Welcome to the Kleber & Associates blog! Here’s the latest on The 4 P’s of Integrated Marketing Communication
How Marketing Home Products Benefits from Integrated Efforts
Is it PR, or is it advertising? Or marketing? Or communications?
At Kleber & Associates, we combine these efforts into what’s called Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC). When marketing home products, one must be cohesive and thorough.
Because the landscape of communication has changed (think texting, Twitter and iPhones), so has the way we do business.
Integrated Marketing Communications doesn’t have a universal definition, but its overall gist is a holistic approach to marketing in which all aspects of communication come together to form cohesive and unified messages. IMC is designed to align stakeholders in such a way that they feel everything is connected…from PR to advertising to promotion and direct marketing.
Consider our “Four P’s of Integrated Marketing Communication”:
- Plan: Like any strategy, you and your team should designate specific goals and tactics as you prepare to integrate your marketing efforts.
- Participate: Try to strip away titles like “PR-like object” or “creative execution.” All members of your team should be focused on one thing: what’s best for the audience. Therefore, you should all be thinking of ways to effectively overlay all promotions, advertising, PR and marketing.
- Pass On: Keep everyone informed. All the time. Share information in a way that keeps all of the team in the loop.
- Promote: Sell back the results of integration by promoting the metrics of its success.
When planned and executed well, IMC fosters cooperation, lower costs, better internal communication, personal growth and innovation. As your team collaborates to blend traditional PR efforts with traditional advertising and social media, your team has the chance to learn more, sharpen their skills and think more strategically. Not to mention the time and money saved when it comes to printing duplicates and e-mail threads!
Stakeholders appreciate it, too. Imagine receiving a clear set of messages with one voice that encompasses your entire campaign.
MMC Learning puts it nicely:
“IMC wraps communications around customers and helps them move through the various stages of the buying process. The organization simultaneously consolidates its image, develops a dialogue and nurtures its relationship with customers.”
In the end, it’s really all about togetherness. And doesn’t that sound nice?
