Six Ingredients of Integrated Marketing Communications

The essence of IMC lies in fact in the lines that a commercial made success whenever one has an ad audience or any particular media audience and for them identify the brand early in communication. Secondly, after identification for clear understanding call it often in the rest of message. Thirdly, every message in itself has a promise for the target audience so make the promise early before the entire message of benefits that tie the audience with the marketing communication for a longer time. Lastly, repeat the promise at least thrice in order to make sure it is delivered with purpose to the potential customers.

Similarly, for a successful integrated marketing communication one has to be focus on things like:

• Coverage
• Contribution
• Commonality
• Complementarity 
• Versatility
• Cost

These are the six ingredients of an IMC. Coverage involves in it as the extent to which different marketing options reaches the target audience and make a market. Contribution is an ability of a marketing program or communication to create the desired response in the consumers’ minds. And also how it makes their purchasing decision helpful and worthy for them early in the process.

Commonality is act in an IMC as a persuasive tool as it conveys common information with different marketing options hence share a common meaning across multiple media programs. Here an IMC required integration in the message across all lines with the same meanings and desires to produce a particular outcome. While complementarity is to what extent these marketing options are different in association and linkages across multiple communications. Both commonalities and complementarities have huge impact on the direct sales of a particular product. Just because they both work on building the consumer knowledge structure from two different routes work on by making consumers’ compensatory and reinforcing decision ideal for them.

Versatility means how a marketing communication would be for everyone at the same time. So, companies should have aware of their product different targeted and differentiated consumers’ groups. Always provide different kind of information in simultaneously in such situations so that it appeals every consumer’s group. Then, at the second stage is try to state the most ambiguous problems in it but provide for all a common solution. Lastly, cost should provide the worth in terms of effective and efficient integrated marketing communications. Along with all this it should entail in itself evaluative criteria so that it’s weighed could be checked ontime.

Brand impression on consumers via Celebrity Endorsement

It is a technique to capture consumers’ minds. Celebrity endorsement is a power which confines consumers’ minds and influence the purchasing decision. It is what a product required to convert it into a brand power. Other than this it may have several motives such as: Instant Brand Awareness and Recall, Celebrity values define, and refresh the brand image, Celebrities add new dimensions to the brand image, Instant credibility or aspiration PR coverage and event management, generate fresh and innovative ideas and hence convince clients. A celebrity is used to enhance the brand credibility and aspirational values to, but the celebrity needs to have compatibility the product.

A reputed brand promotional idea and an intrinsic link between the celebrity and the message must be consistent for a successful campaign. Celebrities are producing amazingly good results of generating attention, recall and positive attitudes. This advertising provides supporting activities and there should be an explicit fit between them and the brand. On the other hand, they are source of delivering a flawless message when it comes to the actual efficiency of the core product, creating positive attitudes to brands, purchase intentions and actual sales by sharing their several personal experiences.

Things to consider while making this strategic fit between celebrity and the brand on compatibility grounds are as: Popularity, availability, physical attractiveness, credibility, previous endorsements, must be a brand user and believer, should take controversy risks seriously, must be liked be the brand target audience and must match their lifestyle, must have associated values with the brand, and should consider cost of hiring that particular celebrity. As soon as a new face ascends the popularity charts, advertisers queue up to have it splashed all over. Approval of a brand by a star fosters a sense of trust for that brand among the target audience this is especially true in case of new products.

Celebrities ensure attention of the target group by breaking the clutter of advertisements and making the ad and the brand more noticeable. PR coverage is another reason for using celebrities. People tend to commensurate the personalities of the celebrity with the brand thereby increasing the recall value. For example it is easy to remember that Golf champion Tiger Woods has endorsed in American Express, Rolex, and Nike. A celebrity’s preference for a brand gives out a persuasive message because the celebrity is benefiting from the brand and later the consumer will also benefit. At last, some stars have a universal appeal and therefore prove to be a good bet to generate interest among the masses.

Perception Gap

A notable difference among the customers’ perceptions and the perception of the owner is known as perception gap. One can say that it is the evaluation of the marketplace that how other than management people think about the product. This could include the general awareness of the brand, quality, supplier performance etc. In addition to providing a detailed view of what and how the various external constituents perceive an organization, a series of recommended strategies will be developed that are designed to “close” the gap between management’s perceptions and what the marketplace is really thinking.

Once the marketplace’s perceptions of a company’s products and services are ascertained, they are “compared” to those perceptions that are “held” by the senior management team of the company. Invariably there is a major “gap” between what the marketplace thinks and management’s perception of what the marketplace “thinks.” This perception gap is often the prime source for ill-conceived strategies and inappropriate actions, resulting in less than desirable results. Unless this “gap” is closed, the company will never be able to achieve its maximum potential.

Many researches revealed that in order to manage the perception gap is actually improving the risks associated with the brand. Other words it is a brand reputation management process to identify these gaps. Reputation management process begins with issues audit a candid, comprehensive look at the vulnerabilities and opportunities a company faces. In order to improve the perception gap it is necessary to work on the communication. Some basic things to avoid in this communication process are as:

• Lack of openness from company side regarding customer complaints.
• Delay in notification to the public in terms of new researches in process.
• Avoid premature over-reassurance in absence of authentic data.
• Don’t create "Information vacuums" for customers.
• Failure to rectify error on the alarming side in services associated with the products.
• Repeated bombastic and inaccurate statements about the catastrophe being nearly solved.