Trigger 2. Integrated Marketing Communications

1.       Why did many companies start using IMC?

IMC = a new way of looking at the whole, where once we saw only parts such as advertising, public relations, sales promotion, purchasing, employee communication, and so forth, to look at it the way the consumer sees it – as a flow of information from indistinguishable sources.

IMC = a concept of marketing communication planning that recognizes the added value of a comprehensive plan that evaluates the strategic roles of a variety of communication disciplines, e.g. general advertising, direct response, sales promotion and public relations – and combines these disciplines to provide clarity, consistency and maximum communication impact.

Traditional communications strategies are based on mass media delivering generalized transaction-oriented messages. Integrated communications are much more personalized, customer-oriented, relationship-based and interactive. They are aimed not only at changing awareness and attitudes, but also at directly influencing behavior

Table 1. Classic and integrated communications

Brighter mornings for brighter days

To reinforce its claim ‘We bring brighter mornings’, Tropicana developed a full-round integrated marketing communications campaign. On its website it explains the healthiness of its orange juice. As a juicy, delicious, nourishing orange only needs water and bright sunshine, Tropicana claims its juice is actually a bit of sunshine which brings mornings to life with a nutritious boost. Why? Because ‘brighter mornings develop into brighter days’. This message is also stressed in its TV commercials. To further bring the message alive, Tropicana organized several events in which it literally brought sunshine to people in the farthest reaches of Canada, but also in a more iconic place, Trafalgar Square in London. The event on London was on the same day that the TV campaign kicked off. A giant helium sun was installed which was 30 000 times bigger than a football, had a surface area of 200 m² and weighed over 2500 kg. the internal light source of the Trafalgar sun produced the equivalent of 60 000 light bulbs: 4 million lumens of light. The sum rose an hour earlier than normal sunrise and set three hours later than normal sunset, giving people in London four additional hours of sunlight. Next to delivering this unique brand experience to people, informing them on the website and bringing the message in advertisements, the claim that a glass of Tropicana tastes delicious and energizes your day was reinforced by digital and point-of-purchase communications, free samples, a PR campaign, a movie on YouTube, and a Facebook action.

Who would not believe that of Tropicana can bring sunshine to the darkest places of Canada and enlighten London like this, it would not be able to bring a little bit of sunshine to your breakfast table?

The major benefit of IMC is that a consistent set of messages is conveyed to all target audiences by means of all available forms of contact and message channels. Communications should become more effective and efficient as a result of the consistency and the synergetic effect between tools and messages. In other words, IMC have an added value when compared with traditional marketing communications.

2.       What are the challenges/benefits in IMC?

IMC do not happen automatically. All the elements of the communications mix have to be carefully planned in such a way that they form a consistent and coherent integrated communications plan. As a consequence, IMC can only be implemented successfully if there is also a strategic integration of the various departments that are responsible for parts of the communications function.

Advertising, public relations, sales promotions and personal selling in most companies are traditionally managed by separate divisions that seldom communicate with each other, let alone take account of each other’s priorities or integrate their efforts. Successful IMC rest on the existence of one communications manager who has the authority to supervise and integrate all the specialized communications functions of the organization. Often this will imply a radical change in the structure of the organization, and that may be the most important reason why IMC have not been implemented in most companies.

Integrating the various tools can lead to synergies in a number of ways:

·         The sales team have an easier job if their product or company is well known as a result of sponsorship or advertising
·         A promotional campaign that is supported by advertising is generally more successful
·         Websites will be more frequently visited when announced in mass media advertising
·         Public relations, corporate advertising and sponsorship can have synergetic effects on company image building

Advantages of IMC:

·         Provides opportunities to cut communications costs and/or reassign budgets
·         Has the potential to produce synergetic and more effective communications
·         Can deliver competitive advantage through clearer positioning
·         Encourages coordinated brand development with internal and external participants
·         Provides for increased employee participation and motivation
·         Has the potential to cause management to review its communication strategy
·         Requires a change in culture and fosters a customer focus
·         Provides a benchmark for the development of communication activities
·         Can lead to a cut in the number of agencies supporting a brand

Disadvantages of IMC:

·         Encourages centralization and formal/bureaucratic procedures
·         Can require increased management time seeking agreement from all involved parties
·         Suggests uniformity and single message
·         Tendency to standardization might negate or dilute creative opportunities
·         Global brands restricted in terms of local adaptation
·         Normally requires cultural change from employees and encourages resistance
·         Has the potential to severely damage a brand’s reputation if incorrectly managed
·         Can lead to mediocrity as no single agency network has access to all sources of communications

For a brand to be maintained and to work, it is important that the communications used to develop and maintain the brand are consistent and meaningful. Part of the essence of IMC is that the mix used to support a brand, including the messages that are used to convey brand values, must be consistent, uniform and reinforcing. Therefore, successful branding is partly the result of effective IMC.

Brands that are integrated provide opportunities to be perceived as different, relative to a competitor’s product.  Branding is a method of separation and positioning so that customers can recognize and understand what a brand stands for, relative to other brands.

Levels of integration:

1.       Awareness
2.       Image integration
3.       Functional integration
4.       Coordinated integration
5.       Consumer-based integration
6.       Stakeholder-based integration
7.       Relationship management integration

The first 5 levels imply the integration of the communications effort mainly at the consumer or marketing communications level. The first 2 levels focus on conveying the same image and brand awareness through all the marketing communications tools. The next step is the functional integration of all the tools (advertising, sales promotion, sponsorship) into one marketing communications department. In the fourth stage, the marketing tools and the marketing PR function are coordinated. Finally, in the fifth stage marketing communications and marketing PR are functionally integrated into one system through which harmonized and consistent messages are conveyed to all actual and potential customers. In the last 2 stages, corporate communications and marketing communications efforts are integrated into one system. (Companies integrate not only with (potential) customers, but with all the stakeholders.

1)      Mission - the basic values and objectives of the company, which are based on the corporate identity

2)      Propositions - concrete propositions to target groups, derived from the basic mission

3)      Concepts - can be a theme, a core message, a specific style or a slogan – messages with a certain content and format; propositions are creatively translated into concepts

4)      Execution - implies uniformity in layout, design, typography, logo, colors, visual triggers and other elements of the house style

Successful IMC imply that a ‘one-voice’ approach is developed, which serves as a starting point for integrated concepts and execution.

Since marketing communications have to be embedded in the strategic marketing plan, the first step is to analyze the marketing communications environment and the marketing strategy, and assess where the marketing communications activity should fit in. form this analysis, target groups and objectives and goals of the marketing communications effort can be derived. Next, which instruments, techniques and media to use and to what extent will be agreed. On the basis of this plan, a budget can be established, and the communications plan and timing can be implemented. Finally, the effectiveness of the campaign has to be assessed.

Snickers: You’re not you when you’re hungry

As with all successful global campaigns, the “You’re not yourself when you’re hungry” campaign worked on a universal assumption, namely that when you’re hungry your mood and your abilities change. The campaign continues to run across social, television, retail and print.

Coherence. While the execution changed across different media and markets, the central theme and strapline remained the same as it was relevant for markets worldwide.

Consistency. The consistency of message worked well across multiple regional campaigns and media: from the TV ad featuring Joan Collins, to the PPC campaign based around commonly misspelt search terms, to the Twitter campaign featuring Rio Ferdinand and Katie Banks that generated newspaper headlines, questions in Parliament and legal proceedings. These consistent messages allowed the effectiveness of the central proposition remain intact across markets and regional campaigns.

Continuity. The launched in the US with a Superbowl ad featuring Golden Girls actress, Betty White in 2010, and yet four years later the creative execution of the campaign remains intact.

Complimentary. The effectiveness of the central proposition and the global campaigns adherence to the first Three Cs mean that when combined you have a long-running, multi-channel, multi-million campaign, the constituent parts of which ensure that

Effectiveness. According to Effie.org activity in the first three months of the campaign in the US helped to grow sales by 13.4%, there was an 18,000% increases in Snickers searches on You Tube, over 5million online views and over 400million incremental and unpaid media impressions.

02: Be More Dog

O2’s foray into 4G advertising asked us “to be more dog”. The overall message of the campaign is that life in the digital 21st century is amazing, there are countless things around that should amaze and inspire us, but we have become too jaded by experience to appreciate the multitude of opportunities afforded us by technology. In short, we’ve become too cat (disinterested and aloof) while we should be embracing our inner dog (energized, interested and excited by the possibilities of everyday life).

Coherence. From print ads and TV commercials to interactive games that allow you to throw a Frisbee from your smartphone to the cat on your PC and or sending dog bombs to your friends, all communications adhere to the simple central premise – to take life by the scruff and make the most of opportunities.

Consistency. Once again the strong central premise allowed comms across a series platforms to adhere to key points. TV advertising slots drove viewers to bemoredog.com where quizzes a quiz determine how dog they were and then share the results through social channels. The aided reach and engagement and helped the launch ad achieve 385,000 YouTube views in the first 48 hours.

Continuity. While the campaign changed over time the strong central premise and its application across platforms allowed long-term continuity. In fact, the creative was used as a basis for a £7million above the line campaign to launch 02’s revamped Priority app.

Complimentary. The considered interaction of communications across platforms allowed a momentum to grow and helped the campaign gain a wider audience through social media and sharing.

McDonald's' "#McDStories"

While baseball is touted as America’s favorite pastime, one could argue that McDonald’s is America’s favorite fast food joint (I mean, those fries. Come on!). But when you combine the cautionary tale of 2006’s Fast Food Nation with the mainstream movement of eating local, organic foods, you could have a potential recipe for a marketing disaster.

So when McDonald’s tried to utilize social media to get some feedback from consumers on the McDonald’s experience, it created The #McDStories hashtag. It all started from McDonald’s official Twitter handle, @McDonalds, with the following tweet:

Seems harmless enough. But McDonald’s should have known better: People don’t eat McDonald’s for the fresh, wholesome ingredients it puts in its food. In fact, they eat McDonald’s without caring what’s in it because it’s easily available, cheap, and tastes good. So, what happened was the hashtag took off and tweets like this came flying in:

McDonald’s clearly didn’t think this one through. These days, people are starting to care about what’s in their food and how it’s made. And since they were given the opportunity, cynics and critics jumped on the hashtag in a negative way.

The Lesson: Not keeping up with trends in your industry hurts you. Understanding those trends, whether you play into them or not, will help you make sure you are either taking calculated risks with your marketing. Fail to understand them and you could totally miss the mark – like McDonald’s did.

Sources:

• De Pelsmacker. P., Geuens, M. & Van Den Bergh, J. Marketing communications. A european perspective. 2013
• Fill, C. Marketing communications. Brands, experiences and participation. 2013
• Heaton, A. Three examples of integrated campaigns. 2014. (http://www.smartinsights.com/traffic-building-strategy/integrated-marketing-communications/three-examples-integrated-campaigns/)
• Hibma, M. 4 cringeworthy marketing campaigns that totally missed the mark. 2014. (http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/marketing-campaigns-missed-the-mark-list)
• Rajgeet, K. Failure and success of IMC campaigns. 2014. (http://www.slideshare.net/kr_rajgeet/failure-and-success-of-imc-campaigns-42155721)