Marketing Essay Example

1). IMC is an approach that is used for attaining the marketing campaign objectives via the use of the effectively coordinated promotional method with an objective of strengthening each other. It ensures brand communication where variety of modes works in collaboration with each other for creating a positive and perfect experience for the customers. The major objective of the integrated marketing communication is to ensure proper working of all the aspects of the marketing communication so that cost effectiveness can be maximized. IMC is used by the organization in order to make their products popular among the customers, and facilitate them with the effective services.
2). IMC deliver message more effectively as compared to the conventional advertising campaigns, it focuses more on the quality, and on the needs and demands of the customers than the conventional advertising campaigns. It helps in obtaining the database information of the customers; it helps in building and maintaining strong relations with the customers, and helps in delivering a lot of information to more and more people. Further, IMC is a more effective tool to attract the customers as compared to the simple advertising campaigns. The disadvantages of engaging an IMC campaign are high cost of running the ads, difficulty in the determination of effectiveness, and consumer skepticism.
3). IMC practice becoming more popular or prevalent for product promotions because it is ensuring proper communication and helping in the best utilization of the marketing tools. For example with IMC the advertiser can communicate with large audiences, and can create brand image as well as symbolic appeal. Further, it helps in increasing the personal selling efforts, increase the inventories related to the sales, and convinces the existing customers to purchase the new product. Moreover, it enables to advertise online, which is also very beneficial and a cost effective method of attracting the customers towards the product, and creating awareness of the brand.
4). The promotional mix comprises of the advertising, direct marketing, internet or interactive marketing, sales promotions, public relation, and personal selling. The advertising is a non-personal communication regarding the product, company, or ideas, and is done via the traditional or online media, the direct marketing is done by selling product on face to face meeting, interactive advertisement is done via online ads, sales promotion is done for introducing new products, public relations helps in managing the flow of information between the organization and people, personal selling involves personal efforts for selling a particular product by getting immediate response from the customers.
5). The steps of the IMC are:

Identification of Target Market

Analysis of SWOT
Determination of Marketing Communication Objectives
Developing Tactics and Stratregies
Setting Budget
Evaluating effectiveness (Clow & Baack, 2012)
The identification of tarhet market includes the fact to whom who are selling the product, in SWOT the streghts, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the market situation are considered, then a goal or objective is set that will help the marketers to analyze what they want to accomplish, then ideas are given and steps are taken for execution of the strategy, the budget is estimated, and the progress of the plan is checked.
6). The target market is a particular group of audience that is selected for providing the product (Smith & Taylor, 2006). The advertiser can refine and identify the target audience by identifying the commonalities and getting more information about the existing customers. The advertiser should be aware of the needs and wants of the current customer base, their preferences, and their spending attitude or refining and identifying the target audience. Further, the identification and the refinement should include segmentation based on the demographics, age, and the income level of the customers. The advertiser should keep the attitudes, tastes, lifestyles, and the interests of the customers into consideration.
7). Geographical segmentation indicates the collection of information regarding customer’s physical location. The geographical segmentation can be on the basis of the region such as Asia, on the basis of the region such as Western Coast, by country, city, or state. The market can be divided into the urban, suburban, and rural. However, the segment can be divided on the basis of the total population as well as on the basis of the climate. The demographic segmentation includes segmentation on the basis of income, gender, occupation, age, nationality, and family etc of an individual (Graham & Harker, 1998). The segmentation on the basis of demographics helps the advertiser to reach the target market in an effective manner.
8). Product positioning is a technique in marketing that is used to present the product to the target audience in the best possible manner (Rajagopal, 2009). This technique is used by the marketers in order to analyze the best possible methods for communicating the attributes of their products to different target audiences.
However, effectual product positioning helps in conveying the message to the target market and convince them to take action. Further, the product positioning helps the customer to determine why the product of company is better than that of the competitors. In this regard, the marketer should understand the needs of the customers in accordance with the product.
9). Advertisers tend to use FCB planning Grid during the product promotion planning phase because by positioning the product on the grid in accordance with the dimensions of feel and involvement, advertisers can leverage their product by comparing it with the product of the competitors (Thorson & Duffy, 2011). FCB Planning Grid have four quadrants which are: high involvement and high thinking, high involvement and high feeling, low involvement and low thinking, and low involvement and low feeling. It helps the advertisers to accurately position the product in accordance with these quadrants so that the customers can be served according to their needs and wants.
10). I agree that better understanding IMC practices than simply advertising may be beneficial for my career advancement because this is an era of the digital technology and internet, and IMC presents cost effective methods of running the ads on the digital media as compared to the simple advertisements. It is essential for my career advancement because it paves the way to creativity and effective solution of the problems. Further, IMC helps in more effective utilization of the marketing resources, and it is more effective than the conventional marketing because it creates greater awareness of the product in the audience.

References

Clow, K.E., & Baack D. (2012). Integrated Advertising, Promotion and Marketing Communications. Pearson Education India, new delhi
Graham, P., & Harker, D. (1998). Marketing: Managerial Foundations. Macmillan Education, South Yarra
Smith, P.R., & Taylor, J. (2004). Marketing Communications: An Integrated Approach. Kogan Page Publishers, London
Rajagopal. (2009). Marketing Concepts And Cases. New Age International, New Delhi
Thorson, E., & Duffy, M. (2011). Advertising Age: The Principles of Advertising and Marketing Communication at Work. Nelson Education Limited, Canada