essay integrated marketing communications

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Integrated Marketing Communication

Introduction, visual communication, difficulties in integrating visual communication in an imc strategy.

The complexity of the marketing environment for organizations that operate in the current competitive market calls for the integration of marketing communication. This demand introduces the first question that organizations need to consider when developing a marketing communication policy in any market: Does the organization have the capacity to integrate their marketing initiatives? IMC acknowledges the importance of developing a comprehensive plan, which evaluates the strategic role of various communication disciplines, including advertising, sales promotion, and public relations among others, in developing a clear, consistent, and high-impact brand or product communication.

Nevertheless, some scholars in the field of marketing communication believe that integration of marketing communications is incredibly difficult. For example, Pickton and Broderick (2005, p.28) suggests, ‘Integration is not easy to achieve but when it is achieved, the 4 E’s and 4 C’s of IMC create the synergistic benefits of integration.’ The statement is in line with Keller’s (2009, p.139) definition of integrated marketing communication. According to Keller (2009, p.139), IMC involves the ‘mixing and matching of different communication options to establish the desired awareness and image in the minds of consumers.’ This paper demonstrates an understanding of this statement using visual communication examples. However, it first discusses the concept of visual communication.

Visual communication entails conveying both the intended and unintended messages in a legible manner or in a way that is possible to look upon. According to Reid (2005), constructing the appropriate mental image is an important aspect of both written and spoken language as deployed in marketing communication. Therefore, despite the language used in marketing communication, people will develop some visual images of their understanding of the message passed. Confirming Reid’s (2005) views, Fanara (2016) informs that people’s brain is designed to process visual images since they take all the data on images at ago while texts involve sequential processing.

Textual data goes to short-term memory where it can only be processed in 7 bits at a time. Comparably, image data goes directly to the long-term memory where it is etched permanently. Therefore, any effective integrated marketing campaign should involve blending communication techniques that guarantee the creation of long-term brain images to induce long-term memories on the brand under promotion. To this extent, the integration of visual communication techniques is inevitable. However, in line with Luck and Moffatt’s (2009) views, Pickton and Broderick (2005, p.28) believe that such integration is incredibly difficult, although when realized, an organization acquires synergies that are beneficial since the 4Es and 4Cs of IMC are actualized.

An enlarging body of research such as the work of Luck and Moffatt (2009) and Micu and Pentina (2014) indicates that when integration of marketing communications is achieved, an organization acquires some beneficial success synergies. For new products and services to have market appeal, different marketing communication approaches must be deployed to reach a different target audience of the adverts (Luck & Moffatt 2009).

This implies that advertising needs to create brand appeal. In the same school of thought, Micu and Pentina (2014, p. 159) studied the impact of ‘paid advertising (banner ad) and publicity (news article plus banner ad) on attitude toward the brand in the context of different product categorization approaches’. They accomplished this goal by deploying the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) and economics theory on the information in testing approaches via which various communication modes affected the attitude of consumers towards different brand categories.

The research findings indicated that ELM creates an effective attitude towards a product compared to information economics (Micu & Pentina 2014). Ewing (2009) agrees with the authors by noting that the inclusion of information concerning a brand in an online advertising environment communication mix, which principally involves visual communications, has a significant impact on brand attitude for products that have a low and/or moderate involvement. For high-involvement products, the ELM presumption holds when credible information is included in the advertisement mix. To determine the overall effectiveness of IMC campaigns, measurement is crucial to establish the success of different IMC synergies.

An effective IMC needs to develop a coherent meaning of the communicated brand through different methodologies. Organizations need to consider integrating messages about a product (Finne & Gronroos 2009; Ewing 2009). In the process of creating meaning, historical, future, internal, and external factors are worth consideration in the IMC campaign adopted by any organization (Finne & Gronroos 2009).

IMC projects that yield success in the long-term need to be creative and innovative to help in addressing the things that consumers look for in products in the marketplace. However, Stuhlfault and Yoo (2013) assert that many organizations test and evaluate their IMC alternatives in late stages. Such evaluation and testing become waste and expensive. Nevertheless, when timed well, an organization can develop IMC alternatives that possess humor, novelty, effect, and utility. Such IMC initiatives are coherent, complementary, consistent, and continuous.

The goal of integrated marketing communication entails seeking strategies for developing and building strong brands. Keller (2009) provides a model for brand equity evaluation that enables marketers to develop and manage brands in a changing marketing environment. He provides and reviews the brand resonance pyramid to help in tracking marketing communications within an organization to create customer loyalty and long-lasting relationships.

Mallia and Windels (2013) concur with Keller’s (2009) line of thought when it comes to creating effective IMC projects. Mallia and Windels (2013) argue that organizations experience challenges, especially in the leadership role of directing such campaigns. Basing their research on 43 interviews, Mallia and Windels (2013) concluded that effective creative directors in advertising agencies deploy expertise in strategy development, creativity, and interpersonal communication. The goal is to motivate and/or mentor their co-workers to develop brand communication, including managing brand identities congruently with organizations’ vision and mission. To this extent, the environment of marketing communication is an important success factor for any integrated visual communication.

The modern trend in visual integrated communication is shifting towards the IMC paradigm in a digital setting. Pickton and Broderick (2005) argue that in case of integration is realized, an organization acquires significant benefits arising from 4Es and 4Cs. (Beba and Mira (2014) uphold a similar opinion by positing that IMC is achievable in case an organization deploys some standardized messages.

In the case of visual communication, the challenge is that images may create different meanings, depending on the context and perceptions of the target audience. This observation is manifested where an organization uses integrated visual communication to create a certain brand association. For example, consider a case where an organization advertises its juice as produced from naturally ripened fruits. The advert also has pictorial information on how these fruits look like.

The advert may create a strong brand image for an organization, depending on the state of the agricultural development of the audience. For example, the audience with advanced agricultural technologies may see and interpret the communication as reflecting the best and most desirable product that leaves one wanting to consume more of it. However, audiences with a poor state of agricultural development may view the inclusion of the phrase ‘blended from naturally repined fruits’ as contradicting what they understand the phrase to mean.

Therefore, such audiences may consider integrated visual communication as misleading where the context involves people living in a harsh environment. In this setting, natural ripening in the agricultural field destroys the ultimate taste of the fruit. The challenge here is evident in the development of standardized integrated visual communication that can help in realizing the 4Cs and 4Es. Standardization is challenging since a marketing communication must apply to the context in which the audience receives the communication (Tancharoen 2016).

This claim is in line with Pickton and Broderick’s (2005) argument that integrated marketing communication cannot apply to every audience. The problematic issue is to standardize the context in a manner that visual marketing communication creates the same brand image and association as intended by the IMC strategy designer.

The 4Es refer to enhancing, economical, efficient, and effective communication. Therefore, through the ‘enhancing’ component of the 4Es, it is possible to transmit coherent communication by only selecting one message to target a given audience. Consequently, the audience does not become confused following the transmission of multiple messages, which may destroy the brand image. Pickton and Broderick (2005) layout a mechanism for countering the problem of standardization. They posit that the IMC strategy should not just focus on transmitting some standardized messages. Rather, marketing communication strategists should aim at adhering to a common understanding of a brand. In this process, it is critical to first apply the concept of efficiency coupled with the economical aspect of the 4Es to select the right and appropriate set of integrated visual communication systems.

Depending on the adopted strategy and maintaining its consistency, the 4Cs aspects of integrated communication are critical in ensuring the success of visual IMC. 4Cs denote coherent, consistent, complementary, and continuity of marketing communication. Consistent strategies do not self-contradict. In line with Pickton and Broderick’s (2005) method of offsetting the problem of standardization, such consistent strategies have the implication of favorably supporting a given brand (Luxton, Reid & Mavondo 2015).

A good example of successful deployment of visual integrated communication strategies that satisfy the 4Es and 4Cs is in the airline industry. For instance, the success of Virgin Atlantic Airways in terms of its global leadership has been achieved through the deployment of visual integrated communication strategies that meet the 4Es and 4Cs. Pictures 1(a) and 1(b) show some of the adverts used by the airline.

The above two commercials illustrate consistency, complementary, coherency, and continuity of the integrated marketing communication. For example, the legible aspect of the advert is the same for both cases. Hence, the audience will have the same interpretation of the two visual communication designs. The most basic interpretation here is that Virgin Atlantic has the best set of crewmembers to attend a client. This interpretation leads to the association of one’s considered best-in-class customer service and experience with Virgin Atlantic Airways. To this extent, integrated visual marketing communication leaves all audiences wanting to experience and/or associate themselves with Virgin Atlantic Airlines.

Mart and Gergely (2015) argue that organizations experience high failure rates in their integrated marketing initiatives. Greenley, Graham, and Rudd (2005) counter-argue that IMC is received positively as a strategy for marketing management because it incorporates perspectives of multi-stakeholder communications. However, Mart and Gergely (2015) insist that little is known about the failures of its implementation in practice.

After conducting an ethnographic study in the Swedish context, Mart and Gergely (2015) identified compartmentalization, de-contextualization, dysfunction arising from miscommunication, and reduced trust as important sources of failure of the IMC. Even if the goal of any organization is to initiate an integrated visual communication marketing campaign that leads to better brand positioning, Mart and Gergely’s (2015) findings are important since an organization must consider all possible factors that may lead to the failure of IMC.

Considering that integration of marketing communication is incredibly hard to achieve, organizations need to consider the extent to which each element of visual communication mix can be controlled or adapted to specific contexts to realize the 4Cs and 4Es synergies of integrated marketing communication. Most importantly, an organization needs to consider the effectiveness and credibility of visual communication messages and the manner in which they are received by the intended target. If the communication messages are credible and reliable in portraying the true nature of a brand, they will be regarded as acceptable and effective in influencing clients’ buying decisions.

Beba, R & Mira, R 2014, ‘Integrated marketing communication paradigm in the digital environment: the five pillars of integration’, Megatrend Review , vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 187-203.

Ewing, M 2009, ‘Integrated Marketing Communication Measured and Evaluation’, Journal of Marketing Communications , vol. 15, no. 2-3, pp. 103-117.

Fanara, C 2016, Visual Communication: Creating an Effective Brand Identity . Web.

Finne, A & Gronroos, C 2009, ‘Rethinking Marketing Communication: From Integrated Marketing Communication to Relationship Communication’, Journal of Marketing Communications , vol.15, no. 2-3, pp. 179-195.

Greenley, G, Graham, H & Rudd, J 2005, ‘Market Orientation in a Multiple Stakeholder Orientation Context: Implications for Marketing Capabilities and Assets’, Journal of Business Research , vol. 58, no.11, pp. 1483–1494.

Keller, K 2009, ‘Building Strong Brands in a Modern Marketing Communications Environment’, Journal of Marketing Communications , vol. 15, no. 2-3, pp. 139-155.

Luck, E & Moffatt, J 2009, ‘IMC Has Anything Really Changed? A New Perspective on an Old Definition’, Journal of Marketing Communications , vol.15, no. 5, pp. 311-325.

Luxton, S, Reid, M & Mavondo, F 2015, ‘Integrated marketing communication capability and brand performance’, Journal of Advertising, vol. 44, no. 1, pp. 37-46.

Mallia, K & Windels, K 2013, ‘The First Starter and The Brand Steward: An Examination of Successful Leadership Traits for the Advertising-Agency Creative Director’, Journal of Advertising Research , vol.1, no.1, pp. 339-352.

Mart, O & Gergely, N 2015, ‘Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC): Why Does It Fail?’, Journal of Advertising Research, vol. 55, no. 2, pp. 132-145.

Micu, A & Pentina, I 2014, ‘Integrating Advertising and News about the Brand in the Online Environment: Are All Products the Same?’, Journal of Marketing Communications , vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 159-175.

Pickton, D & Broderick, 2005, Integrated Marketing Communications , Prentice-Hall, Harlow, FT.

Reid, M 2005, ‘Performance Auditing of IMC Actions and Outcomes,’ Journal of Advertising , vol. 34, no.4, pp. 41–52.

Stuhlfault, M & Yoo, C 2013, ‘A Tool For Evaluating Advertising Concepts: Desirable Characteristics as Viewed by Creative Practitioners’, Journal of Marketing Communications , vol.19, no. 2, pp. 81-97.

Tancharoen, S 2016, ‘The relationship between integrated marketing communication and marketing communications objectives of marketing directors in Thailand’, UTCC International Journal of Business and Economics , vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 173-186.

World Stewardess Crews 2011, Virgin Atlantic Commercial 2011- Your airline’s either got it or it hasn’t .  Web.

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Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC)

Introduction.

Integrated marketing communication (IMC) is considered the hottest global concept in the marketing field and one of the significant communication advancements of the past and present decades (Madhavaram et al., 2016). It has swept the global business marketing sector, becoming both a norm and a necessity for firms to win the race in attracting and retaining customers over their competitors. A successful IMC campaign entails unifying various marketing strategies and communication tools and creating an informative, persuasive, ethical, and catchy message about a service or product. IMC campaigns are important for businesses as they help produce desirable and consistent customer experiences of the services and products, foster healthy relationships between the firm and key stakeholders, promote the brand image, and increase sales (Zwerin et al., 2020). 

Besides the marketers, IMC integrates several internal and external stakeholders, including the employees, customers, media, suppliers, the general public, partners, investors, government, and regulatory bodies who substantially brand image (Madhavaram et al., 2016). Therefore, marketers must consider and value different stakeholders through corporate social responsibility, including considering sustainability, ethical, and regulatory requirements when developing IMC campaigns. This report evaluates key issues concerning ethics, sustainability, and regulations that marketers must consider in planning their IMC campaigns.  

Findings and Discussion

Sustainability has many definitions and faces. In marketing, Kemper and Ballantine (2019) conceptualised sustainability as planning, implementation, and control of production, promotion, pricing, and distribution of services and products in a way that achieves three goals: meets customer needs, attains organisational goals, and ensures compatibility with the ecosystem. It means that marketers must consider issues that arise in producing, distributing, pricing, and promoting services and products in the light of environment conservation, customer needs, and organisational goals and the associated information when developing IMC campaign plans. According to Baines et al. (2018), sustainability and ethics in marketing are intertwined, as sustainable marketing should meet the ecological, equitable, and economic (3Es) criteria. The ecological dimension means that marketing should not adversely affect the environment, and the equitability criterion requires the campaign not to promote or allow inequitable or unfair social practices. The economic aspect demands sustainable marketing to economic development goals in the long run instead of the short run. This report blends the two definitions and holds that marketers should market sustainable services and products and sustainably promote them. 

In this light, the first sustainability issue that marketers should consider in planning their IMC involves the services or products they are marketing and whether they meet Baines et al.’s (2018) and Kemper and Ballantine’s (2019) criteria. It entails production conditions, product features, and exposure to risks or hazards. Concerning production conditions, favourable employees’ working conditions when developing the product or service, reducing or avoiding carbon dioxide emissions, industrial waste disposal, and reuse of materials are critical sustainable considerations (Kemper and Ballantine, 2019). For the product performance and features, natural ingredients instead of chemicals and a description of the ingredients is necessary as consumers have shifted to healthy consumption patterns. Again, organisations should avoid exposing consumers and the public to risks. For example, when designing outdoor adverts, they should use non-toxic paints. Lastly, when developing the packaging, which is usually part of the promotion, the issue of biodegradable versus non-biodegradable and recyclable materials should be addressed. Marketers should prioritise recyclable, biodegradable, and safe packaging consistent with the customer needs for safe consumption, ecosystem responsibility, and organisational goals in line with Baines et al.’s (2018) suggestions. 

The second issue of sustainability that marketers should beware of entails pricing, distribution, and promotions. Using environmentally friendly advertising strategies: like digital marketing as opposed to roadshows that entail the emission of gasses, would support ecosystem preserving the goal of sustainability. Personal selling initiatives and promotion campaigns that blend marketing and the collection or recovery of reusable and recyclable materials and packaging are vital for sustainable marketing (Kemper and Ballantine, 2019). Concerning pricing, they should ensure fair pricing, provide accurate information on pricing and price comparison, and display relevant taxes. Marketers must consider social costs as part of the product’s total cost when planning their IMC campaigns. The durability of the products, energy use and conservation, and impact of advertising on the environment amount to social costs. It means IMC should use sustainable means, like the Internet or use biodegradable, reusable, and recyclable papers for print advertising or posters. 

When designing the message and marketing content, marketers should consider their firms’ and services or products’ sustainability efforts and engagement in community, charitable, and environmental conservation programs. Here, the message should focus on consumption-related issues, like eating natural and organic food and a low-fat and low-sugar diet instead of food with chemical ingredients (Albinsson et al., 2020). For example, Coca-Cola, a beverage and food giant conducted a zero-sugar campaign to promote healthy diets. The bottom line is that consumers are now responsive to sustainable consumption and tend to incline to brands that score high in corporate social responsibility. Therefore, implementing sustainable IMCs would create a competitive advantage over rivals, reduce costs, and improve brand image. 

Ethical issues 

For IMCs, the concept of ethics reflects the organisational policies, society, and governing bodies. One of the ethical issues governing IMCs is data privacy. The growing use of online payments, social media, company websites, and email marketing has led to exposure or misuse of customers’ data, an ethical issue that marketers must consider. It is unethical to share customers’ data, including personal emails, phone numbers, and other information that can be used to identify them. These ethical issues often overlap with legal requirements. For instance, in Australia, unsolicited emails are a common teething issue, and the country has email anti-spam regulations. The law requires marketers to have the recipient’s consent before subscribing to a facility or sending emails (Lee, 2019). Because the meaning of consent is not well defined, some organisations have occasionally abused it by sharing directories such that personal emails can be retrieved. Besides the privacy laws, marketers must understand that exposing customers’ information during IMC campaigns is unethical and can negatively impact their brand reputation. 

Ethics in marketing extends to advertising to and involving children in the campaign, mainly issues dealing with privacy intrusion and consent seeking. It is unethical to use children in campaigns without parents’ consent or collect and use children’s personal data in marketing, whether in print, digital, or broadcast media. Such actions are even illegal in many countries. For example, the US has important laws protecting children by providing the confines within which individuals and organisations willing to gather or use children’s information for IMC campaigns, research, or other purposes must operate within the legal framework (Albinsson et al., 2010). The Children’s Online Privacy Act prohibits deception concerning collecting and using children’s private data on digital media (Ingram, 2019). The law holds that websites should seek variable consent from the parent before gathering or revealing information about a child. In particular, these rules apply to B2C operations, especially businesses offering online services or products directly to people under 13 years. It means that marketers entering the US market should consider how to plan their campaigns. Marketers of children’s products, like gaming apps, have the most significant concerns regarding children’s data privacy because one needs to open accounts to play the game. 

Another overarching issue of ethical concern in sustainable IMC campaigns is greenwashing. De Freitas Netto et al. (2020) defined greenwashing as the process through which organisations communicate false information about how their services and products are eco-friendly. Greenwashing has emerged as an impact of growth in the popularity of customers demanding products that protect or care about the environment. With many firms riding on the wave to attract and retain customers, those unable to achieve environmentally-safe production, services, and products tend to offer false information to appear as if they did to woe customers. Greenwashing subjects businesses to a high risk of credibility and the overall aim of sustainable promotions. Sustainable promotions are at the greatest risk, hence the long-lasting negative impact on future IMCs, because consumers will have negative perceptions of future environmental sustainability communications by the company.  

The greenwashing issue raises both ethical and regulatory concerns. It is unethical because it provides a misleading message about the service, product, or brand to the general public (De Freitas Netto et al., 2020). Legal issues arise based on the country’s laws, as most states proscribe misleading, false, and unsubstantiated information on environmental matters during marketing. For instance, in the UK, the Green Claims Code by The Competition and Markets Authority guides marketers to conform to consumer protection laws when conveying information on ‘green’ initiatives. Lovino et al. (2023) pointed out that the code was published after it was found that most marketers’ claims on ‘green’ (environmental sustainability) commitments were misleading. Some companies hoodwinked the public eye by omitting some info, whereas others utilised logos suggesting that a third-party verified their brands or products as eco-friendly. As such, marketers planning IMCs in the UK should ensure they provide clear, unequivocal, and truthful information, which can be substantiated about environmental sustainability without omitting any material. 

Misleading advertisements or false integrated marketing communications and sufficient information disclosure is a key ethical and legal issues to consider when developing IMC plans. For example, companies selling cigarettes should disclose the side effects of the product in their marketing. Again, it is unethical and illegal to provide false and misleading information about a service or product to attract customers is unethical and illegal. In the US, Mass. Gen. Laws c. 266, s91 untrue and misleading advertising, promotion, and sale of services or products. An example of an unethical and illegal incident was the case of  SafeHands Solution, LLC and Recreation Equipment Inc. (REI) v. Steven Merola et al.  SafeHands and its ‘targeted’ (REI) ran a marketing campaign in 2020, stating that their non-alcoholic hand sanitiser kills 99.99 per cent of all germs to lure people into purchasing the product during the pandemic (figure 1). However, according to the FDA, no evidence indicates that any sanitiser killed  99% of the germs. Alcoholic-based sanitisers, which were more effective than non-alcoholic have between 60 and 90% effectiveness, according to research (Healthy.com, 2022). SafeHands’ issue suggests marketers must avoid presenting misleading and untrue information when developing their IMC plans.

Figure 1. A misleading ad that led to a lawsuit (source: Healthy.com, 2022)

In the UK context, marketers must conform to The Trade Descriptions Act, which requires companies to ensure that the product marketed and sold have accurate descriptions that meet the customers’ expectations (Legislation.gov.uk. 2022). Wrong descriptions, like hand sanitisers during the pandemic, amount to breaches and can lead to penalties and reputation loss. Consistently, marketers should ensure they are marketing goods of merchandise quality, consistent with The Sale of Goods Act. In a nutshell, marketers should conduct an ethical and legal review of the target marketing environment when planning their IMCs, as laws differ across states and constantly change. 

Lessening social and environmental impact

Businesses can reduce their environmental and social impact by aligning their strategy with corporate social responsibility (CSR), including considering each sustainable, ethical, and legal issue above. In production, firms should ensure efficiency in resource utilisation, use environmentally-friendly means, control emissions, reduce waste, and recycle raw materials (Sheth and Parvatiyar, 2021). Energy-efficient machinery and green energy might be considered when producing goods and packaging materials. Again, producing and marketing services and products locally would reduce environmental impact by minimising transportation emissions and mitigating the social impact by employing local communities. 

Embracing a culture of honesty, truth, diversity, and equity in planning IMCs would help overcome issues of misleading campaigns, exclusion, and breach of privacy in marketing (Albinsson et al., 2020). Engaging stakeholders would help marketers collect views to address and meet various stakeholder needs. Companies can provide good working conditions and audit suppliers to avoid landing into problems of child abuse, environmental pollution, and deceit. Many companies like Coca-Cola and Apple are increasingly shifting toward natural products and eco-friendly and recyclable packaging to reduce the impact of waste disposal on the environment (The Coca-Cola Company, 2022). The choice of eco-friendly marketing strategies, like the Internet and biodegradable posters, could help firms lessen their IMC’s effect on pollution. 

Marketers can use different strategies to educate customers on sustainable consumption and behaviour. When planning IMCs, companies can include information on product features that promote sustainability and applicable usage procedures (Sheth and Parvatiyar, 2021). For instance, when designing IMC campaigns targeting tourists in the digital advent, it is important to include an eco-tourism message that creates awareness and informs the audience about the steps and practices that align with ‘green’ tourism.’ For example, Gulati (2022) established that social media tools effectively promote sustainable behaviour among tourists during an IMC campaign. 

Additionally, marketers can include a message on recycling and reusing packaging materials and offer to share and repair surfaces to prolong product life. Many manufacturers provide information on the ingredients and product use on the packaging. Including information on the reuse or recycling of the packaging or an offer for repair would help enhance awareness among the customers. Indicating the packaging is recyclable informs consumer behaviour. Coca-cola Great Britain has made recyclable bottles, which it collects after selling as a means to ensure sustainable packaging (figure 2). 

Figure 2. Recyclable Coca-Cola bottle (Source: The Coca-Cola Company, 2023)

For suppliers – organisation-wide collaboration commitment, including engaging the procurement department, can help influence them to enhance their sustainability efforts. Marketers can work with the procurement department to set greenhouse gas emission (GHC) targets, like for supplied services and products. In this case, the procurement department should create relationships with suppliers and communicate the sustainability plan, encouraging them to work within the company’s sustainability goals. 

Additionally, companies can encourage environmental sustainability among suppliers by preselecting and reducing suppliers based on their ecological initiatives and environmental impact. Choosing suppliers supplying environmentally safe products and using green strategies in producing and supplying the materials to the firm would encourage more suppliers to join the wave to stand a chance to be selected. The process might entail reviewing suppliers’ production and distribution channels, waste disposal, GHC emission, packaging, and the nature of materials or ingredients in their supplies. 

Finally, companies can encourage suppliers to commit to environmental sustainability by including eco-friendly terms and provisions when negotiating business deals. In this case, the description of services or goods might include environmental safety standards in the aspects of means used to produce them, raw materials, recyclable and reusable packaging, and environmentally-friendly delivery services. 

In conclusion, marketers should acknowledge that business environments are complex and dynamic and sustainability, ethical, and legal issues in different markets and constantly changing. The bottom line is that various stakeholders, employees, customers, the public, media, and regulators are increasingly becoming environmentally cautious and are key determinants of a company’s brand image and profitability. Therefore, when planning an IMC campaign for their services or products, marketers must study and understand the relevant ethical and legal framework governing marketing practices to avoid violations and promote a sustainable campaign. 

List of References

Albinsson, P.A., Burman, B., Shows, G.D. and Stoddard, J.E., 2020. Integrating and assessing student perceived sustainability literacy in an Integrated Marketing Communications course.  Marketing Education Review ,  30 (3), pp.159-176.  https://doi.org/10.1080/10528008.2020.1770102  

Baines, P., Fill, C., and Rosengren, S. 2018  Marketing 4th edition.  Oxford: Oxford University Press

De Freitas Netto, S.V., Sobral, M.F.F., Ribeiro, A.R.B. and Soares, GRDL, 2020 Concepts and forms of greenwashing: A systematic review.  Environmental Sciences Europe ,  32 (1), pp.1-12.  https://doi.org/10.1186/s12302-020-0300-3   

Gulati, S., 2022 Social and sustainable: exploring social media use for promoting sustainable behaviour and demand amongst Indian tourists.  International Hospitality Review ,  36 (2), pp.373-393. http:// doi/10.1108/IHR-12-2020-0072/full/HTML 

Ingram, D. (2019). List of Ethical & Legal Issues When Advertising. Available at  https://smallbusiness.chron.com/list-ethical-legal-issues-advertising-11466.html

Iovino, R., Testa, F. and Iraldo, F., 2023. Do Consumers Understand What Different Green Claims Actually Mean? An Experimental Approach in Italy.  Journal of Advertising , pp.1-15. 

Kemper, J.A. and Ballantine, P.W., 2019 What do we mean by sustainability marketing?  Journal of Marketing Management ,  35 (3-4), pp.277-309.  https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2019.1573845  

Lee, Z., 2019 I want to advertise to children in Australia. What advertising guidelines should I follow? Available at  https://legalvision.com.au/i-want-to-advertise-to-children-in-australia-what-advertising-guidelines-should-i-follow/  

Legislation.gov.uk. 2022   Legislations. Available at   http://www.legislation.gov.uk/

Madhavaram, S., Badrinarayanan, V. and Bicen, P., 2016 Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC): Conceptual and Theoretical Lacunae, Foundational Premises, and Framework. In  Celebrating America’s Pastimes: Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie and Marketing? Proceedings of the 2015 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference  (pp. 335-336). Springer International Publishing.   

Sheth, J.N. and Parvatiyar, A., 2021. Sustainable marketing: Market-driving, not market-driven.  Journal of macromarketing ,  41 (1), pp.150-165.  https://doi.org/10.1177/0276146720961836  

The Coca-Cola Company. 2022 Coca-Cola recycling and packaging. Available at  https://www.coca-cola.co.uk/sustainability/packaging-and-recycling  

Healthylink.com. 2022 SafeHands alcohol-free hand sanitiser.  https://www.healthykin.com/p-4020-safehands-alcohol-free-hand-sanitizer.aspx

Zwerin, A., Clarke, T.B. and Clarke III, I., 2020 Traditional and emerging integrated marketing communication touchpoints used in Effie award-winning promotional campaigns.  Journal of Promotion Management ,  26 (2), pp.163-185.  https://doi.org/10.1080/10496491.2019.1699626  

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Integrated Marketing Communications Campaign, Essay Example

Pages: 3

Words: 780

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  Target Market

The primary target for the student nightclub is  primarily college students and young adults.  The students will mostly from surrounding areas pf NAITSA, school of Hospitality & Culinary Arts, and students in the Radio and Television Arts program.  However, we attend to attract several other groups, such as young adults throughout the city. In order to get to these other customers we will use a marketing media mix of web (electronic), print, and broadcast. Therefore, our main focus will be solely on young adults.  It is our intent to target both male and female consumers through their music preferences whenever feasible, club atmosphere which will have a laid back vibe mostly catering to the style of the DJ, and different types of food the students would be interested in eating. The music will be an eclectic combination of hip-hop, pop, rock, and dance music. The atmosphere will have mood lightening, mostly medium lit floor surrounding by only a few couches and booths, so the will be open space for the dance floor.

First Phase:

Awareness . Building awareness is crucial for the student nightclub. This will be the start of pre-opening communication. First we will be printing ads in university magazines and newspapers and other popular magazines with high readership by our target audience.  Use direct marketing through emails, giving advertisements in the news paper (print media), Using the internet strategy by promoting through social networking sites such as, Facebook, Twitter, and others. We will also be placing ads on several bulletin boards situated near popular hangouts for college and university. Radio Television Arts will produce promotional spots through student radio, The Digital Interactive Media program is web streaming and NAITSA webmaster will do direct emailing. While print advertising provides a way to build awareness of the product, it is not as effective as audio/visual, that will be made through the Radio and Television Arts program.

Second Phase:

Interest. It is at this stage that the customers begin to build desire for the student nightclub. Of the students already aware of the nightclub, it is hoped that others from outside the college through grand opening events, such as, contests, giveaways, and food and drink specials sponsored by the school of Hospitality & Culinary Arts.

Third Phase:

Evaluation . Our last strategy is to then to evaluate with follow-up messages after we are open for business. Through feedback from social media, word of mouth promotion, and the number of customers that continue to comeback every weekend. In this way, we can achieve a better understanding of the effectiveness of the both the advertising and promotional tools.

IMC Campaign Plan

Overall Campaign strategy:

Marketing Objective : Is to promote out student nightclub, with the partnership of NAITSA, school of Hospitality & Culinary, and Radio and Television Arts Program. Through the use of promotional and media mix tools, we will attract our target audience of a mix of young adults and students.

Integrated marketing communications plan will be developed around the key features of the marketing plan. The student nightclub was designed specifically for young adults; so step one start with profiling potential customers. Step two is to use any relevant form of communication skills. The target market, young adults and students. We will build relationships with the target market and encourage them to come to our nightclub. Lastly, through our new marketing plan we want to make sure they keep coming back.

Budget:  Is to use the resources available through our partnerships with school of Hospitality & Culinary, Radio and Television Arts Program, and our own resources from different departments. Such as Student Radio, The Nugget, and The Digital Interactive Media. So no costs for direct email, print ads, promotional ads on radio, and interactive spots. However when using outside sources such as Facebook, Twiiter, and other social media outlets, the promotion is free. Word of mouth promotion is also fee. Putting up posters and banners will run roughly $100 a month.  Also, placing ads in regular newspaper will run on Thursday, Friday, and Saturdays at $25 a day  ($300) for the first month for pre-opening communication. The costs of running ads on bulletins near hotspots around the campus is $50-$100 a month.  In totality our monthly budget will be $400-$500 a month.

Criteria for Success : In our way to calculate success we will use a developed approach that involves goals, research and implementation. By setting achievable goals we are able to create measurable and obtainable marketing plan with a vision that will students and young adults to our student nightclub. By implemented our marketing strategy mixed with out promotional tools it is highly focused on a reachable target market. By getting feedback from customers, social media, and continued attendance we will measure our success.

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