Integrated Marketing Communications Outline
Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) Template
IMC situation analysis
Summarise issues arising from the marketing plan that will directly impact on the communications strategy.
Company analysis
!" !" !" !" Company mission. Corporate goals. Issues related to an overriding corporate brand (if one exists). Budget for the IMC.
Product analysis
!" !" A summary of key product offerings and product life cycle issues. Existing brand themes, messages and appeals.
Audience analysis
!" !" !" !" !" !" !" How closely do they align with the target markets? Are they the same people, or is there variance? What do they currently know about you? What media do they currently access most often? What is their degree of resistance to you? Are you trying to influence a negative attitude an audience has toward you? Audience research – market research in the form of focus groups and surveys that can help to define and then segment markets in to audiences that can be matched to various media. Personality archetypes (also called marketing personas and/or marketing avatars): are created in order to supposedly clarify the specific behaviours, personality profiles, purchasing and media consumption habits of selected a typical customer and/or audience member. The process is said to be useful in developing campaign themes and appeals and planning which media (both paid and free/viral) the persona/archetype/ avatar will engage with. Many marketing experts imply that if we create a “pretend” typical customer (or archetype/avatar) and hypothetically profile their consumption patterns we can predict and thus influence their future behaviour. Yet this relatively new method of consumer profiling is dependent on quality research. Forester Research states: “To get the most value out of persona projects, customer experience professionals should work with agencies to perform cost-effective ethnographic research… and provide insights into multichannel behaviors”1
2
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Copyright 2011
IMC situation analysis
Summarise issues arising from the marketing plan that will directly impact on the communications strategy.
Company analysis
!" !" !" !" Company mission. Corporate goals. Issues related to an overriding corporate brand (if one exists). Budget for the IMC.
Product analysis
!" !" A summary of key product offerings and product life cycle issues. Existing brand themes, messages and appeals.
Audience analysis
!" !" !" !" !" !" !" How closely do they align with the target markets? Are they the same people, or is there variance? What do they currently know about you? What media do they currently access most often? What is their degree of resistance to you? Are you trying to influence a negative attitude an audience has toward you? Audience research – market research in the form of focus groups and surveys that can help to define and then segment markets in to audiences that can be matched to various media. Personality archetypes (also called marketing personas and/or marketing avatars): are created in order to supposedly clarify the specific behaviours, personality profiles, purchasing and media consumption habits of selected a typical customer and/or audience member. The process is said to be useful in developing campaign themes and appeals and planning which media (both paid and free/viral) the persona/archetype/ avatar will engage with. Many marketing experts imply that if we create a “pretend” typical customer (or archetype/avatar) and hypothetically profile their consumption patterns we can predict and thus influence their future behaviour. Yet this relatively new method of consumer profiling is dependent on quality research. Forester Research states: “To get the most value out of persona projects, customer experience professionals should work with agencies to perform cost-effective ethnographic research… and provide insights into multichannel behaviors”1
2
!"
!"
Copyright 2011