Introduction

UNIT 1 INTRODUCTION TO IMC to IMC

Objectives

After reading this unit you should be able to:

• distinguish marketing communication and integrated marketing

communication
• understand the various definitions and interpret in the context of IMC
• discuss the various steps in the IMC process
• ascertain the need for IMC
• explain the rationale for adopting IMC
• appreciate the significance of promotion mix elements in the scheme of IMC
• describe all the methods of promotion mix their role and importance

Structure

1.1 Introduction
1.2 Integrate Marketing Communication (IMC): An Overview
1.3 Definitions of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC)
1.4 Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) Process
1.5 Rationale for Adopting Integrated Marketing Communications
1.6 The Promotions Mix
1.7 Need for Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC)
1.8 IMC and Marketing Campaigns
1.9 IMC-Advertising
1.10 Public Relations: Getting Attention to Polish Your Image
1.11 Sales Promotion
1.12 Personal Selling
1.13 When and Why Firms Employ Personal Selling?
1.14 Summary
1.15 Self- Assessment Questions
1.16 Further Readings

1.1 INTRODUCTION
It is important that customers have to know if you have a great product to
offer to the market. This is where one of the P’s of Marketing mix i.e.
Promotion comes into play. All marketing communication (MC) tools of
Promotion mix has to connect to your target audience for communicating
what you can offer.
5
Introduction to
Integrated Marketing In today’s marketing environment integrated marketing communications
Communication (IMC) is involved. In brief, IMC involves bringing together variety of tools
to deliver a common marketing message and make desired impact on
customer’s perceptions and behavior. In English speaking media, you have
participated in someone’s IMC effort (when you have either liked a TV show,
article or meme on Facebook).

What is Marketing Communications? (MC)

Defining marketing communication is not simple and easy task, since

everything an organization does has a communications impact. Manner in
which a product is priced, and distributed has an impact. MC refers to
activities deliberately focused on promoting an offering among the target
audiences. The above components define what MC is.

1.2 INTEGRATED MARKETING

COMMUNICATION (IMC) : AN OVERVIEW
Integrated Marketing Communication is primarily a marketing concept of the
1990’s. It is being evolved with the passage of time to emerge as an
indispensable concept in centuries to come for its survival. The beginning of
integration is causing marketers to take a fresh look at all the components of
marketing, specifically all the elements of promotion mix and the unique
dimension that public relations bring to the marketing function.

It is process of integrating of all these activities across different

communication methods. The central theme of definition is persuasion i.e.
persuading people to believe in something, to desire something, or to do
something. Effective MC is goal directed, and it is aligned with
organization’s marketing strategy. MC aims to deliver a particular message to
a specific audience with a targeted purpose of altering perceptions and /or
behavior.

Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) makes marketing activities

more efficient, and effective since it relies on multiple method of
communication and customer touch points to deliver customer messages in
more (compelling) ways.

It is a management concept that is designed so that all the marketing

communication which consists of advertising, sales promotion, public
relation, and direct marketing work together as a unified force rather than
each of those marketing communication work in isolation. Besides, it acts as
an aggressive marketing plan because it sets and tracks marketing
strategy that captures and uses extensive amount of customer information. It
also ensures that all forms of communications and messages are carefully
linked together to achieve specific objective.

6
1.3 DEFINITIONS OF INTEGRATED Introduction
to IMC
MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS (IMC)
There are a good number of IMC definitions proposed by various authors,
agencies and institutions etc which are defined below

Thus Integrated Marketing Communication is defined as the coordination and

integration of all marketing communication tool, avenues and sources within
a company into seamless program that maximize the impact on customer and
other end users at a minimal cost. This integration affects all firm business-
to-business, marketing channel, customer-focused, and internally directed
communications.

According to the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA), it

defines as “A concept of marketing communication planning that recognizes
the added value of a comprehensive plan that evaluates the strategic roles of a
variety of communication disciplines, e.g. general advertising, direct
response, sales promotion and public relations – and combines these
disciplines to provide clarity, consistency and maximum communication
impact.”

While the Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism defines

IMC as “The process of managing all sources of information about a
product/service to which a customer or prospect is exposed which
behaviorally moves the customer toward sale and maintains customer
loyalty.”

The definition according to Kotler and Armstrong, Integrated Marketing

Communications (IMC) is a concept in which a “company carefully
integrates and coordinates its many communication channels–mass media
advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations, direct
marketing, packaging, and others–to deliver a clear, consistent, and
compelling message about the organization and its products.”

Integrated Marketing Communication according to Schultz and Kitchen “is a

strategic business process used to plan, develop, execute, and evaluate co-
ordinate measurable, persuasive brand communication programs overtime
with consumers, customers, prospects and other targeted, relevant external
and internal audience.”

Tom Duncan defined IMC as “A process for managing the customer

relationships that drive brand value. More specifically, it is a cross-functional
process for creating and nourishing profitable relationships with customers
and other stakeholders by strategically controlling or influencing all messages
sent to these groups and encouraging data-driven, purposeful dialogue with
them.”

In a nut shell,, Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) is “Joint

planning, execution and coordination of all areas/elements/methods of 7
Introduction to
Integrated Marketing marketing communication and also understanding the consumer and what the
Communication consumer actually responds to.”

1.4 INTEGRATED MARKETING

COMMUNICATIONS (IMC) PROCESS
Like any other process and procedure IMC does follow certain steps and
stages which may again depends on the firm its objective and goals to
achieve. The key steps involved are discussed below:

1. Identification of Target Market Segments: Planning for promotional

activities must start by way of identifying the well defined target
audience by using the segmentation as a key tool. Try and ascertain the
buying preferences and characteristics of buyers and dividing them into
segments. The goal of identify target audiences is to design promotional
strategies that can meet the customer expectations more accurately. Thus,
IMC which integrating and coordinating of all types of marketing
promotional tools that maximize satisfaction of buyers will be very
useful to the firm’s promotional strategies. This is because IMC can help
the company by providing customer databases to sellers and marketers to
identify information about the buyers precisely and accurately.
2. Ascertain Communication Objectives: Sequentially this is considered
as the second stage, the firm needs to develop a clear set of objective and
the goals of promotional strategies. The objectives of promotional
strategies include creating products and services awareness in the buyers’
mind, developing competitive advantages against competitors, creating
brand equity of buyers, retaining current buyers and changing buyers’
behaviors.
3. Plan and Design Communication Messages: An effective message will
get the attention from buyers and maintain their interest toward the
messages about their brand of products. Therefore, communication team
of the firm should design the messages by using all the relevant
promotional tools of IMC in a way that they are in line with the needs of
each segment enabling the messages to be delivered effectively. This is
because each of the promotional tools used should achieve the same
communication objectives and goals within the firm.
4. Implementation of Promotional Strategy: Marketers do have two
categories of communication channels to employ namely personal as
well as non personal communication channels to select accordingly
based the need and relevance for each of the segments. No single channel
can dominates in all aspects, which means that the channels need to be
adjusted based of the markets needs and changes from time to time. This
has proven that IMC which integrating and coordinating of all types of
marketing promotional channels can be very useful when it comes to the
implementation of promotional strategy process.
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5. Collecting Feedback: It’s essential for firms to carry out some survey Introduction
for the purpose of feedback from the target audience as the final step in to IMC
the IMC process. For instance , the firm can seek the effectiveness of the
message delivered to the target audience, such as how many times the
audience saw the advertisement or can the audience remember what the
message marketers are going to inform and etc. Based on feedback the
firm can determine and capture in the form of a report about the behavior
resulting from the message, such as how many of the target audiences
buy the product or visit the store after they saw the advertisement.
Information of this kind is of utmost important for the firm in its future
decision making related to the firm promotional strategies.

1.5 RATIONALE FOR ADOPTING INTEGRATED

MARKETING COMMUNICATION
IMC represents as an evolutionary and a holistic approach over the traditional
method of treating the various components of promotion mix elements
virtually as separate activities. The IMC approach helps companies identify
the most appropriate and effective methods for communicating and building
relationships with their customer as well as other stakeholders such as
employees, suppliers, investors, interest groups and the general public.

Companies look at Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) as a way to

coordinate and manage their marketing communication programmes to
ensure that they give customers a consistent message about the company or
its brands. The below mentioned are the key considerations that firms
consider IMC strategy in their businesses.

• Consolidating company image and fostering customer relationship

Integrated Marketing Communications focuses on all the advertising and

promotional efforts towards delivering the same united message. It
ensures that all the proposed future information and messages including
slogans, quotes, facts, and figures are in consistent while transmitting
messages from the producers to buyers. This helps the firm in
consolidating its image , establish a dialogue and nurture its relationship
with customer.

Clear, specific, focused and consistent marketing messages are able to

reach the target market segments of the campaign in the shortest time
without confusion to the intended audience. These customers could be
present or future, internal or external. This will help company to keep the
profitable customer for life. On the contrary, if a different division
handling their own marketing activities in the company, it may result in
the situation in which sales people giving out different marketing
message while corporate department giving out another inconsistent
message that may lead to confusion. Thus lack of inconsistency
messages may confuse or distract the buyers. In addition, it also helps
9
Introduction to
Integrated Marketing buyers to shorten their buying process, especially at the stage of search
Communication information about each alternative of products and brands available in
the market. Eventually, IMC’s role is to deliver a consistent image and
credible message.

 Reduces confusion of the product:

Through IMC, buyer can reduce their misunderstanding and uncertainty

while choosing a product or a service offering which can deliver a truly
genuine value and satisfaction to them by way of well planned and
presenting them with the right communication tools in a more logical
sequence influencing their buying behavior. IMC also help buyers by
way of regular updates new information about a product its application
or special offers; give reminders about existing product timely and
others. Therefore, buyers and consumers can afford a new product within
fastest time and repurchase a product when they are always persuaded by
the communication tools such as advertising or buy additional services
and products from the same sellers.

 Increase profit through increase in IMC effectiveness:

Intelligently planned and well executed Integrated Marketing

Communication campaign will certainly have a bearing on the
profitability of the business. This is because the impact of unified
message on the customer’s mind is superior to impact of disjointed
myriad of messages. By using Integrated Marketing Communication, all
the messages so transmitted has a better chance of cutting through the
barriers of commercial message that bombard customer each day. As and
when customers receive a crystal clear message about the product and
service, they will tend to build a long term relationship with the company
and hence the market share will increase gradually. It will be profitable
for the company for long term. By providing clearer messages and by
developing a strong positioning strategy in the minds of the customers
will have an edge over its competitors thereby having competitive
advantage leading to rise in sales, profits as well as customer satisfaction
in the long run.

 IMC can improve sales by extending the message across several

communication tools:

It is profitable when customer practice Integrated Marketing

Communication which will deliver superior value more effectively by
using a combination of variety communication channel like sales
promotion and direct marketing. By stretching messages across several
communication tools, purchases or buying can be increased gradually
because it creates more avenues for customer/consumers to become
aware about the product/service offering and its associated benefits. It
will definitely enhance sales considerably. This is because by using the
10 integrated marketing communication, the firm can deliver the most
 appropriate messages, communication and information to well identified Introduction
target audiences. It is like a more specialized media compare to any other to IMC
media used in isolation. Thus it can reach the target customer with the
high accuracy and the probability of those customers to purchase product
offer is higher. It can maximize the effect on customer with lower cost if
integrated marketing communication is used wisely.

 Integrated marketing communication can help the company to save

money:

Any communication tool should integrate with and draw on as many

other communication tools as possible in order to maximize cost
effectiveness. Companies adopting integrated marketing communication
strategies are more cost effective in their promotional efforts as
compared to those which refrain IMC strategies. This helps enable the
company to reduce unnecessary costs by cutting down number of
agencies to minimal as per the need of the business where all the
activities of marketing communication are handled by one or maximum
by two agencies. A rationale approach in this direction with certainly
save duplication of work, time saving, and low manpower requirement to
plan and execute all the IMC activities in a more consistent, focused and
timely manner.

 Reliability of the messages:

Companies which use stand alone marketing communications tools in

isolation tend to send out disjointed messages and information to buyers.
As a result, it directly dilutes the impact of messages, while many
messages will fail to arrive, misunderstood, simply ignored by buyers
because of its reliability. Besides, for not using IMC method, it may lead
to anxiety, frustration and confusion to the buyers, leading to lose
confidence and trust in the product or bran d in question. This will have a
bad effect and impact in market place where there would be no buyers
for the product and even if there are a few buyers they are unlikely to
buy the product because of its performance not matching to meet their
expectations. This behavior of the market will have a direct affect on the
sales and profitability of the business. In such a scenario the only
solution that a company has at its disposal is to adopt an IMC approach
in all their communication needs. Adopting an a suitable IMC strategy
enables the company to target all the well identified market segments in
the most cost effective manner with creditability at all times.

 Customer database:

In addition, IMC provides customer databases to companies and

marketers to identify data about buyer’s tastes and preferences precisely
and accurately. Sellers can have detail data and information about buyers
and all other details starting from their name to their buying patterns and
behavior during their life time. Based on the information available in the 11
Introduction to
Integrated Marketing customer databases, sellers and marketers can decide which promotional
Communication strategy should be used to create effectiveness in targeting their market.
In simple terms, customer databases are the best marketing tool in IMC
to track buyer’s interest precisely.

1.6 THE PROMOTION MIX

The fourth P of marketing mix elements is Promotion which constitutes a
range of integrated marketing communication (IMC) methods to execute
marketing activities. Different methods of IMC have their own advantages,
disadvantages, complexities and limitations.

IMC methods evolve over time as new tools become available to marketers
and people they target

The most common methods of IMC are mentioned below:

1. Advertising
2. Public Relations (PR)
3. Personal Selling
4. Sales Promotion
5. Direct Marketing
6. Digital Marketing
7. Guerrilla Marketing
 Advertising
Is any paid form of presenting goods or services by identified sponsor.
Traditionally, advertising messages are addressed to a mass audience,
such as radio, television, newspaper and magazines. Advertising may
also address individuals according to their profile characteristics,
examples being weekly ads addressed by supermarkets or online banner
ads addressed to individuals based on sites they visit.
 Public Relations (PR)
The purpose of PR is to create goodwill between organization (and
things it promotes) or the target segment it is trying to reach. This is
through unpaid or “Earned” promotional opportunities like articles, press
and media coverage presentations at conferences etc. getting favorable
attention through news articles. Organizations may spend significantly
on organizing events and conferences and people who generate attention.
 Personal Selling( PS )
Personal Selling uses people to develop relationship with target
audiences. Personal selling goes in for face-to-face interaction, trying to
understand customer needs and explaining how the product or service
provides value.
12
 Sales Promotions (SP) Introduction
to IMC
These are marketing activities that aim to temporarily boost (or try to)
sale of a product or service by adding value such as “Buy one, get one
free” type of offers or “buy a dozen, and get 15% discount” to
distribution channel members.
 Direct Marketing (DM)
As the name suggest direct marketing primarily aims at selling product
or service directly. The traditional tools of DM include catalogues, snail
shopping brochures, Direct shopping TV channels and tools involve
rapidly as technologies change. The tools include digital technologies for
marketing to organizations, for products and services, ideas, and
experiences.
 Digital Marketing (Di M)
Digital marketing has expanded fast and includes websites, search
engines, content, and social media marketing. The DiM has evolved fast
with technological changes and the umbrella term includes all of ways in
which digital technologies are used to market or sell organizations,
products, services, ideas and experiences.
 Guerilla Marketing (GM)
This is a newer category of MC which involves unconventional tactics to
generate attention, and achieve maximum exposure. Generally, GM is
experimental. It creates a memorable experience, or a novel situation
which a consumer connects to a product or brand.

1.7 NEED FOR INTEGRATED MARKETING

COMMUNICATION (IMC)
Marketing initiatives involve multiple methods of communication of
information sharing therefore the need for IMC is inevitable any every
businesses. Each of these methods will be discussed later in this unit.

Objectives of marketing communications

Basic objectives of MC are to:
a. Compete
b. Convince
c. Communicate
In order to be effective, information which organizations communicate has to
be;
a. Truthful
b. Useful, and
c. Clear
13
Introduction to
Integrated Marketing d. Accurate to the stakeholders
Communication
Being truthful and accurate is a matter of legality also. Marketing
Communication is the key to competing effectively. Especially where
products are very comparable – price, place wise.

Only through MC, can an organization find a way to appeal to certain

segments remaining more convincing or appealing than competitor’s message
is a continuing challenge. MC is the key to competing effectively.

MC is convincing of it presents ideas, products or services in such a

compelling way that target segments are led to take a desired action. These
days brand loyalties are not permanent. Just because a person buys a product
twice, or for a month or even years is no guarantee that person will not shift.

This is the reason that marketer would like to make sure that she/he is
reminded of unique benefits of the product repeatedly.

1.8 IMC AND MARKETING CAMPAIGNS

The challenge for marketers is making the right choice of communication
methods and how best to use these methods in devising marketing planning
and promotional strategy. To make their job easier, marketers use a campaign
approach.

What is a Campaign?

It is a planned event with coordinated series of marketing communication

steps built around a single theme or idea and designed to reach a particular
goal, while the term has been used for quite some time in context of
advertising, it is equally applicable to entire IMC program.

Organization may conduct many types of IMC campaigns, and several of

them may run at the same time. Geographically, an organization may run a
local, regional, national or international campaign (e.g. Apple for I-phone).
This depends upon objectives, funds and market scope. Campaigns can also
be aimed separately at consumers, retailers, and wholesalers. Campaigns can
also be tailored at different segments in a differential way. Marketers often
use a marketing plan (often called IMC plan) to track and execute a set of
campaigns over a given period of time.

A campaign runs around an idea, theme, focal point or purpose. This theme
permeates all IMC efforts and works to unify the campaign. The theme may
also refer to shift in consumer attitudes or behavior that a campaign focuses
on. A theme may take the form of a slogan like Coca-Cola’s “Taste the
feeling” campaign or Deebeers “A diamond is forever”.

A Swiss outdoor advertising company created a slogan based theme “where

brands meet people” and asked their clients to participate in dramatizing it.
Dozens of the companies gave their brands as “Tales” to dramatize it.
14
In a successfully operated campaign, all activities will be well coordinated to Introduction
build on one another and increase the overall impact. to IMC

Components of a Campaign

A single campaign might include:

● Advertising- of related well-timed carefully placed TV ads with print

advertising in selected magazines and newspapers.
● Direct Marketing- Direct to consumer mail pieces sent to target segments
in selected geographic areas.
● Personal selling- Preparing sales refers about the campaign to train them
to explain and demonstrate the product benefits stated in advertising.
● Sales promotions – In store displays of materials reflecting same
messages and designs as the ads, emphasizing point of sale impact.
● Digital Marketing – Promotional information on website. Similar
information may be posted on website, YouTube, Facebook and shared
in other social media.
● Public Relations – A press release announcing something news worthy in
connection to campaign focus, objectives and target (segments).

For each IMC campaign, new display material must be prepared, all
reflecting common objectives, messages, design, and other elements to
maximize campaign’s impact.

Staff responsible for physical delivery of products and services must ensure
that distribution points are well stocked. While staff managing public and
media relations should be made aware of marketing planning allowing them
to identify opportunities for earned media attention.

In addition conference event are planned and organized outside the

organization; it is useful to give them enough lead time to help implement the
overall campaign.

1.9 IMC- ADVERTISING

Advertising by payment:

It has been formally defined in Part-1. Ads are measured in impressions

(number of times consumers are exposed to an advertisement). Roots of
advertisements go to ancient times.

Practices have changed substantially as media have evolved and even

bypassed earlier media.

People can watch programs including Ads remotely or tape them for later
viewing.

Across the board, TV viewership has fallen and has fragmented.

15
Introduction to
Integrated Marketing Print media are also in decline and newspaper subscriptions have stagnated.
Communication People are relying more on digital sources for news, and entertainment
companies need to move beyond traditional channels to reach consumers.

Purpose of Advertising: The rationale for adverting is mentioned below:

• Informative Advertising

Create awareness of brands informing about new products and programs.

Educate public about attributes of program.

• Persuasive Advertising

This refers to convincing customers that company’s products and

services are the best. Its goal is to influence consumers to take action and
switch brands.

• Reminder Advertising

As the name suggests it reminds a person or people about the need for a
product or service, or the features and benefits it will provide when
product is purchased – focused are also top – of – the mind awareness
ads.

• Institutional Advertising

It goes beyond products to promote organization, issues, events, political

figures and places.

PSA (Public Service Announcements) are a category of institutional

advertising such as against drug abuse, drunken driving etc.

PSAs are usually sponsored by Non-Profit Organizations and Govt.

agencies.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Advertising

1. The major advantages include a sense of awareness, credibility, and

legitimacy. Ads can convey a sense of quality and legitimacy when an
organization invests in presenting itself and its products in a public
forum.

2. Ads can convey a sense of quality and permanence. Advertising can

message at intervals selected strategically. Advertising can generate
drama and human interest by featuring people and situations that are
engaging and exciting.

3. Ad can introduce images and symbols and it can show how a product or
demand compares favorably.

4. Compared with competitors as advertising becomes more digital it

becomes a powerful tool to track customers, interests and preferences.
16
5. With the power of digital media, friends can share interesting ads Introduction
amongst themselves, thus they have a potential of going viral and to IMC
viewership can skyrocket.

Major disadvantage of advertising is its high cost.

While TV ads are most expensive, print ads and digital ads are less
expensive. Ads can also be easily tuned out in today’s crowded media
marketplace.

1.10 PUBLIC RELATIONS: GETTING

ATTENTION TO POLISH YOUR IMAGE
Public relations (PR) is the process of maintaining a favorable image and
building beneficial relationships between an organization and the public
communities, groups, and people it serves. In contrast to advertising, public
relations does not use by payment media.

PR strives to earn a favorable image by drawing attention to newsworthy and

attention-worthy activities of the organization and its customers. Therefore,
PR is often referred to as “free advertising”.

However, PR is not a costless form of promotion. It requires wages to be paid

to people who oversee and execute PR strategy. Expenses associated with
events, sponsorships and other PR-related activities have to be paid.

PR techniques can help marketers turn the following types of events into
opportunities for media attention, community relationship building, and
improving the organization’s public image:

Note: At this juncture you are advised to read Unit-9 topic on Public
Relations which has been exclusively dealt in detail. .

1.11 SALES PROMOTION

Sales promotions are a marketing communication tool for stimulating
revenue or providing incentives to distributors, sales staff, or customers over
a short time period.

Sales promotion activities include special offers, displays, demonstrations,

and other nonrecurring selling efforts that are not a part of the ordinary
activities. As an additional incentive to buy, these tools can be directed at
consumers, retailers and other distribution partners, or even the
manufacturer’s own sales force.

Many different forms of media can be used to communicate about sales

promotions, such as printed materials like posters, coupons, direct mail
pieces, and billboards. Radio and television ads; digital media like text
messages, email, websites and social media, can also be used.

17
Introduction to
Integrated Marketing A successful sales promotion tries to prompt a target segment to show
Communication interest in the product or service, try it, and ideally buy it and become loyal
customers.

Note: At this juncture you are advised to read Unit-7 topic on Sales
Promotion which has been exclusively dealt in detail.

1.12 PERSONAL SELLING

Personal selling uses in-person interaction to sell products and services. This
type of communication is carried out by sales representatives, who are the
personal connection between a buyer and a company or a company’s
products or services. Salespeople not only inform potential customers about a
company’s product or services, they also use their power of persuasion and
remind customers of product characteristics, service agreements, prices,
deals, and much more. In addition to enhancing customer relationships, this
type of marketing communications tool can be a powerful source of customer
feedback, as well. Later we will cover marketing alignment with the sales
process in greater detail. This part focuses on personal selling as one
possible tool in the promotional mix.

Personal selling addresses the buyer’s needs and preferences. The seller
should give honest responses to any questions or objections the buyer has and
show that he cares more about meeting the buyer’s needs than making the
sale. Attending to these aspects of personal selling contributes to a strong,
trusting relationship between buyer and seller.

1.12.1 Personal Selling Tools and Techniques

Common personal selling tools and techniques include the following;

• Conversations: It’s all about relationship-building dialog with

prospective buyers for the purposes of influencing or making sales
• Sales presentations: Face to face in-person or virtual presentations to
inform prospective customers about a product, service, or organization
• Addressing objections: Identifying and addressing the concerns of
prospective customers, to remove any perceived obstacles to making a
purchase
• Retail selling: In-store assistance from a sales clerk to help customers
find, select, and purchase products that meet their needs
• Door-to-door selling: Offering products for sale by going door-to-door
in a community
• Consultative selling: As the name suggests that consultation with a
prospective customer, is at the core of this method where a sales
representative (or consultant) learns about the problems the customer
wants to solve and recommends solutions to the customer’s
18 particular problem
• Field selling: A method where sales calls by a sales representative to Introduction
connect with target customers in person or via phone to IMC

• Demonstrations: It is about demonstrating how a product or service

works and the benefits it offers, highlighting advantageous features and
how the offering solves problems the customer encounters
• Reference selling: Very effective method of using satisfied customers
and their positive experiences to convince target customers to purchase a
product or service

Key Deliverables of Personal selling:

It minimizes wasted effort. It promotes sales, and boosts word-of-mouth

marketing. Personal selling measures marketing return on investment (ROI)
better than most tools, and it can give insight into customers’ habits and their
responses to a particular marketing campaign or product offer.

1.13 WHEN AND WHY FIRMS EMPLOY

PERSONAL SELLING?
It’s an expensive technique because the proceeds of the person-to-person
sales must cover the salary of the sales representative—on top of all the other
costs of doing business. Whether or not a company uses personal selling as
part of its marketing mix depends on its business model. Most often
companies use personal selling when their products or services are highly
technical, specialized, or costly—such as complex software systems, business
consulting services, real estates, and automobiles.

Conditions conducive for Personal Selling: Includes the below mentioned

1. Market situation: Personal selling is effective when a firm serves a

small number of large-size buyers or a small/local market. Also, it can be
used effectively when an indirect channel of distribution is used for
selling to agents or middlemen.

2. Product situation: Personal selling is relatively more effective and

economical when a product is of a high unit value, when it is in the
introductory stage of its life cycle, when it requires personal attention to
match consumer needs, or when it requires product demonstration or
after-sales services.

3. Consumer behavior situation: Personal selling should be adopted by a

company when purchases are valuable but infrequent, or when
competition is at such a level that consumers require persuasion and
follow-up.

4. Company situation: Personal selling is best utilized when a firm is not

in a good position to use impersonal communication media, or it cannot
afford to have a large and regular advertising outlay.
19
Introduction to
Integrated Marketing It is important to keep in mind that personal selling is most effective when a
Communication company has established an effective sales-force management system
together with a sales force of the right size, structure and design.
Recruitment, selection, training, supervision, and evaluation of the sales force
also obviously play an important role in the effectiveness of this marketing
communication method.

Advantages of Personal Selling:

1. A significant strength of personal selling is its flexibility. Salespeople
can tailor their presentations to fit the needs, motives, and behavior of
individual customers. A salesperson can gauge the customer’s reaction to
a sales approach and immediately adjust the message to facilitate better
understanding.
2. It also minimizes wasted effort. Advertisers can spend a lot of time and
money on mass-marketing message that reaches many people outside the
target market (but may not result in additional sales). In personal selling,
the sales force pinpoints the target market, makes a contact, and
focuses effort that has a strong probability of leading to a sale.
3. One additional advantage of personal selling is that a salesperson is in an
excellent position to encourage the customer to act. A one-on-one
interaction means that a salesperson can effectively respond to and
overcome objections all the objections, concerns or reservations about
the product.
Disadvantages of Personal Selling:
1. One primary disadvantage of personal selling is the high cost involved.
With increased competition, higher travel and lodging costs, and higher
salaries, the cost per sales contract continues to rise. Many companies try
to control sales costs by compensating sales representatives through
commissions alone, thereby guaranteeing that salespeople are paid only
if they generate sales. However, commission alone may put salespeople
at risk thus they tend to become risk averse and only call on clients who
have the highest potential return. These salespeople, then, may miss
opportunities to develop a broad base of potential customers that could
generate higher sales revenues in the long run.
2. Another disadvantage of personal selling is the problem of finding and
retaining high-quality people. Experienced salespeople realize that the
only way their income can outpace their cost-of-living increase is to
change jobs. Moreover, because of the push for profitability, businesses
try to hire experienced salespeople away from competitors rather than
hiring college graduates, who take three to five years to reach the level of
productivity of more experienced salespeople.
3. An additional weakness of personal selling is message consistency.
Many salespeople view themselves as independent from the
organization, so they design their own sales techniques; use their own
message strategies, and engage in questionable tactics to generate sales.

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4. An additional disadvantage of personal selling is that sales-force Introduction
members have different levels of motivation. Salespeople may vary in to IMC
their willingness to make the desired number of sales calls each day or to
take full advantage of the technologies made available to them.

1.14 SUMMARY
Promotional activities are a key to the success of a product, brand, service
offering and business enterprise irrespective of their nature, size and location.
By employing the elements of promotion mix the firm can build a
communication link between the marketer and its potential customers for
creating awareness about the company products and services on a continuous
basis. In today’s marketing environment merely using any single method of
marketing communication message to influence customer’s perception and
behavior does not work nor fetch the desired results. Therefore an integrated
approach of communication is the hour of the day thus Integrated Marketing
Communication (IMC) comes into play in accomplishing the goals of the
business. All the elements of Promotion mix are blended in way that it has a
direct bearing on the customer perception and behavior. All the key methods
or tools of marketing communication are discussed in terms of their nature,
characteristics, merits, demerits and all details.

1.15 SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS

1. Define promotion mix, marketing communication and integrated
marketing communication.
2. What is integrated marketing communication? Illustrate by taking an
example of your choice.
3. Explain the various stages involved in the IMC process with a
hypothetical example.
4. Discuss the key factors that firms consider in adopting IMC strategy in
their businesses.
5. Identify and discuss the elements of IMC that a passenger car company
can employ in promoting their maiden e-car in the Indian market.
6. What is a campaign? Bring out the relationship between marketing
campaign and IMC with an example.
7. Public Relations are all about getting attention to polish your image.
Discuss the statement.

1.16 FURTHER READINGS

https://www.mbaknol.com/marketing-management/introduction-to-
integrated-marketing-communications-imc/

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