Integrated marketing communication refers to integrating all methods of brand promotion to promote a product or service among target customers. This includes advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing, personal selling, public relations, and other communication tools. The goal is for all aspects of marketing communication to work together harmoniously for increased sales and maximum cost effectiveness. Creating a successful integrated marketing communication plan requires thorough research, clear objectives, understanding target audiences, monitoring competitors, evaluating results, and ensuring cooperation across departments.

1. IMC(UNIT -1)
Integrated marketing communication refers to integrating all the methods of brand promotion to
promote a particular product or service among target customers. In integrated marketing communication,
all aspects of marketing communication work together for increased sales and maximum cost effectiveness.
Let us go through various components of Integrated Marketing Communication:
1. The Foundation - As the name suggests, foundation stage involves detailed analysis of both the product
as well as target market. It is essential for marketers to understand the brand, its offerings and end-users.
You need to know the needs, attitudes and expectations of the target customers. Keep a close watch on
competitor’s activities.
2. The Corporate Culture - The features of products and services ought to be in line with the work
culture of the organization. Every organization has a vision and it’s important for the marketers to keep
in mind the same before designing products and services. Let us understand it with the help of an
example.
Organization A‘s vision is to promote green and clean world. Naturally its products need to be eco
friendly and biodegradable, in lines with the vision of the organization.
3. Brand Focus - Brand Focus represents the corporate identity of the brand.
4. Consumer Experience - Marketers need to focus on consumer experience which refers to what the
customers feel about the product. A consumer is likely to pick up a product which has good packaging
and looks attractive. Products need to meet and exceed customer expectations.
5. Communication Tools - Communication tools include various modes of promoting a particular brand
such as advertising, direct selling, promoting through social media such as facebook, twitter, orkut and
so on.
6. Promotional Tools - Brands are promoted through various promotional tools such as trade promotions,
personal selling and so on. Organizations need to strengthen their relationship with customers and
external clients.

2. 7. Integration Tools - Organizations need to keep a regular track on customer feedbacks and reviews. You
need to have specific software like customer relationship management (CRM) which helps in measuring
the effectiveness of various integrated marketing communications tools.
Integrated marketing communication enables all aspects of marketing mix to work together in harmony to
promote a particular product or service effectively among end-users.
IMC PLANING MODEL
According to integrated marketing communication plan, various methods of promoting a brand are put
together for maximum effectiveness and better results.
Let us understand the same with the help of an example:
Organization B deals in providing lucrative holiday packages to end-users. The first step would be to identify
the target customers. It is crucial for the organizations to understand who would be the best buyers for their
products and services (in this example). For honeymoon packages they need to target the newlyweds, for
pilgrimage packages, it would be the senior citizens and so on. Organization B can promote its brand by
simultaneously giving advertisement in the news paper (print media), promoting through social networking sites
(Facebook, Twitter, Orkut), through company’s websites, banners, hoardings, press conferences and so on.
Integrated marketing communication increases the visibility of the brand and also enables customers to
remember the brand whenever they go out for shopping. The impact of integrated marketing
communication plan is obviously more as end-users see the brand simultaneously at multiple places.

3. How to create an integrated Marketing Communication Plan
An integrated marketing communication plan needs to keep in mind the available resources and time to promote
a particular product or service. Budgeting and allocating right resources for promoting products and services
through integrated marketing communication plan are of utmost importance. The objective of the marketing
plan needs to be clear.
The second step is to gather as much information as you can about your company, brand, features and most
importantly target audience. Understand who all would be the best buyers of your products and services and
what they expect of you and your organization? A marketer needs to very clear of the vision, goals and
objectives of his/her organization. Know what your product is offering and how would it benefit the customers?
Plan out how you would like to proceed with the integrated marketing communication plan. Always adopt a
step by step approach. Do not forget to do your homework carefully before writing an integrated marketing
communication plan. Thorough research is essential.
Integrated marketing communication plan needs to include:
 Detailed summary of your marketing plan as to how it intends to promote products and services among
target customers.
 Background, history and vision of your organization.
 Know your products well. Include features and essential components of your brand.
 Target market needs to be described well. Plan out how your brand can meet and exceed customer
expectations. Have clarity as to how your brand is better than your competitors and why should
consumers only buy your product and not go anywhere else. It is essential to read customer’s mind and
know their perceptions.
 Compare your brand with the competitors. Write down how your brand is better than competitors?
You need to keep a close watch on competitor’s activities.

4.  Do a SWOT analysis which highlights the strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities of the
marketing plan.
 Specify the tools and methods which would help you create awareness of your brand.
Integrated marketing plan needs to be reviewed periodically. Measure the results of the plan and find out how is
it helping your organization promote products successfully and earn higher profits and revenues?
Components of a Successful Integrated Marketing
Strategy/Factors contributing IMC
Let us go through several components of a successful integrated marketing Strategy
Customer Focus - No strategy would yield results unless and until you value your customers. Successful
marketing strategies ought to start and end with customers. Customers are indeed “Gods” who play a crucial
role in the success or failure of an organization. Do not ignore your customers while formulating essential
marketing strategies for brand promotion. The needs and requirements of the end-users need to be kept in mind.
Make sure your products or services meet and exceed customer expectations. Understand, why would an
individual invest in your brand if you do not have anything new and unique to offer? Integrated marketing
strategy is successful only when the features and benefits of the brands reach the target customers in the desired
manner and prompt them to buy the products or services immediately. Customer feedbacks are essential and
need to be monitored regularly. Every business has some set of customers who are loyal and would never think
of going to competitors. Design your initial marketing strategies around such customers as you do not have to
try too hard to convince them.
Co-operation - Remember, only marketing professionals are not responsible for promoting brands and making
them popular in the market. Infact, the responsibility lies on the shoulders of each and every individual who is
directly associated with the organization. Interdepartmental cooperation is essential. Individuals need to work in
unison, brainstorm ideas and come to innovative ideas and unique solutions. All departments, example -
marketing, sales, customer care, service delivery need to work in close coordination for better results and
maximum customer satisfaction.
Database Communication - Employees need to communicate with each other effectively. Information needs to
reach all in its desired form. Employees associated with a particular project need to have access to all relevant
information, data, figures and so on required for its successful implementation. Managers need to share correct
information with all related employees.
Leverage - Understand how each marketing channel promotes your brand among target customers and also find
out the costs associated with the same. Analyze which all channels are the most cost
effective for you to effectively integrate for promoting various products and services to yield maximum
profitability.
Profitability - Remember any strategy or idea is successful only when it generates additional revenues for the
organization. Every function and process needs to contribute to the earnings of the organization. Make sure,
marketing strategies influence customer decisions who in turn remain loyal towards the organization concerned,
eventually yielding higher profits.

5. Importance of Integrated Marketing
Communication
 Integrated marketing communication plays an integral role in communicating brand message to a larger audience.
 Integrated marketing communication goes a long way in creating brand awareness among customers at a minimal
cost.
 Integrated marketing communication scores over traditional ways of marketing as it focuses on not only winning
new customers but also maintaining long term healthy relationship with them.
 Integrated marketing communication saves time which is often lost in figuring out the best marketing tool.
Integrated Marketing Communication Participants
Advertising
Advertising is one of the most effective ways of brand promotion. Advertising helps organizations reach a
wider audience within the shortest possible time frame. Advertisements in newspaper, television, Radio,
billboards help end-users to believe in your brand and also motivate them to buy the same and remain loyal
towards the brand. Advertisements not only increase the consumption of a particular product/service but also
create brand awareness among customers. Marketers need to ensure that the right message reaches the right
customers at the right time. Be careful about the content of the advertisement, after all you are paying for every
second.
Sales Promotion
Brands (Products and services) can also be promoted through discount coupons, loyalty clubs, membership
coupons, incentives, lucrative schemes, attractive packages for loyal customers, specially designed deals and so
on. Brands can also be promoted effectively through newspaper inserts, danglers, banners at the right place,
glorifiers, wobblers etc.
Direct Marketing
Direct marketing enables organizations to communicate directly with the end-users. Various tools for direct
marketing are emails, text messages, catalogues, brochures, promotional letters and so on. Through direct
marketing, messages reach end-users directly.
Personal Selling
Personal selling is also one of the most effective tools for integrated marketing communication. Personal selling
takes place when marketer or sales representative sells products or services to clients. Personal selling goes a
long way in strengthening the relationship between the organization and the end-users.
Personal selling involves the following steps:
1. Prospecting - Prospecting helps you find the right and potential contact.
2. Making first contact - Marketers need to establish first contact with their prospective clients through emails,
telephone calls etc.An appointment is essential and make sure you reach on time for the meeting.

6. 3. The sales call - Never ever lie to your customers. Share what all unique your brand has to offer to customers. As
a marketer, you yourself should be convinced with your products and services if you expect your customers to
invest in your brand.
4. Objection handling - Be ready to answer any of the client’s queries.
5. Closing the sale - Do not leave unless and until you successfully close the deal. There is no harm in giving
customers some time to think and decide accordingly. Do not be after their life.
Public Relation Activities
Public relation activities help promote a brand through press releases, news, events, public appearances etc.The
role of public relations officer is to present the organization in the best light.
Challenges of IMC
IMC can restrict creativity. No more wild and wacky sales promotions unless they fit into the overall marketing
communication strategy. The joy of rampant creativity may be stifled, but the creative challenge may be greater and
ultimately more satisfying when operating within a tighter, integrated, creative brief.Add different time scales into a
creative brief and you'll see Time Horizons provide one more barrier to IMC.
Management support and resources: -No matter who you are or what your organization‟s annual revenues amount
to, you want more support. If you‟re in a marketing department just coming to grips with integrated marketing and
its component and related parts, you‟re hoping for more money to put systems and technologies in place.
Cross-media creativity:-The most interesting difference between the two groups lies with their views on creativity
in integrated marketing. As we read the data, it suggests that as organizations mature, they get past the trials of
technology and data, of process and politics.

7. Unifying/Sharing customer data:- How to collect, handle and use customer data is intertwined with technology,
and the only reason it ranks lower is because the tech piece precedes more specific questions about how to deal with
customer information once it‟s captured. International issues:-International issues rank low in general, but there‟s
more internal variation in the data at the bottom of this table than at the top. In other words, international issues are
relatively easy to deal with, unless they‟re not. They can be a significant thorn to integrated marketing, especially for
those organizations without local agencies to help with unique media consumption, cultural norms and local
competitive landscape.

8. .
UNIT -5
Media management is seen as a business administration discipline that identifies and describes strategic and
operational phenomena and problems in the leadership of media enterprises. Media management contains the
functions strategic management, procurement management, production management, organizational
management and marketing of media enterprises.
Definition of media management
A uniform definition of the term media management does not yet exist, and “the field of media management in
its present form is neither clearly defined nor cohesive.”[1] Notwithstanding this fact, among existing definitions
there is a shared base concerning the business administrative character of media management and the functional
understanding of management. In the following a number of definitions are provided.
“Media Management consists of (1) the ability to supervise and motivate employees and (2) the ability to
operate facilities and resources in a cost-effective (profitable) manner.”[2]
“The core task of media management is to build a bridge between the general theoretical disciplines of
management and the specifities of the media industry.”[1]
“Media and internet management covers all the goal-oriented activities of planning, organization and control
within the framework of the creation and distribution processes for information or entertainment content in
media enterprises.
 MEDIA MIX
Pros & Cons of Media Types
 Media Mix
• Important to have an effective mix of media
• Increases reach & frequency• Allows for multiple touchpoints
• Use research on target audience to drive media mix choices
• Think about “Day in the Life”
• What media is important to the target?
• Which media do they spend the most time with?