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Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC)
Updated: May 10, 2009
Definition: The American Marketing Association suggests that integrated marketing
communications (IMC) is "a planning process designed to assure that all brand contacts
received by a customer or prospect for a product, service, or organization are relevant
to that person and consistent over time."
Marketing Power Dictiona Integrated marketing communication can be defined as a holistic approach to
promote buying and selling in the digital economy. This concept includes many online and offline marketing
channels. Online marketing channels include any e-marketing campaigns or programs, from
search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click, affiliate, email, banner to latest web related
channels for webinar, blog, RSS, podcast, and Internet TV. Offline marketing channels are
traditional print (newspaper, magazine), mail order, public relation, billboard, radio, and television.
On This Page
A management concept that is designed to make all aspects of marketing communication such as
advertising, sales promotion, public relations, and direct marketing work together as a unified
force, rather than permitting each to work in isolation. IMC is a cross-functional approach to
communications concerned with developing relationships with customers and other stakeholders.
In addition to strategic segmentation and market segmentation, IMC involves the use of demographic
and psychographic profiles of stakeholders.
Integrated marketing communication is defined as a holistic approach to promote buying and selling
in the digital economy. This concept includes many online and offline marketing channels. Online
marketing channels include any e-marketing campaigns or programs, from
internet marketing such as
search engine optimization (SEO),
pay-per-click,
affiliate, email, banner to latest web related
channels for webinar, blog, RSS, podcast, and Internet TV. Offline marketing channels are
traditional print (newspaper, magazine), mail order, public relation, billboard, radio, and
television.
A successful integrated marketing communication plan will customize what is needed for the client
based on time, budget and resources to reach target or goals.
Importance of IMC
There have been many shifts in the advertising and media industry that have caused IMC to develop into a primary strategy for most advertisers
7 main shifts
 From media advertising to multiple forms of communication (including promotions, product placements, mailers...)
From mass media to more specialized media, which are centered around specific target audiences.
From a manufacturer-dominated market to a retailer-dominated market. The market control has transfered into the consumer's hands.
From general-focus advertising and marketing to data-based marketing.
From low agency accountability to greater agency accountability. Agencies now play a larger role in advertising than ever before.
From traditional compensation to performance-based compensation. This encourages people to do better because they are rewarded for the increase in sales or benefits they cause to the company.
From limited Internet access to widespread Internet availability. This means that people can not only have access to what they want 24/7 but that advertisers can also target different people 24 hours a day.
Formula for Selecting Most Effective Marketing Elements
The goal of researching the elements of proposed integrated marketing communications is to create a campaign
that is effective across media platforms. Some marketers may want only ads with the greatest breadth of
appeal: the executions that, when combined, provide the greatest number of attention-getting, branded, and
motivational moments. Others may only want ads with the greatest depth of appeal: the ads with the greatest
number of attention-getting, branding, and motivational points within each.
But, just as media buyers multiply reach by frequency to get a measure of the net effectiveness of a media
buy, a calculation can be used in IMC research to determine, when comparing campaigns, which combination
would be most effective. By multiplying breadth of appeal times the depth of appeal, the more impact-full
campaign is identified. Integrated Testing for Integrated Marketing PDF Campaign 2, in Image 2, is the
clear winner using this simple calculation.(See exhibit 3 of the above Integrated Marketing PDF.)
Although integrated marketing communications is more than just the ad campaign, the bulk of marketing dollars
is spent on the creation and distribution of the advertisements. Hence, the bulk of the research budget is
also spent on these elements of the campaign. Once the key marketing pieces have been tested, the researched
elements can then be applied to other contact points: letterhead, packaging, trucks, customer service
representative training, and more, to complete the IMC cycle.
Some other creative marketing communication methods include: social marketing and green marketing may enhance
or facilitate the marketing process of building relationship among stakeholders (customers, employees,
suppliers, partners, communities, shareholders).
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