Integrated Marketing Communication

Integrated Marketing Communication

Introduction

In today 's world with increased competition both in the domestic market and international market have emphasized companies to understand the needs and wants of the customers and fulfill them by implementing effective strategies initially companies focuses on developing plans that would save cost and produce products that are cost effective it was not important to have a customer oriented strategy, however now the significance of targeting the customer with well-planned strategy has increased over time. Companies conduct surveys before introducing products to the market to analyze and evaluate the demand of customers and targeting them accordingly. It is now time for the companies to realize the importance of having a market oriented plan rather than having one that is focused on internal organization (Percy, 2008).

Since the needs of customers are changing, the external environment is in a process of continuous fluctuation thus it is increasingly becoming crucial for firms to have appropriate and effective policies to target its customers. It has now become even more difficult to survive in the market with immense competition in the industry from global environment as new and innovative products are introduced into the market that are more appealing to the customers then the ones that already exist (Shepherd, 2012). As customers are becoming more demanding they tend to switch to other firms that offer them goods and services which meet their expectations. Therefore to have customer focused strategy and maintaining strong customer relationship management is crucial for the success of the business. They need to identify the target audience and ensure that they are satisfied effective communication is required from both the ends to gather feedback from the customers about the product and bring improvements if required (www.ehow.com).

The concept of integrated marketing communication was initiated from the belief that the key to successful business is to focus on meeting the expectations of customers and providing them a delightful experience that would encourage them to continue having business with the organization in the long-run and sustain them from switching to other brands, simultaneously customers that will have an enchanting experience from purchasing the products of the company they would share their experience with others and sales would eventually be increased through word of mouth, whereas if customers are not satisfied this would create a negative impact on business' revenue through bad of mouth. To target the customer effectively and meet his need is important consequently it is also essential to maintain customer loyalty by communicating with them to identify their needs and persuade customers to purchase goods from the company in the long-run. The aim of integrated marketing strategy is to create value for customers. IMC is a strategic business process the purpose of which is to plan, develop, execute and evaluate brand communication programs over time for existing and potential customers of the company (www.crminfoline.com). The reason for the increase in importance for having IMC is as a result of the need to have the focus of organizations to be ...