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"Integrated Marketing – The Next Frontier"

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Integrated Marketing – The Next Frontier
Article as appeared in the July 2001 issue of Professional Marketing Magazine.

If we were to take a day in the life of your brand, what would we see? Is there one unified, unique and compelling message being communicated to your target audiences internally and externally or is a fragmented tactical approach struggling to achieve cut-through?

According to the Professional Marketing & The Capital Group Marketing Integration Survey of marketing managers and directors from around Australia, 98 per cent of respondents believe that communication should be integrated across all marketing tools. This is nice in theory but sadly rarely happens.

The revolution in the information market and new media has made the connection between a brand and its customers ever more challenging, as sources of accessible information proliferate and consumers become more selective in the information they choose.

The survey found 34 per cent of respondents indicated that confusion about brand vision or a lack of a common brand vision was the main reason for not being able to deliver an integrated marketing communications campaign.

Integrated marketing is intrinsically dependent on having a clear brand strategy, brand values and brand management system. Only when you know who you are and what you have to offer can you tell others about it.

Brand is not restricted to the traditional marketing elements. It is what a company does and says internally and externally ever day – brand is behaviour. At the end of the day true brand marketing is not just about putting out messages but about building relationships with all internal and external stakeholders with which the brand interacts.

An integrated brand-building program will generate significant momentum and equity that can be leveraged across staff, trade and distribution channels, media as well as target customers groups.

Despite this only 45 per cent of marketers in our survey indicated that branding was the first priority for their company in terms of their company’s marketing objectives. 47 per cent ranked advertising as the first or second priority.

Advertising is still a vital part of the marketing mix, but if a company wants to make maximum use of the synergy of integrated marketing communication it needs to do more than simply initiate advertising, direct marketing, public relations or data base management in separate silos. It requires total management commitment to consistency across all communications mediums.

Developing a compelling and consistent approach to brand communications requires discipline and planning. Our survey results support this showing that 58 per cent of companies surveyed believe the reason to implement an integrated communications campaign is to present a consistent and controlled brand, image or message. 32 per cent said that the main reason was to maximise the branding impact across all media.

The increasing complexity and sophistication of marketing communications, the need for increasing ROI on marketing expenditure and variable commitment from senior management to the marketing function means careful planning is required to co-ordinate a successful integrated marketing strategy.

60 per cent of companies are using two or more agencies to communicate marketing messages to target audiences according to the survey. If these companies could guarantee the same quality of service from their agencies, 41 per cent have indicated that they would prefer to use the services of one integrated marketing agency.

As integration becomes embedded in a company’s culture it will start to experience a significant increase in the impact of its marketing activity as synergies, consistencies, economies of scale and marketing innovations amplify the impact and success of campaigns.

Senior management needs to understand that a brand is far more than just a name and a logo. Successful brands are carefully designed business systems. Apart from the traditional advertising approach these systems also include the way staff are inducted, the way a company communicates with its shareholders, the company’s commitment to community sponsorships, the shopfront experience of the customer along with the product or service itself. And it is the total system that the customer purchases, not just the product.

An integrated marketing approach requires significant discipline for strongly divisionalised companies but as successful marketers are realising, it's no longer optional to do so.

Jennifer Gordon
Director
The Capital Group

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