Integrated Marketing Communications

The promotionPromotion is the business of communicating with customers. It will provide information that will assist them in making a decision to purchase a product or service. The pace and creativity of some promotional activities are almost alien to normal business activities.The cost associated with promotion or advertising goods and services often represents a size-able proportion of the overall cost of producing an item. However, successful promotion increases sales so that advertising and other costs are spread over a larger output. Though increased promotional activity is often a sign of a response to a problem such as competitive activity, it enables an organization to develop and build up a succession of messages and can be extremely cost-effective.

As defined by the American Association of Advertising Agencies, integrated marketing communications " ... recognizes the value of a comprehensive plan that evaluates the strategic roles of a variety of communication disciplines advertising, public relations, personal selling, and sales promotion and combines them to provide clarity, consistency, and maximum communication impact." Integrated marketing communication (IMC) is a combination of five elements, such as, direct marketing, public relations, advertising, personal selling’s, and sales promotion, by which the company can communicate a positive and influencing image/message about a product/service that is present in the market place plus provides how it brings value to the

The products that people buy are promoted to bring in new consumers. Promotion requires an organization to have a lot of time. Also a promotion should be clear and t o the point.

A Promotion mix is to gain awareness of target segment on the existence of a product or services and the benefits it confers to customers. The tools of promotion in a company are advertising, personal selling, public relations, marketing and online promotion. For the Apple Company to realize this strategy it has to train their staff to a high level of promotion. Personal selling is a form of promotion relevant to the Apple computers company and to the retailers authorized. The staff gets training on the knowledge of the product with a great focus on the sales of Apple computers. The people doing sales are in the best position to provide an immediate effect on the promotion of Apple computers (Nijs et al, 2001).. The Apple Company uses a range of media advertising to promote the Apple computers. The internet, prints and alternative media like billboards are among the channels for the advertisement of the computers. Advertisement is a very important tool for the company to gain new clients and sales.

Initial discussions on IMC were based on definitions and theoretical understanding, and this discussion is still taking place. IMC or Integrated Marketing Communications according to Schultz (1993) combine and evaluate strategic role of diverse communications to produce a greater impact. It is a process that produces and applies different communication programs starting with the customer and work back to outline right approaches and procedures to progress throughout these influential programs. Another source sees it as a business process that aims to plan, implement and assess influential marketing communications over time. There isn’t a clear definition for it, each source rely on a different definition however according to all found IMC is identified as a strategic process. It’s composed of three main basics: consumer, channels and evaluation of performances. Consumer gives an idea of how an exchange of information affects message’s form and content. Communication channels analyze each channel in apart to

At its heart, promoting a product is simply communication. “Consumer perceptions are a key component of success or failure, so organizations must strive to align communications into clear, concise, and customer-oriented messages”(Lumen, n.d). The point of promotion is to convince consumers to purchase the intended product. There are several promotion methods to choose from and nearly limitless media to use for promotion. Marketing departments must choose the method or methods and media that best reach the target consumer. In order to further illustrate the use of promotion methods and media, promotion strategies have been developed for a software company, a new toy, a health beverage, and a small airline.

Promotion is the way in the business makes its products known to the customers, both current and potential. Promotion involves spread information about a product, product line, brand, or company. It is one of the four key aspects of the marketing mix. To generate the sales and profits, the benefits of products have to be communicated to customers. Promotion is the major component of market mix. The purpose of promotion is to reach the desired targeted consumers it try to make them act positively

However, with the introduction of new technologies and advances in information technology communication has been completely revolutionised and same has impacted in organisations in there IMC strategies. “For IMC to really take hold, old assumptions must exit, assumptions about the role of advertising and sales promotion, about the organisation of advertising and public relations departments, about agencies and what they do, about the media, and most of all accountability” (Schultz et al. 1994).

The main objective of the advertisement is to create a favorable climate for maintaining of improving sales. Customers are to be reminded about the product and the brand. It may induce new customers to buy the product by informing them its qualities since it is possible that some of the customers may change their brands.

Promotion is the aspect of marketing that involves delivery of company, brand or product messages to target customers. Several tools are used by companies to aid the delivery of both paid and unpaid promotional methods (Kokemuller, n.d.). Promotion needs to be precisely coordinated and integrated into the businesses global communications message, and this is called Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC).

These are some of those promotional strategies that can be used in addition to advertising they include the following; Personal selling, sales promotion, and public relations. Personal selling, this message can be tailored for each customer, it produces immediate buyer response, effectiveness is easily measured. Public relations, it enhances a product or firm credibility, creates a positive attitude about the product or company. (Boone & Kurtz, 2011),

Persuading the customer: - Customers are able to buy the product with the help of advertisement or also know about company services.

For this reason, they have started advertising to allure the potential customer about this product before launching through electronic media, poster, billboard and so on. One of advantage of this kind of advertising is that this will motivate the customers to purchase this product. Another benefit is that the customer who is in the purchase decision they will stop purchasing until the new product is being launch.

There are certain factors that come to play when it comes to setting up a promotion strategy. Bennett carefully explains these factors:

Promotion is an aspect of the marketing mix that has great importance. In order for our product to be successful, the promotion we use will be very vital. This is because of the fact that the method of promotion we use for the product can help to differentiate our product from other products which makes it unique and outstanding amongst other brands. Moreover, using the right promotion can be used as a way to persuade consumers of our product that they made the right choice.