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The May 13,1999 SofTECH Marketing Special Interest Group featured two experts on Integrated Marketing Communications: Dr. Boris Porkovich, Dominican College Dean, School of Business and International Studies, and Andre Marquis, Vice President of Marketing and Product Development at bamboo.com, the leading provider of virtual tours for the real estate market. We had a substantial attendance from small business people, marketing consultants and corporate marketing staff curious about this new wave of marketing. The following was compiled from the evening's program and other research. What is Integrated Marketing? Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) has become increasingly important as marketers seek to enhance long term relationships with customers rather than concentrating on one-time transactions. IMC supports high-quality relationship marketing, enhances existing marketing efforts and customer relations, and helps make global marketing efforts effective. IMC is melding a variety of marketing processes in a cohesive fashion. It is an organizing principle in your marketing strategy. Key to its effectiveness is the cohesiveness or coordination between various marketing messages and activities, and the concept that marketing is fundamentally a communication with your prospects and customers. It is not one specific tool or process, like a sales presentation or an ad campaign, but how the mix of tools and processes convey a message synergistically. This mix includes the promotional tools of advertising, personal selling, publicity, public relations, sales promotion, direct marketing, sponsorship, and special events. Since the purpose of marketing is to get more profit with satisfied customers, we all want to find ways to do this effectively (the most return from the least expense). IMC can make this happen. Additionally, IMC is a marketing revolution that targets the message to the audience, and provides new flexibility. Effective promotion is a foundation stone for today's successful companies. Examples, Please? The most scarce resource for marketing today is attention. Advertising and entertainment are being blended (infomercials, brands displayed in movies or TV shows, and making branded products part of the popular culture) to cut through today's clutter of product pitches. Savvy marketers are selecting the proper mix and match for their products and target market. You might meet a firm's rep who learns of your needs or interests, and directs you to a particular area of his website (listed on his card). The page has an option to request additional info, and requires you to give your contact info, etc. They ship the materials to you, and are able to follow up with you in a variety of ways (phone, email, US Mail), and each contact offers different value focused on what's known about you. Each contact with you also presents compelling choices for continued interaction between you (the prospect) and the firm. The firm has "captured" you, is building a relationship with you, and is learning how to be of exceptional service to you, utilizing technology, and a mix of marketing tools and processes. Another scenario is the company that has a customer data base, analyses it for buying preferences and so forth, and targets the marketing to your needs. They pay attention to who their best customers are, and focus their marketing (and budget) on pleasing those folks, and people like them. Andre's firm, bamboo.com studied the real estate market and discovered who the agents were (only 10%) that did 90% of the transactions. They further defined who was on-line, and focused marketing of their on-line virtual real estate tours to these agents. They have cornered the market for their type of service practically overnight. Other IMC programs subscribe prospects and customers to newsletters, engage them in on-line discussions or message boards, or draw people into a type of scavenger hunt of interaction in a quest for some valuable product giveaway The Role of Advertising Advertising can be a useful tool in the mix, and provides good exposure. It can generate top-of-mind awareness, and attract prospects to begin a conversation with your firm that can lead to sales. With IMC, advertising gives people access to you (and a way to capture you), through a web site or phone number listed in the ad. Unless advertising leads quantifiably to an interaction, it is viewed as wasteful by most businesses today. IMC can use advertising to entice someone to check out a website, for example, but not make the commitment of exposing themselves to a salesperson. This has been the hurdle of advertising in the past: the ad either must be SO compelling that it drives a hot prospect to your door, or it simply creates awareness of you or your product. By reducing the risk of exposure and commitment (from the prospect's perspective), and placing value and personalization in each interaction, you lure the prospect into a relationship and transaction. Advertising can be a useful road sign that leads to your portal and cash register. Branding (the creation of recognition of your firm or product, what it stands for, and a positive relationship in the target's psyche) is an important element in marketing. It should be consistent throughout your IMC promotions. Coca-Cola has a distinctive look (the cursive writing, the shape of their old bottle), and is recognizable even in Swahili, Japanese, or Cyrillic. Coupled with their ad campaigns, they create a happy recognition the world over. Remember their song: "I'd like to buy the world a Coke .... It's the real thing"? Good communication depends upon an exchange. Each party must offer something of value, as perceived by the other, and they must be willing to exchange. With IMC, part of the value you want to gain from your prospect or customer is information about them, and a way to continue communications beyond an initial exchange. Create the right incentive, and prospects will give you information. Track the information, tailor your marketing to the prospect, and you're more likely to convert them into a loyal customer, just as Amazon.com has. Planning and Implementing Your IMC Program For great marketing strategy, research is critical, as is measurement and evaluation of the results of your marketing. You want clear, objective, accurate, and focused data, on very small market segments. Market research is time-consuming, even for those who are experienced at it. It is often outsourced, and expensive, but poor marketing is even more expensive. IMC begins after the research, analysis, and marketing strategy for the target markets have been established, in the program development stage. The promotional mix is carefully selected, implemented, and monitored for meaningful next-step planning. Because you narrow your target market, you can try different promotions with each audience, and even different promotions to segments of the same target group, and measure the effectiveness of each. In the fast-paced world of the Internet, this allows you to test your marketing strategy with a limited audience, change your activities quickly, and continue testing for the best methods. Implementation can be assigned to in-house staff, either centralized (all promotions are handled by one person or team), decentralized (promotions are handled by product managers), outside agencies, or a blend of in-house and outsourced entities. Ask your marketing consultants about their experience using IMC. To find marketing firms with such experience, consult the Standard Directory of Advertising Agencies, and make sure they are full-service agencies. Don't forget: you must be able to monitor and control expenses with any consultant you use. Hopefully, you will find the consultants who have experience in your field, can give you clear expectations for your new strategy, and make the process easy for you in every sense. Encourage your internal marketing people to get educated about IMC. Regis McKenna's book, Real Time, is recommended by both Boris and Andre as a good source for learning about IMC. They also recommend his Relationship Sales. We again thank
Dr. Porkovich and Mr. Marquis for their generosity
in participating in this seminar. Dr. Boris
Porkovich is Dean of the School of Business and
International Studies at Dominican College of San
Rafael. He has spent over 20 years in higher
education, both in the United States and abroad.
Previously, he was Chair of the Division of
Business and Management and Coordinator of Online
Programming &emdash; with responsibility for a
portfolio of 105 online courses &emdash; at the
University of California, Berkeley Extension. Dr.
Porkovich has a research interest in Integrated
Marketing. He has taught Marketing Management,
International Management, Leadership in the
International Organization, International
Marketing, and Cross-Cultural
Communication. André
Marquis is VP of Marketing and Product Development
at bamboo.com, the leading provider of virtual
tours for the real estate market. Bamboo.com's
partners include Realtor.com, Microsoft HomeAdvisor
and Homeseekers.com. One of his previous e-commerce
marketing assignments was as Director of Marketing
for CyberGold where he managed marketing strategy
and marketing programs for one of the 20 fastest
growing sites on the Internet. Mr. Marquis set up
one of the first sites on the World Wide Web for
the Human Genome Project at MIT and holds patents
for multimedia medical decision support systems. He
received an MBA from the Haas School of Business,
UC Berkeley, and a BA in Cognitive Science from the
University of Rochester. (NOTE: Allies Consulting offers several programs that can help you increase your effectiveness in many areas of business. Our programs will meet or exceed your expectation: they are designed to deliver real results. They also leverage our other programs, magnifying your ROI!)
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