This post will wrap up a culmination of 9 weeks in my IMC course focusing on emerging media. Although this is the last post for the course, I will try and continue to post relevant marketing information in relation to integrated marketing communications and emerging media. The main focus of this post will be to explain the importance of incorporating an effective IMC plan in to companies and how understanding the consumer will increase the potential of having a successful company.

In order to understand the importance of IMC, it is useful to look at different reasons for the importance of IMC campaigns. Shifts in advertising and media strategies have caused marketers to develop primary strategies:

• General focus advertising to data-based advertising
• Manufacturer dominated market to consumer controlled market
• Influx of multiple forms of communication
• 24/7 availability and access to goods and services
• Mass media to specialized media

A decentralized marketing approach causes companies to stray from their clear goals and objectives. Incorporating all marketing efforts in to one group will create the opportunity to properly evaluate and measure results effectively. If companies want to see a successful campaign work, it is imperative to leave the marketing up to marketers. Marketers want to create a clear picture and a decentralize marketing department does not offer companies the opportunity to create a unified message and clear image of the company.

Companies are in the market to make money and the IMC approach can create a competitive advantage, boost sales, while saving money and time. In our consumer-driven world, IMC wraps communication around customers and helps thems move through the stages of the buying process. The organization of this procedure allows companies to consolidate their image, develop a proper dialogue and help create a relationship with their customers. Looking at these characteristics creates relationship marketing, which points out the importance of retaining a bond of loyalty to the customer. Creating a bond can protect the company from the onslaught of competitors who are vying for the attention of the consumer.

IMC adapts with our ever-changing society, which makes it a vital part of any company. Since integration is the cornerstone, IMC offers companies the opportunity to eliminate duplication and send effective materials across all channels in a unified form. Being prepared to adapt will ensure that your message will continually flow through consumers changes.

I will leave you with a quote that shows that integration is not a new phenomenon.

“We make it our business as advertising agents to advise on the best methods of advertising, in whatever form……as the best combination of work, such as we give, is the cheapest, as it brings the best results.”

J. Walter Thompson, 1899

Today, there are so many social networks, it is hard for the average user to keep up with technology. The introduction of Twitter on to the market has opened the opportunity for marketers to have a powerful weapon in their arsenal of advertising weapons. Being able to reach your market with breaking news about products or services with zero cost seems pretty intriguing to most marketers.

Here is a brief list of industries that can capitalize on the use of Twitter:

• Retail-inform clients of new promotions, contests, sales, limited-time offers, new store openings, and events.
• News-breaking coverage of new events, stories in development, info. behind writers.
• Real Estate- new properties, specific features, promotional offerings.
• Industrial-new equipment, product info.,brief tutorials.

The Internet offers a channel for two-way communication, which is why Twitter has the opportunity to reach the specified target market better than RSS feeds that can only use one-way communication. If consumers have the opportunity to immediately interact with employees or companies, it can build a trust and increase brand loyalty. Possibilities for this market seem endless, any Website operating on the Internet has the ability to use Twitter to increase awareness of their products and services through detailed “tweets” that will further increase the probability of traffic to your Website.

Adding Twitter to your marketing toolbox will allow companies to focus more on the consumer, which is why we incorporate the use of all forms of medium in the first place. Creating conversation, selling your products, ideas, offers, and insights can create a platform where feedback can play a key role in the growth of your company.

Twitter does have some inherent risks in reference to marketing:

• Messages may sound too spammy
• Can cause distractions
• Problems can occur through other ads placements

Twitter is about connecting with other users, so the best way to market is provide links to your product or services and ask for feedback. Opinions of consumers can be a powerful tool to understanding your target market on the Internet and how you can incorporate it in to an overall marketing campaign.

Search engine optimization can be both a tricky and challenging subject for marketers today. It is important to choose a particular type of placement that will allow your company to improve the volume and quality of traffic you receive to your website. The organic search is a tool that uses effective web content and the incorporation of keywords to place your website higher within search engine Web sites. During tough economic times, organic search may be the best venture to optimizing your search rankings, opposed to the use of paid placement or paid inclusion.

As consumers become more knowledgeable of the practices of search engine sites, it is important to incorporate this particular technique to gain the trust of your consumers. The contextual nature of the organic search can be more relevant and offer a greater depth of choices. Although paid ads are an integral part of any marketing strategy, the organic search will promote more click-through-rates when all other characteristics are equal. The main focus is on the type of listing that will maximize traffic for your particular Web site.

Building trust for your brand increases the potential of conversions. As adults, we tend to apply a level of skepticism to any type of advertisement. In an era of focused consumers, we know those ads are commercially motivated and may not always be the most relevant product or service within that category. If your rankings are properly targeted and possess relevant keywords, consumers may feel that an organic search may provide them with the elements that they are looking for within a brand. After all, the primary goal is a strong ROI, which means that incorporating the use of the organic search will allow you to continually evolve with your changing marketing campaign and goals as a company.

Although companies must use more time and effort to create an effective organic search, it is viable for sustainable growth. Optimizing your pages for search engine visibility and then seeing how fast your position improves will create a platform for future development. Once you have established a organic search, look closely at the type of traffic coming in from off-page factors like the type of links coming to your page. Building trust through an organic search will allow you to incorporate paid ads. If you can provide trust and value, the consumer will be able to see your efforts and recognize you as a contender within your product or service category.

In many marketers eyes, strong editorial content conveys greater credibility than paid placement advertising. To build a strong brand, it is viable to incorporate the use of advertorial marketing into your brand building initiatives. This form of advertising on the Internet allows marketers to educate, create familiarity, and build trust. As technology continues to grow, advertorials have the opportunity to allow your message to have both reach and staying power.

The effectiveness of online advertorials is there advantage of camouflage, which means they can create content that seems to be a part of the actual site. Well written advertorials can take the “advertisement” feature away and place it in to the category of useful information. Consumers want to be able to have more information without surfing around on the Internet to find useful information relating to certain products or services. If we think about it, the Internet is a way for consumers to gather information, that is why advertorial fit in to the format of the Internet.

The complexity behind buying and placing advertorials has always been a hot topic. The nature of their existence poses the question of how to properly integrate advertorial material into an overall campaign. Companies must be able to create content that directly promotes their products or services, but is also appealing to the visitors of a particular Website. Combining advertorial content with other page elements may be the best approach to satisfying the end user. Although the primary focus is providing information, it is the complete experience that will allow marketers and companies to reach an end goal.

As marketers, the focus is on obtaining the interest of the consumer. Since the Web environment naturally promotes two-way communication, it is important to place emphasis on content and leave images second on the list. Online advertorials should be used to encourage interactivity with the brand through various tools that the Internet provides to the user. Incorporating the use of feedback and comment areas, voting polls, streaming audio and video clips, and online games, create a well-rounded opportunity to incorporate proper content from advertorials.

As marketers, it comes back to the issue of the search engine optimization. Google will allocate better rankings when your advertorial has proper links to well-known sites promoted by Google. This can be a very beneficial PR tactic to promote your company and the brand.

Here is a list of tips to help an advertorial be an integral part of an overall campaign.

• The release contains clear links to client’s website
• Advertorial copy is written for web consumption
• Include interactive mechanisms
• Participation
• Statistic tracking
• Monitor activity and refresh advertorial

Youth culture and consumerism are growing more everyday in our society today. The youth in our society have a problem discovering the differences between their wants and needs, which means their buying power is becoming exponentially stronger. Around the world, youth tend to identify with the products and services that they consume in the market. The youth in our society today are a little confused and gullible, which means marketers have the opportunity to tap in to their acceptance of our materialistic culture.

One of the most interesting marketing tools in today’s arsenal is the use of “cool hunting.” Marketers tap in to social networks where they can find individuals within a group and understand their values and expressions. If you can find certain teens that have the admiration, respect, and trust of their friends, you can analyze these findings and discover what is the current “cool” trend. As marketers, we are able to capture the latest trend in youth image and style, bring it to the market, and then turn around and sell it back to the teens. This ever-changing cycle allows us to stay up-to-date with the market and deliver the proper messages that teens want to see in their products and services.

The great benefit for marketers is that teens have the most buying power out of all the markets. Since baby-boomers are retiring at a rapid rate, they now have the opportunity to escalate the teen market by giving them disposable income. Today, more and more teens are obtaining jobs at a younger age in order to fuel their desire to fit in to popular culture. Capturing the teen market due to these characteristics is still tricky, their constant desires are changing and marketers must adapt at a rapid rate to stay ahead of the game.

The teen market today are the prime Internet audience. It is estimate that a little over 60 percent of the market log on for fours hours or more a week. This means that Web marketing will eventually become the key to obtaining the market through online advertisements, downloadable coupons via mobile phones, interactive media with different products and services, and web content that stays current with teen language.

In order for companies to gain a stronghold on this market, they must create exceptional customer service, big discounts, high-speed e-trading, fast deliveries, and excellent return policies. Although this is just the tip of the iceberg, they are all things that teen desire out of their favorite companies.

According to Accustream Research, the combined commercial market value for streaming audio, video, streaming audio and video advertising, download media and entertainment is estimated at between $385 million (and) $452 million in 2005. These figures alone indicate the growth potential of streaming media in a well-developed marketing program.

Consumers are always going to be curious, that is why continually updating your streaming media will appeal to the consumer. They want to see what is next. The suspense of waiting can trigger recall cues in your customers and also produce word-of-mouth marketing. Keeping consumers curious keeps their attention. A picture is worth more than a thousand words, but visual media allows you to step in to the picture and experience the entire process.

Looking forward to a more recent study shows how much the incorporation of streaming media has become an integral part of marketing programs. Above you saw that the value of streaming media was estimated to be between $385 million and $452 million, today these figures have increased to $1.35 billion in 2007, according to Accustream iMedia Research. It is undeniable that budgets will continue to increase for streaming campaigns, while spending on TV and print will decline.

As marketers look to the future, the benefits of streaming media are evident. Companies have the opportunity to use a technology that is not available through print and TV form. The Internet offers the opportunity for feedback and interactivity. These opportunities create a chance for marketers to look within a campaign and determine how to incorporate specific messages across all forms of advertisement. After all, as marketers, we are looking for the best way to understand our consumers and provide them with best information available.

The importance of Web content is becoming more apparent, as site owners are beginning to realize that having Web-specific content is the key to branding, marketing, and creating higher search engine rankings. If you roughly have 8 seconds to grab the attention of a visitor, it is important to stand out among all of your competitors. Before the Web, content was merely a linear pursuit. In the age of new technology, we now have the opportunity to discover the specific content that we need, which means content plays a major role in the way consumer perceive certain products and services.

A good Web page is more than just a mechanical process. It takes the combination of a strong technologist, graphic designer, and journalist to discover the specifics that will sell your products and services. Through a structured marketing campaign, it takes the development of each medium to reach a positive and successful Website. Marketers are in the business to build and retain customers and this is why Web content is vital to an overall marketing campaign.

Looking at competitors in your industry can allow you to understand the best approach to increase your ranking within a searh engine. A descriptive and reflective Website with rich content and information will increase your ranking. If you do a search of any topic, you will find the Websites that come up in the top 10 always have a large degree of content. The main focus for any business is first getting the consumer to stay on your site and this is evident through the top companies that always show up first on the Web.

In the long run, it is the content that attracts the consumers and leads them to off-site situations. The two most important factors to focus on is keywords and fresh content. Marketers that can asses the demand of a particular topic will be able to determine the importance of keywords in their content. Discovering keywords that are searched often can increase the viewing of your site. Fresh content is what search engine companies are looking for when ranking your site. Frequently changing your content and adding more information will keep the search engine spiders lurking over your site. In regards to fresh content, it is viable to continually look at the big picture. New content must flow through all forms of medium that you use and be integrated into every new campaign that your company develops.

Content is what makes money for your company. If your content is good, the code, design, and traffic will flow better and allow you to reach positive results.

In today’s U.S. marketplace, marketing to the ethnic audiences is vital to consumer-oriented product and service companies. The Hispanic and African American market have huge buying power in the marketplace today. One of the interesting aspects of ethnic marketing is that many ethnic sub-groups are increasing their buying power at a huge rate. Companies have the potential to tap into this market and obtain a strong, loyal customer base.

It is important to discover which ethnic groups are underserved within a given product or service category. Individuals within each group have a differing set of values and different needs than your average mainstream consumer. Since Hispanics have a strong belief in family life, product and service companies that directly relate to this value have the potential to discover and dominate a niche market within this space. Perceived needs are the driving force and must be analyzed in order to discover the potential value of focusing part of your marketing campaign on specific ethnic cultures.

Many companies do not attempt to go within a particular ethnic group and actively strive to discover the perceived needs of specific sub-cultures. If you market to a group as a whole, you run the risk of generalizing an ethnic marketing campaign. In order to understand particular sub-groups, you must look at their country of origin, acculturation, generation, and their level of affluence. Breaking down an entire ethnic culture is a daunting task, but focusing on this aspect will allow companies to discover many possibilities that go unnoticed by most companies.

Ethnic marketing is not just marketing, it is an entire process. Companies must realize that incorporating ethnic marketing into their campaign will effect their overall business, so understanding the market is highly important to effectively develop ethnic marketing into their mix. Visual and emotional cues for one culture will not work for others, this is a prime example of how ethnic marketing can effect the overall business.

As the U.S. grows more diverse in the years to come, marketers must assess the importance of ethnic marketing. Provide ethnic groups will value propositions that will satisfy their needs, promote your product or services in a manner that is appealing to their background, and create messages that will resonate through a diverse consumer market. It is time for marketers to distinguish the differences in the ethnic groups and provide information that will show them that they are value consumers in the market today.

As most of us have seen through surfing the Internet, banner ads still remain visible on almost every Website that we view online. The problem that most banner ads have faced over the years is that they are easy to ignore and most surfers will not choose to leave the site they are viewing to explore the site for the banner ad. To most viewers, banner ads are cheap in delivering an impression, but the real question is whether or not creativity and repetition can continue to help banner ads before they become linked into the category of traditional advertising.

Today, banner ads are seeing a turn-around due to the ability to introduce live banners that produce video and sound. In the past, the main drawback of the banner ads was the lack of interaction. These rich media ads allow the marketer to introduce drama, humor, or other thought provoking emotions into their messages. The ability to use cookie data on the Internet today, allow marketers to focus on specific audiences that have the same preferences. This makes rich media ads an integral part of an overall campaign by catering to the consumer, but the main focus must be on refraining from creating live banners that are obtrusive to the viewer.

One of the main problems when incorporating banner ads is their direct relation to an overall campaign. It seem like many companies are using their designers to take an offline campaign and simply reconfigure it to place it in a banner ad. Although the main focus is to create a message or goal that will span out over all mediums, it is important to open the idea that creating banner ads must take a different approach online. Most of us have seen that certain TV spots do not work well in print form, so there must be a reason why banner ads may need a different look.

In the new era of technology, there will be more multi-faceted digital campaigns and budgets completely separate from other forms. This will open up the opportunity to focus more on just the click-through rates of banner ads and determine where they will fit into a digital campaign. Each aspect of a digital campaign must compliment each other and the banner ads may take a backseat once marketers begin to employ a more tightly focused digital campaign.

Although research is limited on their overall effectiveness in relation to a marketing campaign, they still have the ability to satisfy two functions of promotion. Banner ads are both informing and persuading. The real question is whether or not new technology and understanding will allow banner ads to make a turn for the better in an environment that feels like they are falling to the wayside.

In the new era of marketing, proximity marketing will play a key role in the development of a strong mobile marketing campaign. The ability to have a localised wireless distribution of advertising content in a given place will open up more information to both the consumer and the marketer. Since interaction is playing an integral part of the consumers lives today, it is important to give them  access to vital information about your products and services.

Here is a list of just a few opportunities with the incorporation of proximity marketing:

• recipients have an enhanced retail experience
• decreased use in expensive paper-based marketing material
• increased sales by offering digital coupons and promotion material
• extending the brand beyond the location
• immediate call to action on information sent to the user

One of the most interesting up and coming tools of proximity marketing is qr-codes. Simply put, the user either scans or clicks on a particular tag with their mobile phone by using software that will read the code. Once the message is decoded, the user is sent to the appropriate content. The great feature of this form is the opportunity to retrieve information on the phone model and the location of the user. Great tool for IMC practitioners who are wanting to understand their customer preferences and what type of information they are looking for in their products and services.

Today, marketers are looking to connect the virtual world with the physical world. Once we can achieve a platform that creates an exceptional transfer of information, users will be able to compare and browse product catalogues and use a variety of systems to compare opinions of other users. The opportunities are endless, but the main focus will be the opportunity for marketers to closer analyze how the consumer mind thinks in the real world.

The main focus for marketers is to establish a well-planned opt-in program for the consumer. As an IMC practitioner, one of the first steps will be a well-designed site that intrigues the consumer to use its mobile website and the information they will send through their mobile marketing campaign. If marketer expect to see substantial use of this form, it is imperative to send information that is so targeted and relevant that the user will be compelled to read it.

The continued development of stronger networks and better GPS technology will allow marketers and consumers to connect what we view in the virtual world to our physical world. In a sense, proximity marketing will give us an extra set of eyes when navigating through our daily lives.