Topics: [Integrated Marketing] [4 C's vs. 4 P's] [Perception vs. Facts] [Information Processing]
Integrated Marketing Communication is more than the coordination of a company's outgoing message between different media and the consistency of the message throughout. It is an aggressive marketing plan that captures and uses an extensive amount of customer information in setting and tracking marketing strategy. Steps in an Integrated Marketing system are:
[ Back to top ] Source: "Sales & Marketing Management" September, 1996
This section has been influenced by Integrated Marketing
Communications by Schultz, Tannenbaum, and Lauterborn.
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In an age of increasing information overload, the consumer has developed a coping mechanism to deal with the amount of information being received. There is increasing evidence that customers and prospects are basing most of their purchasing decisions on what they perceive to be important or true (or what they think is right or correct) rather than on solid, rational, economically derived information. To the consumer, perception is truth. A perception may not be correct, but it is what they know, and what they know is all they need to know. This new "sound bite" approach to gathering marketing information demands that a marketer's statements about products or services must be clear, concise, consistent, and comprehensible through all forms of communication or the consumer will simply ignore them. Any minor inconsistency that does not match the existing "mind map" and will be ignored. (see Information Processing)
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Key to effective communication is understanding how consumers process the vast amount of information that comes their way each and every day. To cope, we select only that information that we perceive to be important and ignore the rest. Thus, we limit our span of perception as a way of coping. If the marketing message is to be selected and processed, it must:
Marketing communication messages that are not recognizable, are not related to each other, conflict with what has already been stored, or are simply unrelated or unimportant to the person will simply not be processed, but ignored. Communication only occurs when the consumer accepts, transforms, and categorizes the message. The storage and retrieval system works on the basis of matching incoming information with what has already been stored in memory. If the information matches or enhances what is already there, then the new information will likely be added to the existing concepts and categories. If it doesn't match, the consumer has to make a choice, either the new information can replace what is already there or the new information can be rejected. If rejected, the consumer would continue to use existing concepts and categories and ignore the new. This is called a "judgment system" in that consumers match or test new information against what they already have and then make a judgment to add to, adapt, or reject the new material. When consumers reject the information or do not add or attach it to what they already have, there is a failure to communicate. In many cases, the failure to communicate is the result of the marketer being unable to match his or her messages or fields of experience with those of the prospect or customer. Consumers use the same information processing approach whether the new data comes from advertising, sales promotions, a salesperson, an article in a newspaper or magazine or from what their neighbor is telling them. The marketer who presents non-integrated messages risks not having any of his or her messages processed because of the conflict that occurs in the consumer's information processing system. If for no other reason that the risk of confusion, marketers must integrate their messages or consumers will simply ignore them.
Concepts are not isolated units. They are networked together into what we call categories. These groups of concepts are not only made up of chunks of information, but then in turn are also networked together in conceptual relationships. Key to understanding the relationships is understanding the cultural and life experiences that have created the existing network of information chunks that exist in the consumer's head.
Two models of information processing have been proposed:
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Transformative Networking – connecting change
leaders to enable self-organized grassroots change.
http://groups.google.com/group/transformative-networking
Next Steps – While still conceptual, transformative
networking offers the possibility of leading change through the networking of
those already interested or involved in similar initiatives, effectively tearing
down existing silos of practice that exist across disciplines and fields of
work. The next step is to develop a proof of concept built on the theoretical
underpinnings above, possibly using Google Wave as the collaboration platform.
Included will be identifying the minimal structure and governance required to
enable self-organization within the network while not constraining what might
emerge. Join this initiative and help create the future of organizing -
networking communities of interest.
http://groups.google.com/group/transformative-networking
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Last modified: July 19, 2009