Download INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION IN SERVICE INDUSTRY

INTEGRATED
MARKETING
COMMUNICATION
IN SERVICE INDUSTRY
I M C
 IMC is the coordination and integration of all
marketing communication tools, avenues,
functions and sources within a company into
a seamless program that maximizes the
impact on consumers and other end users at
a minimal cost
 Marketing efforts incorporate the "marketing
mix". Promotion is one element of marketing
mix. Promotional activities include advertising
(by using different media), sales promotion
(sales and trades promotion), and personal
selling activities. It also includes internet
marketing, sponsorship marketing, direct
marketing, database marketing and public
relations. Integration of all these promotional
tools, along with other components of marketing
mix, is a way to gain an edge over a competitor.
 The goal of selecting the elements of
proposed integrated marketing
communications is to create a campaign that
is effective and consistent across media
platforms.
 Integrated marketing communications(IMC)
is not just merely a piece of advertising, a
piece of public relations and a piece of direct
marketing that all look the same. Rather, IMC
is the management of all brand contact
points through an integrated, consumerdriven strategy.
 It means realigning your communications from
your customer’s perspective so that your public
relations are indistinguishable from your
advertising, your direct marketing is
indistinguishable from your promotions and so
on. The idea is to create a communications plan
that integrates the same message and brand
image throughout all of the customer’s brand
contacts with the company. IMC also includes
creating synergy throughout the organization so
that all divisions of the company are working
toward a common brand image that is consistent
for the consumer.
Why do smart companies go to
great lengths to ensure
consistency in their brand
marketing messages across
all marketing channels?
 Winning the battle of perceptions and generating sales.
 Thirty years ago, all Proctor & Gamble had to do to reach well
over 70% of the homemaker market segment was run a few TV
commercials on a few different daytime TV shows (usually soap
operas). Today, with the proliferation of now hundreds of TV
stations and programming options, and with fewer stay-at-home
spouses, P&G would reach a mere fraction of that with the same
method. Add to that the the many other mediums and modes of
communication we have today and you can see why company
executives scratch their heads about how to best reach their
target audience. The number of people with computers, Internet
access (to millions of "channels"), cell phones, portable media
receivers, etc, between 25-to 45-year-olds is staggering
compared to just five years ago-and it is still growing.
 Examples – Cadbury
 Airtel
 The customer of services is the target of two types of
communication. First external marketing communication
includes traditional channels such as advertising, sales
promotion and public relations. Second, interactive
marketing communication involves messages that
employees give to the customers through such channels as
personal selling, customer service interactions, service
encounter interactions, and servicescapes. A company
must ensure that these interactive messages are consistent
both among themselves and with those sent through
external communications. To do so, the third side of the
triangle, internal marketing communications, must be
managed so that information from the company to
employees is accurate, complete and consistent with what
customers are hearing and seeing.
Figure 15-1
Communications and the
Services Marketing Triangle
Company
Internal Marketing
Vertical Communications
Horizontal Communications
Employees
External Marketing
Communication
Advertising
Sales Promotion
Public Relations
Direct Marketing
Interactive Marketing
Personal Selling
Customer Service Center
Service Encounters
Servicescapes
Source: Parts of model adapted from work by Christian Gronroos and Phillip Kotler
Customers
KEY REASONS FOR SERVICE
COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES




Discrepancies between service delivery and
external communications, in the form of
exaggerated promises can powerfully affect
consumer perceptions of service quality. The
factors that contribute to these communication
problems include:
Inadequate management of service promises.
Elevated customer expectations
Insufficient customer education
Inadequate internal communications
Inadequate management of
service Promises
A discrepancy between service delivery and
promises occurs when companies fail to manage
service promises- the vows made by salespeople,
advertising and service personnel. One of the
primary reasons for this discrepancy is that the
company lacks the information and integration
needed to make fulfil able promises. Sales
people often sell services, particularly new
business services, before their actual availability
and without having an exact date of when they
will be ready for market.
Inadequate management of
Customer Expectation
 Appropriate and accurate communication about service is
the responsibility of both marketing and operations.
Marketing must accurately reflect what happens in actual
service encounters; operations must deliver what is
promised in communications. For ex- when a management
consulting firm introduces a new offering, marketing and
sales departments must make the offering appealing
enough to be viewed as superior to competing services. In
prompting and differentiating the service, however, the
company cannot afford to raise expectations above the
level at which its consultants can consistently perform. If
advertising, personal selling, or any other external
communication sets up unrealistic expectations, actual
encounters will disappoint customers.
Inadequate Customer
Education
 Differences between service delivery and
promises also occur when companies do not
sufficiently educate their customers. If the
customers are unclear about how service will
be provided, what their role in delivery
involves, and how to evaluate services they
have never used before, they will be
disappointed. When disappointed, they will
often hold the service company, not
themselves, responsible.
Inadequate Internal
Marketing Communications
Multiple functions in the organization, such as marketing and
operations, must be coordinated to achieve the goal of
service provision. Because service advertising and personal
selling promise what people do, frequent and effective
communication across functions- horizontal
communication- is critical. If internal communication is
poor, perceived service quality is at risk. If the company
advertising and other promises are developed without
input from operations, contact personnel may not be able
to deliver service that matches the image portrayed in the
marketing efforts.
Figure 15-3
Approaches for
Integrating Services Marketing
Communication
Manage
Customer
Expectations
Manage
Service
Promises
Goal:
Delivery
greater than
or equal to
promises
Manage
Internal
Marketing
Communication
Improve
Customer
Education
Figure 15-4
Approaches for
Managing Service Promises
MANAGING SERVICE PROMISES
Create
Effective
Services
Communications
Coordinate
External
Communicatio
n
Make
Realistic
Promises
Offer
Service
Guarantees
Goal:
Delivery
greater than
or equal to
promises
Use Narratives to demonstrate the service expectations:
 Many services are experiential and uniquely effective approach to
communicating them involves story based appeals. Research has
concluded that consumers with relatively low familiarity with a
service category prefer appeals based on stories to appeals based
on lists of service attributes.
Present Vivid Information:
 Effective service advertising creates a strong or clear impression
on the senses and produces a distinct mental picture. One way to
use vivid information is to evoke strong emotion such as in
AT&T’s classic, Reach out and Touch someone.

Use interactive imagery:
One type of vividness involves what is called interactive imagery. Imagery is
defined as a mental event that involves the visualization of a concept or
relationship, can enhance recall of names and facts about service.

Focus on tangibles:
Another way that advertisers can increase the effectiveness of services
communications is to feature the tangibles associated with the service,
such as showing a banks marble columns or gold credit card.

Feature service employees in communication:
Customer contact personnel are an important second audience for service
advertising. Featuring actual employees doing their jobs or explaining
their services n advertising is effective for both the primary audience
and the secondary audience because it communicates to employees
that they are important.
COORDINATE EXTERNAL COMMUNICATION
 For any organisation, one of the most
important yet challenging aspects of
managing brand image involves coordinating
all the external communication vehicles that
send information to customers. These
communications vehicles include advertising,
websites, sales promotion, public relations,
direct marketing and personal selling.

MAKE REALISTIC PROMISES
 The expectations that customers bring to the
service affect their evaluation of its quality. The
higher the expectation, the higher the delivered
service must be to be perceived as high quality.
Therefore promising reliability in advertising is
appropriate only when the reliability is actually
delivered. It is essential for a firms marketing or
sales department to understand the actual levels
of service delivery before making promises about
reliability.

Figure 15-8
Approaches for
Managing Customer Expectations
Offer Choices
Communicate Criteria for
Service
Effectiveness
Negotiate
Unrealistic
Expectation
s
Goal:
Delivery
greater than
or equal to
promises
 OFFER CHOICE:
 One way to reset expectations is to give
customers options for aspects of service that
are meaningful such as time and cost. With
the choice, clients can select the aspect of the
trade-off that is most meaningful to them.
Making the choice solidifies the client’s
expectations of the service
COMMUNICATE THE CRITERIA AND LEVELS
OF SERVICE EFFECTIVENESS:
 At times companies can establish the criteria
by which customers access service. Consider
a business customer who is purchasing
market research services for the first time.
Because market research is an expert is an
expert service, it is high in credence
properties that are hard for customers to
judge.
Figure 15-9
Approaches for
Improving Customer Education
Goal:
Delivery
greater than
or equal to
promises
Prepare
Customers
for the
Service
Process
Confirm
Performance
to Standards
Clarify
Expectations
after the Sale
Teach
Customers
to Avoid
Peak
Demand
Periods
and
Seek Slow
Periods
Figure 15-10
Approaches for Managing
Internal Marketing Communications
Goal:
Delivery
greater than
or equal to
promises
Create Effective
Vertical
Communications
Create Effective
Horizontal
Communications
Align Back
Office Personnel
w/ External Customers
Create
Cross-Functional
Teams