Integrated Marketing Communication Essay

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Integrated Communication Principles Question: Why should a company consider using IMC to build a brand, and how would it go about using IMC to build the brand? Integrated Marketing Communication is the management of all organized communications to build positive relationships with customers and other stakeholders––stresses marketing to the individual by understanding needs, motivations, attitudes and behaviors (Northwestern University Medill School). The meaning of brands goes well beyond the traditional ideas- goods of particular name or trademark (Oxford English Dictionary). Brand can often represent, or can be used to create, social meaning which also refers to emotional association (Elliott and Percy, 2007). IMC is every contact between the brand and the market. This means much more than simple advertising and promotion. It means everything: packaging, Store signs and layout, Delivery, Customer service and so on. Management of a brand must coordinate all these aspects of the brand’s communication, ensuring a consistent message. In addition, “When there is consistency in the look and feel of advertising and promotion over time and in all media, the merest glimpse will activate the appropriate memories for the brand. But without this IMC ‘glue,’ every execution must be approached anew, with less and less likelihood of it being processed, because there are no existing links to the brand in the memory” (Percy, p. xii). Positioning is the first step in laying the foundation for building a strong brand with IMC. There are two basic types of brand positioning: central versus differentiated. The former is seen as “delivering all of the basic benefits associated with the product category”. “The market regards it as among the best brands”. The latter “looks for a way to differentiate the brand from its competitors” (Percy, p. 36). The first job of positioning is

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