Integrated Marketing

Once upon a time – in the golden age of advertising – it was all fairly simple. You had a product, service or event that you wanted to tell people about, so you did some advertising. Maybe you got an agency to write something witty or eye-catching to grab the viewer’s attention. Sales went up and, hey presto: success!

The trouble was, next time you wanted to sell something, you had to do the whole thing all over again. And your new ads seemed to look totally different from the first ones. In fact a few people didn’t even realise it was the same company!

Businesses have long since realised that, by establishing a consistent identity in their communications, the expenditure of producing an advertisement or sales brochure can be leveraged by its ongoing contribution to the overall brand value or corporate identity.

Today, the terms ‘corporate identity’ or ‘brand identity’ mean a lot more than just a nice logo and some stationery. The concept extends to every area of interaction with the public. An identity is the ‘personality’ you present to the world. It can define everything from signage, packaging, shopfronts and websites to the very style of language and the sort of photographic images you always use. It can even develop (‘grow up’) over time!

Integrated marketing is the formulation of a central strategy to ensure that all of your advertising, print collateral, online presence, sales initiatives, etc. speak with the same voice and are compatable with the overall identity of your brand. It typically employs a skill set from several disciplines, including marketing, psychology, design, etc. – all to maintain your brand integrity. After all, people instinctively distrust a person who keeps changing their tune and they feel somewhat similar about businesses.

The benefit of the integrated approach is that people readily come to know your organisation and can recognise and trust it when it speaks. In the commercial world this can go a long way towards building ‘brand loyalty’ – the holy grail of most marketing strategies. But organisations with a not-for-profit charter can also apply these principles to achieve an increased public profile.