What is IMC?!
It simply stands for Integrated Marketing Communication!
IMC is an approach to communicate messages to your target consumers through combining strategies.
https://www.hitechnectar.com/blogs/integrated-marketing-communication-tools/
It can be in the form of print, website or even social media, fusing both traditional and digital marketing to achieve effectiveness!
It is important that businesses learn to adopt Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) to penetrate into the market effectively! Digital Campaign would be effectively implemented only when all four 4(Cs) IMC elements are present – Coherence, Consistency, Continuity and Complementary!
- Coherence: Messages must be logically connected across all channels.
- Consistency: Communication across channels must support and reinforce the primary message.
- Continuity: The primary message should be connected through time.
- Complementary: Messages should be better together.
Here is an example of how a business adopt IMC successfully!
https://shopee.sg/
Shopee is a Singaporean e-commerce platform and was first launched in Singapore in 2015, and since expanded its reach to Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Brazil. It serves users in Southeast Asia to buy and sell products online!
I am sure most of you have heard of Shopee’s 9.9, 10.10, 11.11 and 12.12 sales!
The one that caused the most hype and hoo-ha! would be Shopee 9.9 Super Shopping Day and YES they hired the famous soccer player – CRISTIANO RONALDO as the brand’s ambassador!
https://shopee.sg/blog/shopee-9-9-day/
Shopee has lined up a series of events weeks before the campaign actually takes place. There are 9 highlights on this campaign and these highlights include: games, flash deals, promo codes, giveaways, discussions to win prizes, partnerships with official retailers and many more!
Several IMC tools were utilised here!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHH3QfBSs7I&feature=emb_title
Not only that, the advertisement went viral and gained 1.6 million views on Youtube! With that, Shopee ultimately increased their brand awareness.
This is how Shopee create a successful IMC campaign:
Step 1: Have a clear understanding of who your target audience is.
Shopee’s target audience are people who is tech-savvy and looking for cheaper deals online. They have achieved it through the use of promotions to entice consumers.
Step 2: Pick your channels
Shopee picked the right channels to advertise on. advertised widely on social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
Step 3: Have a consistent look
Shopee’s logo is orange and most of their background, dashboard, images are in orange.
Step 4: Create clear, consistent content that can easily be adapted or repurposed to suit different media or channels.
Shopee created a clear and consistent content that can be easily adopted across all media. The message is clear on the sale, and all their advertising are consistent with orange through all platforms.
Step 5: Track your campaigns
Seeing how successful this digital campaign went, Shopee continued and went on to collaborate with Filipino professional boxer, Manny Pacquiao and South Korean girl group, BlackPink on campaigns such as Shopee 11.11 Christmas Sale and Shopee 12.12 Birthday Sale!
https://trabilo.com/shopee-unveils-new-christmas-jingle-with-jose-mari-chan-on-shopee-11-11-big-christmas-tv-special-on-november-11-shopee-11-11-big-christmas-sale-will-offer-all-day-sitewide-free-shipping-with/
http://www.pamper.my/news/lifestyle/happenings/shopee-celebrates-anniversary-12-12-birthday-sale-reveals-blackpink-first-ambassador/
In short, IMC is one of the most powerful tool to compete with competitors and remain sustainable if you understand your market position and the message that you want to drive across with clarity!
JIBSEN TNG 
Hi Jib, yes I totally agree with you! Shopee marketing communication is very well planned to attract customer including me. Good article btw:)
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Yes indeed! Using Cristiano Ronaldo, Manny Pacquiao as well as BlackPink had definitely helped Shopee to broaden their outreach to more customers!
Thank you for reading!
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Hey Jibsen, this article was definitely a great read. Really enjoyed the content you made. In this day and age, even with everyone shifting to using technology and mobile phones, it is important that marketers do not lose focus and stay within the roots of marketing to promote simple, honest convenient services. What do you think, in which case, could cause a online IMC campaign to fail?
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I would say that the two crucial parts to any campaign which will always decide on failure will be how well you understand your audience and how good your end product or service really is.
In order to succeed, you need to start to understand your audience first. Most marketing campaigns however start on the product side, which is an almost certain guarantee for failure, because once started there, they can’t get away from it!
Thank you for reading my blog post!
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Great analysis on how businesses use IMC to instill a perception of a brand to consumers!
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Hi WJ! Yes! It is important to integrate IMC into your business as it had definitely helped a lot of businesses to branch out to a larger audience!!
Thank you for reading my blog post!
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Very interesting article. I didn’t think that there are so many different things to consider before deciding in the techniques to use while doing digital marketing. Looking forward to learning more for other methods!
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Hi Ely! There are certainly many things to consider, feel free to take a look at my previous blog entries with regards to other Digital Marketing techniques!!
Thank you for reading my blog post!
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Hi Jibsen, I must say that this has been a rather insightful post! I am definitely with you on IMC being an integral part of penetrating a market effectively. I have always been a huge fan of Cristiano Ronaldo, and Shopee making him as the brand ambassador definitely paid off. Without CR7, I would never have given a second look on the marketing campaigns that Shopee were having.
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Hi Oliver! Yes indeed, Shopee did a really great job on getting Cristiano Ronaldo on being their brand ambassador! This brought them traffic to their marketplace, app and website!!
Thank you for reading my blog post!
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Interesting post! Didn’t know that it is important to have a plan when creating an imc for a business. Would definitely take note if I am promoting my brand in future!
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Hi Lixin! In this age of technology, it is definitely important to integrate IMC into your business! I am looking forward to see you integrating this to promote your brand in the future!
Thank you for reading my blog post!
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Hey Jibsen, this is the first post I read on your page! I must say I really agree that shopee’s marketing strategy is really smart. I realised they selected the different ambassadors for their advertisements to appeal to different groups of audience in different countries!
A really insightful read on introducing individuals to digital marketing concepts and I’ll be reading more on the other posts you made!
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Hi Delia! Shopee really did a great job on integrating IMC into their marketing campaign! Feel free to take a look at my previous blog posts on other Digital Marketing techniques!
Thank you for reading my blog post!
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Thank you, jibsen for the insightful article. Besides shopee do u know any other brand that implemented the IMC well? I’d like to understand better.
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Hi Husnul! I would say Coke, Coca Cola’s viral “Share a Coke” campaign is one of the most recognisable and effective integrated marketing campaigns to date. The brand used their clever campaign hashtag, #shareacoke, across all social media channels and published effective videos that transformed the phrase, into an all inclusive experience which highlighted a sense of pride and sense of personal ownership.
Thank you for reading my blog post!
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