Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) 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, social media, etc. through their respective mix of tactics so that all work together as a unified force.
Role in the Customer Journey
IMC plays a very important role in establishing a distinctive and unique Brand Image and Brand Identity for your company. Throughout the customer journey, it is important to maintain a consistent marketing message to deliver the right information at the right time, personalizing your marketing to create trust between the customer and your brand. The customer journey is similar to the buying decision journey, customers go from awareness to consideration and then to decision and it is important that they are encouraged to continue their journey, pushing them towards the end goal, whether that be a sales goal or brand loyalty goal. IMC plays an important role in the digital market as many customers frequent and pays attention to many channels and networks. Various factors affect the audience’s preference for certain channels such as demographic and geographic factors, but regardless marketers must utilize integrated marketing communications through these platforms to create awareness, entice and facilitate decisions amongst consumers. I currently work in the skincare industry and my company, for example, falls into a specific niche that targets a more mature demographic as our product is luxury anti-aging skincare. Throughout all our marketing channels and all our marketing messages, we have to maintain the brand’s story of “Defined by Nature, Led by Science” and the image of luxury and exclusivity.
Digital Marketplace
The digital marketplace is saturated with companies all gearing marketing towards enticing consumers to begin their customer journey with their company.
According to, Robert Allen, “digital marketing is a critical IMC effort because different channels have different strengths and weaknesses, and different types of content suit different channels better – Twitter is good for short, witty and pithy messages, whilst Pinterest is great for content related to design, and aspirational content works best on Instagram.”
Based on this knowledge you can create content that is consistent but is specifically for each channel to maximize your marketing efforts. Knowing your company and your intended audience also affects the channels you utilize and the way you go about communicating your brand message, for example, my company focusing on anti-aging luxury skincare. Based on my company’s typical demographics there are some marketing channels we choose not to pursue fully such as certain social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram. Our digital marketing efforts are best focused on the channels most utilized by a more mature demographic such as blogs, multi-media, email marketing, google search, and video advertising. It is important that as a marketer you understand this market space and its strengths and weaknesses to get your brand message across to the intended audience.
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