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Chapter 18
The Principles and Practices of IMC
CHAPTER CONTENT
CHAPTER KEY POINTS
1. What are the eight key IMC concepts and why are they important?
2. How would you outline the key parts of an IMC campaign plan?
3. Which strategic decisions underlie effective international marketing communication?
4. What do we mean by 360 degree communication programs?
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
This chapter will review the basics of IMC principles, many of which were introduced in
previous chapters. Then it will describe the formalities planning for an IMC campaign,
followed by an introduction to the challenges of managing an IMC program.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
KEY IMC CONCEPTS
Integrated marketing communication is an important business concept as well as a set
of principles and practices. This chapter begins with key concepts that separate IMC
plans and programs from more traditional advertising.
Stakeholders and Brand Relationships
A customer focus is critical in most IMC strategies. Although we use the word
‘customer’, we are really referring to all stakeholders who impact on that
customer relationship. Relationship marketing, a concept that originated with
public relations, shifts the focus from the objective of a one-time purchase to the
maintenance of long term involvement from and by all of the firm’s critical
stakeholders, whether they be employees, distributors, channel members,
agencies, investors, government agencies, the media, or the community.
Principle: Interactive communication is the glue that joins brands and their
stakeholders in respectful long term relationships.
Relevant messages delivered through media that drive positive experiences create
value for consumers. This value adds up over time and emerges as loyalty – the
ultimate goal of relationship marketing programs. Brand relationships are
indicators of brand value. Negative impact, however, can come from mishandling
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the type and amount of messages directed to stakeholders, as the A Matter of
Principle feature in this chapters explains.
Although we talk about stakeholders as if they were independent groups, in fact,
they may overlap. It is important that that a brand not say one thing to one
stakeholder group and something opposite or contradictory to another, especially
in this time of instant Internet communication.
The growth of permission marketing, a practice that invites consumers to sign
up for messages and thereby self-select into a brand’s target market, mirrors the
shift from one-way to two-way communication. This is significant as brands
become more involved in social communication where online technology permits
contacts that move beyond the frequently intrusive and unwanted forms of mass
media advertising.
Total Communication
Media planning includes all of the traditional as well as nontraditional media. In
360° communication planning, there are other message delivery points included
within a company’s business practices. Older views of IMC focused primarily on
coordinating marketing communication, but we now recognize that that the entire
marketing mix delivers messages. Integrating marcom tools is futile if contrary
and more powerful messages are being sent by other brand actions.
Channels to Contact Points
The concept of contact points has redefined and broadened our understanding of
media as a message delivery system. Contact points are the various ways a
consumer comes in contact with a brand. In previous advertising-dominated
media plans, these experiential contacts were not generally considered to be
media.
These opportunities are found in a huge variety of vehicles. The list is endless and
can only be identified by studying the lives of customers to spot the points where
they come in contact with a brand or an opportunity for a brand experience or
brand conversation.
Contact point management, then, is the way marketing communication planners
develop systems of message delivery, both to and from all key stakeholders. The
objective is to maximize and leverage the good contact points and minimize the
bad ones.
A brand touch point is a brand experience that delivers a message that touches
emotions leading to positive and negative judgments. It has a more emotional
impact that a regular contact point. A critical touchpoint is one that connects the
brand and customer on an emotional level and leads to a yes or no decision about
a brand relationship.
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Sometimes referred to as experiential marketing, touch-point strategies and
programs use events and store design, among other means, to engage consumers
in a personal and involving way. The goal is to intensify active involvement
beyond the more passive activity of reading, viewing, and listening to traditional
media.
Message Synergy
The point is that brand communication is not about single messages but rather
about the impact of various impressions and brand meanings that evolve as the
messages interact and reinforce one another. In other words, messages that
reinforce one another have a multiplier effect that not only cements a brand
impression but also polishes and magnifies it.
At every point of contact with every stakeholder, the essence of the brand should
be the same. Strategic consistency drives synergy and synergy drives the brand
impression. Therefore, brand stewards and IMC planners are insistent on
strategicconsistency – the core or essence of the brand is clear in every message if
they are tailored to the particular interests of various stakeholders.
A Brand is an Integrated Perception
Message synergy is the basis for seeing a brand as an integrated perception.
People automatically integrate brand messages and experiences as part of the
natural process of perception formulation. Brand impressions are created as a
stew of information that comes together as an integrated perception.
Unified Brand Vision
There is an art and a science to IMC management. The vision of the brand
steward and how that unified vision is communicated to all of the agents involved
in the complex system of brand communication determines the effectiveness of a
brand communication program.
In other words, marketing communicators are managing a multiplicity of brand
activities and programs that are interrelated. They work well only to the extent
that they are working together in a single unified vision. The pieces and parts fit
together perfectly, generating meaning and creating something of value.
Internal Integration
Brand management involves creating and monitoring a complex set of
philosophies and activities. A brand cannot be integrated externally if it is not
integrated internally.Cross-functional managementacross department lines
delivers unity of vision, which is the foundation for the consumer’s integrated
brand perception.
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Brand Integrity
An integrated brand is one that has brand integrity. Crisis communication is
always a test of brand and corporate integrity. The fifteen basic principles that
guide IMC practices are listed in the textbook.
IMC CAMPAIGN PLANNING
Stan Richards explains the process his agency goes through in planning an integrated
campaign. He calls it spherical branding, which means no matter what your angle of
vision, the brand always looks the same. We call this 360° planning. Richards’ brief
outline that follows is a good starting point for building a complete campaign plan.
Three Part Positioning: Target audience? Competitors? Most meaning brand
benefit?
Brand Personality:Five or six words that define the brand’s personality
Affiliations: What club do you join when you adopt the brand?
Brand Vision: A statement of the brand’s ‘highest calling’
What is a Campaign Plan?
An IMC campaign is a complex set of interlocking, coordinated activities that has a beginning and an end.
It outlines the objectives and strategies for a series of different but related marketing communication
efforts that appear in different media, use different marcom tools, and convey different
butcomplimentary brand consistent messages to a variety of stakeholders.
The objective is to make the most effective and consistent use of all marcom functions and to influence or
control the impact of their communication elements. Here is a typical outline:
I. Situation Analysis
• Background research
• SWOT: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats
• Key communication problem(s) to be solved
II. Key Strategic Campaign Decisions
• Objectives
• Target and engaging stakeholders
• Brand positioning strategy
III. Marcom Mix
• Platforms and objectives
• Synergy
IV. Message Strategy
• Key consumer and brand relationship insights
• Message direction
• Strategic consistency
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V. IMC Media and Contact Points
• Multimedia and multichannel
• Multiplatform
• Contact Points
VI. Management and Campaign Controls
• Budgeting
• Evaluation of Effectiveness
The outline is useful as a guide for the planning document but more importantly, it also identifies the key
strategic decisions that guide various sections of an IMC campaign plan. The A Matter of Practice feature
in this chapter explores the strategy behind the comprehensive campaign to brand Billings, Montana.
Situation Analysis
This first step in developing an advertising plan is backgrounding - researching
and reviewing the current state of the business that is relevant to the brand and
gathering all pertinent information. After the research is compiled, planners try to
make sense of the findings, a process referred to as a situation analysis. The goal
is to identify a problem that can be solved with communication.
SWOT Analysis
The primary tool used to make sense of the information gathered and identify a key
problem is a SWOT analysis, which stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,
and threats. The strengths and weaknesses are internally focused and the opportunities
and threats lie in the external marketing environment.
• The strengthsof a business are its positive traits, conditions, and good situations. For
instance, being in a growth industry is a strength. Planners ask how they can leverage
this strength in the brand’s advertising.
• The weaknessesof a business are traits, conditions, and situations that are
perceived as negatives. Losing market share is a weakness. If this is an important
weakness, then planners ask how they can address it with advertising.
• An opportunityis an area in which the company could develop an advantage over
its competition. Often, one company’s weakness is another company’s opportunity.
Planners strive to identify these opportunities and leverage them in the brand’s
advertising.
• A threat is a trend or development in the environment that will erode business
unless the company takes action. Competition is a common threat. Advertising
planners ask themselves how they can address a threat if it is a critical factor affecting
the success of the brand.
Key Problems
Planners must analyze the market situation for communication problems that affect
the successful marketing of a product, as well as opportunities the advertising can
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create or exploit. Analyzing the SWOT and identifying any problems that can be
solved with an advertising message are at the heart of strategic thinking. An example
of locating a timing opportunity is illustrated by the Special K “2 Week Challenge”
discussed in the textbook that capitalized on consumers’ goals to lose weight after the
holidays.
IMC can solve only message-related problems such as image, attitude, perception,
and knowledge or information. It cannot solve problems related to the price of the
product, availability, or quality, although it can address the perception of these
marketing mix factors.
Campaign Strategy
The general strategy that guides a campaign can be described in a number of ways.
For example, a strategy can focus on branding, positioning, countering the
competition, or creating category dominance. Maybe the strategy is designed to
change the consumers’ perception of the brand’s price or price-value relationship. It
may also seek to increase what marketers call “share of wallet,” which means
increasing the amount customers spend on the brand. Other marketing efforts might
involve launching a new brand or a brand extension or moving a brand to a new
market.
Another common focus is the role and importance of the brand’s competitive position
and how to respond to competitors’ messages. This is a strategy that is often seen in
economic downtowns, which analysts describe as a ‘dogfight’ for market share.
The important thing to remember is that planners have to first analyze the situation to
arrive at a great strategy before racing ahead to think about tactics. What’s the
difference between strategy and tactics? The decision to expand the market (strategy)
by increasing share of wallet (objective) is implemented through promotional tactics
(‘buy four and get one free.”)
The situation analysis is the first step in developing the IMC campaign strategy.
There are a number of related strategic decisions that follow from the situation
analysis. Three of them are objectives, targeting, and brand position.
Objectives
Given the huge amounts of money spent on brand communication, it is important for
marketers to know what to expect from a campaign. Although a rule of thumb for
advertising is that it should be single-minded, we also know that multiple effects are
often needed to create the desired impact, especially in IMC planning.
Although some objectives are tightly focused on one particular effect, others, such
as brand loyalty, call for a more complex set of effects. To create brand loyalty,
for example, both cognitive and affective effects are needed, and it must move
people to repeat buying.
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Communication objectives may be important, even if they aren’t focused directly
on a sale.
Every advertising campaign must be guided by specific, clear, and measurable
objectives. The effectiveness of advertising is determined based on its measurable
objectives. A measurable objective has a starting baseline and a goal – the
distance between those two points is what is measured. The starting point can be a
benchmark, which means the planner used a comparable effort to predict a
logical goal. A measurable objective includes five requirements:
A specific effect that can be measured
A time frame
A baseline(where we are or where we begin)
The goal
Percentage change
Targeting and Engaging Stakeholders
The term stakeholderrefers to any group of people who have a stake in the success of
a company or a brand. These potential audiences include all of those who might
influence the purchase of products and the success of a company’s marketing
program, as the table in the textbook shows. Employees are particularly important
and their support or “buy in” for marketing, advertising, and marketing
communication programs is managed through an activity called internal marketing.
The targeting or engagement strategy identifies the most important audience groups.
Research by account planners will help to flesh out the interests of these folks and
provide critical insights. Insights into consumer, customer, and stakeholder
relationships with the brand allow identification of specific groups who might
respond to brand messages. From this, a list of primary and secondary targets is
built, along with profiles of typical members of this group.
The existence of overlapping membership complicates message strategy and
demands that there be a certain core level of consistency in all brand messages from
both the company and also within stakeholder conversations.
Brand Strategy
Message consistency has to have a central concept around which various
messages can be unified. We refer to this as brand essence. It describes what
makes the brand different and distinctive from all other brands in its product
category.
There are times, however, when the brand position is adjusted for different
markets. For example, if a brand is moving into a new country and represents a
category of product that is new or unknown, the campaign strategy would need to
be based on launching a category as well as a brand.
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Effective IMC plans lead to profitable long-term relationships. But how do you
engage the most profitable stakeholders the first time, and how does the brand
conversation continue and evolve? What are the links and connections in the
relationship that must be built and protected?
The IMC Mix
The decision about which marcom tools to use in a campaign is based on an
analysis of their strengths and weaknesses as well as consumer insights to
determine how these functions can best be employed to meet the campaign’s
objectives.
A list in the textbook provides an outline of the tools and their objectives. As you
look over the list, think about what is required to launch a new product. In that
situation, which tools would you select as the most appropriate? That’s the type of
thinking planners use at this point to initially decide which marcom tools would
be most useful in meeting the campaign’s objectives.
In times past, these functional areas were often little empires with their own ideas
and programs. Sometimes the programs conflicted, for example, a special
promotion might be planned at the same time as an event or big advertising
campaign but with an entirely different theme. We refer to that approach as silos,
which means they operated on their own with little concern for what others areas
were doing. IMC has sought to break down the walls between these functional
areas and coordinate their activities with brand focused planning.
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