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Integrated Marketing Communication Analysis
1. Introduction
Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) theory was born in the late 1980s. At that time, media communication channels and tools were pervasive. The traditional marketing theory is too difficult to adapt in the new marketing environment. The proposal of IMC not only conforms to the new trend of the development of marketing theory, but also meets the new requirements of marketing practice. IMC has attracted extensive attention from academia. The theory originated from a survey project implemented by the Medill College of Northwestern University in the United States. Clark Kenwood, Don E. Schultz, and Paul Wang, participated in the project and defined IMC. They asserted that IMC means that enterprises need to fully understand the needs of customers and use various communication methods to achieve their goals on this basis. IMC brings brought additional value to provide information. The purpose of marketing communication is to maximize the impact of communication. The concept focuses on the integration of marketing communication strategies (Zhou Hanzhang, 2021).
The “two-level communication” theory and cybernetics study the initiative of consumer in the communication process. The “two-level communication” theory emphasizes consumers’ demands. IMC takes consumers’ demands as the core has become one of the essential connotations of IMC theory. In 1993, Schultz, Stanley Tennaben, and Robert Lauterbourne published the first IMC theoretical work Integrated Marketing Communication. The book emphasizes that consumer feedback is essential to a successful IMC in the book. The book mentioned that IMC should make customers contact unified information, generate purchase behavior, and maintain consumer loyalty.
In 1983, Professor Leonard L. Berry put forward the theory of “relationship marketing” (Affran & Gyamfi, 2022). It believes that relationship marketing is one of the means to attract customers. Relationship marketing makes customers closer (Zheng Xiaoying, Zhao Zhihong, Ai Jiayin & Xu Wenbo, 2022). The emphasis on “relationship” has also become one of the core connotations of MIC theory. In 1995, Tom Duncan introduced the concept of stakeholders to explain IMC. Duncan expanded the relationship between enterprises and customers. Davide, Orazi, Max, Theilacker & Jessica (2017) further explained the relationship between enterprises and stakeholders. He believes that IMC is a process in which an enterprise establishes relationships with potential customers, employees, investors, the public and others. Then IMC establishes and strengthens mutually beneficial relations between stakeholders.
2. Ways to Further Improve the “Integration”
In the age of the Internet, a lot of information fills our daily life. Consumers can easily access information with the help of various information platforms. For enterprises, good use of new media can also be used to improve marketing effects. Correspondingly, due to a large number of information platforms, and the highly fragmented time of consumers, enterprises need to adopt integrated marketing to carry out marketing business. It is an irreversible trend. Here are serval methods of integrated marketing communication for reference.
(1) Filter the propagation platform
Channel integration is the most essential way of integrated marketing. To cope with the fragmentation of consumers’ time, enterprises must spread information on multiple platforms. The approach is to select an appropriate platform to release information. In addition, two points need to ensure. The platform should have sufficient volume and verticality. Therefore, top search engines, such as Google and Bing, can be considered when selecting search engines. If an enterprise publishes information on the platform without selection, it is easy to waste resources, like human resource.
(2) Accurately to locate consumers
Each product has its corresponding consumers. Although enterprises can expand the number of consumers in some ways, the primary task is to focus on meeting consumers’ needs. Therefore, it requires accurate positioning of consumers. Consumers’ portraits can be formulated efficiently with help of the Internet, including age, occupation, gender, education backgrounds. Through long-term accumulation, enterprises can quickly gain information about the main consumer groups. It can formulate proper marketing strategies. These strategies can also reduce unnecessary marketing expenses.
(3) Leverage brand value
Enterprises must be clear that consumers tend to rely on the brand when purchasing goods. Consumers tend to choose a more well-known brand. Therefore, brand is a valuable asset for enterprises. In the actual marketing process, it is necessary to create content around the brand and increase brand exposure. It must control the balance between content and marketing information. The advertisement emphasizes memory retention and repetition. Whether it is people, words, images, or products, they are easy to remember often more attractive and convincing. The purchase behavior of consumers will also be affected by products. In other words, if a product can be quickly remembered by consumers. Then consumers will accept the product imperceptibly. Taking Starbucks as an example, Starbucks stores is the evident advertising of Starbucks brand. A doorway, a cup, an apron, a tissue box, and a handbag are Starbucks’ advertising. The location of Starbucks stores (usually on busy roads) is an obvious signal.
(4) Advertising Strategies
Integrated marketing communication is an essential way to integrate resources, and transmit brand value. Advertising is an enterprise’s behavior in that the enterprise spends money to invest in the market. It is essential for IMC to control human resources, financial, and material resources. It is also a challenge for the company. Most of time, the planned advertising strategies are bankrupt due to limited funds or others. Therefore, it recommends that the company’s senior management take the lead, fully integrate, and allocate resources.
3. Three Challenges of Integrated Marketing Communication
The emergence and vigorous development of information technology and new media have brought lots of opportunities and challenges to IMC. In the modern information society, consumers are pursuing more higher product quality. Integrated marketing is conducive to building an excellent brand culture. When facing various challenges, enterprises continue to enhance their innovation abilities, and building more integrated marketing communication means maximizing the effect of integrated marketing communication (Hu Mingyu, 2020). Next, the article will describe the challenges of integrated marketing communication as follows.
(1) The advertising forms are complex and diverse
With the rapid development of new media for network communication, consumer interaction remains highly effective. As spreading high-quality products, number of subjects of free high-quality online products also continues to surge. People always see more than 1,000 pieces information about online advertising promotion and marketing, intentionally or unintentionally (Xing Dongjing, 2018). It is often difficult for consumers to focus on a specific product due to a large amount of information impact. If enterprises want consumers to actively search for product information, they need to study consumers’ active purchase behavior. This research is very challenging.
(2) The consumer market pursues a higher level
When companies integrate marketing information communication, they face various potential risks. As consumers have various complex market demands, uncontrollable factors for enterprises have increased significantly. In the new media era, consumers can more easily obtain commodity information. With the growing popularity of the cultural experience consumption economy, consumers tend to invest more money in new products. Most of the time, consumers would rather invest more money to buy high-quality goods. Their goal is to obtain more reliable services. On the contrary, consumers no longer pursue using products’ essential functions. Therefore, in the current consumer market, the public prefers high-quality goods (Zhang Min, 2018).
(3) Traditional enterprises face risks when integrating marketing
The network media should have prominent industry characteristics, such as niche and personalization. The characteristics extensively cater to the preferences of the general audience. Therefore, compared with traditional media, new media has stronger competitiveness in modern society. When traditional enterprises use integrated marketing innovation communication, they will face the essential risk of upgrading failure. There is no doubt that the unique brand information network mode has exerted a significant influence on the brand contact behavior of target audiences. New media will gradually replace the brand marketing mode of traditional mass media (Sun Bo & Zeng Zijing, 2013). In the age of Internet, new media will deliver the brand enterprise and new brand image directly to the new target market consumers.
4. Recommendations for Companies to Take Advantage of These Challenges in IMC
(1) Adopting diversified marketing methods
The emergence and continuous development of new media make the means available to enterprises in the IMC process more diversified than before. Public communication, database marketing, precision marketing, word-of-mouth, image marketing, and other marketing methods are not independent. In the IMC process, in order to achieve the goal that is of maximizing the marketing communication effect, enterprises can explore the relationship between these marketing methods. All marketing methods will skillfully integrate to produce a better effect than the previous single marketing method. At the same time, information network is a kind of media that integrates multiple communication forms. In the wave of the Internet, with the rapid development of network technology and digital technology, all communication content can be transmitted in all media in the form of text. Communication content can also transmit by vision and hearing. Therefore, using new media platforms, integrated marketing communication are more complex than traditional platforms. The available means to maximize communication effect is also more diversified.
(2) Enhancing the interaction between enterprises and consumers
The interaction between enterprises and consumers has optimized communication effect to a certain extent. New media marketing emphasizes personality, experience, and participation, which caters to the purpose of modern marketing concepts. It is closer to actual needs of consumers. It also means that the relationship between enterprises and consumers can be constructed and continuously consolidated better. Communication between them is more convenient and practical. Then, it will become easier for enterprises to do marketing. It is easier for enterprises to understand consumers’ preferences. With the maturity of big data, database marketing and precision marketing have gradually become a reality. Enterprises can accurately analyze what consumers needs and demand by analysis big data. Furthermore, it is possible for enterprises to develop personalized products and services for consumers. So the maximization of marketing communication effect is easier to achieve.
(3) Reconstructing the marketing system
The application of new media and big data has reconstructed the marketing system. It provides a new impetus for interactive integrated marketing communication. Integrating media, channels and terminals can monitor consumers’ behaviors and psychoanalysis based on big data. The above actions will enable integrated marketing communication to have a better data technology foundation in terms of interactivity. These actions also make marketing more accurate and scientific. Using big data in new media makes brand construction and communication more accurate and effective, which makes many enterprises focus on new media.
5. Conclusion
The powerful function of the Internet will bring convenience to people. The Internet has a significant impact on the process of enterprises’ integrated marketing communication. Because of IMC’s high dependence on information, media marketing strategies face unprecedented opportunities and challenges. Firstly, this paper describes the concept of integrated marketing communication and puts forward the methods that can improve integrated marketing communication. Then, the article analyzes the three challenges faced by companies in the process of IMC to consumers. In response to these challenges, the author puts forward suggestions on how to take advantage modern .
References
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Davide, C., Orazi, A. S., Max, N., Theilacker & Jessica, V. (2017). A multi-stakeholder IMC framework for networked brand identity. European Journal of Marketing, 51(3), 551-557.
Hu Mingyu. (2020). Brand cross-border marketing from the perspective of integrated marketing communication: innovation and challenges, China Advertising, (10), 83-87.
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