I came across Cicely Finamore’s post on “Direct Marketing-They put the PRO in Proactive” after looking through class blogs. She brought up how Proactive is not relying on one form of advertising(ie online) but rather a mix of different forms such as kiosk marketing, online marketing and info commercials.
We have been talking a lot about Integrated Marketing Communications(IMC) the past couple of classes. If IMC is used appropriately, it has the potential to maximize your intended message, clarity and impact if the variety of communications work together. Consumers today are multitaskers, are exposed to a variety of ads daily, and their attention span is quite low. They are increasingly online; however, a lot of people still love being reached via billboards, radio, etc. By implementing an IMC, companies are enabling themselves to reach a broader customer base, and are not limiting themselves to a certain group of people who prefer a particular type of communication discipline. Consumers prefer choice, convenience, as well as flexibility, and an IMC mix enables companies to reach consumers through a variety of mediums. Although an IMC approach may cost more, it allows corporations to broaden their scope as well as increase their brand exposure by diversifying their portfolio, and not putting their eggs all in one basket. An example of a company that successfully uses IMC is TELUS and how they have used several forms of communication (with a consistent message) such as TV, Radio, Billboards, Web, Print, etc to get their message regarding products/services across to consumers. However, this is not to say that IMC is only positive, it can be detrimental to a company’s image and consumer goodwill if implemented ineffectively. A huge risk of IMC is that since it is the process of tying all company’s messages and images together (from advertising, personal selling, promotions, etc)- the communications come from different parts of the company. This can easily result in conflicting messages from these different sources, resulting in unclear company images, brand positioning and weakened customer relationships. Consumers aggregate all the messages from different media and promotional approaches to form a single opinion about a company- for this reason, it is essential that all aspects of a company’s IMC be consistent in the message they are proposing.
