Catalyst Strategic Marketing: Integrated Marketing: What It Is and Why You Should Embrace It (part 1 of 3)

This is the first of three articles excerpted from the paper “Integrated Marketing: What It Is and Why You Should Embrace It”

Part 1

INTRODUCTION

Technology has expanded our ability to connect and interact with others to a degree unheard of even a decade ago. However, due to this continued expansion, the number of ways in which you connect and interact with your customer also continues to change, evolve and grow. While technological innovation may be good for business, from a marketing perspective it can often be confusing as more and newer technologies provide you with numerous additional ways in which to connect with your target audience.

This article will provide an overview and will attempt to explain what integrated marketing is and why the use of integrated marketing is more important now than ever before. This is not an in-depth treatise on the topic, but will provide you with a solid foundation on the topic of integrated marketing.

WHAT IS 'INTEGRATED MARKETING'

To begin, let's start with a simple definition of what 'integrated marketing' is considered to be. As a marketer, you are likely very familiar with using technology, so your first step in this process is to go online to research and find information about this topic. However, this is where your first roadblock pops up. As you begin to do your research you find that there is not a consistent definition of what 'integrated marketing' is.

One definition defines 'integrated marketing' as a “Strategy aimed at unifying different marketing methods such as mass marketing, one-to-one marketing, and direct marketing. Its objective is to complement and reinforce the market impact of each method, and to employ the market data generated by these efforts in product development, pricing, distribution, customer service, etc.”¹

Another defines 'integrated marketing' as “an approach to brand communications where the different modes work together to create a seamless experience for the customer and are presented with a similar tone and style that reinforces the brand’s core message. Its goal is to make all aspects of marketing communication such as advertising, sales promotion, public relations, direct marketing, personal selling, online communications and social media work together as a unified force, rather than permitting each to work in isolation, which in turn maximizes their cost effectiveness.”²

Yet a third defines 'integrated marketing' as “a type of marketing in which a company's sales people, advertising, website, etc. all give the same messages about its products: The consistency of the brand message is the key concept of integrated marketing.”³

What do all of these (and numerous other) definitions of integrated marketing have in common? To be truthful, not much. Yes, they all deal with marketing, but that is where the similarity ends. Beyond that common starting point, each definition of integrated marketing takes a slightly different approach and focus, approaching the definition from different directions. Therein lies the problem. There is no consistent understanding or definition of what “integrated marketing” is, what it includes, what integrated marketing should measure and track, etc., which of course leads to confusion over what integrated marketing actually is.

For the purposes of this article, I am defining 'integrated marketing' as follows:

'Integrated marketing is the disciplined process of choosing the appropriate marketing strategy, combined with the appropriate mix of tactics, methods, channels, media and activities that best support the desired end result of the defined marketing activity.'

This definition is simple, straightforward and to the point. This definition also does what most other definitions do not; it acknowledges the uniqueness of each situation and recognizes that there is not one standard set of marketing features or tactics that are applicable to every situation. It does not take a 'peanut butter spread' or 'one size fits all' approach to marketing, but rather, it encourages the marketer to assess the situation and then choose those specific marketing components that will best support the desired end result. Simply put, integrated marketing is nothing more than a tool to use to help you get more out of your marketing.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN INTEGRATED MARKETING AND IMC

As you begin to look further into the topic of integrated marketing, you will likely come across a similar-sounding term, 'integrated marketing communication' or IMC. Although initially integrated marketing and IMC seem to be the same, in reality they are not. Let's delve just a bit deeper to see where the differences arise. As with integrated marketing, let's start with defining what the term 'integrated marketing communication' means.

One definition states that IMC is “An approach to achieving the objectives of a marketing campaign, through a well coordinated use of different promotional methods that are intended to reinforce each other.”⁴

Another states that it is "A concept of marketing communications planning that recognizes the added value of a comprehensive plan that evaluates the strategic roles of a variety of communication disciplines-for example, general advertising, direct response, sales promotion, and public relations-and combines these disciplines to provide clarity, consistency, and maximum communications impact."⁵

And finally, a third definition of IMC states that it is "an approach to brand communications where the different modes work together to create a seamless experience for the customer and are presented with a similar tone and style that reinforces the brand’s core message. "⁶

As you can see, integrated marketing communication, in a manner similar to integrated marketing, is subject to a variety of definitions which may vary from author to author, from marketer to marketer and from use to use.

That then begs the question, what is the difference between the two?

As previously defined, in its simplest form, integrated marketing is nothing more than making sure that you have all of the appropriate tools and resources in place to support the needs of your specific marketing activity.

Integrated marketing communication on the other hand is primarily concerned with ensuring that the message is consistent across all of the marketing channels in use as part of your marketing activity. The goal of IMC is to make certain that all of the marketing communications and messaging that is developed work together to support each other and provide a unified message to the customer, rather than having each piece work separately. By doing so, this helps to reduce costs, enhance the cost effectiveness of the messaging content that was developed, reduce the fragmentation of the message and provide a consistent frame of reference for the customer, regardless of where/how they engage with you or your product. In short, IMC allows the marketer to take advantage of the synergies that will develop from a consistent message being delivered to the customer across all of the various media in use.

An example of a company applying the integrated marketing communications philosophy is Guinness PLC's campaign, 'Guinness: It's Alive Inside'. Guinness, the well-known Irish beer maker, launched this campaign in the Fall of 2007. Instead of developing different advertisements and messages for the different media they planned to use, Guinness developed one core idea and extended this idea across all of the communications channels. That one core idea was 'It's Alive', which celebrated what beer drinkers love most about Guinness beer: its distinctive 'surge', a frothing, cascading effect that occurs in the head of the beer shortly after being poured and is visible in the beer glass before the head settles.

“The brief to the agency was to develop a Guinness brand superidea, to re-establish the magic of Guinness for a new generation. Following a lengthy review period in which we sought to really understand the twentysomething mind-set, a number of insights emerged. Among them was the idea that twentysomethings feel a heightened excitement about life and all of its possibilities. They are bursting with life and ready to take full advantage of it. This energy is reflected in the Guinness product in the way it surges in the glass before eventually settling. The marriage of these two insights gave us our brand superidea – Guinness. It’s Alive Inside.”⁷

"'Alive Inside' captures the excitement of enjoying Guinness, from the incredible 'surge' effect to the robust taste that has been perfected since 1759," said Dan Kleinman, Guinness Director of Marketing, Diageo.⁸ This message was then extended to print, television, advertising, sponsorships (for hurling and rugby), promotion and several other channels to ensure that a consistent message was delivered to the marketplace. Created by IIBBDO Dublin, the ad and all the creative communicate a consistent brand message.⁹

Instead of developing separate messages, communications and marketing campaigns for each of the various media, Guinness chose to develop one primary message and then leverage that message by using it across all the various channels they had chosen to interact with their target demographic in, thereby saving time, money and resources.

In an online article on Forbes.com (November 3, 2011, What Schoolhouse Rock and Integration Have In Common), Steve Olenski put it this way: “... and do drive home my point which is more and more consumers want an integrated message. They want to see the same basic message be it via an offline medium or online or mobile and tablet. It’s really not that hard to do yet so many companies big and small can’t seem to do it.”¹⁰

IMC is focused on ensuring that the message is consistent across all marketing channels, while integrated marketing is focused on ensuring that in addition to the message being consistent across channel, all other aspects of the marketing are appropriately chosen and structured so that they will support the overall goals of the marketing activity.

For the marketer who wants to ensure the success of a marketing activity, IMC should always be a component of the integrated marketing campaign.