What is Integrated Marketing Communication?

5 minute read

The advancement of technology and its various applications have altered the way businesses operate. It has had an impact on various business domains such as marketing, communication, and customer relationships. Entrepreneurs recognized the importance of creating coordinated and consistent messages through various channels of communication. As a result, integrated marketing communication emerged.

About Integrated Marketing Communication

Integrated marketing communication is a simple concept that requires brands to carefully link all of their messages and communications together. When organizations correctly understand the meaning of integrated marketing communication, they can provide a seamless experience that strengthens their bond with their customers.

Importance

The implementation of integrated marketing communication necessitates a significant amount of effort and time. However, as a business owner, the benefits and importance of integrated marketing communication make you realize how it can help your company grow in a variety of ways. Let’s take a look at some of them.

  • IMC enables marketers to integrate all of their communications in order to plan and create a synergistic approach.
  • It encircles all of the brand’s communication around the customer, smoothing and simplifying their purchasing journey.
  • Integrated marketing communication encourages consistency in both internal and external communication.
  • Instead of being perplexed by the vast amount of inconsistent messaging, the target customer understands the various types of information the brand wishes to disseminate.
  • IMC gives a company a competitive advantage and increases sales. While communicating with the customer, the brand establishes a relationship and provides a seamless purchasing experience, eventually leading to a lifelong, loyal client base.
  • To avoid conflicts, a well-coordinated IMC approach aligns with short and long-term marketing.
  • A unified and coherent message has a greater impact than a slew of messages. IMC assists a brand in standing out in the midst of the barrage of advertisements and campaigns that a customer is bombarded with on a daily basis.
  • Customers experience increased anxiety, confusion, and frustration as a result of inconsistent communication. An integrated message will reduce the time it takes the customer to decide what to buy while also providing them with a reassuring sense of order.

What Exactly is an Integrated Marketing Communications Plan (IMCP)?

To maximize the impact of marketing objectives, an Integrated Marketing Communications plan (IMC plan) incorporates market research, strategic planning, audience segmentation, marketing channel selection, creative briefs and campaign messaging, budgeting, ROI analysis, and campaign metrics and evaluation system.

A good IMC will outline a core message, highlight your competitive advantage, address the appropriate target market, and tailor the message to fit supportive media channels.

Undergraduate courses

With the Bachelor in Integrated Marketing Communication, you will gain an understanding of traditional marketing elements such as advertising, sales promotion, public relations, direct marketing, and more. You’ll discover the magic of combining these various elements to deliver a powerful and unified message in support of a company or its products. You’ll be able to develop effective marketing programmes that deliver meaningful and measurable results by utilizing cutting-edge communication technologies and applying integrated marketing fundamentals.

UniversityProgramme
Cleveland State UniversityBBA Marketing Communications
University of Wisconsin-WhitewasherBBA Marketing: Integrated Marketing Communications
London Metropolitan UniversityBA (Hons) Advertising, Marketing Communications, and Public Relations
Berlin School of Business and InnovationBSc (Hons) Digital Marketing and Social Media
University of Nicosia, CyprusBBA: Marketing Communications
Southeast Missouri State UniversityBSBA Marketing: Integrated Marketing Communications
National UniversityIntegrated Marketing Communications
Bournemouth University, UKBA (Hons) Marketing Communications, BA (Hons) Marketing Communications + Advertisement
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Graduate Courses

A Master’s in IMC Programmes, like a Bachelor’s, covers the principles, concepts, and practices relevant to designing and implementing a comprehensive marketing strategy for an organization. However, unlike bachelor’s programmes, master’s programmes include coursework devoted solely to topics in the IMC field, allowing students to delve deeper into the field of IMC and specialize further in the broad field. Students pursuing a master’s degree in integrated marketing communication gain an understanding of the practices and strategies used to develop, launch, and measure effective marketing initiatives that engage today’s consumers (and other stakeholders) across multiple media channels.

UniversityProgramme
Bournemouth UniversityMSc – Marketing & User Experience
MA Marketing Communications
University of East AngliaMSc Marketing and Management
Munich Business School Master International Marketing and Brand Management
NYU School of Professional StudiesMS in Integrated Marketing
University of GreenwichMA Strategic Marketing Communications
Imperial College Business SchoolMSc Strategic Marketing
University of Nicosia, CyprusMA Digital Marketing and Communication
The University of West AlabamaMA Integrated Marketing Communications
University of Hong KongMSc Marketing

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Career Scope

Integrated marketing communication is a multidisciplinary field that incorporates both traditional and new media practices. As the name implies, integrated marketing communications is a holistic marketing approach that considers marketing strategy in the context of an organization’s goals, as well as business development and maintenance requirements. In other words, rather than having separate teams or efforts within an organization for marketing, advertising, public relations, social media, and consumer/audience analytics, integrated marketing communications encourages the integration of these disciplines to create a more powerful and concerted approach.

Marketing Director: Marketing Directors oversee the entire marketing process, from research and planning to execution and analysis.

Director of Consumer Affairs: The Director of Consumer Affairs is responsible for assisting consumers with complaints and attempting to resolve them peacefully. They also supervise the office staff on a daily basis.

Web Content Manager: A web content manager is in charge of overseeing all content planning, organization, creation, and publication. They collaborate closely with their organization’s leadership and sales teams to create content that is valuable to their intended target audience. 

Marketing Specialist: Marketing Specialists are in charge of coming up with marketing campaign ideas, developing brand messages to increase brand awareness, researching and analyzing data, and creating sales presentations.

Talent Acquisition Manager: A Talent Acquisition Manager is in charge of identifying, recruiting, hiring, and retaining qualified candidates.

Marketing Assistant: Marketing assistants are in charge of gathering and disseminating financial and statistical data, such as budget spreadsheets. analyzing questionnaires in addition to writing reports, company brochures, and other similar documents, as well as organizing and hosting presentations and customer visits

Public Relations Director: Public relations directors are in charge of developing marketing messages that improve their employer’s or clients’ public image.

FAQs

What are some prominent examples of IMC?

Old spice: Smell like a man
GoPro: Be a Hero
LinkedIn: In it Together

Are there any barriers to IMC?

Yes, to name a few we have listed down the most common ones:
1. Organizations are frequently very comfortable with their current structure and way of working. One of the many barriers to implementing an integrated marketing communication strategy is resistance to change.
2. Integrating a holistic message into short and long-term marketing campaigns can be difficult. However, if properly planned and implemented, it is possible.
3. IMC can also smother creativity. Innovative, out-of-the-box ideas are discarded if they are not in line with the overall marketing strategy and communication. When working with a stricter and more integrated approach, however, creativity can be more difficult, ultimately yielding the best results.

If you want to know about any international university or course, you can visit Leverage Edu to clear your doubts. We will help you with the application process so that you can discover your goals. Call us at 1800 572 000 for a free 30-minute consultation.

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