Integrated Marketing Communication
Introduction
In business marketing, communication or commonly known today as integrated communication is any modern business which has become a competitive activity where thinkers and speakers attempt to put more effort to make business successful and to gain advantage over other forces that contend the customer’s needs and attention. The concept of communication is more concerned in the studies of business and in the implementation of business strategies, industry analysis and marketing tactics (Sheehan & Doherty, 2001).
On the other hand, business communication can provide a familiar and dominating way of understanding business core activities but are not used in the main stream of business studies that are essential to it successful practice because modern business communication is a significant tool that offers a competitive as well as a conceptually useful way of thinking about its activities. Business communication can be described as an effort made by two or more groups of people who are acting independently to secure the business of third party by offering the most favorable terms to achieve the organizational objectives (Moore & Thorson, 1996).
By implementing integrated communication more effectively, any firm may gain advantage by offering its product or service that is cost effective as compared to other products or service in the market. So the writers or speakers in any business organization may gain competitive advantage over its competitors by using effective business communication techniques as if they are differentiated from their competitors by offering their target market something unique and different that is of more value. So the business communication is more related to the concept of rhetoric which is treated as a discipline that concentrates on effective communication in oral, written and print media that places the audience at the center of communication activity.
With the advent of information technology, different types of communication evolve and this includes the Business to business marketing communication. Primarily, the main goal of this paper is to analyse the role of personal selling to business to business marketing communication. In order to determine how personal selling works for Business to business marketing communication, the discussion will include the context of business to business marketing communication.
Business to business marketing communication
It has been noted that every industry must be able to consider a strategic marketing approach in order to ensure that they are positioned in the market environment (Moschis, 1994). One of the major elements of marketing is the promotion strategy through the use of effective and integrated marketing communications. This is essential since it enables the industry to effectively communicate with their target market mentioned above. Business to business marketing communication through Integrated Marketing Communication is the strategic coordination of all messages and media used by an organization to collectively influence its perceived product value (Keegan, Moriarity & Duncan, 1992). Furthermore, IMC is also referred to as a cross-function process for establishing and sustaining relationships with stakeholders by controlling or managing strategically all the messages sent to them and by purposely encouraging two-way dialogues with them. In addition, IMC is a concept which aims to manage customer relationships that drive product value and generate desired outcomes (Clow & Baack 2004).
Role of Personal Selling
The promotional strategy is the term generally preferred to promotional activities and functions to market a certain product or services. Promotional strategy is a vital contributor to satisfy the needs of the target market. As such, it is important that tourism management have an understanding of the aspects which are involved in the development of strategies which will enable industries to communicate with their target market (Shimp, 2003), their channel participants as well as their other stakeholders, like those relationships may be developed over the long term.
Every company is inevitably cast into the role of the promotional managers. For most industries, the question is not whether to communicate but rather what to say, to whom, and how often the communication or promotional strategy should be conducted. It has been noted that promotional activities is like a coin which has two sides. The first side of the promotional activities is concerned with efficiently and effectively giving information and details about the company and the products or services to a chose market segments. The second face of promotional activities and operations is the inquiry. This side of the promotional activity task gives emphasis with learning from other people regarding the values and interests, and eventually relating this to the interests of the personnel working in the organisation. Such process should logically precede the promotion of a specific standpoint in terms of product desirability and relevant consumer satisfaction (Fill, 2002). To promote an industry the management should be able to use integrated marketing communication and collaborate it with the concept of Business to business marketing communication.
In promotional strategy, there are various concepts to consider and one of these is personal selling level. Accordingly, personal selling level gives emphasis on overcoming alternate options challenging different customers every day. The purpose of the personal seller is to close orders and establish customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Sales are an important part of any commercial transaction. The most common approach to personal selling pertains to a systematic process of continuous yet measurable methods in which the person selling describes his offered products or services in such a way that the buyer will be able to visualize how to benefit from the offered products or services in an economic way. Selling is basically a part of the implementation procedures of marketing. It often forms a particular grouping within a corporate structure, employing independent specialist operatives known as salesmen (Berger, Demsetz & Strahan 1999).
The continued interrogation in order to understand a consumer’s goal as well as the establishment of a set of feasible solutions by conveying the necessary information that convinces a buyer to achieve his goal at a reasonable cost is the main responsibility of the sales person. On the other hand, the main objective of professional sales is to be able to know the needs and satisfy the wants of consumers effectively, and therefore convert possible customers into actual and reliable ones.
Some of the distinct advantages of personal selling include the immediate access to feedback, the persuasive nature of the endeavor, the option of choosing a target audience for the sales person, and its capability to give detailed information. For some scholars, personal selling is a one to one communication with potential customers of a specific product or services with the intention of making a sale. In Business to business marketing communication, the concept of personal selling is considered essential. Through the aspect of personal selling, it enables the marketers that the entire campaign element has been integrated in order to achieve the desirable marketing communication objectives. Consumer does not separate or divide advertising, sales promotion, sponsorship and internet as marketing communications techniques. They tend to receive the messages from various sources and buildup either favourable or unfavorable images a certain products or services. As far as they are concerned, the source of the message is unimportant. What they will be concerned with is the content of the message and to what degree the product promise is actually delivered (Fill & Yeshin, 2001).
Basically, all campaign activities lead down to marketing communication. And the key to effective communication is to understand how consumers process the vast amount of information that comes their way each and every day (Fill, 2002). To cope, the marketer must select only the information that manager perceive to be important and ignore the rest. If the marketing message is to be selected and processed, it must consist of sensory and life experiences that can easily be identified and transformed into a unified concept, have mental relationships to other categorized ideas, and fit into the categories and mental linkages that people have already created for themselves. Communication only occurs when the consumer accepts, transforms, and categorizes the message.
The role of personal selling in promotion and business to business marketing communicating includes the following aspects stated by Kotler (2004). This includes the role of prospecting which means recruiting or selecting new customers. The second role of personal selling is to communicate with loyal and potential clients about the range of the products or services offered by the company. The next is about selling role which can be done through direct contact with the clients, answering questions and trying to close the sale and servicing which provides support and service to the clients in the period of selling up to delivery and also post-sale. Another important role is information gathering, in which the seller attempts to gather pertinent information about the market to feedback into the marketing planning approach. The next one is allocating which is very essential in times of product shortage. Herein, the sales force can make the decision to decide how available stocks should be allocated.
Personal selling can help Business to business marketing communication to achieve integrated communication approach. Through this, the management will be sure of having strategic coordination of multiple communication voices within the industry. The objective of the integration is to optimize the effect of persuasive communication on both the non-consumer and consumer including trade and professional audiences by coordinating the elements of the marketing mix which include the context of personal selling direct marketing (Moore & Thorson 1996). In addition, personal selling is also important because it enables Business to business marketing communication to be and effective approach for coordinating all messages and media utilised by a company to collectively affect the company’s competitive position (Keegan, Moriarity & Duncan, 1992).
In addition, personal selling can also have cross-function approach for generating and sustaining good relationships with clients by controlling or managing strategically all the information sent to them and by purposely encouraging two-way dialogues with target market. Business to business marketing communication through personal selling can be considered to have an effect the performance of the company and to the achievement of the goals and objectives of the Business to business marketing communication. Accordingly, its concept that aims on managing customer relationship has the ability to drive product value for the company and generate desire results (Clow & Baack 2004).
Through the integration of Business to business marketing communication and personal selling, products are strategically promoted through the use of various promotional elements as well as marketing process to communicate the message of the company and the product to the specified target market (Moore and Thorson, 1996). It has been noted that personal selling is aiming on using direct communication so as to bring behavioural changes among consumers who will purchase a specific product (Shimp, 2000). Personal selling along with Business to business marketing communication also relates the message to the client which brings behavioral changes that helps the product and the entire company to establish a strong and tight relation with the target market. Furthermore, the context of integrated marketing communication stresses on the significance of coordination and synergy so as to develop and maintain a strong product image. By using various communication instruments through the integration concept of marketing communications, industries have the ability to use effective methods to strengthen their products with their target market and promote stronger product names to their targets (Kotler, 2004).
Personal selling can also be considered to have an important role in Business to business marketing communication by giving the communication approach the chance to sustain their competitive advantage among clients by identifying the most useful and appropriate methods in communicating and establishing good customer relations. The main objective of the communicating product image is to instill a stable and consistent impression among their clients (Fill, 2002).
In addition, personal selling also plays a critical role for Business to business marketing communication in a way that it gives the opportunity for the product to sustain its marketability. The application of integrated marketing tools can enable the sellers or marketers to communicate with the other target segment. For instance because of the increasing popularity of the world wide web, each company that invests in having their own website will have the chance to reach consumers locally and internationally. This means that the reach of the product are also extended and expanded in the global market, through the use of integration of personal selling approach and Business to business marketing communication. With this, products of different company will be able to emerge quickly in the marketplace since the tools and approaches of integrated Business to business marketing communication will act as shop window for many businesses today. In addition, through personally selling integrated with it, this will also permit the clients to easily know important information about a specific product and to know the different features a specific product. In addition, the personal selling and Business to business marketing communication is also important in impacting the product since this will served as a marketing communicating approach for effectively promoting the products, which will aim to result in a more sales from other distribution channels. The rationale for choosing this marketing channel is that Integrated marketing communication can help products to meet target consumers worldwide and this could be a great opportunity to be developed and in order for product to be quickly recognized by the target market.
In this regard, the overall campaign element of the product must be integrated so as to attain the desirable marketing communication objectives. It is said that the target market do not separate or divide sponsorship, advertising, sales promotion, and internet as marketing communications approaches. The clients tend to receive the messages about specific product from various sources and set up either favourable or unfavorable image of the product. As far as the company is concerned, the source of the product information is not that important. What is more essential with is the content of the information conveyed and to what degree the product promise has been actually delivered to the target market (Fill & Yeshin, 2001).
It can be said that all campaign activities lead down to marketing communication and the vital efficient communication is to comprehend how the clients process the vast amount of information that comes their way each and every day and how it helps the product to reach their target audience (Fill, 2002). In order to sustain the competitive advantage of the specific product, the market must be able to select only the important message that the management perceive to be important in enhancing the product value and ignore the rest. If the marketing information is to be selected and process, the management must ensure that it include sensory and life experiences which can easily be determined and change into a unified context, have mental relationships to other categorized product ideas, and fit into the categories and mental linkages that consumers have already created for themselves. Business to business marketing communication must address and communicate various, targeted messages to each and every marketers.
Conclusion
The context of marketing communication is said to be useful in terms of comprehending and analyzing the competitive position of an organisation. The approach used by the company in communicating with their target market remains an important part of integrated marketing communication which is used with the combination of Business to business marketing communication and personal selling as it is mostly recognised by their clients. It can be said that the heavy consideration on integrating these two important elements in marketing communication can create the impression that the product or services can be promoted through the use of integrated marketing communication.
Much has been said about the importance of having a strong and effective marketing communication. Based on this analysis, it can be said that a strong and effective marketing approach is something that can influence the choice of the target market and meets the personality provided. It can be said that each organisation must have an image which addresses the dimensions and characteristics of strong company. In order to achieve this, the company must be able to manage the product efficiently.
It can be concluded that integrated marketing communication affect the company’s competitive position by enabling the target market to know more about the products. And eventually contribute to increasing sales; notably, integrated marketing communication can help in new institutional development and launches of the product. In addition, the study shows that a strong and effective product has the ability to produce audiences in a multi-channel environment that enables the company to be known in the global market. Second, strong and effective products can be an outcome of an effective integrated marketing communication approach. Analysis shows that due to the existence of modern technologies, companies are able to integrate different promotional strategies to enhance the competitive position of their business.
Different industries have decided to set aside traditional approaches and have come to accept the innovative perspectives in promoting their products and services to their target market. Herein, marketing concepts has exceeded from the connotation of being an expense to being a part of the industry’s essential investment; from being product-focused to becoming customer oriented. The context of both marketing and advertising can be considered as investment because of the potential profit that may emerge upon implementation of such strategies. Furthermore, instead of emphasizing product attributes, many firms have realized that it is the customer is more important to be given attention for every marketing strategy since the customer are the recipient and the ultimate assessor of the products and services the company provides. In order to do so, many marketers are able to consider the use of Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC). By and large, it can be said that the new communication model of integrating personal selling can help different industries to significantly improve Business to business marketing communication and help Business to business companies meet their short-term and long-term business objectives and establish stronger relationships with all of their customers. It can be noted that personal selling and Business to business marketing communication integration can enable the company know the needs of the company and meet and satisfy these needs.
Reference
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