MKG002 NOTES: Advertising

Prelims
INTRODUCTION ADVERTISING

Unit Structure

1.0 Objectives 1.6 Active Participant in advertising

1.1 Introduction 1.7 Role of advertising Marketing Mix
1.2 Definitions of Advertising 1.8 Role of advertising in Society
1.3 Features of Advertising 1.9 Summery
1.4 Objectives of Advertising 1.10 Questions
1.5 Importance of Advertising

1.0 OBJECTIVES
After completion of this lesson the student will be able to understand:
 Meaning, Nature and Features of Advertising
 Objectives of Advertising
 Importance of Advertising
 Active Participant in Advertising
 Role of Advertising in Marketing Mix
 Role of Advertising in Society
 Advertising and Brand building

1.1 INTRODUCTION:

The word advertising comes from the Latin word "advertere” meaning “to turn the minds of
towards". Some of the definitions given by various authors are:

According to William J. Stanton, "Advertising consists of all the activities involved in presenting
to an audience a non-personal, sponsor-identified, paid-for message about a product or organization."

According to American Marketing Association "advertising is any paid form of non-personal

presentation and promotion of ideas, goods and services by an identified sponsor".

Advertising is used for communicating business information to the present and prospective
customers. It usually provides information about the advertising firm, its product qualities, place of
availability of its products, etc. Advertisement is indispensable for both the sellers and the buyers.
However, it is more important for the sellers. In the modern age of large scale production, producers
cannot think of pushing sale of their products without advertising them. Advertisement supplements
personal selling to a great extent. Advertising has acquired great importance in the modern world where
tough competition in the market and fast changes in technology, we find fashion and taste in the
customers.

1.2 DEFINITIONS OF ADVERTISING

1. American Marketing Association has defined advertising as “any paid form of non-personal
presentation of ideas, goods and services by an identified sponsor” .

2. According to Webstar, “Advertising is to give public notice or to announce publicity”.

 3. According to Gardner, “Advertising is the means of mass selling that has grown up parallel with
and has been made necessary to mass production”.

1.3 FEATURES OF ADVERTISING

1. Communication: Advertising is means of mass communication reaching the masses. It is a non-

personal communication because it is addressed to masses.

2. Information: Advertising informs the buyers about the benefits they would get when they
purchase a particular product. However, the information given should be complete and true.

3. Persuasion: The advertiser expects to create a favourable attitude which will lead to favourable
actions. Any advertising process attempts at converting the prospects into customers. It is thus
an indirect salesmanship and essentially a persuasion technique.

4. Profit Maximisation: True advertising does not attempt at maximising profits by increasing the
cost but by promoting the sales. This way It won’t lead to increase the price of the product. Thus,
it has a higher sales approach rather than the higher-cost approach.

5. Non-Personal Presentation: Salesmanship is personal selling whereas advertising is non-

personal in character. Advertising is not meant for anyone individual but for all. There is absence
of personal appeal in advertising.

6. Identified Sponsor: A sponsor may be an individual or a firm who pays for the advertisement.
The name of reputed company may increase sale or products. The product gets good market
because of its identity with the reputed corporate body.

7. Consumer Choice: Advertising facilitates consumer choice. It enables consumers to purchase

goods as per their budget requirement and choice. Right choice makes consumer happy and
satisfied.

8. Art, Science and Profession: Advertising is an art because it represents a field of creativity.
Advertising is a science because it has a body of organised knowledge. Advertising is profession
is now treated as a profession with its professional bodies and code of conduct for members.

9. Element of Marking Mix: Advertising is an important element of promotion mix. Advertising has
proved to be of great utility to sell goods and services. Large manufactures spend crores of
rupees on advertising.

10. Element of Creativity: A good advertising campaign involves lot of creativity and imagination.
When the message of the advertiser matches the expectations of consumers, such creativity
makes way for successful campaign.

1.4 OBJECTIVES OF ADVERTISING

The fundamental purpose of advertising is to sell something - a product, a service or an idea. In

addition to this general objective, advertising is also used by the modern business enterprises for certain
specific objectives which are listed below:

1. To introduce a new product by creating interest for it among the prospective customers.
2. To support personal selling programme. Advertising maybe used to open customers' doors for
salesman.
 3. To reach people inaccessible to salesman.
4. To enter a new market or attract a new group of customers.
5. To light competition in the market and to increase the sales as seen in the fierce competition
between Coke and Pepsi.
6. To enhance the goodwill of the enterprise by promising better quality products and services.
7. To improve dealer relations. Advertising supports the dealers in selling he product. Dealers are
attracted towards a product which is advertised effectively.
8. To warn the public against imitation of an enterprise's products.

1.5 IMPORTANCE OF ADVERTISING

Advertising has become an essential marketing activity in the modern era of large scale
production and serve competition in the market. It performs the following functions:

1. Promotion of Sales: It promotes the sale of goods and services by informing and persuading the
people to buy them. A good advertising campaign helps in winning new customers both in the
national as wet as in the international markets.

2. Introduction of New Product: It helps the introduction of new products in the market. A business
enterprise can introduce itself and its product to the public through advertising. A new
enterprise can't make an impact on the prospective customers without the help of advertising.
Advertising enables quick publicity in the market.

3. Creation of Good Public Image: It builds up the reputation of the advertiser. Advertising enables
a business firm to communicate its achievements in an effort to satisfy the customers' needs.
This increases the goodwill and reputation of the firm which is necessary to fight against
competition in the market.

4. Mass Production: Advertising facilitates large-scale production. Advertising encourages

production of goods in large-scale because the business firm knows that it will be able to sell on
large-scale with the help of advertising. Mass production reduces the cost of production per unit
by the economical use of various factors of production.

5. Research: Advertising stimulates research and development activities. Advertising has become a
competitive marketing activity. Every firm tries to differentiate its product from the substitutes
available in the market through advertising. This compels every business firm to do more and
more research to find new products and their new uses. If a firm does not engage in research and
development activities, it will be out of the market in the near future.

6. Education of People: Advertising educates the people about new products and their uses.
Advertising message about the utility of a product enables the people to widen their knowledge.
It is advertising which has helped people in adopting new ways of life and giving-up old habits. It
has contributed a lot towards the betterment of the standard of living of the society.

7. Support to Press: Advertising provides an important source of revenue to the publishers and
magazines. It enables to increase the circulation of their publication by selling them at lower
rates. People are also benefited because they get publications at cheaper rates. Advertising is
also a source of revenue for TV network. For instance, Doordarshan and ZeeTV insert ads before,
in between and after various programmes and earn millions of rupees through ads. Such income
could be used for increasing the quality of programmes and extending coverage.
1.6 ACTIVE PARTICIPANT IN ADVERTISING

Following are the group of people who are actively involved in advertising.

1. Advertiser: Seller who manufacture and market consumer products are the prominent group of
advertisers. Hindustan unilever, proctor and gamble, Seimen and Larson and toubro are the
examples of advertisers. Also the retailers are the second prominent segment among advertisers.
They stock the products. and sell them to the ultimate consumers. Government and social
organization are also the active participant in this category.

2. Target audience: It refers to the recipient of the advertising message. Every message is either
directed to a mass audience and class audience. Advertising desire to cover this target audience
for promoting sales. Advertising message intends to cover the potential user and non user who
may purchase the product in future. The messages are also directed to the user of the
competitor's product so that they switch over the advertiser's products.

3. Advertising Agencies: An advertiser has two options viz. (i) to design, develop and produce and
advertising message and get it placed in desired media directly through his own sales or
advertising department, or (ii) to entrust the entire job of advertising to a team of highly
professionalised, specialised, independent, advertising agency. An advertising agency is
composed of creative people, who conceive design, develop and produce, advertising message
with creative ideas and place it in the desired advertising media, for and on behalf of its client
(the advertiser). The advertising agencies usually charge a commission of 15% on the media bills
from the media owners. In addition, they charge out-of pocket expenses to their clients, i.e. the
advertisers. They employ copywriters, artists, photographers. Typographers, layout designers,
editors and such other creative people.

4. Advertising Production People (Artists): The production of impressive and persuasive

advertisements is possible only with the active help and creative spirit of the artists like
copywriters, artists, photographers, typographers, layout designers, editors and such other
creative people. Such people are usually employed by the ad agencies or, their services may be
hired by the ad agencies on job basis.

5. Target Audience (Readers, Listeners, Viewers and Present and Future Buyers): Advertising
messages are given about products services and ideas to readers, listeners, viewers and actual
and potential buyers, who are known as the audience. The target audience may be classified into
the following three categories, viz.,
(i) existing or, current consumers, who are reminded and influenced to continue their
patronage and to increase the volume of their buying,
(ii) consumers, who buy and use, a competitor’s brand; hence they are persuaded to buy the
advertised brand, instead of the competitor’s brand; and
(iii) those consumers, who do not use any such product; and even then, are persuaded to buy the
advertised product.

6. Mass Media: Advertising messages are communicated to the target audience through different
mass media, such as,

(i) Print Media: They consist of newspapers, magazines, journals, handbills, etc.
(ii) Electronic Media: They consist of radio, television motion pictures, video, multi-media and
the internet.
(iii) Outdoor Media: They consist off posters, hoarding, handbills, stickers air balloons, neon sing
bill boards, local cinema houses, and transit media.
 (iv) Direct Mail: It consists of brouchers, leaflets, pamphlets, letters and return cards addressed
to consumers.

The advertising agencies guide their clients (advertisers) in selection of the most appropriate
advertising media, which is known as “media planning‟. Each medium has sits own merits and demerits.

7. Government Authorities: The business of advertising is regulated by the government

department. The government adopts law and regulation which have a direct or an indirect
bearing on the advertising. Apart from this ASCI (Advertising standards council of India) and
ABC (Audit Bureau of circulation) are also some of authorities regulating advertising.

8. Advertising Production Firms: Advertising production firms are the support agencies which help
in the production of advertisement. This includes copywriter, artist, photographers,
typographers, producer, and editors. These are the people who transform ideas into a finished
form. Thus the success and failure of the advertisement depend on these people.

Check your progress

1. “Advertising has become an essential marketing activity in the modern era of globalization”. Explain.
2. Explain how the following group of people are involved in advertising.
a) Mass Media
b) Target Audience
c) Advertising Agencies
d) Government Authorities
3. “To sell something is not the only objective of Advertisement”. Discuss.

1.7 ROLE OF ADVERTISING IN MARKETING MIX

Marketing mix consist of four important variables of marketing , i.e. 4Ps - Product, Price,
Promotion and Place. Apart from the traditional 4 Ps, there are also other variables, i.e. Packaging,
Position, and Pace.

Advertising is an element of promotion. However, it not only assists in promoting the product,
but also affects the other variables of marketing mix. This can be explained as follows:

1. Advertising and Product: A product is normally a set of physical elements, such as quality, shape,
size, colour and other features. The product may be of very high quality. At times, the product is
so designed that it requires careful handling and operations. Buyers must be informed and
educated on the various aspects of the product. This can be effectively done through advertising.
Thus, advertising plays the role of information and education.

2. Advertising and Price: The price is the exchange value of the product. A marketer may bring out
a very high quality product with additional features as compared to competitors. In such a case,
price would be definitely high. But buyers may not be willing to pay a high price would be
definitely high. Here comes advertising. Advertising can convince buyers regarding the
superiority of the brand and thus its value for money. This can be done by associating the
product with prestigious people, situations, or events. Alternatively when a firm offers a low
price products the job of advertising needs to stress the price advantage by using hard hitting
copy. It is not just enough to convince, but it is desirable to persuade the buyer. Thus advertising
plays the role of conviction and persuasion.

3. Advertising and Place: Place refers to physical distribution and the stores where the goods are
available Marketer should see to it that the goods are available at the convenient place and that
 too at the right time when the buyers need it. To facilitate effective distribution and expansion of
market, advertising is of great significance. Thus advertising do help in effective distribution and
market expansion.

4. Advertising and Promotion: Promotion consists of advertising, publicity, personal selling and
sales promotion technique. Businessmen today have to face a lot of competition. Every seller
needs effective promotion to survive and succeed in this competitive business world. Advertising
can play a significant role to put forward the claim of seller, and to counter the claims of
competitor. Through effective advertising, sellers can face competition and also help to develop
brand image and brand loyalty.

5. Advertising and Pace: Pace refers to the speed in marketing decisions and actions. It involves
among other things the launch of new products or brand variations at greater speed than before.
As and when new brands are launched, advertising plays an important role of informing,
educating and persuading the customers to buy the product.

6. Advertising and Packaging: The main purpose of packaging is protection of the product during
transit, and preservation of quality and quantity. Nowadays, marketers take lot of efforts to
develop and design attractive packages as they carry advertising value. A creatively design
package attract the attention of the customers. It also carries an assurance of quality and creates
confidence in the minds of customers to buy the product.

7. Advertising and Positioning: Product positioning aims at creating and maintaining a distinct
image of the brands in the minds of the customers. Through advertising the marketer can convey
the positioning of the brand and accordingly can influence the buying decision of the target
audience.

1.8 ROLE OF ADVERTISING IN SOCIETY

Advertising is the integral part of every day's life. It is a pervasive method of marketing in
society. Though the methods by which marketers advertise have changed over the decades, the role and
purpose of advertising has changed over the period of time. Without advertising modern society cannot
survive. Advertising is useful to society in following ways.

Encourage Purchasing
Encouraging people to purchase goods and services is the main role of advertising. Some
industries rely on advertising more than others: A cereal company, for instance, must advertise more
aggressively, due to the wide arrange of competing products, than a power company that faces little to no
competition. Advertisers often influence members of society to purchase products based on instilling a
feeling of scarcity or lack..

Reflect cultural trends

Advertising bridges the gap among people by communicating varied culture through advertising
message. It brings variation in the social life.

Promotes Economic growth

Advertising contributes to bring about all round development of the economy by increasing
demand and by encouraging economic activities it fuels the desire to shop and, in turn, shopping
stimulates the economy.

Improves standard of living:

Advertising is an economic activity. It provides opportunities to people to improve their income.
It motivates people to consume more material and thereby improves their standard of living.
 Provides employment: Effective advertising generates demand for goods and services. High
demand calls for more production which requires more of physical and human resources thus creating
employment opportunities.

Advertising and Brand building

Brands are the identification that differentiates one business from another (through name,
symbol etc.). However, today brands can also be defined as the personality they reflect to people in
relation to status, emotional characteristics and subjective quality. They give the consumers a perceived
knowledge of the product, its quality and uniqueness before they buy it.

Brands ensure delivery of service as promised by them. For example, Pizza Company A claims to
deliver pizza within a certain time and Pizza company B claims to deliver most delicious Pizzas. It makes
easy for the consumers to identify what they want and which brand to choose for it. It is important for a
brand to accomplish the claim advertised to retain Brand Image.

Advertising is one of the key elements in building a brand, which is equally important to the
marketer and consumers. Brand personality acts as a potent brand differentiator and offers sustainable
competitive advantage.

Advertising by creating or reinforcing brand's personality enhances brand value or equity which
in turn can be leveraged through brand extension. Brand personality also helps brands to gain market
share, command price premium and insulates from discounting Brands.

Building a strong brand name is key factor for business success. In the competitive business
environment of today, consumer sophistication has altered business practices. Organizations are forced to
anticipate customers' needs and convey clear messages to consumers by establishing strong brand names
and focusing on brand building.

A brand's practical attributes and symbolic values are inherent elements that help the brand
appeal on consumers' minds and emotion. When consumers relate brands with symbols, it becomes easier
for an organization to raise consumer interest. For instance, Lexus is known for luxury, or Apple is known
for innovation. Therefore, in consumers' minds, a brand is more than just a recognizable name: it is a
promise that needs to be met on a regular basis.

Advertising is important for building brand awareness. By raising consumer interest and making
consumers awareness of their products and services, firms not only expand their customer base, but they
also keep their loyal customers and increase their market share. In other words, the more aware
consumers are of a brand, the more likely they are to buy from a particular business.

Approaches in Brand building:

To make brand distinctive: brand building can be done through repetitive advertising. Also by
highlighting unique selling proposition one can distinguish brand from one another.

1. Constant innovation: Consumers need continuous innovation and new products. It is not always
a new product even an improvement on the existing product is acceptable to the consumers.
Through intensive advertising such brands are build which is time consuming.

2. Domination of brand: brand building largely depends on the domination is creates on the
competitors. Domination can take place either in national market or in niche market.

3. Prompt availability: Prompt delivery of the product is one of the factors that ensure brand
building. This is possible if there is proper coordination between the finance, production, and
marketing department.
 4. Integration of new and old media: Consumers have ever changing demand. Due to availability of
various media option the seller can push the product in the market by blend multiple media
option. Thus advertising message are flashed to consumers through media mix.

1.9 SUMMERY

Advertising consists of all the activities involved in presenting to an audience a non-personal,

sponsor-identified, paid-for message about a product or organization.

Advertising has become essential to promote sales, to introduce new product, to create good
public, for large scale of production, for educating people etc.

Advertising is the integral part of every day's life. Without advertising modern society cannot
survive. Advertising is useful to society as it encouraging people to purchase goods and services, it bridges
the gap among people by communicating varied culture through advertising message, it contributes to
bring about all round development of the economy by increasing demand, it provides opportunities to
people to improve their income.

1.10 QUESTIONS:

1. Define Advertising and explain its nature and features.

2. Define Advertising and explain the main objectives of Advertising
3. What is advertising? Explain the importance of Advertising
4. Who are the Active Participants in Advertising?
5. What is the Role of Advertising in Marketing Mix?
6. Explain the Role of Advertising in the Society
7. What is the interface between Advertising and Brand building? Explain the main approaches in
Brand building.

Midterms

INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION

2.0 OBJECTIVES OF THE LESSON

After completion of this lesson the student will be able to understand:
 The concept of Integrated Marketing Communication
 Tools of Integrated Marketing Communication
 Importance of Integrated Marketing Communication
 Steps involved in framing Integrated Marketing Communication

2.1 INTRODUCTION
Advertising is as old as civilization and has been used as the means of communication to buy and
sell the goods and services to the society. Advertising is an important tool of promotion that can create
wonders with beautiful words to sell product, service and also ideas. Advertising has, acquired great
importance in the modern India characterized by tough competition in the market and fast changes in
technology, and fashion and taste of customers.

Today as per the changing marketing situation advertising is not the only sufficient medium of
communication. It has to be integrated with other mediums so as to create the long lasting impact on the
consumers. Thus the concept of integrated marketing communication is gaining considerable momentum
due to challenges faced by the advertisers in designing and implementing their advertising
communication messages.

2.2 MEANING OF IMC

Integrated Marketing Communications is a simple concept. It ensures that all forms of

communications and messages are carefully linked together. Integrated marketing communications (IMC)
is a process of managing customer relationships that drive brand value primarily through communication
efforts. Such efforts often include cross-functional processes that create and nourish profitable
relationships with customers and other stakeholders by strategically controlling or influencing all
messages sent to these groups and encouraging data-driven, purposeful dialog with them. IMC includes
the coordination and integration of all marketing communication tools, avenues, and sources within a
company into a seamless program in order to maximize the impact on end users at a minimal cost.

Ideally, IMC is implemented by developing comprehensive databases on customers and

prospects, segmenting these current and potential customers into groups with certain common awareness
levels, predispositions, and behaviors, and developing messages and media strategies that guide the
communication tactics to meet marketing objectives. In doing this, IMC builds and reinforces mutually
profitable relationships with customers and other important stakeholders and generates synergy by
coordinating all elements in the promotional mix into a program that possesses clarity, consistency, and
maximum impact.

Definition of IMC: According to American Association of Advertising Agencies IMC is a “concept

of marketing communication planning that recognises the added value of a comprehensive plan that
evaluates the strategic roles of a variety of communication discipline”

2.3 TOOLS OF IMC

Advertising:
Advertisement is a non-personal presentation of an idea or a product (where as personal selling
or salesmanship help in personal promotional.) Advertisement supplements personal selling to a great
extent. Advertising has, acquired great importance in the modern India characterized by tough
competition in the market and fast changes in technology, and fashion and taste customers. It creates an
active role in integrated marketing communication mix as it creates.
 • Good image
• Top of the mind awareness
• Counterclaim the competitors
• Reinforce positive attitude

Publicity:
Publicity is the non-personal presentation. It originates from the desk of the editor. It aims at
only informing the public about the events, person, firm etc. There is no control on the publicity by the
advertiser as it comes from the media owner. Publicity can be favorable or unfavorable. Large firms have
separate publicity or public relation department for publicity and cordial public relation. The secret of the
publicity is to get placement in the desired media. Thus the use of publicity provides various advantages to
the seller they are:
• It is available free of cost
• It provides more information than advertising as it comes from the editors desk
• Consumer believe publicity more than advertising

Public relation:
A Public relations is defined as a management function which identifies, establishes, and
maintains mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and the publics. Public relations
consider multiple audiences (consumers, employees, suppliers, vendors, etc.) and uses two-way
communication to monitor feedback and adjust both its message and the organization's actions for
maximum benefit. It is used to generate goodwill for the organization. Public relation help the company
and its public by relating each other for mutual benefits. The main objective of public relation is:
• To remove misunderstanding, doubts, confusion, and wrong impression in the minds of
different social groups
• To maintain good corporate image.
• To have the public support to the future of the company.
• To fulfill social responsibility.

Sales promotion:
Sales promotions are direct inducements that offer extra incentives to enhance or accelerate the
product's movement from producer to consumer. Sales promotion constitutes devices like contests,
coupons, free samples, premium, and point of purchase material. Sales promotion is action oriented. It
motivates customers to buy the goods under incentive plans. Sales promotion not only covers consumers
but also dealers and wholesalers. It acts as a connecting link between advertising and salesmanship. Thus
in a competitive marketing sales promotion act as a effective tool to an advertiser to solve several short
term hurdles in marketing.

Personal Selling:
Personal selling includes all person-to-person contact with customers with the purpose of
introducing the product to the customer, convincing him or her of the product's value, and closing the sale.
The role of personal selling varies from organization to organization, depending on the nature and size of
the company, the industry, and the products or services it is marketing. Many marketing executives
realize that both sales and non-sales employees act as salespeople for their organization in one way or
another.

Personal selling is the most effective way to make a sale because of the interpersonal
communication between the salesperson and the prospect. Messages can be tailored to particular
situations, immediate feedback can be processed, and message strategies can be changed to accommodate
the feedback.

Packaging:
 A properly designed package can induce the prospects to buy the product. A well designed
package can communicate the type and quality of the product. Packaging plays an important role in
converting the minds of the consumers as it provides
• Providing information of the product.
• Protection of goods while transportation and handling
• Preservation of quality of the products.
• Promotion of the product.

Internet:
Just as direct marketing has become a prominent player in the promotional mix, so too has the
Internet. Virtually unheard of in the 1980s, the 1990s saw this new medium explode onto the scene, being
adopted by families, businesses and other organizations more quickly than any other medium in history.
Web sites provide a new way of transmitting information, entertainment, and advertising, and have
generated a new dimension in marketing: electronic commerce. E-commerce is the term used to describe
the act of selling goods and services over the Internet. In other words, the Internet has become more that a
communication channel; it is a marketing channel itself with companies such as Amazon.com, CDNow,
eBay, and others selling goods via the Internet to individuals around the globe.

The interactivity of the Internet is perhaps its greatest asset. By communicating with customers,
prospects, and others one-on-one, firms can build databases that help them meet specific needs of
individuals, thus building a loyal customer base.

Sponsorships:
Many advertisers heavily rely on sponsorship in order to create positive feelings toward a
company. Sponsorships increase awareness of a company or product, build loyalty with a specific target
audience, help differentiate a product from its competitors, provide merchandising opportunities,
demonstrate commitment to a community or ethnic group, or impact the bottom line.

Like advertising, sponsorships are initiated to build long-term associations. Organizations

sometimes compare sponsorships with advertising by using gross impressions or cost-per-thousand
measurements. However, the value of sponsorships can be very difficult to measure. Companies
considering sponsorships should consider the short-term public relations value of sponsorships and the
long-term goals of the organization. Sports sponsorships make up about two-thirds of all sponsorships.

Trade shows and Exhibition:

It is one of the oldest forms of promoting the sales of products. Trade shows and exhibition
provide opportunities for face-to-face contact with prospects, enable new companies to create a viable
customer base in a short period of time, and allow small and midsize companies that may not be visited on
a regular basis by salespeople to become familiar with suppliers and vendors. Because many trade shows
generate media attention, they have also become popular venues for introducing new products and
providing a stage for executives to gain visibility. In India, India trade promotion organization (ITPO) has
been set up by the government to organized trade fairs and exhibitions.

2.4 IMPORTANCE OF IMC

1) Awareness: IMC tools play an important role in creating awareness of the products with respect to
brand name and brand availability. It brings to the notice of the potential customer the new varieties of
goods available in the market.
2) Information: Product information is needed when the product is recently launched in the market.
Potential customer must know about the product, features. IMC provides this information through various
techniques so that the buyer can take correct decision while buying the goods.
3) To increase sales. A proper communication mix tends to increase the sales of the organization. This is
possible as increased sales brings economies of large scale production which enables the seller to reduce
cost and increase profit.

4) To inform the intermediaries. IMC act as a communication channel between the sellers and the
intermediaries like dealer and agents. These intermediaries are regularly informed through sales
literature, pamphlets, brochures, price list etc.

5) Expansion of the market: IMC help the seller to expand the business from local level to regional level
and to national level . This expansion provides his goodwill, recognition through out the country.

6) More specialized media. It used to be said that mass media was enough to cover any advertiser's needs.
But with ever- increasing ad clutter, shorter attention spans and greater resistance to advertising,
customers now tend to be a lot more selective: they shut out the stuff they feel they don't need, and go
with the stuff that they want. Therefore with IMC sellers can retain the attention of customer by diverting
their attention through various Communication Mix.

2.5 STEPS INVOLVED IN FRAMING INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION:

It is likely that integrated marketing communication will be expected to make a number of
contributions toward meeting the marketing objectives. Thus the main steps in designing IMC are :

1) Identification of target audience: Defining the target audience is one of the first steps in designing the
IMC. While thinking about the target audience one must look well beyond traditional demographic
considerations. It is also important to 'think ahead 'and ask the following question.
• What are the relevant target buyer groups?
• What are the target group's demographic, lifestyle ,and psychographic profile?
• How is the trade involved?

2) Determining the communication objectives: The next step is setting the communication objectives.
There may be different communication objectives like increase in sales, brand image and good will,
expansion of business. Thus the seller has to evaluate all this objectives and select the one which he
intends to achieve.

3) Determining the message: An effective message should get attention, hold interest, arouse desire, &
obtain action (AIDA model). In practice, few messages take the consumer all the way from awareness to
purchase, but the AIDA framework suggests the desirable qualities of a good message. In putting the
message together, the marketing communicator must decide what to say & how to say it. , who should say
it. Thus the communicator should focuss more on message content, message format and message
structure.

4) Selecting the communication channel: There are two broad types of communication channels - Personal
and Non personal.
a. Personal Communication Channels: In personal Communication channels, two or more people
communicate directly with each other. They might communicate face-to-face, over the telephone, through
the mail or even through an internet chat. Personal Communication channels are effective because they
are allowed for personal addressing the feedback.
b. Non Personal Communication Channels: Non personal communication channels include media at most
yearend events. Media consists of:
1. Print media -newspapers, magazines, direct mail etc.
2. Broadcast media-radio, television etc.
3. Electronic media-audiotapes, videotapes, CD-ROM, web page etc.
4. Display media-billboards, signs, posters, banners, hoardings etc.
Most of the non-personal messages come through paid media.
5) Determining the budget: This is one of the most important decisions of IMC process. The effective IMC
depends upon the budget set for communication Mix. The marketer prepares the budget taking into
nature of the customers, objectives, nature of competitions and also availability of funds.

6) Promotion Mix decision: After determining budget it is essential to determine the promotional mix.
Promotional mix is the combination of various tools like advertising, public relation, personnel selling and
so on. Because of different marketing environment thee has to be variation in communication mix. One
medium which is effective in one market may not be equally effective in another market.

7) Implementation of promotion mix: The marketer then makes an arrangement to implement the
communication mix. The seller has to select the right media in order to put across the promotion message.

8) Follow up: Here the advertiser has to review the performance in terms of sales and purchase. If the
performance is as per communication objectives there is nothing to worry. On the other hand if the
performance falls below the communication objectives then certain corrective step have to be taken.

2.6 SUMMARY

Integrated marketing communications (IMC) is a process of managing customer relationships

that drive brand value primarily through communication efforts.

Advertising, Publicity, Public Relation, Sales Promotion, Personal Selling, Packaging, Internet,
Trade fairs and Exhibition, Sponsorship these are the main tools of IMS

IMC helps to create awareness of the products, provide the information of the new products, act
as a communication channel between the seller and the intermediaries and expand the business.

Identification of target audience, Determining the communication objectives, Determining the

message, Selecting the communication channel, Determining the budget, Promotion Mix decision,
Implementation of promotion mix and then Follow up these are the main steps in designing IMC.