Integrated marketing communications (IMC) refers to integrating and coordinating the company’s many communications channels (Promotional Mix) to deliver a clear, consistent, and compelling message about the organization and its products.
What is the role of the Promotional Mix?

Promotion Mix, or marketing communications mix, refers to the precise blend of promotion tools that the company uses to engage consumers, persuasively communicate customer value, and build customer relationships. There are five major promotion tools:

1. Advertising is any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor.
2. Sales promotion involves short-term incentives to encourage the purchase or sale of a product or service.
3. Personal selling is personal customer interactions with the firm’s sales force for the purpose of making sales and building customer relationships.
4. Public relations refers to building good relationships with the company’s various publics by obtaining favorable publicity, building up a good corporate image, and handling or heading off unfavorable rumors, stories, and events.
5. Direct and digital marketing involves engaging directly with carefully targeted individual consumers and customer communities to both obtain an immediate response and build lasting customer relationships.

IMC is Evolving, Why?

1. In this digital, wireless world, consumers are better informed and more Communications empowered. Rather than relying on marketer-supplied information, they can use the Internet, social media, and other technologies to find information on their own.
2. Marketers are developing focused marketing strategies designed to build closer relationships with customers in more narrowly defined “target markets.”
3. Advances in digital technology are causing remarkable changes in the ways companies and customers communicate with each other.

Learning Objectives
Upon completion of the course, students will be able to:

• Explain the development of an advertising campaign
• Apply advertising strategies to real-world examples
• Analyze when and how advertising and PR should be a part of a marketing campaign
• Create a marketing strategy to address the needs and wants of a target market

Module Reading and Resources

Textbook: Marketing: An Introduction, Chapter 12
This chapter will provide an overview on how companies use advertising and PR as part of their larger marketing strategy
Access this resource by going to the MyMarketingLab area under the course Table of Contents menu.
Presentation: Marketing Concept Glossary V
Module-related marketing concepts and terms are presented. Visit the glossary for a quick review of the key terms from this week. You can also look up words in the glossary found along the left-hand navigation bar.
Video: Ad Campaign
This video illustrates the process for developing an ad campaign. Transcript available here.

Assignment Calendar

Overview

Integrated marketing communication is a key phrase used in the marketing field. It describes a strategy that incorporates many promotional elements into a larger communication strategy. It may include advertising, personal selling, digital and social media marketing, sales promotions, and public relations. One characteristic of a promotion that is part of an integrated marketing campaign is that the message in that promotion is aligned with other promotions across other platforms. Regardless of how someone encounters the brand, the look, feel, and message will be consistent. It is important for marketing communications to be integrated, because consumers are inundated with many messages or “noise” from so many different media, and different consumers respond to different media types. The noise that an ad has to overcome can be substantial. Noise can be other promotions or other distractions in a customer’s life that prevents the customer from receiving the intended message.

Figure 5.1: Diagram of Marketing Communication (Stafford, 2013)

The first element that companies need to consider when developing a promotional objective is the overall objective of the campaign. This will help to determine whether advertising, PR, or another promotional strategy is the best fit for a given campaign. If advertising is a good fit for the campaign objectives, the company then goes through a series of steps to develop and launch the advertising campaign.

The video Ad Campaign goes through the main steps in developing an advertising campaign:

1. Setting the objective
2. Determining the budget
3. Identifying the messaging
4. Choosing the media

When choosing media, there is much to consider. Table 5.2 from the text (Armstrong & Kotler, 2015, p. 388), presented below, outlines the advantages and limitations of the major media types. Each media type has very clear pros and cons, and one of the important challenges for marketers is to sort through all of the information available and make the best possible decision based on the product and the budget.

Table 5.2: Profiles of Major Media Types (Table 12.2 from Marketing: An Introduction)

Advertising and public relations (PR), that is, the management of information about an organization and the public, are two important components of a promotional strategy. There was a period in marketing history when PR was viewed as a separate marketing activity. For example, advertising agencies created Super Bowl ads and marketing campaigns, whereas PR agencies dealt with company disasters and communication failures and helped CEOs access important publications. As integrated marketing communication has become the more common way to approach marketing, PR is back into the marketing fold. A strong PR strategy can help a company build its brand, position its leaders as trusted experts in the field, and go a long way to minimize the damage when there is a corporate crisis. In addition, with the rise of social media, PR has become even more important as a “customer-facing” function responding in real time to customer comments and concerns.

PR is a discipline focused on communication. PR professionals send out press releases to announce a new product or initiative by a company, work with journalists to ensure that company leaders are quoted in articles, and organize events that are centered on a cause. When a company successfully integrates PR into its marketing campaign, this communication is elevated with an increased focus on brand-building and promotion, rather than straight communication. The rise of content marketing has also put PR back into the spotlight. Content marketing is the section of marketing focused on creating unique content that the company can then distribute through its blogs, social media channels, email lists, and more. As this falls in the “communication” piece of marketing, it often falls to the PR department. A strong PR campaign is focused on customer and prospect engagement. When used strategically, PR is an important and powerful piece of an integrated marketing campaign.

Now, take a minute to review this week’s glossary.

References

Armstrong, G., & Kotler, P. (2015). Marketing: An introduction (12th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Stafford, A. (2013, March 5). Diagram 1: A basic communication model showing the sender, message, and receiver [Image]. Marketing Communications Blog. Retrieved from http://www.marketingcommunicationsblog.com/communication-model/

Complete the assignment as follows:

• Explain how companies use popular social media channels for marketing
• Identify ways that companies can integrate social media into their marketing campaigns
• Describe the most popular social media channels used for business purposes

Module Reading and Resources

Textbook: Marketing: An Introduction, Chapter 14
This chapter will provide an overview of how companies use online, social, and mobile marketing.

Access this resource by going to the MyMarketingLab area under the course Table of Contents menu.

Presentation: Marketing Concept Glossary VI
Module-related marketing concepts and terms are presented. Visit the glossary for a quick review of the key terms from this week. You can also look up words in the glossary found along the left-hand navigation bar.

Video: Social Media
This video illustrates the pet store’s and a competitor’s use of social media. Transcript available here.

Assignment Calendar
Assignment Calendar Module Six

Module Overview

Social media is still referred to as a new or untraditional marketing activity; however, it has not just exhibited staying power but significant growth. It has earned its place as an important and unavoidable piece of a marketing strategy. Many companies that cannot afford to advertise on national TV or to run expensive ads in glossy print magazines can have a “free” Facebook page, a Twitter account, or LinkedIn page.

Social media has brought new questions to companies and marketers alike. Some have to do with the growing pains of a new and instantaneous communications format:

• How should companies use social media?
• How is the return on investment (ROI) of a social media campaign determined?
• What about paid promotions on social media?
• Some questions are specific to the company:
  • What sites are the right fit for the company?
  • How much of an investment (time or money) should go into social media?
  • Is the company prepared (e.g., with staff, time, and other resources) to respond to customers who reach out via social media?
  • How does social media fit into the larger marketing strategy?

Similar to traditional advertising, social media needs to be informed by strategy. A company needs to evaluate what its marketing strategy is and what its objectives are. The company then needs to decide whether social media aligns with those objectives. Social media is dynamic, so it is not enough for a company to simply have a Facebook page or Instagram account. If those sites are not nurtured and updated, they can be more harmful to a company’s brand than if the company had no social media presence.

The list of social networking sites is growing; when examined in terms of usage and longevity, there are clear leaders (Table 6.1):

• Explain how companies use popular social media channels for marketing
• Identify ways that companies can integrate social media into their marketing campaigns
• Describe the most popular social media channels used for business purposes

Module Reading and Resources

Textbook: Marketing: An Introduction, Chapter 14
This chapter will provide an overview of how companies use online, social, and mobile marketing.

Access this resource by going to the MyMarketingLab area under the course Table of Contents menu.

Presentation: Marketing Concept Glossary VI
Module-related marketing concepts and terms are presented. Visit the glossary for a quick review of the key terms from this week. You can also look up words in the glossary found along the left-hand navigation bar.

Video: Social Media
This video illustrates the pet store’s and a competitor’s use of social media. Transcript available here.

Assignment Calendar
Assignment Calendar Module Six

Module Overview

Social media is still referred to as a new or untraditional marketing activity; however, it has not just exhibited staying power but significant growth. It has earned its place as an important and unavoidable piece of a marketing strategy. Many companies that cannot afford to advertise on national TV or to run expensive ads in glossy print magazines can have a “free” Facebook page, a Twitter account, or LinkedIn page.

Social media has brought new questions to companies and marketers alike. Some have to do with the growing pains of a new and instantaneous communications format:

• How should companies use social media?
• How is the return on investment (ROI) of a social media campaign determined?
• What about paid promotions on social media?
• Some questions are specific to the company:
  • What sites are the right fit for the company?
  • How much of an investment (time or money) should go into social media?
  • Is the company prepared (e.g., with staff, time, and other resources) to respond to customers who reach out via social media?
  • How does social media fit into the larger marketing strategy?

Similar to traditional advertising, social media needs to be informed by strategy. A company needs to evaluate what its marketing strategy is and what its objectives are. The company then needs to decide whether social media aligns with those objectives. Social media is dynamic, so it is not enough for a company to simply have a Facebook page or Instagram account. If those sites are not nurtured and updated, they can be more harmful to a company’s brand than if the company had no social media presence.

The list of social networking sites is growing; when examined in terms of usage and longevity, there are clear leaders (Table 6.1):

Self-awareness is essential for developing management and leadership skills. Recognizing your own strengths, weaknesses, and values, and understanding emotional intelligence and learning styles can help you to be a more effective leader. Becoming self-aware is an ongoing process requiring introspection. The more often people practice self-reflection, the more opportunities they have to understand their own behaviors and adapt their approaches to working with other people, which can improve both your own and other’s abilities to meet their professional goals.

For the Module 2 assignment, you have the opportunity to take a variety of self-assessments to learn more about yourself and identify your assets and weaknesses as a leader. This will assist you in discovering how you can improve your own self-leadership skills. You will be asked to think critically about your results and submit a reflection as directed below.

The Module 2 assignment is only the beginning of a self-reflective process you are asked to undertake in this course. You should continue to think about your self-leadership skills as you progress through the readings and assignments. You will be asked to refer back to your self-assessment results and reflection when you compose your Leadership Philosophy statement, which is due later in Module 6. The Module 6 assignment will ask you to build on the reflection written in Module 2 in order to clearly articulate your values and leadership qualities and how they form the basis for effectively leading others and your organization.

Refer to “MGT-605 Self-Assessment Links” (attached in the Topic Material). Complete at least one test from each of the first four categories andboth of the Diversity Tolerance assessments:

1. Emotional Intelligence
2. Personality Test
3. Learning Styles
4. Values Survey
5. Diversity Tolerance

Be sure to document the results of each assessment to assist you in completing the reflection portion of the assignment below.

Self-Assessment Reflection

After completing the self-assessments, write a 1,000-1,250 word reflection in which you discuss the following:

1. Describe the importance of self-awareness, self-concept, and emotional intelligence and the role they play in enabling effective leadership.
2. Briefly summarize the results of each of the six tests you completed. In general, do you believe the results represent who you are? Explain.
3. What insights have you gained about yourself after taking the assessments? How could this knowledge influence your values, attitude towards others, and how you approach new tasks in the workplace?
4. Explain the significance of the self-assessment results in relation to your individual behavior, your behavior within groups, and within organizations. What have you learned about your ability to manage others within the workplace? What have you learned about what it takes to manage yourself or how you respond to the management tactics of others within the workplace?

Prepare this assignment according to the APA guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

You are required to submit this assignment to Turnitin. Please refer to the directions in the Student Success Center.

Scenario Information

Your small marketing consulting firm was recently hired by Costa’s Customs. Costa’s Customs is a clothing retail company considering a complete rebranding, as their current reputation is dated and no longer appealing to desired market segments. In the past, Costa’s Customs experimented with digital marketing initiatives but the campaign had been poorly thought out and poorly implemented. The previous campaign had very little engagement and was a failure that turned management off from online marketing channels completely. Costa’s Customs’ current marketing strategy ignores all forms of digital marketing. They’ve come to your company for advice and recommendations for improving their marketing efforts. Your administrator has put together some preliminary research on Costa’s Customs’ background for you to look over. Click on the link below and read through it in order to familiarize yourself with the business.

Costa’s Customs’ Company Profile

Your administrator lets you know that Costa’s goals are to grow online clothing sales by 50% within 6 months and traffic to their website’s blog by 100% in 18 months.

Instructions

In your first weeks of reviewing Google Analytics for the company’s website, you have noticed that the website gets very little in the way of search engine traffic. You approach your administrator with this information, and she has asked you for a report detailing:

• Summarize organic and paid-search-engine-related marketing and include an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of each method, focusing on the Google search engine.
• Introduce the topics of paid and organic search through an executive summary focused on historical context and current best practices.
• Hypothesize on how both paid and organic search could be used by Costa’s and what results might happen if campaigns were created.
• Create your own sample Adwords text ad and meta title and description for a page showing in organic search with a justification for creative direction of each.
  • Adwords title limit is 30 characters and 80 characters for description.
  • Search result limit is 60 characters for title and 160 characters for description.
  • All of these character limits include spaces.
  • Paid and organic search example
• Conclude your report.
  • Why is it important to pursue both paid and organic search campaigns?
  • How are each approaches different in terms of speed at which they work and costs short and long-term?

Part 1 of the paper includes:

Business definition: Who do you want to serve and why? Be sure to include

customers/segments to be targeted and customer needs satisfied. What is the rationale

for these choices (e.g., segment attractiveness, market gaps, fit with resources,

synergies)?

Part 2 Includes:

Competitive advantage: What competitors will you compete against and how?

The first two part of this need to be completed.  Please get back to me no later than tomorrow at 3:00pm EST.

2-3 pages please typed

I’ve attached the case to this question as

Part 1 of the paper includes:

Business definition: Who do you want to serve and why? Be sure to include

customers/segments to be targeted and customer needs satisfied. What is the rationale

for these choices (e.g., segment attractiveness, market gaps, fit with resources,

synergies)?

Part 2 Includes:

Competitive advantage: What competitors will you compete against and how?

The first two part of this need to be completed.  Please get back to me no later than tomorrow at 3:00pm EST.

2-3 pages please typed

I’ve attached the case to this question as