In the modern competitive market environment, businesses must develop various strategies that will ensure they withstand the market situation. One of the strategies that would provide the firmness of a company in the market nowadays is an integrated marketing communication and brand strategy. Gomez and Perez (2018) argue that firms and industries can establish loyalty through maintaining a sound contact with the customers. The widespread acceptance of integrated marketing communication as a means to gain competitive advantage by firms and industries have obtained a big notch when it comes to brand strategy. According to Madhavaram, Badrinarayanan, and McDonald (2013), marketers must be careful with language use because consumers are susceptible to the messages disclosed about the products. That being the case, integrated marketing communications helps marketers to define the best ways for developing product brands before conducting any external brand communications. As such, this paper seeks to identify some of the best ways of doing marketing communication and brand strategy in a modern global market.
Public Relations
Knowing how to relate well with the clients is a significant boost in establishing and maintaining effective communication with them while at the same time enhancing cooperation and acceptance. In recent times, companies have been using public relations as an essential tool for researching, strategizing, planning, and implementing best communications that may help to establish a particular brand. Public relations are a good way of communicating and understanding the society in which a product is being promoted. Bonilla (2013) states that public relations make the organizations to be obliged to fulfill their product promises, which in turn creates trust, loyalty, and sustainability of the product in the market. Soojin (2016) adds that public relations help in formulating strategies that aim at providing a solution to challenges existing in delivering the right information to the customers.
Advertising
Advertising is another form of integrated communication tool that helps in brand strategy. The mass media is the commonly used platform for publicizing a brand. The primary purpose of advertising a product is to attract a large audience and converting them into potential customers who may, in turn, increase the sales volume of the advertised product. Advertising is an essential communication tool in pushing the sales of an existing brand as well as creating demand for a new product. Besides, advertising also helps to form positive attitudes towards specific products and their eventual purchase (Grigaliunaite & Pileliene, 2015). As such, advertising is one of the communication tools that marketers use as a strategy for promoting a particular brand in the market. Besides, advertising is a critical tool for customer retention.
Promotion
Promotion is another integrated communication tool that acts as a remedy to an effective advertising campaign. The main objective of sales promotion is to motivate or persuade consumers to continue using a particular brand to increase sales (Gomez & Perez, 2018). The promotional concept has been widely acknowledged as an attempt to ensure the effectiveness of the seller and create an incentive to buy more. Sales promotion also seeks to create demand in a product that has been abandoned.
Media Strategy
Media marketing is a platform where marketers have an opportunity to get online and offline customers. Radios, televisions, newspapers, and social media sites all media strategies for effective communication and brand strategy (Yamin, 2017). Media strategy involves creating posts on newspapers and social networking sites or using marketers who speak in speakers, radios, and television. As such, since the majority of customers are found in these platforms, media marketing is significant in passing important brand information and gets the required outcomes.
Push and Pull
Push and pull are crucial marketing communication tools. Push strategies refer to the mechanisms that the distributor or marketer uses to push sales of a given brand. Trade shows and personal selling are examples of push strategies that aim at fostering demand (Shakhshir, 2016). On the other hand, a pull strategy employs direct communication with the final consumer of a product to pull them to the nearest retailers and distributors to make sales. The two approaches are very crucial in driving a large sales volume while at the same time retaining old and new customers to the business. Some of the mechanisms that the companies use as push and pull strategies in marketing are packaging which protects the enclosed contents while at the same time facilitating the use of the product (Shakhshir, 2016). Product packaging has the capacity to communicate crucial information to the customers and in turn influences their purchasing behavior. The implication insinuated is that marketers must familiarize with the standards packaging inclusive of pictures, symbols, or colors.
Market Segments
While preparing for a product launch in the market, the marketers have to divide a broader market into various smaller units called market segments. Market segmentation is usually done with the aim of concentrating with particular customers. Customers with similar characteristics are grouped so that they can be addressed uniquely. Essentially, integrated marketing communication is critical in the process of market segmentation in the sense that marketers have to communicate effectively on the product and leverage that with the unique characteristics of the customers (Weinstein, 2014). Ideally, the smaller composition of customers with specific unique features helps in the development of positive customer experience that leads to increased customer loyalty and retention as these customers have a better recognition of the brand. The effectiveness of market segmentation is enhanced by effective marketing communication that the marketer uses to inform the audience about a given product. Primarily, a marketer is supposed to use a language that is familiar to the customers.
References
Bonilla, C. (2013). Evolution of public relations in the past 25 years. Reason and Word, 18(83), 81-92.
Gomez, M. C. O., & Pérez, W. G. (2018). Communication as a marketing strategy: Cross-cultural analysis of young people from Mexico and Colombia based on demographic segmentation. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 9(3), 173-183.
Grigaliunaite, V., & Pileliene, L. (2015). Determination of the impact of spokesperson on advertising effectiveness. International Journal of Management, Accounting, and Economics. 2(8), 810-822.
Madhavaram, S., Badrinarayanan, V., & McDonald, R. E. (2005). Integrated marketing communication (IMC) and brand identity as critical components of brand equity strategy: A conceptual framework and research propositions. Journal of Advertising, 34(4), 69-80.
Soojin, K. I. M. (2016). Strategic predisposition in communication management: Understanding organizational propensity towards bridging strategy. Journal of Communication Management, 20(3), 1-26.
Weinstein, A. (2014). Target market selection in B2B technology markets. Journal of Marketing Analytics, 2(1), 59-69.
Yamin, A. B. (2017). Impact of digital marketing as a tool of marketing communication: a behavioral perspective on consumers of Bangladesh. American Journal of Trade and Policy, 4(1), 49-54.
