Mediocre marketers think in terms of campaigns. Great marketers think in terms of growth frameworks.
– Neil Patel, Marketer
Integrated Marketing Communications is a process for managing customer relationships that drive brand value – integrating all promotional tools so it is all relevant and consistent to the customers (Schultz 2008). Nowadays, marketing has become more complex and more customer focused unlike mass marketing that has a massive target that may not necessarily be interested in the company’s products.
Nowadays, Integrated DM strategies across multiple channels – shift towards omnichannel marketing. Omnichannel is an approach that provides an integrated & seamless experience to the customer. Through using omnichannel the company broadens target market and hence increasing their brand awareness.
Media Selection Factors
Here are the 7 Ways in Creating a Successful IMC Campaign – Clio
- Clear understanding of target audience
- Pick channels
- Consistent
- Clear content that is easily adaptable on different media channels (3Cs: Communications, compelling, consistent)
- Ensure messaging is integrated
- Marketing team/agencies are in sync
- Track campaigns
One successful example for an IMC campaign would be the Old Spice: Smell like a man.
Old Spice: Smell like a man
The writing of the script of the video is consistent to the Old Spice’s core values of being rugged and manly along with having witty remarks that shocks and captured the attention of the internet. The campaign was so successful they wrote a sequel to it
In this campaign, they incorporate IMC through asking consumers to submit questions via Twitter and Facebook to be answered personally by the Old Spice Guy. There were more than 2,000 questions within a 48-hour period and ~200 personalised video was created, setting new benchmarks for consumer engagement. This campaign is so successful that in the first 24 hours these videos were viewed more times on YouTube than President Obama’s 2008 election-night acceptance speech.
Why IMC?
It is target focused to the audience that the company wants to capture. Through that, IMC minimises cost for maximum brand awareness. IMC not only focuses on new customer but also maintain and build long-term relationship with the consumer.
digital diary 
You have explained the impact of IMC on the business strategy with relevant examples where many customers were participated and engaged on the campaign. On the other hand, would you mind to explain me about the media selection factors on how it relates to companies effort to create successful IMC campaign? Thank you for answering and explaining to me.
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For the media selection factors it depends on the company. You have to identify what type of the company and what products it is selling and their values. Afterwards, all the company needs to do is the 7 ways to have a successful campaign. Whatever they choose, they need to be clear, consistent, and compelling and hope lady luck is on their side because nowadays that X-Factor for campaigns to go viral can literally be anything!
Warmest Regards,
Sabrina
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This is such an in depth and detailed blog post. Fantastically written!! I certainly agree to a huge extent that following those steps will carry and bring great potential for anyone conducting a marketing strategy.
However, in this current ‘real world’, many marketing campaign still fails! In fact, countless of them and some does have really great marketing campaigns. Do you mind sharing with me what do you think might had gone wrong instead ???
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Thank you Aldon! I believe that certain campaigns may lack creativity, targeted to the wrong audience, lackluster in engagement, lacks follow up. There are many possibilities to why marketing campaigns can go wrong, sometimes it may lack luck too!
Maybe the problem is not the marketing but the product itself that is lackluster. Each campaign failures have specific reasons why they failed and they should compare themselves to successful ones and compare their failure to fill in the gap.
Warmest Regards,
Sabrina
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I totally agree when u say IMC helps maintain a long-term relationship with the consumer..
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Great information! I like how omnichannel marketing is slowly being adopted by companies. Was just wondering what could companies do to differentiate their marketing campaigns from others if everybody uses the same strategy.?
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There are many different types of marketing such as viral marketing and there is no exact way of choosing the right one. The key is to follow trends and see which one works and hope luck is on your side!
Warmest Regards,
Sabrina
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Would you say that IMC is needed for all companies, including startups?
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Yes! depending on their needs
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Thank you for reading!
It is especially important to startups to strategies their IMC as well as they could while considering the 3Cs to maximise their marketing!
Warmest Regards,
Sabrina
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IMC is a really good marketing strategy. It helps marketers to approach consumers not only practising 4ps but knowing the wants and needs. Aside from it, I learned much information from your blog
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Thank you for reading!
It is also important to understand your company, consumer and competition well to choose the best IMC to market your products!
Warmest Regards,
Sabrina
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Yes, I agree with you. IMC is very useful for the businesses. What do you think if some businesses lack of know-how and lack of commitment to IMC? What possibly could happen?
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They should learn more! Digital marketing is endless learning as the environment is highly dynamic and you have to follow trends too. If a company wants to outsource to a 3rd party they sure can, they can outsource to companies like webpuppies to generate presence in digital marketing and for them to strategies them.
Warmest Regards,
Sabrina
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