Integrated Marketing Communications: Strategies and Tools
Communication in Marketing
The transmission of messages to influence attitudes and behavior. The sender (the company, the organization, the brand) sends messages to reach the receivers (usually consumers, other organizations, etc.) with different purposes: Inform, change the behavior and build stable relationships.
Promotion Mix
The specific blend of promotion tools that the company uses to persuasively communicate customer value and build customer relationships. Integrated marketing communications (IMC) involves carefully integrating and coordinating the company’s many communications channels.
POEM Model
A broadcasting model that groups the different channels a company can use to carry out a communication campaign, combining the mix of online and offline communication.
Owned Media
Owned media are the communication channels/platforms that the company/brand owns and controls directly. They do not entail a payment for the broadcasting of messages, as they are managed by the company and can be used at any time. They only have a maintenance cost, content creation or generation, work time, etc.
- Corporate website
- Microsite
- Company blogs
- Official Social Media accounts
- Digital catalogs
- App
- Electronic loyalty card
Direct Marketing
- Advertising emails
- Mobile advertising messages
- Letters with commercial content (mailings)
Public Relations
A strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.
- Facility visit programs for groups or open house days
- Contests and prizes not linked to purchasing
- Congratulations and small gifts on special dates for being customers
- Organization of events within the company for groups of people with shared interests
Personal Selling
People who perform tasks associated with sales, customer acquisition, and retention. Customer service centers. Virtual chatbots.
Own Point of Sale
LED screens with advertising projections. Displays. Audio communication. Signage.
Promotion
Consists of short-term incentives to encourage the purchase of a product or service. It is designed to get an immediate response and improve sales figures.
Sales Promotion
Sometimes they are owned, and other times paid. They are considered owned actions when they do not require payment to third-party channels, but they could be considered actions in paid media if they require payment to retailers or wholesalers or to communication platforms (newspapers or magazines) for their execution.
Paid Media
These are third-party channels that the company pays to communicate a specific message. It encompasses all those instruments that involve a cost, within both online and offline environments, whether it be using an advertising medium (television, internet), or hiring agents for the use of communication instruments (direct marketing, sales promotion, sponsorship).
Advertising
Conventional mass media – Internet – Social networks – POS
Some PR actions: Sponsorship – Events organized outside the company
SOME PROMOTIONS that require the participation of channels external to the company
Conventional mass media
Television, film, cinema or movie theater: Ads, product placement (active and passive), telepromotion, sponsorship (active and passive), infomercial…
Radio: Ads, sponsorship (active and passive)… Newspapers and magazines: Advertisement, advertorial, inserts…
Outdoor: Billboard, street furniture. Guerrilla marketing…
Earned Media
Earned media which are external to the brand that have been incorporated into communication through the actions of clients or followers on social networks. They do not involve actual payment and are not owned by the brand. (Internet and unpaid public relations)
On the internet: User reviews/Unpaid influencer posts/eWOM/A company’s multimedia material displayed on users’ accounts (videos, photos, etc.)/Links shared by users to the brand’s content/ Actions on social networks: likes, retweets, shares, etc. / Shared hashtags
Unpaid PR Press releases, press conference, press kit–DPublicity
Factors Marketing Mix
Advertising: Mass, fees paid for space or time, Strengths: Efficient means for reaching a lot of people. Weakness: High absolute costs and difficult to receive good feedback
Personal Selling: Customized, fees paid to salespeople as either salaries or commissions, Strengths: Very persuasive and immediate feedback, Weakness: Extremely expensive per exposure
Public Relations: Mass, no direct payment to media, Strengths: Often the most credible source in the consumer’s mind, Weakness: Difficult to get media cooperation
Sales Promotion: Mass, wide range of fees paid, depending on promotion selected, Strengths: Effective at changing behavior in SR and very flexible, Weakness: Easily duplicated and abusive
Direct Marketing: Customized, cost of communication through mail, telephone or computer, Strengths: Messages can be prepared quickly, Weakness: Declining customer response