Semester 4th (4 Years)

Unit 2

Branding and Promotion Strategy for Startups

Prof. Swami Bhatt

• WHAT IS MARKETING:-

Students should understand the meaning of the term Marketing. Simply stated the
meaning of the term Marketing is ―performance of business activities that direct the
flow of goods from producers to consumers or users‘‘. It may be said that marketing
includes all those activities which effect changes in the ownership and possession of
goods and services.

According to the Marketing Guru Philip Kotler, ―Marketing is a social and

managerial process by which individuals and organization get what they need and
want through creating, offering and exchange products of value with others.‘‘ If we
analyze the above definition, the following points will emerge to understand the
meaning of marketing: a. discovering and translating consumer needs and desires into
products and services. b. creating demand for these products and services c. serving
the customers demand d. expanding the market even in the face of keen competition.

• WHAT IS SALES:-
Sales is a vital sub-system of marketing management. Both sales and marketing
are used together as they need to work together. But in fact, they are two very
different functions and require very different skills. In simple and general terms,
sales is 1) A transaction between two parties where the buyer receives goods
 (tangible or intangible goods), services and/or assets in exchange for money. 2)
An agreement between a buyer and seller on the price of a security.

➢ Difference between sales and marketing:-

Sales Marketing

Definition

Sales is a transfer of product from the Marketing is understanding the customers

manufacturer to the customer in need and introducing a product
exchange for the money

Approach

Product oriented approach is followed Customer oriented approach is followed

Strategy adopted

Sales follows push strategy Marketing adopts pull strategy

Target audience
Individuals and companies Target audience for marketing is the
public in general

Tenure

Short-term Long-term

Primary Objective

Influence the target audience to become Identify customer requirements and make
buyers of the product products that fulfills their requirements

Scope

Scope of sales is limited only towards Scope of marketing is varied and includes
product selling. advertisement, customer support, after
sales service etc.

Essential skills required

Good communication and selling skills Good analytical skills

➢ Market Segmentation:-
It is the process of dividing the target market into smaller groups. These
segments enable companies to get a better understanding of their target
audience. They can be segmented on similar characteristics such as
interests, needs, location, demographics, priorities, and personality traits.
This exercise helps brands create marketing strategies, advertising, and
sales, and further optimize their products.

➢ Types of Market Segmentation:-

1. Demographic Segmentation

Demographic segmentation divides customer demographics on the basis of age,

income, gender, nationality, education, and race, among other parameters.

2. Geographic Segmentation

This groups customers based on geographical boundaries. It assumes that customers in

the same area can have similar interests and requirements.

3. Behavioral Segmentation

This relies on the customer’s reaction, purchasing process, and decision-making. Here
customers are grouped based on their market interaction to develop personalized,
targeted strategies.

4. Psychographic Segmentation

This process segments groups based on the customers’ lifestyle, political opinions,
personal values, aspirations, and psychological characteristics. Data for this
segmentation can be hard to identify; however, it produces excellent results.
5. Firmographic Segmentation

Firmographic segmentation groups customers based on shared company attributes. It

considers factors such as company size, status, industry, locations, and the number of
employees.

➢ Define Target Market:-

A target market is a specific group of people with shared
characteristics that a business markets its products or services to.
Companies use target markets to thoroughly understand their potential
customers and craft marketing strategies that help them meet their
business and marketing objectives.

➢ Geographic:-

A business can choose which market to focus on based on the location and type of
products and services it provides. This target market segmentation considers that
different consumer groups in a geographic area may require specific products or
services.

For example, if a company makes waterproof paint that keeps home exteriors safe
during the monsoons, locations witnessing heavy rainfall throughout the year would
be the best place to market it. Companies can find appropriate locations using the
country code, postal code, area code, city, province, state, etc.

➢ Demographic:-

A business must research the population before deciding on the ideal consumer
group to target. It will allow the company to make well-informed decisions based on
correct data. As a result, they can correctly define their markets and target customers
of the appropriate age, gender, economic level, race, religion, education, marital
status, etc.

For example, if a company sells beer, it should plan its target market strategy for
people aging 18 to 50.

➢ Psychographic:-

This segmentation considers people’s lifestyle choices in an area where a company

intends to run its advertising campaigns and introduce new products. Personality,
attitude, interests, values, beliefs, and socioeconomic status are crucial factors to
consider when identifying a potential consumer base.

For example, a company planning to launch a pet product knows that its target
customers will primarily be upper- and upper-middle-class people. As a result, its
marketing efforts would focus on those people as their key clients.

➢ Behavioral:-

A business must be aware of facts to determine how well its product would perform in a
specific demographic or social setting. Understanding buying habits will let companies
know how their products can meet consumer needs, both in terms of features and
usability, which are the most critical issues in buying.

➢ Marketing Mix:-
The marketing mix is defined by the use of a marketing tool that combines a
number of components in order to become harden and solidify a product’s
brand and to help in selling the product or service. Product based companies
 have to come up with strategies to sell their products, and coming up with a
marketing mix is one of them.

➢ These Are the 4 Ps of Marketing

1. Product:-

Creating a marketing campaign starts with an understanding of the product itself.

Who needs it, and why? What does it do that no competitor's product can do?
Perhaps it's a new thing altogether and is so compelling in its design or function that
consumers will have to have it when they see it.

The job of the marketer is to define the product and its qualities and introduce it to
the consumer.

Defining the product also is key to its distribution. Marketers need to understand
the life cycle of a product, and business executives need to have a plan for dealing
with products at every stage of the life cycle.

The type of product also dictates in part how much it will cost, where it should be
placed, and how it should be promoted.

Many of the most successful products have been the first in their category. For
example, Apple was the first to create a touchscreen smartphone that could play
music, browse the internet, and make phone calls. Apple reported total sales of the
iPhone for FY 2022 at $205.4 billion.3 In 2021, it hit the milestone of 2 billion
iPhones sold.4

2. Price:-

Price is the amount that consumers will be willing to pay for a product. Marketers
must link the price to the product's real and perceived value, while also considering
supply costs, seasonal discounts, competitors' prices, and retail markup.

In some cases, business decision-makers may raise the price of a product to give it
the appearance of luxury or exclusivity. Or, they may lower the price so more
consumers will try it.
Marketers also need to determine when and if discounting is appropriate. A discount
can draw in more customers, but it can also give the impression that the product is
less desirable than it was.

UNIQLO, headquartered in Japan, is a global manufacturer of casual wear. Like its

competitors Gap and Zara, UNIQLO creates low-priced, fashion-forward garments
for younger buyers.

What makes UNIQLO unique is that its products are innovative and high-quality.
It accomplishes this by purchasing fabric in large volumes, continually seeking the
highest-quality and lowest-cost materials in the world. The company also directly
negotiates with its manufacturers and has built strategic partnerships with
innovative Japanese manufacturers.

UNIQLO also outsources its production to partner factories. That gives it the
flexibility to change production partners as its needs change.

Finally, the company employs a team of skilled textile artisans that it sends to its
partner factories all over the world for quality control. Production managers visit
factories once a week to resolve quality problems.5

3. Place:-

Place is the consideration of where the product should be available—in brick-and-

mortar stores and online—and how it will be displayed.

The decision is key: The makers of a luxury cosmetic product would want to be
displayed in Sephora and Neiman Marcus, not in Walmart or Family Dollar. The
goal of business executives is always to get their products in front of the consumers
who are the most likely to buy them.

That means placing a product only in certain stores and getting it displayed to the
best advantage.

The term placement also refers to advertising the product in the right media to get
the attention of target consumers.

For example, the 1995 movie GoldenEye was the 17th installment in the James
Bond movie franchise and the first that did not feature an Aston Martin car. Instead,
Bond actor Pierce Brosnan got into a BMW Z3. Although the Z3 was not released
until months after the film had left theaters, BMW received 9,000 orders for the car
the month after the movie opened.

4. Promotion:-

The goal of promotion is to communicate to consumers that they need this product
and that it is priced appropriately. Promotion encompasses advertising, public
relations, and the overall media strategy for introducing a product.

Marketers tend to tie together promotion and placement elements to reach their core
audiences. For example, In the digital age, the "place" and "promotion" factors are
as much online as offline. Specifically, where a product appears on a company's
web page or social media, as well as which types of search functions will trigger
targeted ads for the product.

➢ Importance of Marketing Mix

The marketing mix is a remarkable tool for creating the right marketing strategy and its
implementation through effective tactics. The assessment of the roles of your product,
promotion, price, and place plays a vital part in your overall marketing approach. Whereas
the marketing mix strategy goes hand in hand with positioning, targeting, and
segmentation. And at last, all the elements, included in the marketing mix and the extended
marketing mix, have an interaction with one another.

➢ What is a Distribution Channel?

A distribution channel is a path or route decided by the company to deliver its good
or service to the customers. The route can be as short as a direct interaction between
the company and the customer or can include several interconnected intermediaries
like wholesalers, distributors, retailers, etc.

Hence, a distribution channel can also be referred to as a set of interdependent

intermediaries that help make a product available to the end customer.

➢ Functions of Distribution Channels

In order to understand the importance of distribution channels,
businesses need to understand that it doesn’t just bridge the gap
between the producer of a product and its user.
Distribution channels provide time, place, and ownership utility. They make the
product available when, where, and in which quantities the customer wants. But
other than these transactional functions, distribution channels are also responsible
to carry out the following functions:

• Logistics and Physical Distribution: Distribution channels are responsible

for the assembly, storage, sorting, and transportation of goods from
manufacturers to customers.
• Facilitation: Channels of distribution even provide pre-sale and post-
purchase services like financing, maintenance, information dissemination
and channel coordination.
• Creating Efficiencies: This is done in two ways: bulk breaking and creating
assortments. Wholesalers and retailers purchase large quantities of goods
from manufacturers but break the bulk by selling a few at a time to many
other channels or customers. They also offer different types of products in a
single place which is a huge benefit to customers as they don’t have to visit
different retailers for different products.
• Sharing Risks: Since most of the channels buy the products beforehand,
they also share the risk with the manufacturers and do everything possible to
sell it.
• Marketing: Distribution channels are also called marketing
channels because they are among the core touchpoints where many
marketing strategies are executed. They are in direct contact with the end
customers and help the manufacturers in propagating the brand message and
product benefits and other benefits to the customers.
 ➢ Types of Distribution Channel :-

1. Direct Channel (Zero Level)

As the name suggests, a direct channel or zero level is a distribution level

through which an organisation directly sells its products to the customers with
the involvement of any intermediary. For example, jewellers use direct
channels, Apple sells its products directly to the customers through its stores,
Amazon sells directly to the consumers, etc. Some of the most common types of
direct channels of distribution are Direct sales by appointing salesmen, through
Internet, teleshopping, mail order house, etc.

2. Indirect Channels

When a middleman or intermediary is involved in the distribution process, it

means the organisation is using Indirect Channels of Distribution. The indirect
channels of distribution can be classified into three categories; viz., One Level
Channel, Two Level Channel, and Three Level Channel.
i) One-Level Channel

One level channel means that there is only one intermediary involved between
the manufacturer and the customer to sell the goods. This intermediary is known
as a retailer. In simple terms, under one level channel, the organisations supply
their products to the retailers who sell them to the customers directly. For
example, goods like clothes, shoes, accessories, etc., are sold by companies with
the help of a retailer.
ii) Two-Level Channel

A most commonly used channel of distribution that involves two intermediaries

for the sale of products is known as Two Level Channel. The intermediaries
involved are wholesalers and retailers. The producer sells their products to
wholesalers in bulk quantity, who sells them to small retailers, who ultimately
supply the products to the customers. This channel is generally used to sell
convenient goods like soaps, milk, milk products, soft drinks, etc. For
example, Hindustan Unilever Limited sells its goods like detergent, tea leaves,
etc., through wholesalers and retailers.
iii) Three-Level Channel

Three level channel means that there are three intermediaries involved between
the manufacturer and the customer for the sale of products. The three
intermediaries involved are Agent Distribution, Wholesalers, and Retailers. It
is usually used when the goods are distributed across the country and for that
different distributors are appointed for different areas. For example, wholesalers
purchase goods from different distributors, like North India Distributors and then
pass the goods to the retailers, who ultimately sell the goods to customers.

➢ Personal Selling Process :-

Personal selling is a personalised sales method that employs person-to-person
interaction between a sales representative and prospective customers to influence
the customer’s purchase decision.

Precisely, it’s a promotional technique where a salesperson:

• Uses person to person communication: Personal selling involves direct

contact of the salesperson and the customer.
• To sell an offering: The purpose of personal selling is to motivate and
persuade the customer to purchase the intended offering a detailed
explanation or demonstration of the product.
• Using a personalised sales strategy: This strategy involves the salesperson
to understand the needs and wants of the customers, develop personalised
 connections, communicate the value of the offering in a way that persuades
the customer to buy the offering.
Today, personal selling is considered a business-to-business selling technique but
is also used in trade and retail sales.

With the advent of the internet and other communications methods, personal sales
isn’t limited to just face-to-face meetings. Salespersons now use video calls, phone
calls, IM, and even emails, along with in-person interactions to develop a
relationship with prospective customers.

Objective Of Personal Selling

• Build brand and product awareness by educating customers on the

company’s offerings and their benefits.
• Increase sales by identifying and persuading the prospects to buy a
business’s offering.
• Building close long-term relationships with the customers by enforcing
person-to-person two-way communication.
• Supporting the customers of complex, technical, or high-priced items by
providing detailed technical information.
• Stimulating the offering’s demand by helping the customers throughout
their decision-making process and guiding them towards the business’s
offering.
• Reinforcing the brand by building long term relationships with the
customers over time by meeting them and helping them in their decision-
making process.
Features Of Personal Selling

Personal selling differentiates itself from other sales and promotional techniques
by possessing the following characteristics:

• Human contact: It involves person-to-person interaction where a seller

interacts directly with the prospective customer and executes a personalised
sales strategy according to the customer’s needs, wants, and expectations.
• Development of relationship: Personal selling involves developing a
relationship between the seller and the buyer where trust is established, and
the prospective buyer can rely on the salesperson. Moreover, this technique
even results in the salesperson becoming a part of the buying process.
 • Two-way flow of information: Unlike mass marketing, personal selling is
characterised by a two-way flow of information. The prospective buyers get
their chance to ask questions and clear their doubts directly from the seller
before purchasing.
• Quick communication: Since personal selling involves person-to-person
interaction, the communication flow is really quick.
• Flexibility: It involves the salesperson to tailor the sales pitch according to
the prospective audience’s persona and requirements, making this sales tool
flexible.
• Satisfaction: The process of personal selling requires the salesperson to
understand the customer’s needs and satisfy the same by offering the
customer the opportunity to buy something he has to offer.
• Persuasion: Personal selling isn’t just about informing prospective
customers about the company’s offerings. It also involves using the power of
persuasion to make customers accept the seller’s point of view or convince
the customer to take a particular action.
➢ Importance Of Personal Selling:-

Personal selling is an essential sales tool in selling complex and technical offerings
that require human contact, personalisation, persuasion, and quick communication.

Usually, high priced items use personal selling as it helps the business inform and
persuade the customer using personalised selling methods to gain more trust.

It is also considered an important promotional tool in B2B sales as such sales

involve fewer prospects and high transaction costs.

Types Of Personal Selling

Generally, personal selling can be categorised into three types based on the sales
activity and salesperson involved. These are:

• Order Takers: Order takers receive requests and queries from the
customers. In simple terms, the customer approaches these salespersons.
They usually hold positions like retail sales assistant or telemarketer and
focus mainly on determining customer needs and pointing to inventory that
meets such needs.
 • Order Getters: Order getters reach out to new prospects and persuade them
to make a direct purchase. These are in-field salespersons who bring in new
clients to the business.
• Order Creators: Order creators don’t close the deal, but persuade the
customers to promote the business’s offering, leading to sales eventually.
For example, a pharmaceutical company reaching out to a doctor to persuade
him to prescribe the company’s medicine.

➢ Define Branding:-
Branding is the process where a business makes itself known to the
public and differentiates itself from competitors. Branding typically
includes a phrase, design or idea that makes it easily identifiable to the
public.
➢ Types of Branding:-
1. Personal Brand
Personal brands are those individual brands people build around them. However,
most experts don’t believe these should be called brands at all, as more often than
not, they’re not related to a specific business model. Nevertheless, a personal brand
is how we market ourselves via media, social networks and other means so as to
improve our image and possibly gain more career opportunities.
2. Product Brand
In order to sell goods and commodities, businesses have to work on their product
brands. These are brands that consist of emotions and ideas that can be associated
with a product. Thus, the associations exceed the functional capability of the
product and rely more on the public impression of it. FMCG, or fast-moving
consumer goods brands, are an example of product brands.
3. Service Brand
Service brands are quite similar to the previously mentioned product brands. The
main difference is that they focus on service rather than products themselves,
which means they are harder to develop. Services are less tangible than products,
so most of the time, these brands have to associate positive emotions with
themselves in order to succeed. Nevertheless, building a service brand allows
marketers to avoid skill vs skill comparisons, which are always difficult to prove.
There are also new online service brands, for example, subscription brands, which
have influenced changes in loyalty and technology expectations. In essence, they
now rely on the user experience and perceived value to promote their services, as
these traits are very sought-after among consumers.
4. Corporate Brand
We also call these brands organisational brands, as they are closely related to the
organisations that stand behind them. Fundamentally, these brands define those
organisations and reassure the consumers in the quality and the service of the
companies. Most often, corporate brands have all the necessary capabilities and
assets, as well as values and priorities to meet the needs of the consumers.
Moreover, they have a global or a local frame of reference, performance records
and citizenship programmes, as well as a rich heritage that speaks volumes about
the company behind the corporate brand.
5. Investor Brand
If an investor brand is powerful, it will deliver share price resilience and show a
knowledgeable understanding of value. These brands are most often publicly listed
brands, which are seen not only as investments but also as performance stocks.
Thus, in order for these brands to succeed, investors have to blend their strategic
and financial knowledge, as well as work on their purpose and value proposition.
Moreover, they should achieve a wider reputation through CSR.

6. Non-Profit Brands or NGO Brand

Although NGO brands are usually frowned upon in the non-profit community,
these brands are still important because many are now competing to get a bigger
cut of the philanthropic pound. Thus, these brands are not just looking into
fundraising to gear their social missions forwards. They are also paying attention to
value models.

7. Public Brand
We also refer to these brands as government brands. Basically, these are brands
related to the way the government is acting towards citizens and entities. Even
though we cannot associate consumer choice with these brands, they do still exists
and are vital for boosting people’s trust in the way government does its business.
However, most are on the fence when it comes to their existence. Some people
actually believe public entities should focus on developing trustmarks rather than
using brand strategies to develop public brands. Moreover, some brands are not
public by nature but have become so present in our lives that we almost assume
they are a part of public services. Such brands are Google and Facebook, which we
can also call embedded brands.

8. Activist Brand
These brands come with a purpose that’s always related to some social cause.
However, they promote their purpose so well that, more often than not, their
consumers opt for them because they’ve distinguished themselves in their minds.
A good example is Body Shop, which is completely anti-animal cruelty, and
Benetton. Benetton has been fighting global issues and bigotry throughout its
existence. Nevertheless, not everyone favours these brands; even Benetton has a
few haters.

9. Place Brand
In order to attract tourists, residents, investors and even businesses, destinations
and cities can build a brand around themselves. They build it so as to associate the
locations with positive ideas rather than facilities. That way, they can show people
just how many choices they’ll have if they relocate to a particular city or decide to
visit it. However, in order for these brands to be successful, service providers and
citizens have to play their part. A good example of a place brand would be Las
Vegas, as it’s become well known due to the saying “What happens in Vegas, stays
in Vegas”.

10. Nation Brand

In contrast to place brands, nation brands are related to the reputations and
perceptions of a country. The pioneer of these sorts of brands is Simon Anholt.

11. Ethical Brand

Businesses can build ethical brands and use them in two different ways. They can
use them to describe how the brand works and which practices it uses in order to
improve the overall business. For example, an ethical brand might devote its work
to CSR and worker safety. Meanwhile, we also have ethical brands that denote
quality marques. These are important, as they reassure the customers that the brand
is, above all, responsible. A good example would be Fairtrade. Also, note that most
ethical brands are a part of NGOs, like Trade Network and WWF’s Global Forest.

12. Celebrity Brand

Of course, celebrities can also build brands around themselves by combining social
media with different products, content, appearances and even gossip. Back in the
day, the business model for this kind of a brand included ad appearances.
However, nowadays, celebrities can also endorse products, become brand
ambassadors and get associated with brands via product placement. For example, a
celebrity can wear a dress by an ethical designer on the red carpet and associate
themselves with a good cause.

13. Ingredient Brand

Some brands opt to collaborate with ingredient brands so as to increase their value
proposition. These brands can add more to the mix in terms of quality and
manufacturing. They are the feature elements of the bigger brand and can lead to
more sales and more following, because they are combining their fans with another
brand’s fans. Some of these brands are Teflon, Gore-Tex and Intel.
Lately, it’s become evident that people are not really interested in finding out what
goes into the product they’re about to buy. They are also looking for integrations
rather than add-ons, as well as smaller products that work just as well as the bigger
ones. This, ingredient brands are not as popular as they were before.

14. Global Brand

Otherwise known as household names, these brands are famous on a global level.
Thus, their business model most often relies on availability, familiarity and
stability. Nevertheless, these brands are often under threat, as they have to
implement changes, either big or subtle, in order to stay relevant. They used to be
consistent, as consistency was a major part of building a global brand. Today, it
still is, but these brands also have to adjust to the changing cultural tastes and
expectations.
15. Challenger Brand
These are the so-called changemakers that are changing the way we view and use
conventional marketing resources. In essence, they are here to challenge the
dominant players and “make some noise”. As such, they bring their business
ambitions to a whole new level and are changing category decision-making criteria
so as to improve their own position on the market.

16. Generic Brand

Just as the name says, these brands have lost their distinctive traits and are plain
and generic. There are three forms of them. We have generic brands such as
Sellotape, Xerox and Google, whose names have even passed into our vocabulary.
We even use their brand names as verbs. Then we have generic brands that are on
the verge of ruin, as they’ve lost patent protection, for example. These brands are
specific to the healthcare industry, as the competition there is fierce. Since they’ve
lost their patent, anyone can beat them now. The last form of generic brands is the
one that has no brand value at all. These brands have unlabelled and unbranded
products, and they feature a functional description instead of a brand name.

17. Luxury Brand

Now, we all know what luxury brands are. These are usually designer brands
whose products can serve as status symbols. That’s why most people tend to aspire
to buy luxury brands — so that others can admire them. Moreover, luxury brands
are often endorsed by their consumers via stories, associations and quality.
Nevertheless, they are vulnerable to market shifts, as well as changes in consumer
confidence and perception. Luxury brands are always being pressured to create
affordable products, as most people cannot afford them right now. A good example
of such a situation would be Coach. A luxury brand, Coach, had a few obstacles in
2014. They couldn’t boost their revenue because China and Japan had cut their
sales growth. And as we all know, these two countries are the leading target
markets for luxury brands.

18. Cult Brand

Instead of having customers, cult brands usually have fierce followers. Moreover,
they pick fights with their market enemies; in essence, they challenge them, just as
the challenger brands do. However, real cult brands usually focus on their own
obsessions and passions rather than on what their competitors are doing. They set
the rules their followers comply with. Furthermore, if they decide to market their
products or services, they do so in such a way that others flock to them. They
rarely have to chase people to pay attention.

19. Clean Slate Brand

Clean slate brands are the complete opposite of brands that rely on a mainstream
brand strategy, which includes history and heritage. Instead, these brands are
actually the pop-up versions of regular brands. As such, they don’t have any proof
that they’re good nor are they well known. However, they move fast in order to
give their consumers something new and modern. Thus, they can become quite
popular over a short period of time.

20. Private Brand

Also called private labels, private brands are actually brands that are trying to
weaken the name brands’ asking prices. Instead of offering value, like the
previously mentioned name brands, these private labels focus on OEM-sourced,
value-based retail offerings. As such, they don’t inspire a huge level of loyalty or
appeal among consumers. However, if they work on those aspects, they could
increase their value. Moreover, they could play a bigger role in the part of the
market that focuses on the “affordable premium”.

21. Employer Brand

Lastly, we have employer brands. As the name suggests, these brands focus on the
employee value proposition and deal with high-quality staff employment. In
essence, these brands are doing their best to better the recruiting process.
Furthermore, some of them also expand on those efforts and work on developing a
productive and healthy work culture. Nevertheless, even though employer brands
seem like a good idea, they are often just that — an idea. We can rarely find real
employer brands due to a multitude of reasons. Most companies have a huge HR
staff that has to handle the whole recruiting process, which means that the
employer brand doesn’t have a real purpose in the end. Moreover, marketers are
rarely interested in solving people issues. Thus, the satisfaction rates in many
corporate cultures around the world are poor and need improvement.
 ➢ Integrated Marketing Communication Tools (IMC)
Integrated Marketing Communication tools refer to integrating various
marketing tools such as advertising, online marketing, public relation
activities, direct marketing, sales campaigns to promote brands so that
similar message reaches a wider audience. Products and services are
promoted by effectively integrating various brand communication
tools.

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.

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.

Direct Marketing
Direct marketing enables organizations to communicate directly with the end-users.
Various tools for direct marketing are emails, text messages, catalogues, brochures,
promotional letters and so on. Through direct marketing, messages reach end-users
directly.

Personal Selling
Personal selling is also one of the most effective tools for integrated marketing
communication. Personal selling takes place when marketer or sales representative
sells products or services to clients. Personal selling goes a long way in strengthening
the relationship between the organization and the end-users.
Personal selling involves the following steps:

1. Prospecting - Prospecting helps you find the right and potential contact.
2. Making first contact - Marketers need to establish first contact with their
prospective clients through emails, telephone calls etc. An appointment is
essential and make sure you reach on time for the meeting.
3. The sales call - Never ever lie to your customers. Share what all unique your
brand has to offer to customers. As a marketer, you yourself should be convinced
with your products and services if you expect your customers to invest in your
brand.
4. Objection handling - Be ready to answer any of the client’s queries.
5. Closing the sale - Do not leave unless and until you successfully close the deal.
There is no harm in giving customers some time to think and decide accordingly.
Do not be after their life.
Public Relation Activities
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.