BUSINESS PLAN

Running head: INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION 1

INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION 2

Integrated Marketing Communication Module 3 Case

Integrated Marketing Communication

The marketing mix is the set of decisions that a company uses in its product pricing, promotion, channels of distribution, communication with the customers, and customer relationship management. Besides, IMC is one of the main components of strategies of marketing. Hence, integrated marketing communications (IMC) will be the point of discussion in this paper because it conveys clear messages to potential consumers.

Through promotions of an organization, the organization can communicate very well with its customers. However, with IMC, communication becomes more effective. Thus, the value and benefits of the company's products and services can be effectively delivered with the help of IMC to the customers (Kotler et al., 2019). Elements of the communication mix include personal selling, advertising, direct marketing, public relations, and sales promotion. However, these elements have their pros and cons that impact the communication process of the company.

Sales promotion

Marketers benefit from sales promotion because it makes new products known to consumers. Marketers also like using sales promotion because it strengthens the involvement of the customers. However, sales promotion can have its downside. One of the disadvantages of sales promotion is lowering the brand's potential by conditioning customers to be in a state of waiting for another time of sale promotion before wanting to use the business.

Direct Marketing

Direct communication can be achieved without distance barriers with the help of the internet. The internet has enabled many communication tools such as social media platforms to be developed (Ingram, 2017). Therefore, social media platforms and other internet platforms help the company to communicate with customers directly. Hence with feedback from customers, the company can improve on the quality of goods and services.

Conversely, direct marketing has some limitations that can be costly to the company. One of the downsides of direct marketing is that companies' brands can be reviewed negatively, and people spread negative messages. This destroys the reputation of the company, and also it discourages clients from purchasing or using the services and products of the company.

Personal Selling

As the name suggests, this form of marketing involves direct interaction, i.e., face-to-face communication between the product seller and a customer. Face-to-face communication allows the salesperson to create good impressions in customers' heads. Also, this form of sales marketing allows the seller to know the specific products capable of meeting their customer's wants.

However, this form of marketing has downsides; customers can take it for granted or use the information provided wrongly. This mostly happens when customers have a negative experience with salespeople (Ingram, 2017).

Public Relations

The work of public relations is to create awareness about a company's socially responsible motives and actions to the public. Thus, through public relations, companies are able to create a good image and impression to the intended market. (Ingram, 2017). Public relations makes customers see themselves as brand champions. However, the major weakness of public relations is that any negative impression given will lead to sending the wrong message to the target market.

Advertising

Advertising is mainly used to reach many potential customers over a short period. Advertisement is usually repeated time and again depending on the amount paid by the company. Advertising is extensive and powerful since it can be done under different media, for example, television. Following this, it is the best form of marketing currently. Accordingly, the advertisement also gives the company the chance to tailor it to appeal to the intended audience (Ingram, 2017).

Like other forms of marketing, the advertisement also has some demerits. Advertisement is very repetitive in nature, making it one of its worst sides; when it comes up, customers see it as a nuisance and tune out the message being advertised (Ingram, 2017). Following this, the intended customers may not get the message being advertised since they tend to avoid the new advertising tools of technology.

Products

The company Lead Logistics specializes in transporting local freights, mainly consisting of home appliances, furniture, and other appliances to the local customers. Their services are cheap hence provide lower transportation costs for the customers. Moreover, they deliver home appliances, among other products, on time to satisfy the customers' needs.

IMC Approach

The best IMC approach that this company will use is direct marketing. It focuses on promoting a specific service and calling the consumers to make bookings/purchases, register their interest, and receive further information. Besides, direct messaging will enable the company to promote their services directly to the buyers who are primarily in need of them.

Direct marketing has many benefits to the company. They include:

· It helps the company to develop a strong relationship with new customers

· It tests if the service provided by the company is appealing to consumers

· It enables the company to identify the marketing approaches that reach the target market

· Provides customers with excellent and robust content about a service or a product

· Increases sales.

However, when the company uses direct marketing as its best IMC approach, it must carefully plan and clearly understand responsible direct marketing practice. When the company matures, some changes in marketing and communication must be made. For instance, new elements, such as advertising and sales promotion, can be introduced. Advertising enables businesses to expand their markets by retaining the existing market of the product as they explore new markets. On the other end, sales promotion increases a company's sales and helps in the mass production of products.

Messaging

The best way to communicate with the target customers so that direct marketing works efficiently is through the internet. The company will be using the internet, especially social media outlets, to convey its products and services. Therefore, direct marketing by the company will be done by posting its pictures and videos of services and products on social media. Photos will be easily be shared by customers, and this will make the customers be a part of marketing agents (Vizard, 2014)

Measuring Effectiveness

The effects of direct marketing should be measured to know which marketing strategies reached the target market. Therefore, the company can measure the success of its marketing strategies in many ways. However, they should measure what is important to them. The business can measure success by checking how many opportunities were created and how they impacted revenue. Hence, the company can use progressive profiling as a suitable method of measuring the effectiveness of its direct marketing. Progressive profiling builds prospect information without chasing away the clients (Smith, 2021). Relevant information about how the clients think about the services and products is captured whenever the sales representative engages with a client (Smith, 2021).

Conclusion

A strong relationship with the customers is one of the essential factors in marketing. Therefore, companies should have the best approaches when communicating with customers. Businesses should choose the best elements of IMC that will suit their marketing strategies. Also, measuring marketing effectiveness is essential for companies because it helps companies identify what marketing strategies are reaching the target market.

References

Ingram, D. (2017, September 26). The pros & cons of marketing communication tools. Retrieved from https://bizfluent.com/info-7909187-pros-cons-marketing-communication-tools.html

Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., Harris, L. C., & He, H. (2019). Principles of marketing. Pearson Higher Education.

Smith, K. (2021, January 18). The complete guide to measuring the success of direct mail marketing. Retrieved from https://www.pfl.com/measuring-direct-mail-success/

Vizard, S. (2014, October 17). Using social media PICS in marketing offers opportunities and perils. Retrieved from https://www.marketingweek.com/using-social-media-pics-in-marketing-offers-opportunities-and-perils/