developed to support a brand on a long period, conflicts with a promotion or sales promotion program designed to exceed short term and designed to increase the level of quarterly sales.

However, these two objectives can be aligned with each other if the overall integrated marketing communications mix is carefully planned.

However this type planning is not generally accepted. The results of a study of the situation in the mid-90s demonstrated that most managers did not have experience in the field of IMC. And these were not only individual managers, but even entire agencies.

The number of agencies specializing in providing one service has grown rapidly. There are too few people left with experience managing all marketing disciplines as a whole. The lack of know-how was followed by a lack of desire to work in the field.

Today, understanding the barriers is the first step towards successful implementation of BCI.

10 golden rules of integrated marketing communications

With the Ten Golden Rules of Integration, you can determine whether you could create end-to-end communications and ensure they remain seamlessly connected.

#1 To get senior managers to support the initiative, make sure they understand the benefits of IMC.

#2 Integration should be carried out at different levels of management. Include the issue of integration in the plans of various management team meetings, whether annual reviews or creative sessions.

Horizontally - make sure all managers, not just marketing managers, understand the importance of consistent messaging - both at Vehicle, and at the level of product quality.

Also make sure that advertising, PR, and sales promotion staff unify their messages. To do this you need to plan carefully internal communications, that is, conduct good internal marketing.

#3 Make sure the design guide or even the brand book promotes common visual standards when using logos, fonts, colors, etc.

#4 Focus on a clear marketing communications strategy. Establish crystal clear communication goals, clear positioning objectives, and link core values to all communications.

Ensure that all communications enhance (not detract from) the brand or organization. Explore areas of sustainable competitive advantage.

#5 Start with a zero budget. Start at the starting point. Develop new plan in the field of communications. Determine what you need to do to achieve your goals. Is not it budget resources, which are allocated to you, are less than those that are necessary. That is, do you need to identify priority areas for communication activities?

Develop a sequence of communication activities that will help the consumer easily move through all stages.

#7 Create connections and reinforce brand values. All communications should help establish stronger connections with consumers. Find out how each communication tool can do this. Remember: retaining an existing customer is just as important as winning a new one.

#8 Build a robust marketing information system that allows you to determine who needs what information, when, and when. A consumer database, for example, can be useful in telesales, direct marketing and sales activities. Integrated marketing communications can help identify, collect and disseminate vital information.

#9 Combine creative activities with other media. Determine how, for example, the promotional image could be used in direct mail campaigns, trade show displays, Christmas cards, news releases and websites.

#10 Be ready to change everything. Learn from experience. Constantly search for the optimal marketing program.

Thus, integrated marketing communications is systems approach in running a business, allowing you to make maximum use of all the business tools available today.

P.S. Want to know which business ideas make money? Watch this video!

In a dynamically developing market and growing competition, any company is interested in reaching the attention of potential buyers. And most effective method achieving such a goal is the combined use of methods and tools feedback with the consumer.

What are communications (IMC)

This term refers to the process of establishing a connection with the end consumer, which differs from the techniques used by large advertisers. In fact, IMC involves planning marketing communications, which is based on the need to evaluate their (communications) individual areas and strategic role.

In the IMC process, all means of influence, programs and messages are consolidated, combined and directed to potential or actual consumers of the company's services and products.

Why IMCs should be considered relevant

The concept of integrated marketing communications did not appear by chance. The idea of such measures to promote goods and services became popular already in the 90s. The reason why this system was considered practical lies in the fact that traditional ones could no longer provide the level of efficiency required for companies to successfully develop in a changing market.

Therefore, many enterprises have chosen the combined use various instruments marketing communications, the total impact of which turned out to be much more effective than the impact of each direction separately. In addition, IMCs allowed companies to combine budgets, optimize them and receive more tangible returns.

IMC concept

Obviously, this inevitably implies certain marketing communications. The integrated approach, in turn, leads to the solution of two problems that are related to each other.

The first task of the IMC is to create communication messages that will use various means QMS ( standard system communications) that do not contradict each other and are quite easily coordinated with each other. As a result, a single positive image of the communicator is formed.

As the second goal of IMC, it is worth determining to maximize the level of effectiveness of marketing communications by searching for the most suitable combinations of synthetic and fixed QMS tools.

The essence of the QMS

In the process of implementing integrated techniques, tools of a standard communication system are used. We are talking about a set of elements such as subjects, channels, means and forms of interaction, as well as direct and feedback connections used in the process of work of the marketing system with representatives of the external environment.

By using these tools, you can clearly and attractively convey the essence of your marketing message to the end consumer. It is also important to take into account the fact that the price of a product can also be used as an effective way to convey information about a product (expensive means high quality).

All these elements of integrated marketing communications, including the product itself, as well as its cost, make it possible to convey key information about the company’s offer to representatives of the target audience.

Using multiple types of presentation and feedback simultaneously is a beneficial strategy that is significantly more effective than using any one technique.

Key issues within the IMC strategy

The concept of integrated marketing communications involves obtaining answers to 3 key questions:

At what points in marketing channels is it possible to reach the buyer most effectively and increase the speed of reaction in favor of purchasing the company's products?
What combination of sales promotion and advertising is most effective in achieving communication goals?
How to correctly address and each type of advertising communication with general positioning trademark from the perspective of their combined interaction?

Answers to these questions allow you to draw up a competent plan for implementing IMC within the framework of specific tasks.

Elements of IMC

The integrated marketing communications system consists of several key elements:

Public relations (public relations).
Direct marketing. This includes Internet and TV marketing. Speaking about promotion through television, it is worth noting that it comes down to providing the viewer with the opportunity to place an order for a product while at home, after he sees a specific product in action and becomes familiar with its characteristics. In the Internet space, the same principle is used, only the promotion opportunities in this case are much higher.
Advertising. These are certain measures whose purpose is to effectively achieve a marketing goal.
Stimulating demand for a product through the introduction additional benefits and, as a result, increased benefits.
Business and trade and retail advertising. The process of interaction with competitors in retail always leads to rapid changes. This is explained by the fact that corporations often come to the market with a product that is dynamically promoted.

Complex of integrated marketing communications. Involves the use of international advertising. We are talking about an advertising campaign that goes beyond the country where the manufacturer is located. Moreover, for such a level of promotion, the product must be a leader within its niche.
Fairs and exhibitions. We are talking about events in which the manufacturing company is directly involved, presenting its products to the end consumer.
Enterprise plan. This refers to the general strategy for promoting a product using various marketing tools.

Performance of the BCI

The modern concept of integrated marketing communications involves the use of certain principles. One of them is efficiency.

The essence of this principle comes down to using both initially planned events and those circumstances that arise involuntarily to implement strategic communication processes. It is worth understanding that any correctly analyzed information has the potential to cause the formation of a BCI complex. Moreover, you can make an informational occasion from virtually any department internal flows company data.

The principle of openness

In this case we're talking about about the horizontal form of communication with enterprise partners. This allows you to make your business more sustainable, so it is important to have an open attitude towards the possibility of developing partnerships. A clear example implementation of this principle within the framework of the strategy of integrated marketing communications are joint companies to promote goods of such famous brands, like McDonald's and Coca-Cola. Nowadays you can often find promotions from manufacturers washing machines and powder, sweets and tea, wine and cheese. This approach, in addition to increasing the level of effectiveness of marketing measures, opens up opportunities for optimizing their budget.

Personalization as a principle of IMC

The result that the implementation of this principle brings forces many companies to use it consistently and actively. Personalization means the formation of a personal relationship with each client of the company. Of course, this approach will require a lot of expense and effort, since it will be necessary to develop both new technical equipment and special projects.

Moreover, the staff will also need specific skills. But in the end, the company will receive a high level of customer loyalty and, as a result, a significant increase in sales.

Synergy

This principle, by which integrated marketing communications are organized, can be defined as the main one, since it implies the competent interaction of all components of the IMC. The fact that combining promotion measures is much more effective than simply summing them up has been proven more than once by the experience of various companies.

One of successful examples The implementation of the principle of synergy can be called student teams of sellers in contact with potential consumers on the street. Such activities involve virtually all techniques, the use of which is implied by the concept of integrated marketing communications:

the demand for specific types products;
there is direct contact with representatives of the target audience;

by solving such social problem, as youth employment, the company gets the opportunity to establish government contacts, which opens up new prospects for business development;
the seller, dressed in branded clothing, is a source of constant advertising.

It is obvious that the principle of synergy makes it possible to use virtually all elements of the IMC, and with high level productivity.

Integrated marketing communications: structure on the Internet

The use of a combined method in the online sphere implies the presence of certain factors that play an important role in achieving the task.

Competitive environment. The advantage of analyzing competitors on the Internet comes down to quite simple ways tracking their activities and ratings. Moreover, due to the fact that all information on the network is presented in digital form, in statistics collection systems you can easily acquire the necessary data about the most popular resources of competing companies.

Speed of price formation. The manufacturer has the ability to set dynamic pricing for products within the network. This could be, for example, discounts on the purchase of goods when purchasing a certain number of units.
Feedback. We are talking about the possibility of feedback communication through the website and special forums.
Data update. Thanks to content management tools that are available on the Internet, the company has the opportunity to change both the form of communication and the information itself at any convenient time.
Management of integrated marketing communications within the network. Implies the use of the personalization factor. This technique is most relevant when working with banner advertising on websites, within the framework of which personalization of specific users is carried out. This approach is used by industry portals, websites and other resources.
Free communication. It's no secret that with the help of Internet resources you can quickly spread various rumors. This opportunity is often used by various companies to reduce the effectiveness of advertising campaigns of competing business structures.
Flexible PR opportunities aimed at representatives of the target audience. In this case, we are talking about the possibility of various formats for presenting materials designed to create brand loyalty and promote specific products. Specially prepared materials may be used for the selected audience.

conclusions

As a result, it can be noted that integrated marketing communications are the most effective and fastest strategy for promoting both a brand and a specific product on the market.

Tsarenko Elena Sergeevna, graduate student Faculty of Economics, Southern federal university, Russia

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