Integrated Marketing Communication

Sahil Avi Kapoor

20140121136 | PGP 1
My model for business is The Beatles. They were four guys who kept each other kind of negative
tendencies in check. They balanced each other and the total was greater than the sum of the
parts. That's how I see business: great things in business are never done by one person, they're
done by a team of people. Steve Jobs (1992)
This quote remarkably puts out the importance of coherence, single focus and collaboration in
any business function. Marketing, I believe, is no different. Gone are the days when a glossy, front
page newspaper advertisement, a large BTL hoarding, a 30 second radio slot or a TVC marked the
launch of a new product. Gone are the days when entire marketing budgets were planned and
approved with little or absolutely no coherence between the dollars spent on the varied
marketing channels. This is the era of close knit, water tight, integrated marketing
communications.
Lets begin by answering the following question, What is integrated marketing communication?
The American Marketing Association (1995) defines Integrated Marketing Communications as a
planning process designed to assure that all brand contacts received by a customer or prospect
for a product, service, or organization are relevant to that person and consistent over time. Thus,
an outbound marketing communication that is coherent, meaningful and at the same time
conveys the intended message distinctly may be referred to as an IMC.
Going forward with this definition, the next step would be to plan the perfect IMC. How do we
do that? West Virginia University (2014) compares planning an integrated marketing
communication to composing a musical. While in a musical note, each instrument serves its own
distinct purpose, the final goal lies in the symphony produced by all the instruments together.
Similarly in an integrated marketing communication, the social media could be the bass, a TVC
could add the rhythm and PR the percussion.
The latest, most popular add to the integrated marketing mix has been the social media. Not a
single marketing manager would refute the growing clout of social media marketing in any Go to
Market plan. David Meerman Scott (2007), a US based marketing strategist writes in his # 1 best
seller, The New Rules of Marketing and PR as to how social communication can be perfected for
the right IMC. He writes about the importance of real time communication, about the importance
of buyers over products and the high cost of online user engagement.
The importance and influence of social media all taken, the biggest, most challenging question
still looms. How to tame this super powerful marketing tool and integrate it into the marketing
mix? And who can answer it better than Red Bull, the brand that has proved its prowess time
and again? Ben Sturner (2012), CEO and President Red Bull, when asked about the Red Bull
space jump called Stratos, believes that the Space Jump was by far the most awesome
Sahil Kapoor

marketing campaigns by Red Bull, and maybe the best marketing stunt of all time. In fact, he says
that there is no way the brand could get cut as much popularity out of the jump through a mere
press coverage. Social networks played a massive part in this branding strategy. While YouTube
offered live feed to the audience, dedicated Facebook and Instagram feeds catapulted the gig
into the big league. While Red Bull bombarded Twitter with live images, the mentions and
hashtags by marveled social media users lost all sane count.
Such path breaking campaigns show the path forward towards the future of integrated marketing
communications. Therere no points for guessing of course, that the most effective and successful
marketing managers of the near future shall be judged on their ability to integrate each and every
channel of outward communications in the best way possible.
Concluding with the words of Pratik Dholakia (2014), VP Marketing at E2M Solutions, Integrated
Marketing Communications is not like a software package that you can buy, install and run in one
go. It is a far-reaching change that affects every aspect of the organization, external agencies as
well as the end user. The attempt is to make all the various marketing tools that we have at our
disposal to work together in a synergistic manner so that they make up for each others
deficiencies. Give your organization time and solid direction on how to go about this process and
see how the fruits of collaboration and marketing synergies come together to build a stronger,
more successful brand in the long run.

Sahil Kapoor

References
1. Dan Lyons (2013); Inspirational Quotes From the Late Great Steve Jobs; Retrieved from
http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/steve-jobs-inspirational-quotes-im-slideshare
2. West Virginia University (2014); About IMC (Online Graduate Program); Retrieved from
http://imc.wvu.edu/about/what_is_imc
3. PWC
(2014);
The
importance
of
social
media;
Retrieved
from
http://www.pwc.com.au/private-clients/events/importance-of-social-media.htm
4. Jason Boies (2012); How Red Bull Stratos Successfully Soared Across Social Media;
Salesforce Blog
5. Pratik Dholakiya (2012); The Integrated Marketing Communications Process Any
Marketer
Can
Use;
Search
engine
people;
Retrieved
from
http://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/125-marketing-communicationsprocess.html

Sahil Kapoor