Exploring Integrated Marketing Communication in Modern Marketing

This essay explores the concept of Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) and its significance in contemporary marketing. It highlights the shift from traditional marketing techniques to digital media-driven strategies, emphasizing the importance of two-way communication and user-generated content. The essay discusses how IMC enables personalized advertising, enhances customer satisfaction, and fosters brand loyalty. It also addresses the relevance of big data in identifying target audiences and tailoring marketing campaigns. Furthermore, the essay examines the goals of IMC, including generating product interest, creating brand awareness, fostering customer desire, and promoting sales-related activities. It concludes that IMC is crucial for businesses to understand the market, customer needs, and competitive landscape, ultimately leading to improved marketing strategies and brand image.

Running head: INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
Integrated Marketing Communication
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
The term integrated marketing communication refers to the using of marketing
techniques or strategies in the business process in order to optimize the communication
process and through this techniques the uninterrupted communication among the company
management and stakeholders are maintained. In the place of traditional old marketing
techniques, the new integrated marketing communication (IMC) is associated with the use of
digital media and web and in this technique the communication is two way that is user
generated content is also used by the company management in their social media and along
with this the consumer can generate immersive experience in the mobile apps and websites of
the company (Blakeman, 2018). This will also help the company to create personalized
advertisement during their use of websites. As a result, company can evaluate the exact
customer needs and it will also enhance the customer satisfaction towards the product of their
company. In this essay, the importance of the Integrated Marketing Communication, goal of
this marketing plan and the role of Integrated Marketing Communication in the over
marketing plan are described in a brief manner.
The IMC has become very relevant in today’s fast forward marketing environment.
Along with this this IMC approach allows the company to deliver a planned and relevant
message about their product to the consumer of the product. Therefore, in order to maintain a
perfect coordination in between the consumer and the company, all the staffs of the company
from HR to finance department, should follow the IMC approach instead of working in an
individual manner. A collaborative approach of the staffs will deliver a strong message to the
target audience of the company and that will help in increasing the loyalty of the customers
(Armstrong et al., 2015). In today’s market, the behaviour of the consumers have segmented.
For example, it can be said that now, there is different channels for the children of 5-10 years,
different magazines are published for the young generations. The companies can use those
medium for advertising and endorsing their product and this will be more effective than the

2INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
traditional technique. The importance of using big data in the marketing strategy has become
must in the analysis of market and target audience identification. The marketing departments
are nowadays using data of sales department (Andrews & Shimp, 2017). This data
aggregation allow the management to design a very specific designed campaign program for
their identified target audience. The effectiveness of a particular promotional strategy will be
identified from the sales data of the company and this will allow the company to emphasize
on that strategy on a very specific manner. In this modern era, it has become very easy for the
new business start-ups to market their product through the social media platform and
nowadays, most of the people are using the social media platform. This ultimately enhances
the competitiveness in the market. So it is important to acquire the existing customers along
with the new customers. In order to acquire the existing customers through enhancing
customer satisfaction, it is very crucial to maintain the value of the customers. To maintain
the same value of those existing customers, the approach of IMC is very effective in modern
business market. In previous marketing approach, the marketers can use print media or radio
or newspaper to communicate with the consumers. Therefore, in recent times the use of social
media marketing has completely change the scenario and online platform has become very
popular. Any description of the new products delivered through the social media will cause
more customers to buy the new products and it is the part of the IMC. The IMC will allow the
company to be affiliated with a particular lifestyle of the consumer and that will help the
company to make their customer segment very loyal to them. This will allow the company to
serve their customers for a long time due to their strong brand image (Campbell, Ferraro &
Sands, 2014). So, it can be said that, in this modern era of marketing, IMC is very important
to run the business properly.
The main function of the IMC in the marketing is to identify the target audience,
market segments, analysis of threats and opportunities in the market, analysis of the

3INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
competitors and analysing the positioning of the company in the market of the current
industry. The role of IMC in the process of marketing starts from the analysis of the
opportunity of the company’s product. The application of IMC in the marketing plan will
allow the company to carefully analyse market’s opportunities in the current condition of the
market. The market opportunity is the very specific area in which a company cam focus in
order to improve their product and existing plan (Rowley, 2016). A perfect opportunity
analysis will help the company to identify the needs of their customer in a more specific
manner and this will ultimately result in better service delivery by the company. A company
analyse its market by carefully examining the market place and competitions in the market.
The use of this modern IMC in the marketing plan will allow the company identify their
competitions in the market place. The identification of the competitors in the market is very
crucial as it is associated with the success of the particular company in a very specific market
place (Ingram et al., 2015). The competitive analysis of the existing competitions in the
existing market by using the modern IMC, will allow the manager of the company to fix the
improvised marketing strategy and plan for their new products. For example it can be said
that, the sales of a particular beverages product has been reduced and as a result, that
particular company has launched other product in the market to compete with the other
competitors of the market. The use of social media marketing and use of big data as a part of
the IMC, will give a competitive advantage to the company and a strong brand image is
maintained through the continuous advertisement as a part of IMC plan. The use of IMC also
allow to identify the market segment and as a result the company will focus on the particular
segment of the market. The identification of target market and particular market segmentation
will help the management to set the goals and objectives of the company. The identification
of the market segmentation and target customers will help the company to find consumer’s

4INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
needs, using the marketing action plan to achieve the marketing goals ( Wirtz & Lovelock,
2016).
The concept of IMC process has a specific goals in the process of overall marketing.
The primary goals of the IMC in the business marketing process are generating product
interests among the consumers, creating the awareness among consumers, increasing the
desire among the customers about that product and ultimately promoting activities that are
related to the sales. One of the primary goals of the IMC is to build awareness and attention
for the brand along with the development of strong customer relationships through a
consistent brand voice ( Keller, 2016). The IMC will help the consumer to identify the
products across the media. Along with this, the IMC process will keep the product in front of
the customers and continuously give reminders about the brand of that product. For example
it can be said that, whenever a customer will see any posts of that product, he or she will
definitely identify the particular company and due to this attention and awareness the
opportunity of sales may increase. The goal of IMC is to create interests about the products
by giving the information that can distinguish the particular brand’s product from the other
same products and ultimately this this will enhance the demand of that product. The next goal
of IMC is to generate a desire among the customers so that they will purchase the product. In
this case, IMC helps in the process of liking of a particular product. The IMC generally
makes a bridge of emotional connection by which the customers can know about the value of
that particular products. As a result, a long lasting relationship will be developed with the
customers and this will result in a long term sales due to trusts towards the company.
Therefore, another important goal of the IMC after creating a trustworthy relationships with
the customers and creating interests on the product. The use of IMC in the in the marketing
process will prompt the customer to take action of purchasing the product ( Young, 2014)

5INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
The IMC will try to give the customers purchase security and it will cause repeat purchase of
that particular product by giving mutual benefits to the customers and to the company
Hence it can be concluded that the use of IMC in the modern marketing process is
very crucial as it allow the company to get an overall scenario of the market, customers,
existing competitions in the market, customers’ specific needs and this will ultimately allow
the company to build its strategy and improvised marketing plan for the products of that
company.

6INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
References
Andrews, J. C., & Shimp, T. A. (2017). Advertising, promotion, and other aspects of
integrated marketing communications. Nelson Education.
Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Buchwitz, L. A., Trifts, V., & Gaudet, D. (2015). Marketing: an
introduction.
Blakeman, R. (2018). Integrated marketing communication: creative strategy from idea to
implementation. Rowman & Littlefield.
Campbell, C., Ferraro, C., & Sands, S. (2014). Segmenting consumer reactions to social
network marketing. European Journal of Marketing, 48(3/4), 432-452.
Ingram, T. N., LaForge, R. W., Williams, M. R., & Schwepker Jr, C. H. (2015). Sales
management: Analysis and decision making. Routledge.
Keller, K. L. (2016). Unlocking the power of integrated marketing communications: How
integrated is your IMC program?. Journal of Advertising, 45(3), 286-301.
Rowley, J. (2016). Information marketing. Routledge.
Wirtz, J., & Lovelock, C. (2016). Services marketing. World Scientific Publishing Company.
Young, A. (2014). Brand media strategy: Integrated communications planning in the digital
era. Springer.