Integrated Marketing Communications 1
Integrated Marketing Communications
By Mark Anthony Camilleri
1
, PhD (Edinburgh)
This is a pre-publication version of a chapter that was accepted by Springer Nature.
How to Cite: Camilleri, M. A. (2018). Integrated Marketing Communications. In Travel
Marketing, Tourism Economics and the Airline Product (Chapter 5 pp. 85-103). Cham,
Switzerland: Springer Nature.
Abstract
Promotion is one of the four major elements of the marketing mix. Therefore, an integrated
marketing communications (IMC) strategy consisting of a combination of promotional tools
could be an essential element of the businesses’ overall marketing strategy. Different
promotional tools could foster an increased awareness of a company’s products or services,
inform people about features and benefits, and move them to make a purchase. In this light,
this chapter examines these promotional tools, individually. It suggests that effective IMC
plans promote the companies’ products and services, by sending clear, consistent and
complementary messages that are ultimately intended to turn prospects into customers. In
conclusion, it posits that the marketing managers must consider the 6Ms (including the market,
the mission, the message, the media, money and measurement) when they are preparing an
IMC plan.
5.1 Introduction
The rationale behind integrated marketing communications (IMC) is to achieve the
promotional objectives in reaching target markets and to raise awareness of the companies’
products and services. Therefore, IMC may involve the combination of different promotional
1
Department of Corporate Communication, Faculty of Media and Knowledge Sciences,
University of Malta, Malta. Email: mark.a.camilleri@um.edu.mt
Integrated Marketing Communications 2
tools, including; advertising, personal selling, sales promotions, direct marketing, interactive
marketing, publicity and public relations. This chapter describes the IMC tools which make
up the promotional mix. It explains the characteristics of each marketing communications tool.
It also considers the various factors which could influence the successful implementation of an
IMC plan, including the measurement of its effectiveness.
5.2 Selecting the Right Communication Vehicles
Everyone is exposed to commercial messages during a typical day: radio and TV commercials,
ads in the morning newspaper, billboards along the highway, solicitations in the mail, calls
from telemarketers, web page banners, among others. The magnitude of the contemporary
communications clutter is such that consumers have often learned to tune out from promotional
messages. Today’s businesses want to distinguish themselves through the clutter as they strive
in their endeavours to generate leads and convert prospective customers.
The marketers who possess a generous budget may have access to an arsenal of communication
options, including electronic media (TV and radio), print media (newspapers and magazines),
direct-mail solicitations, telemarketing, personal selling, public relations and the web, among
others. The choice of the relevant marketing tools and the identification of the right messages
to target different market segments; could prove to be a difficult task. Very often business may
not convey the same message across channels. This may usually happen if the marketing
communication efforts are not integrated. Instead, there may be a disparate and dispersed group
of activities.
The smaller organisations, in particular, might focus on just one or two promotional elements
due to financial constraints. Their marketing communications may include a website and some
print advertisements. In fact, the Advertising Research Foundation (2016) revealed that that
60% of promotional campaigns relied on two or fewer media. Sometimes, even larger
organisations may not integrate marketing tools to reach wider audiences. For some reason,
these organisations may not consider a coordinated and integrated strategy to marketing
communications. In this case, they will risk wasting their time and resources on activities that
could not reap the desired goals and objectives.
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Certain communication vehicles, along with their characteristics may be suitable for tourism
products and services. However, businesses should evaluate whether their customers or
prospects are (or are not) considering a purchase decision. They need to know if their customers
are aware of their products or services? If they are, how much are they appreciating their
benefits? What are the customer perceptions of the business? What position does the business
occupy in their mind?
The chances are that the businesses will find out that prospective customers may (or may not)
know certain aspects of their products. Therefore, businesses should use communication
vehicles that are intended to send relevant messages to them. Their integrated communication
approaches should provide consistent, persuasive messages that are specifically crafted for
their selected target audiences. These corporate messages could be coordinated through precise
channels to maximise impact. Hence, multi-channels, multi-audience approaches to message
creation could produce synergies that will increase the potential to influence target customers.
The multi-channels include; advertising, personal selling, sales promotions, direct marketing,
internet marketing, publicity and public relations, as illustrated in Figure 5.1.
Figure 5.1 The Marketing Communications Mix
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5.3 Advertising
Advertising is an extremely important element of the promotional mix. It is a non-personal
communications tool that is paid for by a specific sponsor. Advertising is a mass-marketing
communication tool that is designed to inform and persuade a large number of people.
Therefore, this medium requires some type of media platform to deliver the message.
Advertising messages are required for all promotional elements, which is why the process of
creating advertisements could be an essential first step in IMC. The goals of advertising may
include: to create awareness of a new product; to describe the attributes and features of the
product; to suggest usage situations; to distinguish the product from competitors’ products; to
direct buyers to the point-of-purchase, and; to creating or enhancing a brand image, among
other things. However, advertising may be limited in its ability to actually close the sale and to
finalise a transaction.
Advertising objectives must be successful in reaching the businesses’ target markets. For
instance, airlines may use this medium to inform their customers about new or improved
product features, new routes being served and so on. The advertisements may also remind the
customers of existing product features, routes served, et cetera. There are several advertising
media options, including; print advertising, broadcast advertising, digital or mobile advertising,
and outdoor advertising, among others.
• Print Advertising, includes; newspapers, magazines, inflight magazine, printed flyers,
brochures, posters, backs of tickets and supermarket receipts;
• Broadcast Advertising, includes; radio, television and cinema.
• Digital or Mobile Advertising includes; Online streaming channels, online banners,
web pop-ups, the opening section of streaming audio and video, et cetera.
• Outdoor Advertising, includes; Wall paintings, billboards, street furniture including
infrastructure, sky writing, human billboards, town criers, sides of buses, banners
attached to airplanes (“logo jets”), seatback tray tables or overhead storage bins, taxicab
doors, roof mounts and passenger screens, musical stage shows, subway platforms and
trains, elastic bands on disposable diapers, doors of bathroom stalls, stickers on apples
in supermarkets, shopping cart handles, sporting venues, and the like.
• Any place an “identified” sponsor pays to deliver their message through a medium is
advertising.
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The media that is used to advertise a business and its services must be carefully selected. The
choice of media depends on a number of factors, including: (i) the markets which are being
targeted; (ii) the combination of media which will be the most effective (and the media habits
of the target markets); (iii) the amount of money that is dedicated to the advertising budget,
which can be affected by the decisions made in (i) and (ii).
5.3.1 The Advertising Campaigns
Businesses ought to set advertising objectives and determine their budget before choosing
relevant media for the promotion of their products and services. They may also decide to
contract a specialised advertising agency or to organise the advertising campaign in-house. The
market managers are entrusted to make timing decisions. They need to consider the best time
period to place their campaign to achieve the desired results. For instance, they could organise
an all-year-round campaign or a seasonal campaign. It is important to note that such decisions
must be linked with the companies’ overall marketing strategies, plans and tactics.
The advertising budget may be affected by several factors. The marketing managers need to
consider their businesses’ objectives before allocating resources to advertising. They may want
to advertise their products and services to maintain their profitability and market share. In this
case, they will have to dedicate specific financial resources to advertising. The three most
common methods that are used to calculate the advertising budget are as follows:
5.3.1.1 The Percentage of Sales Method
This method assumes that the level of sales should determine the amount spent on advertising.
Its methodology is based upon an arbitrarily chosen percentage of sales (either past or forecast).
For example, if 5% of sales may be the chosen percentage. If last year’s sales amounted to
$10,000,000, this year’s advertising budget would be $500,000. The percentage of sales
method is adopted by many businesses, however it should not be recommended.
5.3.1.2 The Competitive Parity Method
This method is based on the idea that the businesses should spend the same discretionary
amount as their competitors on advertising. However, there may be a possibility that the
competitors may have miscalculated their advertising budget. Consequently, the company will
allocate excessive or insufficient resources toward advertising. This methodology ignores the
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other factors which should be taken into account when determining the advertising budget, for
instance; ‘Who is being targeted?’; ‘What media will be used?’ ‘What are the advertising
objectives?’. This method of calculating the advertising budget is erratic and should never be
recommended.
5.3.1.3 The Task and Investment Method
This method assumes that the advertising budget should be related to the organisation’s
objectives and its advertising goals. The more ambitious and far reaching these objectives are,
the more money will be allocated to the advertising budget to achieve them. This approach
involves asking the questions; ‘What is the business trying to achieve?’ and ‘What form of
promotion will help the business to reach its advertising objectives?’ The task and investment
method is the best method to calculate the advertising budget as it is based on the return on
investment principle.
5.3.2 Outsourcing Marketing Communications to an Advertising Agency
The selection of an advertising agency is very important and must be considered carefully.
Using a specialised agency may be quite expensive. However, the benefits of having
advertising experts working on the campaign should outweigh these costs. Very often
advertising agencies may use different marketing communication techniques. Their strategies
and tactics could involve traditional media and digital marketing tactics, as they use data and
analytics to track their online performance. Hence, the outsourcing of advertising campaigns
may ultimately prove to be feasible, transparent and an affordable option for the following
reasons:
• Outsourcing allows the commissioning business to improve its capacity without adding
staff. The business could capitalise on the experience of experts, who will execute
advertising campaigns from strategy through to setup, management and reporting.
• The specialised agency could easily access every marketing channel. They may be in a
better position to customise their content to target segments, whether they are local,
international or geographically-dispersed.
• The contracted agency will be efficient in the compilation and interpretation of data to
determine the effectiveness of their marketing communications.
5.3.2.1 The Advertising Brief
It is advisable that commissioning businesses prepare an advertising brief before they engage
the services of advertising agencies. The success of the campaign will usually rely on the brief’s
content. Ideally, the brief should be approved by the higher echelons in the organisations’
strategic management before it is sent to the advertising agency. This will prevent any
misgivings which might arise after the campaign has been planned and designed by the selected
advertising agency. This way, there will be clearer communication strategies, which will be in
line with the corporate objectives. Therefore, the brief must answer the following questions:
a) What are the objectives of the campaign?
b) What is the message to be communicated?
c) What is the target market?
5.3.3 Evaluating Advertising Success
The commissioning business managers need to determine whether the advertising campaign
has satisfied its objectives. The evaluation of the campaign involves measuring its effect on the
organisational performance, in terms of; return on investment, market share, brand equity,
