What Is Integrated Communications And How Can It Help Your Business?
The idea of Integrated Communications is straightforward. It ensures that all types of communications and messages are meticulously linked.
At the most basic level, Integrated Marketing Communications, or IMC as we'll refer to it, is the process of combining all promotional instruments so that they work in unison.
One of the Ps in the marketing mix is promotion. Promotions have their own set of tools for communication. Instead of working in isolation, all of these communication tools operate better when they work together. Their whole is larger than the sum of their parts - as long as they speak with one voice all of the time, every time.
Horizontal integration takes place across the marketing mix and between business functions; for example, production, finance, distribution, and communications should collaborate and be aware that their decisions and actions communicate messages to customers.
Through Data Integration, multiple departments such as sales, direct mail, and advertising can assist one another. This necessitates the implementation of a marketing information system that collects and shares pertinent data across departments.
COPYRIGHT_MARX: Published on https://marxcommunications.com/integrated-communications/ by Keith Peterson on 2022-05-21T09:42:28.636Z
Communications Theory
A sender sends a message to a receiver who receives and understands it, according to simple communication models. Many communications are misconstrued, fail to arrive, or are simply ignored in real life.
To ensure the correctness and relevancy of any message, a complete grasp of the audience's requirements, emotions, interests, and activities are required.
Many communications are crafted or 'encoded' such that the hard sell becomes a more subtle soft sell instead of blaring 'purchase now' advertisements. The sender generates or encodes the message in a way that the receiver can easily understand or decode.
Encoding is also useful for helping a message cut through the 'noise' of competing adverts and distractions. If the message is successful, the audience will notice it and correctly decode or comprehend it. Following that, the marketer searches for 'feedback,' such as coupons returned from mailshots.
The single-step approach, in which a receiver receives a message immediately from a sender, is insufficient. Many messages are received inadvertently through a friend or an influential figure.
In reality, communication is complex, multi-step, and multi-directional. Opinion leaders converse with one another. Customers converse with opinion leaders, and opinion leaders converse with one another. When you add in 'encode, decode, noise, and feedback,' the process becomes much more complicated.
Understanding multiphase communications enable marketers to communicate both directly and indirectly through opinion leaders, opinion formers, style leaders, innovators, and other significant people.
Encoding is also useful for helping a message cut through the 'noise' of competing adverts and distractions. If the message is successful, the audience will notice it and correctly decode or comprehend it. Following that, the marketer searches for 'feedback,' such as coupons returned from mailshots.
Benefits Of Integrated Marketing Communication
IMC encircles clients in communications and guides them through the many stages of the purchasing process. At the same time, the organization solidifies its image, builds a dialogue, and nourishes its client relationship.
This 'Relationship Marketing' helps clients form a bond of loyalty that can safeguard them from the inevitable onslaught of competitors. A competitive advantage is a capacity to keep a customer for life. IMC also enhances earnings by improving efficiency.
A coherent message, at its most fundamental level, has more impact than a disorganized slew of messages. In today's hectic environment, a message that is consistent, condensed, and crystal clear has a higher chance of cutting through the 'noise' of over 500 commercial messages that assault clients every day.
IMC saves money by avoiding duplication in areas like graphics and photography, which may be shared and utilized in advertising, exhibitions, and sales copy, for example.
Using a single agency for all communications reduces agency fees, and even if there are numerous agencies, meetings that bring all of them together - for briefings, creative sessions, and tactical or strategic planning - save time. One of the many advantages of IMC is that it reduces workload and, as a result, stress levels.
Barriers To Integrated Marketing Communications
IMC has the potential to stifle creativity. There will be no more outrageous sales campaigns unless they are part of a larger marketing communications strategy. When working within a narrower, integrated creative brief, the delight of unbridled creativity may be suppressed, but the creative challenge may be higher and ultimately more fulfilling.
When several temporal scales are included in a creative brief, Time Horizons become yet another barrier to IMC. Image advertising, for example, which is meant to nurture a brand over time, may clash with shorter-term advertising or sales campaigns meant to raise quarterly sales. However, if correctly designed, the two objectives can be accommodated within an overall IMC.
People Also Ask
What Is Integrated Communication Strategy?
IMC, or integrated marketing communications, is a strategy that unifies a company's marketing department's various strategies and functions into a single, interconnected approach. Direct mail, public relations, social media, and digital are all part of these initiatives.
What Is An Example Of Integrated Marketing Communications?
IMC, or integrated marketing communications, is a strategy that unifies a company's marketing department's various strategies and functions into a single, interconnected approach. Direct mail, public relations, social media, and digital are all part of these initiatives.
What Is An Integrated Communications Company?
Integrated Communications Corp. is a public relations firm. Advertisements are prepared by the Company and placed in journals, newspapers, radio and television stations, and other media sources. Integrated Communications works with clients all over the world.
Final Statement
Although Integrated Marketing Communications necessitate a significant amount of effort, it reaps numerous rewards. Integrated Communications may provide you with a competitive edge, increase sales and profits, and save you money, time, and stress.
About The Authors
Keith Peterson - I'm an expert IT marketing professional with over 10 years of experience in various Digital Marketing channels such as SEO (search engine optimization), SEM (search engine marketing), SMO (social media optimization), ORM (online reputation management), PPC (Google Adwords, Bing Adwords), Lead Generation, Adwords campaign management, Blogging (Corporate and Personal), and so on. Web development and design are unquestionably another of my passions. In fast-paced, high-pressure environments, I excel as an SEO Executive, SEO Analyst, SR SEO Analyst, team leader, and digital marketing strategist, efficiently managing multiple projects, prioritizing and meeting tight deadlines, analyzing and solving problems.
