Promotion is the function of informing, persuading, and influencing the consumer’s purchase decision u A company needs to coordinate all these messages for maximum total impact and to reduce the likelihood that the consumer will completely tune them out.
integrated marketing communications (IMC), coordinates all promotional activities—media advertising, direct mail, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations, and sponsorships—to produce a unified, customer-focused promotional message
u An IMC strategy begins not with the organization’s goods and services but with consumer wants or needs and then works in reverse to the product, brand, or organization. uIt sends receiver-focused rather than product-focused messages. uRather than separating the parts of the promotional mix and viewing them as isolated components,
IMC looks at these elements from the consumer’s viewpoint: as information about the brand, company, or organization. uEven though the messages come from different sources—sales presentations, word of mouth, TV, radio, newspapers, billboards, direct mail, coupons, public relations, and online services—consumers may perceive them as “advertising” or a “sales pitch.”
IMC broadens promotion to include all the ways a customer has contact with an organization, adding to traditional media and direct mail such sources as package design, store displays, sales literature, and online and interactive media. Unless the organization takes an integrated approach to present a unified, consistent message, it may send conflicting information that confuses consumers.
u Message (a communication of information, advice, or a request) to a receiver. An effective message accomplishes three tasks: u1. It gains the receiver’s attention. u2. It achieves understanding by both receiver and sender. u3. It stimulates the receiver’s needs and suggests an appropriate method of satisfying them. u An effective message gains the reader’s attention, achieves understanding, and stimulates the receiver’s needs, suggesting an appropriate method of satisfaction u The three tasks just listed are related to the AIDA concept (attention, interest, desire, action), uthe steps consumers take in reaching a purchase decision. uThe channel for delivering the message may be a salesperson, a public relations outlet, a Web site, or one of the numerous advertising media.
uThe promotional mix works like a subset of the marketing mix, u Personal Selling: Personal selling is the oldest form of promotion This direct form of promotion may be conducted face-to-face, over the telephone, through videoconferencing, or through interactive computer links between the buyer and seller. u Non-personal Selling: Non-personal selling includes advertising, product placement, sales promotion, direct marketing, public relations, and guerrilla marketing.
