The next few weeks… Today – IMC Next week – Marketing Planning & test revision May 31 – Final exam & last class! And how you’ll be graded….

Class Attendance: 5% Class Participation: 10% Worksheet #1 (brand): 25% Worksheet #2 (in-store): 25% Final exam: 35% I need BOTH worksheets from everyone next week to count towards your mark!

Introduction to IMC Integrated Marketing Communications

What is IMC? Integrated Marketing Communications means integrating and coordinating all communications to deliver a clear, consistent message about a company and its products

Why IMC? Modern marketing needs more than a good product, a good price and making it available to your market. To communicate with your market today, you need to deal with the information age, and can’t just rely on mass marketing.

What’s the point? A company’s IMC programme should effectively achieve major objectives such as: Inform consumers Persuade consumers Remind consumers Reinforce consumer attitudes & perceptions

IMC means using all the elements of the promotional mix in a coordinated way to create synergies and maximise communication opportunities. Advertising Sales promotion Public relations Direct marketing Online marketing Personal selling

Often the question is NOT “ should we spend on marketing communications?” but instead IS “ How much should we spend on each promotional element?”

Advertising Advertising is any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services by an identified sponsor. Advertising is notoriously expensive and is one way communication.

Public Relations PR gets to the buyer as ‘news’ rather than as a sales-directed communication. For this reason, PR tends to be more believable and can reach those who avoid advertising. Examples?

Direct marketing Direct marketing is an interactive system of marketing. Usually DM refers to activities that use targeted media to facilitate interaction. The key point is that there is continuous interaction, and not just one way communication. Eg – catalogue mail out, direct marketing, targeted online, home shopping network

In the instances of direct marketing and online marketing, there is increased need for adherence to privacy legislation Why?

Online marketing Closely aligned to direct marketing as it entails interaction with customers on a one to one basis, often in real time

Sales Promotion Tools such as coupons, specials, contests etc. Sales promotions attract consumer attention and offer strong incentives. Companies use sales promotions to create a stronger, quicker response. “Buy NOW” Often short lived and usually not effective in building long run brand preferences Do you think sales promotions can diminish a fashion brand?

Personal selling Personal selling is a face to face interaction with a prospective customer for the purpose of making sales. For certain products this can be the most effective form marketing tool For what products? When?

After the SS07 show in Milan, Gucci launched in-store touch screens. The screens are coming to all Gucci stores and will be expanded to include a full product offering. At a similar time, Gucci developed a highly successful eCard campaign. These targeted emails result in industry high click-through rates which, in turn, lead to sales. Which elements of the promotional mix are these an example of?

If most couture shows are not produced with the intention to drive sales, but are to act as publicity generators, which element of the promotional mix would this represent?

Which promotional element is the above using? What else do you think you need to consider when advertising?

Which sales promotion tools do you think would be most effective for fashion?