INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGIES

Role of the Internet in Integrated Marketing Communications Strategies

Integrated Marketing Communications Strategies

Introduction

The main purpose of this paper is to discuss the role of internet in the integrated marketing communication strategies. Internet is very effective in marketing these days. Now days with the passage of time, the role of the internet is increasing in each and every sector. Same is the case with the marketing area; the role of the internet is growing day by day in the marketing (Gould, 2004, p. 66). The companies are using internet as the best marketing tool and promoting their products and services through the internet. It is a common research that the number of people using the internet is increasing day by day. Therefore, the companies find it very attractive to gain the people's attention through internet. Most of the companies make advertisements of their products and services through the social media websites, PPC and SEO techniques. Therefore, this paper emphasizes on the role of internet in the integrated marketing communication strategies.

Review of literature

The concept of communication as an integrated communication is the element that has a relative consensus at the end of the last century and the beginning of this. Between the two schools of thought: the tradition where research focuses on the selection of subject-audience, corporate cultures, the influence of communication medium and long for the company's objectives and design of corporate speech. In this sense, the currents of European thought oriented toward the corporate image and the revaluation of interdisciplinary teams.

The dawn of the 21st century has seen the definition of (Integrated Marketing Communications) IMC changed rapidly. Previously, IMC was thought as a concept of marketing communication planning that recognizes the added value of a comprehensive plan. This plan evaluates the strategic role of a number of communication disciplines (for example, general advertising, direct response, sales promotion, and public relations) and combines these disciplines to provide clarity, consistency and maximum communication impact (Farris, 2007, p. 23).

The Integrated Marketing Communications approach accurately identifies the increasingly tough task facing companies and organizations using public channels of communication to deliver coherent messages. The solution this theory promotes is a dangerous one because it simply accepts, and capitulates to, consumers' failure to make proper distinctions about messages delivered to them in the media.

Internet use is growing from day to day, and the number of people entering the international information network is in the steady growth (Edell, 2003, p. 90). According to this fact, the thinking of most companies is moving to develop electronic commerce as an integral part of the system of their marketing.

Internet offers many free services to supplement personal selling and outstanding customer, for example, video conferencing and IP telephony, instant messaging, email and more. Thus, maintaining the flexibility of this channel of communication, but significantly reducing the cost per contact (Eagle, 2007, p. 89). The blogs and mailing lists are an ideal tool for disseminating public relations and press releases with important developments in the ...