Articles By Topic Alphabetical List of Articles		IMC Can Increase Results and Stretch Your Budget By David P. Kowal If a boat's oars are not rowing in the same direction, the boat will go nowhere, no matter how hard you row. Marketing communications follows the same principles. If a company's advertising is going in one direction, public relations is going in another direction and collateral is being developed just to look good with no consistent objectives, the communications program is bound to fail. Communicators need to communicate among themselves, so that all of their communications tactics work together to carry out a common strategy. This very simple, common-sense idea is the foundation for a stuffy-sounding concept called integrated marketing communications, or IMC. Northwestern University, which naturally takes a more academic approach, defines IMC as "the process of managing all sources of information about a product/service to which a customer or prospect is exposed which behavorially move the customer toward a sale and maintain customer loyalty." In other words, everything from your business cards to your billboards should work together in perfect harmony. This column, which runs each month with an ad, is a simple example of IMC at work. The ad's message complements the column's message and directly refers to the column. My communications program is further integrated when I reprint these articles and use the reprints as part of a direct-mail campaign, or hand them out at trade shows or seminars. My ad may create awareness of Kowal Communications and begin to establish an image for the company. The column educates the consumer and positions Kowal Communications as a credible company with expertise in its field (otherwise New England Real Estate Journal wouldn't run this column, right?). Mailing the column or handing it out reinforces Kowal Communications' position and begins to personalize the communications message so that when I call on a potential client, Kowal Communications will be retained and paid an enormous sum to share its expertise. Because it is efficient and takes advantage of synergies between various communications tactics, IMC should increase the effectiveness of a company's communications program -- even if the budget is shrinking. IMC may seem logical, but it is contrary to the experience of many companies. Internally, many mid-sized and large companies have separate communications and public relations departments that rarely work together. In fact, they are often hostile to each other, since they are competing for a larger share of the budget. Even if there is a single department responsible for all communications disciples, it often uses different agencies for advertising and public relations. On the agency side, the advertising account managers typically look at the public relations staff as writing an occasional press release. They don't understand why that service can't be thrown in at no extra charge to impress their important clients. The public relations managers, on the other hand, would be happy to explain to clients why public relations gives them a better return on their investment than advertising. IMC was born out of the need to make more efficient use of communications budgets. If, in the process, it forces communicators of all disciplines to work together for the mutual benefit of the client, it is worth putting up with another acronym.   David P. Kowal is President of Kowal Communications, Inc. of Northboro, Mass. He can be reached at kowal@kowal.com.  << back to article list   About KC. | .Free advice. | .Links. | .Contact us. | .Home ©1999 Kowal Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.   .