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Topic: Integrated Marketing

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Purpose of this Document






Dear Student,

The sole purpose of this document is to help you in organizing your thoughts & knowledge for the
upcoming CSFA-Foundation level exam and also for your placements in near future. We have discussed
with many of our friends who are regularly visiting campuses across nation for hiring students from MBA
colleges as to what they look in the candidate when they are hiring for sales or marketing profile and
keeping in mind the finer details pointed out by them we have shortlisted various topics which an
interviewer feels that the potential candidate should know thoroughly.

We have covered few important contemporary topics in brief which a student studying or is interested in
marketing should know. Also we have shortlisted topics here, which will help you in covering your
syllabus for CSFA-Foundation level as well as for your marketing interviews. These topics are in addition
to the study materials, which have been earlier provided by Team Mercadeo for your learning purpose.
We hope that CSFA will help you in preparing for your future ordeals in a more confident way and you
make a good name for yourself in the field chosen by you.

All the best

Cheers

Team Mercadeo









Integrated Marketing
Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) is a term that emerged in the late 20th century regarding
application of consistent brand messaging across myriad marketing channels.

The first definition for integrated marketing communication came from the American Association of
Advertising Agencies (also 4A's) in 1989, defining IMC as "an approach to achieving the objectives of a
marketing campaign through a well-coordinated use of different promotional methods that are intended
to reinforce each other."

The 4A's definition of IMC recognizes the strategic roles of various communication disciplines
(advertising, public relations, sales promotions, etc.) to provide clarity, consistency, and increased impact
when combined within a comprehensive communications plan. Basically, it is the application of
consistent brand messaging across both traditional and non-traditional marketing channels.

The Journal of Integrated Marketing Communication from the Medill School of Journalism at
Northwestern University refers to IMC as "a strategic marketing process specifically designed to ensure
that all messaging and communication strategies are unified across all channels and are centered
around the customer." IMC is used practically to allow one medium's weakness to be offset by another
medium's strength, with elements synergized to support each other and create greater impact.

A more contemporary definition states, "True IMC is the development of marketing strategies and
creative campaigns that weave together multiple marketing disciplines (paid advertising, public
relations, promotion, owned assets, and social media) that are selected and then executed to suit the
particular goals of the brand." Instead of simply using various media to help tell a brand's overall story,
with IMC the marketing leverages each communication channel's intrinsic strengths to achieve a greater
impact together than each channel could achieve individually. It requires the marketer to understand


each medium's limitation, including the audience's ability/willingness to absorb messaging from that
medium. This understanding is integrated into a campaign's strategic plan from the very beginning of
planning - so that the brand no longer simply speaks with consistency, but speaks with planned efficacy.
This concept inherently provides added benefits that include: a singular/synchronized brand voice and
experience, cost efficiencies generated through creativity and production, and opportunities for added
value and bonus.

Similar to the definition of IMC, models of the IMC approach vary according to the source cited.
Frequently, models stress the importance of blending various marketing tools to maximize the customer
experience and value. IMC models also often emphasize the lack of a specific hierarchy of importance in
the IMC stages: all components of the model play an equally important role and a company may or may
not choose to immediately implement any or all of the integration strategies.

Schultz and Schultz identified four levels of IMC through which organizations appear to progress. These
stages are not discrete, finite stages with well-defined boundaries Ultimately, however, to be truly
integrated an organization needs to demonstrate competency in the activities and requirements of each
of the four levels.


Level 1: Tactical Coordination and Marketing Communications Initial IMC focus is on the tactical
coordination of diverse marketing such as advertising, promotion, direct response, public relations, and
special events. This level focuses on delivering one sight, one sound via marketing communication.

Level 2: Redefining the Scope of Marketing Communication The organization begins to examine
communications from the customers point of view. Marketing communication begins to give
consideration to all sources of brand and company contact a customer has with the product or service.
Management broadens the scope of communication activities to encompass and coordinate internal
marketing employees, suppliers, and other business partners and align with the existing external
communication programs.


Level 3: Application of Information Technology An organizations application of empirical data using
information technology to provide a basis identity, value, and monitor the impact of integrated internal
and external communication programs to key customer segments over time.

Level 4: Financial and Strategic Integration The emphasis shifts to using the skills and data generated in
the earlier stages to drive corporate strategic planning using customer information and insights.
Organizations re-evaluate their financial information infrastructure.

Reference Link backs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_marketing_communications
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-10/integrated-marketing-if-you-knew-it-youd-do-it
http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveolenski/2013/09/16/why-integrated-marketing-communications-is-more-important-than-ever/
http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~tecas/syllabi2/adv391kfall2002/readings/JARSchultz.pdf

DISCLAIMER
This content in not a copyright of Mercadeo Education we have just tried to accumulate the data from various sources and put them together for the CSFA classroom.
We have placed all the references from where the content has been sourced.

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