TYPES OF IMC

The types of IMC includes;

1. Advertising

2. Sales Promotion

3. Public Relation

4. Direct Marketing

5. Digital Marketing

1. ADVERTISING

Advertising is one of the most effective ways of brand promotion. Advertising helps organizations reach
a wider audience within the shortest possible time frame. Advertisements in newspaper, television,
Radio, billboards help end-users to believe in your brand and also motivate them to buy the same and
remain loyal towards the brand. Advertisements not only increase the consumption of a particular
product/service but also create brand awareness among customers. Marketers need to ensure that the
right message reaches the right customers at the right time. Be careful about the content of the
advertisement, after all you are paying for every second.

The Strengths of Advertising

The benefits derived from advertising are manifold. It is one of the most important components of the
marketing process. This is beneficial to manufacturers, traders, consumers and society as a whole.
Advertising offers the following advantages.

(1) Introduces a New Product in the Market: Advertising plays significant role in the introduction of a
new product in the market. It stimulates the people to purchase the product.

(2) Expansion of the Market: It enables the manufacturer to expand his market. It helps in exploring
new markets for the product and retaining the existing markets. It plays a sheet anchor role in widening
the marketing for the manufacturer’s products even by conveying the customers living at the far flung
and remote areas.

(3) Increased Sales: Advertisement facilitates mass production to goods and increases the volume of
sales. In other words, sales can be increased with additional expenditure on advertising with every
increase in sale, selling expenses will decrease.

(4) Fights Competition: Advertising is greatly helpful in meeting the forces of competition prevalent in
the market. Continuous advertising is very essential in order to save the product from the clutches of
the competitors.
(5) Enhances Good-Will: Advertising is instrumental in increasing goodwill of the concern. It introduces
the manufacturer and his product to the people. Repeated advertising and better quality of products
brings more reputation for the manufacturer and enhances goodwill for the concern.

(6) Educates The Consumers: Advertising is educational and dynamic in nature. It familiarises the
customers with the new products and their diverse uses and also educates them about the new uses of
existing products.

(7) Elimination of Middlemen: It aims at establishing a direct link between the manufacturer and the
consumer, thereby eliminating the marketing intermediaries. This increases the profits of the
manufacturer and the consumer gets the products at lower prices.

(8) Better Quality Products: Different goods are advertised under different brand names. A branded
product assures a standard quality to the consumers. The manufacturer provides quality goods to the
consumers and tries to win their confidence in his product.

(9) Supports The Salesmanship: Advertising greatly facilitates the work of a salesman. The customers
are already familiar with the product which the salesman sells. The selling efforts of a salesman are
greatly supplemented by advertising. It has been rightly pointed out that “selling and advertising are cup
and saucer, hook and eye, or key and lock wards.”

(10) More Employment Opportunities: Advertising provides and creates more employment
opportunities for many talented people like painters, photographers, singers, cartoonists, musicians,
models and people working in different advertising agencies.

(11) Reduction in the Prices of Newspapers and Magazines Etc: Advertising is immensely helpful in
reducing the cost of the newspapers and magazines etc. The cost of bringing out a newspaper is largely
met by the advertisements published therein.

(12) Higher Standard of Living: The experience of the advanced nations shows that advertising is greatly
responsible for raising the living standards of the people. In the words of Winston Churchil “advertising
nourishes the consuming power of men and creates wants for better standard of living.” By bringing to
the knowledge of the consumers different variety and better quality products, it has helped a lot in
increasing the standard of living in a developing economy like India.

Weaknesses of Advertising

According to the critics, advertising has the following disadvantages:

(1) Adds to Costs: An organisation has to spend large amount on advertising. It increases the cost of the
products. To meet this expenditure, price of the product is raised. No manufacturer pays for the
advertising expenses out of his pocket. Advertising, therefore, leads to unnecessary rise in prices. In this
reference it is said that advertising costs are passed on to the consumers in the form of high prices.
(2) Undermines Social Values: Advertisement is a sort of day-dreaming for the people. These days it is
taking the people away from reality and into the realm of artificiality. Through its medium people get
information about new products. Only very few products are of any use for them. The brilliance of new
products really gets on their nerves. They want to buy them but have no resources at their command.
Consequently, they start feeling upset with their present status. Taking it as a social evil, it can be said
that advertisement undermines social values.

(3) Confuses the Buyers: Many a time distorted version of reality is shown in the advertising. Believing in
advertising, consumers buy the product. On its use, they feel cheated. They come to realise later that
the information given in the advertisement was something else whereas the actual product was quite
different from it. Thus, people lose confidence in advertising because of wrong presentation. In this
reference it is said that advertising confuses rather than helps.

(4) Encourages Sale of Inferior Products: Every manufacturer projects his product as superior one in the
advertisement. Therefore, the buyer is unable to decide as to which product is really good.
Consequently, it is difficult to get good quality product even after paying a handsome price for it. If a
seller gets good price for some inferior product, it becomes a habit with him. It affects other sellers also.
Therefore, it is said that advertisement encourages the sale of inferior products.

(5) Some Advertisement is in Bad Taste: Many times, foul language and objectionable pictures are used
in advertising in order to attract a particular class. They may be insulting to a particular class. It causes
decay of social values. Such kinds of advertising are generally opposed by the people as it hurts their
feelings. In this reference it is said that some advertisements are in bad tastes.

2. SALES PROMOTION

Brands (Products and services) can also be promoted through discount coupons, loyalty clubs,
membership coupons, incentives, lucrative schemes, attractive packages for loyal customers, specially
designed deals and so on. Brands can also be promoted effectively through newspaper inserts, danglers,
banners at the right place, glorifiers, wobblers etc.

Strengths of Sales Promotion

1. When compared with advertising and personal selling, sales promotional activities are less expensive.

2. It enables both the dealers and the consumers to enjoy certain tangible benefits, e.g., free samples,
gifts, price reductions, etc.

3. Certain sales promotional activities also enable the consumers to gain knowledge. For example,
displays and demonstrations help them to,understand the product mechanism. The customers can also
raise their queries and get clarification immediately. Pamphlets distributed to the consumers also
provide useful information.

4. Advertising approaches the buyer indirectly and personal selling approaches the buyer directly.
Whereas sales promotional activities involve both direct and indirect approaches.
5. Sales promotion helps to supplement and support both advertising and personal selling. No business
can totally rely on advertising and personal selling alone.

6. Most of the sales promotional activities can be undertaken by the manufacturers themselves.
Distribution of free samples and gifts, money refund and coupon offers, demonstrations, exchange of
old for new and so on can be made by the manufacturers themselves. They may, at the most, need the
help of the dealers only. Whereas, in the case of advertisement, media are required, e.g., Radio, TV and
newspapers. Personal selling requires efficient and committed salesmen.

7. The salesmen of a business cannot perform their work effectively without the use of sales
promotional tools like pamphlets, audiovisual aids, cell phones and pagers.

8. When compared with advertising, sales promotional activities can create better and quicker impact.
Free sample, gifts, demonstrations etc., can induce the consumers to act fast. One can, therefore, say
that sales promotion satisfies the ‘A I D A formula’ to a greater extent.

9. The business can have better control over its sales promotional activities. The financial aspects, in
particular, pertaining to sales promotion can be effectively managed. This may not be possible in the
case of advertisement and personal selling.

10. Measuring the effectiveness of sales promotion can be easy when compared to measuring the
effectiveness of advertising and personal selling.

Weaknesses of Sales Promotion

1. The number of sales promotional activities to be performed are too many, distribution of free
samples and gifts, making such offers as price off and money refund, holding contests, participating in
trade fairs and exhibitions, display and demonstration of goods and so on.

2. Sales promotion, by itself, cannot produce results. It can only supplement advertising and personal
selling which are vital for a business.

3. Sales promotion is non-recurrent in nature. It cannot, therefore, be used continuously. The marketer
has to select the most appropriate tool of sales promotion and the same shall be introduced at the right
time.

4. It involves additional expenditure on the part of the business. Apart from the heavy expenditure to be
incurred on advertisement and personal selling, the business may have to spend further on sales
promotion. This leads to an overall increase in promotional costs.

5. The marketer cannot use any sales promotional tool at any time. Certain tools are to be used only in
the introduction stage of a product, while others will be used in the growth and maturity stages.
Indiscriminate use will not produce the expected results.

6. Another drawback of sales promotion is that there is a tendency on the part of all the competitors to
use the same method of sales promotion at the same time. Such an approach may not benefit all. For
example, if all the manufacturers of air-conditioners offer off season discount (during winter), the
consumer may only decide based on brand popularity.

7. Sales promotion is generally required to promote sales of those brands which are not so very popular.
Popular brands move fast in the market without much effort. Brand popularity can be secured mainly by
means of advertisement and personal selling.

8. Sales promotion offers such as price cut, discount, free gift etc., may sometimes create an impression
that these are being done to sell a poor quality product.

9. As far as the various types of discounts (cash discount, off-season discount and festival discount etc.)
are concerned, there is always a feeling that these are not real and the price would have already been
hiked.

10. As the sales promotional activities are short-lived, the results of such activities will also be short-
lived. The moment the various inducements offered by the marketer are withdrawn, the demand is
bound to fall.

3. PUBLIC RELATION

Public relation activities help promote a brand through press releases, news, events, public appearances
etc.The role of public relations officer is to present the organization in the best light.

Strengths of Public Relations

Public relations offers several advantages not found with other promotional options. These advantages
include:

i. Considered a Credible Form of Promotion – A key part of a PR promotion is to obtain mentions of an

organization in independent media outlets (e.g., television, online) as the target market generally views
the mention as being more credible since it is not based on payment (i.e., advertisement) but on the
media outlet’s judgment of what is newsworthy.

ii. Can Offer More Detail – A well-structured public relations campaign can provide the target market
with more detailed information than they receive with other forms of marketing promotion (e.g., details
on a special event).

iii. Information May Spread Quickly – A story mentioning an organization may be quickly picked up by a
large number of additional media outlets (e.g., spread rapidly by bloggers and social media).

iv. May Be Lower Cost Than Other Methods – When compared to the direct cost of other promotions,
in particular advertising, the return on promotional expense for well-executed PR can be quite high.

Weaknesses of Public Relations

While public relations holds many advantages for marketers, there are also concerns when using this
promotional technique. These disadvantages include:
i. Lack of Control Over Message Release – While public relations often uses the same print, digital and
broadcast media outlets as advertising, it differs significantly from advertising in that marketers do not
have direct control over whether a message is delivered.

ii. Lack of Control Over Message Content – When public relations conveys information to a member of
the media (e.g., reporter), the message may be “re-crafted” to fit within media’s content (e.g., news
story) with the final message not being precisely what the marketer planned.

iii. May Be Higher Cost Than Other Methods – While a PR campaign has the potential to yield a high
return on promotional expense, it also can have the opposite effect (e.g., few attend a presentation by a
company-paid spokesperson).

iv. Message May Not Appear at All – When dealing with the media, there is always a chance a PR
content item (e.g., TV interview with the company president) will get “bumped” from planned media
coverage because of a more critical breaking news story (e.g., earthquake).

v. Special Skills May be Needed to Do PR Effectively – Marketers, accustomed to handling many of their
own promotional tasks, may find that public relations requires a different skill set than other types of
promotion (e.g., skills in dealing with the media), thus requiring the marketer to spend on a PR
professional.