The American Marketing Association (AMA), representing marketers, defines marketing as “The process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives “.
Effective marketing requires managers to recognize the interdependence of activities such as sales and promotion and how they can be combined to develop a marketing program. In marketing, sharing is a central concept. For the exchange to occur, there must be two or more parties with something of value to each other, the desire and ability to give that something to the other party, and a way to communicate with each other.
Marketing facilitates the exchange process and the development of relationships by carefully examining the needs and desires of customers, developing a product or service that meets these needs, offering it at a certain price, making it available through a distribution channel or location. in particular, and develop a promotion or communication program to create awareness and interest. The focus of market-driven companies is to develop and maintain relationships with their customers. This has led to a new emphasis on relationship marketing that involves creating, maintaining, and enhancing long-term relationships with individual customers as well as other stakeholders for mutual benefit.
The marketer’s job is to change marketing activities and fully integrated marketing activities and put together fully integrated marketing programs to create, communicate, and deliver value to customers.
Advertising and promotion play an important role in the exchange process by informing consumers about an organization’s product or service and convincing them of its ability to satisfy their needs or wants. The American Association of Advertising Agencies developed the definition of Integrated Marketing Communication as “A marketing communications planning concept that recognizes the added value of a comprehensive plan that assesses the strategic role of a variety of communication disciplines – advertising, response direct, sales promotion and advertising relationships – and combines these disciplines to provide clarity, consistency and maximum impact on communications. ” Integrated marketing communication involves the coordination of the various promotional elements. The six main promotional tools are advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, direct marketing, advertising / public relations, Internet marketing.
The integrated marketing communication approach helps companies identify the most appropriate and effective methods to communicate and build relationships with their customers, as well as with other stakeholders, such as employees, suppliers, investors, interest groups and the general public. Businesses send messages to customers and other stakeholders through all aspects of their marketing mix, not just promotion. Consumers make inferences about a product based on things like its design, appearance, performance, price, service support, and where and how it is distributed. For example, a high price can symbolize quality for customers, such as the shape or design of a product, its packaging, its brand or the image of the stores in which it is sold.
The integrated marketing communication approach to marketing communications planning and strategy is being embraced by both large and small businesses and has become popular with companies marketing consumer products and services, as well as business-to-business marketers. . By coordinating their marketing communication efforts, companies can avoid duplication, take advantage of the synergy between promotional tools, and develop more efficient and effective marketing communication programs.
Moving to integrated marketing communication also reflects an adaptation of marketers to a changing environment, particularly with regard to consumers, technology, and the media. There have been major shifts among consumers with respect to demographics, lifestyles, media use, and buying and buying patterns. The media strategy involves determining which communication channels will be used to convey the advertising message to the target audience. The two most important aspects of the advertising program are the development of the message and the media strategy. The development of messages, called creative strategy, involves determining the basic appeal and the message that the advertiser wants to convey to the target audience. Once the message and media strategies have been determined, steps must be taken to implement them. Most large companies hire advertising agencies to plan and produce their messages and to evaluate and purchase the media that will carry their ads. Marketing communication can tell or show consumers how and why a product is used, by what type of person, and where and when. They can learn about who makes the product and what the company and brand stand for; and they can get an incentive or reward for the test or use. Marketing communications allow companies to link their brands to other people, places, events, brands, experiences, feelings, and things.
