Integrated Marketing Communication

Introduction

To earn a profit and to operate the business lucratively is the sole purpose of any business. In order to accomplish this objective different businesses adopt different strategies. In order to run the business lucratively marketing strategies matter a lot because these strategies are interlinked with all the departments of the organization. There are a number of organizations that have been successful in achieving competitive advantage and a strong position in their respective industry with the aid of their well devised marketing strategies. This paper revolves around one of the aspects of the marketing communication. The aspect that this paper aims to talk about is integrated marketing communication. This paper provides a complete outlook about how an organization can achieve a strong position or handle with the competitors with the aid of effective and efficient formulation and implementation of integrated marketing communication strategies.

Integrated Communication

Communication related to the brand means aligning all the messages that are to be conveyed to customers through different mediums. This implies that the all the messages that the organization plans to communicate to the customer should be same. This means that the message that is conveyed through TV advertisement, newspaper, and radio, billboard, magazines and social media network should convey the same message. In order to fulfill this purpose organizations adopt the method of integrated marketing communication. Integrated Marketing Communication is a new communications strategy and marketing strategy to integrate message of the brand consistently and effectively across all channels of communication of a brand. From the perspective of Picton and Broderick the concept of integrated marketing communication can be defined as the process through which the managers and the organizations make an attempt to derive maximum results in terms of economy, effectiveness and efficiency with the help of aligning all the agents in the process of analysis, planning, implementation and evaluation of the marketing communication, media, messages and promotional tools and techniques.

Selected Organization

The organization that is selected for the discussion of this paper is Marks and Spencer. Marks and Spencer is located at more than 718 locations across 34 countries worldwide. The company sells products such as clothing, footwear, gifts, home furnishings and foods, however these are sold to the customers under the trademark of St. Michael which has a chain of 294 stores in the United Kingdom. At Christmas time, people make a number of purchases in order to prepare for Christmas Eve, and New Year parties. Therefore, Marks and Spencer had a great opportunity to use their superior quality products with which they could attract customers. The main feature of the products sold by Marks and Spencer is the quality of design and look of the material. This is the reason why the customers in UK know Marks and Spencer for their innovative and high-quality products. This is the most powerful tool that the management of Marks and Spencer can utilize to capitalize to deliver the messages to the customers through integrated communication. This group also owns the apparel wear stores ...