The advancement and widespread adoption of technology has had the effect of connecting people more deeply and fluidly than ever before. This has also opened up several opportunities and avenues for companies to connect with their audience and customers.
Companies can now come up with creative marketing campaigns across several media with the aid of technology because consumers have increased access to these media channels due to technological advancements. Wherever people go now, they’re constantly texting, tweeting, and catching up on social media. This has made it vital for brands that want to improve engagement and sales to be active on the platforms consumers are on.
That is where Integrated Marketing comes in; Integrated marketing emphasizes that marketing and branding campaigns must be integrated, consistent, collective, and strategic. It is the deployment of marketing techniques that enable consistent communication of a company’s products to customers. With Integrated marketing, an all-encompassing approach is taken by a company to communicate with customers and stakeholders across multiple media channels.
Consistency In communication is vital to the success of marketing efforts no matter the media channel used for communication. It allows clear communication between a brand and its audience and allows the optimization of marketing costs as the channels that are most effective become revealed and so the brand can focus on those and expend less on the media channels that are not driving up brand exposure and engagement.
The emphasis of Integrated Marketing is the creation of smooth and concise branding for a company’s customers across the marketing mix on the channels they’re most active in. It goes in line with the shift of focus of companies from mass promotion to more specific and direct advertising to customers. With Integrated marketing, a brand deploys efficient yet effective promotion and communication to add value to customers.
Integrated Marketing Tools and Techniques
Integrated Marketing is a break away from the traditional marketing techniques of old. Newer tools and channels are used for the Integrated Marketing process. Some of these tools are SEO, television, websites and blogs, billboards, and more.
The major difference between Integrated marketing tools and traditional mass advertising and communications is that Integrated marketing tools allow back-and-forth communication with customers rather than one-way communication through radio, television, and other channels. There was little room for personalization of marketing communication with the traditional techniques.
With Integrated Marketing, brands can now consider things like the taste, values, and needs of individual customers. This is because IMC offers ways of measuring and analyzing campaign results. The purchase patterns of customers can be measured better with integrated marketing and so advertising efforts are made to align with them.
Emotions play a crucial role in the efficacy of Integrated Marketing efforts. The aim is to tell a consistent brand story across media channels to evoke emotions in the minds of customers. Connecting with the audience is the first step in achieving this. Next is adapting the brand’s message for each media channel while ensuring the story of the brand remains consistent throughout.
