Integrated Marketing Communication mix
IMC is a management concept that is designed to make all the aspects of marketing communication such as advertising, sales, promotion, public relation and direct marketing. It work together as a unified force rather than permitting each other to work on isolation. It integrates advertising effort with technique.

Tools of IMC
· Advertising
· Sales Promotion
· Public Relation
· Direct Marketing
· Internet Marketing \ Interactive marketing

Role of IMC
· It is a very effective tool for marketers if unified.
· Helps in coping with the market threats and changes.
· Maximize the return on its investment in marketing and promotion.
· Use of coordinated media blend helps in achieving specific objective quickly.
· Key to successful IMC is single coordinated message.
· Provides stronger message consistency and greater sales impact.
· Improves firm’s ability to reach right customer at right time with right message.




The Communication Process
Diagram
Top-
Message Channel
(Select the media or other vehicle to carry the message.)
Left Top
Encoding the message
(Create an ad display or sales presentation)
Right Top
Decoding the message
(Receiver compares message to frame of reference)
Left Middle
Message as intended
(a promotional idea in marketer’s mind )
Right Middle
Message as received
(knowledge belief or feelings of receiver changed)
Left Down
Feedback
(Impact measured using research sales or another measure)
Right Down
Response
(Ranges from simple awareness to purchase)




Process of Marketing Communication
Steps
1. Identify target audience
2. Determine objectives of communication
3. Design the message
4. Select communication channel
5. Establish the budget
6. Select the marketing communication mix
7. Measure result
8. Manage the IMC process





Determination of Target Audience
Following steps:
1. Identifying markets with unfulfilled needs.
2. Determining market segmentation
3. Selecting a market to target
4. Positioning through marketing strategies




Objectives of Advertising:
1. Sales Objective
2. Communication Objective




Determining Advertising Budget
- Top Down Approach
o Affordability Method
o Percentage of sales

- Build up approach
o Payout Planning
o Competitive Planning
o Objectives and Task Method
o Return on Investment




DAGMAR Approach
DAGMAR stands for Defining Advertising Goal for Measured Advertising Results. It is proposed by Russell Colley in 1961. The crux of this approach was to tell that advertising succeeds or fails depends upon how well it communicates the desired information and attributes the right people at the right time at the right cost.

Advertising Goal involves communication task that is based on hierarchy model of communication process.
- Awareness
- Comprehension
- Conviction
- Action

Characteristics of (Advertising) Objectives
- Concrete and measurable
- Defining target audience
- Benchmark and change to be sort
- Specific time period


Limitations / Criticism of DAGMAR approach
- Problem with the response hierarchy
- Sales objectives
- Practicality and cost
- Inhibition of creativity





Advertising planning and strategy
1. Set advertising objectives
2. Decide on in-house advertising or agency
3. Establish a tentative advertising budget
4. Decide on advertising message strategy:
- Message idea
- Copy platform
- Message or creative format
5. Select advertising media
6. Decide on timing of advertisements
7. Pretest advertisements
8. Prepare final advertising plan and budget
9. Measure and evaluate advertising success.




Categories of advertising Objective
1. Informative advertising
2. Persuasive advertising
3. Reminder advertising



Advertising message strategy
It describes what to communicate and how to communicate
- Message idea: main theme, appeal, or benefit to be communicated in the message.
- Copy platform: a written statement that fully describes the message idea.
- Message or creative format: broad creative approach used to communicate the message to the targeted audiences.


Advertising Execution
- Straight sell or factual message
- Scientific or technical evidence
- Demonstration
- Comparison
- Testimonial
- Slice of life
- Animation
- Personality symbol
- Humor
- Combination




Definition Media Planning
- Series of decisions involved in delivering promotional message to prospective purchaser or user
- The media plan is to guide for media selection
- It involves development of specific objective and specific media strategies.



Setting Media Objectives
- Purpose- To translate marketing objectives and strategies into goal that media can accomplish. For eg. Create awareness in the target market through the following
1. Broadcast media 80% coverage
2. Reach- 60% target audience
3. Heaviest advertising in winter



Basic terms used in media advertising
Medium- General Category of available delivery system, for eg. Tv , radio, newspaper and magazines, direct mail and advertising etc.

Media Vehicle- It is a specific career within a medium category. For eg. Outlook and Brunch.

Reach- It is a measure of the number of different audience members, exposed at least once to a media vehicle in a given period of time.

Coverage- It refers to potential audience that might receive the message through a vehicle.

Frequency- It refers to the number of time the receiver is exposed to media vehicle in a specific period of time.




Developing Media Strategies
- The media mix
- The target market coverage (scheduling, continuity, fighting, pulsing)
- Reach vs Frequency
- Creative aspects and moods
- Flexibility
- Changes in the media or media vehicle
- Budget considerations




Media Evaluation Criteria
- Cost
- Reach
- Frequency
- Waste
- Lead time and Flexibility
- Clutter and dominance
- Message permanence
- Persuasive impact and mood





Newspaper Advertising Advantage
- High reach
- High geographic concentration
- Good frequency
- Tangibility
- Short lead times
- Relatively low cost
- Ability to communicate detailed information
- Ability to place in most appropriate location
- Ability to schedule to exploit day of week factors.

Newspaper Advertising Disadvantages
- High waste factor and inability to target
- Limitations on creative format
- Clutter (types of customer)
- Relatively poor reproduction quality
- Short life-span
- High cost of initial coverage


Magazine Advertising Advantages
- Tangibility
- High Audience selectivity
- Good reproduction quality
- Long life span and good pass-along rate
- Prestige and credibility
- Ability to communicate detailed information

Magazine Advertising Disadvantages
- Limitations on creative format
- Relatively expensive
- Low reach
- Low frequency
- Long lead times
- Inability to schedule to exploit the day of week factors
- Difficulties in geographical targeting



How the Hospitality and Travel Industry uses Advertising media
- Fast food companies tend to focus upon and emphasize television advertising
- Hotels companies tend to use a combination of media.
- Airline tend to place an emphasis on newspaper advertising
- Everyone is moving toward more advertising on the www





Media Buying
Buying advertising time on media is called…
Buying TV time
1. Buying TV time on national or network basis
2. Spot and local advertising

Buying Radio time
1. Network radio
2. Spot radio
3. Local Radio
Buying Adv time on Print media
1. Purchasing magazine’s adv space
2. Purchasing adv space in newspaper

Methods of Buying Time
1. Sponsorship
2. Participants
3. Spot announcements




Measuring advertising effectiveness
Reasons to measure effectiveness
1. Avoid costly mistakes
2. Evaluating alternative strategies
3. Increasing the efficiency of advertising in general.
4. Determine if objectives are achieved.

Reason not to measure effectiveness
1. Costly
2. Research problem
3. Disagreement on what to test
4. The objections of creativity
5. Time consuming

Conducting research to measure adv effectiveness
1. What to evaluate
2. Where
3. When
4. How




Organization to advertising
- Advertising agency
- Advertiser
- Media organizer
- Marketing communication specialist
- Collateral service





Social aspect of advertising
- Advertising educates consumer
- Advertising improves living standard

Advertising affects happiness and wellbeing
Cons
- Ad creates needs
- Ad addresses wide variety of basic human needs
- Ads promote materialism
Pros
- Reflect societies priorities

Advertising demeaning and deceitful or liberating and artful:
Cons
- Ads perpetuate stereotypes
- Ads are more sensitive now
- Ads are often offensive
- Source of liberalization
Pros
- Ads foster a divers and affordable mass media that provide information




Ethical Aspects of advertising
Ethics are moral standards against which behavior is judged. Ethics in advertising are :
1. Truth in advertising –
o Deception is making false or misleading statements
o Commercial exaggeration is illegal
o Cannot legislate against emotions
2. Advertising to children issues
- Advertising promotes superficial and materialism in children
- Children are inexperienced and easy prey to persuasion
3. Advertising controversial products
- Critics question the targeting of minorities.
- How does the concept of primary demand provide insights here




Regulatory/Legal aspects of advertising
1. Area of advertising regulations
- Deception and unfairness
2. Competitive issues
- Vertical cooperative advertising
- Comparison advertising
- Monopoly power Advertising to children