Integrated Marketing Communications Strategy

Marketing the sum of activities involved in directing the flow of goods and
services from producers to consumers.
Marketing's principal function is to promote and facilitate exchange. Through
marketing, individuals and groups obtain what they need and want by
exchanging products and services with other parties. Such a process can occur
only when there are at least two parties, each of whom has something to offer. In
addition, exchange cannot occur unless the parties are able to communicate
about and to deliver what they offer. Marketing is not a coercive process: all
parties must be free to accept or reject what others are offering. So defined,
marketing is distinguished from other modes of obtaining desired goods, such as
through self-production, begging, theft, or force.
Marketing is not confined to any particular type of economy, because goods must
be exchanged and therefore marketed in all economies and societies except
perhaps in the most primitive. Furthermore, marketing is not a function that is
limited to profit-oriented business; even such institutions as hospitals, schools,
and museums engage in some forms of marketing. Within the broad scope of
marketing, merchandising is concerned more specifically with promoting the sale
of goods and services to consumers (i.e., retailing) and hence is more
characteristic of free-market economies.
Based on these criteria, marketing can take a variety of forms: it can be a set of
functions, a department within an organization, a managerial process, a
managerial philosophy, and a social process.
Strategic Analysis
Market segments
The aim of marketing in profit-oriented organizations is to meet needs profitably.
Companies must therefore first define which needs "and whose needs" they can
satisfy. For example, the personal transportation market consists of people who
put different values on an automobile's cost, speed, safety, status, and styling. No
single automobile can satisfy all these needs in a superior fashion; compromises
have to be made. Furthermore, some individuals may wish to meet their personal
transportation needs with something other than an automobile, such as a
motorcycle, a bicycle, or a bus or other form of public transportation. Because of
such variables, an automobile company must identify the different preference
groups, or segments, of customers and decide which group(s) they can target
profitably.

Market niches

Segments can be divided into even smaller groups, called subsegments or niches.
A niche is defined as a small target group that has special requirements. For
example, a bank may specialize in serving the investment needs of not only senior
citizens but also senior citizens with high incomes and perhaps even those with
particular investment preferences. It is more likely that larger organizations will
serve the larger market segments (mass marketing) and ignore niches. As a
result, smaller companies typically emerge that are intimately familiar with a
particular niche and specialize in serving its needs.

Strategic marketing analysis Marketing to individuals

A growing number of companies are now trying to serve "segments of one." They
attempt to adapt their offer and communication to each individual customer.
This is understandable, for instance, with large industrial companies that have
only a few major customers. For example, The Boeing Company (United States)
designs its 747 planes differently for each major customer, such as United
Airlines, Inc., or American Airlines, Inc. Serving individual customers is
increasingly possible with the advent of database marketing, through which
individual customer characteristics and purchase histories are retained in
company information systems. Even mass-marketing companies, particularly
large retailers and catalog houses, compile comprehensive data on individual
customers and are able to customize their offerings and communications.

Today subject is the myrror image!

Positioning
A key step in marketing strategy, known as positioning, involves creating and
communicating a message that clearly establishes the company or brand in
relation to competitors. Thus, Volvo Aktiebolaget (Sweden) has positioned its
automobile as the "safest," and Daimler-Benz AG (Germany), manufacturer of
Mercedes-Benz vehicles, has positioned its car as the best "engineered." Some
products may be positioned as "outstanding" in two or more ways. However,
claiming superiority along several dimensions may hurt a company's credibility
because consumers will not believe that any one offering can excel in all
dimensions. Furthermore, although the company may communicate a particular
position, customers may perceive a different image of the company as a result of
their actual experiences with the company's product or through word of mouth.

Marketing-mix planning (Tactics)

Having developed a strategy, a company must then decide which tactics will be
most effective in achieving strategy goals. Tactical marketing involves creating a
marketing mix of four components"product, price, place, promotion" that fulfills
the strategy for the targeted set of customer needs.

Marketing implementation (Coordination as usual)

Companies have typically hired different agencies to help in the development of

advertising, sales promotion, and publicity ideas. However, this often results in a
lack of coordination between elements of the promotion mix. When components
of the mix are not all in harmony, a confusing message may be sent to consumers.
For example, a print advertisement for an automobile may emphasize the car's
exclusivity and luxury, while a television advertisement may stress rebates and
sales, clashing with this image of exclusivity. Alternatively, by integrating the
marketing elements, a company can more efficiently utilize its resources. Instead
of individually managing four or five different promotion processes, the company
manages only one. In addition, promotion expenditures are likely to be better
allocated, because differences among promotion tools become more explicit. This
reasoning has led to integrated marketing communications, in which all
promotional tools are considered to be part of the same effort, and each tool
receives full consideration in terms of its cost and effectiveness.

Marketing evaluation and control (now problem!)

No marketing process, even the most carefully developed, is guaranteed to result

in maximum benefit for a company. In addition, because every market is
changing constantly, a strategy that is effective today may not be effective in the
future. It is important to evaluate a marketing program periodically to be sure
that it is achieving its objectives.

Services marketing

A service is an act of labour or a performance that does not produce a tangible

commodity and does not result in the customer's ownership of anything. Its
production may or may not be tied to a physical product. Thus, there are pure
services that involve no tangible product (as with psychotherapy), tangible goods
with accompanying services (such as a computer software package with free
software support), and hybrid product-services that consist of parts of each (for
instance, restaurants are usually patronized for both their food and their service).

Services can be distinguished from products because they are intangible,

inseparable from the production process, variable, and perishable. Services are
intangible because they can often not be seen, tasted, felt, heard, or smelled
before they are purchased. A person purchasing plastic surgery cannot see the
results before the purchase, and a lawyer's client cannot anticipate the outcome
of a case before the lawyer's work is presented in court. To reduce the uncertainty
that results from this intangibility, marketers may strive to make their service
tangible by emphasizing the place, people, equipment, communications, symbols,
or price of the service. For example, consider the insurance slogans "You're in
good hands with Allstate" or Prudential's "Get a piece of the Rock."
Services are inseparable from their production because they are typically
produced and consumed simultaneously. This is not true of physical products,
which are often consumed long after the product has been manufactured,
inventoried, distributed, and placed in a retail store. Inseparability is especially
evident in entertainment services or professional services. In many cases,
inseparability limits the production of services because they are so directly tied to
the individuals who perform them. This problem can be alleviated if a service
provider learns to work faster or if the service expertise can be standardized and
performed by a number of individuals (as H&R Block, Inc., has done with its
network of trained tax consultants throughout the United States).

The variability of services comes from their significant human component. Not
only do humans differ from one another, but their performance at any given time
may differ from their performance at another time. The mechanics at a particular
auto service garage, for example, may differ in terms of their knowledge and
expertise, and each mechanic will have "good" days and "bad" days. Variability
can be reduced by quality-control measures. These measures can include good
selection and training of personnel and allowing customers to communicate
dissatisfaction (e.g., through customer suggestion and complaint systems) so that
poor service can be detected and corrected.

Finally, services are perishable because they cannot be stored. Because of this, it
is difficult for service providers to manage anything other than steady demand.
When demand increases dramatically, service organizations face the problem of
producing enough output to meet customer needs. When a large tour bus
unexpectedly arrives at a restaurant, its staff must rush to meet the demand,
because the food services (taking orders, making food, taking money, etc.) cannot
be "warehoused" for such an occasion. To manage such instances, companies
may hire part-time employees, develop efficiency routines for peak demand
occasions, or ask consumers to participate in the service-delivery process. On the
other hand, when demand drops off precipitously, service organizations are often
burdened with a staff of service providers who are not performing. Organizations
can maintain steady demand by offering differential pricing during off-peak
times, anticipating off-peak hours by requiring reservations, and giving
employees more flexible work shifts.

Kent A. Grayson

Jonathan D. Hibbard

Philip Kotler
marketing
Strategy

... far back as 400 BC Sun-tzu, a Chinese general, set forth 13 principles. The
axioms range from American Civil War General Nathan Bedford Forrest's simple
admonition about getting there first with the most men to Napoleon's 115
maxims.
Though there is no complete agreement on the number of principles, most lists
include the following: the objective, the offensive, cooperation (unity of
command), mass (concentration), economy of force, maneuver, surprise,
security, and simplicity. The British have added one called "administration"; the
Soviets, another, translated as "annihilation." Despite debate over their precise
number and meaning, the principles of war are widely taught, and most military
students accept them as basic concepts.

In the theory of warfare, strategy and tactics have generally been put into
separate categories. The two fields have traditionally been defined in terms of
different dimensions: strategy dealing with wide spaces, long periods of time, and
large movements of forces, tactics dealing with the opposite. Strategy is usually
understood to be the prelude to the battlefield, and tactics the action on the
battlefield itself.
Strategy gives tactics its mission and wherewithal and seeks to reap the results.
But tactics has also become an important conditioning factor of strategy, and as it
changes, so does strategy.

strategy

Integrated Marketing Communications Defined

integrated marketing communications

Coordination of a variety of promotional vehicles, an integrated marketing

communications strategy is implemented at specific times during a marketing
campaign to ensure the message is consistently received by its target audience.

A sound integrated marketing communications plan requires a blend of strategic

planning, design, and communications ingenuity enabling the marketer to reach
through multiple channels in architecting growth for business, brands, and
products. Facing the ever-increasing growth of competition in the marketplace
for dominance of communication channels, businesses need to concentrate on
perfecting their integrated marketing communications plan in an effort to stay on
top.

Businesses cannot afford to underestimate the importance of marketing to

specific target audiences. In order to drives sales, a complete integrated
marketing communications strategy should be explored and implemented to
include public relations, advertising, internet, etc.

Strategically integrate all elements of marketing and marketing communications

to present and market organizations, products, and services in both B2C and B2B
settings.
Objective
Focusing on the long-term value of a customer or consumer so that up-selling,
cross-selling, and loyalty can be maximized,
Goal
strategically integrate marketing communications to more precisely defined
segments of customers and consumers so that resources can be focused
effectively and waste eliminated.
Technology
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:

1. Customer Database
An essential element to implementing Integrated Marketing that helps to
segment and analyze customer buying habits.
2. Strategies
Insight from analysis of customer data is used to shape marketing, sales, and
communications strategies.
3. Tactics
Once the basic strategy is determined the appropriate marketing tactics can be
specified which best targets the specific markets.
4. Evaluate Results
Customer responses and new information about buying habits are collected and
analyzed to determine the effectiveness of the strategy and tactics.
5. Complete the loop; start again at #1.
Measurement
Gain a better understanding about how to target communications more
effectively
Learn to think comprehensively about your brand from the consumer?s or
customer?s point of view so that you can develop more communications
strategies that deliver results over the short and long terms
View communications more broadly than media-delivered messages by planning
what your brand will communicate at each contact point or touch point, and
consider how to measure the results.
EXTERNAL RELATIONS

ORGANIZATIONAL CHART

Associate Director

External Relations

Associate Director

External Relations &

Director of Communications

Director

Special Events

Director/Editor

Periodicals

Administrative Coordinator

Assistant Director

Communications

Database Administrator

Assistant Director

Periodicals
POSITIONING ELEMENTS

KEY MESSAGES

Weight of Elements Dependent on Program

# Curriculum (a)

# Linux - Java Aplications (b)

# Community (c)

# Quality Toolkit (d)

# Maintenance Services (d)

# Products (e)

AUDIENCES # PROSPECTIVE AND CURRENT

CURRENT MARKETING CHANNELS

Print Publications Other Media

View books MBA % CD Rohm

Brochures Knight Center % Video

Postcards

Other direct mail Advertising

Print

Periodicals Newspapers

Print Magazines

On-line Other Media

Radio

Web Site Cable TV

Airport Billboards

PUBLICATION

PROCESSES

# Internal

# Partnering with Programs

# Creative Direction and Project Management

# Annual Planning

PUBLICATION PROCESSES

INTERNAL

* Style Guide
* Key messages + unique audience/client value proposition

* Production schedules

* Review and approval process.

(future goal, now done by persuasion)

PUBLICATIONS PROCESSES

PARTNERING WITH PROGRAMS

* Initial conversation with Participants

* ER identifies appropriate resources (see creative direction process), develops

production schedule and reviews with department/client

* Information gathering/ theme development/content outline (varies in

accordance to scope of project and time constraints)

PUBLICATIONS PROCESSES

CREATIVE DIRECTION & PROJECT MANAGEMENT

# Select appropriate resources based on project scope and importance

# Gather content, develop theme and structure (outline/pagination); varies in

scope from postcard to view book. (See Information Gathering in Partnering with
Programs)
# Project management - everyone doing his/her job according to schedule
(liaison with designers and writers as part of creative process)

PUBLICATIONS PROCESSES

ANNUAL PLANNING

* Initiate budget cycle meetings with program managers (programs own the
budget)
* ER drafts project list and projected budget if sufficient information exists
* Follow-up with Program Director to review project list and budget
* Revised draft where needed (multiple iterations where necessary)
* End of year wrap-up and review with Budget & Operations

INTEGRATED MARKETING

CURRENT PROJECTS

* Customer Relationship Management

o On-line call reporting capability

* Web Site Management

o External Relations and Information Systems Partnership
o Departmental Web Coordinators
o Working with programs to create consistency of content and design

Putting the Marketing in

Integrated Marketing Communications

Product Price Place Promotion

The Four "Ps"

The Four "Cs"

Customer Cost Convenience Communications

Advise

Coordinate

Influence

Direct

Catalyst

Communications & External Affairs Resources

4 Full time staff

How We Function
Design & Creative Support Firm

Freelance Personnel

Strategic Plan

Audiences

Key Messages

Strategies

Goals/Objectives
Tactics

Measurement

* Image is Everything
* No Single Audience
* Competition
* Investment
*R&M
* Integrated Communications to Integrated

Marketing Communications

Context

Scope:

Undergraduate and Graduate Programs

* Responsibilities
o Brand
o Market positioning
o Publications
o Web design and content
o Events
o Advertising
o Media relations
o Internal communications

* Team
o Director
o Associate Director
o Administrative Assistant
* Resources
o Creative Services
o Freelancers, design firms

Be Inclusive

Employ processes that include input from relevant stakeholders

* If they are part of the process, they have a stake in the outcome
* Agreed review milestones

Lots of meetings, lots of listening, lots of debate!

* Associate
* Advisory Board
* Faculty
* Administration
* Emplyee
* Recruiters

Position

Define the character of the organization

* All messaging stems from positioning

* Anchors all strategy and tactics
* Don?t get bogged down with "tag lines" or "wordsmithing"
* Stuck on a tag line
* Agree on "character"

Analyze
Identify key audiences, channels and effectiveness

* To whom are we communicating now?

* What are we communicating?
* What channels are we using?
* What is working or not working?

* Only using print

* No media relations
* Events not promoted
* No intentional messaging
* "Cost" vs. "Asset"

Prioritize

* You can?t change or do everything all at once

* Prioritize by audience, channel, project
* Go for high visibility, high impact projects first
* Channels
o Web site
* Stakeholders
o Alumni
o Prospective employee
o Current employee
o Recruiters

Internal Evangelists

Develop internal evangelists

* Provide tools to faculty, staff and students

* Tell them a bazillion times
* Easy access to:
o Logos and guidelines
o Positioning
o Key messages
o Stories that manifest positioning
* Provide downloadable logos, templates and positioning messages

Integrated Marketing Communications

Personal Visits

Demand Creation (& Conversion)

Brand Image

1-1 (Personalized)

Direct Marketing

TV/Radio Advertising

Print Advertising

Web Advertising

Speakers? Bureau

Trade Shows

Conferences

Sponsorships
& Other Events

Press Releases

Targeted

Direct Mail

White Papers

Research Papers

Mass Direct Mail

Feature Articles

(Reprints & Web)

Media & Analyst

Briefings

Community

Relations

Staff

Communications

Brochures

Web Site
Business Review

* Complete transformation
o Content revamp
o Look, feel, size
o Interactive component
o Circulation expanded from 12,000 to 42,000

Business Review

* Two-way communications
* Post comments to stories
* Read other people?s comments
* Send to a friend
* Vote on issues
* Extra content

Web Site Redesign

Summary

* Approaches will vary depending upon resources and environment

* Be inclusive
* Position first
* Identify key audiences
* Analyze
* Explore new channels
* Prioritize

Integrated Marketing Communications describes the nuts and bolts of what

makes an integrated marketing communications firm work: strategy, execution
and ...
IMC recognizes the synergistic effect across communication approaches and
considers the perspectives of all relevant partners in such a way that brand value
is maximized.

LINKING MARKETING AND FINANCIAL DECISIONS

The fundamental challenge of market strategy is to satisfy the priority needs of
target customers while simultaneously recognizing how the business makes
money. A "good" marketing decision that yields poor financial results is in reality
a poor marketing decision. Conversely, financially sound decisions that result in
actions that severly compromise customer needs rarely provide attractive returns
over the long run. Promote a series of actions that partnership can take to
harmonize marketing and financial decisions more closely. This is an min - MAX
type problem

MARKETING STRATEGY AND COMMUNICATION

One of the primary drivers of ineffective marketing communications is that there
is no overarching strategy to guide their creation. You have a strategic framework
for specific marketing decisions that publisher must address prior to developing
communications. Use Simlex Method

COMMUNICATION AS A STRATEGIC CORPORATE RESOURCE

Assume the concept of leveraging marketing and communications in your
organization to a strategic level. What are basic corporate goals in terms of
managing cash flows and generating profit. These goals must then analyzed as to
how they relate to the use of marketing and communication and the changing,
interactive, customer-driven marketplace. Dinamic optimize

DEVELOPING AN INTEGRATED BRAND COMMUNICATION PROCESS

Focus on the increasing value of the brand to the organization and looks at the
close relationships between developing brand values, building customer
relationships, and satisfying partnership goals. The process starts with customer
identification, moves to customer valuation, and then to the development of
communication programs (i.e., brand messages or brand incentives). Goes on to
address the financial issues of brand communication: the identification of brand
investments, the measurement of short-term and long-term returns, and the
necessary approaches for relating communication programs to partnership
objectives. Profit Limit is the global criteria

CREATING BRAND ADVOCATES

How to make your customers "raving fans" of your products or services. The
bottom line benefits of building strong customer brand advocacy are stressed as
well as the fundamental concepts for achieving it: strategic value targeting,
customer insight, and whole brand positioning and implementation. Special
emphasis is placed on integrating the whole range of "brand communications" as
defined by the customer. Concepts are illustrated using examples in both
consumer and business-to-business product categories. Feedback factor

ORGANIZATIONAL IMPERATIVES FOR IMC

The concept of building compelling brands by integrating their "total
communication." Discussion centers on how a brand communicates from the
customer's perspective and how to audit all of the elements of that
communications mix. Tools are introduced to help prioritize the importance of
each element from the customer's viewpoint and reveal areas of poor integration
or alignment. Discussion then covers the implications for the allocation of
resources, organizational structures, and processes and metrics that help to bring
a brand's communications into alignment.

Integrated Marketing Communications Strategy

PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING

The Communications Mix

* Advertising
o any paid form of nonpersonal presentation by a sponsor
* Personal Selling
o personal presentations by a firm?s sales force
* Sales Promotion
o short term incentives to encourage sales
* Public Relations
o building good relations with various publics
* Direct Marketing
o short term incentives to encourage sales

Developing Effective Communication

* Identifying Target Audience

* Determining Communications Objectives

o Buyer Readiness Stages
* Designing Message
o Message Content
o Message Structure
o Message Format
* Media Selection
o personal and nonpersonal communications channels
* Message Source
* Feedback Collection

Promotion Budget

* Affordable

* Percentage of Sales

* Competitive Parity

* Objective and Task

Promotion Mix

* Advertising
o reaches many buyers, expressive
o impersonal
* Personal Selling
o personal interaction, relationship building
o costly
* Sales Promotion
o generates immediate response
o short-lived
* Public Relations
o more believable, economical, underused by firms
* Direct Marketing
o customized, interactive

Promotion Mix

* Push Strategy
o directing communications to channel members
* Pull Strategy
o directing communications to end users
* Factors
o type of product/market
o buyer readiness stage
o product life-cycle stage

Emerging Communications Environment

* Shift from mass marketing to segmented marketing

* Shift from mass media to focused media

Integrated Marketing Communications

* Coordinate and integrate communications channels

o advertising
o personal selling
o sales promotion
o direct marketing
o public relations
o packaging

WEEKELY INEERNSHIP REPORT

(10TH AUGUST TO 16th AUGUST)

WEEK # 02

(Finance and Loans Department)

Allied Bank Limited

Attock Branch

Submitted to:

Miss. MEHREEN

Submitted by:

BILAL AHMAD

REG# FA08-MBA-23
 COMSATS INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

ATTOCK CAMPUS

Weekly internship report

(9:00AM TO 5:30PM)

Monday (10/08/2009)

I arrive in office at 9:00 A.M. This department deals with the issuance of loans and
finance to customers; customer may be an individual and can be a company. This
department is lead by Mr Kaleem, I worked under his control. On this whole day I
checked out the files of loans guaranteed and their due dates.

Tuesday (11/08/2009)

I arrive at 9’o clock in ABL. Today customer come named (MS MEHRAN TRADERS)
who have got loans. They came for the renewal of their loans. I fill out the renewal form
and got the required documents from the customer.

Wednesday (12/08/2009)

I reached the office at 9.00 AM. Today I have studied as about the issuance of the loan.
Customer has to pay the security to the Bank for the issuance of loans. A company must
show its balance sheet P/L accounts and its stock and inventory report. After this
customer can grant a loan. Company current ratio and liquidity ratios influence a lot for
having a loan

Thursday (13/8/2009)

I was in Bank (ABL) at 9am. Today I have told about the process, that how a bank can
recover its loans from the customer incase when the customer is defaulted. In sole
proprietorship bank can claim for the personal property of the firm and in company case
it can only recover from the company and no one personal property will be held liable.

Friday (14/0/2009)

Today the Bank was off because of Independence day.

Saturday (15/8/2009)

I arrived at 9.00 in the morning. I observed that as it is a small branch so there are limited
employees in any department like this one hold only one employee, I also observed that
officer in this branch has got target of a leasing in a six month time period. Promotion
and appraisal is also based upon the officer’s performance in six month.