(I) Concept and Development of Integrated Marketing Communication
The core idea of Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) is to unify all communication activities related to the marketing of enterprises.
On the one hand, integrated marketing communication covers all communication activities such as advertising, promotion, public relations, direct sales, C, packaging, news media publicity, etc. within the scope of marketing activities; on the other hand, it enables enterprises to convey unified communication information to consumers. Therefore, integrated marketing communication is also called Speak With One Voice, which is a unified strategy of marketing communication.
The development of integrated marketing communication is the most important development in the marketing industry in the 1990s, and the theory of integrated marketing communication has also been widely recognized by the business community and the marketing theory community. As a highly practical operational theory, the theory of integrated marketing communication emerged in the United States, where the commodity economy is most developed. Under the situation of economic globalization, in recent years, the theory of integrated marketing communication has also been widely disseminated in China, and there was a “integrated marketing fever” for a time.
(II) Seven levels of integrated marketing communication
(1) Cognitive integration
This is the first level of integrated marketing communication, which requires marketers to recognize or understand the need for marketing communication.
(2) Image integration
The second level involves decisions to ensure consistency between information and media. Information and media consistency refers to the consistency between the text and other visual elements of the advertisement and the consistency of the advertisements placed on different media. “Source Restaurant
(3) Functional Integration
The third level is to compile different marketing communication plans as a direct function of serving marketing goals (such as sales and market share). That is to say, the advantages and disadvantages of each marketing communication element are thoroughly analyzed and closely linked to specific marketing goals.
(4) Coordinated Integration
The fourth level is that the personal sales function is directly integrated with other marketing communication elements (advertising, public relations, promotion and direct sales). This means that various means are used to ensure a high degree of consistency between interpersonal marketing communication and non-interpersonal forms of marketing communication. For example, the content of sales personnel must be coordinated with the content of advertisements in other media.
(5) Consumer-based Integration
The marketing strategy must lock in target consumers based on an understanding of consumer needs, and give the product a clear positioning in order to Only then can marketing planning begin. In other words, the integration of marketing strategies allows the information of strategic positioning to reach the target consumers directly.
(6) Integration based on risk-sharing parties
This is because marketers realize that target consumers are not the only group that the organization should communicate with, and other risk-sharing operators should also be included in the overall integrated marketing communication tactics. For example, the organization’s employees, suppliers, distributors, and shareholders.
(7) Integration of relationship management
This level is considered to be the highest stage of integrated marketing. The integration of relationship management is to make effective communications to different relationship units, and the company must develop an effective strategy. In other words, the company must formulate a marketing strategy in each functional link (such as manufacturing, engineering, R&D, marketing, etc.) to achieve coordination among different functional departments, and at the same time, strategic integration of social resources must be made.