Integrated marketing’s role in today’s marketing and business strategy
Having been involved in Internet marking for decades, I’d like to explain what integrated marking is if you don’t know what it means already. Integrated marketing is all about unification across all platforms. “ Integrated Marketing is an approach to creating a unified and seamless experience for consumers to interact with the brand/enterprise; it attempts to meld all aspects of marketing communication such as advertising, sales promotion, public relations, direct marketing, and social media, through their respective mix of tactics, methods, channels, media, and activities, so that all work together as a unified force. It is a process designed to ensure that all messaging and communications strategies are consistent across all channels and are centered on the customer.” ¹
With that being said, integrated marking is basically blending the brand’s message so that it appears seamlessly across multiple disparate platforms to appear as one unified message that engage customers using all the available forms of marketing communications.
“Digital marketing is a constantly evolving field. Years ago, all you needed was a website, and maybe a blog. Then along came social media. Today, there is such a proliferation of platforms and content online that it’s a challenge to get your marketing message to stand out amid all the noise.” ₂
There is such a plethora of hardware and software platforms to target your marketing campaigns and promote your brand or business. These platforms seem to propagate at an alarming rate throughout disparate environments. The days of just advertising for TV, radio and billboard signs have long gone to the new trend of digital advertising with platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Google, Bing, Amazon and the list goes on and on. Keep in mind by the time this article is finished, there could be another platform on the market. One of the many reasons why we have such of an explosion of platforms and integrated marketing is the high availability of portable devices and the ease of Internet access. Access to the Internet is essentially ubiquitous. “According to current explosion of advanced technology, easy access to internet, portability and efficiency of technology have made change in consumer’s lives as well as strategies of marketing communications” ₃
“No single media channel can win out any more. Today, it’s about being wherever customers are.
You must give them what they need. Relevant messages. Messages that solve a problem, they may not even be aware they have. Making sure each interaction is intelligently connected to the next is what they expect. You can’t simply make a statement without connecting them to the next step. This means your dealership needs to deliver a great customer experience along with truly integrated marketing across any and every channel — web, social, mobile, broadcast, mail, radio, email, in-store, outdoor and beyond” ₄
The differences between traditional marketing and digital marketing is depicted in the image below, which sort of follows a historical media path.
Integrated marketing combines a host of channels from research, online digital marketing, trade shows, traditional printing, direct response and of course web and mobile platforms.
Because there are so many different types of media to target, Integrated Marketing is at the forefront of the company’s message. It’s such a significant role because not only can you make a message a valuable contribution for the company, you can also make an immense and erroneous judgment call when posting online. When you do make a mistake, the people on the Intranet will definitely let you know. We have all seen this happen. I would say Integrated Market has a huge role in promoting the company’s message.
References:
thedma.org (2019) Integrated Marketing Definitions retrieved from https://thedma.org/integrated-marketing-community/integrated-marketing-definitions/
Zenmedia (2016) Approaching Influencers: The First Step to Influencer Marketing, Outreach, and Digital PR retrieved from https://zenmedia.com/approaching-influencers-first-step-influencer-marketing-outreach-digital-pr/
Yamin, Ahmad. (2018). Analyzing the Role of Integrated Marketing Communication: Significance of Incorporation with Social Medias retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324561217_Analyzing_the_Role_of_Integrated_Marketing_Communication_Significance_of_Incorporation_with_Social_Medias
DP Ball Advertising (2018) Dynamic Marketing Strategy retrieved fromhttps://dpballadvertising.com/integrated-marketing.html