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FUNDAMENTALS OF AN INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION PLAN
This document is intended to provide a general guide to students in Bus 134B, Integrated Marketing Communications, as they develop their semester project. Hopefully, this will provide an additional “comfort zone” to students, enabling a clearer understanding and a faster start with the project. References to page numbers and figures whose content is incorporated here refer to Chapter 4, The IMC Planning Process, of Integrated Advertising, Promotion, and Marketing Communications, Clow & Baack, 5th Edition, Prentice Hall, 2011. Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) is the term used to describe the entire program by which you communicate with your customers. The “face, personality and spirit” of your company and products (all marketing mix variables) should blend together to present a unified message. Note that an IMC plan is NOT a marketing plan. An IMC plan is the portion of the marketing plan that involves all promotional aspects of the marketing plan. All communications with customers, including but not limited to personal selling consumer sales promotions trade (channel) promotions advertising public relations corporate as well as product positioning customer service experiences are included in a complete IMC plan. Each of these different communication types must be aligned with and in support of each other and the overall positioning (Value Image) of company. To develop a feeling of how this works, you may want to read the Lead-in Vignette from Chapter 4, PetsMart: It’s a Dog’s Life (which ain’t half bad), page 80, and then ask yourself these questions: 1. Can you identify pet owner “market segments”? What types of pet owner groups are present? 2. How is the PetsMart company viewed in relation to its competition? 3. Do you think pet owners will cut back or spend less money on pets when economic times are more difficult? Why or why not? The IMC Planning Context (p. 82) In developing an integrated
This document is intended to provide a general guide to students in Bus 134B, Integrated Marketing Communications, as they develop their semester project. Hopefully, this will provide an additional “comfort zone” to students, enabling a clearer understanding and a faster start with the project. References to page numbers and figures whose content is incorporated here refer to Chapter 4, The IMC Planning Process, of Integrated Advertising, Promotion, and Marketing Communications, Clow & Baack, 5th Edition, Prentice Hall, 2011. Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) is the term used to describe the entire program by which you communicate with your customers. The “face, personality and spirit” of your company and products (all marketing mix variables) should blend together to present a unified message. Note that an IMC plan is NOT a marketing plan. An IMC plan is the portion of the marketing plan that involves all promotional aspects of the marketing plan. All communications with customers, including but not limited to personal selling consumer sales promotions trade (channel) promotions advertising public relations corporate as well as product positioning customer service experiences are included in a complete IMC plan. Each of these different communication types must be aligned with and in support of each other and the overall positioning (Value Image) of company. To develop a feeling of how this works, you may want to read the Lead-in Vignette from Chapter 4, PetsMart: It’s a Dog’s Life (which ain’t half bad), page 80, and then ask yourself these questions: 1. Can you identify pet owner “market segments”? What types of pet owner groups are present? 2. How is the PetsMart company viewed in relation to its competition? 3. Do you think pet owners will cut back or spend less money on pets when economic times are more difficult? Why or why not? The IMC Planning Context (p. 82) In developing an integrated