Recently updated on November 30th, 2023 at 05:22 pm
Creating effective brand messaging for your business
Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) ensures that your brand messaging is both cohesive and effective. It is the process that links the objectives of all avenues of your communications together, whether they be written content, visual content, or interactive experiences. Its ability to maintain your brand identity across diverse channels allows you to push your marketing goals whilst still appealing to the targeted audience.
IMC is at its best when working harmoniously with five primary communication tools: advertising, direct marketing, digital marketing, sales promotion, and public relations. But to understand IMC more deeply, we need to explore the relationship it has with Brand Equity and Brand Performance.
But first, what do all these terms mean?
- Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC)
IMC is an audience-driven business process. Its strategic management of channels, content, and stakeholders is centred around presenting a unified image across audiences. When approached using the five communication tools mentioned above, it is vital in building customer relationships and managing brand equity.
- Brand Equity (BE)
BE is the set of liabilities and assets that are linked to your brand. It is the value an audience perceives when they see your company name, logo, or marketing collateral. In essence, BE is the accumulation of audience knowledge and opinion about your brand, which in turn affects consumer behaviour, whether consciously or not.
- Brand Performance (BP)
BP, on the other hand, is a bit more complex than IMC or BE. It is a multifaceted concept that measures many outcomes, but you can narrow it down to two main streams: subjective and objective measurements. Subjective measurements tend to gauge how consumers feel about your brand, whilst objective measurements present absolute values to evaluate performance. Both are necessary for understanding BP.
- Relationship between IMC, BE, and BP
So how does IMC help a business through BE and BP? Research has shown that IMC is crucial in developing and sustaining positive BE. Since IMC coordinates the ‘voice’ of the brand, it allows you to highlight your best traits to target audiences through relevant content. It is an invaluable strategic management process for growing brand awareness across a range of media channels.
Once your BE is on the right track, then your BP should follow. With effective IMC management, you’ll be able to develop the governing tactical, intermediate and strategic frameworks for delivering effective marketing campaigns. The result of this is increased market recognition and financial performance.
Conclusion
IMC is an accumulation of the overall brand messaging efforts of an organisation. If done right, it can improve your BE, helping you to then further improve your BP and open up more business opportunities. Knowing and understanding the relationship between IMC, BE, and BP can help you recalibrate your marketing strategies or start afresh to attract more clients.
