Question

What do you understand by integrated marketing communication? discuss various channels of communication?

Answer 1

Integrated marketing communications is an approach to planning communications that gives your small business the potential to get better results from your campaigns and reduce marketing costs. By integrating tools such as advertising, direct mail, social media, telemarketing and sales promotion, you provide clarity, consistency and maximum communications impact, according to the American Association of Advertising Agencies’ definition.

Results

In the traditional approach to marketing communications, businesses and their agencies plan separate campaigns for advertising, press relations, direct marketing and sales promotions. Integrated campaigns use the same communication tools to reinforce each other and improve marketing effectiveness. In an integrated campaign, you can use advertising to raise awareness of a product and generate leads for the sales force. By communicating the same information in press releases and feature articles, you reinforce the messages in the advertising. You can then use direct mail or email to follow up inquiries from the advertising or press campaigns and provide prospects with more information. To help convert those prospects to customers, you can use telemarketing to sell directly or make appointments for the sales team.

Creative Consistency

In an integrated campaign, the different tools feature the same creative treatment. By repeating the headlines, key phrases and images in each communication, you ensure that prospects and customers receive consistent messages each time they see one of the elements of the campaign. Creative consistency helps reinforce the basic campaign themes by increasing the number of times prospects see or hear the same message.

Cost Savings

Creative consistency in your integrated campaigns can also save you money. By using the same images and adapting the same copy for different media, you reduce copy-writing, design and photography costs. If you work with external communications suppliers, you may be able to reduce agency fees by working with a single firm that offers integrated communications services, rather than separate specialist agencies.

Customer Preference

An integrated campaign helps you provide customers with information in the format they prefer. Consumers and business customers can specify if they want to receive product information via email, direct mail, text message or telephone. Integration ensures they receive the same information in all communications. You can also meet the needs of customers who search the Internet for product information by integrating your website design and content with other communications.

Answer 2

Answer:

A communication channel is the medium, mean, manner or method through which a message is sent to its intended receiver. The basic channels are written (hard copy print or digital formats), oral or spoken, and electronic and multimedia.