Communication is the key to business success Essay

Communication is the key to business success - Essay Example It would build an integrated marketing communication system for a fictitious catering firm. The objective is to take all the aspects into consideration, like the company's SWOT analysis, SOSTAC (situation, objectives, strategy, tactics, action and control) for the IMC system, and develop an analytical approach to make the case as realistic as possible. Marketing communications are as important to a firm as personal relationships are important to an individual. They determine the identity of the firm in the market both absolutely, as well as relative to its competitors. Marketing communications are the heart of a company's strategy today. They determine the entire survival of the firm. With increasing competition and homogeneity of products, companies have to differentiate themselves from the other firms, for which they have to use communication effectively. Today's consumers are very knowledgeable and would expect the company to be in touch with them constantly, from advertising to after-sales service. Integration marketing communications can be simply defined as "the process of developing and implementing various forms of persuasive communication programs with customers and prospects over time" (Schultz professor at Northwestern University, 1993). Moreover, "the goal of IMC is to influence or directly affect the behavior of the selected communication audience. IMC considers all sources of brand or company contacts which a company or prospect has with the product or service as potential delivery channels for the future messages. IMC, makes use of all forms of communication which are relevant to the customer and prospects, and to which they might be receptive." The American Association of Advertising Agencies defines IMC as: the concept of marketing communication planning that recognizes the added value of a comprehensive plan that evaluates the strategic roles of a variety of communication disciplines (general advertising, direct response, sales promotion, and public relations) and combines these disciplines to provide clarity, consistency, and maximum communication impact." IMC can be pictorially represented as: Integrated marketing communications has an "outside-in" approach as opposed to the traditional "inside-out" approach. This means that companies have to look inside first, and then towards the customers. Customer relationship building starts from developing effective systems within the enterprise itself. To develop and adopt an effective IMC system, the company has to: identify the key audiences: present as well as potential customers determine the objectives design the communications content select the communication methods define the