Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC)

• Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) is a strategic approach to delivering a consistent and unified message to consumers, involving various marketing communication methods.
• IMC campaigns can use marketing communications, including advertising, sales promotions, public relations, event marketing, sponsorships, direct response communications, and database management.
• Product advertising promotes the features and benefits of a product to end consumers, while trade advertising targets wholesalers, retailers, or other businesses within the distribution channel.
• The primary goal of sales promotions is to stimulate immediate sales by offering incentives to consumers or trade partners.
• Promotional advertising uses sales promotions such as coupons, discounts, contests, and samples to boost sales.
• Public relations involves managing communication and relationships between an organization and its various publics, such as press releases, community involvement, and crisis management.
• Event marketing involves creating or sponsoring events to promote a brand or product and engage with consumers.
• Sponsorship is a form of marketing where a company supports an event, team, or organization in exchange for brand visibility and association.
• Current issues and trends affecting advertising include the rise of digital media, data privacy concerns, ad blocking, and the need for more personalized and relevant advertising experiences.
• A database management system is a software application that allows organizations to store, organize, and manage large amounts of data, facilitating targeted marketing efforts.
• Direct response communications aims to elicit an immediate response from consumers, such as a purchase, inquiry, or visit to a website, and its important for personalized marketing and measurable results.
• CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management, and refers to practices, strategies and technologies that companies use to manage and analyze customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle, with the goal of improving business relationships with customers, assisting in customer retention and driving sales growth.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

• Physiological Needs: basic needs like food, water, shelter (e.g., grocery stores, apartments).
• Safety Needs: security, protection, stability (e.g., insurance companies, home security systems).
• Social Needs: love, belonging, acceptance (e.g., social media platforms, dating apps).
• Esteem Needs: self-esteem, recognition, status (e.g., luxury cars, designer clothing).
• Self-Actualization Needs: personal growth, fulfillment, creativity (e.g., education, travel).
• A motive is an internal drive or reason that prompts a person to act in a certain way

Self Concept Theory

• Actual Self: how we perceive ourselves.
• Ideal Self: how we would like to be.
• Social Self: how we believe others see us.
• Ideal Social Self: how we would like others to see us.
• Marketers mostly focus on the ideal self and the social self to align products with consumers' aspirations and social image.
• Attitudes are learned predispositions to respond favorably or unfavorably to an object or class of objects, and formed through experiences, information, and beliefs.
• Selective retention is the tendency to remember information that aligns with existing beliefs and values, while forgetting information that contradicts them.
• Selective exposure is the process by which individuals choose to expose themselves to information that reinforces their existing attitudes and beliefs, while avoiding information that contradicts them.
• Selective perception is the process by which individuals interpret information in a way that is consistent with their existing attitudes and beliefs.
• A reference group is a group of people that an individual uses as a basis for comparison or a source of influence in forming their attitudes, values, or behaviors.
• Double targeting is marketing a product or service to two distinct groups of consumers, often with different needs or characteristics.
• Consumer markets involve selling goods and services to individual consumers for personal use, while business-to-business (B2B) markets involve selling goods and services to organizations for use in their operations.

Strategic Planning

• Defining the organization’s mission.
• Setting objectives and goals.
• Developing strategies to achieve those goals.

Types of Competition

• Monopoly: one company, no competition, price control, high government regulation.
• Oligopoly: a few companies dominate, limited competition, some price control.
• Monopolistic Competition: many companies, differentiated products, some price control.
• Perfect Competition: many companies, homogenous products, no price control.
• Elements of the external environment (SLEPT analysis) include social, legal, economic, political, and technological factors that can affect an organization’s strategic decisions.
• A strategy is a long-term plan of action designed to achieve a specific goal, while a tactic is a short-term action or tool used to implement a strategy
• Direct competition occurs when companies offer similar products or services to the same target market, while indirect competition occurs when companies offer different products or services that can satisfy the same customer need.
• Consumer-generated content (CGC) is any form of content, such as reviews, blog posts, or social media updates, created by consumers about a brand or product.
• A mission statement is a brief description of an organization's fundamental purpose, outlining what it seeks to accomplish and who it serves.
• A marketing plan is a comprehensive document that outlines an organization’s marketing strategy, including objectives, target market, positioning, and marketing mix.
• Strategic planning is done at the corporate, business, and functional levels within an organization.

Corporate Level Strategies

• Growth: expanding the organization’s market share or entering new markets (e.g., acquisitions, new product development).
• Stability: maintaining the organization’s current market position (e.g., focusing on operational efficiency).
• Retrenchment: reducing the organization’s size or scope (e.g., divestitures, cost-cutting measures).
• A SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool used to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats involved in a project or business venture.
• The steps involved in the marketing planning process typically include conducting a situation analysis, setting marketing objectives, developing marketing strategies, implementing the strategies, and evaluating the results.
• Demographics are statistical data relating to the population and particular groups within it, such as age, gender, income, and education.
• Psychographics is the study and classification of people according to their attitudes, aspirations, and other psychological criteria, especially in market research.
• An objective is a specific and measurable goal that an organization aims to achieve within a defined timeframe.

Advertising Budgets

• Percentage of Sales: allocating a percentage of past or projected sales to advertising.
• Competitive Parity: matching the advertising spending of competitors.
• Objective and Task: setting specific advertising objectives and determining the tasks required to achieve them, then budgeting accordingly.
• A product analysis is a detailed examination of a product’s features, benefits, and competitive advantages.
• A target market analysis involves identifying and evaluating the characteristics, needs, and behaviors of the specific group of consumers that an organization aims to serve.
• A market analysis is a comprehensive study of a market, including its size, growth rate, trends, and competitive landscape.
• A brand is a name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s goods or services as distinct from those of other sellers.
• Elements of a brand include the brand name, logo, slogan, and brand personality.

Stages of Brand Loyalty

• Brand Recognition: customer is aware of the brand.
• Brand Preference: customer chooses the brand over competing brands.
• Brand Insistence: customer accepts no substitutes for the brand.

Brand Equity

• Brand equity is the value of a brand, based on consumer perceptions, loyalty, and brand awareness.
• USP stands for Unique Selling Proposition, which is a specific benefit that differentiates a product or service from its competitors.

Types of Positioning

• Head-On: directly comparing a brand to its competitors.
• Leadership: positioning a brand as the leader in its category.
• Niche: focusing on a specific segment of the market.
• The elements of the communication process include the sender, encoding, message, channel, receiver, decoding, and feedback.
• An attribute is a characteristic or feature of a product or service.
• A creative brief is a document that outlines the key elements of an advertising campaign, including the objectives, target audience, message, and media strategy.
• ACCA in the context of advertising, stands for Awareness, Comprehension, Conviction, and Action.
• A key benefit statement is a concise description of the most important benefit that a product or service offers to consumers
• Appeal techniques include emotional appeals (e.g., fear, humor, romance), rational appeals (e.g., features, benefits), and moral appeals (e.g., values, ethics).

Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) delivers a consistent message using advertising, sales promotions, public relations, and direct response. IMC campaigns boost sales through trade and promotional advertising. Public relations manages communication between an organization and its publics.