Integrated marketing communications is a concept of marketing communications planning, which is based on the need to assess the role of individual areas in the overall strategy (advertising, PR, sales promotion, etc.), as well as finding the best combination that can provide clarity, consistency and effectiveness of influence communication programs by means of a consistent combination of individual calls.
Integrated marketing communications involve solving the following related problems:
1. The creation of a unified system of messages using a variety of means of marketing communications that do not contradict each other and coordinated among themselves, establishing a single optimal image of a communicator.
2. Integrated marketing communications are subordinated to a single goal - maximizing the effectiveness of marketing communications through the search for the most successful combinations of synthetic and fixed marketing communications tools, as well as single tools and techniques of a particular tool.
Integrated marketing communications in the system are a promotion complex. This complex contains the following forms of marketing communications:
1. Advertising, which is a paid form of disseminating information from the customer, aimed at the consumer;
2. Propaganda, which is an increase in demand due to the distribution by third parties of important commercial information in the print media, on television or radio;
3. Sales promotion, in the form of short-term incentive measures, encouraging the sale or purchase of a service, product;
4. Personal sale, expressed in the oral presentation of the goods, services to a potential buyer for sale.
All forms of marketing communications have their own specific communication methods, for example, expositions, trade presentations, advertising on souvenirs, specialized fairs, exhibitions, contests, catalogs, leaflets, posters, prizes, etc.
The main objectives of marketing communications are to stimulate sales and sellers, comprehensively inform the consumer, provide arguments that reveal the benefits of the purchase, support promotions from the manufacturer itself, present new products, remind consumers of previous advertising purchases and promotions.
Methods of marketing communications include external means by which stimulation to visit is made. These include signs, shop windows, aystoppers, light displays, barkers, etc.
Internal means are also methods of marketing communications. They encourage acquisition, attract through the interior, through the creation of psychological excitement of a potential consumer, making him ready to buy. This includes design, music, color palette, aromas, manner of communication of personnel, inventory and equipment, for example, presentation, various suspended, floor structures, displays, indoor exhibitions and display cases, running lines and odor generators.
The main communication characteristics of integrated marketing communications include: high efficiency, the need to combine two communicators, the use of all the means and techniques of marketing communications, the communication effect on the buyer and the feedback are almost identical in time.
Thus, IMC is the practice of unification of various marketing communications tools , from packaging to advertising. It is organized in such a way that persuasive and meaningful news is aimed precisely at the target audience, capable of helping to realize the goals and objectives of the company.