Analysis of Integrated Marketing Operations in Digital Media

This report provides a comprehensive overview of integrated marketing operations in the context of digital media. It examines the impact of digital and social media on consumer behavior, highlighting key themes such as advertising effectiveness, consumer digital culture, and the rise of mobile devices in online shopping. The report delves into marketing communication, discussing its evolution with technology, the importance of branding, and the various modes of communication. Furthermore, it explores consumer behavior, analyzing how individuals make purchasing decisions, particularly in the online environment, and the factors influencing these behaviors. Finally, the report addresses ethics in advertising, emphasizing the importance of ethical practices for building consumer trust and maintaining long-term relationships. The report draws on various academic sources to support its analysis, providing a well-rounded perspective on the subject matter.

Running Head: INTERGRATED MARKETING OPERATIONS 1
Integrated Marketing Operations
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INTERGRATED MARKETING OPERATIONS 2
Digital Media
Use of social media, internet, mobile devises and other forms of digital communication has
highly increased. The most affected are the young generation, who spend part or whole of their
time online either through use of phone or by use of internet in computers.
People engage in digital and social media for many reasons like consumers are able to get
information about certain products being sold and their prices and others buy them and share
their experiences elsewhere either through social media. Digital marketing has greatly increased
as marketers have opted for this platform to market their products (Ryan & Jones, 2012). There
are certain themes that emerge through consumer research on digital and social media and they
include;
Advertising is a major form of marketing and it shows how consumers behave and respond to
various digital advertisements. Consumers react differently on this forums and personal websites
advertisements are highly preferred when dealing with personal information (Jemann & Burbary,
2013).
Consumer digital culture is the digital environments where consumers are found. It involves
ways in which consumer introduces themselves and their concepts into digital environment.
Blogging has created a high effect and build high audience as consumers flood the forum to
check on available products.
Use of mobile device by consumers especially in online shopping is so important. In In-store
shopping, consumers are highly attracted to mobile offers in store and they are forced to do
impulse buying.

INTERGRATED MARKETING OPERATIONS 3
Online word of mouth and reviews can be online or offline. Consumers at times find good to do
offline word of mouth than online because of its high perceived risk.
Reference:
Ryan, D., & Jones, C. (2012). Understanding digital marketing: Marketing strategies for
engaging the digital generation. Philadelphia, PA: Kogan Page.
Jeman C., & Burbary, K. (2013). Digital marketing analytics: Making sense of in a digital word.
Indianapolis, Indiana: QUE.
Communication
Communication in marketing involves use of messages and other related mediate to convey
information with a market. It is also known as promotion which is part of marketing mix and it
helps a company reach its target audience through different forms of communication (Egan,
2007).
Technology and use of internet has made a great change in which interaction and communication
is done world-wide. Branding has also become the major strategy for most companies; this is
because building a strong brand helps in increasing the effectiveness of marketing
communication and by so doing, consumers will be more willing to attend forums on
communications of a brand.
Marketing communication is seen as the ‘voice’ of the company and its brands and it is a way in
which a relationship can be build with the company and even among consumers. It comprises of
eight modes of communication, four being mass media modes and the others personal modes and
they include; advertising, promotion, events and past experiences, public relation and publicity,
direct marketing, interactive marketing, word-of mouth marketing and personal selling.

INTERGRATED MARKETING OPERATIONS 4
Marketing communication shows consumers about certain products, its use, who sells, where and
when it is sold and through this consumers get to know about a product and the company
manufacturing it. Communication allows the company to link its products/brands to different
markets.
Despite good communication roles, there is tough environment of communication because of
change of media environment due to introduction of technology which has eroded mass media
use and I this new media environment, the consumer is the in control.
Reference:
Egan, J. (2007). Marketing communications. London: Thomson.
Koekemoer, L., & Bird, S. (2004). Marketing communications. Lansdowne, South Africa: Juta
Academic.
Smit, L. (2007). Marketing communication. Cape Town: Pearson Education South Africa.
Consumer behavior
This is best described as the study of how people make decisions about the products and services
to purchase depending on their needs (Noel, 2009).
Online shopping has greatly increased as well as its sales growth; this is because of entry of new
brands in the market innovated using the web technology hence increase in consumer
experiences. Because of this, online marketers have looked into the consumer behavior in this
environment and builded trust on the consumers hence improves the number of purchases done
online. This trust comes by because of the consumer’s experience which has also aided in
improving awareness of the products, hence full satisfaction.

INTERGRATED MARKETING OPERATIONS 5
Experience has helped customers have high knowledge of various areas including decision
making and the use of products (Wright, 2006). Consumer behavior has helped in different ways
which include making marketing campaigns better, This is achieved by understanding what
products the consumers are more interested and ensuring that they are available as required,
ensuring that the initial customers are maintained because they help in spreading the experiences
to other new and potential customers.
There are factors that affect consumer behavior in marketing and they include; psychological
factors whereby each an individual responds differently to marketing message depending on their
point of view and attitudes, thus this should be considered to ensure marketing is appealing.
The other factor is about personality, people have different characteristics on how they handle
things and this depends on age, gender, culture and background. Marketing should therefore
know the target audience so as to get good reception.
Reference:
East, R., Wright, M., & Vanhuele, M. (2008). Consumer behavior: Applications in marketing.
Wright, R. (2006). Consumer behavior. London: Thompson Learning.
Noel, H. (2009). Consumer behavior. Lausanne, Switzerland: AVA Academia.

INTERGRATED MARKETING OPERATIONS 6
Ethics and advertising
Ethics are moral principles and values that govern decisions of a person or group. In advertising
therefore it describes defined guidelines that guide ways of communication that takes place
between a seller and buyer.
Ethical describes rightful thing, therefore when advertising a product, it should be the right one,
with the correct components, and with the correct price which doesn’t exploit consumers and by
so doing you increase the market (Blocher, 2008).
Ethics in advertising is related to purpose and nature of advertising, a product advertised in an
way to prove the benefit and by so doing you attract customers (Murphy, 2005), a company can
advertise a product in a exaggerative manner for the purpose of informing about quality hence
attract market.
Ethics depends on what people believe; this happens when customers are made to believe a
certain product and are finally linked buy it, for example lottery games.
Therefore for a company who wishes to improve on their brands and maintain relationships with
the customers, they should practice ethical marketing so that customers will not feel cheated and
therefore get attracted to buy the products knowing that the company produces good quality
products.
A company should practice ethical marketing when they are advertising their products because it
is economical and effective, and for it to increase profits the company should revise their existing
markets.

INTERGRATED MARKETING OPERATIONS 7
Ethical marketing should be done in a right procedure by analyzing the company well, looking at
the existing and the potential customers, and the market where it does its operations. By so
doing, whatever result from the analysis will determine the kind of advertising to perform in an
ethical so as to improve performance and hence profit making.
Reference:
Blocher, H. (2008). Advertising Ethics - An Oxymoron?. Munich: GRIN Verlag GmbH.
Carrigan, M., Marinova, S. T., & Szmigin, I. (2005). Ethics and international marketing:
Research background and challenges. Bradford, England: Emerald Group Pub.
Murphy, P. E. (2005). Ethical marketing. Upper Saddle River, NJ [u.a.: Prentice-Hall.