Integrated marketing is the search for the optimal correlation of all marketing tools used in a particular market environment, which in this case acquire a synergistic effect. This fully applies to integrated marketing communications examples, if the set of communication tools is selected in the most optimal way for a certain segment of consumers. It is possible to definitely say that there is no one ideal and most effective communication and marketing tool. Each of them has its advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, all of them should be applied, but it is necessary to find the optimal proportions in their structure, and this is the meaning of creating integrated marketing communications among themselves, since in this case, the strengthening of the synergistic effect consists in the mutual enhancement of the effect from the use of specific communication tools.
What is Integrated Marketing?
Good integrated marketing is an effective 4P complex management system, which allows the organization to efficiently execute the planned business tasks and its mission. Marketing is an "end-to-end" system that penetrates all other divisions of the enterprise, and pursues the following goals (they are also constituents of integrated marketing):
- understanding of the market through the analysis of supply and demand;
- development of proposals for the creation of a product (service), determining its price, creating sales channels, informing consumers about the product;
- penetration of the market (seizure of the market share, its expansion, withdrawal);
- following the chosen philosophy of interaction with the market.
In other words, marketing today is a function of managing the process of satisfying needs that has two levels:
- the ideological level according to which the whole organization should be pervaded by marketing ideology;
- the organizational level is the information exchange between different organizational units.
Integrated Marketing Strategy
In addition to the definition already mentioned, integrated marketing can be understood as marketing oriented to both the product and the consumer simultaneously, aimed at the utmost risk reduction for the enterprise. The stable world of large enterprises and manufacturers that produce mass, standardized products, the world of companies competing only within their industries, the world of uniform and predictable needs and consumer requests has remained in the past. If consumers become increasingly different from each other, then products must constantly undergo dozens of changes and modifications before they begin to meet the needs of such consumers. Every year, new models should be produced in order to satisfy those who are not satisfied with the range of products and services offered.
Thus, an integrated marketing campaign should:
- be responsive to everything that happens on the market;
- see an unmet need;
- know what to release, with what modifications, how to deploy a new production.
In the framework of integrated marketing strategy, functions directly or indirectly related to market research are carried out by all structural units at all levels of management. Accordingly, the organization of management itself is changing. Marketing functions should be performed in the company by not one specially designated structural unit or service, but all structures and employees. If this is not the case, there is no question of satisfying the consumer today.
Thus, the whole concept of the organizational structure of the company is changing. In place of linearly-functional organizational management structures, divisional organizational structures of management come. Production departments (divisions), organized according to the product, regional or project principles unite teams of managers and specialists focused on the solution of a specific task, the creation and promotion of a specific product, capable of bearing full responsibility for income and expenses, cash flow, other financial results in the framework of the integrated strategy.
Examples of Integrated Marketing
Integrated Marketing of Nissan
Agency Tequila Manchester worked closely with the studio Dream Works and Nissan, developing a joint campaign to stimulate sales for the car Nissan Tino and the cartoon "Shrek." Manning Gottlieb Media was planning the promotion. To attract the attention of potential buyers of the Nissan Tino model, a means of communication with feedback was used. The Agency developed a plan of measures to stimulate sales, including a visit to the cinema. The organizers of the action sought to attract the attention not only of parents but also of children, who, as is now known, are also involved in making a decision to buy a family car. In the promotion, the whole space of the cinema was involved, from the foyer to the screens, amazingly imaginative and attracting the attention of the family target audience who were the most suitable potential buyers of the Nissan Tino. To achieve this effect, the agency produced unusual creative material, combining the images of the car and the animated Shrek. They made postcards, posters and stands up to two meters high, which were used at various events. The organizers of the action had an opportunity to collect information about potential customers: on postcards, there were questions about a possible replacement of the car, and there was a graph for indicating the home address. The developers of this event managed to grasp the essence and convey the special qualities of the car Nissan Tino and the cartoon "Shrek". The methods used made it possible to attract potential customers to participate in the campaign and to give them pleasure. Thanks to this, a strong association has developed between the car and the cartoon. Nissan highly appreciated the marketing campaign conducted.