What is “Marketing Integration”, and why is it so important to you and your brand? The term “Marketing Integration”, as I define it here in this article, is derived from the popular term “Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC)”. There have been many definitions for IMC since it started being used in the late 1980’s. According to Wikipedia, 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”. According to this definition, IMC 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. Another more recent definition from a blog post at Stirology, “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.”
While these definitions of IMC are all valid and true, with the new evolving media and marketing environment we now live in today, I think that this definition needs an updating to reflect the new and challenging reality in which marketers now live. Most understand IMC simply as producing a consistent message, identity and branding across the various array of marketing channels. While this is an important component of IMC, I argue that with today’s changing media environment it’s not nearly the whole story. With the vast proliferation of marketing channels available today, companies can excel – or fail dramatically – based on their engagement of a sound and properly implemented integrated marketing strategy.
In an article by Pam Didner, “Current State of Digital Markting: Integration is Key”, she argues that the current state of marketing is overwhelming. She outlines four major challenges that marketers now face: (1) that consumers now have equal standing with marketers and sometimes even know more about products than we do; (2) the proliferation of the vast number of marketing channels means marketers have much more ground to cover; (3) marketers must break through the clutter of messages from competing brands using an array of media channels; and (4) marketers have to do more with less budget. Her recommendation is to “think Integration”, deliver a seamless experience on every device, leverage technology-driven marketing and to understand your audience’s media consumption habits. “Nobody has funds to cover all possible channels. The trick is prioritization and optimization”.
Rather than trying to update and redefine the existing term “Integrated Marketing Communications”, I have instead coined “Marketing Integration” to accomplish this goal. “Marketing Integration”, as I define it, is a strategic marketing process designed to continually adapt to new customer preferences and evolving media channels, by communicating consistent branding and messaging across a strategic mix of traditional and new marketing channels which achieve significantly greater results together than individually. Each channel effectively compliments and reinforces the marketing impact of the others, and the mix of marketing channels leveraged is strategically chosen and optimized for maximum audience response. The marketing channels leveraged consist of diverse set of disciplines from traditional (Public Relations, promotions, paid advertising, events, videos) to new media (social media, mobile, interactive, online video channels, and interactive event presentation technologies).
How does a marketer know which marketing channels to employ and prioritize, and how to best leverage them in a coordinated, consistent manner? One aspect to this challenge understanding each media channel’s strengths and limitations, how the different channels compliment and reinforce each other, and the audiences’ participation in that channel – are they watching and engaging? What are their preferred media consumption habits? Another important consideration is the application of data analytics – if we want to understand our audience’s preferences, marketers need to monitor, measure and analyze the response data from the marketing channels we are leveraging. A sound Marketing Integration strategy requires an analytic look at all aspects of your audience’s demographics and preferences, as well as a deep understanding of the current marketing channel landscape.
In future articles, I’ll discuss this subject in more detail and highlight examples of marketing campaigns which have successfully employed Marketing Integration strategies which have delivered positive results. For more information about Marketing Integration, connect with me at Blue Wave Marketing at www.bluewavemarketing.com.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_Marketing_Communications#cite_ref-4/
http://blog.stirstuff.com/2013/04/16/time-to-redefine-integrated-marketing/
http://pamdidner.com/2013/11/14/current-state-of-digital-marketing-integration-is-key/ ,
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